Computer Science Graduate looking for work

[JobSearch2024]

DS has recently graduated with a 2:1 in Artificial Intelligence. He has been sending off loads of job applications and getting rejections or no response at all. He is getting somewhat despondent. He is going to book an appointment with the career advice service at the university he has recently left. However, there is currently a long wait for an appointment.
Does anyone have any good ideas about where would be a good place for DS to look for jobs? He is currently searching the employment agencies online and applying for lots of different jobs. I just wondered if there might be any tips he hasn't thought of.
Thanks for any pointers.

Once connected, even messaging them is fine, the DS&AI industry like proactivity. He may not get a lot of responses but it only takes one person to notice.

Good luck!

Employment agencies are often a con - they advertise non existent jobs to get hold of CVs, then sell on information about CVs. He may very well be applying for jobs that don't even exist.

he can contact places he has applied for and got turned down, and ask for feedback

Trade magazines? They might advertise jobs. Sending CVs cold? That sometimes works. Contacting HR of companies he is interested in working for and asking where they advertise?

But he is right to contact his own careers advisor, they can often help

@pollypocketss Thank you so much! Would never have thought of doing this without your suggestion.

https://recruitmentservices.applicationtrack.com/vx/lang-en-GB/mobile-0/appcentre-1/brand-5/xf-aa1620368de3/candidate/so/pm/1/pl/4/opp/3271-Summer-Intelligence-Internship-GCHQ-MI5-MI6-Registration-of-Interest-Ref-3271/en-GB

Something like this could be a good work experience to put on the CV. I knew people who went into MI5 with the same degree

has anyone suggested trying Linked In? But cautiously - its getting a bit of a reputation as a hotbed of wild liars...

Try civil service Jobs. They did have entry level IT roles there last time I looked. May be a good place to get some experience.

My main contribution is probably only obliquely useful. I collect job packs for computer science and related roles (adverts, person specifications and job descriptions) and 'trap' them so that people can browse them at their leisure.

The useful aspect of it is that I've got about 70-80 of them in different sectors so while the jobs themselves are closed the companies may be worth investigating to see what else they're offering https://techdevjobs.wordpress.com/jobs-organised-by-sector-theme/

Has he looked at roles within his own university, for example helping as a teaching assistant for the first year undergraduate modules?

The Find A Job website from DWP (https://findajob.dwp.gov.uk/search) can be filtered by location and keyword too.

Prospects also has a page called What can I do with a computer science degree, which might open up his search options a bit https://www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/what-can-i-do-with-my-degree/computer-science

Also can he use Google Maps to draw a local imaginary circle and zoom in to see some companies he might not be aware of https://www.google.co.uk/maps. I'd assume that almost all of them will use computers in some way and possibly he could be useful to them, though it might be more at the web design or databases end of things rather than his main interest.

I'd also certainly echo others' suggestions to get any job.

Speaking of Google is he using Google Alerts https://www.google.co.uk/alerts to bring new job adverts directly to him? He'll need a Gmail account for this and can put in some keywords and then refine the search (e.g. computing jobs would result in being swamped). If he's got Gmail then I'd also recommend creating a Google Doc (I mean, any document would do) then bunging in all the job vacancies pages he comes across, then he can cycle through them every few days. He might be able to deploy pages' RSS feeds if they have them.

The Global Disability Innovation Hub doesn't have any paid roles at the moment but are always on the lookout for people with lived experience to join their panels, to give input on improving design of assistive tech / ICT for disabled people. Might be an interesting thing plus networking opportunity if he learns that he has ADHD https://www.disabilityinnovation.com/who-we-are/work-with-us

Raspberry Pi are doing some interesting work in supporting schoolteachers who are teaching AI and machine learning, I don't know if they're taking people on but might be worth haunting their website and familiarising himself with their Experience AI suite of classroom activities https://experience-ai.org/en/

If he's interested in games design there's the Entry Level website https://entrylevel.games/. At QMUL (London), where I work, we have a Games AI department that specificallly focuses on research https://www.qmul.ac.uk/eecs/research/research-centres-and-groups/game-ai-research-group/, don't know if there are graduate jobs though unless he's planning on applying for a PhD - our jobs page is https://www.qmul.ac.uk/jobs/vacancies/

This is something I wrote for GCSE / A level students regarding work experience but there might be something useful in there https://teachinglondoncomputing.org/school-work-experience-some-ideas/

Networking with various hackathons? Helping out at code-clubs for experience and CV fodder? Teaching at adult education colleges? Sessions in local libraries? Tutoring? (Also tutoring maths, I'm assuming he knows his way around that quite well).

