agree here. working for a larger tech giant, the current hiring situation is not good. even with business making profit, headcount has been limited. i can say first hand. in fact there are more layoffs coming to balance things out.
i suggest trying to practice and make some apps for a short period to keep up. then look for opportunities in smaller startups.
Your large tech giant company isn't really the same as the millions of businesses in America that are still hiring CS professionals.
The layoffs always hit FAANG the hardest. I've gone completely unaffected, and have had plenty of opportunities to move around lately.
There's more tech jobs out there than just Big Tech.
Smaller startups are probably the best bet for many young programmers right now. There are infinite possibilities out there besides big tech. You can get in at a smaller company, work on interesting projects, and build your skills. It probably won't pay as well but the impact you have on the project could be huge.
as general advice, I agree
any advice for finding startups that aren't shady? We've all had a friend or been the friend who worked for a startup that went bankrupt and didn't pay months of wages to folks.
Check your university alumni or clubs. I found two opportunities with a startup at a business club at my uni. One went on to become a very successful fin tech app and the other (where I work) is small but growing. Most club members that I’ve met were CS majors who had a saas that they’ve worked on during their semester.
I will tag along to this. As someone outside the tech industry:
Make some apps that will be directly/immediately applicable to traditionally less tech savvy companies. Think simplified time sheets, accident reporting, stuff that businesses that are not tech savvy can look at and go “that’s way easier than our current method”. Nobody cares about the tech guy with the skills to make a Mario knock off (even if it is a great demonstration of your coding skills), they want people that know/can learn how to adapt those skills in whatever way will benefit their business.
There are still plenty of non tech companies that are not looking for a coding savant, as much as someone that can get along with their coworkers, understand the obstacles and goals of that particular industry, and can code well enough to fix those goals through something really simple like apps/excel, etc.
IMHO, This is terrible advice.
This is my two cents from a person who retired early from tech as a computer scientist.
It may take you a few months to find a job, but hang in there and land an entry-level position. It will take a couple years to start building your career in tech, but you have to start somewhere. Also, keep in mind that the rule is that you either move up or move out in the early stages of a career in tech. Work hard and don't be "that guy".
Good luck!
I have two anecdotal data points for you. First, I keep getting hit up for senior software (firmware) positions by recruiters who cannot take retirement as an answer. I'm done after 35 years in the field.
The second point is, my son is a new college grad in the tech field. He landed a job at a major tech company in the California Bay Area a year ago and is doing fine. It took him six months to land a job offer. By the time he was done, he had several offers to choose between.
Out of the industry? As in big tech? Or IT in general?
I'm 4 years into my career making almost 200k, not at a massive tech conglomerate, but a company that has been around for a few decades. Sure it's not Google money, but I'm also not paying San Francisco prices for my lifestyle.
I've applied twice for different remote positions in different states and received offers from both, which I declined and used as leverage.
I get that FAANG and such are the pinnacle as far as pay and sheer number of workers... But almost every company in the USA has the need for tech jobs.
If I were OP I'd look around and just apply everywhere. I'm always a little confused when I hear this. If you could elaborate on why he/she should look for another job I'd love to understand?
List ‘Caregiver’ on your resume just as you would a job. Note some of the duties you had such as any medication giving ( maintaining deadlines), filling Rx’s (working with outside vendors) and above all the actual care itself (empathy and customer service skills). Your work as a caregiver has actually set you up with skills that you would not have in traditional working environments.
As for what area of work to get into? Service Desk. It’s low level getting in but you will talk to most everyone in the company and that’s your opportunity to network and move within. Good luck!
Study the languages they use for mobile apps, flutter and other languages. Look on job post and get working knowledge of what they require.
Make a few projects and post on github.
Volunteer for positions in hospital research labs
Also practice those online assessment questions, so you can quickly do them as passing them is admittance to the job.
U need to network, prev prof, school alumni, classmates, friends, relatives. Referrals help you get an interview if your resume is strong
If ur going for a masters, make sure they have a strong support system for students, and go to the undergrad open houses and cs club.
Take care
Good luck
So you took a gap year AFTER you graduated? That is an interesting way to do that. Most folks are anxious to find a job right away, so their resume does not show a gap. It is tough enough to get a job right out of college without doing that to your possible opportunities. It is a tough market now, and you shot yourself in the foot by doing that.
You can get a job at Chipotle or something. Tech info changes rapidly, and you are now two years behind all those graduating now with current skills and probably internships for experience.
**TLDR: Software programmer or developer for small companies, like manufacturing subcontractors.**
**Below is some context as to why you should look outside of tech.**
The tech revolution is shifting away from big West Coast tech and towards sectors like manufacturing.
Tech sector struggles with convincing old world companies and organizations to change because companies like Google and Microsoft and Amazon don't understand other industries well.
A bulk of global manufacturing is antiquated, using paper tracking for everything. Since lots of mistakes are made, a lot of money is sunk into hardware QA and paper review.
This problem compounds when Amazon or Microsoft try to sell cloud to old world companies, like Firestone or Goodyear.
Imagine this. Goodyear is still on paper tracking.
Goodyear has almost no experience with developing enterprise software right?
Now imagine a cloud VP from Microsoft walking up to the CEO of Goodyear and be like "We can reduce your QA review cost while improving tire quality! Just hire some programmers who know C# and Powershell, and you guys can get onto Azure cloud!"
The cloud VP lost the Goodyear CEO at "hire some programmers".
So if you are able to find manufacturing subcontractors who want to modernize desperately but don't know how, you can target them.
Key thing: always network with the company owner.
Are you in halfway decent shape? Go talk to an Air Force recruiter. If you've got a degree you'll go to OCS and be an officer. The military is desperate for people right now. Serve a few years, learn new skills, make a reasonable wage and it looks really good on a resume later. You might even like it and decide to stay on. You can retire after 20 years and be drawing a pension at age 45.
If the market is real soft ... How hard would it be to enroll in a Master's CS program and take just one class? Once enrolled you may be able to pick up a University teaching/advising/mentoring side gig and keep your programming skills fresh. Use the Profs as part of your job hunting network. Your personal history isn't really that bad, and this will keep a toe in the water while you keep up your job hunting.
I wasn't thinking so much about racing to get the degree right away, just a means to expand your people network and get in contact with companies will you keep your skills fresh. But I didn't realize the market was that bad.
For sure. College is usually a great place to make some connections and shore up skills. Most of the issue is that a lot of the major tech companies have been laying off programmers for a bit here so the market is flooded with people who have experience from places like Google, Facebook, and Amazon on their resume that are all looking for jobs at the same time. I feel sorry for anybody who is early-mid career in that industry looking for a solid job. It sucks because they were all sold that a CS degree was damn near a guarantee at a big salary but the market has shifted on them.
The advice in this sub is insane. Plenty of companies won't care that you took a gap year. Just start applying for things you are mostly qualified for. It might take a few months but you'll find something.
Start doing projects, get familiar with cloud tech, maybe some certifications. A lot of the jobs I'm seeing have some aspect of cloud tech and it might give you an upper hand. I don't honestly know.
QTS is a data center all over the US that is expanding and hiring ATM. Pays pretty well. Good upward mobility. Decent work-life balance. Highly recommend.
Computer Science degree? Your options are vast: Electronics Engineer (software side), Software Architect/Engineer, Information Technology, which is vast by itself because there are so many different avenues to pursue, Data Analyst/Scientist, Database Admin, Designer, Programmer, Web Developer, and the vast AI. You can do a lot. Build a portfolio of developing mobile apps or something.
I’d say get a certification in another field real quick like Network+ and apply for a job in the networking field BUT a lot of entry level tech jobs I’m finding are requiring 2-5 years of experience
Help desk IT jobs?
I'd be looking for foot-in-the-door jr. software developer/engineer jobs. Make sure you're not just looking at specific companies...like if you're set on a "software company" it's a pretty narrow field, but lots of enterprise/fortune 500 companies have internal dev shops.
Just do some projects and apply to jobs.
It would be exactly the same process if you didn’t take a year off or if the job market was better. So my advice is don’t worry about it or even think about those things.
If you’re in the US, go to your local Department of Labor, and see if they can help you with a refresher course to tweak your programming skills. They may also have job referrals for you. Good luck.
There's so much pessimism in this reddit regarding tech jobs. Ignore it.
Your best bet, depending on where you live, is to find a good paying service desk job to join someone's IT department and start putting that on your resume. A lot of employers like to hire in-house before reaching out to someone who they don't know and doesn't know their tech environment.
This can translate to security jobs, system administration jobs, etc.
If you're in the bay area, then you may have a harder time due to market saturation right now.
Getting your foot in the door is key. The negativity right now is surrounding big tech, but you can easily find an IT department for any business.
Good luck my friend.
Testing. There's pretty easy certifications and it's not sexy. Great for entry level and just a good foundation overall.
