Graduate in May (A.S. deg.), How early is too early to apply

retiredauxmmcss · Feb 8, 2018

Hello Shop owners, Businessmen and Professionals;

I have been following PM for some time now and I am still fascinated with what this industry does and can do (everything I touched professionally had been by the hand of a skilled machinist). To give a brief background on myself I retired from the submarine service as a Chief over two years ago and have been going to school initially to obtain my BSME and eventually my A.S. in Machine Technologies. I will graduate this May with the degree and twenty years of service but I also understand I will be a 'rook' wherever I gain employment.

In my endeavors over the last several months I have placed my resume on several sites such as Indeed, MonsterJobs, USAJobs, Ziprecruiter and Clearancejobs. In addition, I do have a LinkedIn profile that is currently up to date and fairly detailed. While I check the job sites daily, I notice a plethora of jobs covering a myriad of skill levels. Many of the job descriptions are very interesting and ultimately I would love nothing more than to say 'sure, I can do that' but reality kicks in and I understand that this skill is a years-in-practice and learning pathway. I also understand that getting into industry or getting the 'dream job' happens by means of luck, timing, perseverance and at the right place, at the right time.

With that being said, my questions to you are; how early is too early to apply for a job if I won't be done with my degree until the end of May? Is there a means of communicating my interest in say, your company aside from just blindly sending my resume out with a link to my professional profile or do I attempt to contact the lead manager at your company?

Thank you for your time,

Ret. A-Ganger

adamm · Feb 8, 2018

You mention "dream job". If there is a particular job you're looking for, I think posting on job boards is pretty much a waste of time. A good place to start, is to figure out what that dream job is that you want. Then figure out what companies do that.

Once you have your list of target companies, then you can get to work on those specific companies. What does the company need? What will you bring to the company? The person who will be most interested in hiring you is the direct manager. He or she will have work that needs to be done, and needs a reliable person to make it happen, and has a vested interest in finding that person. That is your target. Nobody else in the organization cares as much as that manager, not HR, not upper management. Figure out who they are, and if you know people who know them (aka networking). Then set to work on showing them how you will make life easier for them. Once they want you, they can clear the way through HR, and any other obstacles that the company may have to getting hired.

That may take a bit of time, so you certainly aren't too early.

Glug · Feb 8, 2018

It is never too soon to Intern or work part time in a field that interests you, or a company that interests you. Ideally, you would have found just a bit of time to do that sooner.

One big advantage of "Interning" is that you can get experience at multiple businesses without the stigma of being a "job hopper".

Just being around the business a few hours a week will give you invaluable perspective on how different businesses are run, how product is made, how people are treated, quality management, things gone right vs. wrong, etc.

And maybe most important, it will give you more great contacts for the future.

rklopp · Feb 8, 2018

To give you some perspective, we are at least informally interviewing candidates for grad-level engineering jobs who won't graduate until the fall of 2019. If candidates are good, we want to talk to them early, before others get to them. The same should apply to jobs needing AS candidates. It is competitive out there.

Tonytn36 · Feb 8, 2018

We are doing job fairs at the colleges and gathering resumes now for folks that graduate in May.....

Monarchist · Feb 8, 2018

retiredauxmmcss said:
Hello Shop owners, Businessmen and Professionals;

I have been following PM for some time now and I am still fascinated with what this industry does and can do (everything I touched professionally had been by the hand of a skilled machinist). To give a brief background on myself I retired from the submarine service as a Chief over two years ago and have been going to school initially to obtain my BSME and eventually my A.S. in Machine Technologies. I will graduate this May with the degree and twenty years of service but I also understand I will be a 'rook' wherever I gain employment.

In my endeavors over the last several months I have placed my resume on several sites such as Indeed, MonsterJobs, USAJobs, Ziprecruiter and Clearancejobs. In addition, I do have a LinkedIn profile that is currently up to date and fairly detailed. While I check the job sites daily, I notice a plethora of jobs covering a myriad of skill levels. Many of the job descriptions are very interesting and ultimately I would love nothing more than to say 'sure, I can do that' but reality kicks in and I understand that this skill is a years-in-practice and learning pathway. I also understand that getting into industry or getting the 'dream job' happens by means of luck, timing, perseverance and at the right place, at the right time.

With that being said, my questions to you are; how early is too early to apply for a job if I won't be done with my degree until the end of May? Is there a means of communicating my interest in say, your company aside from just blindly sending my resume out with a link to my professional profile or do I attempt to contact the lead manager at your company?

Thank you for your time,

Ret. A-Ganger

Decades out of date meself, but A-gang is a good all-around fit to an industrial environment, and anyone who retired as Chief and was not an alky (not news to you..) was once classed as good material. Most especially if they were still in "learning" mode, as with extending education and doing well AT that.

Among other things, Chiefs were pretty good at getting along in tight and stressful workplaces, spotting and stepping up to challenges quickly, and sorting stuff out before it became a problem. Those are universal positives, nothing to do with machining, per se, but often the more valuable, net-net proven attributes.

Dunno if that is still the case, hiring-wise. "Overqualified" EG past 30-35 years of age may have replaced it. Still if it is not, it should be.

Look for an outfit with Veterans in key slots, especially the Executive suite, seek eyeball-to-eyeball networking, and larger doors might open wider. Mine once did.[1]

[1] Seven of us in a boardroom, CEO and VP's on down to Director-of level, only one not a combat vet, one branch or another of US or UK service was the youngest. VP Sales, not HR. And female. We were all good with that. But it was a very long time ago.

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Graduate in May (A.S. deg.), How early is too early to apply

retiredauxmmcss

Plastic

adamm

Cast Iron

Glug

Hot Rolled

rklopp

Diamond

Tonytn36

Diamond

Monarchist

Diamond

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