Who is getting jobs?

[Anonymous]

I'm hearing a lot from those who are having a hard time but not much from those who are successful. Can anyone with a new grad (25-26) with a job or undergrad with an internship for this summer share.... what major, what kind of school (public, private, highly selective or not), what seemed to help? Did they make a lot of use of the career center?

[Anonymous]

My child is a junior polymer science major at a private university. I think the niche major helped him get his internship for the upcoming summer. He interned the prior two summers doing software development work at my company (that probably helped too) but he wanted to do something in his field this summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm hearing a lot from those who are having a hard time but not much from those who are successful. Can anyone with a new grad (25-26) with a job or undergrad with an internship for this summer share.... what major, what kind of school (public, private, highly selective or not), what seemed to help? Did they make a lot of use of the career center?

T30 private, liberal arts. Career center was useless so applied EVERYWHERE on handshake (maybe 150+?), many, many rounds of interviews, 4 offers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm hearing a lot from those who are having a hard time but not much from those who are successful. Can anyone with a new grad (25-26) with a job or undergrad with an internship for this summer share.... what major, what kind of school (public, private, highly selective or not), what seemed to help? Did they make a lot of use of the career center?

T30 private, liberal arts. Career center was useless so applied EVERYWHERE on handshake (maybe 150+?), many, many rounds of interviews, 4 offers

What kind of job and what kind of offers? What type of role?

[Anonymous]

Engineering, public university. Student applied to one internship at a research institute on campus that he was referred to by a mentor, and got it. This scattershot approach of applying to random places where you don’t know anyone is not likely to work.

[Anonymous]

Also engineering. Getting lucrative internships at Fortune whatever companies. But not in their field of interest. Applies to about 150 internships per year.

DC will be fine for jobs when they graduate. Mechanical from a top 20. Lots of interest. It's a very useful major that gets a lot of attention from companies in different industries.

But SpaceX and NASA and similar are tough.

[Anonymous]

My junior is an environmental science major at a mid-range LAC. Has an internship at a regional environmental nonprofit. Job is 3/4 fieldwork, 1/4 communications and community outreach.

She had worked the last two summers for our local parks doing land work. Also had a lot of hands-on experience at school. The org is in the same region as her school and it has a good reputation for the major.

She applied to about 90 jobs, reached out to alumni on LinkedIn, got about 10 interviews and two offers.

Best response from state government jobs (in the state the school is in) and regional non-profit organizations. While alumni were responsive and encouraging, none of that outreach led to an offer.

Didn't use career services other than looking at handshake. Mom - long-term hirer of interns - helped with resume and cover letters. She did have a professor review her resume as part of a class.

What helped - good experience, cover letters clearly tied that to the job, school's reputation in the region, persistence, and a really big dose of luck.

[Anonymous]

Maybe too long ago to be relevant, but my '25 grad graduated with a job - data scientist at defense contractor. It was an offer after his summer '24 internship.

Major - Computational Modeling & Data Analytics (essentially "data science") at VT.

For getting the internship it helped that he'd worked in the school's data consulting program so he had good experience to talk about and the company hires a lot of VT grads. DS did not connect personally with anyone there, just applied online.

[Anonymous]

Communications

Software sales

Used friends and people he knew to get his job.

[Anonymous]

CS major offer from Amazon. We'll see how long it lasts.(Be before layoff)..She just applied to a bunch of positions. No special hook besudess degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm hearing a lot from those who are having a hard time but not much from those who are successful. Can anyone with a new grad (25-26) with a job or undergrad with an internship for this summer share.... what major, what kind of school (public, private, highly selective or not), what seemed to help? Did they make a lot of use of the career center?

2026 senior, ivy, has many friends in class of 2025 too:

The ones with jobs who have no plans for law/med have jobs to work in NYC(2), Boston, DC(3), Austin. Mix of '25 and '26. Jobs are consulting or marketing of some variety, or analyst, or policy think tanks. Some are known names like JP Morgan others are small firms.
Majors are math, public policy, anthropology or similar, lots of double majors or data sci minors. No engineers or CS in the friend group but word of mouth indicates that group is doing very well with jobs.
Most chose or are choosing law, med, other grad school: Schools so far are all ivy or top-20 in the field. Every single one.

[Anonymous]

Healthcare.
‘25 grad nursing. ‘26 future grad medicine-related, salary and job Will pay for post grad education.

[Anonymous]

Engineering, ivy.
Everyone has a competitive R&D type internship in industry or government lined up. Some are with big companies (tesla, northrup-G) others are with startups or small companies. Some have funded engineering fellowships in the US or europe, usually after multiple interview rounds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm hearing a lot from those who are having a hard time but not much from those who are successful. Can anyone with a new grad (25-26) with a job or undergrad with an internship for this summer share.... what major, what kind of school (public, private, highly selective or not), what seemed to help? Did they make a lot of use of the career center?

Junior CS major at UMD. Was able to get a SWE Internship with a govt contractor. Hoping to get approved for a TS clearance. Pays $10.5k/month. 3rd summer in a row with an internship. Didn't use school career center.

[Anonymous]

My law firm is hiring both lawyers and professional staff. Not for people fresh out of college, but we're hiring nonetheless.