2024 job market is so cooked for recent grads

[Anonymous]

DD recently graduated from an Ivy with a degree in CS and is still looking for a job. Another nephew also recently graduated from UVA school of engineering with a degree in Computer Engineering, and he is also looking for a job. The career center at the school is not very helpful during the last semester prior to graduation. They are both depressed at the moment, and both living at home.

[Anonymous]

Most of the white collar jobs market isn't in great shape, tech in particular. The headline jobs information covers mostly blue collar jobs because that's the market most of the country is in.

[Anonymous]

So looking for 3.5 months? Big deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So looking for 3.5 months? Big deal.

OP here. One semester prior to graduation. It means around 9 1/2 months.

[Anonymous]

My DS has not had this experience, and none of his friends have either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So looking for 3.5 months? Big deal.

OP here. One semester prior to graduation. It means around 9 1/2 months.

Graduation in Jan?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD recently graduated from an Ivy with a degree in CS and is still looking for a job. Another nephew also recently graduated from UVA school of engineering with a degree in Computer Engineering, and he is also looking for a job. The career center at the school is not very helpful during the last semester prior to graduation. They are both depressed at the moment, and both living at home.

Where have they applied?
Only at Amazon/Google and nowhere else?

Where did they intern?
Why aren't they creating something in their free time?
Ivy is for leaders, not drones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So looking for 3.5 months? Big deal.

OP here. One semester prior to graduation. It means around 9 1/2 months.

That's late to have started looking. On campus career fairs often take place in October, with many employers start their recruiting cycle in the fall for new grads. Other employers start even earlier, largely hiring from summer interns so you have to get hired fall of junior year to have a shot.

They missed many opportunities by not looking until spring semester of senior year.

[Anonymous]

The tech sector is depressed--lots of layoffs unless specific knowledge or experience in AI/machine learning.

There are about 30 universities which offer specialized master's degree programs which range from 9 months to one year in length. Might be a good option to enhance one's resume during a down market for employment.

[Anonymous]

For young grads geography is the biggest issue. Many want to stay local and I understand. But if they widen their geography they will be pleasantly surprised
They can also make further career moves once they have some experience. The United States is a big country with a massive job market. If you are flexible and adventurous you will be fine. My parents sent me here as an 17 years old from another continent. So I guess in a way I was independent much sooner than most. I got my first engineering job in New Mexico when I graduated in 08. 2 years later I moved to California. And 5 years later to the DMV. I have been here since.

[Anonymous]

I think there are two truths that explain this reality.

1.) It is a really competitive postgrad job market and there are likely more qualified candidates now than there have been historically. The interview questions my younger brother has had trying to secure a finance job/summer internship are pretty ridiculous and don't seem like a fair or accurate differentiator between one applicant and another. Companies care more and more about heterogenous hiring pools to the extent that they are often reluctant to take multiple applicants from the same college. Essentially, there are lots of reasons a company might take a pass on a qualified applicant that are beyond that applicant's immediate control. (I'm not blaming these policies or processes, but they probably play a role in the selectivity of the most sought-after jobs)

2.) Today's crop of college graduates have such a high standard/are so selective about where they would work postgrad, at least in part due to the current climate of competition at/applying to colleges/universities. Students are brought up to be perfectionists and then feel that in order to be successful, they have to work at Goldman Sachs or Amazon or Google or Microsoft, and thus end up without a job for a while out of school. It's akin to how some students apply to all Ivy league schools and don't have a great backup plan lined up. In today's LinkedIn/social media cultural environment, recent grads feel like the name of the company they work for matters more than their role, the experience they might gain, and the actual work they are doing on a daily basis.

The solution to this problem (either way) is to humble yourself. Given the academic credentials that the OP listed, I think it's pretty much impossible that these applicants are out of a job because they can't get one. More likely, it's because they believe themselves (rightly or wrongly) to be overqualified for many jobs that are within reach. In my opinion, everyone would be better off being the big fish in a small pond rather than waiting to land a huge job. If you get the huge job, you can leave a lower level position with more experience and one less gap in your resume that you'll need to explain. That's just my $0.02. Both of those students went to great schools and will likely do great in their future endeavors, but I think they might be resting on their academic laurels a bit too much and expect that they are entitled to/have earned a great job through their academic achievements. That may not be the case for them, but I think it is the case with many of my postgraduate friends. Between two similar applicants that have great degrees, I'd think experience and initiative would be difference-makers.

[Anonymous]

A 2023 CpE grad I know took exactly a year to get a job (Graduated in May 2023, first offer in April 2024).

He did not want to do IT as a back up and was willing to wait it out. He also did not want a silicon valley or Cali job because of cost of living. His brother works at Intel in the Valley and he didn't want the same.

Once he got the first offer, two others came in, so he didn't feel like he was taking anything just to have a job.

[Anonymous]

Companies have the problems they have always wanted. Namely select the best candidate out of 1000 as opposed to 100. There are so many college graduates not just from the US but from overseas as well. Americans have always been spoiled in terms of job competition. Our government in collusion with businesses push for the supply of college grads.

We had an job opening recently for an analytics position and I was tasked of reviewing the resumes and participating in the interviews. Let me just say good luck to kids out there. The quality is insane. I have 10 years experience in my field. Couple of the candidates that we interviewed have accomplished so much in terms of internships independent projects etc and further took additional training to improve their soft skills such aa communication etc that I honestly wonder if average college grads stand a chance these days. Of course they will eventually find a job, but I think we need to and colleges should as well tell these college grads the kind of competing they are facing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD recently graduated from an Ivy with a degree in CS and is still looking for a job. Another nephew also recently graduated from UVA school of engineering with a degree in Computer Engineering, and he is also looking for a job. The career center at the school is not very helpful during the last semester prior to graduation. They are both depressed at the moment, and both living at home.

In this case, both should either take any type of job as interim employment, enroll in an online certificate program, or enter a masters degree program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD recently graduated from an Ivy with a degree in CS and is still looking for a job. Another nephew also recently graduated from UVA school of engineering with a degree in Computer Engineering, and he is also looking for a job. The career center at the school is not very helpful during the last semester prior to graduation. They are both depressed at the moment, and both living at home.

Where have they applied?
Only at Amazon/Google and nowhere else?

Where did they intern?
Why aren't they creating something in their free time?
Ivy is for leaders, not drones.

An Ivy CS will expect a FAANG and $$$$. But those good times are done for a while (read up on Hacker News). AI isn’t hiring that many people, it’s most just big piles of GPUs and big data, it’s a leaner team.

Have they looked at something like NSA, NIST, Lincoln Labs? They won’t make a bunch of money, but gain good experience and skills that will transfer when market recovers… and a decent job if it doesn’t.