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Today, somewhere around 4 in 10 recent college graduates find themselves employed in roles that don’t need their degree. They just can’t find jobs relevant to what they studied, so they settle for something lesser. This is the definition of underemployment, and it’s a growing problem.

Many also wonder if college is still a good choice for their child. The answer is a big maybe. College is not the best time or place to figure out your career direction. It’s the most expensive time of life and unfortunately, too many programs aren’t yet aligned with real-world workforce needs.

But if you’ve done the career exploration and have a clear picture of 1.) the lifestyle you want to live and 2.) the career that best intersects with that lifestyle and your talents, interests and abilities, and if college is a necessary step to reach that destination, then go.

Article:

• https://www.forbes.com/sites/markcperna/2025/01/14/best-college-degrees-to-avoid-underemployment

It’s only February, and there have already been 25,000 tech layoffs in 2025. There were over 150,000 job cuts across 542 companies in 2022-2024.

No sector has been hit harder than game development. It is likely true there was far too much growth during the pandemic, but it sure seems like the pendulum has been swinging back the other way with a vengance. Read some of the stories shared on the gamedev forum. Longtime devs are sharing that things are worse than many of them have ever seen and wages are dropping.

It’s even worse for juniors or people trying to get into the industry.

Your situation is similar to so many others’: junior devs can’t find paying work, their personal projects don’t make much or any money at all, and they survive by teaching game dev.

So junior game devs who can’t find paying work are teaching the next wave of junior devs who won’t be able to find paying work. So what will that new wave do, teach? Every year, I find out about another college or university that teaches game development. The number of students who get game dev degrees keeps increasing, but the number of jobs is not keeping pace.

That’s what the cycle looks like right now. It’s f*cked up, and I honestly don’t know when it will improve.

More articles:

• https://www.itpro.com/business/tech-layoffs-2025
• https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1iyp23o/the_nightmare_of_being_a_3d_artist_in_2025/
• This there any hope for juniors in the industry? Developers share their stories of trying to find a job in the current state of industry. https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1j7vuqg/is_there_still_hope_for_juniors_in_the_game/

What’s the best way to get paid as a freelancer? How do you assess the viability of a new member of your workshop team? Two topics covered by Jame’s video below.

I found the evaluation of a new team member as really interesting. I have found it’s not as simple as just hiring the smartest person. Special forces absolutely requires competency/physical ability – but will also drop candidates for reasons of integrity, perseverance, ability to take personal responsibility, professionalism, and especially ability to operate as a team player. Being a maverick or deceitful, no matter how talented you are, make you a bad team member.

“One of the less smart people – that wasn’t that great – had an attitude that was so good it made the workplace function better. I can’t quite explain it but it was really true.”

He nails it. It’s true on software teams. It’s not always true, but time and again I’ve seen personal dynamics and attitude are MORE important than ability. A rockstar that’s hard to work with or can’t get along with others might as well not be on the team. Either manage them on a project all by themselves or find another teammate that fits well.

Also, when it comes to the difficulty of being a freelance, Mike Monteiro’s “F*ck You, Pay Me” video is a must-watch.

Stack Overflow just released it’s 2024 developer survey results. One of the metrics under

Shiftmag does a reasonable analysis of why – and it’s likely not coding itself.

23 year old Nimilolu Graub made the bold decision to leave a career in mechanical engineering to pursue being a social media influencer. What did she learn?

1. Feast and famine
   Work and deals are inconsistent. Some months are packed, others are empty.
   
2. Brands don’t want to pay for content
   According to an in-depth article by Shopify, influencers with 50,000 to 100,000 followers (such as Graub who has 66,000 followers) may earn between $125 and $1,200 for each post. However, many brands only want to pay by giving the influencer free products or often ask for free work. Without an agency/talent manager, getting paid/respect can be difficult.
   
3. The job is controversial
   “Content creation is such a new field most people do not see it as an actual job to pursue. So quitting my full-time job to do something that people did not consider a job, I dealt with a lot of negativity, discouragement and disappointment from everyone. I had to stop considering what other people were saying”
   
4. Her engineering skills were beneficial in content creation
   “A lot of brands provide detailed guidelines for their videos so being able to utilize my quality control skills means I’m always able to meet their requirements. My contract negotiation skills have been helpful when it came time to signing deals with brands. Project management has also helped me manage my content and create videos consistently.”
   
5. Not always what she expected
   She has been successful and gotten work/collaborations – but admits “it is not enough to live my life like this”. She has toyed with returning back to part-time work.

Article:

• https://www.newsweek.com/woman-quits-mechanical-engineer-career-become-influencer-1895517

Applicant Tracking Systems are used by many companies to sift and sort the countless resumes they get. Unfortunately, that means your resume could be filtered out – even if you are perfect for the job. Why? Because you used the wrong keywords.

Jobscan makes a tool that takes a job description and reviews your resume to see if you’ll get past the ATS systems.