By Steve Conley, Founder of the Academy of Life Planning
Computer science graduates were supposed to be the safest bet in the 21st-century job market. Coding was “the new literacy.” The narrative was clear: learn to program, and you’ll never be out of work. Yet today, we see talented graduates—like Eddie Hart and Colin from Newcastle University—locked out of their first jobs by an industry that increasingly leans on artificial intelligence while demanding “two years’ experience” for “junior” roles.
This isn’t just a tech problem. It’s a systemic failure.
The Broken Pipeline
Traditionally, the technology industry relied on an apprenticeship model. Juniors joined teams, cut their teeth on repetitive tasks, and grew into seniors. AI has swallowed those entry-level tasks. Recruiters now screen CVs with AI, assess candidates with AI, and even reject them with AI—often before a human ever looks at an application.
The result? A blocked pipeline. Senior roles remain open, but who will fill them in five years if we never hire and train juniors today? Paul Dix of InfluxData put it bluntly: “If nobody’s hiring younger developers, then you’re going to arrive at this point where you don’t have senior developers either.”
The Psychological Toll
Graduates aren’t just fighting for jobs; they’re fighting for dignity. Hours spent on eight-stage automated applications, video answers reviewed by algorithms, and CVs rewritten to trick keyword scanners—only to be met with silence.
No wonder many, like Colin, abandon tech altogether. And when the brightest in one of the most “future-proof” disciplines feel excluded, what hope is there for graduates in less fashionable fields?
The Human Capital Solution
The economy has always been propped up by human capital—the skills, creativity, and energy of people—not just financial capital. Yet our system keeps telling graduates: “You’re not enough.”
The answer isn’t more debt, more exams, or more demoralising job hunts. The answer is to flip the script:
- Stop waiting for permission from gatekeepers.
- Start building income streams, networks, and ventures that grow from your skills.
- Use the very same AI tools currently used against you, but on your side—accelerating your applications, showcasing your projects, and creating your own opportunities.
That’s the philosophy behind The Graduate GAME Plan: a done-by-you, done-with-you, or done-for-you framework to turn human capital into real-world resilience.
A Call to Action
When computer science graduates—the very people trained to build our digital future—are being screened out by machines, we must ask: what kind of future are we building?
At the Academy of Life Planning, we believe the solution lies in empowerment, not exclusion. Every graduate has value. The challenge is helping them harness it.
The Graduate GAME Plan is one such tool. Not a silver bullet, but a step toward rebalancing the scales—restoring dignity, creating pathways, and ensuring that the next Eddie or Colin doesn’t have to give up on their future before it begins.
👉 Planning My Life is piloting The Graduate GAME Plan now. To find out more, visit www.planningmy.life.
Because when the system shuts you out, you don’t have to wait. You can build your own way forward.
Link to Graduate GAME Plan Shop Item
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