Ok, so I graduated from college with a B.S. in computer science almost four years ago. Since then I have been unemployed and have been basically leeching off of my dad. My chief goal had been to do my own projects and maybe eventually sell shareware or hope that my projects could pad my resume. During the first year I was casually looking for a job. I never really scraped the bottom of the barrel looking, but I had very rarely seen an opening for which I had been remotely qualified. Everything needed X years of experience or required skills I didn't have. During the past four years, I've achieved very little. I had procrastinated during all of my projects and kept putting one project on hold to start another while never fully completing any. So, now I have a four year gap in my resume with nothing to show and my only excuse is I'm a lazy procrastinator. How bad does a four year gap look? After four years, am I still supposed to put my education on top of my resume if I have no relevant work experience to show?

Well...

"So Mr. ManaStone, you seem to be very enthusiastic. I'm curious, though, what you've been up to for these four years between finishing up school and now?"
"Dicking around lazily, mainly."
"I see. We'll let you know."

Very.

But there's hope. Places like Rent-a-coder and such are good ways to pad the resume with real world experience. Finish up 2 of those projects and put them on the App Store, Android Market, here on GameDev, or some place where you can say, "hey, i made a commercial product!". Get on one of these teams in the Help Wanted section and contribute. Also a good resume bulletpoint.

You have options and ways to redeem yourself. Also you have the rest of Spring and all of Summer to fix your situation. Get to it, man! [smile]

"So Mr. ManaStone, you seem to be very enthusiastic. I'm curious, though, what you've been up to for these four years between finishing up school and now?"
"Creating a way to invert a oneway function."
"And how did that go?"
"I'm applying here aren't I?

Most entry level positions aren't listed, so you can't just 'look' for them, but rather you have to actively ask for them.

Don't just fire off 100 resumes and hope you get a hit somewhere. Pick a company, research it, and try to find a way to get to actually talk to someone in person and find out what positions they might have coming up.

Having gaps in your work isn't a horrible thing. We're all human, we all have lives, and some of us end up leading different ones. I've taken a summer off to build houses with Habitat for Humanity. I've taken time off to work on personal projects. I currently have a gap in my work history because of 'interesting' issues with where I had been working.

And yet I got a job offer from a company last week after a very informal interview. (The offer sadly got pulled a few days later when upper management pulled the funding on them.)


(The 'interesting' issue with my last employer is that the 'official line' is that I can neither confirm nor deny their existence. The movies gloss over the amount of paperwork that comes with that kind of employment. And also really overstates the hot women and fast cars involved. But at times I do wonder how it would go over in a job interview. "So, you can't tell us who you worked for, where you worked with them, or even for how long, and you can only state that you did 'assorted analysts, creative writing, and office work'?")

I would say its never too late to start getting something to put on there man. Try working with teams, I've been lazy with finishing projects lately too. Just try to find something you wanna work with, or a break to get your mind right might help, just try not to take a long one.

Quote:After four years, am I still supposed to put my education on top of my resume if I have no relevant work experience to show?

No, you're supposed to stop being so lazy and develop a freaking portfolio you moron.

Hate for me being harsh if you want, but someone had to say it.

You didn't have to ask. You didn't have to make this thread. You know the answer. You're in denial because you want to cling to some shred of hope to prevent you from having to face the reality that maybe you should just get off your ass and do some work. I know this is true because nobody with a firm grip on reality wastes four entire years out of college and then wonders if it looks bad.

Unfortunately, denial isn't going to help you get a job.
Do some work so you have something to show and then show it.
If you're out of time and need a job now, work at McDonalds.

LockePick that really doesn't help, you can help people out being more civil and nice that calling names and being rude.