This seems to be a comon problem. My advice... (Score 1)

Sorry if any of these suggestions are repeats... it's late and I'm too tired to read through all these comments. I've known a few people who have had this problem as well, so, first of all, I hope you don't feel like you're alone in this. Breaking into that first job seems to be a pretty common problem for programmers. My advice is to do one of the following: 1. Apply with companies that are willing to hire programmers fresh out of college. These are few and far between, but there are some out there. 2. Find a job (or internship) at a company with a small IT/software development department, and work hard to prove yourself. On a small enough team, you will rise quickly. 3. Get involved in some projects. I noticed some other replies mentioned open source projects; I can't speak to this personally, since I've never been involved with one, but I guess every bit helps. Also, if you're confident in your abilities, bid on some jobs from websites like Rent A Coder and Elance, and work on them in your spare time. Make sure this is all listed on your resume. For my part, I was fairly successful with suggestion #2. I landed a position with a small software department (about 15 people) a few months out of college as an analyst (job duties included defect analysis, level 2 support, and writing user docs). I ended up playing a key roll on a few projects, and was eventually promoted to software developer within a year. The company I work for now (based in Troy, MI) actually hires quite a few people out of college, although I was offered my specific job because of my skills and experience. Some other things you should be doing: 1. Make sure you have an up-to-date, well-organized, professional-looking resume. 2. Make sure your resume is posted on sites like Monster, CareerBuilder, and Dice (especially Dice!). If you know your current company's HR department uses these websites, you may want to make it private and apply for jobs individually. Otherwise, make the resume public, and update it often to keep it near the top of search results. 3. Network with people in the IT/techonlogy industry. Posting on forums is one great way to do this. Also, If you don't have one already, I highly recommend signing up on a website called LinkedIn; it's a social networking site aimed at business professionals and job-seekers. It is a great way to meet people in your industry. 4. Keep your skills up to date! Sign up for free newsletters and magazines. Find online articles and tutorials. Get books related to specific development platforms or languages you're interested in (popular publishers include O'Reilly, Wrox, and Microsoft Press). Build applications in your spare time. Do whatever you can do get exposure to what interests you. As my old boss once told me, you should "know a lot about something and a little about everything". Get exposed to as much as you can, but try to focus on one or two key technologies or areas. People generally focus on one specific development platform, like Java, .NET, or LAMP. My first job gained me some exposure to Delphi and ASP classic, but it was my .NET and SQL Server skills that had the job offers coming in once I started looking. Again, make sure all of your skills are listed on your resume. (On a sidenote: If .NET is your preferred platform, I suggest learning both C# and VB to a decent level of understanding. From the job postings I've seen in the past, their usage seems to be split pretty evenly. Most recruiters or HR people are comparing your skills with a list they were given; they won't know how similar they are or how easily it is to move from one to the other.) I hope these suggestions were helpful. Keep in mind that sometimes we have to work jobs that we don't consider to be the "ideal job", but that doesn't mean we have to stop looking. Stay positive, and you will eventually find what you're looking for. Good luck!