Kipworld

Last Thursday, I went to the SWE Industry Day at the Orrington. I went mainly as a fishing expedition to see what is out there and not out of any wild desire to work for one of the companies there. Plus, I had already gotten the suit out to wear to the opera so I figured I might as well use it.

The smell of desperation was in the air. I saw quite a few people who had graduated when I did and I nodded to these kindred souls. “You’re not alone!” This made everyone feel better about being graduated and unemployed, or unhappily employed at the first place that gave them an offer.

I walked to a few of the booths on the top floor. I talked to Northrup Grumman and got a calculator keychain. I was debating going to all the booths for freebies, but they’re just not as good as they were 3 years ago (aka, “good years”).

I talked to companies based on a) cool booths, b) friends of mine who were working the booths or c) short lines. Here’s the standard interaction I got when I introduced myself and told them I had already graduated.

“So, you’d be looking for a fulltime position. Well, we’re not really hiring right now.”

“So, are you in a hiring freeze?” I’d ask.

“No, no. We’re just not hiring anyone. But we are collecting resumes for when we do start hiring. Which could be in January. Or March. Sometime. Hopefully March.”

But that wasn’t the most depressing part. That came when I saw PhD students that I knew, guys who had taught me or TA’ed classes I was in, dressed up in the monkey suit like me and handing out resumes alongside their former students.

I just gave the guy who taught me parallel computing a pitying look. The perpetual CS TA was also there, and since I liked him a lot, I went over to the line where he was.

“Hey, how’s it going?” I said.

“Oh, hello. Are you looking for a job at Honeywell?”

I looked up and saw that I was indeed in the line for Honeywell.

“Not really, I’m just here to see what the market’s like. They should be lining up to give you a job, though. Are you looking for AI work?”

“I am looking for… whatever.”

He went on to tell me that a PhD was foolish to get (in computer science at least). He told me the way to do it was to apply for PhD, and drop out after 2 years. “They give you a master’s as a consolation prize, but you haven’t had to pay for school! It’s great.”

That in itself should have been sad to hear, but it was worse when I told him about my job. He got kind of excited and then asked for some more information. So, here I am, trying to find something better than my irregular, sketchy job and people were jealous of it. My friends in the booths, working for consulting firms and aerospace, also expressed envy over my hours, work attire, and lack of annoying management. I told them I had no health insurance through the company, no real security and I never get paid ontime but I guess the flexibility is worth a lot.

I left after about an hour. I was sick of selling myself half heartedly to people who didn’t care (except for the CIA. They liked me.). I did realize that opportunities were out there if I were willing to relocate, but I’m not.

Actually, I’m having to start thinking of next year. Even more friends are graduating, and I need to find people to live with. It’d be nice to stay in this apartment since it’s already fixed up and more importantly, I wouldn’t have to move. Mmmm, not moving.

Anyway, back to being annoyed with the job fair. I feel like the promise of higher education, especially post grad, has been broken. I could have worked for this company doing support work, but that was the sort of stuff I did in high school! What was the point of going to school to learn elegant programming design when companies just want experience? We comp sci majors made fun of DeVry all the time, sometimes at the behest of our prof. But those people are probably competing for the same jobs we are.

I applied for this webmaster job at Northwestern and I didn’t even get an interview. I realize that they were looking for someone with a lot more experience but if they can’t trust their own program to turn out graduates ready to work, then who can they trust?

Anyway, this slacker year has given me a bit more perspective on what’s really important besides money (since it hasn’t given me that much money). I did pick up another part time job doing some development work, so that’s pretty spiffy. but really, I’m happy to sit around teaching, reading and writing a bit. Coaching improv.

Am I disillusioned with industry? Not really. Perhaps Chicago area industry.

Would I take a job, offered tomorrow? Probably. But I’m not in the desperate state of mind that I was in in August, so I’d actually negotiate for stuff.

The promise of a computer degree (I have two!) leading to 50K salaries out of college is no more. I know that I don’t want to join a company and work for them for the rest of my life, slowly eking my way up the corporate ladder.

I talk with my old senior rescon buddies (one was in town this weekend, so we all hung out on Friday) about all of us making some kickass computer game and then getting bought by Microsoft. It’s a nice thought. Something to warm my brain in this cold cold economy.