What Now? Graduating UCSB Seniors Face the Future with Uncertainty and Hope
The post-graduate journey has never been easy—and UCSB students reflect on the pressures and possibilities that come with stepping into adulthood in 2025.
By Bridget Winthrop
As graduation approaches just a week away, UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) senior Gianna Zeno should be celebrating. Instead, she actively refreshes job boards and applications as she worries about securing a job before ending her time as a student.
“Waking up to news titles like: ‘The Worst Job Market For Grads in Years’ is almost comical after working this hard to complete my biology degree.”
Many students in UCSB’s Class of 2025 are all too familiar with Zeno’s feelings of post-graduate anxiety. They are stepping into a post-pandemic workforce marked by inflation, political instability, a softening job market and the growing influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
“Graduating from university is difficult enough,” said Zeno. “To add to that, I’m even more stressed about hearing a single response back from the multiple research jobs I have applied for over the last few months.”
Even traditionally secure and high paying jobs in medical fields, research and technology are facing unexpected job shortages from cutbacks or funding freezes.
The pressure of graduation, housing insecurity and mental health stability has turned what is often described as the exciting promise of post-graduate life into a common thread of uncertainty among senior graduates.
The transition from college to the “real world” has always come with uncertainty—but many students feel like the stakes this year are heavier and higher than ever before.
Their feelings do not come unprompted—rates in unemployment for ages 22 to 27 have increased by 5.8 percent in March 2025 alone.
In an anonymous survey with up to 40 respondents, I asked a random sample of UCSB seniors to describe their feelings about post-graduation in one word:
In the word cloud, students most frequently answered “scared" and “excited"—revealing a deep mix of hope, fear and uncertainty as they prepare for what comes next.
To explore this emotional reality behind graduation, four UCSB seniors—Carolyn Aronson, Stella Schmautz, Brooke Griswold and Margaret Bartlett—share their personal reflections on what it feels like to step into the world of post-college.
Carolyn Aronson, a graduating biopsychology major, describes the experience as bittersweet, feeling both proud of her accomplishments and overwhelmed by the uncertainty of the medical job market.
Brooke Griswold, graduating with a degree in molecular and cell biology, recounts her nine-month struggle to land a position in medical research—despite relentless applications and strong qualifications.
Joining them, humanities majors Stella Schmautz and Margaret Bartlett offer another lens: one filled with cautious optimism, security and concern of the broader challenges and pressures of the job market.
Bartlett herself—who shows the most security in her feelings around graduation—has landed a job as a flight attendant for next year. While unrelated to her political science major, Bartlett chose this path to provide her a reliable income while she explores a potential path to law school.
UCSB Seniors reflect on their transition into the job market post-graduation.
The four students reflect a variety of feelings as graduation approaches—feelings of stress and uncertainty alongside hope and security.
In the more negative light of their responses, stress factors come primarily from lack of job security and pressure from outside sources such as social media or LinkedIn.
With LinkedIn growing as a digital hiring platform, it also has become a place where students and employees often post job updates and promotions—something young-adults have only recently grown accustomed to.
“You are always competing and comparing yourself with peers,” said Stella Schmautz. “Especially right now when people are getting and posting a lot of jobs, it has been one of the hardest things for me during this process.”
Platforms such as LinkedIn provide many resources for job-seekers, but also instigate additional social pressure to post and appear professionally adequate to an employer.
As described in the video, senior Brooke Griswold emphasized another struggle: National funding cuts.
With plans to enter the medical research field, Griswold was only able to finally secure a job as a research assistant through a family connection despite applying for over a hundred of jobs on her own.
“I have applied for over 100 jobs since last August, and it's only gotten harder to have any luck,” said Griswold.
Funding cuts have increased nation-wide—specifically in STEM related fields—under President Trump's administration.
Trump’s administration has proposed a plan for 2026 that includes nearly $18 billion in cuts to the National Institutes of Health and $5 billion from the National Science Foundation—two primary sources of funding that otherwise puts the U.S. at the global forefront of scientific research.
