Fresh from a top university and stressed about career

Staying nearby tonight, I took a walk through the Stanford University campus. It's graduation week. Having dreamed of earning my degree at Stanford or Massachusetts Institute of Technology and having applied for a Ph.D. at University of California, Berkeley but been turned down, I couldn't help but feel a bit jealous of those young folks walking across the campus in suits and dresses.

Then, I recalled walking into the nearby Books Inc. store and seeing business magazines with headlines on their front covers, such as "Why the older generation owns America" and "Educated, smart, jobless."

And then I recalled reading in the news about another layoff by Meta this week. The company sent out a mass email informing about it.

I wondered how those young, smart, and educated folks were feeling.

𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘧𝘶𝘭. 𝘍*𝘬 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘐 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘸? 𝘐 𝘏𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘥𝘢𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺. 𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥?

What adds to this anxious environment in the heart of tech is what I've heard from so many young professionals and read in articles. All employers now ask for experience. How can one get experience if everyone asks for it? Sure, no time to invest. Let's just roll with it, as it's all about time, not even efficiency. There's a race for AI, a race for computing power, a race for space, and a race for the first trillionaires.

Sure, I'm excited about this all and am at some extent a part of this race. But then again, I walk through Stanford tonight and think - Why all that race.