Natasha Singer

Right.

He seems like he is the ideal person for the pipeline that the tech industry is building.

So then he goes to college at Ohio State.

And I kind of thought back in that moment to how much I enjoyed programming, how much I enjoyed creating on a computer.

And I was like, OK, I'll pivot to programming.

Computer science.

And after a brief moment as a math major, he decides to switch to the field that he loves, computer science.

And as you switched from math to computer science, how did you think about the potential career skills and job prospects?

I mean, honestly, at the time, this would have been...

Fall of 2021, I thought nothing of it.

I thought, I mean, I've been told my whole life that computer science is a good place to be in.

I mean, math as well, but computer science always felt stable to me.

So yeah, at the time, that was my mentality.

And he does really, really well.

Summa cum laude, he's on the dean's list.

He's worked as a teaching assistant for the more basic computer science courses.

He did all the right things.

And yet, as he starts applying to internships, reality hits that, in fact, coding is not going to magically produce a host of job options.

Starting fall of 2023, I believe I applied to 90 positions before that summer of 2024.

Probably got, I think, three or four interviews and no offers.