For seniors like Brooke Griswold, who is passionate to pursue a career in scientific research, the impact is personal.
“Since my field of research is suffering from government funding cuts, many institutions don’t want to hire any recent graduate with little to no experience outside of college or simply don’t have the resources to,” said Griswold.
This concern isn’t for research students alone.
Carolyn Aronson, a senior bio-psychology major has experienced similar difficulties since working in public health.
“I had an internship at a women’s health clinic and when they stopped receiving funding recently they had to cut my position,” said Aronson. “That was very detrimental to my planning and the path that I was on.”
Hoping to build a post-graduate job from her internship, Aronson was faced with a sudden job cut. Now unemployed, she plans to move home post-graduation to avoid paying for housing while she secures another job in public health.
On top of an unpredictable and job-threatening political climate, the rise of AI adds a threat to taking over entry-level jobs that once were offered to college graduates.
According to a recent study by Oxford Economics, AI is increasingly displacing entry-level positions. This is especially relevant in sectors of finance and computer science—both fields that are often studied to promise a stable salary.
“75% of HR leaders say their company is hiring AI talent without taking the time to build sustainable pipelines of qualified and high-potential candidates.” -General Assembly
With uncertainty coming from multiple angles, seniors at UCSB and across the nation reach for external support before entering the workforce.
UCSB Career Services is an on-campus organization that offers support to students through career exploration tools, resume and interview preparation, job and internship listings and one-on-one advising.
Their mission is to help students build meaningful careers by connecting academic experience with professional opportunities, both with virtual and in person services.
Since the Covid-19 Pandemic and recent fluctuations in the job market, the Career Services team has had to evolve its approach for student outreach.
“Since the pandemic, it’s been harder for students to engage with in-person events like workshops, info sessions and job fairs,” said Jo Ann Villanueva-Salvador, the Career Services’ Senior Associate Director of Career Education. “Even though virtual events have higher attendance, they don’t always lead to meaningful engagement.”
This shift extends past just events—it has transformed the hiring process on college campuses themselves.
“Recruiters rarely interview on campus anymore,” said Villanueva-Salvador. “It used to be that first-round interviews happened in our office, but now they are almost all conducted virtually.”
The universal shift towards virtuality has played a large role in transforming the workplace, and how to get there.
In response, UCSB has built out its digital infrastructure to better support students remotely.
“There’s now 24/7 access to our career resources, we’ve kept that system in place,” said Villanueva-Salvador. “We have tools like Resume AI, Big Interview and Interstride—all online and available at any time.”
In addition to online services and in person events, Career Services offers private meetings with career counselors on campus to aid students through the difficult time of job-finding.
According to their Employer Outreach Manager Diana Seder, students from all majors are often seeking help with career building.
“My counsel to students in this current uncertain market is to be open to a variety of opportunities,” said Seder. “I tell them to look for jobs in areas that you hadn’t considered and be flexible.”
"Your first job is probably not going to be your dream job. Careers today are not always linear—it’s what you make of it."
Diana Seder
Employer Outreach Manager at Career Services
Seder aids in connecting hiring employers with students seeking a variety of professional positions.
“In recent years, employers have primarily been focused on skills-based hiring,” said Seder. “No matter the major or industry, students need to highlight the skills they have learned from various experiences and we help them pinpoint their greatest attributes.”
As the job market continues to evolve, Seder and the rest of the Career Services team remain focused on helping students adapt with confidence. Through personalized support, digital tools and analysis of the labor market, the team provides free services to students in their preparation for their career journey.
Despite these extensive efforts and resources provided by Career Services, there is a major lack of engagement by students—many of whom claimed were not even aware of the variety of resources. In an anonymous survey conducted for a random sample of 20 UCSB seniors, I asked students how often they visited Career Services during their time as seniors:
Few students reported using UCSB Career Services occasionally, a significant number said they had either never used it—highlighting a potential gap between available support and student engagement.
