<
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/13/young-people-degrees-labour-market-ai>
"It’s boomerang season again. Or to put it another way, the time of year when
adult children you imagined might be flying the nest come home instead to
roost, a ritual that seems to happen earlier every year.
Though the university year isn’t formally finished yet, so many institutions
are dumping written exams in favour of dissertations or online assessments
(cheaper to run, apparently) that third years have started cutting their losses
and their food bills by heading home not long after Easter. In a worrying
number of cases, they’re leaving with no job to go to.
Young people in line for good degrees from good Russell Group universities, who
have for years obediently jumped through every hoop provided, are working in
bars, going travelling, or despondently applying to companies that they know
use AI not only to sift their CVs, but sometimes to conduct first interviews.
Imagine sitting alone in front of a webcam, trying to land your first proper
job and being evaluated by a bot with whom you can’t even shake hands, let
alone kindle memories of how hard it was getting a foot in the door when they
were young. Rejection is tough enough when it comes with an encouraging letter
about how you were just pipped to the post, never mind being found wanting by
an algorithm.
Meanwhile LinkedIn – and yes, students have all been on LinkedIn for years –
only feeds the gnawing fear that other people seemingly have their futures much
more sorted, just as Instagram used to feed their teenage anxieties about who
was going to all the parties. You can covertly stalk whoever did get that grad
scheme position, and beat yourself up wondering what they’ve got that you
evidently haven’t.
Last year’s Institute of Student Employers recruitment survey recorded a ratio
of 140 applications for every graduate job. Part of the reason for that deluge
of applicants is perhaps because kids who suspect their forms won’t be read by
humans anyway are using ChatGPT to fill in and fire them off en masse, to the
point where AI is in effect talking to AI. That’s not making recruitment more
efficient but the opposite, leaving employers swamped with poorly targeted CVs
and jobseekers unsurprisingly resentful. And the hunger games may well be
tougher this year, with the labour market slowing down amid national insurance
rises and trade war-fuelled uncertainty."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
