What do post-grad job prospects look like?
I did a postmortem on my job search for a new grad 2025 role. As part of this effort, I compiled statistics on my job search. Specifically, how many resume screens I passed (call it the pass rate). More details can be found in the comment section.
My pass rate is around 7%, but a large part of it is from quant, and I think the fact that I interned at a small quant firm this summer skewed it. Putting all quant interviews, my rate is more like 5.8% on average. I ended up with 2 offers from high-growth unicorns. My first question is:
Is a 5.8% pass rate good for a new grad?
I’m wary of posting my resume online, but I’m happy to share it with Alex and Rahul and a few others privately if it makes things easier. The only things really noteworthy are T5 MS and T10 BS.
Rahul and Alex both mention that jobs aren’t one-way doors, but I feel that these stats reveal how difficult mobility is, thus jobs are becoming more like one-way doors with little to no exits, especially if you don’t have brands. From this experience, I worry that in the future, it’ll take months of prep and applying to only get a minuscule chance at moving to a better opportunity. I’m excited to be working at a unicorn, but I’m also worried about when I leave, it’ll be hard for me to find something better down the line.
It’s unfortunate that I graduated in a tough market, but I’m grateful that I got a decent job. How do position myself to have as many options as possible when I inevitably leave my first job?
![Senior Software Engineer [E5] at Meta company logo](/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffirebasestorage.googleapis.com%2Fv0%2Fb%2Ftech-career-growth.appspot.com%2Fo%2Fcompany_logos%252Fmeta.jpeg%3Falt%3Dmedia%26token%3Da7a5bcc0-e178-4b5b-b71e-09bf6c6aefae&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
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Discussion
(5 comments)- 0a month agoSoftware Engineering InternTaro Community
Here are more details:
- Pass rate = # resume screens / # companies applied
- I know I passed a resume screen based on anecdotes from others (if a company is known to auto-send OA vs manually send). This means I don’t count auto-OA’s or referrals.
- I classify companies I applied to into 5 categories
- Quant
- Unicorns (Codeium, Nium, etc.)
- Startups
- Big Tech (IPO’d tech companies; Adobe, Samsara, etc.) + hot unicorns (Stripe, OpenAI, etc.)
- General companies (IXL, Blackrock, Moody’s Analytics, etc.)
- I applied to entry-level roles (1-2 yoe and NOT new grad on job description). I do get callbacks from them but I get told that I applied too early. I count these as part of my resume pass rate
- My pass rates are likely overestimates. Most of the jobs I don’t account for are the easy-apply jobs on LinkedIn. I think I probably applied to 300-350 jobs.
My overall resume pass rate is 7.8% from applying to 283 companies. Here’s a breakdown by sector:
- Quant - 8/45 - 17%
- Unicorn - 2/44 - 4.5%
- Startups - 8/111 - 7%
- Big tech - 1/28 - 3.5%
- General companies - 3/55 - 5.4%
If we assume I applied to 350 jobs and ignored all quant interviews, my pass rate is 4%.
- 0a month agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
Thanks for sharing these details!
Is a 5.8% pass rate good for a new grad?
This is really hard to say since there are so many variables on the candidate and company side. You already mentioned a big one for new grads around which school you went to. But beyond that:
- How good is your resume? (watch the course)
- Do you have a strong referral at the company? (relevant section from job searching course)
What I tell people is you're only going to work one job at the end of the day. If someone is hyper-targeted to 10 companies where they've built a network, they'd have an artificially higher pass rate compared to yours, even though you're equally good candidates on paper.
My advice to prep for the next job is to focus on what is the story you'll be able to say as you leave the job? What are the projects you've shipped and the people you've met that you'll be able to point to after you've been working for a year or more?
One thing that's surprising to me is that the resume callback rate for Quant is high relative to others: 8/45 = 17%. This is counter to the narrative that trading/quant firms are the most competitive.
- 0a month agoSoftware Engineering InternTaro Community
- How good is your resume? (watch the course)
I think the content on my resume is decent but I don't think there are as many brand names as I'd like. Are you fine if I share my resume with you privately on Taro Slack?
- Do you have a strong referral at the company? (relevant section from job searching course)
I don't count screens I pass with strong referrals but I count screens I fail even with a referral. I also don't count auto-OAs. I know whether I passed a screen based on if I get an interview OR I hear from anecdotes that a company reviews resume before sending out an OA.
One thing that's surprising to me is that the resume callback rate for Quant is high relative to others: 8/45 = 17%. This is counter to the narrative that trading/quant firms are the most competitive.
I interned at a small quant firm this summer which is likely why. Most of the firms I talked to are relatively unknown to most people though.
If someone is hyper-targeted to 10 companies where they've built a network, they'd have an artificially higher pass rate compared to yours, even though you're equally good candidates on paper.
I'd like to target FAANG+top unicorns. Would a viable strategy be to network incredible aggressively to get in? How would you go about that?
- 0a month agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
I'd like to target FAANG+top unicorns. Would a viable strategy be to network incredible aggressively to get in?
I'd focus on:
- Do good work in your current job. If your company has ambitious, then inevitably some people will go on to join FAANG. That'll be the best source of referrals.
- If you don't think the people at your company will do interesting things, then you have to create your own luck by (1) doing side projects, (2) contributing to open source, (3) sharing your work/speaking at conferences.
- 0
a month agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero5.8% for a new grad in this market in particular is pretty good. It's above the 5% baseline I mention in my overall job searching course, and that 5% is more of an overall number, not for every engineer. For juniors in this market, even being at 3% is not bad (it's not too hard sending out 100 applications to get 3 interviews). I know some junior engineers who are around 1% - The market is rough.
The 17% conversion rate you have for quant positions is amazing, congrats! Quant roles tend to pay very well too.
Here's the resume course if you haven't gone through it already: Get More Interviews: Write A Stellar Resume As A Software Engineer
