The $40k job gave me one week to consider, so I had to reject it, more or less. I thought I could do better, and so far, nearly did, but nearly doesn't quite cut it. The terms were that I'd be paid $42k a year with no benefits (so if I got sick, oops too bad) on 80 hour workweeks for the first two years, and then if they liked me afterwards, would allow me to take part in the company profit-sharing.
It was a sports betting shop in Freehold, NJ. Many people I asked at that time (mid-Spring) said things such as "In what country?!" to "They abolished slavery in 1865!"
So yeah. I'll continue to apply. But yeah, one master's degree (in statistics), and my main programming language is R and it seems that if you're not a C++/Java expert, you're toast. I can code in C++ and know the concepts and all, but it doesn't cut it when they can hire someone out of Stanford with a PhD.
I'm wondering where the firms are that would actually be willing to mentor someone. We don't come out of school as experts of the whole universe.
