There is an iconic scene in the 1967 movie The Graduate in which a family friend tells Benjamin at his college graduation party that there is just one word he needs to know regarding his future – “Plastics.” Well, in recent years, the comparable word was Coding. In the early 2020’s, conventional wisdom was that coding was the career of the future. In 2021, there were more than 104,000 degrees awarded to students majoring in computer science, double the number bestowed one decade earlier. Unfortunately, as shown below, that career has run into a brick wall. The unemployment rate for Computer Engineering graduates is 7.5%; the only major with greater unemployment is Anthropology at 7.9%. Additionally, 16.5% of Computer Engineering graduates are underemployed meaning they are working in jobs that do not require a college degree.
he number of software development jobs posted on employment platform Indeed has declined 70% since the peak in early 2022. While there are several factors involved, the primary cause is the rapid adoption of AI which can automate routine coding tasks. This has resulted in reduced demand for young programmers and a parallel shift toward more senior talent who can manage AI tools and handle complex systems.
I am certainly not a career counselor, but the moral of this sad story would seem to be that the key to success in a very uncertain world is a diverse skill set, flexibility and the ability to pivot.