career opportunities

November 17, 2015 1:02 PM

Career options for recent graduates with bad grades?

This is not even close to an original question, and I'm sure I've asked about job stuff before. But I'm on the job hunt once again and I was hoping for some input. I graduated last year with a degree in Music and a GPA of 2.3. I don't have any loan debt and I wasn't expecting to go to grad school because I don't *want* any loan debt. I taught myself programming and I'm realizing that after two years, I still don't know enough to get anything more than an entry-level charity hire. I was let go from a web development internship-to-hire because of lack of work to give me, and I'm on the edge of getting fired from my current temp-to-perm hire because of lack of work also. Looking at other web development jobs, I'm realizing that I know very little and any place that hires me would probably have to give me more mentorship than they might like. I foresee getting into many more of these situations in the future.

So I'm looking for new career paths and options, and I'm not coming up with much. Most ads I find require a degree in their specific field and don't really want unqualified, inexperienced people to apply just because they 'might be interested.' I really don't want to go back to $9.50/hr food service so I started looking at 'program development' jobs and all that. But I don't really want to do admin/answering phones/glorified secretary work either. I'm somewhat interested in social work but I know it doesn't pay a whole lot, and a lot of places rightfully want a social work degree as well.

Anyway, I have no real skills besides my minimal background in web development. I'm good at writing/editing and logical thinking-type things, but nothing to really put on a resume. I'm looking for jobs that don't require a specific degree and ideally pay more than $45k/year (I live in an expensive city). The only thing I can think of is law enforcement (they only require a HS diploma and feature decent pay/advancement opportunities), but I'm kind of intimidated by it.

Other than that, I got nothing. Any advice for me?

posted by lhude sing cuccu to Work & Money (22 answers total)

Go work for the government. I worked for the US Treasury Department (IRS) after I got out of college until I got a job in my industry. Civil service jobs typically pay well, have paid time off, and health insurance.
posted by Rob Rockets at 1:16 PM on November 17, 2015

What about things like web-site editing, with more emphasis on the visible content rather than the programming?

How about starting by looking at all the people you know who might possibly connect you to a job and figuring out what type of jobs they might connect you to? You might have most of the necessary skill set, and get an idea what else you could study to fit those jobs better.
posted by Jane the Brown at 1:28 PM on November 17, 2015

Lots of employers won't even look at your grades. Keep applying for jobs and you will find some.
posted by chrchr at 1:32 PM on November 17, 2015

I was let go from a web development internship-to-hire because of lack of work to give me, and I'm on the edge of getting fired from my current temp-to-perm hire because of lack of work also.

It sounds like you're perfectly employable in this field, and just got unlucky by working for two places without enough work to go around.
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:40 PM on November 17, 2015

No employer has ever asked about my grades. Not even once. A few verified that I had indeed graduated from college, but that's it.
posted by erst at 1:46 PM on November 17, 2015

It's not about your grades, or even your degree, really. Employers want to know about your experience and your skills, in that order. If you get into another internship/temp situation, you need to make sure you are actively taking on work to the maximum extent possible, not passively waiting for it to be given to you.
posted by Rock Steady at 1:57 PM on November 17, 2015

I don't think it's your grades so much as your experience level that is holding you back. It's probably easier in your position to pick some skill that you want to develop and feel out career options, instead of starting from the long-term ("I must make $X per year") and trying to work back.
posted by deathpanels at 2:03 PM on November 17, 2015

I hire. I genuinely don't care about grades. Sometimes people include their GPA on their resume. That's fine, but not doing it is not a red flag for me.

If you get into another internship/temp situation, you need to make sure you are actively taking on work to the maximum extent possible, not passively waiting for it to be given to you.

Yeah, this stood out to me as well. Are you sure that there really wasn't enough work at both of those two positions? It might feel strange or pushy but you need to be super proactive about this -- show initiative and look for work at every possible opportunity.
posted by kate blank at 2:05 PM on November 17, 2015

Looking at other web development jobs, I'm realizing that I know very little and any place that hires me would probably have to give me more mentorship than they might like.

