a job - round 2

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This year I finished my postgrad degree. I was very excited to get a job and a place of my own etc. But after sending letters and emails for over 4 months I panicked. I got only one invitation for a job; it was absolutely pitch perfect. They asked for exactly the combination of degrees I have, and did not request any experience. I went there and had a good interview (remarkable in itself). Then I got rejected on the basis on not having any experience apart from my internship. This crushed me and I panicked. So, because of my fear of having to move back home and do nothing but send application letters for the next half year in order to get a job I do not particularly want, I signed up for a second Master's degree.

The degree program is only one year, so I would like to konw if someone has some tips so that next summer, I won't be in thesame position all over again.

Thanks

I agree. This is very nonmotivational. In fact, I think the standard advice 'you should work at least as hard finding a job,' 'at least 40 hours a week,' is bad advice. No one is going to be able to do that with any kind of freshness or personal effectiveness. What a job hunt is, is a series of decisions, some of them very personal. If someone were to push me for a number, I'd say 3 hours a day, 5 days a week---on an effective job hunt. And I think that's more than most people do and will put me ahead of the curve.

Another way to look at it is to have a couple of worthwhile projects going, a job hunt only being one of them.

What is your degree in? I assume your first one is a Masters and not PhD?

I am a person who just needs a goal. I can't sit still. I agree that you can't do 40h/week of job searching. I send one or two applications a day and that got me absolutely exhausted. At thesame time I applied for 'lower' jobs at institutions where I'd like to work to at least get in -- that failed, and I asked for internships (unpaid) where I also got rejected. This made me lose a lot of self confidence and I was still sitting at home doing nothing...

Sorry for het negitivity, but I was quite down the last 2-3 months because of this. And people in general are not very supportive: they just make light of it and move on.

I finished my BA in History with a 2.1 and have nearly finished my MLIS (Master of Library and Information Studies) with a 1st. This new degree is a MA in bookscience and paleography.

I'm going to apply for a USA green card in october so I can enlarge my potential employment area.

Well no offense intended, but that right there explains it. Those are pretty much the least employable majors I can think of, there's just no jobs for any them. Particularly in today's economy, no one cares about ancient Greek dialects when they're struggling to put food on the table. Not to mention a 2.1 is a pretty low GPA so that will hurt you even more, although if you brought your GPA up in grad school then it can counteract it to a large extent (don't even mention it unless you're asked about it directly).

Now, what would I recommend in your case? If you want to get a job that actually uses your education, the only real options I could see are to either go for your PhD and become a professor, or try to get a job as a research assistant, high school teacher, or assistant professor. You could also investigate working at either a library or a museum, but a museum job would likely be difficult to come by. There are also several job sectors that will be completely unrelated to anything you went to school for, but that may still value your education. A lot of government jobs are typically that way, as well as clerical type positions such as secretary or call center operator.

Also general job-seeking advice: try to talk to people in person if you can, if they can put your face to your resume it instantly puts you ahead of the game. Revamp your resume and have some people critique it for you. Talk to old professors and get their advice and see if they can offer any job leads...your school's career center may be a good source for this as well. There are several employment agencies you can contact also but I wouldn't expect much from them, they largely focus more on minimum wage or unskilled jobs, but those still pay the bills.

Hi,
I see what you're saying, but I mainly just wanted to study what I liked. That's when you end up like this I guess. Thanks for the general tips, I'll try to put myself out there a bit more, but as someone with AS, at the end of the day, I am beat because of human contact.

Regarding the degrees, they are UK classes, not gpa. I think my 2.1 is equivalent to a 3.6-7 and my 1st is equivalent to a 3.8. Basically a 2.1 lets you into grad school and a 1st is the highest you can get. I am quite proud of that, but no employer seems to care.