The Entry-Level Tech Job Crisis: Young Workers Get Creative as AI Reshapes Hiring
As artificial intelligence eliminates traditional entry-level positions, aspiring tech workers are resorting to increasingly elaborate tactics to stand out in a brutal job market.
Fresh out of college and living in Toronto, 24-year-old David Zou was determined to break into San Francisco's tech scene. He craved its energy and wanted to surround himself with people "building optimistically for the future."
First, he needed to land an interview.
Zou applied to roughly 30 sales-related positions, cold-direct messaged approximately 100 startup founders on social media, and crafted personalized pitches to recruiters on LinkedIn. When nothing worked, he escalated: He ordered a custom cake printed with a photo of himself skydiving and the message, "I'm ready to (sky)dive headfirst into crushing it for my clients," and had it delivered to Virio, an AI startup in downtown San Francisco, shortly after applying for a founding account manager role.
It worked. He started in February.
A Narrowing Path
San Francisco has long served as the proving ground where young workers launch tech careers, grinding away at startups or securing internships and entry-level positions at established companies. The prize: a healthy tech salary and, ideally, equity in a company poised for greatness.
That path is rapidly narrowing.
The number of entry-level tech jobs in San Francisco has plummeted in recent years, according to Indeed. The few openings that remain are flooded with applications as candidates rush to get in the door at the next big AI company before it's acquired or goes public. The shift has left aspiring workers feeling anxious and desperate.
"It's kind of depressing. It feels like nobody wants us out of college," said Shaun, 24, a recent computer science graduate working at a startup in Omaha, Nebraska. "It's just so rare to see these junior jobs."
Shaun, who declined to provide his last name because he's actively job hunting, is pulling out all the stops to land a San Francisco gig. With help from AI tools Claude Code and Cursor, he built a website that alerts him within an hour of new positions posted by 25 technology firms, including Apple, OpenAI, and Anthropic. He and his friends have even created a video-game-style leaderboard as they competitively practice on LeetCode, a platform featuring the coding problems commonly used in technical interviews.
"A lot of people have the same skills as you, so it's definitely harder to get noticed by companies," he said. "Before, referrals were pretty useful, but right now, I don't think even a referral can help you get an interview."
The Numbers Tell a Grim Story
Counselor Jesselle Hoque, assistant director of career services for engineering and physical sciences at UC Berkeley, says it's become routine for students to send out 200 applications and hear back from 10 or fewer employers.
One major issue: They're entering a market saturated with experienced workers. The ratio of seasoned professionals to available tech jobs is the highest it's been in a decade, according to SignalFire's State of Tech Talent Report.
While major AI labs like Anthropic and OpenAI are on hiring sprees ahead of expected trillion-dollar public debuts, these positions represent only a fraction of the tech industry. Anthropic has approximately 450 jobs listed, and OpenAI has about 730, most based in San Francisco.
Meanwhile, nearly 40,000 tech workers have been laid off in the Bay Area so far this year, according to Layoffs.fyi. Across the country, entry-level tech job postings have been declining since 2022, said Sneha Puri, an economist at Indeed Hiring Lab.
In June, entry-level job postings in San Francisco were down 84% compared with the same period in 2019, according to Indeed. Last year, entry-level hiring at major tech companies fell 65% compared with pre-pandemic 2019 levels, SignalFire reported.
While many executives have attributed layoffs to AI, experts say companies are also correcting for the hiring boom of the early 2020s. These layoffs are making traditional tech companies less appealing to incoming workers wary of instability.
New Normals: Work Trials and Startup Gambles
It took Sahana Diwakar, 25, seven months to find an internship after graduating with a master's degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
She intentionally targeted Y Combinator startups, believing the process would be quicker and compensation comparable to larger companies. She no longer views big tech as the safety net it once was; some of her friends worked at such companies for only a few months before getting laid off and are still searching for jobs.
"If you're a researcher, they'll probably keep you for more years," she said. "But if you're a software developer or any other software role, then you never know when you might be kicked out."
