If You Are A New Grad, This Is How AI Could Influence Your Career Path

If you have just graduated or are new to the job market, you might empathize with recent data which found that nearly 75% of new graduates are worried the current economy will affect their job prospects.

And if you’re a member of the class of 2023, you’ve already had a lot to contend with. This year’s graduating class started college in the fall of 2019, mere months before the pandemic hit, which took a huge toll. You’re likely to have missed out on much of the regular college experience, as well as being required to attend classes online.

New problems

Now that the Covid-19 crisis has, in the main, passed, fresh problems are appearing for new graduates.

Firstly, college leavers are facing a tough labor market. Thanks to wide-reaching global economic factors, overall, hiring has dropped 29% since April 2022, and recruitment for entry-level positions requiring a college degree have dropped nearly 32%.

Hundreds of thousands of jobs have been axed across tech companies and financial institutions too, which has further impacted the job landscape.

Secondly, AI is now in the mix. Graduates will already be aware of the power and potential of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT.

In fact, a recent study from the online magazine Intelligent found that nearly a third of college students have used the chatbot to complete written homework assignments, with 60% saying they use the generative AI tool to help with over half of their assignments.

Jobs set to change

Generative AI is having an impact beyond education and it is set to change jobs now, and into the future. Entirely new roles such as prompt engineering, are emerging too.

According to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) most recent Future of Jobs report, business leaders predict that 42% of business tasks will be automated by 2027, and AI tools will be responsible for about 35% of reasoning and decision-making tasks, up to 65% of information and data processing.

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This represents a change in the way that graduate accountants, junior software programmers, and sales trainees will do their jobs. Data science professionals, those engaged in research, and digital and traditional marketing employees, for example, will also benefit from automation.

Key to keep top of mind is that you won’t be out of work. Microsoft’s most recent Work Trend Index Annual Report found that leaders are two times more likely to say that AI’s real worth is in how it can boost productivity––and not take jobs away.

As a new or recent graduate, you are in a great place to take advantage. Developing human-led skills and capabilities that AI simply can’t replicate are vital, and if you can develop soft skills such as communication, creativity and critical thinking, you’ll be in a great position to work well with generative AI tools.

Job hunting now? The Study International Job Board can help. It’s packed with interesting graduate and early career roles, like the three below.

Software Engineer Internship, Ramp Financial, New York

Ramp is building the next generation of finance tools, designed to save businesses time and money with every click. It is currently looking for full stack and platform engineering interns who are excited to be part of this early story and can help to build a diverse and vibrant tech community. The ideal candidate will have a strong sense of ownership and enjoy owning projects from inception to scaling in production. In return, you’ll get catered lunches in the NYC office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, plus 100% medical, dental and vision insurance coverage. Find more information here.

Software Engineer – Recent Graduate, PayPal, Austin

As a Software Engineer – Recent Graduate at PayPal, you’ll work alongside the best and the brightest engineering talent in the industry. Opportunities exist in a wide range of areas including development, design, search, platform, test, quality, big data, front end and back end. As a core participant of your team, you’ll estimate engineering efforts, design your changes, implement and test your changes, push to live, and triage production issues. To be considered, you need to be dynamic, collaborative, and curious, as well as have strong applied experience. You’ve built, broken, and rebuilt software applications, have a working knowledge of web technologies (such as HTTP, HTML/DOM, JavaScript, CSS, AJAX) and you’ll be familiar with the following: Node.js applications, Java, C++ or Python. Apply for this job here.

Intern – Intergovernmental Affairs & Data Science, United Nations, New York

This temporary Intern – Intergovernmental Affairs & Data Science role will support the General Assembly Affairs Branch of the General Assembly and ECOSOC Affairs Division, which serves as the technical secretariat for a number of intergovernmental bodies at United Nations Headquarters. In this context, the division seeks motivated interns to support its work. Among other duties, you’ll conduct research on intergovernmental procedure and practice of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council and their subsidiary bodies, and assist in the preparation of procedural scripts for meetings, and undertake other preparatory tasks. Discover lots more roles at the United Nations.

For more opportunities, check out the Study International Job Board today