Memories Still Fresh From Freshman Year
"No" Responses
No, “2004 Graduate Degree—no because I was already part of the library community at another university, but a UW connection with an old colleague at Kansas was why I came to UW to get my degree, which led to my current job.”
No, “I moved to Portland to be with my now husband and no one had connections here. I eventually found a job after 5 months of searching and it is even in my field (math & stats). I graduated in March ’06.”
No, “B.A. 1974 (cum laude), M.A. 1975—never knew such a thing existed. In 32 years have had only one job where a degree was required and my degree was not pertinent to that job. Have actually left M.A. off resumes and job applications as it would actually have been detriment in some cases. Regret the time, money & effort I put into the whole thing.”
No, “Matriculated in ’01 and there were no jobs available to that degree”
No, “I graduated mid-season, in March of 1973, and not much attention is paid to those of us who don’t graduate “on time” with everyone else. I could not afford to attend my own graduation, in fact! I think that, back then, I did not know what was available or how to contact it; then, in June of that year, I became engaged to a Navy officer, and pretty much kissed my own career good-bye to follow his for 20 years. Now divorced for almost as long as I was married, I have managed sort of a career in teaching and mental health, but had to go back to grad school twice to accomplish that and become certified, and was not able to go to grad school at UW, unfortunately. I did think it was a wonderful school, and if I were ever living on the west side of the state again, I’d certainly consider taking more courses there! In the meantime, I’m a Husky with a grad-school affiliation with the Georgetown Hoyas (class of ’83), and I’m living, sigh, in COUGAR country!! I do contribute to my alumni associations though, and appreciate remaining even minimally connected to my first alma mater!”
No, “I was raised in the Seattle area and followed the UW in sports and education. It was my desire to attend and be of a part of the UW, after completing a tour in Vietnam in the US Army.”
No, “I was working for Safeway during my college years. I was offered a promotion to assistant manager following graduation so stayed on for a 30-year career as a store manager.
Kim Gudgel
Class of 1968”
No, “1970 (BA), 1979 (MBA)—BA: zero placement help from A&S, School of Education, or UW Placement Center for A&S students (with teaching certificates) relocating to California; no response through Alumni Association. MBA: many interview opportunities in UW Placement Center; modest help from Business School directly, or via alumni network”
No, “I got my first job from interviewing with companies that visited the UW campus. (Mechanical Engineering was a good choice of college major, in the middle of the “space race.”) I got my second job, at Boeing, after a year in graduate school at the UW, through a professor in the School of Business.”
No, “1971 I got no help when I graduated or when I was laid off in 1985 even though I worked for UW for 14 years. In 1971 the men in my class were getting job offers right and left but not the women. In 1971 most jobs wanted to know if I could type as I am a woman even though my degree is in Microbiology!”
No, “I was even in the Women’s Society of Engineering (or whatever it is called) and nothing at all happened with it. I think I have even signed up for lists allowing people to contact me, but none have. I can’t have that bad of a career as a tech writer and then a business analyst, can I? ;)”
No, “My year of graduation seemed to be a slow year for hiring business school graduates. Also, I was unsure of what I wished to do which probably didn’t help. The outbreak of the Korean War and my 1-A draft status may also have discouraged prospective employers. Class of 1950”
No, “I graduated in 1999 (PhD). My advisor wanted to keep me in his/her lab, and not to go elsewhere. After 2 years I finally escaped to another lab at another university with references from my committee and previous supervisors. It is the best thing I ever did”
No, “I never really tried to use a UW connection.”
No, “However, my career got started through some contacts I made at the University of Washington.”
No, “I have worked in my area of an internship I served—domestic violence and the courts—but I have not found that the experience has helped with my job search since I returned to this area nearly two years ago—I now work in retail! I wish to return to my area of expertise—courts—but my Husky background is not even on the radar.
Nancy Paul, class of 1984”
No, “No one will hire/pay a living wage to a BS in biology. If you are in this field, please get involved enough to be eligible for a master’s program at the least and a doctoral program is preferable.”
No, “I received an MBA at UW while in the Army—I was already nine years in and did not retire until 19 years later. Any master’s degree would have had the same effect in terms of my Army competitiveness for promotion. “
No, “I sent my resume to the career center and received feedback. I did informational interviews with grads in high-level positions who thought I’d be really great and land somewhere really great. Maybe six months was not enough time to seek assistance—I did not look long enough. Maybe I’m too “urban.” I don’t know why I found no connection/help MPA 2005”
No, “Moved to Texas and was looking for a teaching career. In Texas, UT mattered, as did other Texas universities! Yankee schools were neutral. Class of 1968.”
No, “But I made a lot of friends in Seattle who I later used as consultants”
No, “Advance graduate work at Stanford helped with the first. UW helped later.”
No, “I graduated from the School of Librarianship (now the Information School) in 1976, and got little help from the school or the placement center. The school compiled paper lists of jobs and organized them in 3-ring binders in the main office. The placement center had no special services for people in my profession. They set up a file for references, but I didn’t use it because employers weren’t that interested in academic references. “
No, “No one at any of my professional job choice was a UW grad. School of Pharmacy 1969”
No, “I was looking for work out of state so I did not use UW resources. “
No, “MBA 1990—I took advantage of on-campus interviews without success. The way the program was structured back then, you didn’t really mingle with the prior class so it was hard to make connections that might help.”
