What value does "experience" have?

Unemployable

Hi,

My CV:
Msc software design and development
18 months unemployed
4 months of internship

Have been offered a job, would prefer to do a course for this year but afraid I am turning down something essential for my CV by not getting 12 months employment experience onto it before I do the course.

My uninformed opinion is that the internship would be enough to reenter the job market after college had I not had my unemployed stint and a year of employment would give me a huge advantage. I am worried however that 4 months of internship and 12 months of employment wont have any significant difference in their effect and I should just do what I feel like doing.

In your informed opinion how bad a decision would it be turn down the opportunity for experience?

I should also mention that I dont wish to stay in the particular area that my internship is in.

Thanks

TrueDub

Did we not discuss this to death not that long ago?

Woofstuff

Unemployable wrote: »

Hi,

My CV:
Msc software design and development
18 months unemployed
4 months of internship

Have been offered a job, would prefer to do a course for this year but afraid I am turning down something essential for my CV by not getting 12 months employment experience onto it before I do the course.

My uninformed opinion is that the internship would be enough to reenter the job market after college had I not had my unemployed stint and a year of employment would give me a huge advantage. I am worried however that 4 months of internship and 12 months of employment wont have any significant difference in their effect and I should just do what I feel like doing.

In your informed opinion how bad a decision would it be turn down the opportunity for experience?

I should also mention that I dont wish to stay in the particular area that my internship is in.

Thanks

Your post is missing crucial details.

You talk about being offered a Job, and you talk about an internship that was not in an area that you wish to stay in.

What are is the Job you have offered in? Is the job in the same area as the internship was?

What course have you been offered?

onemorechance

Experience beats all! You have an MSc, so unless you want to be a career student, take the job. You can learn anything extra you need from a book or YouTube at your leisure; you should mention in an interview that you were doing that during your 18 months of unemployment; interviewers love it when you are keeping up with the latest trends in IT.

Dave!

As above. Time to enter the workforce. Any other courses at this point are likely to add very little to your CV (in the short-term at least) compared with work experience.

fergalr

Dave! wrote: »

As above. Time to enter the workforce. Any other courses at this point are likely to add very little to your CV (in the short-term at least) compared with work experience.

OP is not trying to optimise for maximum career benefit. Rather OP is trying to learn about the balance between [doing interesting course] and [not hurting career too much].

Or at least thats my understanding, from the previous thread: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=85279408

(I'm not sure how much benefit will come from a second thread, but thats not my business.)

Feathers

onemorechance wrote: »

Experience beats all! You have an MSc, so unless you want to be a career student, take the job. You can learn anything extra you need from a book or YouTube at your leisure; you should mention in an interview that you were doing that during your 18 months of unemployment; interviewers love it when you are keeping up with the latest trends in IT.

I'd be careful with that unless you actually were doing something during those 18 months! Development is a field where it should be easy to show progress.

An interviewer might try to throw you a bone & start asking about what projects you've been doing - you can end up looking worse rather than better if you can't give convincing answers.

ChRoMe

Feathers wrote: »

I'd be careful with that unless you actually were doing something during those 18 months! Development is a field where it should be easy to show progress.

An interviewer might try to throw you a bone & start asking about what projects you've been doing - you can end up looking worse rather than better if you can't give convincing answers.

If you sat down in an interview with me, I wouldnt really be bothered that you had been unemployed for 18 months.

However if you had no personal projects to show during that period, that would be a massive red flag against you.

stevenmu

In terms of career, a year of on the job experience will be worth far more to you than another doing another course, unless the course is something that will enable you to get into a particularly lucrative niche. Doing another course probably won't make you any more employable than you are right now, and you probably won't command a higher starting salary.

Given a choice between two candidates, one with an Msc and a year of experience, and one with an Msc and whatever other course you are thinking of, most employers would hire the person with experience. And if both candidates were hired, the one with the year of experience would probably start on a higher salary.

The exception to this would be if the course took you into some particular niche area like security/forensics or stock trading systems etc..

SalteeDog

I agree with previous posters. For someone with so little work experience a year of actual work at anything will be worth more than yet another course.

Tar.Aldarion

Thing is it may be hard for you to find a job when you actually need it after 1 more year of study, why not get the harder to get thing (experience) first?

onemorechance

Feathers wrote: »

I'd be careful with that unless you actually were doing something during those 18 months! Development is a field where it should be easy to show progress.

An interviewer might try to throw you a bone & start asking about what projects you've been doing - you can end up looking worse rather than better if you can't give convincing answers.

True. Unless the OP was otherwise occupied, I'd expect the OP must have been doing something for those 18 months since they seem to like study.

Lies in an interview are not usually a good idea! :pac:

Unemployable

Sorry if its a repetition of my previous thread, honestly I thought people would have forgotten it and I think the question is slightly but significantly different.

The course I want to do is a particular niche Im interested in. I very much want to go back to college because when I was there for some reason I was more interested in drink and fifa 11 than studying and its been nagging at me constantly since that I can do better.

The problem with the job is that even though its in IT its not in an area I want to work in long term and I dont enjoy it and its very close to my family home so for me it means a third year of my twenties at my rural home which I think would do some mild damage to my mental health.

So I want to do the course and when I originally took the internship I thought Id be getting a few months of experience on my CV which would make my CV more attractive (and kinda help with the 18 month hole) when applying after I went back to college for a year but I now feel I have to take the job because its on offer and the few months of internship is basically worth very little and the year of work is vital. Am I right?

Graham

Unemployable wrote: »

now feel I have to take the job because its on offer and the few months of internship is basically worth very little and the year of work is vital. Am I right?

OP you appear to be asking the same question in the hope of getting a different answer:

onemorechance wrote: »

Experience beats all! You have an MSc, so unless you want to be a career student, take the job.

Dave! wrote: »

As above. Time to enter the workforce. .

stevenmu wrote: »

In terms of career, a year of on the job experience will be worth far more to you than another doing another course,

SalteeDog wrote: »

I agree with previous posters. For someone with so little work experience a year of actual work at anything will be worth more than yet another course.

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

Thing is it may be hard for you to find a job when you actually need it after 1 more year of study, why not get the harder to get thing (experience) first?

If you really want to go and do the course, go and do it. The only thing worse than a bad decision is no decision at all.

Best of luck with it.