I work for an online Poker company as a trainer. Which means I get to travel a lot on the company money. The job itself is exactly what I went to Uni for, but still not what I want to spend the rest of my life at.

Go for the job that looks good now. you can always change later.

I had an interview yesterday for an organization that really interested me, funding science research and promoting it in Alberta. I didn't get the job. they were concerned that as a recent commerce graduate I might get bored, that I might want more of a challenge, as it was an administrative job.

So there are two camps - the ones that feel I am overqualified and should be reaching higher, and the ones who feel I need to start somewhere and work my way up. Neither camp appears intent on hiring me at the moment.
Fortunately, I finished the assignment that I was on for the past 6 weeks, and I am soooo glad to be out of there, because it was a freaking zoo.
For the next 2 weeks, I'll be doing data entry, for accounts payable at an oil company. Cuz I'm not overqualified for that.


I'm signed up with 4 agencies at the moment, all of whom have in the least gotten me a temp assignment or an interview, but none of them have been able to get me the right long term assignment.

A survey of my graduating class indicated that within the year following graduation, the average salary being earned was $40,000, with the ocassional outlier, of course. I'm making $14/hr. And I have experience, unlike some of my classmates.

sorry guys, I know I'm venting, but I'm just so frustrated. I just don't know what I'm doing wrong. we're supposed to be in a hot economy and I feel like such a loser.

Hey TW, I'm also living in Edmonton (but I hate it and am leaving ASAP). Will be graduating from U of A in May. Unfortunately, I will have a degree in Animal Science (not exactly marketable since I decided not to go to vet school). I know the job market is supposed to be huge here, but generally I've found the same attitude-every company thinks you should work your way up from 12 bucks an hour, despite the fact that you've just slaved away at uni for 4 years!!! Grrr.. I read the latest survey results about the u of A grads-sure it looks rosy, but I wonder how many ppl are actually getting jobs related to what they studied, and how many are settling for working for the oil/gas sector cause that's where the money is.
Anyway sorry to hear about your troubles. Keep your chin up and good luck!!

Wanted to add to the frustration you all are experiancing. Im working as a trainee at a call center. Has benefits and is a nice company, but I REALLY want to work abroad and learn more spanish, love the language and the culture associated with it. But Im stuck here for the time being to pay off the debt from the last trip I took... ugh...

Hi,
I'm a contract senior software developer who's also been a team lead/architect. Looking for a job is not easy and everyone in this thread has done a pretty good job of explaining all that needs to be done.
I can only say that you need to decide what are things that you would not sacrifice and what you are willing to give up. As an example , if you want to find something in logistics/acquisitions/purchasing/supply-chain and operations management, and in people-management strictly, you need to figure out what are the professional networking groups( google and yahoo groups) and network with them. Social networking is not a new thing but looking at the crazy success of these online ventures, I feel that this might be a fertile place to look at in terms of networking.
try and get some exposure with non-profits (few hours a weekend volunteering maybe).
Check to see if you can get some professional certifications not that I would know anything about your chosen field. I 'm a IT guy so it's pretty straightforward in my field.

I can understand your frustration. I faced a lot of it in the beginning stages of my career. Even now living in America without a green card (no thanks to illegals who get clubbed with me) and working as a consulting Senior engineer in the NYC area, I have to upgrade and study constantly, have an eye on the job market,interview etc. I could carry on about all my frustrations here but I would become part of a problem instead of trying to give some solutions.

As someone here said network like crazy, try to get some industry recognized certifications under your belt, get a little experience even if it's non profit.
One more thing I can tell you is that countries like India are booming with jobs right now and your area of interest would attract a lot of potential employers there.
I've read articles where examples of American business and IT graduates heading out to India to get international exposure have been quoted. That would be another thing to look into...

Best of luck in your search !
-Prasant

So I'm still looking.
I recently applied for two jobs that I was very interested in, one in the travel industry, the other in publishing, both smaller local companies. I called one of them to follow up, the response was basically "we'll call when we've had a chance to review the applications, if we choose to call you", and now both positions have been reposted. Neither were particularly senior roles, both asked for experience that I had (including the ability to speak French, which around here isn't entirely common).

It's a beautiful Saturday afternoon and I'm feeling rather depressed. I've spent my entire winter looking for work, and I'm not done.

My advice: reapply to both.
What are they going to do, not hire you? Seriously I have actually gotten jobs after they passed over my app the first time and reposted the job.

Sorry for the frustration, I just had a long discussion about how demoralizing job searches can be and believe me others out there know your pain. Hang in there!

I'm feeling a might bit better this week.
I had 2 interviews lined up for this week, and so far one down, one to go. The first organization has already invited me back for a second interview (I made it past the HR folks, now it's time to meet the managers).



Both are way up my alley - the first is a role specific to grads, very appropriate to my degree, and smack in the business/management consulting area. Whoohoo!
The second is for Edmonton Tourism, promoting this town to tourists, business people, film people, anyone who might consider coming here. It's tourism, and I like that.

I have a pretty good feeling... I'm usually pretty good at interviews, it's getting them that's the trouble.

So thanks for all the encouragement and pointers, I still refer to the thread from time to time to keep myself on track.
Keep some fingers crossed for me!

Best of Luck to you wanderer. I had some of the same problems with my degree and when I worked in the field I graduated in was totally miserable. Then I sat back and decided to figure out what I wanted in life and read a few books such as "What Color is my Parachute?" and said to hell with one specific job market and started doing what is called guerrilla job hunting. Finding the jobs that no one knows about. This is even harder to do than using the hidden job market because these jobs sometimes have to be created by the job seeker. Using this method I have done lots of things mostly to fund my travelling as that is generally what I do. Once I created the position of physical plant manager for a small company that had no one to coordinate the maintence of the buildings and the outside areas as well as maintence of the plant itself. Once I made the position costs went down and I got a nice bonus. I left to go to Africa a year later but 13 years since and the position is still there. You might try reading a book called "The Joy of Not Working" THis book basically tells how to work smart and gave me some insights on how to look at my jobs as not being the center of my existance.

Have you thought about taking some courses as a paralegal? It's a very hot job at this time. I'm a lawyer now but when I started going to law school, I knew I wouldn't be able to continue in my theatre job so I had to find a day job. I took some courses at the local university and wound up being offered two paralegal jobs within a couple of days (and came close to getting a 3rd). I used to get several calls a month from headhunters, and wound up taking another job about 8 months later. I worked there the rest of law school, and they asked me to stay on as an attorney after law school.

My point is that I know of lots of law firms that are desperate for good paralegals. You don't even necessarily need to have experience in legal work as long as you're intelligent and fairly organized - the real key is being able to work without a lot of supervision. A larger firm probably wouldn't hire you without a degree or certification in paralegal studies, but there are lots of smaller firms that would.

I got turned down for the tourism job, and that's the one I really really wanted. Haven't heard back about the other one yet, either, so I'm assuming....

Sigh.
This gig is getting old.

I had actually tossed around the idea of law school, but I don't have the money (it's way more than I could afford at this point without winning some kind of lottery), and I've been told there are too many lawyers around these days anyway (though it depends on the knid of law - I hear the small towns are desperate for family lawyers, the kind of law I'm not really interested in anyway). Don't know how I feel about paralegal. Don't know enough about it, I guess.
I have actually browsed ads for legal assistants, and they all want the certificate, or experience in the field, or both.

I have neither. In any case, I'm not sure that's the kind of career I'm going for.

The tourism job would have been so sweet, and just the kind of thing I'm looking for. They are really hard to find though.

Bummer.