I’d like to start this article by saying, “I’m sorry, but this article is long.” It’s long for a reason.

I’m Jay Willingham, the main writer behind CampusByte. As you know, I’ve spent the last four years of my life in college getting myself the education I need to be successful in the working world. I’m finishing up my last semester of college and  am currently looking for a job in Austin, Texas. I’m focusing my search to Technology companies based on my background and interest in new media.

Today I’m happy to introduce “The Honest Job Quest”. The main idea of this series is to document my journey through the job hiring process. I want to document this part of my life because I feel it will help students learn from me, and my mistakes.

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Rules

I want to start this journey on the right foot. So straight up, I want to lay down some rules for myself.

• Tell the Honest Truth. I did a Google search a while back, looking for someone who has either been in my shoes or who knows what I’m about to go through and what I found is a bunch of liars. I’m not saying that the entire internet lies about their job search process, but from what I found, a lot of these “Job Experts” seem like they are full of it. What I promise to offer is a completely honest portrayal of my job search. I want to show my mistakes, my bad interviews, my negative feedback and the actual number of jobs that turn me down. I also want to show the positive feedback, the second round interviews, the actual job offers and hopefully a successful job acceptance article in the end.
• Update Once a Week. In order for this experience to be fully documented, I need to update this experience once a week. Some weeks will be very busy, while others might show absolutely no progress at all. Each week should teach me something new no matter how the week plays out. I’ve been advised that updating each week is like playing poker with an open hand. I will however, update this journey every few months.
• Give a Detailed Review in the End. By the end of this experience I should have a pretty good idea of how to land a job straight out of college. With my experience plus the advice given to me by friends, relatives and professors, I hope to provide excellent job resources for college students.

My Journey So Far

Up to this point in my life, I’ve spent countless hours thinking about “who” I wanted to work for and “what” type of industry would suit me best. What I haven’t thought much about is ”what” I want to actually do at these companies. I guess I should start with a brief history to give you an idea of who I am and why someone would want to hire me.

In 2006, I was accepted into The University of Texas at Austin. I was interested in Film in high school, and ran my own production company, so naturally everyone suggested pursuing a degree in Radio, Television and Film.

Within the first few weeks of class I withdrew from all my classes. I was lost. I had no idea why I was in college or what I wanted to do with my life. I enjoyed film making, but I couldn’t see it being my career. My true passion had always lied in technology and the Internet. I decided I needed a break from school to give myself time to figure things out.

After dropping out of school, I got a job working for Microsoft in their Xbox department. I was a technical support representative, taking hundreds of calls a day from whiny kids with broken Xboxes. This was boring but very easy. My manager recognized how easy this type of work came to me and moved me to a retention team where I had the ability to make commissions off of how many Xbox Live accounts I could “save” from being canceled.

I was the youngest member of the “SAVE” team but very quickly I showed them why I was there. My first month I saved the most accounts out of everyone on my team. This trend continued for several months until my manager decided to take me off the phones and make me a supervisor. As a supervisor I trained new agents and only took calls with irate customers. I was climbing the corporate ladder and was excited to see where this would take me.

Unfortunately, my success stopped there. I applied for several positions higher up in the organization but was denied every time because I lacked a degree. That was the turning point for me. I finally had a purpose, motivation and a desire to go back to school to get an education. Now, after four years of hard work, I will be graduating in May of 2010.

What to Expect From This Series

As I said before, I want this series to be a guide for students who might be going through the same situation as me. I also want this to be an honest portrayal of how companies treat prospective employees. I don’t guarantee I’ll actually get a job – for all I know, I could end up on the streets after this whole thing.

What I can guarantee is honest reporting about the situations I will be met with and the people I will encounter. Each weekmonth I’ll try to give more background about myself, outline my progress so far, and review the companies I end up interviewing with.

So without further ado – Step One: Buy a suit for your interviews. If you try to piece together a suit from your dad’s wardrobe, you’re going to look ridiculous. Trust me, I tried.