New York
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Abraham Rubio has needed to be a software program engineer since childhood.
On the gaming platform Minecraft, he liked tinkering with “mods,” or alterations to video video games created by followers that change parts like a personality’s look. Eventually, he wasn’t content material with simply discovering new mods — he needed to construct his personal.
That early ardour led him to examine coding at Bloomfield College of Montclair State University in New Jersey, graduating with a level in pc science and sport programming in May.
But discovering a software program improvement job has confirmed difficult. Rubio has utilized for 20 roles since commencement. He’s but to obtain a suggestion.
“I go on LinkedIn almost every day, just scrolling, trying to see what opportunities are out there,” he stated, including that he hasn’t “really heard anything back from most companies.”
For years — as Silicon Valley boomed and every kind of corporations invested in new tech capabilities — pc science levels, and even certificates from coding bootcamps, appeared like a golden ticket to a sustainable, well-paying job in a fast-paced business. But in recent times, job openings have develop into extra aggressive and tougher to come by.
Employment for current graduates in pc science and math jobs has declined by 8% since 2022, Oxford Economics present in a May report. Postings for software program improvement roles on the job web site Indeed fell 71% between February 2022 to August 2025, in accordance to Indeed data shared by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
With the tech world racing to make synthetic intelligence developments, some new grads say it appears like an particularly thrilling time to enter the business. However, AI can be enabling corporations to automate some elements of the coding and software program improvement course of, decreasing the necessity for human employees, particularly in entry-level roles.
While tech giants’ valuations proceed to soar, many have undergone a number of rounds of layoffs in recent years as they push to accomplish extra work with fewer folks, a pattern that has solely been accelerated by AI. Microsoft, for instance, grew to become the second firm to attain a $4 trillion valuation final month. That was solely weeks after saying it will lay off 9,000 employees in its third spherical of cuts in current months. CEO Satya Nadella said in April that as a lot as 30% of Microsoft’s code was being written by AI.
“Tech jobs are good, but I will say, the job market right now makes it seem that it’s almost impossible to get one,” stated Julio Rodriguez, who graduated final 12 months from Elms College in Massachusetts. He stated it took him greater than 150 purposes earlier than he bought an information engineer job earlier this summer season.
(*150*) he added.
NCS spoke with half a dozen job seekers about how they’re navigating the job market, educators coaching the business’s subsequent technology of engineers in addition to present coders and tech leaders about whether or not pc science levels may develop into out of date.
Nick Vinokour had a dream job lined up after he graduated in December from the University of Michigan with a pc science diploma — he had been employed as a strategic tasks lead at knowledge labeling startup Scale AI. He was set to begin in August.
“I was super excited, it was a great opportunity,” Vinokour stated.
But after Meta invested $14.3 billion into Scale AI in June, buying its CEO, Vinokour bought an e-mail saying his provide was being rescinded amid a company restructuring.
Now, he’s nonetheless on the hunt for a job.
While Vinokour largely believes the state of the financial system and stiff competitors amongst current pc science graduates are to blame for the robust job market, the position of AI has actually crossed his thoughts.
AI coding instruments comparable to Microsoft’s Copilot and Anysphere’s Cursor are like “a big tidal wave that’s looming to change what the role of a junior engineer is,” he stated. (A Scale spokesperson acknowledged that some workers have been laid off or had affords rescinded in July, however stated Scale is now aggressively hiring for positions throughout the corporate.)
Some current pc science grads have turned to TikTok to share frustrations across the present tech job market. A TikTok person named Lili, who goes by @queenofslack on the app, posted a video final month discouraging different college students from finding out pc science due to her personal troublesome job hunt.
“I think the investment, the difficulty of (computer science) is not worth the instability of the job,” she stated. “If you’re really just being motivated by a paycheck and by a cushy job, I can’t say that I would recommend.”
Of the greater than 250 feedback on the video, dozens have been from fellow pc science graduates or college students expressing comparable issues about their profession path.
College graduates, broadly, are struggling. A May report from Oxford Economics discovered that the unemployment price for current grads is now larger than the nationwide common. But for job seekers in tech, the information is very troubling.
The New York Fed now pegs the unemployment price for current pc science and pc engineering graduates (6.1% and seven.5%, respectively) larger than that for individuals who studied artwork historical past (3%), English (4.9%) and performing arts (2.7%).
Recent grads advised NCS that they don’t suppose AI will get rid of software program engineering jobs completely. As Brianne Ford, who graduated from the State University of New York at New Paltz in May, put it: “Code always needs maintaining.”
But there are fears that the expertise will usurp alternatives for folks wanting to break into the sphere.
For entry-level jobs, “they want us to have tons of internships or tons of projects and when you’re in school, you don’t really get as much of a chance,” Ford stated. “Me, personally, I worked as a resident advisor to help pay for school.”
Vinokour stated job seekers his age are in a “pickle” — wanting to participate within the AI growth, however competing in opposition to extra skilled builders for jobs, particularly as some corporations decelerate or change their hiring plans.
