It's honestly demoralizing. I came to MIT hoping to build a better life—not just for myself, but for my family. Now I’m facing the very real possibility of moving back home to an unstable and abusive environment while continuing to job hunt. The thought alone is crushing. I’ve even considered staying for an MEng just to avoid going home, but I’m completely burnt out and have no thesis direction. MIT gave me freedom, food security, friends, a bed of my own for the first time. It changed everything. But now that graduation’s here, it feels like it’s all slipping away.
If you've been through something similar—late job search success, unexpected turns that worked out, or just any advice—I’d really appreciate it. What helped you push through when it felt like the system failed you?
Thanks for reading.
Aurornis•1mo ago
From last time around: The people who kept pushing and took any job, anywhere turned out okay. This translated to a lot of people taking jobs below what they expected to get or having to move when they didn’t want to, but it was ultimately temporary.
The people I knew who turned cynical, let negativity take the wheel, and checked out of the job market struggled much harder to get back in.
You’re early in your career. This current period of turmoil doesn’t mean that much, even though it feels like everything right now. Keep at it, work a little harder than your competition, and put a little more care into your applications and it will work out. Stay away from the doom spirals on Reddit or Blind. Uninstall those apps (and others) if they’re making you worse.
qazxcvbnmlp•1mo ago
Also consider taking something below (or even much below) expectations. It's much easier to work your way up with connections than it is to get in the door with no references.
laidoffamazon•1mo ago
fragmede•1mo ago
quadragenarian•1mo ago
FilosofumRex•1mo ago
At the annual Fall job fair, 80% of students queue up to less than 10% of employers. Most companies never show up because it's simply not worth the cost and time to try to recruit spoiled brats of MIT
vonneumannstan•1mo ago
laidoffamazon•1mo ago
Why would they work with people that they perceive to be beneath them and have worked far less hard than them?
vonneumannstan•1mo ago
Because you aren't actually modeling their thinking correctly?
laidoffamazon•1mo ago
mlhpdx•1mo ago
laidoffamazon•1mo ago
carabiner•1mo ago
laidoffamazon•1mo ago
I seriously doubt that. This doesn't fit the class they come from. Maybe it would have in 1985 but not today.
FilosofumRex•1mo ago
Today, MIT is nothing but a shadow of its better known academic cartel up the Mass ave. Those who hire MIT students know that and plan accordingly. The only reason to hire MIT students is for branding propaganda, you get nothing more from them.
TYPE_FASTER•1mo ago
fatnoah•1mo ago
laidoffamazon•1mo ago
johnnyanmac•1mo ago
The signals around me in LA are pretty damn bad. several friends laid off, many others worried about layoffs, and a very weak pulse on the market in terms of roles. I still have part time work but who knows for how much longer at this rate?
At this point I'm fine taking up anything that pays and doesn't potentially sent my 8 YO car into retirement even faster.
giantg2•1mo ago
The ones I've seen aren't good. I see some jobs in companies with shitty pay or shitty culture (my bar is not high). It dies look like the past 6 months have been better than the previous year or so. But overall, it looks pretty dim. I'm getting PIP'd soon. I am expecting that I will likely lose my job. If that happens, I'm expecting that I will end up as a Walmart greeter. As someone with a disability, I expect my application will go right in the trash if I answer yes or blank on the disability question. Or get fired if I mark no and then do need accommodations.
nyarlathotep_•1mo ago
I'm desperately looking for a new job. I hate my current job, the constant stress is taking a real toll, and I'm more tired than I've been ever before.
I'm quite literally applying to all sorts of developer jobs that I'm well overqualified for, in any honest assessment, for a lot less than I make now. These roles are far from "premium" gigs. I've no diva expectations or hope at this point.
The only places I even get rejection emails from are places I've had a referral.
Things are bleak.
I'm in a similar place wrt job "security."
Current gig will end soon, one way or another, and the future doesn't look great.
marcuskane2•1mo ago
That's an interesting hypothesis.
