I graduated last May and was unemployed until the end of this April. I'm currently working a six month stint which will hopefully gain me some much needed professional experience, but I wouldn't be surprised if my next job is another temp. It might be better that way overall, not sure. It gives me time to work on games writing at least since this is barely entry-level stuff.
What I found that made me more successful in nabbing applications was:
- Cover letter that was confident. I brought up my school which is known for being difficult, brought up various technologies I've learned on my own outside of the classroom or work, and said "whatever you need, I can learn and do it". Confidence, basically.
- After being contacted, I prepared for each interview by looking up the company, taking notes on them, as well as taking notes on the job description and gleaning what information I could. I typically had two pages of notes and a slew of questions prepared.
- At the interview I never let up on the confidence. If I didn't know something I'd say "I would like to learn it" or "I can learn it just as I learned blah blah blah blah".
It helps that RIT is a well known school in the tech field, and I was able to learn stuff like jQuery and ExpressionEngine on my own. The first job I interviewed for didn't want me because I sounded "too much like a developer", in other words they didn't want someone productive in the long-run, and the next interview I had that same week called me back in a couple days to say I had the job.
However, I've also learned that I have no interest or drive to learn ASP.Net. I need to make sure I only apply for front-end jobs when it comes to web design.
Still, the rules for finding a job are a lot like dating: Always be confident, never seem vulnerable, and target as many as you can until you get a winner.
Of course, the odds of getting a job tend to be higher than getting a date. For me, at least. Which is fucked up since I'm sure there is no "economic recession" in terms of available women.