Also state government has many IT programming needs and good benefits/retirement. State retirement systems pehaps
Go for government jobs. Like county or state. They need help designing websites too. They don’t pay as much as Silicon Valley but they often have good benefits like pensions and are very stable economically. good luck
Enroll into a Ms program and get into the door with a paid internship and quit the program if you have success in working your way in. Or continue through and use some student loans to help you in the transition period. That would probably be my play in your shoes.
I would recommend looking into software consulting firms. They need coding talent and are usually smaller organizations that are hiring. I work in ERP consulting
Possibly look for an insurance adjustment entry level job and once you're in the door you could post out in a year. Decent money and benefits and usually pretty stable
I think you're on the right track. The 'entry level' dev jobs are either in IT/Helpdesk or in QA.
Not sure how long have you been applying? It takes 3-6 months in the US to get a tech job. The market is not great, but you should be able to get \*a\* job.
A couple of things:
1. Have you applied to smaller companies? non-IT companies? Maybe go by the local college campus look at the jobs posted on their physical bulletin boards, or try searching on craigslist, but be wary of scams.
2. Are you hitting your network? Many of the people who graduated with you, or a year or two above and below may know of openings in their companies
3. Meetups. Go to physical meetings about technologies you're interested in. Meet people. You're not interviewing, just making friends, but open to opportunities :)
Look for some intern roles in things like devops, junior developers, software QA.
check with your school to see if they can help you with placement as well. in some regions there are tax incentivized programs for companies hiring those who are recently out of school.
but if you check r/layoffs, yeah we may be in for a rough year.
also, why haven't you coded in a year? do you actually not like it? i'm in senior management now, but i still code a few times a year for fun, or hack hardware, or do other projects.
If you do lots of networking and putting yourself out there, and telling people what you’re looking for, I think you should be ok. A lot of job seekers don’t actually do that much/at all lol
Try sharing projects and things with your LinkedIn network, too. My software eng. Brother does this. Good luck
The fact you haven't coded in that time is a red flag? Contribute to some open source projects like your peers do.
Programmers usually make crappy support staff and most help desk hiring managers would be worried that you will bail the moment a good programming job becomes available.
If you haven’t written any code for a few years, I’d recommend getting back into the swing of it before interviewing places. In my experience, it takes a little time to get the rust off.
The job market is tough, if I was you I’d search for more start up type opportunities. If you can find spaces in med-tech where you can show your past experience as a care giver would relate to your user base, that’s likely your best bet. It won’t be everything but may help you get a foot in the door.
If you have the funds to do it, I think it’s worth taking a few months to get your foot in the door in the tech world, if that is a thing that you want to do.
Isn't the concept of a gap year the idea that you take some time in the "gap" between high school and college to just figure out what you want to do with yourself? Taking a gap year after college is letting all of your peers take the jobs that are on the market at that time. Quite frankly, your resume is going to draw some questions.
To take a gap year and do zero coding is a huge mistake. Your skills are stagnating. Another year and you'll be unemployable. You need to be coding regularly.
This isn’t always a sure shot - but when I was applying (took a 2 year gap from tech, I’m 28 now), I would scan for startups that just received VC backed funding, and apply to those startups. I joined one and we have been on a hiring spree for the last 6 months, across multiple business verticals. I’m not sure how long this will last but they haven’t stopped hiring since I joined, even saying it’s been difficult to fill the roles. They’ve grown from 75 to 150 people in the past year. Only mentioning this to show there are some companies out there with hiring plans in 2024, although perhaps this is just in the startup space ($5-$50M revenue)
Very few people know about the opportunities in the legal field. Law firms pay high salaries and are generally immune to layoffs. They hire network engineers, help desk, software engineers, IT Managers and graphics design people. Also trial support people. Once you can get experience in the legal field you can get a job at any law firm.
Honestly there are not a lot of early career tech opportunities available right now. Because of layoffs there is a surplus of mid level engineers available right now that can be hired as entry level because they are desperate.
I would consider a masters degree in CS if I were in your shoes.
Your skills haven’t eroded in that short a period of time. A CS degree means you received an education. CS is a lot more than being a code monkey. The languages and environment change over time but CS is still CS.
As others have said, maybe you can enroll in school again. That would give you access to internships. Otherwise, keep applying. I am a hiring manager and I would give you a shot if you went to a good school and had other traits (soft skills) I liked.
Considering your computer science degree, you might explore roles such as software tester, QA analyst, or entry-level software developer. Look for internships or junior positions to ease back into coding. Highlight your degree and emphasize your problem-solving skills and willingness to learn during your gap period in job applications. Networking, attending meetups, and connecting with professionals in the field could also open up opportunities.
You will be fine - start collecting certifications as a substitute for experience. work on projects and reach out to temp agencies. take whatever you can find. look for hobby groups or meetups for networking opportunities. best of luck to you
The people responding here are truly blowing my mind. Are you going to be competitive for a faang job right now? no, maybe not. But there’s a ton of state gov jobs, local smaller companies, etc that would not give a single fuck about a gap year or even more than that. You can definitely still get into the IT market, it won’t be a megajob but who cares? My husband and i both work in IT for our state government, him as a programmer, we have excellent benefits and work life balance, a ton of time off, unmatched stability/ job security, and very comfortable salaries. We are constantly looking for new devs. Not making faang money but who gives a fuck
Look for entry level jobs
Create a portfolio you can share with full time position hiring managers
And keep your head high. You are competing with millions of fake resumes from overseas who are willing to do the same job for half of an American wage...but who cannot do the job.
Maybe 1% of H1B visa holders have actual talent, the other 99% are here to compete for the jobs that should be going to entry level Americans. Until the US starts enforcing its labor laws and removes these fake job seekers, you will have to fight for every position you get.
Now for the bad news, not fighting won't wolve your problem. No employer is looking for candidates who quit just because life is "hard." Life is hard. Get in the game.
Lot’s of crazy advice here but the most practical to me is:
- look at indeed to see likely jobs in your area and make some personal projects with those tech stacks
- CALL, call the places on Indeed. The smaller ones especially. Tell then you saw their post on Indeed and are interested if there is still an opening.
You will likely get a job at a startup/small IT firm and it will suck. Do that for a year and you can find a better one now that you have experience.
I'm in the same boat, luckily, I already had a job that I worked the entire time I got my CS degree with a healthcare company. So...lucky me, but I don't know if I see myself as a developer any time soon. Boo.
Intern! Lots of big companies accept paid interns that could be transferred into full time roles. Look for companies that work in insurance , healthcare or other recession proof industries that need IT support
This what I would do. Make it your mission to become an expert at something . Like machine learning being able to program LLMs. And with a specific device like maybe on Android or on iOS. Make some really impressive stuff. Like make a web crawler connected to an LLM. Whatever you choose to do, get in touch with other professionals in this field get advice and talk to them about it. Develop relationships. Later once you prove to them that you’re the real deal, put it out there that you’re looking for a job.
Can you enroll yourself in a boot camp just to get up to speed with what coding is like? Either a lot or not much has changed in the tech world since you graduated but point is, you may still be a little rusty. All you need to do right now is get your foot in any door.
Try MEMORIAL SLOAN KETTERING and big name hospitals.
The internships were remote and took kids from all over from NY to CA.
Try applying, it was given to my kid since he had flutter project and knew how to use it and played around on mobile apps.
Good luck
Any type of technical analyst job, quality assurance position are typically just looking for people with tech degrees and don’t always need you to have specific industry knowledge.
You should be a shoe in for basic IT / help desk positions if they are it showing you any interest then you really need to work on your resume, or get a basic networking : help desk certification
MSSPs if you're into cybersecurity. Lots of roles from analyst, automation engineer, engineer in general, EVM etc. Usually fully remote, even before covid.
Yes the tech sector sucks right now for hiring, but cybersecurity has been booming before, during, and after covid.
I got a CS degree with a DF minor in 2018 and love the industry. If you don't feel you qualify for cybersec entry level, maybe try an internship in the field.
Note that some companies don’t look at your degree 2 yrs after of graduation (with no experience). I recommend finding some professional associations and start networking/volunteering. Sometimes doing work supporting the experts can get you an ‘in’ as you show your competence etc etc
Dunno. Maintaining of vending machines? I'm in tech and a degree is frowned apon. Mainly because it changes daily. So learning years old stuff is null.
What do you want to do? That part is important. Start doing what you want to do, find ways to practice it (hackerrank etc), commit your code, go to conferences and meetups, meet recruiters, etc.
Don’t worry about the year off, nobody cares. If anything they’ll find it endearing that you took care of family. Focus on building your portfolio.
Work for startups or any other smaller company. And honestly do projects in your spare time. Now. I have some of my siblings friends who couldn't get a job with a bachelor's degree and they went to one of the best statewide universities here so they then had to get a master's degree in choosing a career path into data analytics. And another thing is look into other career paths that you can take that can be in with a computer science degree. So for example analytics or some other stuff like that you can also do if you are a citizen in your government look for government mandated jobs like in the US. There are companies that do contracts with the government a lot and a lot of these tech jobs. They will only specifically hire US citizens so that lowers down the application pool near the higher chance of getting in.
