How AI affects underemployment and career readiness: COASTEE's analysis

Attention college students! 📢 A Stanford study reveals AI is hitting entry-level jobs hard, with workers under 25 facing a 13% employment drop in fields like software dev. Why? AI handles "textbook tasks," but struggles with real-world skills. Meanwhile, workers 35-49 are thriving due to on-the-job experience. Internships & co-ops are your edge! They build critical skills—empathy, leadership, problem-solving—that AI can't touch. Prioritize them now to future-proof your career. Who's had a game-changing internship? Share below! 👇 Read more: https://lnkd.in/gHzd9uGN #CollegeLife #Internships #AIinWorkforce #CareerAdvice #FutureOfWork

Professor Warns CS Graduates are Struggling to Find Jobs: "Computer science went from a future-proof career to an industry in upheaval in a shockingly small amount of time," writes Business Insider, citing remarks from UC Berkeley professor Hany Farid said during a recent episode of Nova's "Particles of Thought" podcast. "Our students typically had five internship offers throughout their first four years of college," Farid said. "They would graduate with exceedingly high salaries, multiple offers. They had the run of the place. That is not happening today. They're happy to get one job offer...." It's too easy to just blame AI, though, Farid said. "Something is happening in the industry," he said. "I think it's a confluence of many things. I think AI is part of it. I think there's a thinning of the ranks that's happening, that's part of it, but something is brewing..." Farid, one of the world's experts on deepfake videos, said he is often asked for advice. He said what he tells students has changed... "Now, I think I'm telling people to be good at a lot of different things because we don't know what the future holds." Like many in the AI space, Farid said that those who use breakthrough technologies will outlast those who don't. "I don't think AI is going to put lawyers out of business, but I think lawyers who use AI will put those who don't use AI out of business," he said. "And I think you can say that about every profession." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Indeed released a new study last week that examined 2,900 job skills in the company's database and considered how well AI could perform each skill. Accounting was identified as one of the skills that could be most changed by AI because the study found that AI can replicate the problem-solving ability required for this job. Graduate recruitment in accounting is slowing down across the globe, making routes into what was historically viewed as a stable and lucrative career much harder. This is just one change for young job seekers that's very different from 20 or 30 years ago. What are the changes to early careers that you've noticed? #graduatejobs #AIjobs #careers

Joseph Smarr is one of the smartest people I know. When I arrived at Stanford, I was planning to study Human Biology and go to Med School. Then I met Joe and he told me about how his dad founded NCSA and that Mosaic was developed there and that there were hundreds of startups around campus that were going to change the way we would see the world. I fell in love with tech. Joe studied symbolic systems (Basically AI) and after he graduated he worked closely with Sean Parker at Plaxo, and then Google and then several startups. He shared this talk he gave at his daughter's high school. He gives an optimistic and grounded view of how AI will impact the future. The talk is relevant to not only adolescents but anybody who wants to stay relevant in a world where AI and robotics will do most tasks/jobs done by humans.

What does AI mean for newcomers to the job market? Not long ago, a college degree was widely seen as a ticket to a stable career. Today, years after finishing their studies, many young people still struggle to land their first meaningful role. A new study by Guy Lichtinger and Seyed M. Hosseini (2025) offers new insights: In AI-adopting firms, junior jobs have declined by 7.7% since early 2023, while senior roles have continued to rise. Generative AI is eroding the “bottom rungs” of careers, blocking entry-level experience that once fueled upward mobility. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/d2ceXkH3

Has AI Changed the College Playbook? Yes! Why? Job paths are shifting fast, and no single major feels “safe.” The AI boom is reshaping how families think about college and careers. Key takeaways: 💥 Learning > memorizing. Employers increasingly prize critical thinking and the ability to learn how to learn—a big reason some counselors are steering students toward liberal arts alongside business and tech. 💥 Stack experiences. Part-time jobs, research, and internships now differentiate grads competing for fewer entry roles. 💥 Network early, often. “Network, network, network” isn’t a cliché—it’s a strategy. 💥 Consider “AI-resilient” paths. Trades like HVAC (think data center cooling) show how hands-on careers can thrive in an AI world. 💥 Teach responsible AI use. Mixed school messages (“don’t use AI”) can backfire. AI readiness—knowing when and how to use these tools—is becoming essential. 💥 Pair durable human skills (critical thinking, ethics, creativity) with real-world experience and proactive networking. That combo travels well—no matter how AI evolves. Source: Reporting by Julie Jargon in The Wall Street Journal.

The higher ed system and the conventional signals employers rely on are cracking. At the advent of Google and internet search, universities were slow to allow students to use it for research. Today, most universities tend to restrict rather than embrace AI use. The NYT recently released an article about Harvard students (not only a Harvard issue) skipping class and not doing the readings (I may or may not have been guilty of this). The blame is implicitly on (lazy) students and grade inflation, which is somewhat warranted, but it neglects the realities of students trying to position themselves for internships and jobs within a system that has not really evolved with them. Competition and urgency are higher than ever, while entry level opportunities are becoming scarcer in the AI age. For many, the luxury of fully devoting yourself to a liberal arts education and traditional classes is fading. Differentiation no longer happens through GPA, excluding graduate school career paths (law, medicine, etc). It is not enough. Candidates increasingly need to stand out through internships (especially during term time), side hustles & projects, extracurriculars, and building their personal brand. Rational agents optimizing for career outcomes are naturally devoting more time to these areas. If you are a college student looking for opportunities to get you a step ahead, check out Teli Labs.

First jobs aren't glamorous, but they matter. Proofing drafts. Reconciling spreadsheets. Assembling reports. That’s how people learn. Now, AI does much of that work. And without it, the on-ramp into careers is narrowing. Korn Ferry Institute's data shows that lower-level roles are more exposed to automation than higher-level ones. For graduates, that means fewer entry points and more underemployment. But the future of early careers isn’t fixed. Leaders can either let AI erode opportunity or use it to accelerate careers and strengthen the pipeline. The starting line is shifting. Design it well, and AI can be the bridge to success. My colleague and fellow early careerist, Emily Gianunzio, knocked it out of the park with this one! 👏 #FutureOfWork #AI #EarlyCareer #Leadership #KornFerryInstitute Read More: https://lnkd.in/gU_RuDyZ

“The new AI revolutionaries aren’t all Silicon Valley tech bros — they might just be your local librarian.” I loved this quote in a recent newspaper piece by Euan Blair which discussed the need for the UK to take a wide ranging approach to upskilling, particularly around AI: “It’s not just young, tech-minded workers who can reap the benefits of adopting technology such as AI: it’s everyone.” He pointed out that, “Our recent analysis of people undertaking AI apprenticeships revealed that two thirds are in roles you would never associate with high levels of technology. That’s nurses, joiners, retail workers, even a herbarium curator, with ages from 19 to 71.” I couldn’t agree more that it is vital for people of all ages and in whatever career path to upskill in AI. Unlike previous technologies, this is one where it is in everyone’s interests to develop their skills. It is one of the reasons that in schools I believe AI is as much the province of the history teacher as the computer scientist or indeed the caretaker. The risk is that if people don’t upskill, we are heading towards a path where economic transformation simply equates to job losses and automation. Far better for people to develop skills that mean they can themselves help to shape what a future with AI looks like. (Link to Times piece in comments.)