While still an elementary school student in Seattle, Annalize Nee wanted to develop software for a well-known technology company like Google. Thus, she went to great lengths to complete the internship and fulfill all the other requirements that her resume needed to have in order for the giants of the industry to consider her attractive. In high school, Nee took computer science classes, interned at Microsoft, and volunteered to teach programming classes to younger students. He studied computer science at the University of Washington with a coveted internship at Facebook. After graduating this year, she moved to Silicon Valley to start her dream job as a software engineer at Facebook’s parent company Meta. However, in November, Meta laid off more than 11,000 of its employees, including 22-year-old Analysis Nee. “I was very disappointed and maybe a little scared because all of a sudden I didn’t know what to do,” she said of her unexpected career setback. “I couldn’t have done more than I already did, especially at university.” Over the past decade, the prospect of a six-figure starting salary, perks like free meals, and the ability to work on apps used by billions of users have spurred young people to turn en masse to computer science, the study of computer programming. and processes such as algorithms in the United States. According to the Computer Research Association, which tracks computer schools at about 200 universities, the number of students studying the subject has more than tripled from 2011 to 2021 to nearly 136,000 students.

Tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Microsoft are encouraging young people to learn computers by offering students jobs in software as a lucrative career option and a powerful tool to change the world. But now layoffs, hiring freezes, and hiring freezes from Meta, Twitter, Alphabet, Amazon, DoorDash, Lyft, Snap, and Stripe are shaking up a generation of IT and data students who spent years preparing for careers at the tech giants. Technology executives have blamed the faltering global economy for slowing high-tech job creation. It’s worth noting that not only have the cuts forced college graduates to look for new jobs, they’ve also created uncertainty for current students looking for high-paying summer internships.

In the past, tech companies have used internship programs to recruit promising employee candidates, inviting many students to return as full-time employees after graduation. However, this year there are fewer and fewer such opportunities.