I think this is true of a lot hires, especially entry level hires. My colleague is fabulous and still, sometimes I feel like I have to slow down and explain things in small words with her. And that's okay! Because I know that once she gets it, she'll be able to run with it. If you can show that ability on the job, that once you know how to do something, you really know how to do it, you'll be in good shape.

Most ads I find require a degree in their specific field and don't really want unqualified, inexperienced people to apply just because they 'might be interested.'

I really think this is incorrect and believing this is not doing you any favors. Most job ads are written by people who don't really know what they want. It's your job to convince them that they want someone exactly like you - they just didn't know it. That's obviously not the case with every position - if someone is looking for an MD to work as a resident, your BA in music isn't going to cut it - but it is a lot of the time.

But I don't really want to do admin/answering phones/glorified secretary work either.

If you want to work in program development, you might have to deal with this in the short term. You graduated a year ago. You're still entry-level. Most entry-level program development jobs will include some of this, largely because they have no reason to believe you can write the way they need you to write.

I'm good at writing/editing and logical thinking-type things, but nothing to really put on a resume.

Work on obtaining experiences and skills you can put on a resume.

One of the things I learned while applying for jobs is that you should apply for jobs that interest you because you really never know. Applying for a job doesn't take long, especially once you've been doing it for a while. It's a cliche but it's a cliche for a reason - generally speaking, you will not get 100% of the jobs that you do not apply for. When I was a recent grad, I applied for a director-level job. I got an interview! I think the interviewer was mostly impressed by my chutzpah and obviously I didn't get the job but who cares? It showed that I was doing something right.

And I'm not going to say that literally no one cares about your grades but almost no one. It's tougher when you're early-career because you're still an unknown quantity and grades are a thing that people understand. But once you have some experience under your belt, no one will care.
posted by kat518 at 2:06 PM on November 17, 2015

I have never used grades as a qualifier or disqualifier when hiring (I hire both senior and junior positions in my field). I look at skills and experience and the ability to write and talk about both of them.
posted by mogget at 2:12 PM on November 17, 2015

As a new grad, I did admin/answering phones/glorified secretary work for a non-profit organization whose work/mission was a passion of mine. That admin work was just a foot in the door and as they realized my skills and talents, I was able to move into different parts of the organization and gain skills and experiences. Sometimes you have to put in some time doing "lower level" work just to prove yourself.
posted by rozee at 2:25 PM on November 17, 2015

Nthing grades don't matter, don't put your gpa on your resume and no one will ever ask. You might want to look into creating a portfolio to showcase what you know and can do. If there's a large university beat you, check their jobs site. There's often jobs at universities that are sort of hard to categorize. You won't get rich working in academia, but the perks tend to be pretty solid.
posted by soren_lorensen at 2:30 PM on November 17, 2015

I think employers evaluate what you did during your school career in the following order of importance:

1. The school you graduated from
2. Extracurriculars/internships
3. Your major
4. Grades

Grades are the least important by far. Major isn't all that important either, unless you have, say, an engineering major and are looking for engineering jobs. It's basically about what school you went to and any activities, internships, or even volunteer work that you did which could be related to the job.

Also, at your experience level, "entry-level charity jobs" are basically the name of the game. I don't know why you call them charity jobs, but how do you think people get started? They get entry-level jobs.

Clearly someone finds you employable in the web development field, otherwise you wouldn't have this temp job, or your previous internship. Keep plugging away, and be more proactive about finding things to do in your next position.
posted by breakin' the law at 2:34 PM on November 17, 2015

Step one IMO is to never say you are being fired when you are being laid off due to lack of work. These are absolutely two different things, with firing implying you did something seriously wrong (i.e. stealing, or continuous poor performance that did not improve despite repeated effort to train you) and lay off letting your next employer know the situation was not your fault, there was a lack of work for you to do.

As an employer, I would not hire someone who has been fired twice.
posted by chapps at 2:39 PM on November 17, 2015

I worked at a call center for three years after I graduated college. I was paid $14/hr starting in a city that was not expensive to live in. After a year, they even reimbursed my grad school tuition in an unrelated field. The work varied between horribly stressful and mind-numbingly boring, but that meant the days went quickly or I got to read a lot of books on the clock. There were also tons of overtime opportunities, so I was able to save up money.

