An English major always has the fallback of teaching language arts, K-8 while getting their Master’s and a teaching certificate. The private schools in my area would NOT hire a communications major to do that. So at a minimum, the nature of the degree means MORE options, not fewer (which was my point). CNN hires English majors in addition to Comm’s majors; ditto the WSJ, Vanity Fair, New Yorker, the major networks, etc. The wider the aperture…
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There are many articles published recently about AI “taking away” entry level jobs, and this recent WaPo article about the current job market for recent grads https://wapo.st/4lB09qY
" Facing entry-level job crunch, new grads question the value of a degree
Gen Z is struggling to get a foot in the door professionally. They’re competing with AI and more experienced workers, and they feel alienated by hiring processes."
“Growth among entry-level jobs across tech, finance and consulting — the top industries attracting graduates — has slowed significantly in the past few years, according to data from Revelio Labs, a workforce analytics company: Since the early days of the pandemic, employers have been adding fewer entry-level positions compared with more-experienced roles. Entry-level openings in these fields are down 33 percent compared with 2015, Revelio’s data shows. In contrast, non-entry-level openings rose 67 percent in the same period.”
I agree that especially these days, it isn’t as much what you know as who you know.
Connections have always been prominent in the success of those seeking employment after graduation. Communications degrees are one of those that are not typically snatched up in tough times so I wouldn’t be surprised if another Ivy guy didn’t get a job with a communications degree and no other connections.
I would be speculating and as others have suggested there are a lot of blind spots with these “I know a guy” discussions. That is the hazard of using one off anecdotes as proof of a trend, narrative or universal truth.
It is no different in my opinion than extrapolating on the underlying cause of specific students not getting asked back for summer internships, highlighting your own kids achievements, or trying to generalize relative compensation levels from schools based on chance meetings and conversations.
I suspect sometimes these stories are only shared when they reinforce a previously held perception, but I digress.
I will confess this is certainly the case in terms of the student I mentioned. I had initially thought his parents were nuts for trying to save a few bucks but have come to learn it was the kids decision, one that he now regrets and is suffering the consequences. His experience has reinforced my belief that fit extends beyond finances and that reputation, alumni network and regional cache have a meaningful post graduation impact on career.
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I don’t disagree with you… but I will add that on your list of “things that matter” I would add “Rigor”. A kid can get rigor by majoring in philosophy at Princeton, math at Berkeley, Mechanical engineering at MIT, or linguistics at U Mass.
But a kid can “make rigor” happen wherever they land, and that’s a very underutilized strategy. I’ve posted before about Missouri S&T- it’s not highly regarded by recruiters because it’s convenient to get to, or because it has a huge reputation in the popular imagination/rankings, or even because it has a long string of very famous alums. It’s highly regarded by employers because it might be easy to get into (compared with more famous places) but it’s really hard to graduate from! Rigor!
Or a kid lands at a directional state U and wonders how to make what could be a “get my ticket punched” education into something on par with the more famous flagship and other better known universities- rigor, kid. Ask the department chair for help finding a faculty supervisor for a senior thesis- even if one is not required. Ask your professors for a semester of independent study where they provide you with a deep dive on a particular area and meet with you once a week (like a Cambridge/Oxford tutorial) for discussion. Don’t take “statistics for marketing majors”- take the two part statistics sequence that the engineers take, even if you want a job in marketing.
Etc. A motivated kid can create rigor anywhere. But if a kid takes the path of least resistance to majoring in something not known for intellectual depth, a weak job market can be very difficult to overcome.
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Excellent post, @blossom!! This is also true for some undergrad premed kids. Some may choose an inexpensive, lesser known undergrad (perhaps a school close to home or one that is inexpensive perhaps b/c of merit money) because they know they want to go to med school. So they go after not only academic rigor, but opportunities that others may not, and it makes them stand out from others with equally strong GPAs and MCAT scores. I know a school psychologist who not only worked with professors during and after school, but in the summers she was hired/taught to administer some psychological tests in a children’s hospital (trained as a psychometrist). So she worked HARD, went the extra mile, and it paid off.
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Forgive me if this has already been stated. Connections can be very important. I was just having a conversation about this with a friend this afternoon. One of my kids is starting a fabulous new job. There is absolutely no doubt that the connections this kid had, sought out, fostered, and knew helped along the way more than once.
But the kid worked VERY hard because having connections doesn’t do a thing for you if you don’t put the extra effort in to make it worthwhile.
So…my 2025 sort of grad (finally finishing schooling after many post bachelor degree years) has a great job. But worked hard to get there.
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There are kids from every school - Ivy to directional - that will be very satisfied with their career outcome. And there will be kids from all schools - Ivy to directional - that will not be. I’m sure my admin Lucy, with her English major from Stanford, didn’t think she’d be an admin, booking travel and ordering supplies, but it happens.
One can groan about their decision but hopefully they had a great four years - and they simply need to find their place like many of us do. And yes, maybe there’s a tradeoff - maybe they saved $200K - and that came with a cost…or not. A lot of life is right place, right time. Just because a sibling got a job from school X doesn’t mean they would have. We’ll never know quite frankly.
