r/ChemicalEngineering • u/argrillo529 • Oct 14 '24

Job Search Graduated 6 months ago and still nothing

I graduated with my BS in May and have been looking since last November, and so far I’ve gotten 4 interviews and tons of rejections. I’m ideally looking for anything R&D in cosmetics, personal care, or food industries, and my previous internship experience was assisting a local brewmaster with brewing, measurements, formula keeping, so it’s not as though the skills aren’t transferrable. Also, I applied to a job last November at a large North American consumer products company and didn’t get an interview. Last week, I decided to check their website again for anything else that happened to open up, and I see the same job (title and description identical) saying it was posted 2 weeks ago, and when I go to apply, the system says I cannot because I “have already applied to this job” from when I did in November.

Just saying I’m a little frustrated at: 1) colleges making it seem like a guarantee that you’ll have a job lined up immediately after graduation 2) companies seeming like they’re accepting applications but not seeming to fill them and making you waste time tweaking a resumé just for an AI to read it before a human does

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u/chemengly Oct 17 '24
  1. Consider expanding net for types of jobs you're willing to do.
  2. Consider some professional continuing education courses - Lean Six Sigma Villanova courses can help you stand out.
  3. Shamelessly reach out to recruiters on LinkedIn and ask for help/advice on how to be more appealing.
  4. Research the company you're applying too and tailor fit your resume for the specific company. Try to think of keywords that matter to them and be sure to use those keywords in your resume. My resume will look different if I'm applying to a process improvement engineer role versus a data analyst engineer role. Same content but different framing.

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u/chemengly Oct 17 '24

Also some background on me, I did a single internship at an Environmental Firm. Nearing graduation I struggled to find a job, I found a recruiter on linkedin and asked for advice and he was very helpful! I then managed to get my foot in the door at a chemical plant for being willing to start out as a Compliance Engineer and then worked my way into a process engineer role. Since then I've managed to get into different roles I've wanted to get into by finding mentors (in or out of company) and finding out continuing education courses that were relevant/helped me stand apart.