Realistic expectations on leaving Texas for a Internship / Post grad IT Career in California?
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Business Computing
Last response: in Business Computing
lreyes66
October 22, 2013 4:33:29 PM
I have a year and half left before I graduate from University of Houston with a Computer Information Systems degree. Ive been suffering with anxiety and depression which has gotten worse since my fiancee left me. After some work with my therapist, ive set a goal to pursue my dream of moving to California to start fresh (new motto "Success is the best form of revenge"). To do that, I figured since I have 1 summer left before I graduate, that Id exhaust the rest of my time after school to focus on obtaining a internship or atleast getting a interview with a company that would be benefical for me. I have family in the Bay area and some living in southern california so I would have support / place I can stay. Im also going go the bay area for the winter holidays so I figured this would be the perfect oppurtunity to hopefully try to land a interview while im there. I do also, eventually want to move there after I graduate.
The thought and Idea of focusing on that goal has helped me be motivated to get through the day instead of sulk in feeling of emptiness and hopelessness. But when my anxiety kicks in, I start to think more realisticly and realize that with today's economy its much harder to get a job in California considering the population size and companies located there. Ive already applied to oil and gas companies here but havent gotten consistant offers to interviews but at the same time I hadnt tried as hard as I could. My resume / expierence isnt that impressive to land me oppurtunities for major companies like google, facebook and etc but I feel like ive done a good job being able to emphasize what I do have to offer with my resumes/cover letters.
To be honest, reading some of these threads about how IT degree's have been worthless in career searches has been pretty depressing. Also alot of people are moving to Houston because of the growing job markets, making me think that finding a position there is slim. At the same time, if you work hard and put your mind into it 100%, dreams can be obtainable right? In short, what are the odds that a company in California will seriously consider a student from a Houston, TX university for their internship / entry level position? Am I better just staying put here in Houston and maybe try to pursue my California dreams when Im more established here?
Back ground on me: I have a summer expierence as a bluetooth programer and 2 1/2 years of expierence doing IT support. I dont have any certs atm because I havent actually zoned in on what exactly in the IT field I wanna do. I do have expierence as a system designer / consultant that I have done for clients as school projects where we designed and created a working system for the client.
The thought and Idea of focusing on that goal has helped me be motivated to get through the day instead of sulk in feeling of emptiness and hopelessness. But when my anxiety kicks in, I start to think more realisticly and realize that with today's economy its much harder to get a job in California considering the population size and companies located there. Ive already applied to oil and gas companies here but havent gotten consistant offers to interviews but at the same time I hadnt tried as hard as I could. My resume / expierence isnt that impressive to land me oppurtunities for major companies like google, facebook and etc but I feel like ive done a good job being able to emphasize what I do have to offer with my resumes/cover letters.
To be honest, reading some of these threads about how IT degree's have been worthless in career searches has been pretty depressing. Also alot of people are moving to Houston because of the growing job markets, making me think that finding a position there is slim. At the same time, if you work hard and put your mind into it 100%, dreams can be obtainable right? In short, what are the odds that a company in California will seriously consider a student from a Houston, TX university for their internship / entry level position? Am I better just staying put here in Houston and maybe try to pursue my California dreams when Im more established here?
Back ground on me: I have a summer expierence as a bluetooth programer and 2 1/2 years of expierence doing IT support. I dont have any certs atm because I havent actually zoned in on what exactly in the IT field I wanna do. I do have expierence as a system designer / consultant that I have done for clients as school projects where we designed and created a working system for the client.
More about : realistic expectations leaving texas internship post grad career california
did you look at http://www.dice.com
big corp usually do pay travel expense for interview. It never hurt to try.
big corp usually do pay travel expense for interview. It never hurt to try.
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lreyes66
October 22, 2013 7:09:37 PM
Best solution
In many cases the degree is worthless. IT is a field where you can either do it or you can't. The degree doesn't properly gauge your ability to do work; your work experience is that gauge.
I know several people with degrees who are almost worthless in the IT field. The vast majority of people I work with do not have degrees but can easily do the job.
I have a 2 year degree. It is the last thing you read on my resume. My experience comes before the degree because that shows what I can do.
The degree doesn't cover the broad spectrum of technology, applications, versions, etc. It is very basic in the overall grand scheme of things.
The question is: What do you know how to do and do well?
That's what an employer is seeking. If you don't know what field of IT you want to go into, how is anyone going to hire you to do a job? You have to get an idea of what you want before you can go about finding it.
Most likely, you'll have to work your way up from the ground. Most people tend to start off by being either a computer tech or working in or on a call center/helpdesk support. From there, once you've proven yourself and gained some experience you can either advance up or jump to another job.
In IT, job jumping is *good* for you. You will get paid more and learn more by jumping jobs over staying at the same one for many years. Seek out IT Recruiters like TekSystems and talk with them. They'll tell you that 3 years in an IT job starts hurting your chances of finding another job.