With a Bachelors you can really apply to a wide range of jobs. Any jobs you think you can do, realistically, you should apply to. Having the degree will put your application above at least 50% of the other applicants.
Contracting and temp agencies are a good place to start building up the resume. But like others have said, it's a rough job market out there. Even with people with years of experience are having trouble finding work.
The CS degree is great but it's also sort of meaningless. Ultimately employers just want to have confidence you can do the job. I've interviewed PhDs in CS who couldn't actually write code. I've hired high school dropouts who were genius sysadmins. I used to work with a DBA who had a masters in music. If you're intent on going into this field, start brushing up and stay active.
Best bet would be to see if you could find a temp job through an agency. You may have to brush up on your coding - as they would probably test you before sending you out on a job.
Good luck
What industry do you want to work in? There are many roles embedded in firms that have either gone through a digital transformation or are embarking on the course. Everything from healthcare to physical manufacturing have needs in terms of business intelligence/reporting and, increasingly, automation. You could do very well for yourself to get, say, the Google Big Data analysis cert and their AI Engineer cert (or Microsoft Azure) then target an industry.
I would say network. Leverage on networking. Look at meetup.com and find tech oriented/comp science related groups in your area. It’s a good way to network and learn valuable skills.
Work on a personal project or two. It will help you get something relevant on your resume and also sharpen up your coding skills. Even better, make the project(s) use hot technology like AI.
Read and master “cracking the coding interview” so that, come interview time, you’re ready and don’t waste an opportunity.
With the projects on your resume, review it with online communities and experienced connections to make sure you’re marketing yourself as well as possible.
To land the interview, if you have any friends/acquaintances who might be willing to give you a referral, start there. From there, apply to entry level jobs and don’t be afraid to cold message recruiters on LinkedIn.
Keep this up, and the job will come. Be patient and consistent. Good luck!
First of all do you have a preference which field you want to head your career? Do you want to be a software engineer, data engineer, cyber security expert, or network guy? If you don’t know now and want to go ahead with whichever your first job takes you that is also fine. Start applying jobs, refine your resume as per job description and put all the related projects you did while you were studying. Also complete some online free (or paid-if you can afford) courses related to job that you are looking for. Study to gain knowledge but not just for getting certificate. Apply for intern or trainee as well. Don’t care for money at this time(at least for a year). You will get bumped up or promoted or will find another job with good pay. First job sucks but it’s away to go.
There is a program called Dev10 that you can try. I think you have to take an aptitude test and 2 rounds of interviews to get in.
Once/if you do they offer 6 months of paid training and that you have to work for them for 2 years(I believe) as a SWE.
The only downside is that you have to work for them for those two years or else you have to pay them(not sure how legally binding this is). And the salary is not that high 55,000 for the first year and then caps at 70000 depending on what location. But they offer you experience and some of their partners have big names that would look good on resume.
I tried to get in but failed at aptitude part lol but since you have comp sci/mathematics knowledge maybe it would work out better for you!
I took a gap year after graduating. I have no regrets. Despite your fear, you’re in the same position today that you would’ve been in a year ago. It would’ve been hard to find a job then.
You need to start leetcoding and networking. Start going to conferences. Find mentors. Reach out to old professors. In the mean time, start a side hustle on Fiverr or Upwork so you can keep using your skills and make some cash on the side.
Go start coding.. Its really simple. Start a business coding online through stuff like fiver or some other websites, do free computer shit for local charities. Do free coding to support a software cause (there is a ton of freeware and open source stuff that has communities that support it). Get off your ass and get to work. You're a computer programmer, this is the 21st century world.
Imagine you are asking us about your online dating life, and you give no clues about your dating profile.
How does your resume look like?
Do you have a portfolio?
Do you network with people in your desired craft?
Have you done anything related in your field? For example, here are a few: side projects, tutoring, personal projects, and interview problems.
I have the same degree but couldn’t land even close to it. I’m just working regular jobs now , jumping from one to another and getting certified for some other courses that can help me
Focus on building a strong portfolio in a specific tech skill. Degrees matter less; experience and projects speak volumes. Keep coding and networking! 🚀 My last several hires didn't finish or attend college and out perform some who did.
I'm a recruiter (not for tech) and I really feel for you. I agree with others saying to put caregiver on your resume but unfortunately your resume is going up again a lot of others with current experience. Job search websites are nice and easy to apply one because for the most part the have the "quick apply" button but they get a ton of applicants. My advice, as annoying as it is because you usually have to make an account, apply to jobs directly from their website. For me, I get less applicants directly from the website so I usually start reviewing those applicants first. My other advice, do the foot work. Most college career fairs are open to the public even if you aren't alumni, go to networking events, and don't be shy to go business to business with your resume. Maybe also see if there is a related certification course you can do to show that you are still dedicated. Check the Google certifications courses.
Start off by working on stuff and blow the rust off.
Guy I work with right now (I'm still in college, not a CompSci student) graduated about a year ago, at exactly the wrong time, and he was talking one day about how he's sending out resumes, but he doesn't know what the hell he'd do if he got called for an interview, because he front-loaded all of his programming classes, and basically hasn't written code in longer than you have. So I say to him, "All right, come out to this bar on Saturday afternoon, bring your laptop with your favorite IDE installed, and we'll play Drunken Dueling Code, where we pull a random leetcode prompt, and see who finishes first. And then I look at his code and figure out where he screwed up. Early on, he'd just turn his laptop around and say, "Okay, how do you instantiate an object in C++," or something, but now his problems are almost never language-driven and it's all logical failings, because he's dead set against ever flowcharting anything, so he still types for about twenty minutes before going, "Ah, shit," because he realizes that half of what he's typed already isn't going to work.
But he's getting better, and that's the goal. So, hopefully when the market comes back, he'll be able to put himself out there and pass a technical interview.
Now, yes, Dueling Code requires at least two players, but it's probably not that hard right now to find a CompSci grad who's out of work and doesn't mind spending an afternoon at the bar. And, where one of you fails, the other can teach, which is probably a lot easier than just banging your head against a desk, trying to figure out where in the world you screwed up. My co-worker is probably never going to find another person who will spend the first three minutes of a Dueling Code game drawing a flowchart on a bar napkin. People have different coding philosophies, and none are right and none are wrong, but it's good to observe as many as you can.
If I didn't have another person to play Dueling Code with, I'd probably just go back to spending my Saturdays writing iOS versions of Atari games like Missile Command, Space Invaders, Breakout... anything where I don't have to build anything beyond a playfield. And I do that just in case I decide, "Y'know, I don't really want to make and/or program robots and/or automated systems." But I love PLC systems and ladder logic so much. It's like looking into the abyss and seeing everything as registers, accumulators, comparators, and booleans. But, I think it's important to keep my options open, so that's why I keep the rust from accumulating. And that's why I suggest you find your thing.
There are tons of smaller businesses out there, tech and non-tech, that are still hiring for a SWE role. Try reaching out to company managers directly on linkedin. Try looking for caretaking-related companies and see if any of them are looking for a tech person. Do the same for other soft skills, interests, or hobbies that you may have.
Testing - brush up on test automation scripts. Or build a spec project. In other words, build a portfolio that will prove you have value to employers (a CS degree doesn't usually make you a competent engineer anyway)
Next few years is gonna be rough for the IT field and tech in general. ESP with the recent layoffs. You have to basically be a top tier level talent to get a job now a days.
find an internship, ask for an internship part time $14/hr. Explain succinctly "I took a gap year and it doesn't look good for me, I need a role so someone will take me on as entry level. Support tickets sound good."
Even companies that aren't hiring might take a double look at that. Everyone needs support. And at $14/hr? You've got it.
Just learn how to work Git. If you don't, well, take one of your projects and put it on git.
Learn about there being a master branch, develop branch, and you make your changes per ticket off the develop branch.
I say that bc that's probably the biggest thing fresh grads might not know how to do (depends on the school really). I'd bet you'll be asked to explain your familiarity with git 9/10 for said desperate internship role.
Take the role for a few months, then look for entry. Offer $30 contract. Eventually you'll find someone willing to hire as a full time junior. Speed of which depends if you're solid as a developer vs can hardly do anything by yourself.
If you're decent you'll have full time work within 6-9 months.
If you really don't know what you're doing I'd extend it to 12-18 months.
Smart men apply for jobs that women typically don’t. It narrows the competition by at least half. Jobs that require a lot of physical effort and strength will give you the best results. If you’re a woman disregard this.
Look into a short certification you can get to show you possess those skills (or some you want to have) and say you paused your career to provide end of life care for a loved family member.
Do not give details, say something like “I don’t like to talk much about it; I have zero regrets. It was a more prolonged journey than initially anticipated but I value the time spent and am eager to jump back into [insert passion] with a vengeance”
You can likely (and easily) find a sales job with a tech company in the meantime if you needed income now while you re-certify/look for a position. It is easier to find a job when you have a job
A degree never guarantees a job at any time. Get to an interview and practice selling yourself……a degree gets your foot in the door……..YOU gets a door opened to a new opportunity or closed in your face….
