Terrible job market for recent grads

[Anonymous]

DS graduated early from Virginia Tech with a computer engineering degree in December 2024, and has been looking a FT position since August 2024. He did internships in his sophomore and junior year. He applied over 1100 positions, received 14 interviews, and two offers. Those two offers were rescinded due to budget cut, and feels so depressed at the moment. Many of his friends who will graduate this week are still jobless who also have multiple internships. I really feel bad for them.

[Anonymous]

That stinks. I’m sorry.

1. Practice interview skills. Does the career service people at VT offer this? He should contact them and ask for assistance. Since he’s a recent grad they should still offer assistance maybe they could practice interviewing over Zoom.

2. Network. He should contact his old managers at those internships and let them know he’s looking. Contact his top professors to see if they know of any roles. Maybe they know of a listserv or would be happy to connect your child with one of their contacts. He shouldn’t bother everyone but if he had a good relationship with 1-2 faculty he could email them. Do you know anyone? Let friends and family know your child is looking and see if anything comes up.

3. Contact alumni center at VT. He should contact alumni engagement at VT, see if they have any alumni events or things to network and attend those events.

4. Apply for in person roles and apply early. It’s fine to apply after it’s been on longer but if he sees a role he is interested in he shouldn’t wait weeks to apply. If I see a role and it has been up for 3 days I try to submit by day 7. Some hiring managers look at applications on a rolling basis and he might look better applying earlier. Everyone wants remote jobs now so he can apply to those but apply to more in office roles.

5. Diversify where he applies. Apply in smaller markets. Also apply all over! He’s young and can move. A friend of mine got an excellent opportunity in a very small city because not many people wanted to move there and it was in person! Everyone else in their field wanted NYC, Boston, etc and they got an excellent opportunity in a smaller market. Other people they know are still looking because they only wanted the major cities.

6. It’s early days. He graduated in December and even though he started looking in August many schools look at career data from 6 months after graduation so he technically still has until end of June to get a job for it to be “normal.” In this economy it might take longer.

7. Can you pay for some kind of online certificate while he’s applying? Maybe some kind of AI online certificate? This might make him more appealing. Only do this if you have the money / it would be helpful to his field. There are also some free ones.

8. Have him volunteer or do something. Look into a nonprofit or maybe some kind of area he likes and maybe he can volunteer 10-15 hours a week. Let’s him meet new people/ put something on his resume and make his network larger. Maybe someone where he is volunteering will know someone who has an open role.

[Anonymous]

I graduated in 2008. Was also a crappy job market.

[Anonymous]

It’s a terrible job market for everyone. I feel bad for these new grads, but at least they can (hopefully) be on parents’ health insurance for a few more years, work odd jobs in the meantime, and have no one but themselves to support. They have decades to build a career.

I’m more worried about people in their 40s and up who are being laid off with families, health problems, mortgages, etc.

[Anonymous]

The white collar job market is weak right now and has been for some time. Most of the jobs data you see are for the service sector because that's where most people work, that market is still very strong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That stinks. I’m sorry.

1. Practice interview skills. Does the career service people at VT offer this? He should contact them and ask for assistance. Since he’s a recent grad they should still offer assistance maybe they could practice interviewing over Zoom.

2. Network. He should contact his old managers at those internships and let them know he’s looking. Contact his top professors to see if they know of any roles. Maybe they know of a listserv or would be happy to connect your child with one of their contacts. He shouldn’t bother everyone but if he had a good relationship with 1-2 faculty he could email them. Do you know anyone? Let friends and family know your child is looking and see if anything comes up.

3. Contact alumni center at VT. He should contact alumni engagement at VT, see if they have any alumni events or things to network and attend those events.

4. Apply for in person roles and apply early. It’s fine to apply after it’s been on longer but if he sees a role he is interested in he shouldn’t wait weeks to apply. If I see a role and it has been up for 3 days I try to submit by day 7. Some hiring managers look at applications on a rolling basis and he might look better applying earlier. Everyone wants remote jobs now so he can apply to those but apply to more in office roles.

5. Diversify where he applies. Apply in smaller markets. Also apply all over! He’s young and can move. A friend of mine got an excellent opportunity in a very small city because not many people wanted to move there and it was in person! Everyone else in their field wanted NYC, Boston, etc and they got an excellent opportunity in a smaller market. Other people they know are still looking because they only wanted the major cities.

