Josh Imhof | news editor

When Hunter Drain was choosing his major, computer science seemed like the obvious answer.

The 2024 graduate from Duquesne enjoyed building his own computer in high school and his teachers, advisers and guidance counselors told him he wouldn’t have to worry about finding a job because of how much the field was growing.

“It was just nothing but good things,” he said.

While at Duquesne, everything seemed to be going according to plan until it was time for him to start applying.

Companies were continuously rejecting him or not responding at all.

After graduation came and went without an offer, reality set in.

“Panic,” he said.

In the following months, Drain remained a part of the 5.7% of recent college graduates ages 22 to 27 who remain unemployed, a statistic that has increased since October 2022, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

A new kind of 9-5

Drain’s lack of employment was not because of a lack of effort.

The Duquesne graduate regularly attended networking events, leveraged connections with his employed friends and constantly filled out applications.

But the rejections kept coming.

“Finding jobs was my 9-5,” he said.

Abby Simpson, who graduated from Duquesne in December, said she faced similar issues.

The public relations, advertising and applied communications major began applying for jobs in the three months before she graduated, but said she was regularly rejected or ghosted.

She kept track of these results with a spreadsheet.

When she did hear back, it didn’t always mean she would get an interview. When she got an interview, it didn’t always mean it would be with a person.

Rather than sitting down in-person or on a Zoom call with a hiring manager, some of Simpson’s interviews required her to record herself answering prompts and submit them to an employer.

Simpson was never sure whether it was an actual person watching these recordings back or an AI screening the transcript for keywords.

“I think it’s kind of demeaning,” Simpson said. “It really illustrates right now there’s an overall lack of human decency that has really bled into the hiring process. Nobody has the basic kindness to say we don’t want you. They can’t even give you an answer.”

By the time she was finally hired somewhere, Simpson’s spreadsheet had reached more than 200 applications.

“I was so frustrated because I graduated with a 4.0. I had full honors,” she said. “I worked my [expletive] off and it doesn’t mean anything to people.”

“The saying goes, ‘Nobody cares. Work harder. That’s the truth. Nobody cares. You have to do more.”

Ken Lawson, career consultant for pharmacy, nursing and health sciences at Duquesne said applying for this many jobs has become the new normal.

“A typical student needs to apply to anywhere from one to four jobs a day, so they can hit around 25 a month,” Lawson said. “It could take four months. It could take 10 months.”

Why is this happening?

Lawson said that this period of post-graduate uncertainty cannot be blamed on one cause alone, but instead a perfect storm of many.

Things like economic instability and cuts in field-specific government funding can make employers more hesitant to hire. Intense job competition, scam job postings and AI technologies make the process more difficult for students.

These factors affect each area of study differently, with some having been able to weather the storm better than others.

Majors like nursing, social services and certain engineering fields see levels of unemployment twice as low as those of business analytics, psychology and pharmacy, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Another obstacle students have to overcome are applicant tracking systems, computer and AI-based softwares that compare resumes against each other by looking for keywords and phrases that align with what companies are looking for.

Holly Willbanks, principal consultant and executive coach at the Willbanks Consulting Group, said that these systems are not new, but the way that they are being used has evolved.

Companies that in the past had two to three rounds of screening now have four to five before an actual person looks at submitted resumes.

Drain said he felt the effects of this, with some companies sending him rejection letters months after he initially applied for jobs.

“I started going through that pipeline,” he said.

How can students get ahead?

While Lawson and Willbanks said students should continue to prepare to face rejection, there are things they can do to improve their chances of getting jobs.

Lawson emphasized the importance of utilizing the Career Development Center, whether the student has graduated or is still taking classes. There, Lawson said career counselors like himself will be able to help advise students.

“Resumes are not as easy as they seem,” he said. “Almost everything online about resumes is wrong.”

Lawson also highlighted the importance of keeping an organized spreadsheet in order to track which companies students have applied for.

To combat applicant tracking systems, Willbanks encouraged students to personalize resumes with their own experiences.

“When you get to those extra layers of screening, you have lost those keywords and phrases that may have been on your resume if you had taken the time to add your finesse to it,” Willbanks said. “A big part of the resume part is making sure that you don’t just take what AI gives you.”

Willbanks said students should put a heavy focus on networking so they have the chance to sidestep the applicant tracking system and move up the applicant list.

But between Drain’s lack of success at networking events and Simpson’s experience with her recruiter, resume reworking and building connections is not always enough.

He said this is where resiliency becomes crucial.

“There is a light at the end of the tunnel,” Drain said. “It might take a while. Keep pushing through. You’ll find something.”

Josh Imhof can be reached at imhofj@duq.edu