Being unemployed for over a year now in my field since graduation, why hasn't God provided yet?

[Rafael502]

Hello.

Last year, I graduated as engineer from a good University with a major gpa of 3.16. Nothing too special. I could have done much better in the beginning but due to ignorance and laziness I didn’t greatly improve until my final 2 years.

I’ve been praying to God almost everyday if he could please help me get my engineering career started by landing my first engineering job. I have done 600+ applications, with only 6 or so in-person interviews, but no job yet.

I’ve been working at a retail store in the meantime, but low pay, bad managers, and not gaining engineering work experience have made me very depressed as of late. It’s even worse since my mother and brothers have been really struggling economically for the past few years.

I truly love Jesus and I believe I am a very good and honest person. The bible says a lot about believing in our Lord, and that he will provide. Not having an engineering job since last year has had me doubt my hope multiple times. My question is: Am I doing something wrong? Am I not praying or believing enough? Am I not destined to be an engineer, despite all my hard work. struggles, and experience from college?

Any an all advice/criticisms are welcome, and thank you for your time in reading this.

 

[Monte_RCMS]

Prayers for your situation.

Consider applying at temp agencies. One of them found me an excellent job that I held for 11 years.

Consider applying to the military. Spent four years getting outstanding experience.

 

[pianistclare]

I’ts been my experience that those who graduate in a very specific field meed to be looking fro a job doing ANYTHING while you wait fro your dream job. Having experience, a good track record, and good references is always helpful, even if the skillset doesn’t exactly apply to what you are doing. This also keeps you from descending into depression and a feeling of failure. You’ve got a great degree in a good field. Get a job somewhere. Anywhere. Keep bust and keep looking, making contacts everywhere you can.
I’ll say a prayer for you.

 

[Jerome1974]

No, you’re not doing anything wrong. I don’t know about your profession, but I assume that your first job out of college is hard in any field. Not to scare you, but it took me two years to get my first regular, full time, contract job in my profession. Another CA member advised temp agencies; I think that’s a good idea. It would probably help you more than retail would, but I can’t speak to that end. I do know that times of suffering do bring us closer to God and that it’s easier to see him when we clearly need him instead of when things are going well for us.
I’m in the middle of a novena to St. Joseph. Day 7 is about praying for his intercession as the patron saint of workers. I’ll remember you when I pray in a few minutes. God bless you and your endeavor. ewtn.com/devotionals/novena/joseph.htm

 

[macstar]

Ask if you could do an internship at a firm to get some experience and your foot in the door. Ask old professors and classmates to recommend you for jobs. Also, look for professional engineering societies (and others) and start attending meetings to network.

 

[Crusaderbear]

Praying for you. Havecyou considered the military?

 

[BoomBoomMancini]

I truly love Jesus and I believe I am a very good and honest person. The bible says a lot about believing in our Lord, and that he will provide. Not having an engineering job since last year has had me doubt my hope multiple times. My question is: Am I doing something wrong? Am I not praying or believing enough? Am I not destined to be an engineer, despite all my hard work. struggles, and experience from college?

Any an all advice/criticisms are welcome, and thank you for your time in reading this.

God doesn’t bestow favors for doing a certain of good works or praying. It’s not like a carnival game where if you get the ball in the basket enough times, you get the prize. Your prayer should be focused on growing closer to God. There’s nothing wrong with asking for His help, but the point is that God knows a lot more than you do, and He’s not a soda machine where if you put in a dollar you have a right to expect a soda to come out.

A few questions:

1. Have you considered going back to your school’s career service office and asking them for help? Maybe they can make some calls, or can give you information on programs you were unaware of?
2. Have you had someone professional look over your resume, cover letter, and practice your interview skills? Maybe there is room for improvement there.
3. Are you looking in an area that has a lot of engineering jobs? Are you willing to move?

Good luck.

 

[pianistclare]

God doesn’t bestow favors for doing a certain of good works or praying. It’s not like a carnival game where if you get the ball in the basket enough times, you get the prize. Your prayer should be focused on growing closer to God. There’s nothing wrong with asking for His help, but the point is that God knows a lot more than you do, and He’s not a soda machine where if you put in a dollar you have a right to expect a soda to come out.

A few questions:

1. Have you considered going back to your school’s career service office and asking them for help? Maybe they can make some calls, or can give you information on programs you were unaware of?
2. Have you had someone professional look over your resume, cover letter, and practice your interview skills? Maybe there is room for improvement there.
3. Are you looking in an area that has a lot of engineering jobs? Are you willing to move?

Good luck.

Right. A great resume is a plus. I’d get it professionally reviewed. The reality is, that the people reading resumes are the people at the front desk. If your resume doesn’t hit exactly the 5 points that they have on their search list, it gets filed in the round filing cabinet. It’s important to get a good solid resume, and have the ability to tweak it for specific applications.
Network network network.
Belonging to those professional organizations is also a great idea.

 

[ChurchSoldier]

“Pray as though everything depends on God, work as though everything depends on you”. Read about Joseph in Genesis 37-50.

