“No” is a word that computer science students are hearing more and more often. When it comes to the job market, college graduates have a 7% unemployment rate, the 5th highest according to the New York Federal Reserve. Students at Elon University have been feeling this pressure.
Some students have applied to more than 100 internships or jobs and only received one offer. Senior computer science major Henry Phillips applied to 98 jobs and received an offer after networking with a company. He credited the job market issues to artificial intelligence replacing entry-level jobs and increased competition. Regardless of the reasoning, he said the repeated rejections could be disappointing.
“It’s very easy to get discouraged because you’re looking at it and you’re like, ‘I have all these credentials, why am I not getting this?’” Phillips said.
Some of Phillips’ assumptions about issues in the computer science job market are true; however, with countless anecdotal stories from students all struggling, it has left many questioning what is really happening to the job market.
Chair of the Department of Computer Science, Duke Hutchings, had said that issues in the job market are due to a number of reasons, which include increased competition, higher hiring standards and fewer job opportunities.
Though software development, programming and testing jobs have increased since 2014, the number of computer science students has also been on the rise.
According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, from the class of ’16 to the class of ’24, computer information sciences and support services saw an 86.6% increase. That increase is significant, especially compared to the 44.4% increase in software web developers, programmers and testers employment from 2014 to 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor.
In this case, simply stating that there are fewer jobs for computer science students would be false, as there is another factor at play. As seen by the graduation rates, a surplus of workers outweigh the job demand. In addition to that, the U.S. Bureau of Labor shows that from 2023 to 2024, there was a slight decrease in employment, a trend that likely could have continued into 2026. Data was not available for 2025.
The increase in degree earners ultimately led to more competition in the computer science field, putting pressure on Elon students searching for careers.
“I’m not just competing with kids from Elon. I am competing for the same job with kids from Ivy League schools and other schools. Everyone is just trying to get a job,” Phillips said.
Students are having to build out portfolios, personal projects and skills to stand out among a sea of applicants.
“There’s just kind of a leveling up of expectation by students and a need for students to be able to demonstrate a higher quality, maybe a broader quantity of things to be attractive to employers,” Hutchings said. “Students also seem to need to build out more personal projects than they had to in the past to be able to stand out or maybe even now meet a new standard.”
For 2025 graduate Kylie Leyda, personal projects are the exact reason she stood out to her current employers. At Elon, Leyda created a startup called One Tap that used AI for personalized online shopping recommendations.
When interviewing for her current role as a Software Engineer at Surgical Safety Technologies, Leyda was directly asked about the startup she participated in.
“Most of the interviews I landed immediately asked me about One Tap,” Leyda said. “I was a standout because I went and built something on my own and outside of class.”
Experience isn’t the only issue with job applications. Instead, the number of openings isn’t nearly as high as it was five years ago.
“You may notice that three, four, five years ago was one of the easiest times ever in the field to find a job. It was just a huge imbalance of opportunities versus supply,” Hutchings said.
Hutchings mentioned the increase in students who come when the job market is high. Therefore, during the high demand that occurred in 2022, many students likely pursued computer science because of the current-to-the-time good market.
Today, job postings on Indeed are at 70% of what they were in 2020. Hutchings credits the drop to natural fluctuation and uncertainty about AI in the industry.
“There is general political and economic uncertainty, and in those scenarios, companies are going to be reluctant to hire when they don’t know what’s going on and want to be prepared to take a hit,” Hutchings said.
Uncertainty also applies to the implementation of AI in the computer science industry.
“Companies don’t know if they’re going to be able to employ AI in a way that can reduce headcount,” Hutchings said. “When they’re not certain, they don’t bring people on.”
It is still debatable whether AI is a large contributor to the poor job market for computer science students; however, AI is making its impact in the hiring process. With a large influx of applicants, jobs are more frequently using AI to filter resumes.
2006 graduate and Fullstack Software Engineer at Zapier, James Rosebaugh-Nordan, recently found himself looking for a new job. Rosebaugh-Nordan found himself having to reshape his resume to pass through AI filters in his applications.
“A filter I have heard is if it’s longer than two pages, skip it. I put together a one-page version and a two-page version of my resume. The one-page version got more responses, and it’s super simple stuff,” Rosebaugh-Nordan said.
Phillips also found trouble with AI filters in applying, noticing AI speed responses to his applications.
“I would hit submit and 5 minutes later, denied,” Phillips said. “I needed to figure out a way to get past this robot check.”
Eventually, Phillips pivoted from a focus on quantity of applications to quality and connections.
“I would try to find someone I could message and talk to them, not necessarily to say, ‘Hey, can you get me a job,’ but to say, ‘I’m interested in this role,’” Phillips said.
Phillips’ networking ended up being successful, assisting in landing him a data engineering internship at Dell, where he has accepted a full-time position to return post graduation.
Similar to Phillips, Hutchings said he believes that students can still get a job in today’s market. Hutchings recommends that students broaden their expectations.
“The students who are tightly focused on a geographic area or tightly focused on a very specific type of company are struggling a bit more,” Hutching said. “Broaden the types of organizations that you’re willing to work for. Consider related, but not directly related opportunities. Consider alternative pathways in their career.”
Over everything, Hutchings emphasizes passion as a primary source of motivation in the current job market.
“I think there are going to be opportunities. You might have to work a little bit harder than the students 2 or 3 years ago, but if you do determine that, yeah, this is for me, I like this stuff, I want to keep going. There are going to be opportunities,” Hutchings said.