[ale] Since we're on the subject of jobs lately

[Michael B. Trausch]

On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 16:38 -0400, James Sumners wrote:
> I'm going to be graduating with a B.S. in mathematics in a week or so.
> So far I've only sent off one application, but I'm not really sure how
> to look for a job. And when I do get an interview, I'm not sure how
> that process works. What should a person fresh out of college, who has
> only ever worked on campus, be asking for in terms of compensation?
> Any suggestions for a newbie to the job hunt?

Hrm.  I'd like to learn Calculus so that I can understand some of
Knuth's writings.  But, I can't afford to pay you a salary, so nevermind
there... :-)

Seriously, though, there are a number of things that can be said.
Probably the most important advice to you will come from people that are
already in the field that you're looking to get into, though.

I know that for my part, I can say this:  Look for an environment that
will not be a daily drain on you, if you can take it.  Life is too short
to be in situations which are a huge drain on your own resources.

Obviously, as well, you'll want to consider things like your
compensation as relates to whatever commute you will need to make to get
to the job.  If the job is 100% work-from-home, then you'll naturally
expect less compensation than if the job is 100% commuting.  If you're
commuting for any significant amount of time and consuming any amount of
gas to get to/from work, you'll want to factor that into the
compensation that is offered.  This wasn't a factor when gas was under a
dollar a gallon.  If you have to use 1½ gallons to get to work and the
same amount to get home, that's 780 gallons a year; over $3,000 at $4.00
per gallon.  Expect to see a market correction (upwardly) at some point
in the near future, there, too; it isn't implausible to plan for $6/gal
within the next year or two (IOW, just under $5,000 a year in expense if
you're commuting every day and using 3 gallons in total per day).

In the end, the first job is usually a stepping stone of some sort or
another.  So, you'll want something that you'll at least break even at,
while getting started.  If you're not breaking even, then it's not
sustainable (unless you're one of the rare ones able to work at a loss
for a while).

Other than that, relax.  Be yourself at the job interviews you go to,
and be as observant of the environment as you can be.  Ask to tour the
facility or office that you're applying to, as well, so that you can see
how people generally interact with each other.  You can tell a lot about
a place by the general tone of it---if people are happy, or not, that
says a lot about how a place works.  The less happy people generally are
there, the more drama and friction is likely to be in the environment as
normal "background noise," and you probably don't want that for anything
that you're looking at being in for any significant amount of time.

Good luck!

	--- Mike

-- 
My sigfile ran away and is on hiatus.
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