How did you GET your job(s)?

[KenWittlief]

Originally Posted by KathieK

...And my current employer googled me before my interview. Be careful what you post online in blogs, etc. It could haunt you in a job interview.

Interesting. How would they know that anything they find online was you, or someone else with the same name?

If I google my name lots of stuff comes up for other Ken Wittlief's

[Mark Pierce]

I've had a whole variety of experiences getting jobs in the last 25 + years.

Part time programmer at Michigan Tech - referral from friend.
Summer Internship at Univac - co-op/internship fair at MTU
Honeywell (first full time engineering job) - MTU Career Center
Lear Siegler/Smith Industries Aerospace - Headhunter
Capital Electronics/Capital Technologies - cold phone call / resume
Oliver Machinery - continuation of work done through Capital Electronics.
Castle Technology (Self employed) - all of my customers were referrals from people I knew.
Diesel Technology/Bosch - answered newspaper ad
Gentex - Answered newspaper ad

Learning many things at each of these positions has enabled me to keep growing as a person and an engineer. While many respondents have mentioned long careers at one employer, the nature of their responsibilities and skills needed has undoubtedly changed dramatically over the years.

Three of these companies had rejected me within a year of hiring me, so making a good impression, remaining positive and being patient is important. Sometimes the timing has to be right for an employer to match your skills with their needs.

[BRosser314]

Although I am only in my senior year i have a job at Delphi Automotive, Dont laugh. Getting jobs at large companies are inportant, reluctant for me i am not sure if i will have a college co-op thru Delphi. Although knowing the right people also is a great benefit. Being part of a Michigan team allows to be in a close knit community of many companies competting. Talk to your mentor and engineers on if they think they have any openings in there plants or factories. If they dont they might have friends that are Vice President of a Large company across state( for my case).

[Jeremy Roberts]

Shortly before graduating from Georgia Tech in '03 I began attending every campus job fair and sending out my resume through MonsterTrak. I ended up getting a few interviews through both these avenues however this is not how I ended up getting my first engineering job out of college. In addition to taking these conventional routes I contacted the members of the Peachtree Regional committee and board and several other FIRST engineers I was working with or had worked with in the past. The recommendations that I received allowed me several final interview opportunities without having to go through the entire process.

The offer that I accepted came as a result of a fellow regional board member recommending me to the former CEO of Mapics who sits on the board of directors of the company that I now work for (Qcept Technologies). They invited me for an interview which lasted about 3 hours including lunch. A few days later I received an offer. I found out about a year later that they had decided that they wanted me not long after the interview ended, but I guess they wanted to make me sweat .

So is it who you know, what you know, or who knows what you know? In my opinion it's all three. Who you know and who knows what you know gets you in the door and what you know keeps you there.

[Heuerproduction]

Nice to see you young folks working!
Experience is what you need to land a perfect career when you graduate from college. To answer the original posters question, it's who you know, and what you know. I started my career basically on my own, with three teenagers, I needed to make a fast career decision. Art runs in my blood, so this is where I began putting my career together.
But what I do confuses most people, they expect to see canvases of my work displayed in an open arena. I've seen to many artists hang on for years without getting noticed, so i did it a better way. I found a way of printing my work on popular products in order to recieve the appreciation I deserve. Instaead of waiting years for it. Plus I work for myself, I don't have a boss looking over me.
I wish you success in your career finding adventures, but may I make a suggestion? do what you love or you'll regret it.

[Freak999]

We got to pick what jobs we wanted and if there was too many on one particular team they got dispersed among the other teams. If you were particularly skilled in one area you got to stay. As a 3 yr veteran I know were my spot is.

[Pat Chen]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

Interesting. How would they know that anything they find online was you, or someone else with the same name?

If I google my name lots of stuff comes up for other Ken Wittlief's

Ken:
Many people may have the same names.....but quite often ....when people post....they may include information like where they live.....this is one way ...potential employer may know that you are that person....but as Kathie K wrote.....just be careful of what you post....especially the younger members of our FIRST community.

Pat Chen

[KathieK]

They not only googled me and knew that I was involved in K9 Search and Rescue (I was volunteering for my husband's organization and was their webmaster at the time), they knew lots of other things about me as well which they mentioned at the interview. Of course, to be fair, I googled them, too, before the interview. As I've pointed out before, if someone were applying for a job and was googled, their postings here on CD might come up. A quick look could see that many of the CD members have personal accounts elsewhere, because they mention it in their signature files or in their profile. I can see what they look like because they post photos. In some cases, within minutes I can get a fair amount of information on a person. Just something to be aware of, that's all.

[Chris Fultz]

I was a co-op student and working a Spring and Fall session. There were not enough classes avialable for a full summer session schedule of classes, so I was looking for summer work (summer 1982).

There was a job posting in the career office at IUPUI, for a contract position as an engineering assistant. I applied and got the job and worked the summer at Allison Gas Turbine (GM Division) working with computer models of turbine airflow. I returned to my co-op company in the fall, and then graduated about 15 months later (December 1983).

When I graduated, I was not happy with the offer from my co-op company, so I called the contract engineering firm to see what they had. They had another position at Allison, I interviewed, and got the job. Working as a contact employee was not ideal (no benefits, no committments), but that was not a good time for technical jobs in Indy - many of my friends were having to relocate to get decent jobs - so I said yes.

The contract position I had was converted to a full time job and offered to me in March 1984, about three months after I had started. I became a Reliability Engineer for Allison Gas Turbine. Allison was later sold twice and is now part of Rolls-Royce. 21 years later, I am still with Rolls-Royce and have been able to move around through several very exciting, interesting and challenging positions.

