First Job Out of School Experience

Hey all,

I'm currently helping a good friend through the process of applying to companies, and it got me thinking about 4 years ago when I was on the verge of graduating from undergrad and in the job searching process... I figured I'd share my own experiences -- specifically for applying for a first job out of state.

While in college, I did work a fair amount of IT roles (tech support, state government job, summer gigs), but my degree was not IT-related, I had no certifications, and I really didn't have any full-time experience. The economy wasn't amazing, and I had taken out student loans up to my neck, stupidly, to fund my thoughtless college lifestyle. So, clearly I needed to find a job!

It was three months until graduation when I began the job search. I didn't mind moving... In fact, I preferred it. I would go wherever the job took me to get my professional IT starter experience and only demanded that it allow me to work with Linux and pay for grad school in the future.

I started by searching the interwebs --- indeed, monster, dice, money top 100 company list and then their individual websites, craigslist. I really wanted some sort of security analyst or sysadmin type role, so I narrowed my search to those roles specifically.

Over the course of a couple weeks, I probably sent out 30+ applications. Some for positions I was under-qualified for, but to see if I got a bite. Here were my experiences over a 1-2 month period:

* Call-back from a small company based out of Boston that did processor chip engineering -- looking for more of a Linux kernel developer. I spoke with the owner of the company, though this was clearly not a good match.

* Call-back from a defense organization that would have me doing Linux administration while living on a tropical island consisting of 1000+ US contractors for two years... I had several interviews for this position, though they ended up going with another finalist.

* Sony Entertainment as a Linux admin -- This went well, had several phone interviews, though it all fell through when I, stupidly, modded my Android phone and found that I wasn't receiving voicemails... Whoops! I missed like 6 of their calls over several days.

* Oak Ridge National Labs as a security analyst -- Very promising. I wish I got to explore this one a bit more. I ended up terminating the interview process after accepting another offer. They replied back saying that they were sad to hear this, that I was among their top selections.

* Mozilla as a Linux administrator -- Okay. I love Mozilla, but they really put me through some stress. The recruiter would constantly call 2 hours late, missed appointments, wouldn't get back to me for weeks, etc. I had a couple solid interviews when I was told their director of technology would like to talk with me. I was on vacation in Chicago when I heard this, but I said I'd clear my schedule... No call. Nothing. I was told later that he had to hop on a plane for a meeting and would need to reschedule. I ended up receiving an offer from another company and actually e-mailed to let them know. I said I had a pending offer, though I would love to work for Mozilla. I felt that an offer was near, so it was worth reaching out. I never heard back.

* UTC as a UNIX admin for 500+ production server environment -- One phone interview. That was it. Got my offer, negotiated a bit, told everyone else thanks, packed my bags and left on Christmas day after graduation. The pay was low -- high 30s, but it was a very low cost of living area (rent was $400 including utils). It allowed me to work with UNIX/Linux, and paid for all of my grad school tuition. Hands down the best decision of my career and was an absolute springboard to where I'm at now. 4 years later, I've more than doubled my salary and it is all thanks to a solid starter opportunity.

So, here's my point. The economy is crap, HR can be impossible, you may lack the certs or degree, but the jobs are out there. For me, it was just a matter of being willing to go where the work was and being ready to learn. Hope is not lost, so hang in there.

How did you all find you first "real" job? How long did it take? Were you willing to move, take a low starting salary, learn new things?

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Comments

neo9006

Its great to hear your story, I am still looking, but I know my time will come. I just need to get my foot in the door.

Xyro

Thank you for sharing your experience. It is helpful, yes.

For anyone reading this, I just want to add that I have had more luck applying to jobs I was underqualified for than jobs I was overqualified for. I find this perplexing but it is what it is.

neo9006

That is great Xyro, I been applying for anything for 0-3 years experience, and see where things land up, all they can say is no.

Xyro

I wish these people would learn to say no lol. Instead, they leave you hanging. It is what it is though.

SixtyCycle

RHEL, considering you had no direct IT experience, no certs and an unrelated college major you were able to get interviews from great companies. How did you prepare your resume? I'm thinking that was your selling point. I'm amazed Sony and Mozilla considered you as a Linux Admin without the experience. Thanks for sharing.

RHEL

SixtyCycle wrote: »

RHEL, considering you had no direct IT experience, no certs and an unrelated college major you were able to get interviews from great companies. How did you prepare your resume? I'm thinking that was your selling point. I'm amazed Sony and Mozilla considered you as a Linux Admin without the experience. Thanks for sharing.

That's a good question... I'm wondering if it was more of an anomaly mixed with a lot of luck or timing. What IT experience (part time) that I did have, I made sure to highlight. However, many of the jobs I applied for were junior level or requiring 0-3 years experience. The job I ended up taking was an entry level UNIX sysadmin role -- however, you couldn't tell that from the level of responsibility and importance of the servers I was put in charge of. Yikes!

To be honest, I actually got a much higher percentage of apps to responses for my FIRST job than recently when I was looking. Weird, huh? However, I think that had more to do with the fact that I was applying for REMOTE/TELECOMMUTE roles this time around instead of applying with every intention of moving myself. I received one interview for a remote role w/ a large organization and one string of interviews for a local position -- which I am now working at.

