Graduates Face The Great Degree Deception

The Degree Deception: How AI and a Broken Market Left a Generation Adrift

A storm gathers over the prospects of Britain’s young people. They emerge from universities, clutching degrees that cost them tens of thousands of pounds, only to find themselves in a brutal and bewildering job market. Artificial intelligence, once a futuristic concept, now acts as an unforgiving gatekeeper, filtering legions of near-identical applications. This technological shift, combined with economic stagnation, has created a crisis. A generation feels that the promise of higher education was a profound mis-selling of their future. For many, the path to a fulfilling career has become a nightmare.

An Unfulfilled Promise

Susie’s experience from Sheffield encapsulates this new, harsh reality. Armed with a doctorate and two other higher education qualifications, she reasonably assumed that securing employment would be a manageable task. The reality proved to be a gruelling nine-month ordeal. She submitted over 700 job applications, a process that demanded immense effort. For each application, Susie meticulously tailored her CV and cover letter to match the specific requirements of the role. The response was often a swift, automated rejection, sometimes arriving just minutes after she had applied, claiming her materials had received "careful consideration." This demoralising cycle repeated itself endlessly, eroding her confidence and sense of worth.

The Silence of the Recruiters

The lack of human interaction during the hiring cycle became a defining feature of Susie's job search. In approximately 70% of her applications, she received no response at all. This silence was particularly disheartening when it followed several interview stages for a single position. Companies for which she had prepared extensively and invested significant time simply vanished, offering no feedback or acknowledgement. This practice, often referred to as "ghosting," left her in a state of perpetual uncertainty. Ultimately, after nearly a year of relentless effort, she accepted a role with a salary below £30,000, a figure not substantially higher compared to a doctoral scholarship once taxes are deducted.

A Digital Deluge

The environment for graduate employment has been fundamentally reshaped by artificial intelligence. Susie felt this change most acutely in the sheer volume of competition. Digital platforms like LinkedIn now reveal how many candidates apply for each vacancy, and the figures are staggering. It is not uncommon for a single vacancy to attract hundreds of applications within the first hour. This creates a daunting environment where it feels impossible to get noticed. In 2024, employers received an average of 140 applications per graduate position, a stunning 59% increase from the previous year. This is the highest figure recorded in the last three decades.

The Toughest Market in Memory

Susie's struggles are not an isolated case. Her story is worryingly relatable to countless youths across the United Kingdom. They are currently dealing with an incredibly tough employment scene lately. With companies freezing their recruitment and leveraging AI to slash costs, the number of available entry-level jobs has contracted steeply from the emergence of tools like ChatGPT. Large cohorts of graduates now find themselves competing for an ever-dwindling number of early-career roles. The heavy integration of AI into the recruitment process has turned the search for a job into a surreal and Kafkaesque ordeal for people graduating from university.

Image Credit - Freepik

Debt and Disillusionment

For many, the struggle is compounded by a heavy financial burden. A 23-year-old named Martyna, soon to receive her master's in English literature from the University of York, carries a ninety-thousand-pound university loan. Since May, she has been looking for her initial permanent role, a process she finds deeply disheartening. She feels that society lied to her about the value of her education. Her parents, originally from Poland, saw the promise of a better future through university education as a powerful motivator. Now, holding two degrees that seem useless in the current climate, she questions the entire system. The immense debt feels like a punishment for pursuing the very path she was told would guarantee her success.

A Fruitless Search

Martyna’s job search has been extensive and varied. She has applied for approximately 150 entry-level positions across numerous sectors, including positions in marketing, publishing, and government work. In a sign of her growing desperation, she has also applied for roles in the retail or hospitality fields. The results have been bleak: five interviews, a multitude of nearly immediate dismissals, and widespread ghosting from potential employers. The experience makes her want to scream. One of the few detailed responses she received was an email clarifying that two thousand different individuals sought the same position. This starkly illustrates the immense competition that graduates now face.

The Dystopian Playbook

The modern job hunt feels dystopian to many graduates like Martyna. She observes that recruitment platforms deploy AI to check CVs for specific keywords mentioned in the job description. This has led to an arms race, where applicants try to game the system. Martyna has friends who copy full job postings and paste them into their application documents. They then reduce the font size to minuscule levels and change the text's color to white, rendering it invisible to the human eye but readable by the AI algorithms. This tactic is a desperate attempt to pass the initial screening. It is a grim reflection of a system where human qualities are secondary to algorithmic compatibility.

A Crisis of Confidence

The relentless rejection and the feeling of being just another data point in a machine's analysis have taken a severe toll on Martyna's confidence. She was once told that failing to attend a university could lead to a job at McDonald's. Now, having invested years in higher education, she finds herself applying for barista positions, but was turned down due to insufficient experience. The irony is not lost on her. The situation has become so dire that she has seriously considered departing from Britain and returning to Poland, abandoning the future she tried to build. This sense of hopelessness is a common thread among her peers.

