If you think a top-tier degree guarantees job security, think again.
Jack Weis graduated summa cum laude from Rice, earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Princeton (where his research on ice formation was cited by Nobel laureates), and is an Eagle Scout. Yet, after sending out 2,300+ applications over two years, he’s living in his parents' basement in Salt Lake City—getting ghosted even by local crab cake vendors.
Welcome to the "Low-Hire, Low-Fire" Economy
While low unemployment rates and record-setting stock markets make the headlines, college-educated job seekers are trapped in a silent freeze.
Economists call it a low-hire, low-fire environment:
- People who have jobs aren't leaving them, locking newcomers out of the workforce.
- Workers laid off from skill sets heavily absorbed by AI are far less likely to land on their feet than they were just a few years ago.
The AI Bottleneck
To make matters weirder, Weis spent time earning $70/hour training the very AI platforms that filter candidates like him out of the market.
His job? Teaching LLMs complex chemical engineering concepts (and occasionally asking the "ghost of Blackbeard" to explain nuclear reactors). When the project dried up, he was dropped via a mass Slack message to 800 gig workers.
Now, applicants face an automated recruitment abyss:
- One-Way Interviews: Candidates record videos of themselves responding to digital prompts rather than talking to a human.
- Gamified Tests: Weis missed a 72-hour deadline for a McKinsey consulting assessment because he was on a backpacking trip without cell service—the test required him to organize a virtual forest ecosystem in a computer game.
What’s Next?
Instead of waiting for automated portals to reply, Weis is taking control:
- Studying for the LSAT to explore law school.
- Submitting rule-making petitions to federal agencies (including decoupling healthcare from employment).
- Prototyping laser-equipped drones using AI to kill invasive weeds.
His takeaway? If the system won't hire you, build your own value.