ok so how did you find your job when you graduated? through career center, or elsewhere.
was it what you wanted?
was your salary more or less than you expected?
are you happy with your job?
do you wish you had went to grad school if you didnt?

12/6/2008 9:18:28 PM

the people who aren't making this thread didn't wait till graduation to line something up

12/6/2008 9:24:32 PM

I thought I had a job lined up through my internships but that fell through.

Applied online to a different company and got a job soon after. Have to say thought I would think that is some what unusual.

12/6/2008 11:06:43 PM

-posted on career center
-it was somewhat what i wanted. was pretty flexible.
-slightly more
-yep, been here 2 years with no plans to quit
-went to grad school. it helped a lot in getting my foot in the door.

12/7/2008 12:15:34 AM

this thread has been done many times before....

I got my first one through the career center.
You do not have much choice with your first job.
Salary was ok.
Lasted 8 months, hated it. Second and current job found online.
no

[Edited on December 7, 2008 at 12:43 AM. Reason : w]

12/7/2008 12:39:41 AM

Had a plan and some good prospects till I got hurt in a motor vehicle crash. Ended up taking about 4 months past graduation to land a gig.

12/7/2008 11:17:44 AM

Quote :

"I thought I had a job lined up through my internships but that fell through. Applied online to a different company and got a job soon after. Have to say thought I would think that is some what unusual."

I am in this boat. I had health problems and had to give up on grad school and now I'm searching for a job. Neither of my two old internships could land me jobs cause both companies aren't hiring right now, so I have to look elsewhere. I have some prospects, but competition is really bad right now.

12/7/2008 1:56:31 PM

this is probably the absolute worst year this side of the great depression to be hitting the job market.



if you can pull it off, go to graduate school somewhere and hope Obama and crew can right this corpse of an economy.

12/7/2008 2:00:32 PM

^costs $$$ to go to graduate school....the next big deal will be defaults on student loans and what to do with the poor students (besides them leaving the United States to avoid the debt).

I think it is going to get harder to get student loans, the defaults are already increasing and it will only get worse.

[Edited on December 7, 2008 at 5:29 PM. Reason : w]

12/7/2008 5:27:52 PM

well, I went to grad school....

but:

ok so how did you find your job when you graduated? through career center, or elsewhere.
elsewhere. They basically called me on my cell, and asked if they could fly me up for an interview.


was it what you wanted?
yes


was your salary more or less than you expected?
more


are you happy with your job?
very


do you wish you had went to grad school if you didnt?
n/a

12/7/2008 5:32:56 PM

ok so how did you find your job when you graduated? - contacted officers of the local chapter of the professional society where I wanted to move. word of mouth is probably our biggest source of new employees even though we use all the other forms of recruiting too
was it what you wanted? - yes
was your salary more or less than you expected? - a little below median, but have since learned that the lower salary comes with a lot more job security b/c the company is profitable with a conservative business model so I'm not complaining
are you happy with your job? - yes, but have switched to a different area of expertise within the same company from what I started as
do you wish you had went to grad school if you didnt? - did grad school online when working, didn't have the grades to get in immediately. Glad I did it this way, because I didn't really know what I wanted to specialize in until I'd worked for a while and grad school right after undergrad wouldn't have been nearly as helpful to my career.

12/7/2008 7:45:41 PM

a lot of this depends on your major and the job: I was an IE grad and got a job in manufacturing for a Fortune 500 company

ok so how did you find your job when you graduated? through career center, or elsewhere.
company I co-oped for, offered me a position about 8 months before graduation

was it what you wanted?
pretty much

was your salary more or less than you expected?
a little more than what I expected, since then its grown to much more

are you happy with your job?
very, its pretty much exactly what I wanted, working with a great team

do you wish you had went to grad school if you didnt?
the company's paying for my MBA starting in January. I'm glad I didn't go to get it right out of school

12/7/2008 10:58:04 PM

^oh yeah, I have doubled my initial salary at my current job (almost 4 years) The salary was more than my first job after college so I was fine with it.

12/7/2008 11:47:07 PM

how many times has something like this thread been made

I was co-oping with them and my boss wasn't able to hire me but contacted the group I'm with now and I was hired after a very basic interview

yes

more

very

no

12/8/2008 10:34:27 AM

I went to graduate school initially, so I'll tell my tale from after I dropped out from my PhD program.

I found my job through a recruiter at a career fair.
At that point, I was just looking for a salary, so I went with it. Never heard of the field until then.
Salary was much better than I expected, and the benefits killer (another reason I took the job).
Its been fun though a real learning experience.
Don't regret graduate school since I learned a lot, but I wish I had really thought through what I wanted before I went. It did make graduate school round two a real breeze though.

12/8/2008 12:21:09 PM

ok so how did you find your job when you graduated? through career center, or elsewhere.

-Heard about the company through a friend that got a job with them. Found them on career center and tracked down the contact.

was it what you wanted?

-I didn't know what I wanted when I was graduating, but it's turned out pretty well.

was your salary more or less than you expected?

-More

are you happy with your job?

-Yes, although everything always looks greener.

do you wish you had went to grad school if you didnt?

-I am still planning on it at some point

12/8/2008 1:37:07 PM

In a nutshell: I had a job as soon as I got my diploma in my hand, has amost nothing to do with my degree, salary was about what I expected, and it alright, its a job! If you can get a job without going to grad school, you best get to working and get experience, because you can always go to grad school, and work experience that can bring something new to the table for a grad program can be a plus on your application.