Experience Trumps Education

A clear message is emerging from employers across a wide range of sectors: experience tailored to the role is now far more valuable over a notable qualification. This shift in priorities is a source of immense frustration for recent graduates. A 24-year-old called Lucy, from Lincolnshire, has held part-time support positions and worked at the bakery chain Greggs since she graduated in 2022. She holds a qualification in visual communication but finds it impossible to get hired in the design industry. Her background at a college, however, means she frequently secures interviews for jobs in education, a field she did not study for.

Image Credit - Freepik

A Flawed Narrative

Lucy's story highlights a fundamental disconnect between the advice given to young people and the reality of the labour market. She feels frustrated because she pursued a degree based on the narrative that it was the only reliable path to a good career. Now, she finds that she might have been in a superior position by joining the workforce directly from college and gaining practical skills. She has just taken a permanent, full-time job within the field of residential care. While grateful for the stability, she acknowledges that the role pays only minimum wage. It was, she says, the best she could get. Her situation underscores a growing sentiment that the university system is failing to prepare students for the world of work.

The Homogenisation of Talent

The pervasive adoption of AI has had another, more subtle effect: it has made it extremely difficult for applicants to distinguish themselves. Willemien Schurer, a 53-year-old London-based mother, has witnessed this firsthand through her two recently graduated sons. She notes that jobseekers are acutely aware that many hundreds, or even thousands, of fellow candidates possess nearly the same résumés. Many have likely used AI to generate highly comparable application letters, tailored precisely to the job description. This creates a sea of perfect-on-paper candidates, leaving recruiters perplexed.

When Everyone Ticks the Boxes

The current situation raises a critical question: when every candidate fulfills all requirements, how can employers possibly discern whom to pick? This problem is exacerbated by grade inflation at both the school and university levels, a phenomenon that has now trailed graduates into their professional careers. When every candidate appears to have a top degree and a perfectly optimised CV, the traditional markers of achievement lose their meaning. The result is a recruitment process that feels arbitrary and disconnected from genuine ability. It becomes less about identifying the best candidate and more about managing an overwhelming volume of qualified applicants.

The Return of the Old Boys' Network

Willemien Schurer’s older son experienced a spirit-crushing five months of seeking work, applying for around 200 positions without success after graduating with a mathematics qualification from a leading institution. This was despite his excellent academic record. Schurer feels that AI-driven recruitment processes, which make it so challenging for applicants to set themselves apart, have inadvertently placed a higher value placed on networking. The old adage that personal contacts are more valuable than knowledge appears to be making a comeback. When merit becomes impossible to judge through a standardised, automated process, a personal recommendation can become the deciding factor. This trend threatens to undo decades of progress towards fairer, more meritocratic hiring practices.

Digital Connections vs. Real Networks

An academic from a Swedish business school, who wished to remain anonymous, concurs with this assessment. He argues that AI-generated CVs screened by AI-powered HR software make a candidate's success heavily reliant upon their personal networks. This poses a particular problem for Generation Z. He notes that this demographic often has fewer real-life professional connections and relies more heavily on digital networks, which are not as effective for securing high-level opportunities. The result is a system that disadvantages those without pre-existing social capital, creating a significant barrier to social mobility for a generation that is digitally native but professionally isolated.

A Tough Market Getting Tougher

The professor offers a bleak prediction for the future. The employment landscape his students are graduating into is already tough, he says, and it is poised to become more difficult. He points to a dangerous dual trend. On one hand, companies are aggressively implementing AI for cost-saving and to streamline operations, often leading to a reduction in graduate-level hiring. On the other hand, students are increasingly using AI for their university work, which he believes is replacing genuine thinking and critical analysis. This is, in his view, de-optimising them for the very jobs they hope to secure in the future. They are becoming less prepared for a world that demands more, not less, human ingenuity.

Image Credit - Freepik

The Erosion of Core Skills

This sentiment is mirrored by many academics across Britain and elsewhere. Many express serious worries regarding AI's influence on the fundamental purpose of a university education. They warn that students are finishing their studies lacking abilities and information they once would have gained. This is because they are relying on AI to finish most of their coursework, from essays to problem sets. A high-level recruiter from a major London consultancy, speaking anonymously, notes a stark decline in the abilities of applicants. He states that just 10 or 15 years ago, the ability to write effectively and think clearly used to be fundamental needs for the majority of graduate positions.

The Rise of Elite Skills

Today, the same recruitment professional observes, those once-basic abilities are now becoming high-level abilities. He laments that almost nobody seems to possess them anymore. His firm constantly encounters candidates holding excellent qualifications from prestigious universities who are incapable of summarising what a basic document contains or engaging in basic problem-solving. This skills deficit, coupled with the increasing capabilities of AI, gives companies fewer reasons to employ graduates in numerous traditional entry-level positions. This shift is now being reflected in sobering labour market reports and a reduction in graduate recruitment targets for many top firms.