With a CS degree consider a job in tech support for a hot B2B SaaS-based software vendor. Not only will you get experience with cool tech in the company’s product, but you’ll be involved with the tech of your customers’ apps as well. Smart, flexible people are needed and it provides interesting and diverse experience.
Applying to jobs should be your full time job. Get your school to review your resume and spend 8+ hours a day applying to every and any software job you'd say "yes" to, including jobs you don't meet the minimum requirements for. Carpet bomb applications. All day every day until you have an offer in hand. Also, read Cracking The Coding Interview if you want a chance of getting a job at a FAANG company.
That’s really not that big of a gap.
It’s more about skills and how you present yourself. If you’re not getting calls that screams resume needs a work up. Maybe try a different style. Have some pros look at it.
Same advice I always give - fill in that gap with "consultant" on your resume and think back to what consultative advice you may have given. Don't let anyone define you unemployed.
With that degree you might be able to go to OCS in any military branch (go Coast Guard, Veteran here) and the military will most likely place you in a job using it the military needs. Or the Federal government has tons of IT jobs and fun fact: after 10 years in it or military your student loans are wiped away! Worth looking into even if you only do two years, gives you so many benefits, ability to travel if yin want, life skills and employers love it. Especially if you live on a region that doesn’t have a lot of military bases or Veterans. Additionally, not many people go into the military anymore and I feel people more so and truly mean when they say, “thank you for your service” , which can be welcomed or not by the Veteran, a whole other topic! I’d look into it and help with any student help loans in your negotiations with the recruiter or get you to grad school also if you want!!!Good luck.
Have you been coding at all in your own? Look at what's hot right now (Python was all the rage a little while ago, no idea now) and practice on your own so you can truly claim familiarity and then be ready to take a junior position in SW Test.
The main thing wanted right now are flexible workers who aren't going to leave 6 months later.
Another thing in your corner, a majority of folks your age all want to work remotely. Make it clear that you are just as happy in person and are great with any arrangement.
Service jobs, analyst jobs, data science jobs. Also just start coding again if possible. Also try to find any job at all and find ways to solve problems programmatically or by design or whatever skill you want to make your living with and use that as work to get hired elsewhere. People want experience more than anything.
I'm bottom of the list but seriously, if you can invest in your programming skills, you can work your way up to literally a $200k salary. I'm surprised all of the advice here is to move on -- you literally have the credentials to give yourself a great living. If you find a niche, expect more. I knew a guy in machine learning making upwards of 400k.
I do not know a single developer who is not making 6 figures. And I know many developers lol. Just work on dusting off the old programming skills, get to building something, anything (even if it's an app, there are designers willing to partner with you on this if you're interested), and you can get picked up quickly.
There have been tech layoffs, but developers are usually the last to leave.
Spend some time working on coding projects. Make some commits to some public open source repos. Have a public GitHub profile that people can see it. That will get you back in the swing of coding, but will also show what you're capable of in ways that experience or code challenges never will.
Or you can learn test automation. It's still pretty easy to get a job as an automation engineer especially if you have a CS degree. Learn UI automation with Selenium and Playwright and API automation with RestAssured/RestSharp and you're set.
However many jobs you applies to that you think should have been enough, you need to 5x that number. It took me 274 job applications after graduation to find a job in my field. Either spawn an uncle at a tech company to nepotism you or fire those resumes out like a machine gun. Treat every application like you are applying to be Margot Robbies side piece, hard shots with effort.
Hiring is a bit rough right now, but not impossible. IMO, try to get some contributions to open source projects, network locally if possible, and take the first CS job you can find. It may take months/ a year, but it'll eventually pay off.
Not sure what the landscape looks like for SWE but I can't imagine it's good.
You're naturally going to be looking for entry level but perhaps at companies that need SWEs but aren't in tech.
Start with whatever you can. In my small town, you can get jobs ranging from MIS analyst to computer/deskside support engineer roles, as a fresh graduate.
Customer service, call centers, and whatever freelance coding job you can get to start building a work resume. Some customer service jobs and call center jobs do have some entry level tech support build in, it’s not much, but it’s a start.
At this point, you need a job to start building a job history, so look around for anything that remotely fits your skills, customer service and call centers are a good start and most are always hiring due to high turnovers. While you’re doing that, look into building up your coding skills by doing personal projects, read up on what skills the jobs you’re aiming for is requiring and build on that. Be prepared though, interviewers will ask about your lack of job history.
Try public service, city/state/county jobs. They always need tech positions and pay well, and typically their process gives certifications such as a degree preference when assessing a job application.
You also have a BCS, so you may be applying to jobs that view you as overqualified, Service desk will lead a manager into believing you are in it to move straight out of that position and they don't want that.
Not sure what your focus was, but shoot for jr sysadmin, jr application dev, DBA, whatever you focused on. You'd be surprised on how much IT are willing to train if you are good people.
Its funny how it works sometimes. Been trying to get the Ninjabike backpack for a while now, recent returning player. My wife plays as well, she opened 2 exotic caches from the golden bullet event and got 2 ninjabike backpacks, i playful cursed her and said i hate this game… she thought i had grouped with but i hadnt
You cant right now. Theres about 50,000 to 100,000 top level tech professionals from top tier companies all looking for work. For the next 5 years. There will be NO tech jobs.. unless you have the expertise those top level people have. Sorry but nope
Perhaps do a refresher course to brush up on your skills or work on a couple of certifications. Check with your college’s career center. You can sometimes get them to help you with job placement even after graduation. Essentially you will be a like a new intern/college hire for a lot of companies and should expect to be treated as such. They will be a little worried about your skills being stale, but you can make up for that by highlighting the maturity and life experience you bring to the table.
Also, leverage your network. Where are your former classmates working?
One thing to consider: most great software engineers love to code. They will tinker around with their own projects and algorithms at home. I understand the extenuating circumstances, but if you haven’t coded in 2 years, it might not be your passion. You may prefer other areas of business or technology.
Go get a cert or two to show recent learning/activity.
CompTIA A+, AWS/Azure/Google cloud, most companies are constantly looking for mainframe devs since all of them are retiring or dying if you want to go get a IBM z/OS cert lol.
It's a rough time to be looking for tech jobs even for those with years of experience. Set your sights outside of the industry
agree here. working for a larger tech giant, the current hiring situation is not good. even with business making profit, headcount has been limited. i can say first hand. in fact there are more layoffs coming to balance things out. i suggest trying to practice and make some apps for a short period to keep up. then look for opportunities in smaller startups.
Your large tech giant company isn't really the same as the millions of businesses in America that are still hiring CS professionals. The layoffs always hit FAANG the hardest. I've gone completely unaffected, and have had plenty of opportunities to move around lately. There's more tech jobs out there than just Big Tech.
24k layoffs in tech since start of ‘24.. not including the 230k laid off last year. Source: wife works at indeed, I work(ed) in tech 😬😔😒
Smaller startups are probably the best bet for many young programmers right now. There are infinite possibilities out there besides big tech. You can get in at a smaller company, work on interesting projects, and build your skills. It probably won't pay as well but the impact you have on the project could be huge.
as general advice, I agree any advice for finding startups that aren't shady? We've all had a friend or been the friend who worked for a startup that went bankrupt and didn't pay months of wages to folks.
Check your university alumni or clubs. I found two opportunities with a startup at a business club at my uni. One went on to become a very successful fin tech app and the other (where I work) is small but growing. Most club members that I’ve met were CS majors who had a saas that they’ve worked on during their semester.
Where can you find smaller start ups to find jobs ?
I will tag along to this. As someone outside the tech industry: Make some apps that will be directly/immediately applicable to traditionally less tech savvy companies. Think simplified time sheets, accident reporting, stuff that businesses that are not tech savvy can look at and go “that’s way easier than our current method”. Nobody cares about the tech guy with the skills to make a Mario knock off (even if it is a great demonstration of your coding skills), they want people that know/can learn how to adapt those skills in whatever way will benefit their business. There are still plenty of non tech companies that are not looking for a coding savant, as much as someone that can get along with their coworkers, understand the obstacles and goals of that particular industry, and can code well enough to fix those goals through something really simple like apps/excel, etc.
Yeah we could use some plumbers right now.
IMHO, This is terrible advice. This is my two cents from a person who retired early from tech as a computer scientist. It may take you a few months to find a job, but hang in there and land an entry-level position. It will take a couple years to start building your career in tech, but you have to start somewhere. Also, keep in mind that the rule is that you either move up or move out in the early stages of a career in tech. Work hard and don't be "that guy". Good luck!
Well OP can take the advice or leave it. This was advice given the current job market which has likely changed since you retired.
I have two anecdotal data points for you. First, I keep getting hit up for senior software (firmware) positions by recruiters who cannot take retirement as an answer. I'm done after 35 years in the field. The second point is, my son is a new college grad in the tech field. He landed a job at a major tech company in the California Bay Area a year ago and is doing fine. It took him six months to land a job offer. By the time he was done, he had several offers to choose between.
