Computer Science Graduate Can't Get a Job after 3 Years! 

Ive been a SE for 5 years got laid off recently, its hard out there, im barely getting interviews its hard out there right now. My heart goes out to everyone trying don't give up, find some side work in the mean time.

Graduated June 2023. 700 applications. No prospects. What the fuck am I supposed to do? This is legitimately a useless degree. No one is hiring new grads. In 3 months I'll no longer be a new grad! And I'll actually be the bottom of the barrel, since I'm sure companies would prefer a fresh grad with no experience to an old grad with no experience.

it's bad for everyone out here. especially young folks. we'll pull through this guys keep grinding 👍

Also as time passes you lose your coding skills and companies know this and always ask about gaps in employments. This is a good reason to take on free projects or come up with something to do on your own. It's not like riding a bike or swimming where you can have long gaps and still ride a bike. You have to constantly be on the grind and code/develop to keep sharp.

I feel so discouraged and lost. I don't even know where to apply. Everywhere they ask for 3-5 years of experience. I just graduated may 2023. :(

Thanks for this advice. I'm looking to get into IT field and this advice is solid. I was just contemplating all of the aforementioned ideas presented.

I’ve been trying to find work for 6 months as an HR major BBA. I’ve been trying to tweak my resume, and learn from all the rejections of potential employers to improve my knowledge in the hiring process. Honestly, I feel a bit depressed. Going to have to get a job as a line cook in the meanwhile because I just can’t run out of money:/. I enjoy cooking, and have worked in restaurants for a long time. I’ll try again in a few months, but I need some money to get by for now.

No one cares about your skills or abilities. It's not what you know it's who you blow.

Maybe ... and just maybe ... its: "Who you know ... and not what you know" (you can call it "networking" or plain corruption).

Took me 7 years to get a programming job without an undergraduate degree. The trick is to not give up ✊ all you need is 1 job! Not 10, not 5, not 2…just one job.

I was able to get a coding job at 42 after 6 months of online study. For me it was due to my network and soft skills that I was able to translate to coding. I was also able to get my nephew a job as a coder when he was 17 and didn't even finish school and was a self taugt coder. Again, this was due to my network and his attitude. My advice would be that you have to start somewhere. Make apps for free for small businesses, take on jobs from freelancer etc, go see recruiters. Hope that helps

Look into a sales engineer or customer success manager positions. Those two roles are great fits with that background.

Hey Stefen thanks for the advice in the video. I had a question about getting employed at a company with startup experience. Currently I work as a full stack developer for this startup without pay but equity. I also have another job to make income, but would this experience that I have gained (1.5 years), can I put this on my resume? I have learned a lot about building front/backend applications, architecture, design patterns etc. I just don’t know if I can use this experience to apply to other companies since I don’t get paid a salary.

I misunderstood the title, I thought he is saying that there will be no job for CS degree holders in next three years AI will replace programmers.

Here in Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark) you need both degree and personal side projects to get hired, especially right now. Without degree the biggest firms with the best pay (100k +/yr) simply wont hire you no matter what experience you have and the rest of the mid-size and start up companies only hire people without degree if they are extremely talented doing open source contribution (to even do this requires skill from many years experience), have created their own live webapp app and scaled it with thousands of users, or if they are lucky and know someone from within the company who takes them in. It's basically harder than just getting the degree itself. Now IF you have the degree, you only need a couple side projects to show some surface lvl knowledge of the relevant technology(React for front-end etc.) and then they will invest in you, it's much simpler than trying to become some wizard at JS or something.

Been two years and hundreds of applications since getting my masters degree in computer science, still nothing for me.

I don't know if this still works in today's market, but maybe it's easier to start by getting a job that isn't "software development" specifically but involves enough coding to count as practical experience. As an example, companies might be interested in hiring people for 3rd-level Support, or System Administrator roles, where people end up developing their own internal toolset. And if instead of a mess of 2000 shell scripts, it's a well-structured suite of in-house developed applications, they're not going to say no to that. That would at least somewhat address the "how do I get experience without already having experience" problem while also not working for free and being able to afford luxuries such as... food.