A Disconnect from Professional Life

Hiring managers and human resources specialists have shared similar observations. They find that recent graduates they meet often struggle with fundamental professional tasks. Many are uncomfortable during phone calls or contributing in meetings. Simple skills like taking handwritten notes, conveying information accurately, or completing a written task with no connection to the web have become surprisingly rare. This points to a generation that is highly adept in the digital realm but lacks some of the basic practical skills required for a traditional office environment. This disconnect between academic life and professional expectations is a growing source of concern for businesses.

Selling an Unrealistic Dream

The chief executive of a southeastern e-commerce logistics firm, Tom, believes there is a significant mismatch between the gap between youth aspirations and their actual talents. He feels that schools and universities could be performing more effectively at managing expectations and communicating this reality. Unfortunately, he argues, modern universities operate like commercial enterprises that market aspirations. Young people eagerly buy into them, but the problem arises when these graduates step back into reality, and the dream quickly sours into a nightmare of rejection and underemployment.

From Campus to Casual Contracts

Sanjay Balle's story is a case in point. The 26-year-old, a London resident who earned a degree from the Open University last summer with a third-class in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics, has a primary source of income from a waiting position with no guaranteed hours, earning between £700 and £800 a month. He has been applying relentlessly for about 20 junior and graduate positions every day. He has now submitted more than 500 applications across a wide range of sectors, including fields such as advertising, healthcare, procurement, education, finance, and government work, with little to show for his efforts.

An Inevitable Outcome

Sanjay sees the current situation as a logical, if painful, outcome of the artificial intelligence transformation in employment. Companies are using this technology to cut costs and improve productivity, so it is perfectly logical that the number of junior positions has decreased. While some could expect the government to create hiring incentives, Sanjay is realistic about the prospects of such an intervention. He believes the significant expense renders any major government programme unlikely. His perspective reflects a pragmatic acceptance of the new economic reality, even as he struggles to find his place within it.

A Call for New Paths

The crisis facing graduates like Sanjay has led to calls for a fundamental rethink of the UK's approach to education and employment. He believes we should steer youth towards alternatives to university. Following trade-based routes and entering skilled trades should be presented as equally valid and valuable career choices. At the same time, he argues, we must find ways to help the thousands of university graduates who are currently trapped in a cycle of underemployment. Without support, a growing number of graduates, holding qualifications that exceed their part-time work, will experience social isolation and an increased risk of mental health issues.

The Fear of a Wasted Degree

Although the majority of applicants who responded were frantic to land any full-time role, several expressed a profound sense of disappointment. They are slowly coming to the dawning awareness that employment in their specific field might remain out of reach. Louise, 24, voiced this anxiety clearly. Her biggest fear, she said, is the possibility of never entering her desired industry. She earned a master's in microbiology from Oxford University, a significant academic achievement. She then spent a long period seeking hundreds of positions while employed part-time at John Lewis.

An Unwanted Career Turn

Louise lately received an offer for a graduate traineeship, a success story in this difficult market. However, the nature of the hiring process was revealing. She noted that the employer seemed more focused on her customer service abilities from hospitality work than her background and credentials in science. The job she has been offered does not use the specialised skills she spent years developing at one of the world's top universities. Her situation is a poignant example of the compromises many graduates are forced to make. The simple desire is to utilize my education, she stated, a powerful expression of her frustration.

A Market in Flux

Despite the anecdotal evidence of widespread struggle, the graduate labour market remains complex. In 2024, 87.6% of working-age graduates were in employment, a figure higher than pre-pandemic levels. However, a crucial detail lies in the type of employment. Only 67.9% of these graduates were in high-skilled roles, suggesting a significant level of underemployment. Many graduates are taking on jobs that do not require a degree. The median nominal salary for graduates was £42,000, but this figure is skewed by high earners in sectors like finance and law, where starting salaries can reach £55,000.

The Widening Participation Dilemma

In recent years, many graduate employers have made efforts to increase the diversity of their hires. They have reduced their reliance on minimum UCAS point tariffs and the traditional requirement of a 2:1 degree classification. While this has opened up vacancies to a broader range of applicants, it has also intensified competition. The widening of entry criteria, combined with the ease of applying through AI-powered platforms, has contributed to the record number of applications per job. This creates a new set of challenges for both employers, who must sift through a mountain of applications, and for candidates, who find it harder than ever to differentiate themselves.

The International Student Question

Recent changes to UK visa regulations have rendered the employment scene particularly tough for international students. While most employers intend to continue recruiting international students, the new rules are having a tangible impact. Worryingly, some employers have already rescinded existing job offers due to the changes, with certain accounts suggesting the number is up to eighteen percent. This not only creates immense distress for the individuals affected but also risks damaging the UK's reputation as a welcoming destination for global talent. It adds another layer of complexity to an already fraught and challenging graduate recruitment landscape.