Computer Science Grad Job Crisis: Root Cause Revealed
August 29, 2025
No AI. Just a dinobaby working the old-fashioned way.
I read a short item called “A Popular College Major Has One of The Highest Unemployment Rates.” The article contains old news, but it also reveals one of the underlying causes of the issue.
First, here’s the set up for the “no jobs for you” write up:
Computer science ranked seventh amongst undergraduate majors with the highest unemployment at 6.1 percent, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. “Every kid with a laptop thinks they’re the next Zuckerberg, but most can’t debug their way out of a paper bag,” one expert told Newsweek.
Now, let’s look at the passage that points to an underlying cause:
HR consultant Bryan Driscoll told Newsweek: Computer science majors have long been sold a dream that doesn’t match reality.
And a bit of supporting input:
Michael Ryan, a finance expert and the founder of MichaelRyanMoney.com, told Newsweek: … “We created a gold rush mentality around coding right as the gold ran out. Companies are cutting engineering budgets by 40 percent while CS enrollment hits record highs. It’s basic economics. Flood the market, crater the wages.”
My take is this another example of “think it and it will become real” patterning in the US and probably elsewhere too. College and universities wanted to “sell” student loans. Computer science was nothing more than the bait on the hook of employment for life for the mark.
When one can visualize a world and make it real corresponds to how life unspools strikes me as crazy. In my career I have met a few people who said, “I knew I wanted to be an X, so I just did it.” The majority of those with whom I have interacted in my 60 plus year work career say something like this, “Yeah, I majored in X, but an opportunity arose, and I took it. Now I do Y. Go figure.”
The “think it into reality” approach seems to deliver low probability results. Situational decisions have several upsides. First, one doesn’t have a choice for some reason. Two, surprises happen. And, three, as one moves through life (the unspooling idea) perceptions, interests, and even intelligence change.
My hunch is that today (it happens to be August 21, 2025) is that we are living in a world in which “think it and it will happen” thought processes are everywhere. Is Mark Zuckerberg suddenly concerned about an AI bubble? Will Microsoft launch Excel Copilot with a warning label that says, “This will output errors”? Will you trust your child’s medical treatment to a smart robot?
I like to thing about dialing more “real” world into everyday life. Unemployment for computer science graduates won’t change too much in the “up” direction. But at least the carnival culture approach to selling a college education, an AI start up idea to a 20 something MBA “managing director”, and the “do it for 10,000 hours and become an expert” may loosen the grip on what are some pretty wacky ideas.
Stephen E Arnold, August 29, 2025
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