The Computer Science Job Market in 2026: Why Entry-Level CS Jobs Are So Hard to Get (and What Actually Works)

TL;DR

• The computer science job market in 2025-2026 is the tightest it's been in over a decade: a combination of tech layoffs, AI replacing junior tasks, record CS graduates, and frozen entry-level headcount means more candidates chasing fewer openings.

• Big Tech cut over 260,000 jobs in 2023 alone, and entry-level roles have been the slowest to recover. Meanwhile, U.S. CS bachelor's degrees nearly doubled in 10 years.

• A CS degree still has strong long-term earning potential, but it's no longer a guaranteed fast track to employment right after graduation.

• The candidates breaking through are the ones with real project experience, not just coursework: Externships, open-source contributions, and portfolio projects now matter more than GPA.

• Non-coding tech roles (product management, data analytics, technical sales) offer viable alternative paths for CS grads who want to enter the industry without competing for oversaturated SWE positions.

Ready to build real experience while you search? Explore Extern's Externship programs →

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What Does the Computer Science Job Market Actually Look Like in 2026?

The computer science job market in 2026 comes down to one uncomfortable math problem: there are way more CS graduates than there are entry-level jobs waiting for them. Years of over-hiring, then over-firing, left the tech industry in a weird holding pattern and new grads are the ones feeling it most.

1. The Numbers Behind the Squeeze

Let's just look at the numbers. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), U.S. universities handed out roughly 110,000 CS bachelor's degrees in 2022-2023. A decade earlier? About 60,000. So the talent pipeline basically doubled.

Now flip to the demand side. Layoffs.fyi tracked over 260,000 tech layoffs in 2023 and another 150,000+ in 2024. The pace slowed in 2025, sure, but companies didn't rush to rehire juniors. The Bureau of Labor Statistics still projects 17% growth for software developers through 2033, that sounds great until you realize most of that demand is for senior engineers, not people fresh out of school.

So you've got twice the graduates fighting over a pool of entry-level seats that actually shrank. Not ideal.

2. How We Got Here, A Timeline

This didn't happen overnight. Here's how it unfolded:

• 2020-2021: The pandemic supercharged everything digital, and tech companies went on a hiring spree. They brought on junior developers in bulk, sometimes faster than they could onboard them.

• 2022-2023: Interest rates went up, growth slowed, and the same companies started slashing headcount. Meta, Amazon, Google, Microsoft. All of them cut tens of thousands of roles. A huge chunk of those cuts hit junior and mid-level positions.

• 2024: Things stabilized a bit. Hiring picked back up in AI, cybersecurity, and cloud, but with a new philosophy: smaller, more senior teams. The "hire 50 juniors and see who sticks" approach was dead.

• 2025-2026: AI coding tools changed the math again. GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and similar tools made individual developers so much more productive that many teams just... didn't backfill junior seats.

That's where we are. Not a crisis, but a fundamentally different market than the one you probably imagined when you declared your major.

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Why Are Entry-Level Computer Science Jobs So Hard to Get?

Entry-level computer science jobs are hard to get because of four things happening at the same time: companies stopped refilling junior roles after layoffs, AI tools are handling work that juniors used to do, there are record numbers of CS graduates, and "entry-level" job postings now ask for years of experience. Any one of these alone would make things harder. All four together? That's how you get the market we're in.

1. Tech Layoffs Hit Junior Roles Hardest

When tech companies slashed headcount in 2022-2023, the cuts weren't evenly distributed. Senior engineers with deep product knowledge and production-critical skills mostly kept their seats. Junior roles were easier to eliminate without things breaking immediately.

And here's the part that stings: a lot of those positions just never came back. Companies realized they could maintain output with leaner, more experienced teams. Refilling junior seats went to the bottom of the priority list. For some companies, it's still there.

2. AI Is Automating the Tasks Juniors Used to Do

Nobody loves talking about this one, but it matters. AI coding assistants like GitHub Copilot and Cursor have gotten genuinely good at the exact kind of work that junior developers used to cut their teeth on: boilerplate code, unit tests, debugging simple issues, building features from specs.

