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The CS Degree Isn’t Dead. The Entry-Level Pipeline Is
There is no shortage of people telling recent engineering graduates that their degree was a mistake and that AI is coming for their jobs before they even land one. I respectfully disagree.
I have been a software engineer for 12 years, done well over 100 interviews on both sides of the table, and run Parsity, an AI engineering program. A few patterns emerge consistently in who actually breaks through in today’s job market. Here’s why I think the job market isn’t as dire as it looks, and what I would do if I were looking for my first tech job.
The Numbers Need Context
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently placed unemployment for recent CS graduates in the United States at 6.1 percent, with computer engineering graduates at 7.5 percent. Compared to philosophy majors at 3.2 percent and art history graduates at 3.0 percent, those figures look alarming. They require more context than most headlines provide.
When researchers factor in underemployment (graduates working jobs that don’t require a college degree), then engineers are doing relatively well, coming in below 20 percent, against a 42 percent average across all recent graduates. Many majors reporting lower unemployment are achieving that figure by accepting work entirely unrelated to their field. Scored across unemployment, underemployment, and early-career earnings together, CS and computer engineering still rank among the top fields for overall labor market outcomes.
The degree is not the problem. The hiring pipeline is. Job postings labeled “entry-level software engineer” grew roughly 47 percent between late 2023 and late 2024, while actual hiring into those roles dropped approximately 73 percent in the same window. So-called “ghost jobs,” used to create an illusion of company growth, are everywhere. This makes the front door harder to find, but it exists.
Here Is What To Do About It
Do a broad search of your (real-life) network. Roughly 26 percent of job offers come through referrals. Look at your actual network—classmates, professors, past internship contacts, relatives—and identify people at companies that might be hiring. The goal is a warm introduction to someone who is or knows a decision maker. One introduction carries more weight than a hundred cold applications through a portal.
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