But your experience is low. So take some jobs for 1-2 years and keep looking. Find what you want to do.
To answer your real underlying question:
Yes, you will get paid crap to start. With your experience and proven ability to work on issues and resolve them, the money will come quickly.
You could start off on the helpdesk for $15/hour (blanket range, not cost of living adjusted) for 2 years, then maybe jump up to a junior admin in something and start making $20-$25/hour. 1-3 years there, you could become an admin and knock down $30-$40/hour. From there, you can stay, or move up to engineering/architecture/consulting and start pulling in $50-$100/hour.
But it all depends on what you know, what you can learn, and how well you can apply those skills. This is why the degree is considered worthless by many. This field is guaranteed to change every couple years. You have to learn new tech, new hardware, new software, new concepts, and apply them. Your degree? Outdated before you even graduate.
And if you're anxiety and depression is getting to you.. sorry to rough, but man up and deal with it. Things are going to get hard in life and if you get down on it, you're beating yourself before you even start. My company recently fired a guy because he kept getting anxious and puking every time he had to have a meeting with customers. He'd go in, do a great job, then run out puking all over the place. He just kept getting nervous.. The execs worked with him, told him he did a good job.. but he just got nervous. They fired him because they couldn't have him doing that. He was good but he kept beating himself. Self inflicted wounds are the worst.
And to be honest, the way you started off your post sounds like you're self defeating and sabotaging yourself. Look at it this way, people are always getting hired and IT is in demand. Currently IT has a 2% unemployment rate, meaning you're not working because you choose not to work, not because the jobs aren't out there.
The jobs are there, so don't let that bother you. You need to focus on making sure you can be an asset for a company. I go into a lot of companies and I see there are some real idiots running their datacenters and departments. It amazes me that they have jobs.. but again, 2% unemployment in IT, they'll take what they can get. In your case, take that as an opportunity to get experience. Afterwards, the money will come.
I know several people with degrees who are almost worthless in the IT field. The vast majority of people I work with do not have degrees but can easily do the job.
I have a 2 year degree. It is the last thing you read on my resume. My experience comes before the degree because that shows what I can do.
The degree doesn't cover the broad spectrum of technology, applications, versions, etc. It is very basic in the overall grand scheme of things.
The question is: What do you know how to do and do well?
That's what an employer is seeking. If you don't know what field of IT you want to go into, how is anyone going to hire you to do a job? You have to get an idea of what you want before you can go about finding it.
Most likely, you'll have to work your way up from the ground. Most people tend to start off by being either a computer tech or working in or on a call center/helpdesk support. From there, once you've proven yourself and gained some experience you can either advance up or jump to another job.
In IT, job jumping is *good* for you. You will get paid more and learn more by jumping jobs over staying at the same one for many years. Seek out IT Recruiters like TekSystems and talk with them. They'll tell you that 3 years in an IT job starts hurting your chances of finding another job.
But your experience is low. So take some jobs for 1-2 years and keep looking. Find what you want to do.
To answer your real underlying question:
Yes, you will get paid crap to start. With your experience and proven ability to work on issues and resolve them, the money will come quickly.
You could start off on the helpdesk for $15/hour (blanket range, not cost of living adjusted) for 2 years, then maybe jump up to a junior admin in something and start making $20-$25/hour. 1-3 years there, you could become an admin and knock down $30-$40/hour. From there, you can stay, or move up to engineering/architecture/consulting and start pulling in $50-$100/hour.
But it all depends on what you know, what you can learn, and how well you can apply those skills. This is why the degree is considered worthless by many. This field is guaranteed to change every couple years. You have to learn new tech, new hardware, new software, new concepts, and apply them. Your degree? Outdated before you even graduate.
And if you're anxiety and depression is getting to you.. sorry to rough, but man up and deal with it. Things are going to get hard in life and if you get down on it, you're beating yourself before you even start. My company recently fired a guy because he kept getting anxious and puking every time he had to have a meeting with customers. He'd go in, do a great job, then run out puking all over the place. He just kept getting nervous.. The execs worked with him, told him he did a good job.. but he just got nervous. They fired him because they couldn't have him doing that. He was good but he kept beating himself. Self inflicted wounds are the worst.
And to be honest, the way you started off your post sounds like you're self defeating and sabotaging yourself. Look at it this way, people are always getting hired and IT is in demand. Currently IT has a 2% unemployment rate, meaning you're not working because you choose not to work, not because the jobs aren't out there.
The jobs are there, so don't let that bother you. You need to focus on making sure you can be an asset for a company. I go into a lot of companies and I see there are some real idiots running their datacenters and departments. It amazes me that they have jobs.. but again, 2% unemployment in IT, they'll take what they can get. In your case, take that as an opportunity to get experience. Afterwards, the money will come.
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