Few students reported using UCSB Career Services occasionally, a significant number said they had either never used it—highlighting a potential gap between available support and student engagement.
Student hesitation to seek out support may reflect a larger uncertainty and fear about what lies beyond graduation. To better understand how recent alumni have navigated this shift, UCSB’s Institutional Research data offers a snapshot of the Class of 2022’s transition into their careers.
At the time of the 2022 graduation, 59% of UCSB seniors planned to work full-time, but only 35% had secured a position while 57% were still searching. Most students felt adequately prepared to graduate, but 63% were only somewhat or moderately confident in achieving a satisfying career. Notably, most job offers were in California, highly related to student’s majors and overwhelmingly in the private sector (76%).
While the surveys of years past 2022 have yet to be released, these numbers reflect the broader tension behind the transition to professionalism and the lived experiences of past students navigating the job market.
To analyze the Class of 2025, I conducted a survey with the same random selection of UCSB seniors to rate their feelings about entering the workforce. Notably, nearly 50% of these respondents hope to enter a field of medicine, while the rest include a mix of pre-law, business and media.
In a survey of 28 UCSB seniors, only six felt “very confident” about finding a job after graduation, while the majority—12—said they were only “somewhat confident,” and three expressed low to no confidence at all.
In a survey of 28 UCSB seniors, only six felt “very confident” about finding a job after graduation, while the majority—12—said they were only “somewhat confident,” and three expressed low to no confidence at all.
I then asked the seniors their biggest concern after graduating:
The top post-grad concern was “uncertainty about my career path," followed by “finding a job” and “paying rent,” each with four votes, highlighting widespread doubt about direction and financial stability after graduation.
The top post-grad concern was “uncertainty about my career path," followed by “finding a job” and “paying rent,” each with four votes, highlighting widespread doubt about direction and financial stability after graduation.
Lastly, the survey responders expressed their concern for external impacts on their job fields:
Thirty five percent of respondents said their intended field has been impacted by political or economic changes such as funding cuts or hiring freezes. Others were either unsure or unaware of such effects on their industry.
Thirty five percent of respondents said their intended field has been impacted by political or economic changes such as funding cuts or hiring freezes. Others were either unsure or unaware of such effects on their industry.
To finish off the survey, respondents were asked where they plan to live next year and to name one resource that would be most beneficial to them during this process.
Half of the respondents plan to live at home after graduation—potentially reflecting how financial pressure is shaping their decisions. Multiple respondents mentioned the need for mentorship, financial aid, more internship opportunities and most notably—better connections with alumni in their fields of interest to help guide them through the process.
Life One Year Later: Alumni on What Comes Next
If current UCSB seniors are anxious about what comes next, recent graduates can confirm those concerns are far from unfounded.
Janella Jimenez, who graduated in June 2024 and is now completing a post-baccalaureate program at UCLA, described her transition out of UCSB as nothing like she imagined.
“My experience transitioning from UCSB into the workforce wasn’t what I expected. I felt unprepared for the realities of job searching, and I was overwhelmed by the number of possible directions I could take in the medical field,” said Jimenez. “For the first time, there wasn’t a clear next step laid out and it felt like I was suddenly thrown into the real world without a guide.”
Entering the medical field with hopes to attend medical school, Jimenez applied to five different places before hearing back from one and was surprised by the avid competition.
“I was competing with applicants who had higher degrees, such as master’s degrees,” said Jimenez. “Most positions required prior clinical experience, which I didn’t have.”
The concern for lack of experience is a common theme among both undergraduates and postgraduates alike. To navigate such uncertainty, Jimenez wishes she had used more UCSB resources while she had the chance.
“I wish I had made more connections in the broader field of medicine so I could’ve had a clearer idea of which positions would interest me,” said Jimenez. “I also wish I had built closer relationships with professors and visited the Career Services office just to speak to someone and get advice and encouragement.”
She added that many of her post-grad friends have felt similarly discouraged.