Looking back, my tuition was $15K a year in the late 80s and I hated spending all my dad’s money going to arguably the top school in the country for my major. While the school had many successes, many of my friends ended up as stock brokers, life insurance salespeople, or lawyers. My graduation job was 16 hours a week at $4.25 an hour, running a radio station and reading commercials. My first full-time job - I started in a hotel casino taking bets before I got into my field, a year after graduation. It wasn’t my field (to be on air) but I was a Temporary Production Assistant at a major cable televsion network.
I flamed out 9 months later (they had 800 applicants for each opening and hired you on 6 month contracts. They hired me a year after I interviewed. After my 6 months, they liked me so asked me to leave for a week and come back so it was like I started new). And that was it - I was not making enough to live and my dad said no more $$ so I went home and got a job in sales - because with a Communication (Journalism) and History degree, what else was I going to do?
And the rest is history…and it can be for any student who struggles - Ivy or directional.
This entire - it’s the school, not the economy or me - I’m just not buying it.
We don’t know each and every student of course - everyone is different.
I wish good luck to all students and hope they stumble into something that works for them.
Of course, having connections help. My college girlfriend’s dad got me an informational interview with a big wig at Cap Cities ABC. I didn’t do anything with it unfortunately but without her dad, I didn’t have the opportunity to meet. Most don’t have connections but they can try and network with alums. The school noted has alums all over the NE so that avenue is there for the student if they choose to pursue it. And their school is highly reputed in various communication disciplines.
But the reality is, many with a communication degree from even the highest level schools, will struggle. It’s not known as a rigorous degree, in the digital age with AI and other things, less people are needed and many that are have to work freelance.. And the pay will mainly be not good.
Or as Anand Sanwal wrote about communications -
“Includes broadcasting, media studies, and general communications. Job saturation is high, and salaries (~$45K early-career) are low. Many grads move into sales or unrelated office roles. Miscellaneous Communications includes related degrees in public relations, media studies, digital media, speech communication, and corporate communications. With the rise of digital content creation and automation in media industries, many graduates struggle to find full-time work in their field.”
Students tend to choose this major for reasons like me - it’s fun and it seems easy. It’s certainly not STEM rigorous. The tradeoff is - a tough outcome.
Best of luck to all students.
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When supply is high and demand is thin it’s a buyers market and buyers typically get more choosy. School pedigree and reputation of program are still the best general proxies for talent quality, anecdata not withstanding.
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Meanwhile in the UK,
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Of course the UK economy has been struggling for a while (basically since Brexit), so correlation may not be (wholly) causation. It’s hard to grow jobs when your economy has grown just 0.4% and 1.1% in the past two years, respectively. Could some of that weak growth incentivize firms to switch to AI, sure, but I’m not sure it’s as simple as “jobs down because of AI”.
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Agreed that the ChatGPT reference makes the article a bit clickbaity. However I do think the magnitude of the drop in reported vacancies is significant (and this thread isn’t just about AI).
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This is another interesting UK article that focuses on AI and entry level jobs.
And more cuts
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Not sure this directly relates.
When I was hired out of grad school, I was in the men’s room my first day and someone said - you just got hired ? Yes.
Did you know we just laid off a bunch of people last month ? Nope, but they recruited me.
A layoff does not necessarily mean hiring isn’t happening. It’s not a good sign in general, of course.
Sometimes it’s to lighten the load of highly paid middle managers that keep getting annual raises for longevity that gets the talent p/e ratio a bit out of balance.
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Education and health care sectors seem to be hiring. Not surprised.
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There seem to be some funnies with the education numbers in the latest data…I’d hold off to see next trends before becoming too confident about that
Could be, sadly. Temporary employment, part time, etc. I can’t find specific data. But…right now it still seems higher than other sectors. I guess we will see.
I know of wealthy, suburban districts laying off large numbers of teachers. I also know districts that are hiring (mostly in underserved areas).
Agree that experience matters a lot. “Entry level” these days seems to actually mean 1-2 years experience or a couple solid internships.
I do believe long term the liberal arts skills of thinking, writing, problem solving are essential for but for that first job, getting experience while you are in school matters. Effective colleges should be incorporating as much “real world” experience as they can. One effect I see with AI is that the jobs it most easily replaces are those low-level, grunt work jobs that new grads historically take to learn the ropes of a field. If the work world is not going to provide that level anymore you need to get it in college.
My son was a data science-type major and benefitted a lot from at-school experience. At Virginia Tech, he participated in “Databridge”, a program that put students in his major on projects with professors across the university and trained them in industry data analysis tools. From that he had a year+ of experience in working on different projects with messy data and having to problem solve, plus great faculty recommendations. His major also required a capstone project and he was assigned an industry partner to do the project for. That project resulted in a job offer. He was also offered a job from his prior summer internship, which he got on the strength of the Databridge experience.
He said his only friends who had a job at graduation were, like him, going to work for companies where they had done internships.
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