Corporate talk vs reality?
People also talk about broad based skills when it seems that unless you have the exact qualifications and experience, you often wont get past the interview screening process.
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This isn’t specific to Microsoft. Big Tech companies always tend to hire aggressively during boom times and cut jobs when the market turns. This cycle has repeated itself across multiple economic waves, most recently following the hiring surge during the COVID years.
Today, continued economic uncertainty and shifting government policies are making these tech firms more cautious about hiring. So the layoffs and slowdown in hiring isn’t just driven by AI.
That said, AI is having an impact - It’s making companies more selective in their hiring. Programmers without strong computer science fundamentals, for example, are finding it much harder to land jobs. School pedigree also seems to carry more weight now than before (although of course, the schools that are valued by these tech firms are broader than those traditionally considered “elite” schools).
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This article recommends not taking time off after finishing school, but to jump right into the job hunt, because it’s likely to get worse. Also recommends using personal network, and marketing self well by highlighting skills and experience in a concrete way.
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This is actually becoming a more significant trend in the newly minted deep tech, AI research and other new tech companies of this emerging era.
Based on accounts from my S22 and his network, and other parents with similar year kids - FAANG and Big Tech firms are still hiring broadly but scaling down pipelines and taking fewer people. However in this group, there are still plenty of smart kids from outside the top CS schools.
However, when it comes to deep tech and frontier AI the ballgame is skewed big towards brand.
From what my son and his friends are seeing - at the FAANG+ firms where they are interning this summer there are SWE interns from everywhere from MIT to Berkeley to UF and WPI and ASU.
On the other hand, at his upcoming Fall internship with a deep tech firm it’s a very narrow set of schools. Berkeley, UW, Stanford and GT dominating on the SWE side while Purdue and GT and UMIch are dominant on the aero/electronics side. No other schools in sight.
Similarly S22 is doing AI model research part time through the entire year for a hyper scaling AI company that counts OpenAI and Meta as customers. There, out of the 50 member year round part time class about 30 are from MIT, CMU, Berkeley and Stanford and the remaining from the other top of 10-15 schools. Again very focused on pedigree and branding.
As the lower end of the CS jobs get disrupted by AI this trend will continue to exacerbate.
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Here on the East Coast (NYC metro area), the majority of SWE interns at top financial and fintech firms seem to come from schools like Cornell, UPenn, Columbia, MIT, UMich, Georgia Tech, UIUC, UMD, and Purdue. I haven’t seen many from Stanford, Berkeley, or CMU; but that’s most likely because they tend to prefer working on the West Coast.
To be clear, this trend is most prominent at elite firms. As you go down in selectivity, you’ll find SWE interns from a much wider range of schools. Many of these schools are represented at elite firms, but in much smaller numbers.
So, name recognition seems to matter more now, but that does not mean graduates from other CS programs aren’t getting hired. Rather, it’s the difference between firms that pay $25–35 per hour and those that pay $60–75+ per hour.
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Some parents and students will always prioritize prestige and high salaries. But others value a different kind of success that is centered on balance and well-being. They want to earn enough to live comfortably and securely, but they also want flexibility, like the option to work from home when it makes sense. They’re not interested in 60-hour workweeks or high-stress environments. Instead, they’re looking for a good quality of life that’s not all about their job.
There’s nothing wrong with either path, different strokes for different folks. But it’s important to know that the school someone attends doesn’t determine whether they’ll have a good life. Admission to a prestigious college often has as much to do with a family’s resources as it does with talent or effort. And many students who attend in-state public universities go on to do extraordinary things and lead rich, successful, and deeply meaningful lives. What matters most is what you do with the opportunities you have and not just the name on your diploma.
Working at FAANG in 2025 doesn’t have the same appeal as it once did. The benefits have retracted. Here’s one example:
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I think it’s more like the early pioneers of the new tech firms are optimizing for brand at this stage of their evolution. Much like how Google used to hire in the early days where it was all Stanford for a while. However as these firms get bigger eventually hopefully they will expand and tap into the larger talent pools beyond a core set of schools.
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Amazon has always been a soul draining place. Also there are thousands of kids who want a shot at an entry level comp well in excess of 200k regardless of how they might feel a couple of years in.
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But it does have a lot to do with which path you are more likely to pursue. If you are surrounded by peers who expect to go to NY/DC/SF/LA after college then you are more likely to go there too, if your peers prioritize lifestyle and want to stay near college then you are more likely to do the same.
