In 2022, Meredith Meyer earned a promotion many early-career tech workers dream of: software engineer to engineering manager at Apple. But the title came with a significant caveat.
While Meyer gained new responsibilities—leading a team of three engineers—she was never relieved of her individual contributor workload. Her less-experienced team wasn't equipped to absorb the complex technical tasks she'd previously owned, and when she requested additional headcount to distribute the work, leadership declined. The result? Less time to mentor her team and less bandwidth to do her own job.
"It just felt like there was more and more work, but nowhere for it to go," said Meyer, 30, based in the Bay Area.
By last October, the unsustainable load took its toll. Meyer resigned, budgeting six months away from work to recover and reset.
A Wider Corporate Pattern
Meyer's experience isn't isolated. Across corporate America, cost-cutting measures, flattened organizational structures, and pressure to "do more with less" are reshaping management roles. Managers are increasingly overseeing larger teams while maintaining hands-on work—leaving little room to train, support, or develop junior staff, particularly Gen Z employees entering the workforce.
A January Gallup survey underscores the shift: 97% of managers reported taking on individual contributor tasks outside their leadership duties. The average manager now oversees 12.1 direct reports, up from 10.9 just a year earlier.
The Ripple Effect on Hiring
This strain doesn't just affect current employees—it influences who gets hired in the first place. Four recruiters spanning tech, finance, and logistics told Business Insider that managers with expanded scopes and heavier workloads are increasingly reluctant to bring on junior talent who require significant onboarding.
"When a manager is already at 110% capacity, they view a junior hire as a 'time debt'—someone who requires an upfront investment of coaching they simply don't have," explained Lindsay Myketey, a recruiter at Sella by Randstad Digital specializing in marketing and tech roles.
Experience Over Entry-Level: A Shifting Landscape
This managerial crunch coincides with a more cautious hiring climate—partly driven by corporate investments in artificial intelligence—that is raising barriers for new graduates. As of December, the unemployment rate for recent college graduates sat at 5.6%, up from a low of 3.9% in 2022.
Den Mendejar, director of DEI enterprise and talent solutions at staffing firm Aquent, notes that the definition of "entry-level" is evolving. "Roles that used to be true early career opportunities now ask for several years of experience because managers want someone who requires less ramp-up time," he said.
When support systems thin out, newer employees feel the gap. One early-career Microsoft employee recalled that regular manager check-ins were instrumental when she first joined. But as her manager absorbed more direct reports—part of a company-wide effort to reduce management layers—their meetings became half as frequent.
While she had enough experience to work independently, she noticed newer teammates struggling without that scaffolding. "I wanted to make sure they had a good experience after joining and felt supported," she told Business Insider last June.
Why Experience Is Winning Out
Employers have always valued experience, but recent economic volatility has intensified the preference. "In uncertain times, employers don't want to take risks," said Lisa Simon, chief economist at Revelio Labs. "And someone who knows how things already work is a safer bet."
With hiring slowed across sectors, companies now have deeper pools of experienced candidates—including professionals willing to step into roles below their prior seniority. AI adoption compounds the trend: as some organizations accomplish more with fewer people, the roles that remain often favor workers who can immediately leverage or oversee these tools.
A Path Forward for Early-Career Talent
In this environment, recent graduates may need to creatively demonstrate their value beyond traditional credentials. Yet some leaders still see upside in hiring for potential.
A senior engineering manager at a Fortune 500 company, who oversees six direct reports, emphasized that workload depends less on headcount and more on how autonomously team members operate. While new grads may require more initial guidance, he noted, they also bring energy, adaptability, and fresh perspectives that seasoned hires sometimes lack.
"If they have the hunger to learn, to work and explore, then I have no issue hiring those people," he said.