I wanted to take this moment to talk about the Job market in 2025, especially as someone with a little over 2 years of experience. I was laid off from my Job in May 2025, and even though the layoff itself was mentally tough, the thought of being in a tech job market many are saying is "worse than 2008" or "worse than the dotcom bubble burst" wasn't exactly reassuring for me.
I ended up getting an offer to work at a fantastic company, and I wanted to share my thoughts on how I was able to get this offer, and what you, the reader can do to maximize your marketability and success rate, despite the odds being stacked against you. This article is marketed towards people entering college as freshman, though I hope new graduates can also learn a few things as well.
Computer Science was the ticket to the middle class life - nice pay, good work/home balance and fun projects to work on. This was the whole shtick of the "learn to code" movement in the 2010s, where everyone hopped on the bandwagon in the hopes of making life better for themselves and their families.
The issue with this, is that now you have an influx of new grads, but the demand for work cannot meet this supply, so you have more people spending more time looking for a job in their career. Now, the demand for CS graduates depends on more than just the work that needs to be done - the federal interest rates and current technology trends influence budgets and the quality of work as well, so in an era where AI is threatening to take jobs and interest rates are high, it is easy to see why companies are not hiring as much, especially in 2025 and especially inexperienced graduates.
However, this is not a doom and gloom post, things will get better. If you're a hard worker and are unwilling to give up, the market will shift and there will be some balance again! Many people that hopped on the CS bandwagon are going to find it unsustainable, and as more senior people come out of the job market, there is going to be a demand for new graduates. This may not happen for a while, but it will, just like it has happened in the past.
I've done a lot of recruiting and career fairs in my last job, and the people that ask the most interesting questions are the people that, ironically enough, aren't looking for opportunities. In this case, first year students at University typically ask me the following questions
And this was the motivation for me writing this blog post. From the perspective of a first year in college, what steps can you take to be the best version of yourself?
I'm sure you've heard of this saying before. Know someone in the industry, and that will open more doors that raw talent. And I want to say that this is more true than ever before. Having a professional network that you can count on, and people in that network can count on you, is one of the most valuable things as a working person, not just in tech. Now many people assume that you build this network outside of school, but that couldn't be further from the truth! As a first year student, you can build a professional network while you are a student, and this network will be much more robust than if you were to start later.
The number one thing you want to do is to put your name out there (in a good way). Your professors are an excellent way to do this. When you start your classes, schedule office hours with your professors and TAs, and talk to them about the cool work they're doing. Part of being a good conversationalist is the ability to ask questions about what the other person is talking about. Very rarely do I see negative backlash on this, quite the opposite in fact, you'll set yourself apart from the other students who only want help on immediate homework and stuff. I'm not suggesting hovering over your professors, but making your interests and presence known and meeting with them on a semiregular basis helps get your name across the room.
In some instances, you can even contribute to the work that faculty are doing, whether that would be becoming a TA or a work study program. This is a huge opportunity, and opens doorways to industry and professional references/recommendations. You should note down every accomplishment you do in class as well as adjacent to class through these contributions. Make a resume, even if basic, and make a LinkedIn. Have your professors and TAs endorse skills and projects, proving you know what you are talking about.
Pick a tech club - InfoSec? Open Source? Fraternities? Pick literally anything (or more than one thing if you have good time management) and meet people in those clubs. Do cool projects in those clubs. You'll learn how to work in a team and most importantly, have more senior mentors that can hopefully teach you better habits. Like with what you do in class, note down your accomplishments and have your team and peers endorse you on LinkedIn. Keep in contact with them through group chats or emails, as people that are graduating will eventually get into higher up positions, and can potentially help you when searching for a job yourself.
In addition to clubs, pick a few tech stacks or a homelab and do some cool personal projects in them. For example, host a website, your own GitLab instance with CI/CD (hehe) or your own online game! This will help teach you technical skills and give you things to discuss during interviews.
Through connections in class and outside of class, you are likely going to get offered internships at local companies (or remote in 2025). If you have multiple offers, you can leverage them to pick the best option for you. Unpaid internships are (unfortunately) an option, but ideally internships pay you for the work you do. You should only take unpaid internships if you have no other options, which hopefully you should have options by this point.
I would also weigh the pros and cons of startups. Startups are small companies of few team members that work on a small selection of projects/contracts. Depending on your interests, startups are cool, and a really handy way to experiment with a wide variety of technologies and industry practices, but they can also require you to put in way more hours than a larger more well established company.
As with the case of in campus activities, you should note down your accomplishments in your internship as well have your mentors and managers endorse the skills you've used throughout your working period on LinkedIn. As much as I want to be fair, positive feedback in internships outweigh the feedback in school, because internships are the first opportunity for many people in the working environment, but all feedback matters. Ideally, when you graduate, you will have 1-2 internships under your belt, and you may have fulltime offers when you graduate!
If you've been following my advice so far, when you graduate and get your degree, job hunting shouldn't be that long of a process (a handful of months). You've kept up with your professional network and personal projects, and you may even have a few offers by now. Ideally, people should be reaching out to you, and you shouldn't have to spend time applying to tons of jobs, maybe 2-5 jobs a day with tailored resumes (using AI sparingly of course!). By doing this, you are already ahead of 98% of your peers, who don't do these things, and you set yourself apart greatly.
Once you have a list of offers, now is the time to negotiate. Pick the company with the best benefits, and see how much wiggle room you have to get more salary/time off and such. This is a normal practice when job hunting, you are a professional and if you have other offers, leverage them with negotiating. I was able to do this to get better sign on bonuses, increased base pay and better benefits. Do not take this step lightly, work with the company to get a compromise based on the job description and what you are happy with.
You have an entry level job after graduating. Have you been keeping up with your network? You want to do a few things once you have your first job:
You should always be applying to jobs and seeking better opportunities every ~2-3 years. This would ensure that you are getting better pay raises and moving up in the mess that is the corporate ladder.