The prestige of top universities seems to be losing its former magic in the face of the AI wave. According to a report by Nikkei Asia, many graduates who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars attending top U.S. universities are now facing unprecedented employment difficulties. At the graduation ceremony of the University of Arizona, Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, was booed by students for his remark that "the changes brought by AI will be even faster and more profound than before," which undoubtedly touched on the most sensitive pain points of young job seekers.

Graduates from technical majors such as computer science have been hit the hardest. A master's graduate from New York University majoring in information systems revealed that he had submitted around 8,000 resumes but had not even landed an internship. During the golden period when tech giants were rapidly expanding their recruitment, he had expected an annual salary of $200,000, but now he keeps lowering his salary expectations and still can't find a full-time job.

The "Experience Deadlock" in Entry-Level Positions

The widespread application of artificial intelligence is subtly raising the entry barriers for entry-level positions. In the past, job seekers only needed to master one programming language and core tools to get hired. Now, many entry-level positions arrogantly require three to five years of work experience. This change in the job market has left recent graduates stuck in a "no job, no experience; no experience, no job" deadlock.

The dual pressure of market saturation and technological iteration has forced many graduates to abandon their initial career aspirations. Many students who once aimed to become project managers or software engineers ended up compromising and taking alternative jobs such as technical sales after submitting tens of thousands of resumes without success.

AI Writing Code Replacing Human Work

The shift in the balance between human resources and technological hardware investment is the core reason behind this phenomenon. Take Meta, a tech giant, for example. The proportion of new code generated internally by AI within less than a year has soared from 20% to an astonishing 95%. This efficient technological replacement has made companies prefer investing in expensive AI hardware rather than continuing to hire junior employees.

This industry downturn is directly reflected in official data statistics. Relevant data shows that the unemployment rate among young university graduates in the United States is gradually rising, with the unemployment rates for computer engineering and computer science reaching as high as 7.8% and 7%, respectively. Faced with the shrinking of traditional job markets, some graduates unable to find a way out have chosen to start their own businesses, leading to a 75% increase in the number of people with the "founder" title on professional social platforms over the past year.