<p>Many top companies in the Midwest dont even try to recruit on the west coast. CA kids do not want to move where there is snow. How many engineering students would take a job offer with top company where it is possible to play pond hockey for 4 months each year?</p>
<p>I would go there in an instant, even if the job required working outside, temperatures never got above freezing for six months, and windchills in winter regularly reached -40 degrees. If the summers are hot, humid, and filled with clouds of insects thick enough to turn the sky gray, that’s not a problem for me either. As for salary, all I ask is that I get paid more than 15 dollars an hour (about $30K/year).</p>
<p>This is not a ■■■■■ post. If you know of any entry level job that fits those descriptions, let me know and I will apply right now.</p>
<p>NegativeSlope,
Start looking at smaller companies in more rural locations. They may not have the travel budget to get your campus but start looking for them. There is an oil boom in North Dakota and Montana.</p>
<p>Climate is a big issue for a lot of people. My company is located in Maryland, and as I came in to work one day I observed a busload of interviewees entering during a sleet storm. I knew the hiring manager greeting them and asked how things were going - he said “Not good… they’re all from Florida!” I don’t think any of them came to work for us.</p>
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I have a profile at [Job</a> Service North Dakota](<a href=“http://www.jobsnd.com/]Job”>http://www.jobsnd.com/) and have applied for some positions over the past few months, but I haven’t gotten any responses yet. I think they’re looking for local candidates (I’m from the Southwestern U.S.). </p>
<p>By the way, I don’t think there’s a problem with my resume. The college I go to is one of the top 50 schools on US News and World Report, my GPA is above a 3.3, I have participated in extra-curricular engineering projects, and I have a few months of internship experience.</p>
<p>I’m way more concerned with unemployment than I am with climate. I wouldn’t even think about saying “no” a job in the Dakotas or Midwest from a top company if I didn’t have a viable option elsewhere. Anyway, if I didn’t like it I would at least stick around for a couple of years, bury myself in my work, get some work experience, then hopefully find a job in a more suitable location. </p>
<p>If you are mobile and inexperience there’s no reason to be picky.</p>
<p>As an engineering student at UMN Twin Cities I dare say that you have to be crazy to write off jobs in this region just because of the weather. Just imagine all the snow you can come help shovel 
as well as all the sand bags you can fill to help those that feel the need to live on the banks of the mississippi river. </p>
<p>On a more serious note, I don’t know very many local graduates that have had trouble finding work, the few I do know had unrealistic expectations of what their first job offer would be. So just because Midwest company’s don’t specifically recruit on the west coast doesn’t mean they are not interested in west coast graduates. It may just mean they have enough local talent to fill their payrolls at the moment. Well I’m off to play pond hockey, only one month left! :)</p>
<p>Oh and by the way I agree with ElevateMeLater, if you are not tied down and have little or no experience than being open minded to relocation will open up some opportunities for you.</p>
<p>Where I’m at now has far from perfect weather, but the winters are usually not that bad. We might get a blizzard every now and then but overall it doesn’t snow that much. Summers can get rather hot and humid sometimes.</p>
<p>If I had to pick I would choose the heat over the cold any day. I do not enjoy dealing with snow during my day-to-day routine (commuting, mainly). While I cannot completely rule out the possibility of moving to a place like Minnesota, I highly doubt I would ever end up there. I would have to be offered an amazing job making an amazing amount of money to move to such a place.</p>
<p>Once I graduate I am getting the heck out of Ohio, and climate is a major part of that decision. The only place with a non-sunny climate I’d consider moving to would be Seattle, it’s natural beauty makes up for the raininess.</p>
<p>I prefer the cold as long as there is snow and mountains nearby.</p>
<p>Would absolutely take a job in the Midwest. In fact, would prefer to be located in the Midwest.</p>
<p>With that said, my top job offer was in the Bay Area, so I’m headed that way in a few months. I’m very pleased and excited to live in CA, but I’m pretty sure that I would like to return to the Midwest after a few years. I have a great job lined up, but the expense of the Bay Area is mind-boggling! I’m thinking that due to the taxes and cost-of-living, it will end up being a large ‘pay cut’ vs. my co-op days in a rural Midwest town. That’s the price you pay I guess.</p>
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<p>If you can’t get interviews with those stats, there has got to be something on your resume driving away employers. Have you had someone else look at it and comment?</p>
<p>Many times a resume can tell a story that you don’t intend to tell. For example, if your resume has co-op experience in a pharmaceutical company, pharma research, and a minor in healthcare, an oil and gas company might pass on your resume because they think you’re a poor fit for their industry. If you reword your objective, downplay the industry in the research and experience, and remove the minor from the resume, you tell a completely different story and are more like to receive a call.</p>
<p>I’m glad a Maine company took a chance on flying two new engineers from Texas up to Portland for interviews! We love Maine, even and especially the snow. We let people think the weather is horrible, so they won’t flock to the state.</p>