The Scene: A Radically Altered Reality
When the Class of 2026 first stepped onto college campuses four years ago, ChatGPT didn't exist. Computer science was the ultimate golden ticket, and terms like "vibe coding" or "tokenmaxxing" hadn't even entered the lexicon.
Times have changed.
Twenty-somethings graduating this May are stepping into a corporate landscape radically contorted by artificial intelligence. The tech sector alone has slashed 100,000 jobs this year. In one stark example, Cloudflare axed a fifth of its workforce after realizing a fleet of AI agents could seamlessly handle tasks previously assigned to humans.
"Every other day, a new AI agent drops into the market," says Vaishali Hireraddi, 23, a graduate student at the University of California, Davis, who has submitted 500 applications to no avail. "What am I even doing with my life?"
Hireraddi’s anxiety is echoed by dozens of students, corporate leaders, and economists who spoke with Semafor. The consensus? The Class of 2026 is, well, cooked. Many graduates have abandoned their dream jobs just to chase anything with a paycheck; others are settling for unpaid labor. Meanwhile, competition is fiercer than ever, with LinkedIn postings pulling double the volume of applications compared to 2022.
It’s a "hair-on-fire moment," warned Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) at the Semafor World Economy summit last month, bluntly predicting that recent graduates could face a staggering 30% underemployment rate over the next two years. "Boy, oh, boy."
Know More: Doom-Scrolling and "Vibe Coding"
AI anxiety has officially spilled over from TikTok and Reddit threads onto commencement stages. Earlier this week at the University of Central Florida, a tech executive was soundly booed by graduates after pitching AI as the "next Industrial Revolution."
"We know AI exists," one student told a local TV station. "We’re just having a hard time accepting that it’s eating our job opportunities."
NVIDIA co-founder Chris Malachowsky tried a gentler approach during his graduation address at the University of Florida, urging students to tune out the panic. "As graduates, you are not entering this next era as bystanders," he insisted.
Faced with a frozen job market, some graduates are trying to "vibe code" their way into startup capital. Theodore Skondras, 23, a master’s student at MIT, recently applied to Y Combinator with a project designed to secure financial transactions between autonomous AI agents. "Things change," Skondras shrugs. "You’ve got to adapt."
The Cat-and-Mouse Game of Hiring Bots
Graduates are also deploying AI just to get a foot in the door:
Project Prototyping: Hireraddi, who is finishing a master's in business analytics, shells out $100 a month for Claude to spin up data projects—like an algorithm that predicts whether an e-shopper will actually buy or just browse—strictly to boost her LinkedIn visibility for recruiters.
Resume Optimization: She also uses the LLM to beat corporate screening algorithms, feeding job descriptions into the AI to seamlessly inject the exact keywords recruiters look for.
Despite her tech-savvy hustle, Hireraddi’s efforts have yielded only two unpaid offers. One company explicitly told her they would start paying her "at some point in the future when they have enough money," citing a tight budget.
The View From Companies: Seeking Thinkers, Not Grunts
Corporate America is fully aware of the panic. "Graduates right now feel a profound sense of urgency," noted Alex DiLeonardo of Citadel Securities at the Semafor summit—a sentiment shared among many of the 500 CEOs in attendance.
In response, major firms are fundamentally rewriting their entry-level playbooks:
Citadel Securities is transforming its first-year analyst program to be less role-specific and heavily focused on core critical thinking.
KPMG is piloting an initiative for 1,000 audit interns that strictly evaluates problem-solving and communication. "We plan to hire based on their ability to be critical thinkers," says CEO Tim Walsh.
Newell Brands has taken the ultimate hardline stance. CEO Chris Peterson stated the consumer goods giant has entirely stopped hiring candidates who are not "AI-proficient or AI-fluent."
For those willing to pivot entirely, IBM Vice Chairman Gary Cohn offered some starkly practical, blue-collar advice: "We need to encourage people to find jobs where there are actually jobs," Cohn said. "Who in here can level a cement floor? Because you can earn $260,000 today laying cement at a data farm."
Rachyl’s View: The Death of the Rote Path
While graduates in computer science, business, and data analytics are bearing the brunt of this disruption, the market remains robust for nurses, therapists, and civil engineers.
Nursing might not appeal to a tech graduate, but massive macroeconomic shifts have a funny way of forcing raw creativity. Honestly, it couldn't come at a better time. American entrepreneurship has been on a steady decline since the 1970s.
For decades, young professionals followed a rigid script: go to college, secure a 9-to-5, and climb the corporate ladder. The latest generation was specifically bred to believe that learning to code was an infallible path to a six-figure salary at Google or Amazon, complete with free sushi and ping-pong tables.
If AI is rendering those entry-level corporate seats obsolete, the upper hand naturally shifts to those who can think abstractly and pitch big ideas. Fortunately, venture capital is waiting for them. The number of LinkedIn users adding "Founder" to their profiles has already tripled since 2022, proving that vibe coding and AI agents have dramatically lowered the financial and technical barriers to building a business.
The path forward requires a three-pronged shift:
Corporations need to end the toxic cycle of hyper-inflated hiring followed by mass layoffs.
Policymakers must slash the bureaucratic red tape that makes launching a new business a headache.
New Graduates need to open up their laptops, stop waiting for permission, and just build something.
Room for Disagreement: A Looming Experience Gap?