When she finally found an opening, the company required her to fly to San Francisco for a paid one-week work trial before hiring her. Such trials have become standard among AI startups. Diwakar now works at GutGutGoose, a biotech startup that analyzes stool samples to offer customized gut health supplements.
Alex Hochman, senior director of the University of San Francisco's career services, says he's encountering more "confusion" among computer science students about their career paths.
"I don't think it's nearly as dire as everyone makes it out to be, but I don't think it's as gorgeous as it was a decade ago, either," he said of the tech job market.
Networking Desperation and Celebrity Advice
Aspiring tech workers are flocking to networking events in hopes of breaking into the scene. Last month, hundreds of teenagers and early twentysomethings packed a North Beach music venue for Internapalooza, a networking event that was standing room only.
After hearing success stories from fellow Gen Zers raising millions and running companies, the crowd heard from a surprise guest: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Altman had appeared the day before at YC Startup School, where an even larger audience at the Chase Center listened intently as he spoke with Garry Tan, CEO of Y Combinator. Altman famously came out of the accelerator program and led it for years.
"I think it's very natural at the beginning of a career to doubt yourself and not assume you can go do an amazing thing. I certainly went through that," Altman said.
He encouraged the young crowd to start building companies themselves, noting that thanks to improving AI, there's "never a better time to do a startup than right now."
Skip the Ladder, Build Your Own
Skipping the internship or entry-level job entirely isn't unusual advice in Silicon Valley. Niko Bonatsos, managing director at Verdict Capital, which invests in early-stage companies, says it's easier for young people to raise money for a startup than to get hired at a company poised for massive success.
Bonatsos noted that AI has made it easier for technically skilled individuals to spin up an idea and start building a company. He was one of the early investors in Mercor, an AI startup now run by two 23-year-olds, Brendan Foody and Adarsh Hiremath, who became the world's youngest self-made billionaires.
"It might take a smart kid months to interview at a bunch of promising companies," Bonatsos said. "Instead, they could say, 'Shit, maybe I should take some seed money, because it's easy, and then have my own job.'"
For a generation facing an entry-level job apocalypse, building the ladder themselves may be the only option left.
The Entry-Level Tech Job Crisis: Young Workers Get Creative as AI Reshapes Hiring
As artificial intelligence eliminates traditional entry-level positions, aspiring tech workers are resorting to increasingly elaborate tactics to stand out in a brutal job market.
Fresh out of college and living in Toronto, 24-year-old David Zou was determined to break into San Francisco's tech scene. He craved its energy and wanted to surround himself with people "building optimistically for the future."
First, he needed to land an interview.
Zou applied to roughly 30 sales-related positions, cold-direct messaged approximately 100 startup founders on social media, and crafted personalized pitches to recruiters on LinkedIn. When nothing worked, he escalated: He ordered a custom cake printed with a photo of himself skydiving and the message, "I'm ready to (sky)dive headfirst into crushing it for my clients," and had it delivered to Virio, an AI startup in downtown San Francisco, shortly after applying for a founding account manager role.
It worked. He started in February.
A Narrowing Path
San Francisco has long served as the proving ground where young workers launch tech careers, grinding away at startups or securing internships and entry-level positions at established companies. The prize: a healthy tech salary and, ideally, equity in a company poised for greatness.
That path is rapidly narrowing.
The number of entry-level tech jobs in San Francisco has plummeted in recent years, according to Indeed. The few openings that remain are flooded with applications as candidates rush to get in the door at the next big AI company before it's acquired or goes public. The shift has left aspiring workers feeling anxious and desperate.
"It's kind of depressing. It feels like nobody wants us out of college," said Shaun, 24, a recent computer science graduate working at a startup in Omaha, Nebraska. "It's just so rare to see these junior jobs."
Shaun, who declined to provide his last name because he's actively job hunting, is pulling out all the stops to land a San Francisco gig. With help from AI tools Claude Code and Cursor, he built a website that alerts him within an hour of new positions posted by 25 technology firms, including Apple, OpenAI, and Anthropic. He and his friends have even created a video-game-style leaderboard as they competitively practice on LeetCode, a platform featuring the coding problems commonly used in technical interviews.
