‘The entry-level market no longer exists’: May grad struggles after 300 applications

A post on Reddit’s r/recruitinghell recounts the story of a jobseeker who graduated in May, has had their resume reviewed and polished by their university’s career centre, completed mock interviews, and, by their own assessment, performed well. They are staying with their parents, which they describe as a blessing, but want to contribute and cannot rely on that arrangement indefinitely. Friends who graduated with the same major have landed excellent jobs. The original poster is happy for them while acknowledging the jealousy is real.

“I don’t know what I’m doing wrong,” they wrote.

What Reddit said

The thread shifted the crux of the question almost immediately because commenters' experiences suggested the original poster may not be doing anything wrong at all.

“Someone with 9 years of experience just got the ‘entry level’ (2-5 years) role I applied for,” one commenter wrote. Another confirmed the same pattern: “Worst part is that folks with 4-5 years of experience are also competing for these entry level roles.” A third offered the bluntest summary: “The entry level market no longer exists.”

One commenter with seven years of experience described being unable to get an entry-level offer because employers consider them a flight risk because they were simultaneously overqualified and unable to access senior roles. “The irony is palpable,” they wrote.

A commenter with 20 years of corporate experience and a job they are grateful for summed up the broader mood: “ Iam starting to feel unemployable at 40 with 20 years of experience. I don’t know what happened to the job market in the last few years, but it feels like the entire bottom fell out.”

The market the original poster is navigating is likely to be structurally different from the one their university’s career resources were designed to prepare them for. At the end of the day, the gap between what worked for their more successful friends and what is working for them may have more to do with timing, field, and luck than with anything they can fix on their resume.

Read related: ‘108 applications isn't a lot’ — Reddit debates how many applications it takes to land a job in 2026