I suppose I could dig up my old 2009 resume and post it if you think it could help...

coreyb80

Always great to hear stories like this as they serve as a motivation for people like myself. I discovered that I wanted to work in IT back in 2012. I spent months and months applying for positions that I felt I was qualified for. Mind you, I have no degree and no certs, but I did have some experience from my previous job. I got the call last August for a position as a Desktop Support contractor with a decent sized company. Nailed the phone interview and then did the same with the in person. I've been here ever since and recently felt like I was going to be brought on permanently so I decided to start looking for other gigs. I've received numerous calls and even some phone and in person interviews. Got the call last Thursday w/ an offer for a position as a Jr Systems Admin with what I consider to be a solid company. Unfortunately, we were several thousand apart on salary, but all is not lost. I went in for a video conference with her Monday morning, she's based out in Cali, along w/ my would be manager. My assumption, I could be wrong, was that she wanted to meet me and see my thought process in an attempt to sell them on the money that I asked for. She told me she would get back to me this week and I'm praying she either meets me at my number or halfway. I said all this to say that I agree w/ the OP that jobs are out here for everyone and that you can't let a NO here or NO there take you off the path.

SixtyCycle

RHEL wrote: »

That's a good question... I'm wondering if it was more of an anomaly mixed with a lot of luck or timing. What IT experience (part time) that I did have, I made sure to highlight. However, many of the jobs I applied for were junior level or requiring 0-3 years experience. The job I ended up taking was an entry level UNIX sysadmin role -- however, you couldn't tell that from the level of responsibility and importance of the servers I was put in charge of. Yikes!

To be honest, I actually got a much higher percentage of apps to responses for my FIRST job than recently when I was looking. Weird, huh? However, I think that had more to do with the fact that I was applying for REMOTE/TELECOMMUTE roles this time around instead of applying with every intention of moving myself. I received one interview for a remote role w/ a large organization and one string of interviews for a local position -- which I am now working at.

I suppose I could dig up my old 2009 resume and post it if you think it could help...

No worries about the resume, I was just curious. Even though you had no experience, were you already familiar with Linux? I tried applying at a datacenter which required Linux experience. I exaggerated my resume since I wasn't getting any bites for months and figured I'll try it just to experience an IT interview and to see what questions they will be asking. 4 people were throwing questions at me and I sat there like a deer on headlights. Fun times.

IS3

What a great story, although in my situation, i did not have any College degree but i am working on it

as i started working at Cox Communications as a tech support rep for 5 years which i realized how much time i wasted in that job so i was job hunting and i finally got my foot at the door as a part time IT Helpdesk in a local clinic and even though i took a huge salary loss i persevered through it and now i got a full time IT support job in a stable corporate bank. So yeah for everyone looking just keep looking and trying

zdx

OP I'm very curious about your resume. Could you post it? I'm working as a IT tech for a local village and I've been here for 8 months but I feel I haven't even scratched the surface of the IT work that goes around here. What kind of experience did these companies look for? Just server-side experience?

White Wizard

Great story!

I 100% agree that the jobs are out there, although there is a lot of competition so you have to keep at it and never stop learning.

RHEL

SixtyCycle wrote: »

No worries about the resume, I was just curious. Even though you had no experience, were you already familiar with Linux? I tried applying at a datacenter which required Linux experience. I exaggerated my resume since I wasn't getting any bites for months and figured I'll try it just to experience an IT interview and to see what questions they will be asking. 4 people were throwing questions at me and I sat there like a deer on headlights. Fun times.

Oh yes, definitely familiar with Linux... at that point, I had been messing around with Linux as an end-user and hobbyist for probably 8+ years.

Although only part time experience, I wasn't jumping into the IT field blind... I made sure the following experience and progression was well demonstrated on my resume:

- 1st job -- Cashier/sales/network admin at a local business - worked here for 6 years part-time but made it clear that I was immediately put in charge of the systems and network once the owner found I had knowledge in it.

- 2nd job -- Tech Support @ local ISP -- started with residential modems, progressed into troubleshooting home and business DSL. Gained Cisco IOS experience. My boss here actually gave me assignments outside of my job to do at home because he saw my ambition to learn. He would send me home with two Cisco routers and assign me tasks to configure them to talk to one another.

- 3rd job -- "IT Specialist" for state government. This gave me little bursts of various knowledge through projects -- MS servers, Lotus Domino, etc.

- 4th job -- "IT Specialist" seasonally for the university I was attending. Gave me exposure to A/V stuff, mass deployment, more troubleshooting, etc. Also helped diversify my industry exposure in the IT field... Can now say I've worked in higher education.

- 5th job -- "Network Admin" seasonally in Boston for a computer camp. Taught Linux workshops, managed 100+ devices, troubleshooting, deploying, etc.

Finally, I made sure to highlight that even though my degree wasn't specifically IT related, it included an emphasis on IT courses.

I guess what's key here is really milking the knowledge you've gained from even the minor roles you've played along the way. Touched a Cisco router? Mention it! Progression is also key... I've found that while lacking substantial professional experience, employers loved to see that I seemed to grow in my responsibilities and scope of knowledge.

I'm still working on getting the ol' resume posted for reference. I'm actually still just using a modified/updated version of it.

SixtyCycle

That makes sense. Based on your experience I say you were more than qualified for an Admin position even though they were part-time work. When I read the words "IT specialist""state government""taught Linux workshops" to me they suggest a highly qualified/experienced person who knows what he's doing. I agree about milking every experience/knowledge you have in your background and showing it off on your resume.

RHEL

If this is of interest to anyone out there, here it is... My first real resume post-undergrad! Hard to believe this is from over four years and 3 companies ago!

Attachment not found.

rhel-resume.pdf

RHEL

And... 4 years later. Its interesting deciding which bits of information to keep on a resume and which to discard. I had a very difficult time with this. I wanted to keep it all!

Attachment not found.

rhel-current.pdf

SixtyCycle

Very cool. Thanks for the share RHEL.