"A lot of people have the same skills as you, so it's definitely harder to get noticed by companies," he said. "Before, referrals were pretty useful, but right now, I don't think even a referral can help you get an interview."
The Numbers Tell a Grim Story
Counselor Jesselle Hoque, assistant director of career services for engineering and physical sciences at UC Berkeley, says it's become routine for students to send out 200 applications and hear back from 10 or fewer employers.
One major issue: They're entering a market saturated with experienced workers. The ratio of seasoned professionals to available tech jobs is the highest it's been in a decade, according to SignalFire's State of Tech Talent Report.
While major AI labs like Anthropic and OpenAI are on hiring sprees ahead of expected trillion-dollar public debuts, these positions represent only a fraction of the tech industry. Anthropic has approximately 450 jobs listed, and OpenAI has about 730, most based in San Francisco.
Meanwhile, nearly 40,000 tech workers have been laid off in the Bay Area so far this year, according to Layoffs.fyi. Across the country, entry-level tech job postings have been declining since 2022, said Sneha Puri, an economist at Indeed Hiring Lab.
In June, entry-level job postings in San Francisco were down 84% compared with the same period in 2019, according to Indeed. Last year, entry-level hiring at major tech companies fell 65% compared with pre-pandemic 2019 levels, SignalFire reported.
While many executives have attributed layoffs to AI, experts say companies are also correcting for the hiring boom of the early 2020s. These layoffs are making traditional tech companies less appealing to incoming workers wary of instability.
New Normals: Work Trials and Startup Gambles
It took Sahana Diwakar, 25, seven months to find an internship after graduating with a master's degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
She intentionally targeted Y Combinator startups, believing the process would be quicker and compensation comparable to larger companies. She no longer views big tech as the safety net it once was; some of her friends worked at such companies for only a few months before getting laid off and are still searching for jobs.
"If you're a researcher, they'll probably keep you for more years," she said. "But if you're a software developer or any other software role, then you never know when you might be kicked out."
When she finally found an opening, the company required her to fly to San Francisco for a paid one-week work trial before hiring her. Such trials have become standard among AI startups. Diwakar now works at GutGutGoose, a biotech startup that analyzes stool samples to offer customized gut health supplements.
Alex Hochman, senior director of the University of San Francisco's career services, says he's encountering more "confusion" among computer science students about their career paths.
"I don't think it's nearly as dire as everyone makes it out to be, but I don't think it's as gorgeous as it was a decade ago, either," he said of the tech job market.
Networking Desperation and Celebrity Advice
Aspiring tech workers are flocking to networking events in hopes of breaking into the scene. Last month, hundreds of teenagers and early twentysomethings packed a North Beach music venue for Internapalooza, a networking event that was standing room only.
After hearing success stories from fellow Gen Zers raising millions and running companies, the crowd heard from a surprise guest: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Altman had appeared the day before at YC Startup School, where an even larger audience at the Chase Center listened intently as he spoke with Garry Tan, CEO of Y Combinator. Altman famously came out of the accelerator program and led it for years.
"I think it's very natural at the beginning of a career to doubt yourself and not assume you can go do an amazing thing. I certainly went through that," Altman said.
He encouraged the young crowd to start building companies themselves, noting that thanks to improving AI, there's "never a better time to do a startup than right now."
Skip the Ladder, Build Your Own
Skipping the internship or entry-level job entirely isn't unusual advice in Silicon Valley. Niko Bonatsos, managing director at Verdict Capital, which invests in early-stage companies, says it's easier for young people to raise money for a startup than to get hired at a company poised for massive success.
Bonatsos noted that AI has made it easier for technically skilled individuals to spin up an idea and start building a company. He was one of the early investors in Mercor, an AI startup now run by two 23-year-olds, Brendan Foody and Adarsh Hiremath, who became the world's youngest self-made billionaires.
"It might take a smart kid months to interview at a bunch of promising companies," Bonatsos said. "Instead, they could say, 'Shit, maybe I should take some seed money, because it's easy, and then have my own job.'"
For a generation facing an entry-level job apocalypse, building the ladder themselves may be the only option left.