I have no real "skills"

Dave!

Hey folks,

Wondering if I could get some thoughts on this

I've recently graduated from college with a BA in Computer Science and History.

I'm not having much luck with the job hunt, but I'm not reading too much into that considering the economic situation.

However in general I'm not feeling as though my time in college was very worthwhile from an educational point of view.

Besides the wishy washy skills of communication, essay writing, teamwork, etc., that you put on your CV as having developed in college, I haven't got much besides that. I can do some programming alright, but nothing very complex :-/

I'm interested in working in web design and that's something I'm concentrating on improving on, but I'm not very confident of that either as we didn't do much of it in college so I'm teaching myself.

I just feel that if you do an apprenticeship you'll come out with a tangible skill like you can build a house, fix a car, wire a building, etc., but after 3 years in college I don't feel that I'm qualified for anything !

Realistically all I'd be suited for is general office/admin work, and some entry-level/graduate type I.T. roles.

Was it a waste of time going to college? Or is it just the case that most people come out of an arts degree with no skills, and I should just concentrate on learning more?

My degree is a 2.2, so I couldn't even go into an interview and say "yeah it's a sh*t degree, but I got a 1st class honours in it, so hire me :cool: "

Any thoughts?

Tar.Aldarion

Masters?

shellyboo

No harm, but forget the Masters. You need experience, OP. Nobody gets hired off the back of their degree, unless you're going into a graduate training programme.

Unpaid internships, work experience - do anything you can to biuld up your actual on-the-job skills. That's what employers are looking for along with qualifications, if and when they're hiring.

I did an Arts degree, am out of uni 4 years and I have never once been asked about my degree in a job interview. Not once.

Overheal

one of the first things i like telling employers about myself: 1) I dont drink and 2) I dont smoke. Youre not the employee they have to worry about asking for a five minute break every hour and they dont have to worry about you calling in sick because you cant recover from a midweek bender. Ive had one sick day since I started working, about 5 years ago (the sick day was 3 years ago). Thats the kinda thing worth mentioning. I dont mention it on the resume, i mention it during the interview.

Tbh, while skills are an essential aspect of the job market, they are not the end all.

That doesnt answer youre whole problem but ive found it to be a useful little nugget.

dan_d

No you can absolutely develop other skills and probably have more than you realise.
One a slightly different note however, you're not the first person I've heard to say that. I know a few people that did maybe arts or astrophysics, or financial maths or something - and they said in final year that they "werent' anything". As in, they couldn't say "I'm a nurse/teacher/lawyer" etc.
I'm not writing off those degrees, I'm just pointing out that you're not the only one to say that. But that sort of thing doesn't occur to us when we're 18 and filling out the CAO.
Anyway, I've no doubt at all you've more skills than you realise.

extrinzic

The jobs market is screwed. Practically everybody is threading water, or drowning. The thing is, you don't know how beneficial your degree qualification is because you haven't used it yet. The whole world has gone completely nuts over qualifications. You have lots of opportunities that others don't, like becoming a certified English language teacher. If you do the CELT course without a degree, you aren't even qualified to teach in Ireland, and it's the same bloody course. Edit: There are people who are retiring from highly skilled jobs who cant get other jobs due to under qualification. You need to stop feeling sorry for yourself, others have it harder than you do.

Kernel32

So if I understand you correctly you have a BA in Computer Science. You are educated in and one would thing have an interest in a field that allows you to build a portfolio of work to show that just about no other career path allows.

An architecture can't design and build something without working somewhere, an engineer can't design and build something without a job or funding, a builder can't build a house without a job or funding. On the other hand a software engineer can design, build, deploy and market a product or service and use it as a way to get a job for no more than a few hundred euro. Just about every piece of needed information is freely available online in the form of white papers and tutorials. You are allowed to do this without a professional license, unlike many other professions. So what is the problem exactly?

petergfiffin

Dave! wrote: »

Hey folks,

Wondering if I could get some thoughts on this

I've recently graduated from college with a BA in Computer Science and History.

...
Realistically all I'd be suited for is general office/admin work, and some entry-level/graduate type I.T. roles.

Any thoughts?

Ok....not meaning to sound harsh here but what I'm reading here is you have recently graduated from college but you're saying the only jobs you're qualified for are entry-level graduate type jobs...what job did you expect to get?

Building a career in IT is exactly the same as in any other career....you start at the bottom, you do a few/lot of crappy jobs and then over time through experience (and luck) you hopefully build a decent career but it takes time. Having a 2.2 vs a 1.1 doesn't matter to a lot of employers (apart from big companies) what matters is that you can demonstrate a willingness to get stuck in and learn the trade, some of the most talented engineers I met barely made it through college, what matters most to employers is you have the right mindset. You say you have "wishy washy" skills of communication, essay writing, teamwork, etc. but believe me if you can demonstrate you really have them (not just that you studied them) then they're like gold-dust in the real world but you can't just say you have them, you need to find a way to demonstrate them.

My feeling is you're being overly hard on yourself and you need to get out there and knock on a few doors, yes you'll get some knock backs but if you give up now then your degree was for nothing

LostinBlanch

BA in computer science and history? That sounds a bit of a strange mixture to me as I thought computer science would be an M Sc unless you've done your degree through the Open University.

But that's by the by. You've got an honours degree.

A BA is more valuable in that it teaches you how to think and solve problems. it's a generalist kind of thing, more about applying a process of thinking to a situation rather than having the same response to everything.

Add computer science to that, and that's another string to your bow.

As for masters and the like have you looked at Technical Communications in UL? It's a good mix of your skills so far, and another step on the career ladder.

This is not intended to be rude, but what exactly did you do in college? I'm not familiar with the content of Computer Science, but surely you learned practical skills? Or at least messed around on the computer outside of class? Why did you pick it in the first place? You mentioned web design but you really don't need any background in CS to do that, I've been doing it since I was 13 (taught myself HTML and then other stuff as it came out). Not that you wouldn't get a job in web design, but I think you'd be expected to produce something pretty fancy, as just about anyone can create something half decent these days. Perhaps you're being modest about your skills in this area? What did you see yourself doing when you chose the course, and during your time in college? I think even with an Arts degree, you do need some sort of 'skill'. I did languages so it was a lot of literature and history and linguistics, but I came out speaking two languages fluently, which is my main skill. I think it would be good if you can say you studied a variety of things, but can do X, Y and Z.

Bob_Harris

I'm out of college since summer with my first class honors in computer sciences, and I can't even get a rejection letter.

Maybe you could look into Microsft and Cisco certified courses. You can do them online and they'll look good on your CV.

I too don't feel very qualified for any one area as my course was spread out over a lot of different areas of IT.

An online portfolio might be an idea, put up samples of your work, and if you have no samples, use your spare time to make some.

Colonel_McCoy

since you did History Hdip in Education?

regarding I.T. ......what about doing some professional exams e.g. Cisco, Microsoft, Oracle, Vmware etc etc....it will make your C.V. stand out from other graduates