Think about it from a hiring manager's perspective. If one senior engineer plus AI tools can handle what used to take a senior and two juniors, the math on headcount changes. It doesn't mean junior roles vanish completely. It means teams need fewer of them. And "fewer" in a market with record applicants means brutal competition.

3. Record CS Graduates, Fewer Openings

NCES data tells a simple story: CS bachelor's degrees roughly doubled between 2013 and 2023, going from around 50,000 to well over 100,000 per year. That's a lot of people holding the same credential, applying for positions that didn't grow at the same rate.

And this isn't a blip that corrects itself next semester. The surge in CS enrollment was driven by strong salary signals and Silicon Valley hype throughout the 2010s. Those students are now graduating into a market that looks nothing like the one that attracted them in the first place.

4. The "3-5 Years Experience" Trap

You've seen these postings. "Entry-level software engineer. Requirements: 3-5 years of professional experience." It's infuriating. And it's gotten worse.

Here's what's actually happening: with hundreds of applications per opening, hiring managers use experience requirements as a filter to thin the stack. They don't literally expect every candidate to have five years under their belt. But the volume is so high that they have to draw a line somewhere. The result is a catch-22 that punches new grads the hardest, you need experience to get hired but you can't get experience without getting hired first.

Is Computer Science Still Worth It in 2026?

Yes, a computer science degree is still worth it in 2026, but the value proposition has shifted. The earning potential hasn't gone anywhere. CS is still one of the highest-ROI degrees you can get. What changed is the path between graduation and your first paycheck. It's longer now, more competitive, and a diploma alone won't carry you.

1. Long-Term Earnings Still Beat Most Degrees

Numbers don't lie. The BLS puts the median annual salary for software developers at roughly $130,000 as of 2024. That's about double what the average bachelor's degree holder earns (~$65,000). Even if your job search takes a few extra months after graduation, the lifetime earning trajectory of a CS degree still outpaces most alternatives by a wide margin.

Degree | Median Entry Salary | Median Mid-Career Salary | Job Growth (2023-2033)

Sources: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, NACE Salary Survey

CS still wins on earnings. The real question isn't whether the degree pays off, it's what else you need to do alongside it. (For other high-potential degree paths, check out our guides on careers for psychology majors and jobs for history majors.)

2. The Degree Alone Isn't Enough Anymore

Five years ago, a CS degree from a solid school was usually enough to get interviews. In 2026, it's the starting line. Hiring managers want to see that you've actually built things not just that you survived data structures.

The formula changed from "degree → job" to "degree + portfolio + real experience → job." And that real experience piece is where programs like Extern's Externships fit in: company-endorsed projects with professional mentorship that put something concrete on your resume before you even start interviewing.

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What Types of CS Jobs Are Actually Hiring Right Now?

The strongest hiring momentum for CS grads in 2025-2026 isn't in traditional software engineering. It's in adjacent roles that want your technical skills and in sectors where demand still outpaces supply. If you're open to something beyond "SWE at a Big Tech company", and honestly you should be, there are more doors open than you might think.

1. Non-Coding Tech Roles With CS Backgrounds

Your CS degree opens doors that have nothing to do with writing production code. These roles get fewer applicants than SWE positions but still pay well and use your technical foundation:

• Product Management: You bridge engineering and business. CS grads understand technical constraints that non-technical PMs miss entirely.

• Data Analytics: SQL, Python, statistical reasoning stuff you already know from coursework. Every industry needs this.

• Technical Writing: API docs, developer guides, internal documentation. Being able to explain technical concepts clearly is a surprisingly rare skill.

• QA/Testing Engineering: Automated testing, CI/CD pipelines, quality infrastructure. Often the easiest way onto a software team.

• DevOps/Cloud Engineering: Infrastructure, deployment, monitoring. High demand, and way fewer people applying than for SWE.

• Technical Sales/Solutions Engineering: Pre-sales demos, customer integrations. Strong earnings, and your CS background gives you instant credibility.

