Hello there my fellow geeks....
For some time now I'm looking for a (part time) job for next to my studies at university. Is it just me or is it REALLY hard to get a decent job these days. And with decent I mean everything from working in a restaurant to boring a desk job. I just about look every where except maybe at my local grocery store or at that meat distribution center were you have to put packets of roast beef in a box as they come rolling of an conveyor belt. If I really don't find any thing, I'll have to take something like that.
So how is the situation there with you guy's. Hey, if you have a job for me ..... oh wait, you are probebly half way around the world. Doh....

The job market here is virtually non-existent. Jobs that used to pay well pay half what they did a few years back, if you can find them at all. I often wonder why tuition keeps rising while the average income keeps falling. I fear it will lead to a lot of people defaulting on their student loans. Mine scare the crap out of me. I hear all the time that Ireland and India are the places to be for finding tech jobs these days. Members from those countries might be able to say whether it is a myth or not.

I am disgusted with the drop in salaries for jobs that require advanced degrees. How do they expect anyone to take the gamble (student loans) to get a degree that hardly gets the person any opportunity to earn real money. I see a shortage in tech workers coming in a few years.

Ironically, I worked in a Job Centre full time over last summer to help get some more money as well as my student loan. I've applied to a few admin/IT jobs over this summer as well, still have to hear back from a few of them.

I'm doing a sandwich degree, so in my third year I get to go out and work in a computer related role (if I can find somewhere), I'm hoping this experience will give me the edge when I leave uni.

As for finding a job after uni I'm pretty open to working anywhere around the country that pays well as I don't think it's likely to get a good job where I come from.

The one suggestion I can offer to those in Uni right now is go after the internships aggressively. I have four friends who graduated one year before I did, and every one off them was told the same thing when they went to interviews. Employers want more than a degree, they want experience. My internship at a local AV company got me my job after graduation. I was hired as the network security specialist after spending my one year internship setting up and maintaining firewalls for the company, as well as deploying Spamassassin to reduce the ungodly amount of spam the company was dealing with. Now these are things any Linux fan worth his/her salt could do if given the time, but the fact that my internship got my foot in the door of the industry made all the difference in the world.

Greenpeace was hiring Linux admins for work in the Netherlands a while ago, may be worth checking with them as well. Experience ramming nuclear subs in a rubber dingy was not required.

In any case, I know a couple recent IT grads in the same boat who decided to pursue post-grad degrees after testing the employment waters. Don't let headhunters fool you, it doesn't matter if you have experience, degrees, a ton of certs or are exceptionally good looking, the IT jobs just don't exist right now. Take the opportunity to learn something new and improve your credentials. When tech turns around you'll be better positioned to pursue your career goals... and maybe even depress some HR people the way they did you, just for fun.

the job market here(ottawa) is better, probable since we have one of the lowest productivity levels of all the g8

Depends on what skills you have.
Here in So. Cal. if your a plumber or in the construction field you could get a job in 2 seconds thats why I have not changed fields. I wanted to do something with computers but the computer industry is to unstable.
Dont you get free jobs and stuff in europe? LOL

If you are referring to social welfare and stuff, it's getting less and less over the years. Trust me, most people rather work then get money from the state. But I have spoken to people from other European countries. Some get social security because the just don't have a choice. There is just no work for them. The situation in Sweden is particularly bad, or so I heard.

I was just kidding around

If I were working for GreenPeace I would have to demand at least one nuclear sub ramming outing a year. Got to have a t-shirt for the event something like:
Tape backups completed? -Check
Cron job to email my last will and testament -Check
Rubber dingy and location of Nuclear sub -Check
Join Greenpease I.T. if the users don't kill you the Nuclear subs will!

Here in Missouri, it's pretty bad, but it's starting to look up.... Which is bringing all those who stopped looking (like me) out in droves. I'm underemployed (work as a jaintor at night, run an unprofitable computer repair shop during the day. still cheaper than college.) I'm friend with two out-of-work techs, and a third is in Chicago working for an "answering service". We get the feeling he's actually a telemarketer and too ashamed to admit it.

BajaNick I was seriously considering moving to LA last year (my cousin asked me to be her roommate) and believe me I wanted to get out of the South, but the cost of living compared to the job market there just scared me away.

Hey schatoor,

You could always try this (not sure if it's flash or not ?)

regards

John

p.s. JOKE!

In the UK the job market is wonderful - according to our Goverment.
(Although they might be lying).
However they don't mention that you need to earn £40K ($60K) to buy a very small flat in a very bad part of town.
Fortunately for me I got a job when you only needed to earn £20K to buy a little flat 90mins travel from your work.

That's in London you're talking about? Houses are a lot cheaper elsewhere, particularly in the north, so it's not so bad up here.