2024 College Graduates, how’s the job market?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prediction (without dog in fight) CS and most STEM over or almost over. Glut of kids from the over focus on this for last 10-15 years and skills moving to AI. Will still need human implementation and judgement, though.

Who makes AI work?

NP. I have no idea, and would like to better understand. What are the skills/jobs behind AI, how many people are we actually talking about, and how do these things compare to the recent past? How do you expect AI to change CS education and prospects?

(A minor question that I’m sure can be answered easily in a few mere sentences on an anonymous forum, lol…but I really am curious)

I have a son who is really into AI and it seems like CS nerds are just creating Artificial neural networks tailored to specific tasks that make a lot of tasks quicker and more accurate. My son has been pretty involved in competitions that are sponsored by companies looking for people who have these skills. There is a huge demand for this, as far as I can tell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS is a senior in computer engineering at NC State and has a job lined up, as do 2 of his roommates (one is CE, the other is a similar major). The 4th roommate started graduate school early this semester.

Wait to see when they get an actual start date in writing. A lot of start date delays happening (EY, Bain, McKinsey) and some leading to rescinded offers (Amazon). If they don’t have a start date by now, I would have your DS start pushing for one in writing. Also, ask for an earlier start. This is not the year to take the summer off and start in Sept.

This. Bain rescinded DS’s offer last week. He is now looking again and planning to move back home 😟.

Dance with the devil and that’s what you get. Romney is living proof.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS is a senior in computer engineering at NC State and has a job lined up, as do 2 of his roommates (one is CE, the other is a similar major). The 4th roommate started graduate school early this semester.

Wait to see when they get an actual start date in writing. A lot of start date delays happening (EY, Bain, McKinsey) and some leading to rescinded offers (Amazon). If they don’t have a start date by now, I would have your DS start pushing for one in writing. Also, ask for an earlier start. This is not the year to take the summer off and start in Sept.

This. Bain rescinded DS’s offer last week. He is now looking again and planning to move back home 😟.

Dance with the devil and that’s what you get. Romney is living proof.

so is Buttigieg - would be nice to know the clients he worked for at Mckinsey - hmm?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Target universities for MBB

https://casecoach.com/b/what-type-of-candidates-make-it-to-mckinsey-bcg-and-bain-in-the-us/

holy cow - Penn far and away at the top of the list @ 11%, easily outpacing Harvard (7%) and basically lapping the rest of the field. Is this just Wharton grads? or do arts/science kids contribute to this..

Penn being treated with such derision on DCUM when it has such fantastic outcomes is a major disconnect

The derision happens for most ivies here, most is sour grapes.
Parent of penn grad, Bain has tech and innovation sectors, and hires many from Engineering, not just CS. Mckinsey and BC probably do too i do not know. All three hire from CAS (college of Arts&sci) too, many different majors, for similar roles as Wharton. Consulting is still considered "backup" plan by many who want grad/professional school careers or want a tech start-up but are not ready to launch, all paths common from Penn.

yep Penn and Cornell are the perennial laughingstock ivies here on DCUM. Heaven forbid someone attend them over Williams, Rice, or Berkeley! btw every Penn and Cornell grad i know is killing it - same can’t be said for SLAC grads i know..

Plenty of Cornell and Penn people don't slay. Killing it?! Must be getting old, so I'd hope everyone you know is doing well at this point. It probably has nothing to do with undergrad so far out...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bad for my nephew who studied computer game design. (He has been looking since 2023)

My nephew is graduating next month with a computer game design degree and is having difficulty finding a job.

Based on the advice my kid was given, one should get a CS degree and make game design a series of electives or a minor. People hiring CS really are not familiar enough with that major yet and seem to fear that it is CS light (even though it isn't).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Target universities for MBB

https://casecoach.com/b/what-type-of-candidates-make-it-to-mckinsey-bcg-and-bain-in-the-us/

holy cow - Penn far and away at the top of the list @ 11%, easily outpacing Harvard (7%) and basically lapping the rest of the field. Is this just Wharton grads? or do arts/science kids contribute to this..

Penn being treated with such derision on DCUM when it has such fantastic outcomes is a major disconnect

The derision happens for most ivies here, most is sour grapes.
Parent of penn grad, Bain has tech and innovation sectors, and hires many from Engineering, not just CS. Mckinsey and BC probably do too i do not know. All three hire from CAS (college of Arts&sci) too, many different majors, for similar roles as Wharton. Consulting is still considered "backup" plan by many who want grad/professional school careers or want a tech start-up but are not ready to launch, all paths common from Penn.

At Penn, Wharton is much more highly regarded and those kids have a better chance at many opportunities when compared to CAS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prediction (without dog in fight) CS and most STEM over or almost over. Glut of kids from the over focus on this for last 10-15 years and skills moving to AI. Will still need human implementation and judgement, though.

