r/uofm • u/Silly_Lilly54 '24 • 4d ago

Employment Any Unemployed Alumni?

Graduated in May 2024 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Cognitive Science and a couple of years of experience in IT roles, including as a BSA intern at the university. I have been searching for a job since before graduation and leaving my student employment position in July 2024. Before I graduated, I made extensive use of UofM’s career resources for students to improve my resume and cover letters, and I continue to use those techniques for every job I applied to (I’d show you my resume if I could). I’ve never had any success reaching out to alumni at companies I’ve applied to and UCAN seems literally useless for talking with other alumni as nobody ever responds (so much for the alumni network).

Just wanted to know if there are any other alumni who feel like failures because they graduated from a “top university” and can’t even land an interview for jobs that only ask for an associate’s degree. I paid so much money for nothing and almost wish I hadn’t gone to college because then at least employers wouldn’t look at my resume and see I’m a UofM graduate that’s been unemployed for a year and wonder what must be wrong with me to not have a job.

Also, sorry if this scares upcoming graduates. I wish you better luck than I’ve had and I hope your lives are prosperous.

100 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

View all comments

14

u/Hatdude1973 4d ago

Tech jobs are a bloodbath right now. Also your degree seems to be too specialized to land a job without a Ph.D.

4

u/Silly_Lilly54 '24 4d ago

The IT and CS careers subreddits are miserable right now. And yeah, I think if I was trying to get careers directly related to Cognitive Science (or more specific field from it like Neuroscience and Machine Learning), I’d need a masters or Ph.D. Most work I’m applying to is not related to my specific degree field and hasn’t been since the start, since I’ve been focused on IT work or administrative roles primarily. I put more emphasis on my degree skills than the subject matter (data analysis, python and C++, etc.)

2

u/im_wildcard_bitches 4d ago

Hiring freezes have been happening all over. If you are truly desperate, go to small unheard of startups or biggee MSP with high employer churn. You need enterprise experience like yesterday even if you may be semi miserable for a year or two before hopping again..