You know, getting your foot in the door of a firm which has positions of the type you want is a technique many have used. As has been suggested, getting a position with a temp firm is a great way to gain exposure and make contacts.

Find every firm in your area which hires people with a degree like yours and go talk to the person who hires. Even if the job is tangentially related to your education, you can use it to move into better positions.

Finally, and this took me years to learn, is that your boss is only trying to get their job done.The degree to which you relieve stress or headaches from your bosses life, the faster good opportunities will move your way. Even bad bosses are just trying to get their needs met which generally means doing their job as their boss wants them to do in a way their boss wants it done.

Make yourself an asset to your boss and you will find your value in the marketplace increases exponentially.

Good luck!

 

[Irishmom2]

I am wondering if you live in an area that is just not rich in engineering jobs.

I know someone that is a veteran, got out, got his engineering job and is unable to find a job also. They were told recently that it is just not a good area to find that type of work. Luckily, a move is coming to an area where the outlook is better.

600 applications is a lot. Any feedback from anyone?

 

[pianistclare]

600 applications with the same resume, I wonder?

Thar’s like throwing a ring at various sized pegs. One has to customize their resume to pertinent qualities, needs, experience.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I was an engineer for over a decade back in the day, though I have since moved on to a different profession. My husband is still an engineer.

Your getting a job has nothing to do with “not praying enough”. Prayer isn’t like a slot machine where if you put in enough quarters you finally hit the winner. When God closes doors He opens a window and you need to find where that window is. So let’s assume God is doing all he can and now it is up to you and your efforts to do the rest.

Engineering hiring is cyclical. It may be that the cycle is down right now. Jobs also tend to be in certain areas as irishmom2 pointed out.

Sending out resumes for an entry position in engineering is 90 percent of the time not going to work. Been there done that and got nothing for it.

You need to go out in person to job fairs and any event where you might network as an engineering grad in your field and talk to people and make contacts. This is how my friend’s son who is an engineer got his entry job a couple years ago. Also, if you did any sort of internship or summer engineering employment during school, you need to go back and speak with those contacts. If the people you speak to don’t have an opening of their own to hire you, then ask if they can recommend someone else for you to speak to. Ask if you could have lunch with them to get their advice on entering the engineering profession. If you manage to connect with an engineer or manager who takes an interest in you then you will be much more likely to get interviews and offers than if you are just some faceless person sending out resumes.

I also agree with the advice to go back to your college career services office and see if they can help, to have your resume reviewed and critiqued (preferably by someone in the engineering profession you’re trying to enter), to practice your interview skills, and to be open to moving wherever in the country the jobs might be for your field. Overall, the more you actually get out and talk to people rather than just sending them stuff, the faster things will happen for you. Good luck and don’t give up.

 

[Brassring]

Hello.

Last year, I graduated as engineer from a good University with a major gpa of 3.16. Nothing too special. I could have done much better in the beginning but due to ignorance and laziness I didn’t greatly improve until my final 2 years.

I’ve been praying to God almost everyday if he could please help me get my engineering career started by landing my first engineering job. I have done 600+ applications, with only 6 or so in-person interviews, but no job yet.

I’ve been working at a retail store in the meantime, but low pay, bad managers, and not gaining engineering work experience have made me very depressed as of late. It’s even worse since my mother and brothers have been really struggling economically for the past few years.

I truly love Jesus and I believe I am a very good and honest person. The bible says a lot about believing in our Lord, and that he will provide. Not having an engineering job since last year has had me doubt my hope multiple times. My question is: Am I doing something wrong? Am I not praying or believing enough? Am I not destined to be an engineer, despite all my hard work. struggles, and experience from college?

Any an all advice/criticisms are welcome, and thank you for your time in reading this.

You’re still with us. You haven’t starved. You haven’t died of exposure. God has provided.

God promised to provide what we need to do his work. He never promised to make us comfortable or provide us with prestige. God is not a lifestyle coach.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

You’re still with us. You haven’t starved. You haven’t died of exposure. God has provided.

God promised to provide what we need to do his work. He never promised to make us comfortable or provide us with prestige. God is not a lifestyle coach.

I’d add on to that, you graduated from a good University in the major field of your choice with a 3.16 GPA which is not bad considering that engineering is a very difficult field of study.

The number of people I know who flunked out of good engineering schools are absolutely legion. I would imagine there are also huge numbers of people who for one reason or another, whether it’s poor grades, lack of money, or limitations on college enrollment in the country where they live, do not even get a chance to attend a a good engineering college, or even a mediocre engineering college, or any college at all; or perhaps they started and were forced to drop out before they realized their dream of graduation.

Be sure to count your blessings because you are definitely already blessed even if you’re not seeing that right now.

 

[Rafael502]

I truly appreciate everyone’s responses.

