In my particular case there aren’t a lot of local venues to peruse for networking opportunities, which adds to the challenge. Having just moved to this rural community of 1500 with no family or friends close by makes it difficult. There is a larger community, nearly 35,000, about thirty miles away which has a monthly meeting of the local chapter of ASCE for students and there might very well be some opportunity there, although I haven’t checked it out yet. I didn’t bother to join while in university this past year for a variety of reasons, but mostly because as a mature student, getting together with the under 25’s for a student meeting is kind of like going to the bar and hoping to find the love of your life. At best it might be interesting and at worst it could be ‘what was I thinking?’

As a side bar, my husband and I, both recent graduates and mature students, attended our school’s career fair in October last year. Now without asking people directly how they felt, it was blatantly obvious to me what they were thinking. It wasn’t only the students who were looking at us this way, it was also the recruiters who were there at the different booths. I imagine the voice inside their heads went something like this, “Look at those old people, how dare they come to our career fair looking for work, don’t they know this is for students?’ It was obvious we were looking for work. Dressed nicely, resumes in hand. Even though I don’t think of myself as an old person, cause well, I’m not, but to a 23 year old everyone is old. I know that having been a 23 year old once myself.

I agree with Elizabeth’s post about only sending out resumes to positions which you qualify for. There is so much effort in putting together a great cover letter and writing a targeted resume it is unlikely that your most recent modification will suit the next position. In response to Jobscribble’s post, I have already covered every local engineering firm in town with the ‘personal drop off – cold call’ method. Unfortunately, they are simply not hiring.

Elizabeth has stated that she does at least look at every resume that comes in the door, and I commend her for that. Although I don’t have actual data I believe the number of resume’s submitted for a potential opening has likely tripled from two years ago. I am however curious as to how it may be working at some of the firms who use a program to sift through resumes. Apparently these programs search for keywords in the resume submission and if your resume doesn’t have those particular keywords you are out of luck. Some blogs I read suggested you should siphon out the keyword nouns and literally list them at the top of the resume. This seems absurd to me but maybe it is working.

In an effort to do what I can for others I am working with two PE’s I know trying to help them get some government contract work by researching potential contracts they could bid on and researching what is involved in writing a great SF-330. I am learning more about government contracting and hopefully helping them to wade through the paperwork a little easier. My social network isn’t very large and I am apprehensive about starting a LinkedIn account simply to try and find work. Although it appears to be working for some people. I guess the biggest reason is that with limited experience I don’t feel I would have any great insight to offer other engineers who may have questions, which appears to be a great way to help others and get to know people.

Living in the northern tier of the nation, community organizations where I could volunteer my services simply aren’t building houses this time of year. Even my son is networking with his peers in an effort to try and find his Mom work. Isn’t he sweet.

There is good news though, I received a telephone interview just last night. The HR person is supposed to contact me today to set up an interview for next week. It’s only 13 hours away so I can drive there easily. Any advice on how to ace that interview? I have read quite a bit about how to provide examples of your work experience and such, be positive, dress the part, rehearse etc. But I am a firm believer in ‘knowledge is power’ so any more advice you can offer would be appreciated.

Thanks, and good luck to all out there who are searching. Remain hopeful, something will turn up.

Thanks.