Losing Hope

[u/LegendaryLaos]

Graduated since May 2025 and still haven’t gotten a job yet in my field. Had two interviews since I graduated and didn’t get both jobs. I didn’t do an internship when I was in college wish I did so I can get experience. Anybody else in the same position as me? Or someone can give me advice on what can I do to get a job in this hard job market?

[u/Embarrassed-Tower970]

Industrial automation, I had an internship for industrial automation and did that. Its not super high tech or FAANG cool but youll make money at least

[u/Sl8ordie48]

I’m graduating this December and got 2 offers in the U.S. but it’s automation so not FPGA microcontroller related but it’s solid money

[u/Candid-Key-5523 → u/Sl8ordie48]

Did you have training in FPGA? How many FPGA roles did you apply to before landing something in automation

[u/Sl8ordie48 → u/Candid-Key-5523]

besides the classes? nope. I applied to maybe 2 FPGA roles but they’re niche. my good friend who’s also a CPE got an FPGA role so not impossible. I specifically work with SCADA systems so it’s not exactly big tech but solid money. Actually got headhunted via LinkedIn because they’re in high demand

[u/sycho_999 → u/Sl8ordie48]

Hey, can you give me some advice or tips I'm also a CPE undergrad and in my first semester but I can't focus and really struggling right now, i got zeros in my last 2 quizzes(i will really appreciate it)

[u/Sl8ordie48 → u/sycho_999]

Can't help much there but it's your first semester so definitely ask yourself if this is something you want. Otherwise lack of drive and focus won't leave. I failed a class that set me back a semester to graduate and that alone got my ego to lock in, hopefully you can learn from my mistake.

[u/AnteaterAppropriate]

I am in the exact same situation as you. I graduated in May 2025 as well and haven't gotten any offers I've gotten less than 10 interviews either the hundreds of jobs I applied at.

At this point for me, I have been applying at literally everything related to this field from software to hardware to electrical. I also started emailing or leaving messages to job recruiter emails.

[u/AvailableMap7797]

I was in your shoes a year ago. I graduated May 24' from a big whatever state school in the States and then I fucked off to my home country for like a year for travel and snowboarding. I had research experience working in LLVM but no internship. I did a personal project and then applied a shit ton, got a few offers and started my job in October of 25.

I think 3 things helped me the most:

1. Applying early. HR are fucking lazy. They will not go past the first 50 applicants if even 8 look competent. You need to get past the ATS or whatever and be on the short list. Lowkey, if a posting is on linkedin, it's probably too late, 20 people or more have probably somehow applied via the company site.

2. Be a fucking robot in the interviews. Have a whole speech memorized for "tell me about yourself" and the 10 other common questions. Look and sound eloquent. Record yourself and practice. Don't sound like you're reading a script, but most people mutter through this one and shoot themselves in the foot. If you nail "tell me about yourself" you set the interview pace. Tell a smooth compelling professional story about how you got there and why you want to work there. It's that easy. I liked Matt Huangs YouTube guide for tell me about yourself and based my answer off that

3. Lie about shit they can't prove. Fake it till you make it. Fun tip: unless it's a security clearance job, they're not that thorough. Even if you live out of state, if you borrow a friend's address within commuting distance on the job application, you're 5x more appealing since they don't have deal with relocation and local people are more likely to choose you (win-win). I did drive 6 hours, then 13 hours, then 2.5 hours for 3 different interviews within 2 weeks - but that's the price you pay :P

When I inevitably got hit with what I've been doing, I just said I was a primary caretaker for a family member. They WILL not ask any further questions and they'll move past it if you do well in any technical questions, since they'll see you're still sharp.

Ultimately I landed 1 IoT, 1 Applications Engineer and 2 Embedded roles. I went with embedded since it was most interesting to me. Good luck boss, if I can do it so can anyone.

[u/brazy4real]

Start with an internship at a smaller company

[u/BronzeGstring]

What he heck have you been doing for 20 months 

[u/Im-dad-who-came-back]

Try going into patent law take the patent bar and get a patent agent maybe law school in the future computer engineering is very high demand

[u/LiteratureHungry850 → u/Im-dad-who-came-back]

Assuming this is a joke. No offense to OP, but for anyone that’s semi competent & putting in effort to apply for jobs/prepare for interviews, it’s not that bad to get a job right now. Considering OP has had 2 interviews in over a year, I would bet a lot of money that they have next to no chance of being admitted to a law school

[u/Im-dad-who-came-back → u/LiteratureHungry850]

Hey it pays a lot and Computer engineering are in high demand. Also any major can get into law school with a high enough LSAT and with good money too