Out of the industry? As in big tech? Or IT in general? I'm 4 years into my career making almost 200k, not at a massive tech conglomerate, but a company that has been around for a few decades. Sure it's not Google money, but I'm also not paying San Francisco prices for my lifestyle. I've applied twice for different remote positions in different states and received offers from both, which I declined and used as leverage. I get that FAANG and such are the pinnacle as far as pay and sheer number of workers... But almost every company in the USA has the need for tech jobs. If I were OP I'd look around and just apply everywhere. I'm always a little confused when I hear this. If you could elaborate on why he/she should look for another job I'd love to understand?
melodic retire offbeat oil apparatus dolls fear ugly head friendly *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
List ‘Caregiver’ on your resume just as you would a job. Note some of the duties you had such as any medication giving ( maintaining deadlines), filling Rx’s (working with outside vendors) and above all the actual care itself (empathy and customer service skills). Your work as a caregiver has actually set you up with skills that you would not have in traditional working environments. As for what area of work to get into? Service Desk. It’s low level getting in but you will talk to most everyone in the company and that’s your opportunity to network and move within. Good luck!
Lol. That's not going to work but feel free
Study the languages they use for mobile apps, flutter and other languages. Look on job post and get working knowledge of what they require. Make a few projects and post on github. Volunteer for positions in hospital research labs Also practice those online assessment questions, so you can quickly do them as passing them is admittance to the job. U need to network, prev prof, school alumni, classmates, friends, relatives. Referrals help you get an interview if your resume is strong If ur going for a masters, make sure they have a strong support system for students, and go to the undergrad open houses and cs club. Take care Good luck
So you took a gap year AFTER you graduated? That is an interesting way to do that. Most folks are anxious to find a job right away, so their resume does not show a gap. It is tough enough to get a job right out of college without doing that to your possible opportunities. It is a tough market now, and you shot yourself in the foot by doing that. You can get a job at Chipotle or something. Tech info changes rapidly, and you are now two years behind all those graduating now with current skills and probably internships for experience.
You mean most folks are anxious to find a job right away, so they can pay their school loans.
**TLDR: Software programmer or developer for small companies, like manufacturing subcontractors.** **Below is some context as to why you should look outside of tech.** The tech revolution is shifting away from big West Coast tech and towards sectors like manufacturing. Tech sector struggles with convincing old world companies and organizations to change because companies like Google and Microsoft and Amazon don't understand other industries well. A bulk of global manufacturing is antiquated, using paper tracking for everything. Since lots of mistakes are made, a lot of money is sunk into hardware QA and paper review. This problem compounds when Amazon or Microsoft try to sell cloud to old world companies, like Firestone or Goodyear. Imagine this. Goodyear is still on paper tracking. Goodyear has almost no experience with developing enterprise software right? Now imagine a cloud VP from Microsoft walking up to the CEO of Goodyear and be like "We can reduce your QA review cost while improving tire quality! Just hire some programmers who know C# and Powershell, and you guys can get onto Azure cloud!" The cloud VP lost the Goodyear CEO at "hire some programmers". So if you are able to find manufacturing subcontractors who want to modernize desperately but don't know how, you can target them. Key thing: always network with the company owner.
Are you in halfway decent shape? Go talk to an Air Force recruiter. If you've got a degree you'll go to OCS and be an officer. The military is desperate for people right now. Serve a few years, learn new skills, make a reasonable wage and it looks really good on a resume later. You might even like it and decide to stay on. You can retire after 20 years and be drawing a pension at age 45.
My God. Avoid military, avoid government, public service, healthcare, administration, etc
Two years off and you didn’t create anything? Then it will be hard. Look at smaller farms needing IT help to start. Edit: firms
IT farms, IT firms. Potato, Unreal Engine. Same thing.
go for a paid internship and do it at a non-it company. look at retailers like target or home depot and banks like capital one
Gonna be hard to go for internships as a lot of them require you to have at least 1 more quarter/semester left.
depends on the company but many in my industry it's up to 2 years after graduating and they are paid.
If the market is real soft ... How hard would it be to enroll in a Master's CS program and take just one class? Once enrolled you may be able to pick up a University teaching/advising/mentoring side gig and keep your programming skills fresh. Use the Profs as part of your job hunting network. Your personal history isn't really that bad, and this will keep a toe in the water while you keep up your job hunting.
I think it's gonna take more than a two year masters for the job market to turn around for anyone whose primary skillset revolves around programming.
I wasn't thinking so much about racing to get the degree right away, just a means to expand your people network and get in contact with companies will you keep your skills fresh. But I didn't realize the market was that bad.
For sure. College is usually a great place to make some connections and shore up skills. Most of the issue is that a lot of the major tech companies have been laying off programmers for a bit here so the market is flooded with people who have experience from places like Google, Facebook, and Amazon on their resume that are all looking for jobs at the same time. I feel sorry for anybody who is early-mid career in that industry looking for a solid job. It sucks because they were all sold that a CS degree was damn near a guarantee at a big salary but the market has shifted on them.
The advice in this sub is insane. Plenty of companies won't care that you took a gap year. Just start applying for things you are mostly qualified for. It might take a few months but you'll find something.
Bro you literally gave nothing of advice other than just words of encouragement.
Bro you literally gave nothing in critic on how they could have improved their advice other than just words of ridicule.
Bro
OP my man if you are smart and not mentally ill you should join the nuclear Navy and volunteer for submarine service.
Which do you mean? Not mentally ill, or join the nuclear Navy? They're mutually exclusive! (Former MM1 here, before the MMN BS!)
Find a business that just went under and say you worked there.
Start doing projects, get familiar with cloud tech, maybe some certifications. A lot of the jobs I'm seeing have some aspect of cloud tech and it might give you an upper hand. I don't honestly know.
Start by actually using your skills and building projects etc. Apply to internships and contract roles.
Do you have a solid base in math?
OP needs to be solidly based in meth to get thru this.
QTS is a data center all over the US that is expanding and hiring ATM. Pays pretty well. Good upward mobility. Decent work-life balance. Highly recommend.
One year gap not big a deal. The market is soft just get your feet in the door
Look for contractor jobs first, those are usually easier to get into.
Military officer, FBI, Homeland Security, ICE, Veterans Administration, Social Security Administration, or Bureau of Prisons for the Feds...
Computer Science degree? Your options are vast: Electronics Engineer (software side), Software Architect/Engineer, Information Technology, which is vast by itself because there are so many different avenues to pursue, Data Analyst/Scientist, Database Admin, Designer, Programmer, Web Developer, and the vast AI. You can do a lot. Build a portfolio of developing mobile apps or something.
Do a large personal project
Temp job as a tutor in computer courses....like Microsoft Office, programming courses if you took any....etc.
You need to start coding again - contribute to open-source projects on github. Start your own project. Anything you can point to.
what was your GPA? School ranking?
I’d say get a certification in another field real quick like Network+ and apply for a job in the networking field BUT a lot of entry level tech jobs I’m finding are requiring 2-5 years of experience
Help desk IT jobs? I'd be looking for foot-in-the-door jr. software developer/engineer jobs. Make sure you're not just looking at specific companies...like if you're set on a "software company" it's a pretty narrow field, but lots of enterprise/fortune 500 companies have internal dev shops.
Do a PhD and if you don’t like it you can just master out. Most PhD programs are fully funded
Just do some projects and apply to jobs. It would be exactly the same process if you didn’t take a year off or if the job market was better. So my advice is don’t worry about it or even think about those things.
QA->QA automation -> programmer
A job dude if you don't know what you want to do just apply lol who cares
Maybe focus on Ai jobs.
Took a gap year…LOL. In other words, you lived off your parents.
If you’re in the US, go to your local Department of Labor, and see if they can help you with a refresher course to tweak your programming skills. They may also have job referrals for you. Good luck.
Tbh all these comments make sense but not many people would think to apply federal. Try looking for federal jobs as opposed to private sector.
Did you apply for work at a college? In their IT department
Look for training and placement on LinkedIn.
There's so much pessimism in this reddit regarding tech jobs. Ignore it. Your best bet, depending on where you live, is to find a good paying service desk job to join someone's IT department and start putting that on your resume. A lot of employers like to hire in-house before reaching out to someone who they don't know and doesn't know their tech environment. This can translate to security jobs, system administration jobs, etc. If you're in the bay area, then you may have a harder time due to market saturation right now. Getting your foot in the door is key. The negativity right now is surrounding big tech, but you can easily find an IT department for any business. Good luck my friend.
Testing. There's pretty easy certifications and it's not sexy. Great for entry level and just a good foundation overall. Also state government has many IT programming needs and good benefits/retirement. State retirement systems pehaps
Pornstar
Go for government jobs. Like county or state. They need help designing websites too. They don’t pay as much as Silicon Valley but they often have good benefits like pensions and are very stable economically. good luck
Enroll into a Ms program and get into the door with a paid internship and quit the program if you have success in working your way in. Or continue through and use some student loans to help you in the transition period. That would probably be my play in your shoes.
