Susie, a native of Sheffield, was unemployed for nine months after completing her PhD last year despite applying for more than 700 jobs.
“I thought it wasn't that difficult to find a job. [with three higher education qualifications]She said. “However, I often applied for jobs and adjusted my resume and cover letter, but two minutes later my documents were rejected with the comment that they were “carefully reviewed.” Approximately 70% of the jobs I have not responded to multiple times include my participation in multiple interviews. ”
I felt that I had changed the work situation of graduates who had experienced in one particular way. “Thousands of people are currently applying for the same job. On LinkedIn, you can see how many people have applied. [applied]. ”
Ultimately, Susie was offered a position of less than £30,000. “This is nothing more than a PhD scholarship after paying taxes.”
Her struggle in securing her first alumni role is familiar to hundreds of thousands of young people in the UK navigating one of the toughest labor markets in recent history.
The number of entry-level jobs has dropped significantly since the advent of ChatGPT as employers suspend employment and use AI to reduce costs. As we applied for early career positions where the large cohort of graduates is increasingly decreasing, the massive use of AI in the recruitment process has led to a successful nightmare and Kafkaescu job for university dropouts across the country.
Martina, 23, who will earn her Masters in English Literature from York University this fall, contacted the Guardian via callout and was another graduate job seeker who had been looking for her first full-time job since the beginning of May.
“I applied for around 150 entry-level jobs not only in marketing, publishing, civil servants and charities, but also in retail and hospitality positions,” she said. “So far, I have been interviewed five times, many of which are almost instantaneous rejection and ghosts, which I want to scream.
“The platform uses AI to search for keywords. It copies the entire job description, pastes them into the word document, reduces the font, changes the color to white, and finds the words that AIS is looking for.
One of the few answers she has received so far was a rejection email explaining that 2,000 other people applied for the role. “I was very disappointed and frankly, I lied,” Martina said. “Both of my degrees seem useless. My parents came here from Poland. I have £90,000 in student debt.
“They told us: 'If you don't go to college, you can work at McDonald's.' I went to college and applied for a barista, but was denied my lack of experience. ”
The different people who shared their frustration, in a variety of fields, Job-specific experience, especially in client-oriented roles, is now much more highly valued by employers than an impressive degree.
“I don't care if I have a degree or not,” says Lucy, 24, from Lincolnshire, who works part-time in a support role. [the bakery chain] Gregs since graduating in 2022.
“I have a degree in visual communication and I can't be hired in the design industry, but my experience working in college means I'm constantly being interviewed about education-related roles, and I'm frustrated with my degree because I was told that it was the only good option.
Lucy has embraced a new full-time role in the minimum wage for the housing care sector. “It's the best I can get,” she said.
Willemien Schurer, 53, a London mother whose two sons were recently graduated, was among many respondents who described job seekers as not being able to stand out.
“[I’ve read in the news] Recruiters are lamenting and so many applications fit the bill exactly, they don't know how to filter them,” Shell said.
“If everyone checks all the boxes, how do you identify who to choose? [at school and university] Now they are chasing people into the job market. ”
Her older son said he had done “spirited the soul” for five months to apply for around 200 jobs after graduating with a mathematics degree from top universities. Schurer felt that the AI recruitment process, which made it impossible for candidates to distinguish themselves from their competitors without being screened, puts an additional premium on personal connections.
“It seems like you're back to someone you know, rather than exercising a lot of stuff and luck,” she said, reflecting the concerns of various respondents.
“AI Generated Resume Screened by AI HR Software Means [one’s success] I agreed to a professor at a Swedish business school who wanted to continue anonymous. “But Gen Z knows fewer people in real life and relies on digital connectivity, which is not the best.”
He predicted that the job market where his students were graduating is “tough and about to get tough.”
“Companies use AI to reduce costs, but students use it for all UNI jobs, replacing their thinking, and then exclude themselves for future work.”
This sentiment has been echoed by dozens of university lecturers from the UK and elsewhere, with many expressing serious concerns about the impact of AI on university experiences, warning that students had used AI to complete most of their classes, thus graduating without acquiring the skills and knowledge they had in the past.
“In most graduate jobs 15 years ago, I was able to write well and consider it a consistently basic requirement,” said a senior recruitment expert at a large consulting firm in London, speaking anonymously. “Now they are basically emerging as elite skills. Almost no one can do that. People with top degrees can't summarise the contents of the document, so they can't solve it.
“Coupled with what AI can offer now, there is little reason to hire graduates for many positions. [labour market] Report. ”
Various employers and experts in HR and management positions shared that university expulsions they encounter often struggle to speak on phones or meetings, take notes with a pen, or receive fully or fully written tasks written without access to the internet.
“What people want to do and what they really do are just two very different things and it feels like schools and universities are doing a much better job of communicating this.”
“But sadly, universities now run like businesses. They sell their dreams, and young people buy them. And often, when they re-emerge in the real world, it becomes a nightmare.”
Sanjay Balle, 26, from London, graduated from Open University with his third PPE degree last summer, and has since earned £700-800 a month as a waiter on a zero-hour contract.
“I apply for around 20 entry levels and alumni roles a day, and I have over 500 applications, including advertising, healthcare, procurement, education, financial services and civil servants,” he said.
Given the AI revolution in the job market, helping employers cut costs and increase productivity, Balle suggests that having fewer entry-level roles is “easy” and people may turn to governments to encourage employment, but the enormous costs have not caused such intervention.
“I think we need to encourage young people to explore other options outside of college, pursue career paths and enter the trade, but we need to support university graduates like me, or we will see more graduates who are overqualified for part-time jobs. [will experience] Lack of social interaction and mental health issues. ”
While most graduate job seekers who were in touch were desperate to secure full-time jobs, some expressed deep disappointment at the creeping realization that they might have a hard time finding a job in the specialty of their choice.
“My biggest fear is that I can't enter the field I want to participate in,” said Louise, who graduated from Oxford University last year with a Masters in Microbiology and recently applied for hundreds of jobs while working part-time at John Lewis.
“There are very few jobs available to graduates. Entry-level jobs seem to be hiring more and more experienced employees to apply, reducing the entry level,” she said.
The employer who hired her added that she was more interested in whether she acquired customer service skills in hospitality jobs than her scientific work experience or qualifications.
“The job I was offered is not using the skills I have,” she said. “I just want to use my degree.”
