Ask HN: Will the job market grow fast enough to accomodate all the new grads? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Will the job market grow fast enough to accomodate all the new grads?

5 pointsgeremiiah2 comments

IT/CS has become a very popular major and it seems to me that we reached a point where there is a glut of new IT/CS grads to the point that now one has to be top talent to get a junior position, and otherwise positions are only open for (up to date) seniors. And this situation is true of both the North American and western European job markets. I am also told, there is a glut of CS grads in India. I don't know how China, Latin America, Oceania and Africa are faring.

My question is, do you see a future where the tech job market will grow fast enough to absorb all the grads, or will many of them have to reinvent themselves?

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My perception is the globally the economy is slowing. But different areas are faring very differently. By areas I mean both geographically and in terms of application domains. There still are lots of problems in search of solutions. But if all you have is CS knowledge then it is hard to differentiate yourself from others with comparable qualifications.

I think that knowledge of specific application domains is one way to differentiate. Broaden your areas of interest and demonstrate some relevant experience.

Look at finance, business and economics grads. Do all of them go on to become bankers, MD's or Economists? No. I think CS degrees will join the line. It'll still be a very useful degree, but not a guaranteed ticket into software engineering / development. The people who put in the extra hours actually building stuff and exercising their passion for development and engineering, will be the ones snapping up the SWE jobs.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like they'll have to give up on tech entirely. They'll just have an easier time going into less demanding and competitive roles that equivalate to the calibre of whatever jobs those other grads go into. Or will be required to specialize early and put more time into their learning.

I mean as someone in the UK who landed a SWE'ing job last month (without a degree and with 7 months of learning programming and building my own projects) It's more doable and easy than you think. Just don't trust a university to give you a portfolio of experience that employers will be impressed by. Get on your ide and build, test, and deploy stuff

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