Businessweek | First Jobs
A Dozen Young Job Hunters on What It Takes to Get Hired
What a moment to be graduating college and trying to start a professional career. Artificial intelligence is in the midst of radically transforming—and maybe destroying—entry-level white-collar work. The US economy is technically still growing, but big employers such as Amazon.com Inc. and Citigroup Inc. are laying off workers in droves. President Donald Trump’s administration slashed hundreds of thousands of government, academic and nonprofit jobs last year. At the end of 2025, the number of job openings dropped to 6.5 million, the lowest level since September 2020, and an analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows the unemployment rate for recent college graduates has grown higher than the national average for all workers. As if that wasn’t enough of a reason to worry, a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers predicted that 2026 would be the worst job market for new grads since the beginning of the pandemic.
Although previous generations have had their own unique economic challenges, several distinct factors seem to be working in concert to create a particularly difficult job market. And all of this is happening against the backdrop of a long-term trend that was already challenging the conventional wisdom about the value of obtaining a college degree. To put it bluntly: There just aren’t enough degree-requiring jobs to sustain the number of graduates emerging each year. By the end of last year, underemployment of recent college grads reached almost 43%, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; this is an increase of nearly 4% from the end of 2024.
Is it any wonder, then, that the more than 2 million students graduating this year feel tremendous pressure to land their first gig? To listen to their efforts to pass through AI-powered application screening systems, connect with real hiring managers and find a company that’s actually hiring entry-level workers is to be reminded of Wipeout, the game show where contestants have to hop across an obstacle course of floating lily pads and traverse wobbly balance beams without face-planting in the water below.
This doesn’t mean finding a job is impossible, but gone are the days of a clear path to a dream job; this topsy-turvy economy requires aggressive pursuit of multiple avenues and an openness to trying something other than you’d planned. Bloomberg Businessweek spoke to more than a dozen young people—including college seniors, recent graduates and grad students—about what it looks like to try to begin a career right now.