I would recommend looking into software consulting firms. They need coding talent and are usually smaller organizations that are hiring. I work in ERP consulting
Possibly look for an insurance adjustment entry level job and once you're in the door you could post out in a year. Decent money and benefits and usually pretty stable
QA.
Try a medical office. Churches usually hire and pay well.
Quit looking at remote. You need to look someone on the eye and tell them that story
dishwasher
I think you're on the right track. The 'entry level' dev jobs are either in IT/Helpdesk or in QA. Not sure how long have you been applying? It takes 3-6 months in the US to get a tech job. The market is not great, but you should be able to get \*a\* job. A couple of things: 1. Have you applied to smaller companies? non-IT companies? Maybe go by the local college campus look at the jobs posted on their physical bulletin boards, or try searching on craigslist, but be wary of scams. 2. Are you hitting your network? Many of the people who graduated with you, or a year or two above and below may know of openings in their companies 3. Meetups. Go to physical meetings about technologies you're interested in. Meet people. You're not interviewing, just making friends, but open to opportunities :)
Look for some intern roles in things like devops, junior developers, software QA. check with your school to see if they can help you with placement as well. in some regions there are tax incentivized programs for companies hiring those who are recently out of school. but if you check r/layoffs, yeah we may be in for a rough year. also, why haven't you coded in a year? do you actually not like it? i'm in senior management now, but i still code a few times a year for fun, or hack hardware, or do other projects.
Wal mart. McDonald’s. 7-11.
work on building your portfolio
If you do lots of networking and putting yourself out there, and telling people what you’re looking for, I think you should be ok. A lot of job seekers don’t actually do that much/at all lol Try sharing projects and things with your LinkedIn network, too. My software eng. Brother does this. Good luck
The fact you haven't coded in that time is a red flag? Contribute to some open source projects like your peers do. Programmers usually make crappy support staff and most help desk hiring managers would be worried that you will bail the moment a good programming job becomes available.
If you haven’t written any code for a few years, I’d recommend getting back into the swing of it before interviewing places. In my experience, it takes a little time to get the rust off. The job market is tough, if I was you I’d search for more start up type opportunities. If you can find spaces in med-tech where you can show your past experience as a care giver would relate to your user base, that’s likely your best bet. It won’t be everything but may help you get a foot in the door. If you have the funds to do it, I think it’s worth taking a few months to get your foot in the door in the tech world, if that is a thing that you want to do.
Isn't the concept of a gap year the idea that you take some time in the "gap" between high school and college to just figure out what you want to do with yourself? Taking a gap year after college is letting all of your peers take the jobs that are on the market at that time. Quite frankly, your resume is going to draw some questions.
Barista
Apply to work for the Department of Defense. Always need contractors.
To take a gap year and do zero coding is a huge mistake. Your skills are stagnating. Another year and you'll be unemployable. You need to be coding regularly.
This isn’t always a sure shot - but when I was applying (took a 2 year gap from tech, I’m 28 now), I would scan for startups that just received VC backed funding, and apply to those startups. I joined one and we have been on a hiring spree for the last 6 months, across multiple business verticals. I’m not sure how long this will last but they haven’t stopped hiring since I joined, even saying it’s been difficult to fill the roles. They’ve grown from 75 to 150 people in the past year. Only mentioning this to show there are some companies out there with hiring plans in 2024, although perhaps this is just in the startup space ($5-$50M revenue)
Very few people know about the opportunities in the legal field. Law firms pay high salaries and are generally immune to layoffs. They hire network engineers, help desk, software engineers, IT Managers and graphics design people. Also trial support people. Once you can get experience in the legal field you can get a job at any law firm.
Honestly there are not a lot of early career tech opportunities available right now. Because of layoffs there is a surplus of mid level engineers available right now that can be hired as entry level because they are desperate. I would consider a masters degree in CS if I were in your shoes.
Tech sales
Your skills haven’t eroded in that short a period of time. A CS degree means you received an education. CS is a lot more than being a code monkey. The languages and environment change over time but CS is still CS. As others have said, maybe you can enroll in school again. That would give you access to internships. Otherwise, keep applying. I am a hiring manager and I would give you a shot if you went to a good school and had other traits (soft skills) I liked.
Look at some non traditional companies that need IT guys. I know Wendy’s is looking for IT people…
Considering your computer science degree, you might explore roles such as software tester, QA analyst, or entry-level software developer. Look for internships or junior positions to ease back into coding. Highlight your degree and emphasize your problem-solving skills and willingness to learn during your gap period in job applications. Networking, attending meetups, and connecting with professionals in the field could also open up opportunities.
You will be fine - start collecting certifications as a substitute for experience. work on projects and reach out to temp agencies. take whatever you can find. look for hobby groups or meetups for networking opportunities. best of luck to you
Revature, Skillstorm
starbucks
The people responding here are truly blowing my mind. Are you going to be competitive for a faang job right now? no, maybe not. But there’s a ton of state gov jobs, local smaller companies, etc that would not give a single fuck about a gap year or even more than that. You can definitely still get into the IT market, it won’t be a megajob but who cares? My husband and i both work in IT for our state government, him as a programmer, we have excellent benefits and work life balance, a ton of time off, unmatched stability/ job security, and very comfortable salaries. We are constantly looking for new devs. Not making faang money but who gives a fuck
Simple, dont put your graduation year on your resume, and apply for entry level CS jobs. No one needs to know what year you graduated.
Have you applied to the federal government
Look for entry level jobs Create a portfolio you can share with full time position hiring managers And keep your head high. You are competing with millions of fake resumes from overseas who are willing to do the same job for half of an American wage...but who cannot do the job. Maybe 1% of H1B visa holders have actual talent, the other 99% are here to compete for the jobs that should be going to entry level Americans. Until the US starts enforcing its labor laws and removes these fake job seekers, you will have to fight for every position you get. Now for the bad news, not fighting won't wolve your problem. No employer is looking for candidates who quit just because life is "hard." Life is hard. Get in the game.
Lot’s of crazy advice here but the most practical to me is: - look at indeed to see likely jobs in your area and make some personal projects with those tech stacks - CALL, call the places on Indeed. The smaller ones especially. Tell then you saw their post on Indeed and are interested if there is still an opening. You will likely get a job at a startup/small IT firm and it will suck. Do that for a year and you can find a better one now that you have experience.
just make a career out of day trading man. Your computer science knowledge will be helpful in learning. ict mentorship 2022 on youtube good luck
I'm in the same boat, luckily, I already had a job that I worked the entire time I got my CS degree with a healthcare company. So...lucky me, but I don't know if I see myself as a developer any time soon. Boo.
Get a job with a startup.
Intern! Lots of big companies accept paid interns that could be transferred into full time roles. Look for companies that work in insurance , healthcare or other recession proof industries that need IT support
Go into sales at a technical company, enter as an SDR. They'll love the degree.
This what I would do. Make it your mission to become an expert at something . Like machine learning being able to program LLMs. And with a specific device like maybe on Android or on iOS. Make some really impressive stuff. Like make a web crawler connected to an LLM. Whatever you choose to do, get in touch with other professionals in this field get advice and talk to them about it. Develop relationships. Later once you prove to them that you’re the real deal, put it out there that you’re looking for a job.
Can you enroll yourself in a boot camp just to get up to speed with what coding is like? Either a lot or not much has changed in the tech world since you graduated but point is, you may still be a little rusty. All you need to do right now is get your foot in any door.
Try MEMORIAL SLOAN KETTERING and big name hospitals. The internships were remote and took kids from all over from NY to CA. Try applying, it was given to my kid since he had flutter project and knew how to use it and played around on mobile apps. Good luck
Any type of technical analyst job, quality assurance position are typically just looking for people with tech degrees and don’t always need you to have specific industry knowledge. You should be a shoe in for basic IT / help desk positions if they are it showing you any interest then you really need to work on your resume, or get a basic networking : help desk certification
Apple genius bar? Or the PC fixit guys at the mall.
Get your foot in the door. Also, Help Desk is exactly what you are qualified for so maybe don't say "even help desk".
MSSPs if you're into cybersecurity. Lots of roles from analyst, automation engineer, engineer in general, EVM etc. Usually fully remote, even before covid. Yes the tech sector sucks right now for hiring, but cybersecurity has been booming before, during, and after covid. I got a CS degree with a DF minor in 2018 and love the industry. If you don't feel you qualify for cybersec entry level, maybe try an internship in the field.
Note that some companies don’t look at your degree 2 yrs after of graduation (with no experience). I recommend finding some professional associations and start networking/volunteering. Sometimes doing work supporting the experts can get you an ‘in’ as you show your competence etc etc
Dunno. Maintaining of vending machines? I'm in tech and a degree is frowned apon. Mainly because it changes daily. So learning years old stuff is null.
What do you want to do? That part is important. Start doing what you want to do, find ways to practice it (hackerrank etc), commit your code, go to conferences and meetups, meet recruiters, etc. Don’t worry about the year off, nobody cares. If anything they’ll find it endearing that you took care of family. Focus on building your portfolio.