2. High-Growth Sectors Still Hiring Juniors

Not every corner of tech is frozen. Some sectors genuinely can't find enough people:

Sector | Why It's Hiring | Entry-Level Outlook

These aren't backup plans. They're real career paths where your skills are wanted and you're not competing against 500 other applicants for every opening.

How Are Successful CS Grads Actually Breaking In?

The people landing roles right now share a pattern: they have real project experience (not just coursework), they look beyond the obvious companies, and they make their work easy to find online. They're not doing anything magical. They're just not doing what everyone else does, which is mass-apply to Google and hope for the best.

1. Project-Based Experience Over GPA

Hiring managers keep saying the same thing: they look at projects and demonstrated skills before they ever glance at GPA. A 4.0 with an empty GitHub loses to a 3.2 with three deployed projects and an Externship credential. Every time.

This is where Externships actually matter. They're company-endorsed projects with professional mentorship and real experience you can point to in interviews, not hypotheticals from a class assignment. They break the "no experience" catch-22 by giving you project-based learning that companies recognize as legitimate.

Your resume should lead with experience and projects, not education. In this market, what you've built speaks louder than where you studied.

2. Targeting the "Hidden" Job Market

Most CS students miss this completely: the easiest entry-level roles aren't at Google, Meta, or Amazon. They're at places you've probably never heard of:

• Mid-size companies (100-1,000 employees): Less name recognition, but better mentorship and you'll own real work faster.

• Startups: More willing to bet on someone junior who can wear a few different hats.

• Government tech (USDS, 18F, state agencies): Steady demand, way less competition, and the work actually matters.

• Non-profit tech teams: Places like Code for America or hospitals building internal tools need developers badly but don't attract the same flood of applications.

Referrals carry even more weight at these companies. One warm intro from a connection beats 50 cold applications on a job board.

3. Building in Public, Portfolios That Get Interviews

Your GitHub profile is your second resume. Maybe your first, depending on who's reviewing your application. The projects that actually get attention have a few things in common:

• Real users. Even 10 active users beat a class project nobody ever touched.

• Deployed and live. If a hiring manager can visit a URL and use what you built, that's proof you can ship.

• Well-documented. A clear README, architecture decisions explained, maybe contribution guidelines. It shows you think beyond just getting code to compile.

• Open-source contributions. Even small pull requests to established repos prove you can work with existing codebases. Most new grads can't.

What Should You Do If You Can't Find a CS Job After Graduation?

If you can't find a computer science job after graduation, focus on building real professional experience through Externships, freelance projects, or adjacent roles while continuing your search. A resume gap filled with project-based learning is infinitely better than an empty one and the skills you pick up during this stretch often turn out to be the thing that gets you your next interview.

1. Bridge the Gap With Externships and Project-Based Learning

The worst thing you can do in a tough market is nothing. Second worst is applying to the same listings over and over without doing anything to strengthen your profile between applications.

Externships exist for exactly this kind of moment. They connect you with real companies for guided, project-based learning with professional mentorship. You come out with an Externship credential, a company-endorsed project for your portfolio, and actual professional experience to talk about when someone asks "so what have you been working on?"

The traditional path says you need a role to get experience and experience to get a role. Externships break that loop. You're doing real work for real companies, guided by an extern manager, building skills that go on your resume right away.

2. Pivot to Adjacent Roles (You Can Always Pivot Back)

Look — taking a technical PM, data analyst, or IT operations role isn't giving up. It's playing the long game. These roles:

• Get you inside a tech organization where internal transfers are way easier

• Build transferable skills (stakeholder communication, system thinking, working with data)

• Frequently lead to engineering roles once you've shown what you can do

Plenty of successful software engineers started somewhere adjacent and moved over. Career paths in tech are way less linear than most new grads assume. For more ideas on this, check out our guide to entry-level CS job alternatives.

And if you're also looking at the summer 2026 recruiting cycle, applying for adjacent roles doesn't mean you've abandoned the SWE dream. It means you're building momentum instead of sitting still.

