What Hiring for the Class of '25 Tells Them, and Us
According to a Kickresume survey, 58% of the class of 2025 college graduates were still looking for their first job at graduation, compared to just 25% for previous generations. Only 12% of 2025 grads secured full-time work by graduation versus 39% previously.
These numbers may be telling college graduates and all of us that something has fundamentally shifted in the labor market. The questions now are what’s happening and what should be done by job seekers?
How AI is Changing the Entry Point
The biggest change for you recent grads? You’re probably not competing with other humans anymore—at least not initially. You’re competing with an algorithm.
Many companies now use automated screening systems that review resumes before any person sees them. These systems scan for specific keywords, particular formatting, exact phrase matches. Miss one keyword the algorithm is looking for, and your application gets filtered out before a hiring manager even knows you exist.
Think about what this means. A recent grad applies to an entry-level marketing role. They have relevant coursework, strong writing samples, and solid internship experience. But their resume says “social media management” instead of “social media marketing,” or they formatted their education section differently than the AI expects. Rejected—not because they can’t do the job, but because they didn’t match the algorithm’s pattern matching.
A second, and more concerning, potential impact AI is having is its ability to enable firms to reduce hiring needs. The jobs that used to be natural entry points for new graduates—administrative roles, junior analyst positions, entry-level coordinator jobs—are increasingly being automated or eliminated entirely. What’s left are roles that require more experience, which creates an impossible catch-22 for someone trying to land their first post-college “knowledge worker” gig. Experience inflation means “entry-level” doesn’t mean what it used to. Jobs that once required just a degree now routinely ask for 2-3 years of professional experience. When everyone’s first job requires experience, how do you get your first job?
Couple experience inflation with the post-Covid normalization of “remote work”, and we’ve dramatically expanded the applicant pool for many roles. Five years ago, if you graduated from a college in Connecticut, you were mainly competing with other job seekers in that region. Today, that same Connecticut grad is competing with candidates from across the country—maybe across the world—for remote positions.
Research from NACE and Indeed shows graduates responding by applying to more jobs earlier. Class of 2025 grads sent 67% more applications than Class of 2024 and they even started searching a half-month earlier. Unfortunately, they experienced worse results. However, more applications doesn’t solve the problem when the bottleneck is getting past the AI gatekeepers.
What May Have Worked for Those Who Succeeded?
We don’t have definitive data on what the 12% who secured jobs before graduation did differently, but there are some ideas worth considering.
They probably didn’t rely solely on cold applications. Perhaps their internships turned into job offers? Maybe they had people in their network make direct introductions to companies, or alumni who vouched for them to hiring managers. In other words, they had humans help them bypass the automated screening process entirely.
When someone inside a company can tell the hiring manager “I know Susan, she’d be great for the role and your team,” that moves a candidate along. The resume gets pulled from the pile and actually reviewed by a hiring manager, the human tasked with actually “hiring” for the open role. The applicant gets considered on their merits (and the advocate’s recommendation), not just their keyword match rate.
What Recent Grads Should Do
If you’re job hunting now:
Stop thinking of job searching as just a numbers game. Submitting your resume blindly to 100 applications screened by AI systems might feel productive, but it’s often just busy work. Instead, focus on finding even one person at your target companies who can get your resume in front of a person who works there, either an in-house recruiter or better yet, the hiring manager.
Ask yourself: Who do I know who might know someone at the companies I’m interested in? A former internship colleague, a professor’s connection, an alumni from your school? One warm introduction can be worth dozens of cold applications.
If you’re still in college or a trade program:
Internships matter more than ever—not just for resume building, but because they create the relationships and work experience that lead to jobs. If you can find a part-time internship or project during the school year or summer, do it. Stay connected with your supervisors after internships end. They might not have an opening for you now, but they’ll remember you when one opens up, or they’ll know someone else who’s hiring at the company.
Engage with your school’s alumni network early, not just in senior year “oh, snap, I need a job” panic mode. Alumni want to help, but they’re more likely to recommend someone they’ve built a relationship with over time. Per the note above, offer to do a project for an alum during your school year.
If you’re choosing where to go to college or a trade program:
Ask specific questions about placement success. What percentage of students get jobs before graduation? How strong are the alumni connections in your intended field, and how willing are alums to engage with current students? Does the career services office actively connect students with employers, or just help polish resumes and cover letters?
Moving Forward
The Class of 2025 is navigating a fundamentally different job market than previous generations faced. AI screening, experience inflation, and broader competition for remote roles have created new obstacles that the old “apply widely and interview well” advice won’t solve for.
Understanding these structural changes helps explain why the traditional approach isn’t working as well. The adaptation? Building relationships that help you work around the automated gatekeepers.
To work these new age job searching muscles, this week, reach out to one person who’s working in a field you’re interested in, and ideally at an organization you’re excited about. Don’t ask “are you hiring”—just ask if they would be willing to do a short call so you can learn about their path and how they got where they are. That type of outreach and conversation is your new normal as a job seeker, and it’s very likely each conversation has a higher likelihood of creating future opportunities for you that no amount of cold outreach and batch resume submissions ever could.
Sources:
Kickresume: From School to Work Survey (May 2025)
NACE & Indeed: Class of 2025 Student Survey (October 2025)
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