It's a pretty shit time to job hunt, tbh. Lots of places are on hiring freeze. I'm in semiconductors, the place I work at is on hiring freeze, and so are all of our competitors. Reviewing your resume and applying to more positions are really the only two factors you have control of in the process. Finesse any connections you have for a referral is really the only advice I have. That and be willing to tough it out. I graduated in spring '20, into the teeth of Rona lockdowns and hiring freezes. It took me 6 months and 700 applications to find a job. I'm sure we have some '09 veterans here with similar stories.

On the flipside Samsung is hiring anyone with a pulse right now.

So is TSMC (And Intel, but only if you're a mega genius)

Texas Instruments is also hiring left and right. They're investing 10s of billions over the next 10 years in 2.5xing their facilities. They do hire mostly from internships, but they were also recruiting new college grads. My dad who works there tells me that the age distribution is somewhat lopsided so they're really trying to get the next generation hired.

Agree. I’ve applied to 200 jobs, got maybe 15 calls so far. I recently lightly updated my resume and used chatgpt to do the outlines of my cover letters and it’s going a little bit better but not much

That's actually a pretty good response rate. If you have got a dozen-plus calls back, I bet you'll be able to convert something.

Ok I didn’t say anything before bc I didn’t want to jinx it but I should be getting an offer in the next day or so, so I guess a dozen calls was the ticket

Hell yeah, let's go!

Not yet, most are just the base HR interview so far. I made it to the final round with one company, but most have wanted more specific experience and not wanted to train me.

Internship ~> Full-Time is the most common path AFAIK. It’s kind of a loophole around hiring freeze practices. I see tons of fresh college grads converted from internships, I see nobody new hired without one.

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Yeah that sounds about right for a non-internship seeker

I’m also a December grad…. It’s tough out here

In my experience applying for internships this year, it seems that internships are also very competitive. As of now I have a 2.5% interview rate for Fall 2022 + Spring 2023. So getting an internship before graduating isn’t exactly a piece of cake. It seems that many of the people that can land internships before they graduate are also the people that could land full time positions without any prior work experience.

Getting an internship is infinitely easier than just getting a full time job. Much less competition and the familiarity bias is very strong on intern to full time conversion. If you can’t get an internship somewhere, it’s unlikely they’ll consider you for a full time position.

I don’t know how hard it is to get a full time position so I won’t compare difficulties, but in no way is it infinitely easy to get an internship. In the industry I’m aiming for (tech), internship positions for even small companies receive thousands of applications. You must be something special to even get your resume past a computer.

I’m in Tech, I had a full time offer after my junior summer internship. Internships are easier because there are less applications, typically it’s limited to college students or recent college graduates. With full time jobs, you have everyone from recent graduates to 50 year old men with 25 years experience applying for the same position. The applicant pool is hilariously expanded when it’s not an internship conversion

^ This was me

What field do you work in?

Tech

send me your resume, and I'll critique it. Likely your missing something that recruiters are looking for, or your just not applying for enough positions.

It's highly likely OP is also apply for the wrong positions. Learning to read job titles and key words is a skillset in itself. Any time I hear someone saying they are sending in hundreds of applications, my first thought is that they probably shouldn't have even bothered with around half of them. OP, I'd get some help from your career counselor on how to interpret job openings and see what are the right terms you should be searching for. Start also talking to people. Informational interviews suck, but they can 1) help you build connections and 2) help you figure out what to look for.

Thanks for the advice!

Would be better off having someone write it for them for 100 bucks. Services are pretty good at crafting them to nail past automated systems

Connections, connections, connections, connections. Spent a few months looking for something, finally asked my stepfather about some opportunities within his sector, and he got me an interview and job. Try to build a network within your sector or one you’re interested in and the opportunities will come.

This is so frustrating when you come from a poor / minority / immigrant background. (Poor white people can relate to this too). When you don’t have the economic and social connections, you’re severely limited in this country.

Yeah I totally understand, with my biology degree, if I didn’t have my connections through my stepdad I have no idea what I’ll be doing right now. Now I have a few buddies who had high demand degrees (engineering / CS) and they easily found positions. So it can also be about what degree you have.

