As my daughter can attest, it’s a tough job market out there. She’s a mechanical engineer, which seems steady demand-wise. But many of her college friends are struggling to find that crucial entry-level job or internship. Some are wondering if computer science and similar courses were the right decision, with AI automating software tasks at companies.
Just look at what’s happening at Amazon. CEO Andy Jassy said this week that his corporate workforce will shrink over the next few years as the company uses more generative AI tools and agents.
Not so coincidentally, Business Insider just spent weeks interviewing Gen Z tech job seekers as AI transforms early-career experiences across the industry. Our findings are a must-read for anyone looking to break in here and find success.
Jonathan, a 26-year-old software engineer, is emblematic of what we discovered. (He’s not authorized to speak to the media, so we removed his last name.) After earning his degree in 2022, he sent out nearly 300 applications and got 12 responses. It took three months to land a full-time tech role. Less than a year later, he lost that job due to his employer shutting an office. Then, he found himself repeating the process, this time applying to 600 jobs and hearing back from only five.
“Everyone tells you to get into computer science. That’s where all the money is at, that’s where the jobs are at,” Jonathan told BI. “It’s a lot harder than they make it out to be.”
He’s not alone. Recent computer science grads face a 6.1% unemployment rate in the US, higher than the national average. Wow. I never thought I’d see a stat like that.
Jonathan now works in defense tech, not the video game industry he originally aspired to join. Like many of his peers, he’s focused on gaining experience — any experience.
It’s looking like a tech career is evolving from a sure thing into something similar to every other type of job: You have to hustle and network to get your foot in the door, and then work like hell to stay employed and build steadily from there.
What else should you do as an aspiring tech worker? Our Gen Z survey story doesn’t have all the answers, but there’s great advice in here.
