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For young people, the job search has never been so miserable

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Re: For young people, the job search has never been so miserable

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess that depends a little more on location than the junior situation; here (EU), the seniors applying are much more stable salary wise. Much less golden mountains; they just want a job and stability, not dreams and chaos. Most I speak to over 40 want jobs for life, not hop. Raised by inflation yearly and that for the coming 27 or so years until retirement.

Oh for sure it's definitely in the States where everyone has a big head.

Is it possible everyone has a small pocket outside the States?

Re: For young people, the job search has never been so miserable

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who “made it” without a formal degree: oh come on. If nobody opens doors for you, it takes a lot more than just intellect and grit to establish yourself. While I don’t have many good things to say about the established education systems, it’s beyond naive to act like “just do it on your own” is a scalable approach. Even today, some doors will stay closed for me, simply because I will always have to justify…

I'm in a similar experience as you, but as my career grows longer into the decades I realize that it takes just as much mental fortitude to stay working in this field as it did for us to break into it from the unusual path. The half life of software engineers is quite short. Even some of the brightest minds I met who went to some of the best schools ended up just being tourists in this industry -- flushed out and dis…

I’m not just thinking about software engineering. There are lots of interesting positions which require any degree just as a basic requirement, especially in emerging fields, strategic roles, and generally in big companies. Maybe they’ll consider me qualified after I’ve built my own company, but if they encode the degree as a hard requirement the screening AI will just ditch my resume.

I don’t plan to stay in software for the rest of my life. Currently, my company develops knowledge engineering solutions, but in 5-10 years, I’d like to get some fresh air.

Re: For young people, the job search has never been so miserable

#25

‘Never’ is a long time. There were far worse times in (recent) history, but currently I see many companies rather hiring no one than a graduate/junior. At least in my field (which is common here; saas dev, fullstack), I have too pick between paying a graduate a very large amount of $, much to close to a medior or even senior, to skip over them. I would love to hire someone like me when I was a graduate: I didn’t have…

“I would love to hire someone like me when I was a graduate”

Oh I’m sure. The narcissism is palpable.

Re: For young people, the job search has never been so miserable

#26
Meanwhile, the stock market is through the roof, bitcoin rallied spectacularly, the housing market is unreachable to most, and let's just not talk about gold.

And AI hasn't kicked in yet.

At some point, we'll need to throw all the economists into the sea and start realizing what's going on here...

Re: For young people, the job search has never been so miserable

#28

‘Never’ is a long time. There were far worse times in (recent) history, but currently I see many companies rather hiring no one than a graduate/junior. At least in my field (which is common here; saas dev, fullstack), I have too pick between paying a graduate a very large amount of $, much to close to a medior or even senior, to skip over them. I would love to hire someone like me when I was a graduate: I didn’t have…

My situation speaks to the exact opposite. I'm currently studying computer science at grad level because I can't find even an UNPAID gig. It is honestly a soul destroying experience.

Hang in there. I was looking at some graphs from the Fed that showed Technology hiring vs unemployment. I think it’ll turn around by June/July.

Re: For young people, the job search has never been so miserable

#29
post #13

‘Never’ is a long time. There were far worse times in (recent) history, but currently I see many companies rather hiring no one than a graduate/junior. At least in my field (which is common here; saas dev, fullstack), I have too pick between paying a graduate a very large amount of $, much to close to a medior or even senior, to skip over them. I would love to hire someone like me when I was a graduate: I didn’t have…

As a hiring manager I can understand this view. I'm also in SaaS dev. But in the Netherlands at least most of the raising IT salary demands aligned with inflation, particularly if one includes housing market inflation. People are not going to accept a salary which still won't get them towards homeownrship with dual incomes if they can avoid it.

Yes, and in NL (I am Dutch) that problem is a lot bigger than in many other places. But if they feel they can avoid it, they should; this might mean no job (for a long time) though. Which is currently the reality. It’ll get better probably but no one knows when so these are choices; earn less with a job or wait?

There is a lot of talent but there is also a bottom line; the gap senior/medior/junior is just not big enough so it makes little sense to hire a junior currently.

Re: For young people, the job search has never been so miserable

#30
post #27
post #5

Is it actually worse compared to post 2008?

Where’s the market cash along with the Don and gloom talk. It kind of feels like a bubble.

Moved to part where it is going up due to cut cost, or investment in something different... That is AI chip orders and AI company hiring...

Those AI companies should be hiring, as they are getting massive investment and someone needs to do some work there. Or what am I missing?

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