The US has been over-producing PhDs needed for academia for a long time. Now we have too many PhDs combined with a bad job market.
The federal government’s funding of scientific research has been severely disrupted under the current administration, and that directly affects the availability of research jobs. I don’t pretend to understand the application of Weiss’s research, but he’s studying ice - if that applies to climate, this administration has specifically targeted climate science for reduced federal spending. NOAA and NCAR were hit hard.
Both the NSF and NIH issued substantially fewer new research grants than their historical averages. This matters enormously for new PhDs. Postdoctoral positions are are almost entirely funded through research grants, and universities can’t hire postdocs for projects that lack funding. When grants disappear, there are fewer positions available, regardless of how well qualified the applicants are. When funding contracts, competition intensifies and candidates are competing against other highly qualified researchers in a niche area with an even smaller pool of jobs.
Funding uncertainty also makes principal investigators less willing to commit to hiring researchers for several years.
Funding cuts may not explain Weiss’s particular experience, any more than the information in the article proves that his advisors failed him, or that his application strategy, research record, or career preparation are lacking. Sometimes bad things, and bad timing just happen. And sometimes people’s beliefs (that degrees from prestigious universities are a guarantee) are shaken.
That poor kid’s story is ALL over the web. Typing in his name brings up dozens and dozens of links. That’s not gonna help him With a background like his there is likely something in his background that is a kick-out for employers. And gotta wonder what his recommendations say. When I was in grad school we had a classmate or 2 that, while they made it through the program, they would likely have a hard time with job placement.
My kid will graduate with a master’s in mechanical engineering in May. He started applying in early September for jobs. He was pretty picky and only applied to those that he was really excited by or that offered rotations for a few years that included something that was exciting to him. He received an offer this week and will accept it. He is thrilled with the job and the offer.
I know of 4 other mechanical engineers who have/will have bachelor’s and graduation dates from May 2025 to May 2026 with jobs or offers that they are happy with. And 1 biomedical engineer who is employed.
I know others, lots of engineers, but don’t know their employment status at all. I’ll have to ask around. I know of a few kids with degrees in music and 1 in event planning that are struggling more and taking other jobs while they continue to look.
I firmly believe there’s a lid for every pot (it’s funnier in Yiddish-- and it refers to everything- dating/marriage, work and job-hunting, house hunting, etc.)
S23 will graduate this spring with ME and a minor in BME from a highly ranked state flagship with a 3.98 GPA, leadership in his engineering student org, and a stellar rec from his summer R&D internship from a household name med-tech company. However, despite both his mentor and senior manager pushing for him to get a permanent offer, he did not receive one since the company is doing terribly (layoffs, hiring freeze, etc) and could only hire a small fraction of their interns this year. (He’s still in touch with his manager who is trying to help him network at other companies and learned that the finances are so bad that they’re not even hiring summer interns in his division this year!)
He has applied to countless other positions in both ME and BME and has had a few interviews/upcoming interviews, but no offers so far. Among his close friend group of a dozen-ish ME and/or BME majors, ONE received a permanent offer from his summer internship, but the rest of his friends are also all still looking. And his roommate who wants to get his masters in ME has just been told that his research mentor may not have the needed funding this year. And these are all really good students with solid summer internships and recs. So, unless he and his friends want to work on HVAC for data centers (which none of them do), there seem to be very few jobs out there, and the grad school ‘slots’ may be fewer than normal as well.
Although S23 LOVED, LOVED, LOVED doing R&D for a cutting edge medical device, he is very realistic and will look at just anything else in either ME or BME besides help build data centers. He knows that it’s only October and has been told that more openings will be posted in the upcoming months. But, so far it’s been very, very discouraging
I’m sure your son is aware that the midwest Medical Design & Manufacturing conference is next week. It gets the entire supply chain under one roof. What he might not be aware of is that sometimes it’s easier for new grads to get a role down the supply chain but still gain very valuable job experience. The conference website has a list of all the companies attending (and it’s sortable): MD&M Midwest 2026 | Find Exhibitors and Sessions
It could be a good tool for your son to identify and research other companies that he may not have heard of that are still industry adjacent and hiring.