“Many of us have faced hardships in job hunting and even discrimination in the workforce, especially as we’re often the youngest and newest people in these professional environments,” said Jimenez.
A similar response was provided by Lauren McMahon, another 2024 graduate from UCSB. McMahon is now working as a legal assistant in hopes to prepare for law school and emphasized the difficult transition.
“I think once I got a job I was able to transition into having a schedule and working, but finding a job and deciding to move home was a hard transition,” said McMahon. “I expected that my college degree from a top university would help me get a job, but it was so hard to find one and to even know exactly what I wanted.”
She applied to about 50 jobs before landing her current position and said it often felt like no one was looking at her applications. Lauren admitted she wishes she’d had a clearer plan going into senior year.
“I think it would have been good to have a plan sooner,” she said. “I really just winged it and ended up using my connections after many job applications portals had failed.”
Like Jimenez, she’s noticed that many of her peers are struggling—many not able to land their dream job or having to move home.
Even a recent graduate, Paige Lund, shares similar feelings despite the fact she entered graduate school at the University of Michigan immediately rather than the job market. Currently pursuing a masters in environmental science, Lund highlights the struggle of being in such a field during the current political climate.
“The current political climate has made a difference because it’s super relevant to my degree and field specifically,” said Lund. “It has made it really challenging to enter the job market and there are so many qualified people applying to the same positions as I am which makes it harder.”
Lund emphasizes the shared feelings among students in her graduate program—all fearful if they will land a job after completing their masters.
“I’m lucky that UCSB was very rigorous and prepared me very well for grad school at Michigan,” said Lund. “But even with such good academic preparation it is difficult to secure an internship and job because of the layoffs in the government sector related to environment and sustainability.”
Despite such difficulties with the job market, these three alumni recognized that uncertainty is a guaranteed feeling when stepping into adulthood. McMahon even made an extra note to clarify that despite the somewhat negative description of her job finding experience, she has remained hopeful and enjoyed the new experiences—and encourages graduates to do the same.
This sense of optimism is supported by another UCSB Survey of the same Class of 2022; which tracked outcomes one year post-graduation. Out of 762 survey respondents, 62% reported full-time employment, while 20% were working part-time and just 10% were still actively seeking work. These numbers suggest that while the job search may start with uncertainty, many 2022 graduates were able to find stable footing within a year of completing their degrees.
Janella Jimenez, recent Class of 2024 UCSB graduate. Majored in biopsychology.
Janella Jimenez, recent Class of 2024 UCSB graduate. Majored in biopsychology.
Lauren McMahon, recent Class of 2024 UCSB graduate. Majored in Communications.
Lauren McMahon, recent Class of 2024 UCSB graduate. Majored in Communications.
Paige Lund, recent Class of 2024 graduate. Majored in environmental biology.
Paige Lund, recent Class of 2024 graduate. Majored in environmental biology.
While the job market presents real challenges for new graduates, experts urge students not to lose sight of long-term growth.
“Uncertainty about the economy due to political climate and tariffs is likely having a negative impact on job prospects for new college graduates at the moment,” said Kelly Bedard, Professor of Economics at UC Santa Barbara. “The growth of AI has many concerned that entry-level jobs may be the most vulnerable to job loss.”
Still, she emphasizes the importance of optimism for graduates across the country. “The job market has maintained pretty well recently, despite tariff and potential recession concerns,” said Bedard. “Labor markets are always changing.”
For students navigating these changes, Bedard recommends focusing on a range of transferable skills and long-term professional development.
“College students should always be looking to build skills that the labor market values and demands,” said Bedard. “They should also look first for jobs that offer lots of opportunities for learning and skill building to help them climb the ladder over time.”
In a world of shifting industries and ever changing headlines, even the most driven college graduates may find that landing the perfect job isn’t guaranteed.
Though the future may be uncertain, one thing is clear: Resilience, adaptability and a willingness to start somewhere are the qualities that will carry this graduating class into what's next.
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