Job Prospects for ‘24, ‘25 Grads and beyond?

Tech billionaires are invariably entranced with space (and often ignorant of the challenges involved). Having your own rocket/satellite system/space station is the next step beyond sports cars, yachts and private jets…

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Nope. My college kid is truly inspired by Sam Altman’s words. It has given him a lot of clarity about his post grad plans. He is now going to get a job at Chipotle, live in my basement, smoke a lot of weed and play video games. He will bide his time by trading options in AI stocks on Robinhood and uploading videos to TikTok. Then, in ten years he will have a really cool space job that pays him gobs of money and only requires him to work two days a week. What could go wrong?

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We really need the eye roll emoji for articles like this one.

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Adaptability is PRECISELY the reason that poli sci majors get hired by CNN when the “Mass Communications” major can’t even get a phone interview; it’s the reason why the Psych major gets the job in market research at a consumer products company when the Marketing major is still sending out hundreds of resumes; it’s the reason why the physics major is getting a job at a hedge fund without any experience at all in finance.

Employers don’t know exactly what issues are coming down the pike. They need new hires to be able to apply their knowledge to uncertain situations.

On what basis do you make your claim?

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My nephew did the trading options/stocks part for four years. Got furloughed during Covid. When called back, had changed tacts.

After he over leveraged and blew it four years later, he got a job - and now a year later another - into the six figures.

So a tongue in cheek story - and yeah, space may be a bit of an impossibility - but you can check out of the work place market and come back.

And you can, given the laws in certain states, smoke weed. My daughter was fingerprinted for her gig, but I’m pretty positive - not drug tested.

He was doing it wrong. you don’t trade, you post trading videos on tiktok and sell courses, that’s how you become a billionaire

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https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/ai-job-interview-virtual-in-person-305f9fd0?st=dYg3NM&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Interesting gifted article on how AI is driving back in person interviews.

Weed is not legal at the federal level. You’d be surprised how many jobs (whether or not they involve the federal government-- just “interstate commerce” can be enough) are still drug testing for weed.

I would not tell a young person to take the risk right now, given how tight the market is.

YMMV.

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Experience in computing over decades (none of your examples is computing). Even though adaptability is crucial on the job beyond the short term need, employers tend to screen out resumes (often by automated means*) that do not show recent experience doing the work that is similar to the short term need.

*Trying to game automated resume screening has long been a subject that job seekers have talked about.

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I was a Beta tester for one of the earliest ATS systems back in the 90’s… so I understand trying to game the system.

Some (not all) employers in tech need someone who can start being productive on day 1. That doesn’t mean that the dominant hiring model rejects “adaptability” as a key competency.

I could be wrong, but the impression I get from job postings I’ve seen for AI and ML roles is that the level of knowledge required frequently would require successful applicants to have completed a master’s degree, even if having one isn’t actually listed as necessary.

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Not necessarily. If its an AI researcher type role (or) if its a very large company you might see a significant preference for Masters and PhD candidates.

Many times these companies will look at undergrads if they demonstrate capability and achievement. Typically, it takes a combination of the following:

  • Upper div coursework or masters level coursework in AI/ML
  • AI/ML research experience (Berkeley has BAIR and Stanford has SAIL)
  • Competitive forecasting chops - Akuna Quant Trading, Metaculus forecasting etc.
  • Math competitions - Putnam et al.
  • AI research internships - my S22 did AI model research for Scale AI part-time his entire junior year

Also there is a difference between traditional AI/ML jobs and Gen AI jobs. Gen AI jobs span the spectrum of fundamental model research to orchestration product development to agentic application development. Unless you are doing foundational research, there is no real need for MS or PhD. Still some companies will overstate the qualifications needed for various reasons.

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Congrats to your daughter on a great opportunity. That would be wonderful to have a post-college job offer going into sophomore year!
I believe MBB early recruiting for internships is in the summer around July, and then there is another deadline around September. I hear you about the crazy consulting hours!

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I know this has been said before but networking is even more important now than ever.

My D got her internship through networking. She basically said that the majority of her fellow interns all knew someone at the company. If you didnt, your percentage of getting an internship position at her company was less than 1%.

And her L&D program is currently only available to this summer’s interns. It sounds like they’ll have positions available to non-current interns but you’ll be competing against hundreds/thousands of other applicants for only a few spots.

The job market (even for those only in their 1st and 2nd years of school) seems crazy competitive.

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“Networking” of course inherently advantages some types of students over others, principally those with well-connected families (whether socially or in industry). Students can try network as much as they can in college but - especially if they are first gen without families who work in white collar industries- there’s only so far they can go with who they meet at or through college.

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You’re correct. Im not going into an entire debate about income inequality.

However, there are also certain internships at very prestigious firms/companies that are specifically allocated to low income, first generation students.

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It isn’t just low income/first gen students who miss out when hiring/access is limited to those with connections - it’s all students who don’t know the “right” people.

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Absolutely- that was just the most obvious example that came to mind. I just sometimes feel it’s a pat response that sounds a lot easier than it is for many students to use in practice.

Of course, everything is tougher if you lack any connections (let alone the “right” ones) - the first gen example was a good one. Unfortunately, who you know can have an outsized effect on your hiring chances at some places - obviously, they aren’t hiring unqualified candidates (many/most of these kids are very strong) but most kids have zero chance because they don’t have a foot in the door.

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There’s a reason kids attend numerous coffee chats (and companies host them), reach out to strangers on LinkedIn, and “cold call” alumni.

They arent doing it for fun. Yes, it may sound like an offhand comment that students should network but there are kids who take it very seriously and spend countless hours as part of their career strategy. Through intense networking, they become really good at interacting in different work circles and arent intimidated by higher executives and corporate heirarchies.

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