To answer some questions:

1. I’ve have indeed gone and contact my career center for resume tips, critiques, and help.
2. I have very few contacts due to my fault of not being much involved in extra-curricular organizations during school.
3. I have an engineering advisor who has also critique’d my resume, and has given me a list of places to apply.
4. I live in the SoCal area, and have been applying here and nationwide, mostly in Texas and Florida. I am more than willing to move out, although my mother hates the idea of it.
5. I have also seriously considered being an officer for the US Military, though I’d rather start working as an engineer first before deciding to join. Also again my mother hates that idea too.
6. I’ve attended the career fairs my school has had over the past year.
7. Also, where I have interviewed, most places never bothered to give me an answer unless I contacted them, to which they said they’ll “keep me under consideration for future opportunities” All interviews have been in the SoCal area only. None out-of-state.

What exactly is a temp agency? Never heard of it, so I’ll be sure to look into it. As a side note, a few of my dear colleagues have not been hired as engineers yet either. We graduated from UC Riverside, if that’s of any help.

Yes, despite my difficult upbringing, I’ve been blessed with a strong and faithful mother who helped me and my younger brothers get through our struggles. I’m always in looking to grow my faith and strength in Jesus, which is why I also came here.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Temping is when you go work for a temp agency that provides temporary staff to companies who have a sudden need for a bunch of people with a certain skill to help on some projects, but they do not want to hire directly, usually because the need may be a temporary need or they don’t have the budget to hire new people in. When the project ends and the need goes away, they don’t have to lay people off - the people just go back to the temp agency and get reassigned to the next client with a need.

There are a few temp agencies for engineers. I don’t know anything about them as the companies I worked for didn’t really hire temp engineers, but as the other person said, temping is a way to get your foot in the door of a company and develop some skills. At best, you make an impression on someone and get a permanent offer. At worst, you’re actually doing some work in your profession instead of in retail or service industry, and it’s a resume builder, and it pays decently.

 

[oldgraymare2]

Hi Rafael,

If you haven’t tried this already, I would also look at your local Job Center as a resource for you.

They often have different job networking groups that meet there, and also many different job resources, too.

Some of them also have someone there who can help you with your resume and cover letter, too.

I would also recommend looking to see if you have any professional group/s who meet in your area in relation to your field. Most larger communities seem to have them and they meet once a month or so to network.

God does provide for us, but we have to be patient and work alongside Him, too.

As others have mentioned, He doesn’t work like an ATM machine or a slot machine, where we put something in, and then we automatically expect to get something out, immediately.

He wants our greater good for us, and sometimes that takes some time, too.

 

[wiggbuggie]

no you didn’t do anything wrong. Have patience and keep trying and try to get an internship for experience, experience is key for a lot of jobs. Also have a backup plan college is a gamble I never got a job in what I certified in or studied and I’m debating if I should go back to school or not. Be thankful for what you do have a job its something

 

[signit]

Hello.

Last year, I graduated as engineer from a good University with a major gpa of 3.16. Nothing too special. I could have done much better in the beginning but due to ignorance and laziness I didn’t greatly improve until my final 2 years.

I’ve been praying to God almost everyday if he could please help me get my engineering career started by landing my first engineering job. I have done 600+ applications, with only 6 or so in-person interviews, but no job yet.

I’ve been working at a retail store in the meantime, but low pay, bad managers, and not gaining engineering work experience have made me very depressed as of late. It’s even worse since my mother and brothers have been really struggling economically for the past few years.

I can so relate to this. This was my situation at one time, except that I didn’t even have the retail job to help me with money coming in.

I truly love Jesus and I believe I am a very good and honest person. The bible says a lot about believing in our Lord, and that he will provide. Not having an engineering job since last year has had me doubt my hope multiple times. My question is: Am I doing something wrong? Am I not praying or believing enough? Am I not destined to be an engineer, despite all my hard work. struggles, and experience from college?

I can relate to that, too.

Here are some suggestions:

You need to go out in person to job fairs and any event where you might network as an engineering grad in your field and talk to people and make contacts. This is how my friend’s son who is an engineer got his entry job a couple years ago. Also, if you did any sort of internship or summer engineering employment during school, you need to go back and speak with those contacts. If the people you speak to don’t have an opening of their own to hire you, then ask if they can recommend someone else for you to speak to. Ask if you could have lunch with them to get their advice on entering the engineering profession. If you manage to connect with an engineer or manager who takes an interest in you then you will be much more likely to get interviews and offers than if you are just some faceless person sending out resumes.

This is super-important.

The key word is networking. It can not be overstated.

Use whatever contacts you have, including friends and family members. Even if they’re not engineers they might know someone who can help you.

1. I have also seriously considered being an officer for the US Military, though I’d rather start working as an engineer first before deciding to join. Also again my mother hates that idea too.

I would definitely not overlook the military, even if it’s “part time” (the National Guard or Reserves).

Most civilian employers greatly respect military experience, even if it’s not directly related to your field. One person I knew with military experience had employers having a bidding war for his services.

Good luck.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

If you’re interested in any sort of defense industry work, military experience is a good way to go for that too. Most of their customers are military so they are always interested in people who are ex-military and will present well in front of the customer.