No, “PhD 2004—wanted to find a job out of academics, had to look for it by myself since my choice was not very well perceived.”
No, “on campus interview with GE. They made an offer. Class of 1951, BSEE”
No, “I wanted to get into libraries and the UW connection did not have very many people with library professions. My year is 2006.”
No, “I graduated in 2003 and it took six months to find a position. Suggestions by UW connections did not pan out.”
No, “No UW connection helped me find a job either time (I got my BS in 1997 and my MS in 2002). “
No, “I already had a job when I graduated. (Thanks to a placement recruiter.)”
No, “As a transfer student who arrived for Winter Quarter and graduated Winter two years later, I was always disconnected at the U. My advisor was no support and neither was the career center. The U was not a good place to be an older, commuting, transfer student during the early 80s. I do hope they’re doing a better job now.”
No, “My first job after grad school was back in Massachusetts, and no one connected with my employer or the team that interviewed me had any knowledge of or connection with UW. “
No, “I started my career before I came to the UW. The doctoral program in which I was enrolled at UW did nothing to assist me in finding subsequent employment; I did it all on my own.”
No, “Sadly, I never took advantage of it—but I would like to, even at this point in my life (class of 1982).”
No, “1962 Aero Engineering. I already had a career. My UW degree helped me advance in that career but there was no UW connection other than the degree.”
No, “I am an attorney who graduated from law school in 1968 and undergraduate school in 1965. My degrees made absolutely no difference in my hire.”
No, “I interviewed with industry recruiters for engineers at Loew Hall. A Boeing recruiter was one of them. Having previously worked for Boeing, I had kept in contact with my former supervisor. The recruiter for Boeing circulated my file in Boeing. My former supervisor watched for the file and made me an offer when he received it. I accepted, of course. I graduated class of 1977 and have been employed by Boeing ever since.”
No, “Unfortunately, the University of WA is not as well recognized as it proclaims. In fact, I have often had to explain where it is (and that it wasn’t in D.C.) and even about the program I majored in—as it had not been well renowned in my field.”
No, “1978 Was never told how to find any connection, “
No, “Physics 1975. I was NROTC at the U. At the time we had a relatively depleted midshipman battalion (end of draft in ’72-’73) But there was no doubt where my first job would be. As it turned out, I served for 21 years and retired in 1996 as a commander, USN, with service in the nuclear submarine force for the entire time.”
No, “I graduated in the class of 2007. I sought my own internship, then got hired based on my own merits and work ethic. In my case, a UW connection did not help me along my career path.”
No, “1976. BA in economics. By the time I graduated I had been several years in corporate America, had a family, and had the all-American mortgage. I went to school on my own dime. Not for employment purposes but to learn and to be able to carry on an intelligent conversation. The biggest discovery of “higher education” is that all it says to employers is that “you have an ability.” The only degrees that in and of themselves lead to employment are law, engineering, the medical trades and accounting (not business). It is up to the individual to learn how to use accumulated experience, education, common sense to create and manage their own best economic situation. My degree from the UW never opened any doors for me.”
No, “1994. Professors encouraged internships but worked against my efforts to find one.”
No, “I am not sure why I didn’t get any help. My two closest friends that I made at the U both got jobs as recruiters for Microsoft. Neither lifted a finger to help me out. I now work for Boeing and am using my degree in commercial airplanes marketing. Things worked out for the best as I love my job, but when I was just out of school, I sure could have used a job.”
No, “Class of 1982. I applied for the first job I had through a classified ad in the Seattle Times which was completely unrelated to my degree. I was not close to any classmates or faculty at that time, so received no assistance there. I did not do any internships. I didn’t look for a job until after I graduated and believe that there was little or no job assistance at the time for alumni. However, in a sense I did help me obtain my first job since it was actually at the UW, but I certainly did not use any UW connections to obtain it. It was obtained by the experience I had from my prior military positions.”
No, “There were no UW alumni in the Reading PA area.”
No, “1999 graduate. It did not help because I was already in the computer field. I was denied entry into the computer engineering program (I did not have a 3.8—4.0 GPA), even though at that point, I’d worked in the computer field for 17 years and had a very diverse, well rounded background:
Marine security guard (embassies)
Learned several languages already (Arabic, Japanese & Russian)
So, as a result, I was highly disappointed and frustrated. I came to UW specifically to obtain a computer engineering degree and to be denied because I had a 3.1 GPA and was an older student. … Because of that, I switched to Poli. Sci. and two years of Chinese just to obtain a degree and leave. I do not contribute anything to UW. Since then, I’ve obtained my MBA and in 3 months will have completed a master’s in information security.
Patrick W. Allen
patrick642@yahoo.com”
No, “My first work in my area of interest came through persistence and interviews with people I wanted to work with. I got my foot in the door, working at a very low level in a field of interest, then kept trying to find something closer to what I really wanted. Then I got a lucky break. Class of ‘67.”
No, “Had previous contact with Chase Manhattan Bank thru my undergraduate school. Graduated in 1970”