New college grads are more likely to be unemployed in today's job market | Hacker News Reader

New college grads are more likely to be unemployed in today's job market

washingtonpost.com

28 pointssafaa199320 comments

> "double-majored in political science and communications"

Fields where ChatGPT can now do the entry-level jobs.

Better get a degree in flipping burgers and stacking up brick walls then I guess

Trade schools are booming! In many ways, dollar for dollar, a trade school is a much better option for people. Unfortunately, it does come with some disadvantages, mostly physical.

But at least we can expect the entry-level hoominz to get better at the specific tasks rapidly and with context. Can't we ?

White collar recession is rampant. You can hire great people 2/3 the price as 12 months ago. Not everyone will bite. But just put the job out there and you can get very experienced, high-tier talent for significantly cheaper as many of them can no longer hold out as their savings deplete and the mortgage is still due.

Entry hires will take anything, but their debt load is huge and rent is high. Tough times

I think it comes down to "college graduate" is not training for a job. New graduates still need to learn whatever job they take. Companies are now less likely to spend the time and money it takes to train a new college graduate versus someone with experience. There are few college majors that will train you enough to get a job right out of college. The only one I can think of is accounting. Even there they won't set you loose on your own.

Technically if there are internships available, they usually suffice or mostly suffice as a first step.

Problem is where I went to university, most students in my graduating class either didn't know they could or should get an internship, or worse, didn't think it was necessary and they preferred to just play video games all day.

Many of them gave up and never ended up becoming SWE's, they went down other paths because they never found an appropriate junior level position.

Now the problem is it's impossible to get internships.

I agree; I found this to be true even 15 years ago during my college years. I went to a well-known regional university (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo) and noticed that the job outcomes out of college were different for those who did summer internships with major companies versus those who did not. Everyone I know who got an offer to work at a prestigious company fresh out of college interned at a prestigious company for at least a summer. Even in the computer science department, the students who got offers at Microsoft, Google, Apple, and other top companies all did internships at similar companies for at least one summer. The computer science students who did not intern at large companies either ended up at smaller, lesser-known companies or they pursued non-software engineering careers. Now, I know a few CS graduates who didn't start at large software companies but got hired there later in their careers. In general, though, being a Cal Poly student with a good GPA wasn't enough to get a job offer, especially at highly sought-after companies.

Was thinking how I got past this problem. Then remembered I did IT, SysAdmin, and QA work for several years after school. Believe that really paid off in rounding out my knowledge.

Some of these jobs are not popular so there are usually openings somewhere.

You’re suggesting college used to provide job training? The trend is reversed actually - fewer humanities, more stem. So this does not explain why job access has grown more challenging

Stem != Job. Ignoring software, finding a traditional stem job directly out of college is very challenging. I know many mechanical engineering, bio enginers, chemical engineers who had/have a rough start.

I really wish people would stop equating stem to a job. Unless you are willing to move, it is not the case in many job markets.

Ok then describe what the change has been? Article is about a change in job access. Saying college doesn’t provide job training is if anything a static truth, not a new change. If that’s been the case before this change then it’s not relevant to the change

Besides my point about stem is in comparison to humanities which you don’t address

Most medical degrees require clinical hours and demand means you can usally get a job wherever you do clinicals.

I think any college degree is what you make of it. I majored in history, and now I have a career in sales with a good company and a job I enjoy. Unless you're majoring in the hard sciences IMO it's not about the degree, it's about the person.

Disheartening that this received both little attention and mostly callous replies.

It's a tough life and nobody owes you a job. It was no different when I graduated during a recession so nothing special or new here.

Incredibly shortsighted to think the issue here is hurt feelings. An excess of well educated unemployed people usually herald societal upheavals.

Paywall

No problem!

https://archive.li/p4by5

Reply on news.ycombinator.com