12/8/2008 2:41:20 PM

i graduated back in december of 2000, so jobs were scarce then as well. found my first job about a month after graduation on monster.com. it wasn't that interesting and the salary was lousy, but i was broke and needed a job. ended up staying there about 2 years longer than i should have. (5 years total)

second job was via reccomendation of a friend who worked there. (yay for nepotism). it was really interesting work with a startup. the salary was better, but not great. it had lots of earnings potential but funding eventually dried up and i decided i could no longer pay the rent with stock options. (3 years total)

current job i think i found on craigslist or monster. salary is low for someone with my experience, but again i took it because i needed a job. its a stable company with a long established history, but the work itself isn't that interesting. (7 months and counting)

have an interview tomorrow, found it by googling for companies in the industry and city, then going through the contact info on their website. we'll see how that goes.

12/8/2008 6:34:47 PM

ok so how did you find your job when you graduated? through career center, or elsewhere.
I ended up working at Barnes and Noble while I looked for a real job. I blame my moving off campus and general slack-i-tude for not doing great and not looking for internships so I guess I got what I deserved. Eventually I started working part-time for NCSU and they gave me a full time job with shit for salary but better benefits than I was getting at B&N.
After that, it was moving into Tech Support, then advanced through the tiers to Management. Now I'm back to Tech Support, but for 20k more than I was managing at the last place. Go figure.
was it what you wanted?
When I started college, I thought I wanted to make video games. Apparently I wasn't the only one.
was your salary more or less than you expected?
Now, 6 years later, I'm making about what they told me I could make with a CSC degree.
are you happy with your job?
Actually yes. Tech Support is not a bad racket if you aren't on the bottom rung and also have access to WebEx or GoToMeeting to just remote in and fix it.
do you wish you had went to grad school if you didnt?
Kinda, though I'm sure my grades wouldn't have swung it. I'm sure now that I have a kid I'll never get the time/money/motivation to start back up.

[Edited on December 8, 2008 at 7:30 PM. Reason : ]

12/8/2008 7:29:08 PM

just my general advice while u're looking is to not be afraid to take a shitty job just as long as you can support yourself AND (heres the key) you are actually learning or developing a skill . i've been working retail throughout school and this is where i screwed up.i noticed that with most employer i have to get into deeper than normal detail about what skills i've gained or developed and how they apply to the position.i guess retail workers have a stigma. i'm still at the same job now and currently i'm looking for ANY other job that pays me as good where i can actually learn something new.

12/10/2008 10:45:16 PM

elsewhere
yes
more
was
kinda

That job fell through and I just found another job but right now there arent many jobs and the ones that are hiring are hard as hell to even get a callback, good luck if you are looking now, new salary sucks but the benefits and potential is outstanding.

12/11/2008 3:51:38 PM

i whored myself out

12/11/2008 6:51:44 PM

1. i got a job offer from the same company that gave me an internship the summer before.
2. the job was different from what i had always expected i'd be doing as an engineer (systems engineer at a power plant vs designing gidgets).
3. salary was about what i expected...market price for new engineer but in a place with relatively low cost of living pretty good
4. took me awhile, but yes, i'm fairly satisfied with what i do.
5. no way...i liked undergrad, but i had (and have) no interest in going back for another degree

12/12/2008 10:11:32 AM

ok so how did you find your job when you graduated? through career center, or elsewhere.
Graduated in CSC. Applied to a million jobs online. Got (basically) a data entry job within a month or two, making $8 an hour. Worked like k-razy, and got hired as a developer there for a LOT more money

was it what you wanted?
Pretty much, I didn't really know exactly what I wanted.

was your salary more or less than you expected?
More. When he re-hired me, he asked how much I wanted, and I named a number I thought was high, then he went over it.

are you happy with your job?
For the most part. I'd like a job with a wee bit more variety and going outside, but overall it's very good.

do you wish you had went to grad school if you didnt?
I still might go back, but it'd be for Linguistics and/or Spanish.

12/12/2008 3:43:00 PM

-Interned there my senior year and they hired me on full time after graduation
-At the time it was, but it got old and boring
-Less, but it was more than I had ever made before so it worked out
-I am happy with my job now, but it is nowhere near the same as my first job
-no. in fact, I wish I would have picked an easy ass major. I don't use my degree at all.

12/12/2008 4:07:39 PM

good info,

it looks as of now i may be taking a job that i found through epack
that i didnt really want but has good training
but it pays faily well
i doubt though i will be happy working there, it seems pretty dull but we'll see
im still considering grad school in the back of my mind, i may decide by fall of next year

12/15/2008 5:20:56 PM

Quote :

"ok so how did you find your job when you graduated? through career center, or elsewhere."

Initially worked the summer at a professor's company. Then via one of three job openings posted on professional organization's website. (AIA)

Quote :

"was it what you wanted?"

The first job was absolutely what I wanted, and the second was the job I need to move forward in my field.

Quote :

"was your salary more or less than you expected?"

Slightly more, but the rate at which it increased afterward, was slower than I expected.

Quote :

"are you happy with your job?"

Happy to have a job, and happy enough to not be looking to leave.

Quote :

"do you wish you had went to grad school if you didn't?"

Absolutely, but not NCSU's grad school.

12/15/2008 5:43:50 PM

I graduated in May 2007 and have had 2 jobs since then. My first one was a crappy job as a production supervisor and ISO person. Pay wasn't good and work was crap so I went to grad school for half a year to take prereqs to get into med or pharm school. I got those out the way and am now working as a process engineer. The job is alright but the company is very very very political. It pays good but It isn't what I want to do long term. I am going back to grad school because I hate working for these big companies and working to make them money. Why not do something else with your life?

12/16/2008 8:05:19 PM