[davydm]

Companies only hiring people with experience is far from a new problem.

Back in the late 90s, I struggled to get my first job that actually used my studied skills. Yes, I had a job - delivering pizza - but I was desperately trying to get a job _coding_, and in-between virtue-signallers only hiring people of a specific race and the vast majority of companies expecting years of experience, it took quite a while and I really only found a position because the place I studied at gets actively involved in the process.

Yes, the trend of trying to replace entry-level jobs with AI doesn't help, but this isn't a new problem. Few businesses have the foresight to train up employees, and a lot are understandably disillusioned by entry-level churn, where you train people, and the moment they have skills, they skip off to another company, usually for more money - when losing that person costs the company more than if they'd just pay them a market-related salary.

AI isn't helping, but it's far from a new problem - it's just exacerbated by the corporate greed chasing ever more profit, where the easiest way to see a short-term financial gain is to cut salaries.

[piltdownman]

You're blaming DEI for not getting a job... during the .com boom?

If ever there was a softer time to get hired as a developer, I have yet to hear of it.

[Analemma_]

It’s so insidious that its power can even reach backwards in time! Shredding our hallowed traditional values of causality.

The delusions would be funny if there weren’t so many people like the GP currently blowing up the lodestones of civilization because of them.

[fred_is_fred]

I graduated during this time from a mid-tier school and had 5 offers for coding. None of them at a sexy dot-com but jobs far outstripped CS grads back then. There was also no DEI discussions going on at the time.

[nerdsniper]

What was the ‘specific race’ that was popular to hire in the ‘90s?

[iamflimflam1]

Back then being white and nerdy was a super power.

Probably a lot tougher for non white and non male.

[nerdsniper]

Contextually that couldn't have been what OP was saying, because they linked it to "virtue-signallers".

[mikestew]

Meanwhile, everyone else in the late-90s was getting a job if they could spell HTML. But for you, the DEI kept you from employment?