Inexperienced doesn't mean stupid

> Who is going to want to major in CS in the future if they know that the odds of getting an entry-level job in their field when they graduate are getting worse and worse?

All the college students are taking these as internships. Then, if they like the job, they work there.

For the most part I was an average Joe during school and after graduating. But I was only average because I didn't take school seriously, and I missed out on learning a lot of cool and/or basic things because of that, along with some awesome sounding jobs because I wasn't able to impress the interviewers. I started taking my career more seriously a couple months after graduating when I realized things wouldn't be handed to me anymore and taught myself a lot of things I missed while doing some extra projects. Eventually, and it was a painful wait, I found a junior level job by really impressing my interviewers. They exist and aren't hard to find if you're looking, especially if you're as good as you think you are. Very few companies asked for my gpa before interviewing, if the asked at all.

The way we think of junior/middle/senior developers is completely broken.

How many senior developers have you met, that we crap but were senior simply because the amount of years they have gained? And vice versa.

If entrepreneurs straight out of college can suddenly become the CTO of a start up and lead it success without any previous experience, what does that mean for the experience metric?

Experience is like market validation. If you have lasted years, you must be able to do something but it doesn't necessarily mean they are good. It just makes them a little more safe to justify, and I can't believe the amount of premium which is placed on that.

I picked up a stupid book in a discount store when I was 20 called "Don't send a CV". It was full of unconventional ideas of how to get attention with intelligent ways. The pay-and-spray idea of resumes doesn't work for people generally, and as much as that dinky book was a dinky book and in a $1 bin at a discount store... it had a point.

Jobs are very much based on your location (i.e. in Australia there are way more tech jobs in Melbourne and Sydney, if you live in QLD, SA or WA you'll have a much smaller selection of places to work, thus less opportunity, some kinds of companies don't even exist on the fringes, and for example in AU the whole mega-corp silicon valley guys hardly exist at all!).

Welcome to capitalism. Job availability is a function of the markets, you gotta make yourself useful for the people around you otherwise you're screwed, and maybe we should be teaching people how to build businesses, albeit SMALL EFFECTIVE ones, not some disrupt-to-flip but something to pay for the kids and the two cars and living expenses. Nobody owes you anything, especially a job, and markets have said thus.

unfortunately it can mean over-confident, though (or simply not understanding how clueless you are?)... we had a nice guy at work - young, friendly, ambitious. got some weird vibes a couple of times when i tried to help him out with problems, but thought little of it. then he leaves and i have to maintain his code. why the fuck didn't he ask for help?

and yes, this implies something about the company culture needs to be fixed. the blame certainly isn't all his.