Some graduates view the disruption as an asset. Ezra Rosser, 22, who graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design with a fine arts degree, feels "lucky" to have experimented with AI while the stakes were still low in the classroom. Yet, reality still bites: after 100 applications, Rosser only managed to land an internship that expires in July. "They told me they can’t promise anything after that," he says.
Furthermore, a total freeze on entry-level hiring could create a massive corporate talent drought down the line. Companies like IBM and Infosys claim they are actively bucking the trend by ramping up junior hiring.
As IBM’s Chief Human Resources Officer Nickle LaMoreaux puts it, the math on completely replacing juniors with AI simply doesn't add up: "Where are you going to get mid-career experienced people five years from now if you haven’t groomed them today?"
5 Commencement Speeches That Offer Truly Practical Advice for Life
Every spring, graduation ceremonies become impromptu classrooms. Caps fly, applause echoes, and distinguished guests share hard-won wisdom with the next generation. But beyond the ceremonial pomp, the most enduring commencement speeches distill life lessons into actionable guidance.
We reviewed dozens of standout addresses—from recent years and decades past—and pulled out five that offer surprisingly practical advice for navigating life long after the diploma is framed.
1. Shonda Rhimes: Stop Dreaming, Start Doing
At Dartmouth College’s 2014 commencement, *Grey’s Anatomy* creator Shonda Rhimes delivered a blunt but liberating message: ignore the cliché to “dream big.” While dreaming is easy, it can quickly become a substitute for action.
“A lot of people dream, and while they are busy dreaming, the really happy people, the really successful people, the really interesting, engaged, powerful people are busy doing,” Rhimes told the graduates.
She shared how she once idolized Toni Morrison, spending years dreaming of literary greatness while living in her sister’s basement. (“Dreamers often end up living in the basements of relatives, FYI,” she noted.) It wasn’t until she enrolled in film school and focused on her own voice that she built a career that eventually earned Morrison’s genuine admiration. Her takeaway? “Be a doer, not a dreamer.” Dreams set the direction, but discipline and execution build the life.
2. Arthur Brooks: Find Your “Why” Before Your “What”
Social scientist and author Arthur Brooks studies happiness for a living, and his research points to one nonnegotiable factor: meaning. Speaking at Vanderbilt University this year, Brooks argued that graduates spend too much time asking *how* to do things or *what* career to pursue. The real question, he said, is *why*.
“He found the meaning of his life,” Brooks said of his son, Carlos, who felt adrift at 18. Instead of forcing a traditional college path, Carlos worked on a farm, joined the Marines, got married, and started a family. At 26, he’s now returning to college—not out of obligation, but with clear purpose.
“His path is not your path. His beliefs, his values are not your beliefs and not your values. You have to find your own. And that’s the thrill. That’s where it begins. That’s the fun in life. That’s the journey that awaits.” Purpose isn’t handed to you; it’s forged through experience.
3. Steve Jobs: Trust Your Curiosity, Even When It Makes No Sense
In his iconic 2005 Stanford address, Steve Jobs shared a lesson that defies conventional career advice: follow your genuine curiosity, even if it seems impractical. After dropping out of Reed College, Jobs stopped taking required courses and began auditing classes that simply looked interesting—including a calligraphy class.
“I learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great,” Jobs recalled. At the time, it had no obvious application to his life. A decade later, while designing the first Macintosh, those lessons became foundational. “It was the first computer with beautiful typography,” he said.
He didn’t connect the dots at the time, but by following his genuine curiosity, he quietly gathered the tools he’d later need. The lesson? Don’t dismiss seemingly random interests. They often become the hidden architecture of your future.
4. Steve Carell: Choose Kindness Over Cynicism (And Remember to Dance)
Addressing Northwestern University’s graduating class last year, actor Steve Carell offered a refreshingly human message: fight the urge to be cynical, and never underestimate kindness.
“Remember the little things like being kind, and that you’re not alone. Take care of one another. Remember to laugh when you have the opportunity,” he said, echoing the advice he gives his own children. Carell emphasized that kindness isn’t a passive trait—it’s a disciplined choice and a source of quiet strength. True to his message, he even broke into an impromptu dance mid-speech, proving that joy belongs in adulthood just as much as in youth.
“Remember that kindness isn’t a weakness,” he said. “It is a very potent strength.” In a world that often rewards hardness, choosing empathy is an act of resilience.
5. Donovan Livingston: Let Your Stumbles Become Your Foundation
When Donovan Livingston took the stage at UNC Chapel Hill this year, he knew the weight of expectation. A decade earlier, his viral Harvard commencement poem about education and equity had launched him into the spotlight. But instead of leaning into his success, Livingston opened his UNC speech by sharing his failures.
He displayed his first-semester transcript—a 1.6 GPA—and recounted how he nearly lost a job offer after realizing he hadn’t actually graduated because of a missing class. Rather than hide these missteps, he framed them as necessary friction.
“A catastrophe is an opportunity,” Livingston said. “Your purpose doesn’t often reveal itself in a moment of comfort or convenience. Your purpose shows up when the sky is falling down.” Growth, he reminded the graduates, rarely follows a straight line. It’s forged in the recalibration.
The Common Thread
These five speeches may span decades, disciplines, and delivery styles, but their core messages align: build your life through action, not aspiration; anchor yourself in purpose; trust your curiosity; lead with kindness; and treat setbacks as setup, not failure.
Commencement doesn’t mark an ending—it’s an invitation to begin. The best advice, it turns out, isn’t about having it all figured out. It’s about staying curious, staying kind, and showing up, even when the path isn’t clear.