**

Something important to pass on to high school and college students. My contract positions were not ideal jobs, but they helped me establish a reputation. When other, better positions opened up, I was a good candidate partly because I was known by some of the managers and because they knew I would do what I was assigned to. Soem experience in a good company, even if it is an unpaid internship, is a great way to establish yourself.

Remember, you are always being watched and evaluated, and if you cannot complete relatively simple tasks, why would anyone assign you something more challenging??

[Danny Diaz]

I got my first co-op with Georgia Tech Research Institute by applying for the position and submitting my resume. I was called in for an interview, and after about 15 minutes of asking me, "Do you understand what this code does?" showed me my office and asked me if I liked cream in my coffee in the mornings.

My job recruitment out of college was a different story, though. I applied to many places, and submitted my resume. I was flown out to Florida for one interview and the interview person grilled me for a full hour on things I had put in my resume, and acted shocked that I actually had intelligent answers for what he was throwing at me. All he could do was sit there and ask me, "So how old *are* you?!?", alluding to the fact that I had worked on a LOT of really cool stuff for several years before finally getting out of school. An outstanding resume can be good, but too outstanding can make people skeptical.

When interviewing at National Instruments, campus recruiters who had gone to Georgia Tech and knew my reputation got me an almost automatic on-site interview in Austin, Texas. When I got to my on-site interview I went through the normal interview process and afterward was told I had my choice of placement (which group). So, it was who knew me that got my foot in the door, and what I knew that sealed the deal.

Originally Posted by KathieK

Be careful what you post online in blogs, etc. It could haunt you in a job interview.

Oh yeah. I heard a rumor about a guy who recently applied for a job at Microsoft, and about halfway through the day the HR rep googled his name and found some quite racy remarks he made about Mr. Gates several years before, and they then escorted him out of the building before the interviews were over.

-Danny

[Mr MOE]

Good discussion and an refreshing topic. (Thanks JVN!)

First off, I will answer the question, and then I will provide some perspective
I got both my co-operative education assignment and my full-time employment positions (both engineering positions) through Campus Career Services at Penn State University. Many colleges and universities have excellent career services centers.

I have been fortunate to have been a recruiter for the DuPont Company for the past 10 years. So, during the fall, I have recruited for DuPont at various college campuses (Penn State, Purdue, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Drexel, etc.).

Given my recruiting experience, here is my advice for college students looking for employment:

(1) understand how your college career centers operate and utilize them. Most major employers will interact through these centers.

(2) if your college / university holds a career fair event, go to it and participate. This is how recruiters see how you communicate and determine if you are a fit with their company culture

(3) keep your GPA up. Many employers have GPA cutoffs for both co-op / intern positions and full-service positions.

(4) acknowledge your experience in a well-written resume

(5) work early in your college career to get relevant work experiences

(6) participate in local school chapters of engineering / other organizations that interact with Corporate America (career focused - Society of Women Engineers, American Society Mechanical Engineers, IEEE, SME, National Society of Black Engineers, etc.)

While "who you know" is important, it may initially limit you from finding the best job you can find. "Who you know" is dynamic. I have built solid relationships with recruiters over time. Also, "who you know" does not make up for deficiences in communication, experience, education, or leadership.

Every potential hiring situation is different. Understand what you are looking for in a position, this might require significant research. Once you have a good idea, target the companies who have the job(s) you are interested in. Understand their company culture and hiring needs. Talk to representatives at job fairs. Write the best resume you can, keep it truthful, and focus on what makes you unique versus the hundreds of other resumes the recruiter will see, be professional and enthusiastic.

I have worked for DuPont for 17 years and it has been my only employer since I graduated from college. While the work environment has greatly changed over the years, the way people find jobs or jobs find them has not. Focus on understanding and communicating who you are, what you want, and what drives you. Use who you know as a network, but also research other companies or organizations you have interest in. Be positive, energetic, and realistic.

Good luck!

[Brandon Martus]

My buddy Bill from high school mentioned the company he worked for (Chimes, Inc., then just a small division of Computer Horizons Corp.) was expanding and hiring programmers; he knew I was a freshman in college in the computer science program, and knew what I could do (seeing some of the early Chief Delphi work, and other things I showed him in H.S.).

He set me up with an phone interview, and then a face-to-face. My (future) boss pretty much said "Bill says you're good, so .. what do you want to do? The software side of things, or hardware/networking side of things?" and that was the extent of my interview^*.

I went through school full-time, whille working here part-time (50+hr weeks is part-time, right?). When I was in my last semester of school I was hired on full time and am here still 6 years later (now a Lead Application Developer).

Disclaimer: The interview/hiring process I went through was nothing like a what a normal situation is (I should know, writing software to ease the hiring process). Make sure you go into an interview prepared to talk about your past experience, schooling, how you see yourself fitting into the company, what you want to do, how much you want to make, etc.

*We talked pay, hours, school, previous experience, etc., too, but after I was offered the job.

[Dave.Norton]

You're making me think...

Alas it had been a long time, it looks as though I've had 7 jobs, and looking at the sources one was a headhunter, 2 were ads, and 4 were a result of having worked with someone in the organization before, so for me the most important has been who knows what I know.

[rachakate]

At my first interview for my first post-college job, it came out that I was really good friends with the interviewers college roommate!

I'm currently teaching at RIT, which fell in my lap when the department needed an adjunct to fill in a maternity leave and a former professor knew I was looking for a job and recommended me. Since starting last year as adjunct, I've now morphed into a grad student with the morph into full time faculty on the horizon.

My school posts jobs that are hiring. or i got to random places and apply. hats what good about Chicago because they have a million place for everyone to work at

-Court-