My son is in his final quarter of senior year, but due to being ahead with dual enrollment and AP credit, he decided to extend and do the 4+1 BS/MS program. He’s mostly done with the coursework, but still needs to complete his thesis. He’s thinking worst case scenario between his research and writing, he’ll be done at the end of March 2019. When should he start applying for jobs?
He should start applying in the fall. Employers start to collect resumes and applications at that point for June grads. Make sure he highlights that he will be available in March.
He could start earlier, but a lot of companies won’t know their budgets for 2019 any earlier than the fall. So an earlier application might just go to the back burner and get forgotten.
That’s a great point!
The real issue for him is that he could possibly finish as early as December, so he doesn’t want to start too late. That said, March is looking like the most solid date.
Is it taboo to apply to the same company twice, say now and in the fall?
He should start earlier if he expects to graduate in December. Most big companies have a paid Christmas shutdown. That means that they don’t like to hire anyone from Thanksgiving until after the first of the year and have to then pay them for that break. I realize that he would want to start after the first. But with the end of the year hiring freeze, the HR group would kind of shutdown or at least slow down their hiring programs at the end of the year.
My recommendation would then be to start late summer and write a cover letter (or else include it somewhere) explaining the timing of his job interest.
I was actually a December grad back in the day. I started looking with a passion right after college started. But that would have been first of September. CalPoly starts their fall term (or at least they used to) near the end of September. So start before he goes back to school. BTW, I got my job offer the Monday before Thanksgiving and delayed my start to the end of February. I had varsity eligibility until second semester started around the first of February and then wanted some time to move coast to coast and get settled in.
Thanks!!! Always appreciate the sage advice!
No advice, but having enjoyed your sage advice over the years, I am looking forward to hearing where your son ends up. 