6. It’s early days. He graduated in December and even though he started looking in August many schools look at career data from 6 months after graduation so he technically still has until end of June to get a job for it to be “normal.” In this economy it might take longer.

7. Can you pay for some kind of online certificate while he’s applying? Maybe some kind of AI online certificate? This might make him more appealing. Only do this if you have the money / it would be helpful to his field. There are also some free ones.

8. Have him volunteer or do something. Look into a nonprofit or maybe some kind of area he likes and maybe he can volunteer 10-15 hours a week. Let’s him meet new people/ put something on his resume and make his network larger. Maybe someone where he is volunteering will know someone who has an open role.

OP here. He did all of the above, with the exception of #8, and still no job offers. Terrible job market for the past six months.

[Anonymous]

Do not discount volunteering or temping. I used to hire for entry level research/data science type roles and I have hired people who were temps elsewhere in the company that were recommended to me (recent grads who were temping in admin jobs but had great work ethics/personalities so HR would ask them about their backgrounds and they would get referred to me if they were a fit for my team) into full time junior roles. I have also hired people who I met through volunteer or other groups I was in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do not discount volunteering or temping. I used to hire for entry level research/data science type roles and I have hired people who were temps elsewhere in the company that were recommended to me (recent grads who were temping in admin jobs but had great work ethics/personalities so HR would ask them about their backgrounds and they would get referred to me if they were a fit for my team) into full time junior roles. I have also hired people who I met through volunteer or other groups I was in.

No volunteering opportunities for a Computer Engineering major. I work in tech and there is no such thing.

[Anonymous]

I agree with volunteering, temping, etc. in any role. Look for groups related to his career aspirations in Meetup and go to those gatherings to learn. It will be good for his mental health and possibly expose him to more people for potential networking. Also, when I've hired new grads who have been out of school for a few months I'd always ask what they have been doing with their time. Good answers are PT/short-term jobs, personal projects, etc. Just hanging out and focusing on the job hunt, not so much.

One volunteer thing for tech people - help the Internet Archive. This is a really important resource that documents websites (especially important as Doge is destroying content on government sites) https://archive.org/about/volunteer-positions

I really feel for kids graduating into this market. My DS, also VT, is lucky (so far) to have a job starting in June but he's the only one in his friend group with a job. Your DS is not alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do not discount volunteering or temping. I used to hire for entry level research/data science type roles and I have hired people who were temps elsewhere in the company that were recommended to me (recent grads who were temping in admin jobs but had great work ethics/personalities so HR would ask them about their backgrounds and they would get referred to me if they were a fit for my team) into full time junior roles. I have also hired people who I met through volunteer or other groups I was in.

No volunteering opportunities for a Computer Engineering major. I work in tech and there is no such thing.

NP. Lots of non profits need tech support and would gladly take a volunteer to do that. However, volunteering doesn’t have to be directly in their field. It gets them out there meeting people and shows they are active

One organization I volunteer with has a lot of senior members who aren’t always on top of the latest tech. They great appreciate the lovely people in their 30s and 40s who are kind and patient with them and help them learn new tech.

OP’s child could volunteer to run an after school club for kids related to coding or robotics, or something else of interest to OP’s kid, like Let Boys Run, or coaching a rec sports team.

This isn’t volunteering, but OP’s kid could become a school sub, then maybe transition to a tech roll at the school or district.

Good luck to all job seekers out there!

[Anonymous]

He needs to actually leave the house or talk to people to be looking in a hard job market.

How many people has he met for coffee, gone to drinks with, at least have a Zoom meeting or phone call with?

[Anonymous]

What kind of job does he want and where is he willing to move to work?

[Anonymous]

FFS people, OP didn't ask for obvious suggestions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He needs to actually leave the house or talk to people to be looking in a hard job market.

How many people has he met for coffee, gone to drinks with, at least have a Zoom meeting or phone call with?

OP here. He leaves the house everyday to meet new people for coffee, and via zoom meetings, and still no such luck. He is willing to work anywhere, in-person and/or remote. He is very flexible because the tech job market is terrible rn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What kind of job does he want and where is he willing to move to work?

OP here. Anything tech related, anywhere in-person or remote? With his degree and multiple internships, he shouldn’t have problems looking for a FT job, but here we are.