6 months unemployed

[princeofbelair]

Okay, so here is a problem, out of the 250 applications, I got maybe 5-8 responses back. Then only 1 interview and about 2-3 online assessments. I tried networking and knowing as many people as I can. But there does not seem to be opportunities that I can network with.

in my opinion, these odds sound about right if you came from a mediocre undergrad like me. For the most part, sounds like you’re doing the right thing. You just need to be able to execute when you do get an interview. All I can say is don’t get discouraged, many of my friends and I I’ve been in the same position and it will get better

 

[WZhang]

in my opinion, these odds sound about right if you came from a mediocre undergrad like me. For the most part, sounds like you’re doing the right thing. You just need to be able to execute when you do get an interview. All I can say is don’t get discouraged, many of my friends and I I’ve been in the same position and it will get better

I dont think my undergrad was mediocre, plenty of my friends got jobs at FactSet,American express, google,vault, morgan stanley,blackstone etc just fine. I didnt had the time for personal leetcode and doing things outside of the class to get successfully apply for internships as an undergrad. I graduated with no internships but I am asking friends for referrals as we speak right now but the fact is that I didnt do anything outside of the clasroon because I was stuck with my tutoring job in order to pay for school.

 

[Onegin]

We can agree after 6 months, you need to do something differently. I've been there. It's hard. I couldn't do internships as an undergrad either; my summer job paid 2-3x internship money, but was not anywhere close to business.

At a certain point, you have to turn your disadvantages into advantages. If you tutored, you probably know the content better than a lot of people. Depending on what you did in the summers, that can help, too. I actually got my break into finance (unranked MBA, no prior-business) because my hiring manager had never seen someone w/ my summer work experience ever apply.

What I did in similar circumstances is to find a job which would help pay bills but also allow me to study. In my case, it was a night / weekend security guard in a research laboratory and another in a music conservatory. I took the job seriously, but it also gave me plenty of time to study.

If finances aren't an issue, then it's time to bust out the leetcode and hit coursera hard. I'm at a top 5 MFE program right now, and there is a high correlation with the top students in our program and # leetcode / hackerrank / kaggle / coursera completions.

In this case, it's critical to set a schedule for yourself. Get up at the same time everyday, preferably morning. 5 am, 7am, 8am - doesn't matter - it does matter that you set a time and stick to it.

Is there a project you're interested in building out? AWS has free classes, maybe build something there. Or, if you want to get your tutor on, start a youtube channel.

For job search, networking is harder and easier w/ 'rona. A lot of in person meetings are shut, but a lot more are online. Look into these; I don't know SDE space, but there are a lot of SDE+ interest kind of groups (e.g. blockchain, AI at scale, etc).

I had someone give me similar advice when I was up schitt's creek, and it helped a lot. Individual mileage may vary, but I hope you might benefit as well.

 

[WZhang]

We can agree after 6 months, you need to do something differently. I've been there. It's hard. I couldn't do internships as an undergrad either; my summer job paid 2-3x internship money, but was not anywhere close to business.

At a certain point, you have to turn your disadvantages into advantages. If you tutored, you probably know the content better than a lot of people. Depending on what you did in the summers, that can help, too. I actually got my break into finance (unranked MBA, no prior-business) because my hiring manager had never seen someone w/ my summer work experience ever apply.

What I did in similar circumstances is to find a job which would help pay bills but also allow me to study. In my case, it was a night / weekend security guard in a research laboratory and another in a music conservatory. I took the job seriously, but it also gave me plenty of time to study.

If finances aren't an issue, then it's time to bust out the leetcode and hit coursera hard. I'm at a top 5 MFE program right now, and there is a high correlation with the top students in our program and # leetcode / hackerrank / kaggle / coursera completions.

In this case, it's critical to set a schedule for yourself. Get up at the same time everyday, preferably morning. 5 am, 7am, 8am - doesn't matter - it does matter that you set a time and stick to it.

Is there a project you're interested in building out? AWS has free classes, maybe build something there. Or, if you want to get your tutor on, start a youtube channel.

For job search, networking is harder and easier w/ 'rona. A lot of in person meetings are shut, but a lot more are online. Look into these; I don't know SDE space, but there are a lot of SDE+ interest kind of groups (e.g. blockchain, AI at scale, etc).

I had someone give me similar advice when I was up schitt's creek, and it helped a lot. Individual mileage may vary, but I hope you might benefit as well.

okay I will try to grind the leetcode and hacker rank once I finish this final MFE project. I still need a good grade to pass with distinction. I wanted to do a youtube channel but I couldnt stick with it because my MIC was so bad.

 

[WZhang]

We can agree after 6 months, you need to do something differently. I've been there. It's hard. I couldn't do internships as an undergrad either; my summer job paid 2-3x internship money, but was not anywhere close to business.

At a certain point, you have to turn your disadvantages into advantages. If you tutored, you probably know the content better than a lot of people. Depending on what you did in the summers, that can help, too. I actually got my break into finance (unranked MBA, no prior-business) because my hiring manager had never seen someone w/ my summer work experience ever apply.

What I did in similar circumstances is to find a job which would help pay bills but also allow me to study. In my case, it was a night / weekend security guard in a research laboratory and another in a music conservatory. I took the job seriously, but it also gave me plenty of time to study.

If finances aren't an issue, then it's time to bust out the leetcode and hit coursera hard. I'm at a top 5 MFE program right now, and there is a high correlation with the top students in our program and # leetcode / hackerrank / kaggle / coursera completions.

In this case, it's critical to set a schedule for yourself. Get up at the same time everyday, preferably morning. 5 am, 7am, 8am - doesn't matter - it does matter that you set a time and stick to it.

Is there a project you're interested in building out? AWS has free classes, maybe build something there. Or, if you want to get your tutor on, start a youtube channel.

For job search, networking is harder and easier w/ 'rona. A lot of in person meetings are shut, but a lot more are online. Look into these; I don't know SDE space, but there are a lot of SDE+ interest kind of groups (e.g. blockchain, AI at scale, etc).

I had someone give me similar advice when I was up schitt's creek, and it helped a lot. Individual mileage may vary, but I hope you might benefit as well.

Um so basically I was thinking of doing part time job as a tutor making 20-25/hr before making decision. Because at this point I am out of money/ideas.

 

[WZhang]

Okay, guys, there has been an update, after 6 months of applying, only now am I starting to get interviews at software development companies. Which I admit is weak but nevertheless, I got interviews. In fact, I got 6 of them in a single row. I gotta say after 270 applications under this economic climate, I may have gotten 70 responses. And maybe 6 interviews.

 

[MichaelLewis]

Okay, guys, there has been an update, after 6 months of applying, only now am I starting to get interviews at software development companies. Which I admit is weak but nevertheless, I got interviews. In fact, I got 6 of them in a single row. I gotta say after 270 applications under this economic climate, I may have gotten 70 responses. And maybe 6 interviews.

I’ve been at this for a while. Often times, Q4 is a challenging time to get a job because companies are going through their annual planning process (where they decide how many people they will hire). Until they lock that down, hiring can be slowed down or put on hold because managers need to know what headcount is approved. So, don’t let the past few months get you down, instead keep pushing forward knowing a lot of the 270 applications were entirely out of your control.