I’ve noted before the vast difference between my kids’ peers at UCLA (most went to coastal big cities and sought prestigious jobs) and Utah (most stayed in the Mountain West for the outdoor lifestyle). That’s despite their qualifications entering college being essentially identical (D was in a highly selective cohort scholarship program at Utah).
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I totally agree. With this, and the rest of your post.
For top CS students, their appeal faded several years ago. You can still make great money there, which is why a lot of kids still try to land a job at one of these firms. But a lot of top students I know are seeking other types of opportunities that are a lot more engaging and fulfilling, have the potential for big future payout, or both.
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You need both specific skills (to get a career track job in the first place) and broad based skills and ability to learn more in order to grow in the job and demonstrate value in the job (to stay employed or advance into better jobs).
You really can’t generalize.
Organizations have their own hiring strategies, and what is the case at one is often very different at another.
I saw a colleague’s post on Linkedin this morning for an entry level role which listed
“This role could be appropriate for someone interested in event management, IT, accounting, HR or facilities management. The best qualifications are strong organizational skills, a high degree of curiosity, and great communication skills, written and oral”.
So- you could major in virtually anything and be just a well organized recent grad… A lot of functions are really not rocket science as long as the employee is skilled at “learning to learn”.
Nobody is born able to do a discounted cash flow analysis. But you don’t need a four year degree in finance to learn how to do it. You need solid computational skills (no, not Diff Eq or Calc 3) and some curiosity.
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Im going to use my relative’s example (I have mentioned her on the threads before). Went into college to do premed, finished the prerequisites, took one look at the MCAT study guide and changed her major to Chinese with a minor in gender studies. She got a job right out of college at a well-known financial services firm (not IB), the hiring manager said to her “graduated with Latin honors, clearly we can teach you whatever you need to know”. She spent some time doing financial analysis of companies before shifting into a role (promoted within the organization ) that was more of a project manager /supervisory type role. Did not do a single finance or business course at college, closest to those was Calc (I believe she did Calc 2). Does that work for everyone, of course not, but this idea that you always need job-specific training coming out of college is not relevant for many jobs - even the ones you might think need it at face value, like hers.
Al analysis
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Google is reducing its workforce.
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And Paramount.
My youngest son was just laid off his first job after college (3 1/2 years) and he’s taking it hard - emotionally. Fortunately he has no debt and no significant other/kids but still he feels like he did something wrong. His dad and I keep telling him, that we’ve had to go through this several times over 45 years of working and you can’t take it personally - but still you ache for them. This is different though now, or so it seems to me. No one knows where the world is going and unless you’re a plumber or HVAC guy, not sure you will have a job tomorrow either.
And…my middle son works for Google! Finger’s crossed he misses this round of layoffs too…ughh!
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I’m one of the principals in a relatively small company. Pre-COVID, we had around 150 full-time employees. At the start of Covid, our business contracted a bit, and we had layoffs. Like many companies, we learned to function with many employees working remotely. We started embracing the different technologies that made remote work much more efficient. We then asked ourselves if someone could work remotely 20 minutes away, two hours away, or on another continent.
We started outsourcing jobs for several different functions, and overall, it has worked out great. About 18 months ago, we started dipping our toe in AI and now have fully embraced it. Today, we have 120 FTEs and a little over 20 outsourced contract workers, costing about a third of the FTEs they replaced. Our business, fortunately, has expanded over the last several years. Without the impact of Covid, the efficiency of remote work technology and AI technology. We easily would have been around 165 FTEs.
In the past, we liked hiring kids one or two years out of school, usually at least one year. In the last five years, we have hired only one; they had a strong understanding of AI.
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I think this is reality going forward. Companies just won’t need as many employees to do the same amount of work. It’s not as if AI will replace everyone but it will replace a fair number of workers - especially younger, less experienced ones. There are few industries that will be immune (contrary to proclamations of people who should know better). That is why it is imporant for kids to be willing to pivot if necessary and use their skills in ways they may not have anticipated.
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When companies need to thin, others have to take on more. Then they complain. They may be out of work too.
In my career, I don’t think most are efficient. Many could do more if they learned to manage their time better or guess what, worked more hours. Most are inefficient.
It’s been easy street for three years. The companies are back in the driver’s seat.
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This inefficiency applies to government jobs at all levels as well. There were many in these positions who enjoyed the work from home option much longer than many others. Just a couple of years ago, these types of jobs were being promoted to new graduates on social media as the ones everyone coveted due the “work/life balance.” Ironically, these may be the positions most on the chopping block now.