“It’s this very weird middle ground that’s exciting because (the industry is) on the precipice of this insane technology. But … it’s harder for a junior engineer to be hired,” Vinokour stated.
Or as Rubio places it: “It feels like I’m competing with AI to just try to get my foot in the door.”
Some are now reconsidering whether or not software program engineering is actually a viable profession path.
“I’m pretty pessimistic right now,” stated Danny Stalmakov, a Germany-based software program developer who graduated along with his grasp’s diploma in pc science in 2022.
Stalmakov, who stated he’s submitted a whole bunch of purposes over six months, has been advised by recruiters that there are just too many candidates for every position. But he additionally sees the good thing about AI, which now handles 80% of his improvement work.
“While the productivity boost is incredible, it’s also concerning — companies that used to need five developers might only need three now,” he stated.
“The AI impact on coding made me genuinely unsure about my future in software development, and I really don’t know what my next move will be if the market stays like this,” Stalmakov added.
Educators educating coding and pc science are having to pivot their curriculum to put together college students for a quickly evolving job market.
Magdalena Balazinska, director of the University of Washington’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering, stated the hiring slowdown is not only as a result of AI is taking coding work. Tech corporations are additionally right-sizing after a Covid-era hiring spree and wish to spend correctly amid multibillion-dollar AI infrastructure investments.
Balazinska stated it’s not all doom and gloom — greater than half of the college’s roughly 675 graduates from the 2024-25 faculty 12 months have already discovered full-time jobs at corporations together with Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Google.
Nonetheless, the college is evolving for the AI period, she stated. It’s rolling out a brand new “AI-assisted software development” course this fall, the place college students will find out about fashionable software program engineering practices and the position of AI as a device for that work.
Some superior courses may also permit college students to use generative AI, “which is enabling faculty members to raise the level of difficulty and complexity of the projects,” Balazinska stated.
But introductory programs will nonetheless prohibit utilizing AI for classwork — so college students be taught the fundamentals with out relying an excessive amount of on the expertise.
“Our philosophy has always been that computer science is a field that advances faster than any other field, so preparing students to advance with the field is the most important thing we can do,” Balazinska stated.
“There will be jobs for those who learn the latest advances in computing and those with excellent skills and knowledge,” she stated.
It’s not simply universities that are altering their strategy. Coding bootcamps — specialised colleges usually catering to profession switchers or college students wanting to pursue careers in tech with out a four-year diploma — have tailored, too.
The thought of touchdown a profitable six-figure wage with out a conventional diploma, mixed with an elevated hiring demand from the tech business, led to a growth in enrollment at these bootcamps all through the 2010s. But Daniele Grassi, CEO of tech bootcamp General Assembly, stated he’s seen a shift over the previous couple of years within the varieties of prospects coming to his faculty.
While General Assembly primarily attracted aspiring software program engineers for a lot of its 14-year existence, the college is now additionally garnering curiosity from C-level executives, human useful resource managers and gross sales professionals considering creating their AI expertise.
As a outcome, General Assembly has begun creating packages particularly designed to assist employees throughout all tiers of an organization —from entry degree to the board of administrators, whether or not the roles are technical or not — acquire new AI expertise, in accordance to Grassi.
“Six months ago, or nine months ago … we realized that every role is disrupted,” Grassi advised NCS.
General Assembly has integrated AI expertise teachings into its programming throughout disciplines, stated Jeffrey Bergin, the college’s chief studying officer, in order that all the things it affords “now has an AI element.” The faculty affords programs in knowledge analytics, person expertise design, knowledge science and data expertise as well as to software program engineering.
Bergin stated the college needs “to make sure folks have what they need, both in being able to apply those skills and to take those skills into job interviews and into employers, and have those really resonate.”
Tech leaders say they’ll nonetheless want younger folks with pc science levels, even when there are fewer jobs to go round.
“The thing people study is computer science, which is a lot more than code. It’s understanding how these systems work,” Deepak Singh, vice chairman of developer brokers and experiences at Amazon Web Services, advised NCS. “The critical thinking part doesn’t change. You still need to be able to think, you need to be creative. I actually think it becomes more important because you have more time” to be artistic with AI doing the grunt work.
Still, which may be chilly consolation to new grads, given Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s recent warning that the corporate will want fewer human employees sooner or later as AI takes on extra duties.
Beyond huge tech, many AI startups are additionally targeted on rising with the smallest groups potential.
“The AI boom isn’t following the patterns of past tech cycles,” Kyle Holm, vice chairman of the compensation advisory group at consulting agency Sequoia, wrote in a blog post final month. “The traditional model of high-growth companies expanding headcount, investing in people teams, and broadly distributing equity isn’t playing out the same way this time.”
David Barajas, who has been working as a full-time software program engineer for greater than a decade, stated he would really feel “intimidated” by the rise of AI instruments in coding if he have been a junior engineer.
But total, he’s of the mindset that AI will change the job somewhat than wipe it out utterly — so long as aspiring engineers embrace it, that’s.
“AI won’t replace you as an engineer,” Barajas stated. “An engineer with AI will replace you as an engineer.”