Hi all, so Los Angeles County finally ended the pandemic boosted CalFresh and my monthly benefit amount is dropping from $281 to just $29 starting this month. I was really hoping to find a full-time role before that happened and surely thought 7 months after graduate school would be enough time to do so. I really relied on those benefits for groceries, so this is putting more pressure to find something soon. I graduated from UW-Seattle in late August with my MSc in computational linguistics and my undergrad degree is also in the same field, but from USC. My only interview so far was for a junior computational linguist position at a small startup offering 125K-250K base pay. I was told no stock options or anything, but it's way better than the 15K-17K I average now with my part-time healthcare job. I was cut after a third round and was nosy and noticed that a PhD level applicant from Amazon ultimately snagged the role. Since then (December), I've applied for about 375+ jobs. Mostly trying for jobs paying 60K-70K as I thought it'd be easier. My program has a really cool job board where alums often offer referrals, but it's been crickets. One of the last roles on the board was AWS Data Scientist back in September, but it was based in Seattle and I couldn't relocate. One role that I did apply for was a contract role as a Speech AI Specialist at NVIDIA, but the alum who sent out the email hasn't said anything for some time now, so I assume I'm out of the running. Anyway, I was looking for advice on staffing/contract firms. I applied for a role at 3M in September and noticed no progress. I followed a laid off Meta contract worker who applied for the same role in February and was hired by March. It was then that Workday finally said I was no longer under consideration. I noticed he used a staffing firm as they commented on his post announcing his new role. So any advice on great staffing firms would be helpful. I'm more than okay with contact roles. Or if anybody is willing to offer referrals, that would be amazing. If not in the comp ling/NLP/machine learning area, something in the data analysis/science realm would be in my wheelhouse. Out of undergrad, I interviewed for a few IT/systems analyst roles, so even that would do in the meantime. Thanks for reading and any advice/help. #tech #referral #nvidia #meta #amazon
We’re not hiring, but I liked and commented for boost. Try the Lunchclub app and see if you connect with anybody helpful there.
Thank you, I haven't heard of the app, but I will check it out.
Sorry I can’t be of much help, but how is anyone expected to survive with $29/mo?! Is this a joke or is this normal in LA?
The cutoff for CalFresh is quite low. I believe somewhere in the $1400 range. My net pay is about $1100-ish a month, but they go by the gross pay. The eligibility worker I spoke with said I was $1 under the threshold, so I barely qualified and then only for the minimum amount of $29. It is pretty crazy given how expensive everything is. For general relief/GR, I believe I worked it out to you can't make more than $5/hour or you won't qualify. I lost that when I started the caretaker role.
Damn, in what job does ANYONE in the US make $5 an hour???
Have you tried applying in the Financial/Banking sector ?
I did apply for some data analysis type job with a bank, but that was the only one. I don't really have any business/finance experience, so I usually shy away from those. I apply to basically everything/anything else though.
If you are good at what you do, you don’t need experience and just an understanding. Make sure to prep for an interview!
I really liked your story, through hardship is that we become the best version of ourself. Here is my advice and clarity, you won't find a job by applying or even referrals. The job market is such that even experience folks are willing to take a job that's meant for new grads like yourself. HM will always pick experience over skills because even if an engineer is bad compared to you they have someone to unload work, projects and most importantly blame for any issue they get from on top. Keep applying but do it for practice and maybe the chance you get picked, but remove hope from it and leave it to luck. Aim for startups and interns role, go to meetup in AI and talk to people that want to form startups or are a startup (meetup.com), the good thing about LA that you have Tech industry there and lots of people in Media Tech, Social, Game industry etc. You want any job in your field and all internships pay, maybe not so well but good enough. That's where you'll find your job. Good luck. Sidenote even contract agencies they expect experience and have people that worked at FAANG line up to work, because of desperation, debt or visa issues.
I dropped out of high school when I was 14 and failed to transfer to any university the first time I tried, so I have a lot of that character-building hardship stuff going on 😅 Thank you, I'll check out the site. The conversational AI startup I interviewed with was quite small. I believe fewer than 100 employees on LinkedIn. That's how I was able to find out that the person who ultimately got the role was from Amazon.
I went through this in 2002. The job market was non existent. I had to work an unpaid internship at a small startup for 3 months doing everything from assembling PCs to tweaking Cisco routers, even fixing the toilet in the office. Fast forward 20 yrs, I am doing pretty well. And as a HM, I tend to favor the applicants with humble beginnings like myself. Nothing builds character like rejections. Stay positive!
I'm definitely trying, but I even seem to get rejected by recruitment companies 😅 I tried one called HireWell and was told to try and different smaller agency. I then caught the attention of a DEI executive from another recruitment place who put me in touch with one of his recruiters. He said he was excited to work with me and chat, but after seeing my resume, he just stopped replying 😅 That one definitely stung.
Never be afraid to relocate if u are having a hard time finding a job.
Do coffee with everyone you can find asking for advice, resume review interview practice etc. Lean hard into alumni networks. If you are making 15 to 17k you likely can't afford not to relocate if you find a job so triple check your assumptions.
If it was just me, sure I'd relocate. The healthcare thing is what I'm paid I to serve as the caretaker for my disabled mom and sister. For this reason, I somewhat have to stay in Los Angeles. I don't mind on-site roles, but I really can't move. If I made enough, I would definitely hire a proper caretaker or family member to take over for me.