It’s October. It’s early. My son got the bulk of offers in Dec and his intern company second semesters. If he has interviews, I’d say he’s on track.
BME may have the lowest job fulfill rates. For example, at Ga Tech, it’s got the lowest reported success rate of engineering majors (the school only has a 35% knowledge rate) but they report only 61% of new grads who want a job found one - they don’t report a time frame but NACE uses 6 months after graduation. Many might go to grad school too but there’s likely economic and governmental factors associated with the major.
But I think October is waaaaaaaaaaaaay too early to say - he doesn’t have a job offer yet…as if it’s not a good thing. Most companies likely haven’t even started the process and those that have, likely aren’t to that stage yet.
When did the expectation become that you had to have a job before you even graduate? Let alone 7 months beforehand? If you still don’t have something 6 months after graduation maybe that is the time to worry but this seems a little early to be hitting the panic button.
As Hippobirdy noted, some internships and co-op companies will make full time offers to their students before they return to school for their final year. That sets up an unrealistic and inaccurate expectation that “everyone” has a job before senior year even starts.
My '23 grad had a verbal commit in her third co-op rotation which was in Dec of '21 and her official offer in July '22. She got a large bonus for signing her offer before she left to finish her senior year in Aug '22. Her 6 person cohort all accepted their offers. We jokingly called it ED but the analogy is accurate in that plenty of people are hired later in the RD rounds!
I think some employers with spring interns also would make offers pending graduation, such as teaching, or some public sector roles, and then kids would have a mid summer or fall start date lined up.
To follow up about expectations, these expectations may be regional or college specific as well. UMD has fall and spring career fairs. Kids look for internships and full time opportunties, including grad students and recent alums.
It’s definitely taking longer for my D22’s friends/ cohort to find post grad employment than say my older kids.
In some industries, internship offers for 2027 summer have been made in Jan/Feb of 2026, and after the 2027 summer, by August of 2027, full time offers are made for 2028 fall. My son was telling me recently that consulting (he meant MBB) for summer of 2027 closed a month two months ago. It all depends on industry.
In some industries, the only path to a full time role is through an internship.
A more important observation that my son had this past year was that if you did not put in an application within 48 hours of announcement of an opening, in high demand jobs, you won’t be called for the interview. As an example, our firm (with 40 employees) advertised for a role and received 400 resumes in 48 hours. We are not even necessarily high demand. We stopped looking at new resumes past that point. We don’t have the bandwidth to even read 400 resumes to short list 10 people for 1 role.
I definitely get that, I just think kids who either didn’t have an internship or didn’t get an offer (some places just aren’t hiring) should panic in the fall of their senior year - seems a little early for that.
There is always hope, and you get lucky in some cases. My kid got the job he is in right now fairly late in Spring this year. But there is different seasonality in different industries. We just need to be cognizant of that. It makes very sad when kids ask for advice (kids in my circle) sometime in Spring for things that mostly closed in fall last year. Many kids are just not aware of the calendar in their own fields. You should make an effort finding out how your field works sometime in late freshman year or early sophomore year – because some fields require a lead time of a couple of years of things to do in various summers. Jobs and internships are not an afterthought you get to. They are an integral part of the undergrad process in many industries / majors.
Most jobs aren’t just hiring seasonally. Yes, if you want to get an analyst role or work for MBB, a hedge fund or something of that ilk you do need a concrete plan and to follow a timeline. But most students aren’t looking for or getting those jobs. Most of the kids I know - engineering or CS - got their jobs a few months after graduating with companies that aren’t FAANG or otherwise mentioned on this site (you know, the places that most people work).
I am not saying people are hiring seasonally. I am saying there is seasonality to the annual hiring process that is industry specific. Especially with employers that have to hire in large numbers, and know their budget for this well in advance etc.
With a background like his there is likely something in his background that is a kick-out for employers. And gotta wonder what his recommendations say. When I was in grad school we had a classmate or 2 that, while they made it through the program, they would likely have a hard time with job placement.