I've seen many people suggest just the opposite- pretending to have a mild disability when filling in the form so that they get the boost from companies which use recruiting software that prioritizes diversity and inclusiveness in candidate pool.
Federal contractors are explicitly required to "take affirmative action to recruit, hire, promote and retain" people with disabilities, with a target of at least 7% of their employees be from that group. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/odep/program-areas/employers/fe...
freedomben•1mo ago
jaylaal•1mo ago
This environment reminds me of the one I faced graduating into the 2001-2003 post-Dotcom Bust market.
giraffe_lady•1mo ago
Is that true? I seem to remember data showing that the 2008-2010 graduate cohorts never overall caught up to the ones that came immediately before or after them.
Like sure sure OP has an engineering degree from MIT they're more like the ones that did catch up. But I'll bet there are a lot more people reading this who are about to graduate with degrees from perfectly adequate state schools and I'm not sure this unalloyed optimism is exactly correct for them. I don't think it turned out to be for their 2008 predecessors.
Aurornis•1mo ago
Comparing to other cohorts isn’t useful because you can’t pick your cohort. You are born into one timeline and you play the hand you’re dealt.
There’s a lot of research that people who graduate into bad job markets are more cautious and less risk taking which can make them look like they’re behind peers who are more risk hungry when the market is up. I wouldn’t be surprised if it also makes them come out ahead in periods where the market is down.
dehrmann•1mo ago
giraffe_lady•1mo ago
It's a more difficult path and people navigate it but I don't think everyone does if you see what I mean. I think some of who should be our colleagues are simply missing because they did what they had to to pay bills in 2010 and never made it in here.
tarentel•1mo ago
Also, I graduated from a pretty mediocre state school. I'm by no means starving.
giraffe_lady•1mo ago
I believe he finally gave up studying & interviewing for junior dev jobs in 2016. At that point why take a "stale" graduate when you can just get an actual 22 year old from the same school, seems to have been everyone's reasoning.
I saw a similar thing a bunch when teaching at a code school ca 2018 too. It was a great move if you had savings or support for 6-18 months of job search. The ones that got in are still doing ok. But a lot didn't, they had to keep working at what they did before "temporarily" while interviewing and most of them are still doing exactly that.
So idk, I'm not sure how you would even get numbers on this. How many people would have excelled in this work if they had graduated at a different time, or with more support, but they didn't and they simply aren't here.
hn_throwaway_99•1mo ago
I'm going to challenge this as you didn't give specific data to back it up. I read an article recently that did have data, and it made the argument that first jobs, and first salaries, tend to be remarkably "sticky". That is, if you are desperate for a job out of college so take one that causes you to be underemployed and underpaid, that doesn't just stick with you for your first job, but data showed that people were underemployed and underpaid for at least a decade after college.
The advice in this article was to hold out as long as possible for a desirable job, which meant a ton of networking, taking internships if possible, and also possibly additional schooling.
Apologies for not having the article on hand, but here's another one I found in 30 seconds of googling that makes the same argument, with research:
https://www.highereddive.com/news/half-of-graduates-end-up-u...
hysan•1mo ago
Edit: that said, I think the majority of what the parent wrote is good. Esp the part about negativity. That hits hard and is good to be aware of.
johnnyanmac•1mo ago
But then again, we are definietly not in times of normalcy. If nothing changes quick we may all be losing our spending power.
giantg2•1mo ago
taurath•1mo ago
I doubt there’ll be a shortage of ML jobs in the next few years, unless somehow the AI industry completely collapses somehow.
hn_throwaway_99•1mo ago
That is, I think it's likely that a lot of people who start out unemployed are just comparatively less motivated, less aggressive, "go-with-the-flow"-type people. These folks do better when the market is good and worse when it's bad. But, as you put it, someone with a lot of drive and the skillset is not necessarily doomed to be held back for years if their first job sucks, as long as they set their sights on getting ahead quickly and don't let their stagnant environment rub off on them.
ethbr1•1mo ago
Emphasis on the next actions to take.