Here's my story as an international student (Computer Science major) who did not know anyone in this country before coming here: I applied for summer internships at 200+ companies, without a referral. I received a referral for less than 5 companies from my Linkedin connections, but I never got an interview call from those companies. Less than 10 of the companies I applied to allowed me to interview with them. In the end, I received offers from 3 companies, out of which one was rescinded by the company 2 days after they made me an offer because they canceled their internship program for the summer. I went with one of my offers (a top financial services firm), worked very hard during my internship, made good connections, interacted well with everyone out there, and they made me a full-time offer to work for the same team, which I accepted as I loved my job out there. Later, I learned that they had a hiring freeze too, and they did not make full-time offers to most interns. When it comes to the company I did the internship with, I applied to it without a referral. An automated email was sent after the application asked me to take an online test. After I finished the online assessment, I received another automated email saying that they would be in touch with me shortly, but that never happened for 4 months. However, sometime during those 4 months, a few VPs from that firm had come to Texas A&M for an event (that mostly involved promoting their firm). I talked to them and told them about the online assessment situation, and one of them gave me his email address to contact him and he would direct me to the recruiter. I contacted him the next day and he said that he would take care of it. A few weeks later, I got an interview call.

A lot of advice in this thread has mentioned internships as good jump starts to gain connections. Glad to hear you found a position through that and hopefully doing well.

Yes it gets much easier. Right now you look exactly the same as 1000 other kids graduating soon. You dig in your heels and push through this and you might never have to submit another job application again. Job fairs, local industry conferences, literally walking up to the front door of a company you want to work for and handing them your resume. Apply to everything regardless if you fit the exact requirements. Stick with it and work your ass off till you get a job.

Depending on your industry, it might just be a bad time for new grads to be looking for jobs. There's always something out there though, just need to keep sending applications out. It gets easier once you've had your first full time gig.

I don’t know what your major is but the commercial banking masters program always needs new applicants , the industry desperately needs young people. Not to mention you get a masters degree for like 1 extra year of classes, and that masters degree helps you get more opportunities and better pay in my experience. I know that path isn’t for everyone but it was great for me. I was able to get a job right after graduation when Covid was hitting in 2020, and I got a new job a few months ago. I had probably 10 banks try to hire me.

Internships are basically necessary at this point. Networking/cold messages on LinkedIn can help too. Law of large numbers, no shame. Tough time right now though.

Use vmock for your resume. You get several submissions for free as a student

I work in software and companies go through cycles of hiring only seniors then later hiring only recent grads. Keep applying to as many places as you can.

Posting your major should be required on posts Iike this

I got my masters in Health Policy and Management. I’m looking for a healthcare consultant or life sciences consultant position. Having trouble with big and small companies telling me I need experience. Some companies also have hiring cycles. It’s just unfortunate but I’ve been trying to network through LinkedIn, fishbowl, emailing companies, and now Reddit…. I know I’ll find a job eventually, I’ve just been frustrated and was venting on here. Didn’t expect a lot of responses

I'm glad you posted but always want to know what fields people are in so you can see what industries are hiring etc

I applied to about 70-80 internships for this summer and only got 3 interviews luckily I landed one of them and have something for this summer which will hopefully get me a job offer for when I graduate. It’s not exactly in the field I wanted but I’m looking forward to it and with this job market I can’t be picky.

From a 2015 graduate that FINALLY started getting decent job interviews and finally landed a full time salaried job almost 7 years later… No, it doesn’t get easier. It’s dismal out there. But keep at it. You end up getting better at interviews and how to tweak your resume to each application. Standing out in the cover letter absolutely started getting me more call backs for interviews despite my crap resume. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from people to review what you have either!

Keep your head up my man. All it takes is the first and you’re off to the races

Right now is just a particularly bad patch for jobs. I was getting interviews and offers pre-defense (but couldn’t leave in time for them) but now that I’ve defended and can go I’m having a hell of a time getting interviews.

What’s your major and what are you looking to do? I like hiring Ags.

I’m looking for a job as well. I will have a BS in Bioenvironmental Sciences in May.

Same…

My wife has a Psychology BS- what field are you in and hiring for?

I’m in the custom software development industry. Devs, BAs, PMs….

It's always gonna be hard to find a job when the economy is shit, and man is it shit right now.

Happy to refer you, so long as you don't mind moving. DM if you need.

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With great independence comes Hella work hours and crazy medical insurance costs...

Not sure about your major, but can you squeeze in an externship? Usually, these are only a week or so and can be done remotely. I also recommend reaching out to the professors you’re close with for any leads as well as the Career Center for a resume review. I still reach out to my old professors when my company has entry level job postings that may or may not be on Hire Aggies. Lastly, reach out to any recent grads you know that are in the field you want to pursue. Many corporations offer referral bonuses to employees that bring in new hires.

The job hunt was by far the worst part of my time at A&M, especially since you have to do it while you're still doing all your normal school stuff. I think I had a relatively easy go at it thanks to my major, but doing so many interviews that led nowhere, working a job, and doing school almost killed me. I hope it gets better for you :)