How is it a risk to hire a new graduate? Logically that statement makes no sense. The fact that you have graduated with a degree shows you are capable of learning, passing examinations, meeting deadlines, working on a team etc. There is no risk to training someone, you are not training them like teaching them how code works..... you are training them to follow your companies standards and procedures. Not to mention that hiring a junior means paying low and getting someone to learn things the way your company wants them to. Then developing this junior hire into a associate and eventually a senior in the company. The fact is that there is clearly a shortage of jobs right now and a workforce that is too big in the computer science industry to support fresh graduates. So most jobs have over 50 applicants on average. If just 1 of those people have more experience, you basically aren't getting hired. If all 50 have the same amount of experience, then they start filtering people based on all sorts of preferences. Companies are not supposed to be racist or against specific things, but they can and that's why they ask for people to list their gender, race etc. They obviously filter out certain attributes that the hiring manager doesn't like. So if the hiring manager is racist towards all white people, then you will probably get an automatic rejection for putting white as your race. You will never know, you will never be able to prove it either. Another thing that's happening right now is nepotism and hiring friends/family of current employees. Without someone directly helping you get a job, it seems like it's nearly impossible right now as a fresh graduate with no experience. Unless you have a perfect resume and are going above and beyond the requirements like getting certifications on your own time and having past internships..... you will most likely not be hired now.

Meanwhile, it's insanely hard to find a competent developer. How can it be both hard for developers to find a job and for companies to find developers?

B.S. IT with Magna Cum Laude, 4 years +, No Job whatsoever. Other degrees too for at least 25 years + , No job whatsoever, No hope. May die in despair 😞.

I've followed up with people who didn't hire me after an interview and every single time (probably half a dozen now) I get no response at all. And these were with positions at pretty reputable companies, so I don't think that advice really helps in this day & age

I just went to a recruitment agancy, I knew C, VB 3.5 and SQL got temp jobs to help projects that were just start or coming to a close. A couple months here, a couple of months there…

I just started studying to become a programmer, its composed of 4 semesters but, kind of expensive and after graduating I do not know if I will get jobs,,, so its very frustrating already,,, would you suggest me to just quick and study by own with cheap online courses and keep trying or, is a degree helps ?

This is scary fact, that I hope I don't go through. But, I haven't graduated yet. I'm applying today for internship. So, I will see.

i think what should happen is a special apprentice dev course should be available.. any company can be a provider if they can agree to be assessed.. and when they successfully bring a student through to completion and they pass.. for ten years they become the agent of the dev.. and any other dev company that utilises those skills that wants to hire them has to pay 5% extra to the original training provider company that has provided the dev 2 years job training and a small living salary for that time. This could motivate companies to train new dev / skills as they know that on average they will be reimbursed.. and it ensures the whole industry share the cost of training new devs .. Just an idea.. you might think companies would avoid hiring from the program.. but companies pay agency fees often anyway.. and in any case, they'd likely have to pay more for a dev with established work based skills anyway. As far as I can see.

It's because there's almost nothing new left to program anymore. The only jobs in tech are maintenance of existing software and making pretty presentations. I have mad skills in BASIC (a DOS based programming language). I can process data like nobody's business. And it is very tough for me to find new clients and work.

I believe this is symptomatic of a broader problem of lack of good jobs for properly trained people. I agree with a lot uncle Stef says but there’s more going on out there and I think AI may have somewhat to do with it.

Fell for the IT meme

It's not so much about things that are in your control unfortunately. I know that people are doing things wrong but right now it's impossible for recent graduates to find jobs. Software development became mainstream and capital flowed through the labor market from the venture capitalists, everybody went for the job, then the bubble burst and the investors took their money, now nobody can find a job. Same happened with the oil industry in 2014, with the IT industry in 2001 etc

Companies rightfully don't care much about your degree in CS, having the right experience and certifications is way more relevant and useful, more than a CS degree. Get Red Hat certified, get AWS certified, CompTIA, Cisco, Google, Microsoft, etc. Get something to show that is not just a degree but something tangible and practical, show them some project you did that has some practical impact.

😆 3 years? I've been trying for 12.

It's been two years for me 😔

This is really weird, I don't have a degree, ugly resume, suck st dsa, don't know what system design is, no experience, age 19, but still get selected wherever I give the interview and manage to get good enough package

"The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit."

Same graduated 4 years ago computer science can’t find a job not even Starbucks will hire me

Wtf I just got admission

Don't take much to get a degree. A job on the other hand takes a bit of independence and survival skills in any field.

Companies are greedy and cheap they can afford to train new employees.

why are you assuming im not already doing the aforementioned things you already mentioned aka freelancing, spending 12 hours a day leetcoding and so on, your boomer and age is showing, we gotta work 10x harder bow a days and be paid peanuts compared to u back in ur day

Do you even code?

It's harder to fit in when you get older , any suggestions?

Lose weight. Learn to live off of beans and cereal, some vegs, a piece of fruit, a little meat, and a bowl of ice cream. This world needs a Universal Basic Income.

3 years no job?? impossible.

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