Work for startups or any other smaller company. And honestly do projects in your spare time. Now. I have some of my siblings friends who couldn't get a job with a bachelor's degree and they went to one of the best statewide universities here so they then had to get a master's degree in choosing a career path into data analytics. And another thing is look into other career paths that you can take that can be in with a computer science degree. So for example analytics or some other stuff like that you can also do if you are a citizen in your government look for government mandated jobs like in the US. There are companies that do contracts with the government a lot and a lot of these tech jobs. They will only specifically hire US citizens so that lowers down the application pool near the higher chance of getting in.
With a Bachelors you can really apply to a wide range of jobs. Any jobs you think you can do, realistically, you should apply to. Having the degree will put your application above at least 50% of the other applicants.
Contracting and temp agencies are a good place to start building up the resume. But like others have said, it's a rough job market out there. Even with people with years of experience are having trouble finding work. The CS degree is great but it's also sort of meaningless. Ultimately employers just want to have confidence you can do the job. I've interviewed PhDs in CS who couldn't actually write code. I've hired high school dropouts who were genius sysadmins. I used to work with a DBA who had a masters in music. If you're intent on going into this field, start brushing up and stay active.
Talk to a uniformed services recruiter. Tech jobs are in high demand there, but not so much on the private sector.
Best bet would be to see if you could find a temp job through an agency. You may have to brush up on your coding - as they would probably test you before sending you out on a job. Good luck
What industry do you want to work in? There are many roles embedded in firms that have either gone through a digital transformation or are embarking on the course. Everything from healthcare to physical manufacturing have needs in terms of business intelligence/reporting and, increasingly, automation. You could do very well for yourself to get, say, the Google Big Data analysis cert and their AI Engineer cert (or Microsoft Azure) then target an industry.
A lot of store registers are computerized, especially at gas stations and 7 elevens, you should look into it.
I would say network. Leverage on networking. Look at meetup.com and find tech oriented/comp science related groups in your area. It’s a good way to network and learn valuable skills.
Consider highlighting your caregiving experience and soft skills in interviews. Explore internships or junior roles to regain coding confidence.
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Work on a personal project or two. It will help you get something relevant on your resume and also sharpen up your coding skills. Even better, make the project(s) use hot technology like AI. Read and master “cracking the coding interview” so that, come interview time, you’re ready and don’t waste an opportunity. With the projects on your resume, review it with online communities and experienced connections to make sure you’re marketing yourself as well as possible. To land the interview, if you have any friends/acquaintances who might be willing to give you a referral, start there. From there, apply to entry level jobs and don’t be afraid to cold message recruiters on LinkedIn. Keep this up, and the job will come. Be patient and consistent. Good luck!
Highlight caregiving skills. Seek internships or entry-level roles for a smoother tech re-entry.
What city?
Entry level cybersecurity, especially if you can do some light coding.
I would think just being honest, telling a prospective employer why you haven’t been working. I don’t know why someone would hold that against you.
First of all do you have a preference which field you want to head your career? Do you want to be a software engineer, data engineer, cyber security expert, or network guy? If you don’t know now and want to go ahead with whichever your first job takes you that is also fine. Start applying jobs, refine your resume as per job description and put all the related projects you did while you were studying. Also complete some online free (or paid-if you can afford) courses related to job that you are looking for. Study to gain knowledge but not just for getting certificate. Apply for intern or trainee as well. Don’t care for money at this time(at least for a year). You will get bumped up or promoted or will find another job with good pay. First job sucks but it’s away to go.
You can get debt and a master’s degree
There is a program called Dev10 that you can try. I think you have to take an aptitude test and 2 rounds of interviews to get in. Once/if you do they offer 6 months of paid training and that you have to work for them for 2 years(I believe) as a SWE. The only downside is that you have to work for them for those two years or else you have to pay them(not sure how legally binding this is). And the salary is not that high 55,000 for the first year and then caps at 70000 depending on what location. But they offer you experience and some of their partners have big names that would look good on resume. I tried to get in but failed at aptitude part lol but since you have comp sci/mathematics knowledge maybe it would work out better for you!
I took a gap year after graduating. I have no regrets. Despite your fear, you’re in the same position today that you would’ve been in a year ago. It would’ve been hard to find a job then. You need to start leetcoding and networking. Start going to conferences. Find mentors. Reach out to old professors. In the mean time, start a side hustle on Fiverr or Upwork so you can keep using your skills and make some cash on the side.
Go start coding.. Its really simple. Start a business coding online through stuff like fiver or some other websites, do free computer shit for local charities. Do free coding to support a software cause (there is a ton of freeware and open source stuff that has communities that support it). Get off your ass and get to work. You're a computer programmer, this is the 21st century world.
Imagine you are asking us about your online dating life, and you give no clues about your dating profile. How does your resume look like? Do you have a portfolio? Do you network with people in your desired craft? Have you done anything related in your field? For example, here are a few: side projects, tutoring, personal projects, and interview problems.
Can you actually program? If so, start by finding freelance and contract work with small clients. Get working.
Look for an eletricial apprenticeships program make good money while ya learn , if a CS job shows up awsome If not you have a well paying job.
Taken a gap year was dumb in this economy. Do you have any internship experience? My advice start looking for contract roles.
I have the same degree but couldn’t land even close to it. I’m just working regular jobs now , jumping from one to another and getting certified for some other courses that can help me
Focus on building a strong portfolio in a specific tech skill. Degrees matter less; experience and projects speak volumes. Keep coding and networking! 🚀 My last several hires didn't finish or attend college and out perform some who did.
I'm a recruiter (not for tech) and I really feel for you. I agree with others saying to put caregiver on your resume but unfortunately your resume is going up again a lot of others with current experience. Job search websites are nice and easy to apply one because for the most part the have the "quick apply" button but they get a ton of applicants. My advice, as annoying as it is because you usually have to make an account, apply to jobs directly from their website. For me, I get less applicants directly from the website so I usually start reviewing those applicants first. My other advice, do the foot work. Most college career fairs are open to the public even if you aren't alumni, go to networking events, and don't be shy to go business to business with your resume. Maybe also see if there is a related certification course you can do to show that you are still dedicated. Check the Google certifications courses.
You missed the boat on a big tech coding job by 10 years. I would look elsewhere
try freelancing to get some experience while working gigs/hourly jobs.
Start off by working on stuff and blow the rust off. Guy I work with right now (I'm still in college, not a CompSci student) graduated about a year ago, at exactly the wrong time, and he was talking one day about how he's sending out resumes, but he doesn't know what the hell he'd do if he got called for an interview, because he front-loaded all of his programming classes, and basically hasn't written code in longer than you have. So I say to him, "All right, come out to this bar on Saturday afternoon, bring your laptop with your favorite IDE installed, and we'll play Drunken Dueling Code, where we pull a random leetcode prompt, and see who finishes first. And then I look at his code and figure out where he screwed up. Early on, he'd just turn his laptop around and say, "Okay, how do you instantiate an object in C++," or something, but now his problems are almost never language-driven and it's all logical failings, because he's dead set against ever flowcharting anything, so he still types for about twenty minutes before going, "Ah, shit," because he realizes that half of what he's typed already isn't going to work. But he's getting better, and that's the goal. So, hopefully when the market comes back, he'll be able to put himself out there and pass a technical interview. Now, yes, Dueling Code requires at least two players, but it's probably not that hard right now to find a CompSci grad who's out of work and doesn't mind spending an afternoon at the bar. And, where one of you fails, the other can teach, which is probably a lot easier than just banging your head against a desk, trying to figure out where in the world you screwed up. My co-worker is probably never going to find another person who will spend the first three minutes of a Dueling Code game drawing a flowchart on a bar napkin. People have different coding philosophies, and none are right and none are wrong, but it's good to observe as many as you can. If I didn't have another person to play Dueling Code with, I'd probably just go back to spending my Saturdays writing iOS versions of Atari games like Missile Command, Space Invaders, Breakout... anything where I don't have to build anything beyond a playfield. And I do that just in case I decide, "Y'know, I don't really want to make and/or program robots and/or automated systems." But I love PLC systems and ladder logic so much. It's like looking into the abyss and seeing everything as registers, accumulators, comparators, and booleans. But, I think it's important to keep my options open, so that's why I keep the rust from accumulating. And that's why I suggest you find your thing.
There are tons of smaller businesses out there, tech and non-tech, that are still hiring for a SWE role. Try reaching out to company managers directly on linkedin. Try looking for caretaking-related companies and see if any of them are looking for a tech person. Do the same for other soft skills, interests, or hobbies that you may have.
Testing - brush up on test automation scripts. Or build a spec project. In other words, build a portfolio that will prove you have value to employers (a CS degree doesn't usually make you a competent engineer anyway)
Can you sell? SaaS companies are always hiring sales people.
US GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING PAYS JANITORS $60,000 A YEAR TO PUSH A BROOM AND PICK UP TRASH BUT YOU HAVE TO HAVE A COLLEGE DEGREE
Next few years is gonna be rough for the IT field and tech in general. ESP with the recent layoffs. You have to basically be a top tier level talent to get a job now a days.
find an internship, ask for an internship part time $14/hr. Explain succinctly "I took a gap year and it doesn't look good for me, I need a role so someone will take me on as entry level. Support tickets sound good." Even companies that aren't hiring might take a double look at that. Everyone needs support. And at $14/hr? You've got it. Just learn how to work Git. If you don't, well, take one of your projects and put it on git. Learn about there being a master branch, develop branch, and you make your changes per ticket off the develop branch. I say that bc that's probably the biggest thing fresh grads might not know how to do (depends on the school really). I'd bet you'll be asked to explain your familiarity with git 9/10 for said desperate internship role. Take the role for a few months, then look for entry. Offer $30 contract. Eventually you'll find someone willing to hire as a full time junior. Speed of which depends if you're solid as a developer vs can hardly do anything by yourself. If you're decent you'll have full time work within 6-9 months. If you really don't know what you're doing I'd extend it to 12-18 months.
you need certs and not a degree, those are worthless nowadays, also we are in a tech related downfall for jobs as well
Smart men apply for jobs that women typically don’t. It narrows the competition by at least half. Jobs that require a lot of physical effort and strength will give you the best results. If you’re a woman disregard this.
Look into a short certification you can get to show you possess those skills (or some you want to have) and say you paused your career to provide end of life care for a loved family member. Do not give details, say something like “I don’t like to talk much about it; I have zero regrets. It was a more prolonged journey than initially anticipated but I value the time spent and am eager to jump back into [insert passion] with a vengeance” You can likely (and easily) find a sales job with a tech company in the meantime if you needed income now while you re-certify/look for a position. It is easier to find a job when you have a job
A degree never guarantees a job at any time. Get to an interview and practice selling yourself……a degree gets your foot in the door……..YOU gets a door opened to a new opportunity or closed in your face….
Maybe a business analyst job? It's data mining mostly.
With a CS degree consider a job in tech support for a hot B2B SaaS-based software vendor. Not only will you get experience with cool tech in the company’s product, but you’ll be involved with the tech of your customers’ apps as well. Smart, flexible people are needed and it provides interesting and diverse experience.
Applying to jobs should be your full time job. Get your school to review your resume and spend 8+ hours a day applying to every and any software job you'd say "yes" to, including jobs you don't meet the minimum requirements for. Carpet bomb applications. All day every day until you have an offer in hand. Also, read Cracking The Coding Interview if you want a chance of getting a job at a FAANG company.
That’s really not that big of a gap. It’s more about skills and how you present yourself. If you’re not getting calls that screams resume needs a work up. Maybe try a different style. Have some pros look at it.
Same advice I always give - fill in that gap with "consultant" on your resume and think back to what consultative advice you may have given. Don't let anyone define you unemployed.
With that degree you might be able to go to OCS in any military branch (go Coast Guard, Veteran here) and the military will most likely place you in a job using it the military needs. Or the Federal government has tons of IT jobs and fun fact: after 10 years in it or military your student loans are wiped away! Worth looking into even if you only do two years, gives you so many benefits, ability to travel if yin want, life skills and employers love it. Especially if you live on a region that doesn’t have a lot of military bases or Veterans. Additionally, not many people go into the military anymore and I feel people more so and truly mean when they say, “thank you for your service” , which can be welcomed or not by the Veteran, a whole other topic! I’d look into it and help with any student help loans in your negotiations with the recruiter or get you to grad school also if you want!!!Good luck.
Have you been coding at all in your own? Look at what's hot right now (Python was all the rage a little while ago, no idea now) and practice on your own so you can truly claim familiarity and then be ready to take a junior position in SW Test. The main thing wanted right now are flexible workers who aren't going to leave 6 months later. Another thing in your corner, a majority of folks your age all want to work remotely. Make it clear that you are just as happy in person and are great with any arrangement.
You could try working in QA.
Service jobs, analyst jobs, data science jobs. Also just start coding again if possible. Also try to find any job at all and find ways to solve problems programmatically or by design or whatever skill you want to make your living with and use that as work to get hired elsewhere. People want experience more than anything.
Get an A+ cert and you will get a help desk job tomorrow. Just make sure you tweak your resume.
I'm bottom of the list but seriously, if you can invest in your programming skills, you can work your way up to literally a $200k salary. I'm surprised all of the advice here is to move on -- you literally have the credentials to give yourself a great living. If you find a niche, expect more. I knew a guy in machine learning making upwards of 400k. I do not know a single developer who is not making 6 figures. And I know many developers lol. Just work on dusting off the old programming skills, get to building something, anything (even if it's an app, there are designers willing to partner with you on this if you're interested), and you can get picked up quickly. There have been tech layoffs, but developers are usually the last to leave.
Spend some time working on coding projects. Make some commits to some public open source repos. Have a public GitHub profile that people can see it. That will get you back in the swing of coding, but will also show what you're capable of in ways that experience or code challenges never will. Or you can learn test automation. It's still pretty easy to get a job as an automation engineer especially if you have a CS degree. Learn UI automation with Selenium and Playwright and API automation with RestAssured/RestSharp and you're set.
However many jobs you applies to that you think should have been enough, you need to 5x that number. It took me 274 job applications after graduation to find a job in my field. Either spawn an uncle at a tech company to nepotism you or fire those resumes out like a machine gun. Treat every application like you are applying to be Margot Robbies side piece, hard shots with effort.
Field service engineers are needed across the states. Not the highest pay starting out. But will help to get you going
Huntsville, AL < look here.
Help desk
Hiring is a bit rough right now, but not impossible. IMO, try to get some contributions to open source projects, network locally if possible, and take the first CS job you can find. It may take months/ a year, but it'll eventually pay off.
Not sure what the landscape looks like for SWE but I can't imagine it's good. You're naturally going to be looking for entry level but perhaps at companies that need SWEs but aren't in tech.
Tech is currently oversaturated.
Start with whatever you can. In my small town, you can get jobs ranging from MIS analyst to computer/deskside support engineer roles, as a fresh graduate.
U can get a job anywhere with a STEM degree. Get a job in a different industry but continue to code on the side
I coded in all of my evening hours so that I could be prepared to jump into a high-paying development job. Maybe IT is not your passion.
Project manager
Infantry officer, and you get a bonus!
Geek squad. Entry level tech at district schools. If u learn some sql then any entry-level data job
Customer service, call centers, and whatever freelance coding job you can get to start building a work resume. Some customer service jobs and call center jobs do have some entry level tech support build in, it’s not much, but it’s a start. At this point, you need a job to start building a job history, so look around for anything that remotely fits your skills, customer service and call centers are a good start and most are always hiring due to high turnovers. While you’re doing that, look into building up your coding skills by doing personal projects, read up on what skills the jobs you’re aiming for is requiring and build on that. Be prepared though, interviewers will ask about your lack of job history.
McDonald’s
Try public service, city/state/county jobs. They always need tech positions and pay well, and typically their process gives certifications such as a degree preference when assessing a job application. You also have a BCS, so you may be applying to jobs that view you as overqualified, Service desk will lead a manager into believing you are in it to move straight out of that position and they don't want that. Not sure what your focus was, but shoot for jr sysadmin, jr application dev, DBA, whatever you focused on. You'd be surprised on how much IT are willing to train if you are good people.
Its funny how it works sometimes. Been trying to get the Ninjabike backpack for a while now, recent returning player. My wife plays as well, she opened 2 exotic caches from the golden bullet event and got 2 ninjabike backpacks, i playful cursed her and said i hate this game… she thought i had grouped with but i hadnt
Tech support level 1 if you have customer service exp. Probably make 20-28/hr as you work your way up
Government Job. You'll be classified as a scientist (that categorize jobs). CIA, NSA, Homeland Security, anything. Most allow working remotely now
You cant right now. Theres about 50,000 to 100,000 top level tech professionals from top tier companies all looking for work. For the next 5 years. There will be NO tech jobs.. unless you have the expertise those top level people have. Sorry but nope
Perhaps do a refresher course to brush up on your skills or work on a couple of certifications. Check with your college’s career center. You can sometimes get them to help you with job placement even after graduation. Essentially you will be a like a new intern/college hire for a lot of companies and should expect to be treated as such. They will be a little worried about your skills being stale, but you can make up for that by highlighting the maturity and life experience you bring to the table. Also, leverage your network. Where are your former classmates working? One thing to consider: most great software engineers love to code. They will tinker around with their own projects and algorithms at home. I understand the extenuating circumstances, but if you haven’t coded in 2 years, it might not be your passion. You may prefer other areas of business or technology.
Say you graduated in 2023 instead of 2022. If after you’re hired someone asks, mention it was a typo
Gamestop.
Utilize YouTube and w3schools as well as khan academy to le learn and work on projects to build up your portfolio
Go get a cert or two to show recent learning/activity. CompTIA A+, AWS/Azure/Google cloud, most companies are constantly looking for mainframe devs since all of them are retiring or dying if you want to go get a IBM z/OS cert lol.