Recent computer science graduates are encountering painful challenges in the job market. Most find it hard to land their first jobs in this hyper-competitive market. Graduate from the class of 2024, Eddie Hart and Colin exhibit some of the paths that young professionals are already starting to walk. Their stories showcase the impact of an increasingly narrow employment base.
Eddie Hart studied computer science and cybersecurity at Newcastle University. Now, he’s recently won through all that progress to actually get a job as a security engineer with Threatspike, a UK-based cybersecurity startup. His accomplishment occurs at a time when job offers in the tech industry have drastically decreased. The UK’s National Foundation for Education Research has recently announced a shocking 50% fall in tech job postings. This steep drop is projected over just five years, 2019/20 to 2024/25. This slump has hit entry-level positions especially hard, with half of recent graduates still wondering what their career prospects are in this up-and-down industry.
Colin, another computer science grad in the 2024 class, has taken the plunge. For his own part, he’s decided to leave the tech industry altogether. He’s currently pursuing a career in law enforcement. This decision is illustrative of the hopelessness and frustration felt by so many of his classmates. Colin’s story is representative of a swell of graduating students leaving tech and realizing that this sector isn’t the future of viable opportunity.
That’s Eddie Hart, not happy about the now standard, often secretive, hiring practices of the coding companies. He thinks these employers are afraid to hire new grads. Most importantly, he felt the aggravating rigidity of the current job application landscape, an application process that consisted of eight steps, the worst of the bunch. In the first phase, he had an uphill battle. This felt intimidating and even dehumanizing because he had to respond to 20 exam-style questions about himself. Hart had done almost a year’s worth of recruitment for one Fortune 100 company, only not to get the offer in the end.
Industry experts report that the use of AI tools is rampant among IT and tech workers already. Recent research from Stack Overflow shows that almost half of all tech workers are using AI tools on a daily basis. Yet, perhaps surprisingly, only about one-third of these practitioners indicate they greatly trust the outputs produced by these types of tools. This disconnect begs the question, is AI really doing the right thing in recruitment, and is it actually making hiring decisions fairer or more equitable.
As Prashanth Chandrasekar, the CEO of Stack Overflow, recently noted, it’s a terrible job market for new graduates right now. He fumed about how difficult it is to graduate these days. Time-honored pathways into the industry have drastically shifted. Historically, that’s how the tech sector operated—an “apprenticeship” model, in which young talent would develop their skills working alongside world-class seasoned developers. This model seems to be failing, adding to the stormy waters that newcomers are sailing into.
Author Eddie Hart raised the alarm on a disturbing trend. Even “junior” roles typically ask for two or three years of professional experience. This burden disproportionately limits the number of opportunities available to recent graduates, who do not have years of established history in the space. Hear from Colin as he shares his frustrations with the interview process. He was usually met with interviewers who had obviously not even looked at his CV, further making him feel like an outsider to hopeful employers.
The struggles experienced by Eddie Hart and Colin serve as a microcosm of a larger, widespread challenge facing the tech sector at large. Getting hired is becoming more competitive. The businesses that are hiring are making their processes more streamlined and targeting more experienced candidates. Unfortunately, their consequence is an uncertain future for new graduates. This staggering drop in job prospects leads to some vital questions of whether the tech workforce can be sustained and fully inclusive as we move into the future.