Being in a graduating cohort affords you certain opportunities -- internships, career fairs, faculty-connected networking.
Post-graduation, and especially post-college, people don't have these same opportunities.
Fwiw, I'd lean very heavily into interning. Take an internship at the best company you can, that's likely to have solid financials and be hiring when you finish the internship.
Intern -> hire is a ridiculous cheat code for your first "in industry" job.
The employer decreases the risk of making a mistake on an unproven new grad. You get a job offer if you do enough solid work. Win/win.
Worst case (no job offer), you should push really hard for a solid recommendation letter from your direct or second level manager.
hn_throwaway_99•1mo ago
giantg2•1mo ago
ioulaum•1mo ago
Which may just mean that they need to stay focused on self-improvement and job hopping as possible.
carabiner•1mo ago
gedy•1mo ago
billy99k•1mo ago
antisthenes•1mo ago
Yeah, they weren't. You were in a STEM bubble, which back in 2008 probably was the only bubble that could still get jobs "the old way", without going through application hell.
Also, the job market was way worse in 09-10 than it was in 2008, especially first half of 2008.
tmaly•1mo ago
energyguy78•1mo ago
foobahify•1mo ago
Had I got a job before I graduated that company may well have gone bust or laid people off anyway.
Had some bad interviews including being beaten by a other candidate on a job writing access databases for a 1 person business, and a job where they said they interview girls to see what they look like (not a girl but was disgusted... I carried on the process anyway because need $)
hysan•1mo ago
If you can accept that you just happen to be born at the wrong time, you will be in a better place mentally than where I was at for a long time. I won’t say it’s easy; it will suck. But it is possible to make it out ok. I luckily had some financial and emotional support from my family to keep me going. I don’t know your situation but hopefully you are able to find support too. I wish you the best of luck.
giantg2•1mo ago
Yep, the people who graduated about 3-4 years ago are all making more than I do after more than a decade. It seems like that's just how it works.
swagmoney69•1mo ago
How uncommon is it for someone with no highschool diploma (GED), or college diploma to get a job as a software engineer at a Fortune 500 company? Am I completely fucked if I ever lose this job? It's my second SE job...
Like OP may have been hinting at, I had a really fucked up family situation and this path was the only one that I could take- should I plan on going back to school just for future job market security?
r14c•1mo ago
The main thing to do IMO is spend time building a network. A recommendation in the right place at the right time can open doors that would otherwise be closed to you.
School is an option, but the opportunity cost has been too high so far for me. Though doing a freelance PhD thesis probably wouldn't hurt.
mattmanser•1mo ago
I have watched that diminish over the last 20 years.
The unspoken secret in programming is that a CS degree basically signals absolutely nothing about programming skill. You can get a 1st in CS and be a rubbish programmer, you can get a chemistry degree and be an amazing one. A lot of CS is utterly irrelevant to programming, and the vast majority of programming skills are not covered by CS degree.
Once you're past 2-3 years experience it stops being relevant, before that it's a way to filter CVs by managers who want to pretend their CS degree wasn't a complete waste of time.
If they're asking for a CS degree for a senior role it's basically advertising they're a clueless company.
camcil•1mo ago
b3ing•1mo ago
revskill•1mo ago
johnnyanmac•1mo ago
MrDresden•1mo ago
disgruntledphd2•1mo ago
Even the US basically didn't get back to where it was pre-2008 till 2019.
Tech was fine because mobile was happening, but it was incredibly grim everywhere else.
billy99k•1mo ago
Hard disagree. Things went back to almost normal around 2013. Lots of money going around, new startups, and plenty of jobs.
disgruntledphd2•1mo ago
giantg2•1mo ago
devwastaken•1mo ago
nradov•1mo ago
devwastaken•1mo ago
nradov•1mo ago