How Will AI Change the CS Job Market Going Forward?

AI is pulling the computer science job market in two directions at once: shrinking demand for routine coding tasks while creating roles that literally didn't exist three years ago. The net isn't fewer CS jobs. It's different CS jobs. And the skills they need are shifting.

1. Jobs AI Will Replace vs. Jobs AI Will Create

Being Reduced | Being Created

The pattern is pretty clear: repetitive, well-defined, pattern-based tasks are shrinking. Work that requires judgment, context, and thinking across systems is growing. That's actually encouraging if you're a CS grad willing to develop skills beyond just writing code.

2. Skills That Stay Relevant No Matter What

No matter how AI shakes out over the next decade, some things stay valuable:

• System thinking: Understanding how pieces fit together across a full architecture. AI generates code snippets. It doesn't design systems.

• Communication: Explaining technical concepts to non-technical people. This gets more valuable, not less, as AI makes the technical parts more accessible.

• Problem decomposition: Taking a messy, ambiguous problem and breaking it into solvable pieces. The kind of thinking AI tools still can't do for you.

• User empathy: Building things people actually want to use. No amount of generated code replaces understanding what your user needs.

These aren't soft skills you list on a resume to fill space. They're the skills that determine whether you're the one directing AI tools or the one being made redundant by them.

Your Next Move; Stop Waiting, Start Building

The computer science job market in 2026 is tough. That's real, and pretending otherwise doesn't help anyone. But tough doesn't mean impossible, it means the old playbook (graduate → apply → get hired) needs an update.

Here's what actually works right now:

1. Build real experience. Externships, open-source projects, freelance work anything that puts verifiable results on your resume. Start an Externship today →

2. Expand your target. Look beyond SWE at FAANG. Non-coding tech roles, smaller companies, government tech, and high-growth sectors all have openings.

3. Make your work visible. Deploy projects, contribute to open-source repos, and keep your GitHub and LinkedIn active. The candidates who get hired are the ones hiring managers can find.

The market will recover. It always does. But the people who invested in real experience during the downturn, instead of waiting for conditions to improve, will be the first ones through the door when hiring picks up.

Don't wait for the market to come to you. Go build something.

FAQs

1. Is the computer science job market getting better in 2026?

The computer science job market is showing early signs of stabilization in 2026, but entry-level hiring remains well below pre-2022 levels. Most recovery is concentrated in senior and specialized roles (AI/ML, cybersecurity, cloud), while junior SWE positions are still scarce. Expect gradual improvement through 2026-2027, but don't wait build experience now through project-based learning and Externships.

2. What entry-level computer science jobs can I get with no experience?

Entry-level roles most accessible without prior professional experience include QA/testing, junior data analyst, IT support, technical writing, and DevOps associate positions. These roles value a CS degree but don't require production-level coding experience. Externships and company-endorsed projects can also help bridge the experience gap for software engineering roles specifically.

3. Are non-coding tech jobs a good career path for CS majors?

Non-coding tech jobs are an increasingly smart career move for CS majors. Roles like product management, data analytics, UX research, and technical sales leverage your technical foundation while offering less competition than software engineering positions. Many professionals pivot from these roles into engineering leadership or specialized technical roles later in their careers.

4. Is a computer science degree still worth it in 2026?

A computer science degree is still one of the highest-ROI undergraduate degrees in 2026. BLS data shows software developer median salaries around $130,000, roughly double the overall bachelor's degree median. The catch: landing your first role takes longer now than it did in 2021, so supplement your degree with real project experience, not just coursework.

5. How do I stand out when applying for entry-level CS jobs?

The most effective differentiators for entry-level CS roles are: (1) a portfolio of deployed projects with real users, (2) verifiable professional experience through Externships or open-source contributions, (3) targeting underserved niches (startups, government tech, healthcare) instead of mass-applying to Big Tech, and (4) networking through meetups, LinkedIn, and referrals rather than relying solely on online applications.