There were very few people working there with degrees, so I was fast-tracked for promotions. A few people I worked with ended up moving up into supervisory and management positions and making decent salaries. When I left to work in libraries, I actually took a big pay cut for the first couple years.

I'm not sure if these opportunities are still there now, but it was really a great environment for me when I couldn't find an affordable job in my field.

Good Luck!
posted by galvanized unicorn at 3:37 PM on November 17, 2015

Just touching on the lack of work aspect -- as a developer, even a very junior one, you should never, ever be bored. Software is never done. Spend time really learning and understanding the code bases you're working with. Write unit or functional tests on the existing codebase. Try to find ways to optimize the existing codebase, and if you find something ask the senior devs about your idea (do *not* go ahead and just optimize without asking someone with more experience!). Find something around you to automate, and do that. Or spend your time learning / honing a new programming language or framework -- and if at all possible, make it applicable to your employer. If they use XYZ tool and you don't know it -- learn it! If your employer knows this is how you're spending your time and they still let you go because they don't have enough real work that's fine. But the only one who should ever really know you have nothing to do is the product manager types tracking your progress against a specific deliverable (or lack thereof).

As for jobs - grades don't matter. For me, I look at ability, enthusiasm about the craft, a desire to learn, and culture fit.
posted by cgg at 3:45 PM on November 17, 2015

Where do you live? If you can get help with the cost, it might be worth doing an intensive short course at a place like General Assembly so you can get your web development skills up to par for an entry level job that will last.
posted by three_red_balloons at 5:44 PM on November 17, 2015

I'm in school for Web Development right now.

Do you have examples of your work on a portfolio website and/or a Github? That will help you, as prospective employers have an idea of what your skillsets are.

Also, I do a lot of contract/consultancy work. If asked, you were NOT fired. You were 'let go' due to 'lack of work', or 'the project you worked on ended'. Employers in the industry know that project-based work dries up, and that workers bounce from one contract to another, either by choice or circumstance. Sometimes both. If you say you were 'fired', that implies that you either didn't do good work, and/or that there were actual problems, like theft, insubordination, etc. So. You are not being 'fired', you are being 'let go'.

(And hugs - the last day on my current gig is next Wednesday!)
posted by spinifex23 at 6:10 PM on November 17, 2015

I don't think starting back at the bottom of a new career path is going to solve your problem. You need to keep building on the experience you already have.

If you do think switching paths is the right thing, large companies often have a year long program for entry-level people to groom them for bigger jobs in the organization (I see places like Deloitte or United Healthcare advertising programs like this). That might be a good option for you since it looks like those are more transparent about the idea that they know you're going to need some handholding to get to the next level.

If you want to stick with programming then you need to Always Be Coding. I'm sure you have friends who could use a website for something they do. Get a Treehouse membership and work through the tracks there and then apply what you've learned. If you need ideas for sites to make, you can always come back here and ask for a list next week.

Good luck!
posted by dawkins_7 at 6:36 PM on November 17, 2015

Very few employers are going to ask about grades. Most won't even care what your major was! When I interview new grads I usually ask about major only as a talking point to try to get to know them a little bit.
posted by radioamy at 7:05 PM on November 17, 2015

Well, I mentioned grades because it limits more expansive career options that would require going back to school. It's good to hear that undergrad majors don't matter as much as I thought, though.

Mostly I'm just interested in what options there are for someone without the school background or the internship background, and maybe even train on the job in some sense. Any particular sectors etc.
posted by lhude sing cuccu at 8:52 PM on November 17, 2015

I've been working full-time since 1995, and I've never--not once--been asked about my grades. I also hire in web/IT, and I don't care about candidates' grades. I care about their work experience and their portfolio samples (if in UX) or their code (if developers).

If you interview well and have good work examples from your web development internships, it should be fairly easy to land another job doing similar work in a junior role. Also, go to local meetups and ask lots of questions of people with more experiencE.
posted by ImproviseOrDie at 10:42 PM on November 18, 2015