Good luck to him :)
Jo

Has he applied to DXC?
They are always recruiting.

@JoBrodie What an amazing informative post. Thank you so much!!!

@cryinglaughing Thank you for this. I will pass this on.

@Luluco Great idea. I will suggest this.

Cheers to @CantHoldMeDown and @JobSearch2024 :) For some reason I can't log in today under my own account (this isn't a name change but a new account) and have asked MNHQ for help in recovering my primary 'me'. Perhaps I have exceeded my word limit haha.

Jo

@Cornishmumofone Thank you! Food for thought.

My son started in a similar job and transferred to a great industry job afterwards. I had wondered if the low pay of the academic job would hinder his opportunities in industry but it's not. The pay is worse but the opportunities can be good and the holidays are amazing.

@JoBrodie
That was a great post. Mumsnet can be so toxic at times (especially when Mums are asking for advice for their adult kids 😅) so it nice to see a positive and helpful thread.

I had a career change, so wasn’t starting from scratch, but what I did was to email the contact on the job I was interested in but was one level up, and asked exactly what experience they would like to see for those candidates. She gave me a really good pointer into specific entry level roles.

Later on I did some volunteering. It was a pain to find this work, but I did get there in the end.

Also he needs to make sure he is spelling out the criteria he meets in application forms. It asks for project management? Use those words. Etc. I recruit and we don’t extrapolate.

Can't believe I didn't mention being a Computer Science teacher in schools!

Gov.uk has a page called Becoming a computing teacher
https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/is-teaching-right-for-me/computing

Your son can get a sense of the teaching computing landscape from the Computing At School forum (it's free to sign up) https://forum.computingatschool.org.uk/ - there's a subsection on education-related vacancies.

Jo

@JobSearch2024 has he tried any job vacancies under the Gov guaranteed interview scheme, for people with disabilities. He should still apply even if he's being assessed if there is a high likelihood he has ADHD. They ask if the candidate considers themselves to have a disability so if your son is struggling with organisation skills, concentration etc those are common traits.

AI skills will be highly sought after in the coming years, so it is a skill worth him pursuing. A 2:1 degree is a very respectable outcome.

Gosh, thanks for this advice. This could be a game changer as at least he might be able to get some interview experience. Thanks again!

@keepYourDogQuiet This is good to hear. Well done to your son for making such good progress with his career.

@Cheeesus Thank you very much for these tips!

What kind of role is he after? He may struggle to get a specialist AI role at entry/graduate level, however AI is becoming more and more embedded and n applications so he could look into entry level software developer roles or an IT/Technology graduate scheme, I had a quick search on the usual job sites for these roles in the midlands and there are a few about. If he has projects that he does in his spare time, make sure they are on the cv to supplement his education, and tailor the CV for the roles he is applying for.

edit: he could also consider applying for the government graduate schemes:
https://www.faststream.gov.uk/digital-data-technology/index.html#digitaldetails

or working for the GDS:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/government-digital-service/about/recruitment

DS (ASD) applied for and got a comp sci degree apprenticeship so at a lower level to your DS, but he applied to about 20 or so different places so got quite a lot of experience form it. This is obviously at a lower level but still might be useful. He found that the stuff he did outside school was as important as his grades. Anything that involved working as a team was very important - did your ds do a group project as part of his degree? I know this is required with comp sci but not sure if it's the same for AI, if it is then talk it up on CV.

Any relevant groups he is involved with at uni - comp sci society doing hackathons or whatever they do? Make sure that is down. Any projects he's done in his own time put on Github, get him to build a website and put some of his cool projects on there or make one about something else he's interested in. If he's done any short courses in his own time that can help fill it out. Make very a big thing of his end of uni project using impressive jargon. When he writes about his job talk about communication skills, working as a team, any particular responsibilities.

He needs to sound like he's had a lot going on - just doing his course is not enough. Even if he does loads of stuff now to load up his cv he doesn't have to say exactly when it was done (although Github may have dates and give it away).

All these things will be even more important when it comes to interview and they start asking questions because they will want to hear about more than just what he has done on his course. It wasn't a thing for DS at a lower level but I would anticipate a question about leadership - did he by any chance get involved in any uni societies and take on any sort of leadership role?

When he gets to interview it's worth asking if questions are given in advance to neurodiverse candidates. Civil Service and anything government related are very good for this, lots of the big companies even though some say they are disability confident aren't. Good luck!

Thank you! This information is very helpful.