1 in 6 Companies Are Hesitant to Hire Recent College Graduates

Every generation of Grandpas claim the winters were colder and the fish were larger then when they were kids. I won't be fooled into believing climate change and fish population collapse!

Maybe every generation of graduates is getting less employable.

To add what you said, the poll asks: " 25% state that all recent college graduate hires worked out well, while 62% mention that only some were successful. Further, 14% report that only a few or none of the hires were successful."

The interpretation of result depends on what "some" means, it could be reasonably be 50%, 75%, 85%, or 95%. If it's 50%, it seems bad. If it's above 75%, that's pretty good overall,

There is a lot of truth to this, in my experience. Larger companies (F500) have formalized rotational programs for new grads which sets them up for success, but they can only take a limited amount of grads and almost no middle + small companies have anything similar.

The corporate culture of hiring new grads seemed to die in the GFC of 2008. Companies thought it would be too great a risk to hire someone with no experience, so they would have job postings for candidates with "2 to 5 years of experience." This is also why we have a perpetual talent shortage in that demographic, bc everyone wanst them and there isn't a new pipeline of young people to back fill that range.

The worst thing they do is say no.

Alternatively having a real apprenticeship program developed for tech would be super useful, but we hate it when we try to do real engineer things.

When I was a student I was hanging out in an IRC room for discussion of SELinux, asking questions. One night a Red Hatter PMd me and invited me to apply for a job, which was an exciting thing because I'd never been asked to apply for a job before. But my heart sank because the job ad had a huge list of requirements, so I regretfully informed the guy that I couldn't apply because I did not have enough years of experience. He just laughed and said there were probably five people on the planet who actually met those job requirements and told me to apply anyway.

In the end I didn't because I wasn't actually finished with the degree at that time, but the way he treated the job ad as a bit of a joke was definitely a useful life lesson. Job ads are often not written by the people who want to hire, so a lot gets lost in translation.

Or twenty-five years ago about Gen X.

It's just an article about "how older people tend to feel about hiring new college grads". There's nothing new about Gen Z that makes them somehow "less hireable".

On the other hand, I've worked with interns who were pretty good. One I knew had done a lot of side projects while going to school. He is now making about $300k TC, 3.5 years after his internship.

In the climate today, internships are the road to a job. People intern at a company between sophomore and junior year, and then another one between junior and senior year, and hope they have offers from at least one of the two on graduation (plus maybe a few more they applied to separately).

The IT job market has been tight since the end of 2022. I don't know what position someone who is ready is in, but just doing classes probably isn't enough. I tended to learn something in a semester, and then apply it after. Like I learned Java one semester, and during the semester started fixing bugs for a free software project that was online. Then I had a small program I wanted, and did it in Java. Similar with C++, computer graphics and other things - I learned it during the semester, then applied it during summer or winter break on little projects.

On a wider level, I wouldn't disagree the managers and owners of the field can make you work to death without caring about you and the like. On an individual level though, if people want to break in they need to do the right things, know the right things, and get a lucky break. I can say everyone I know who kept at it eventually got a break, but it can take longer than they wanted it to. Also, from late 2022 until now has not been a great time for new talent.

In my current job was through an agency where I was placed on a mandatory probation period where I'd need to have my contract renewed yearly, get hired or be terminated. The only thing that sucks is that during this period, you're an employee of the headhunters so none of the benefits of the company you're working at apply to you.

In regard to, "doesn't even care about me", that's reality. Though there are some companies and individuals that do care, the vast majority don't. Right now, CS is one of the few fields paying over 100k for some entry level positions AFAIK.

It sounds like you're a woman and I commend you for thinking about children. Personally, my recommendation is to stick it out, possibly invest in a bootcamp or follow thought leaders or tech tool creators and learn niche or cutting edge skills. Getting certifications can help as well. Degrees help you get past the gatekeepers and bootcamps help you get some attention. I've always seen degrees as proving you can stick with something. And I see bootcamps as proving you can stick with something specific that allows you to provide immediate value. But personally, I believe experience is the best teacher and the best way to get it is to take anything. I loved taking 2 months gigs. Fail hard, then try again. If you're eager to learn, you'll be surprised how much you can process in 2 months time and if you can treat every gig as an opportunity to learn something new, 2 years can bring a lot of experience.

No judgement, but you might be missing something or doing something "wrong" without knowing it. Being ghosted absolutely everywhere sounds strange regardless of how the market is doing. CS as a field is not dead yet.

As for the field not caring about you: nobody owes you anything. That doesn't mean you should just roll over and give up. And it also doesn't mean you should take shit from abusive managers "working you to death". There are good people and companies out there, but you need to go out and find them. I work only 4 days a week, prioritize my family, and my employer accepts that.

Compared to so many other jobs CS is still a lot better than other options and will continue to be viable for a long time. You're absolutely not too late.

I hired and subsequently fired two new college grads in the last two years and both had most if not all the issues listed. It was a huge challenge to get them to do basic things even when I told them they needed to be done multiple times. I have a third recent college grad working on my team and they are doing great because they put in the work.

It’s always been a filter. Or rather, a qualifier for white collar jobs. It doesn’t mean there isn’t value obtained in education OR that their value is becoming more diluted as the more of the population obtains a bachelor’s degree. It just means that there are new qualifiers. Examples: specific schools are held in higher regard, requirements for higher education, job experience or portfolio, etc.

The reality is _a lot_ of applicants without any proof like that don't last long and thus wasting lots of company resources (including rehiring). Of course there are many very great folks without a degree and also a lot of idiots with a degree, but I learned to trust that heuristic until a strong signal otherwise pops up.