Who makes AI work?

NP. I have no idea, and would like to better understand. What are the skills/jobs behind AI, how many people are we actually talking about, and how do these things compare to the recent past? How do you expect AI to change CS education and prospects?

(A minor question that I’m sure can be answered easily in a few mere sentences on an anonymous forum, lol…but I really am curious)

Short answer: CS majors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

both econ majors - as I said, I can’t speak to CS, which may be better, but my son called it a bloodbath. Recruiting on campus was half what it was 2 years ago, and ever dinner / coffee chat / group invite is geared towards diversity hires. Almost impossible for non URM to land on Wall Street with no connection - regardless of whether it’s Yale at the top or Cornell at the bottom of T20.

Again, what school? What firms and jobs? I find this hard to believe since there are so few URMs at the T20s so sounds like more typical grievance. We just attended admitted student event at UVA and discussion about changes at McIntire. Apparently, non-McIntire, econ majors are doing fine. VT Pamplin recent grads we know also seem to be doing fine.

+1. Those companies also typically target the top HBCUs and the like for diversity. PP's son likely has a poor assessment of what's going on.

[Anonymous]

I know lots of CS majors from schools below the top 10 who are having a lot of trouble finding jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

both econ majors - as I said, I can’t speak to CS, which may be better, but my son called it a bloodbath. Recruiting on campus was half what it was 2 years ago, and ever dinner / coffee chat / group invite is geared towards diversity hires. Almost impossible for non URM to land on Wall Street with no connection - regardless of whether it’s Yale at the top or Cornell at the bottom of T20.

Again, what school? What firms and jobs? I find this hard to believe since there are so few URMs at the T20s so sounds like more typical grievance. We just attended admitted student event at UVA and discussion about changes at McIntire. Apparently, non-McIntire, econ majors are doing fine. VT Pamplin recent grads we know also seem to be doing fine.

+1. Those companies also typically target the top HBCUs and the like for diversity. PP's son likely has a poor assessment of what's going on.

ding ding we have a winner! most ridiculous comment yet!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS is a senior in computer engineering at NC State and has a job lined up, as do 2 of his roommates (one is CE, the other is a similar major). The 4th roommate started graduate school early this semester.

Wait to see when they get an actual start date in writing. A lot of start date delays happening (EY, Bain, McKinsey) and some leading to rescinded offers (Amazon). If they don’t have a start date by now, I would have your DS start pushing for one in writing. Also, ask for an earlier start. This is not the year to take the summer off and start in Sept.

This. Bain rescinded DS’s offer last week. He is now looking again and planning to move back home 😟.

wow sorry about this - had to be elated getting hired by the best of the best, and then to have it stripped away. Almost like a cruel joke. Is your DC an undergrad, and can u name school? has to be T5 if they landed at Bain..

this happened to a lot of SAIS/SFS grads in 2011 after republicans took the house and forced obama to sign sequestration/budget control act

i know CIA pulled offers due to funding of positions

Happened a ton during the dotcom bust for 2001 & 2002 grads and after the financial crisis in 2009 for consulting and banking.

This is a bit different because there is no equivalent major external force. Really, hangover from artificially high demand from low interest rate environment.

AI is also starting to make some inroads.

smart comment - right on point

traditional consulting is uniquely positioned to be gutted by AI

from a mckinsey AP:

"Regarding AI. My take is impact on MBB will be huge.

ChatGPT is quite good at giving fast answers, using a credible logic, can pull in a large knowledge base to find 'best practices' and present all that in a digestible manner.

That's essentially what you expect from a consulting team.

Once more mature, I think the typical EM+2 team will just become 0.2EM+0.2Asc+ChatGPT, the team basically doing QC, handling clients and doing expert calls. Value add for clients paying $1 million to a consulting will be pretty hard to justify."

MBB all have their internal 'chatgpt' - mckinsey's is called Lilly and supposedly it is way worse than off-the-shelf LLM wrappers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Encourage these kids to apply for federal jobs.

fed jobs are no joke when it comes to selectivity if it is a desirable agency / element within a desireably agency

not sure where this whole schtik of 'easy to get a fed job' came about

that's def NOT the case

[Anonymous]

Fed jobs are so easy to get but low pay. A recent college will get a GS-7 step 1. That’s around 56K/yr in the DMV. Too low for a CS major.

[Anonymous]

But in this CS market, it would be a good place to start. I would not advise a CS major to hold out for six figures these days. Many are working in restaurants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good to have CS and entrepreneurship and something soft skill (communications, English) - highly in demand if you can do all.

But the CS fanatics here have been slamming those evil distribution requirements here for years. Good luck on any of the kids knowing how to end a sentence with a period.