Southland Wx

Does the university of your undergraduate degree assist in any advantage in job prospects?

We had a co-op program that assisted in placing I would say almost anyone who wanted an internship into one. Career services exist at every college, and they're often an untapped resource. They can help.

Edit: I may have misread the OP...oops!

I will try to simplify the original rant and some of the comments and advice from others:

1. Get an advanced degree. Plan to go to grad school.

2. Get a student internship or something similar. Getting your foot in the door and making "inside connections" is an obvious plus. This is one of those things that people love having, but people who don't have it often get very frustrated about it.

3. Make yourself marketable. Every applicant to every meteorology job has a meteorology degree. If that's all you have, then you don't have anything. Do you know GIS? Do you know Java or Python (Is there a class or classes offered at your school? Take them! But a whole big double major in comp sci isn't necessary, IMO). Are you proficient in Unix (again, take a class)? How about leadership? Are you president of your local AMS Chapter (volunteer to take on a role, any role)? Did you help some boy scouts get their meteorology merit badges? What about social science? That's a bigger one than most people would imagine, but you'd probably need some help from someone "in the know" about how to effectively market yourself with that particular combination. Any of those things are great, and you don't need all of them. IMO, a math degree is pretty much useless if you looking to get ahead for a forecasting position. Forecasters don't do math. Ask yourself if you are supplementing your met degree with something practical. Meteorology is cross-disciplinary.

4. Prove your ambition. This can be grouped with item 2, but is also separate. Did you do any research as an undergraduate? It's even better if it was published or presented. It's not as if you have to be the first author or even the presenter. Your professors are well-entrenched in the world of academia. More than likely, they could use someone to do some grunt work for them for their research. If you're a quality student, they'd probably trust you to do it or at least trust you to help. During your time in the meteorology department, do you have anything to show for yourself besides a piece of paper that says "B.S. in Meteorology"?

+10000

Good post. Make yourself stand out, diversify, take on new challenges, learn how to communicate (absolutely vital in science right now), make connections/contacts, work on the aesthetics of your resume to make it look sharp.