The clock is ticking on the next wave of college job seekers. At a time when “just learn to code” and other career guidance unravel, where do CIOs believe soon-to-be graduates should focus their energies — beyond, that is, AI?
We asked CIOs from the academic and private sectors to share their perspectives on what comes next on both sides of the hiring equation.
The short answer? What was once sage advice on how to get started in technology careers has become less certain as AI is now leveraged across an expanding range of roles.
For Lucy Avetisyan, associate vice chancellor and CIO at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the answer starts at home. “Actually, I have a college student, and I wonder about that all the time, because years ago I would say to him, ‘Hey, go learn how to code,'” she said. “That’s no longer what I’m asking him to look into.”
How Can New Grads Stand Apart in the AI Era?
Avetisyan said candidates who can think critically, troubleshoot, and grow at the pace of technology stand out as good gets in the current landscape. “CIOs should really think about hiring for potential and hiring for agility, not just for today’s tools and skill sets, because those evolve so quickly,” Avetisyan said.
The reality of AI’s entrenchment in the workplace means tech hires — and others — will need to demonstrate how AI elevates their value to organizations, rather than replaces it.
“You see a lot of data coming out that if you’re not AI literate, you’re not marketable,” Avetisyan said. Many students are struggling to land jobs as a result of this shift in demand, she said. This includes students who were exceptional in their chosen field of study. “If they can’t integrate AI in that, it’s hard for them to find jobs.”
Marketable skills that go beyond AI fluency, she added. That includes data fluency — where the candidate understands the role and power of data — along with the ethical use of data, cloud expertise , and security awareness.
CIOs Need Savvy Staff, Not Clever Prompts
Candidates should be comfortable operating in a very complex, deep digital ecosystem, Avetisyan said. Now, digital fluency means much more than knowing how to use a certain tool that is currently popular, including AI tools. There needs to be an awareness of the broader implications and responsibilities that come with implementing AI.
“It’s about integrating AI responsibly and designing for accessibility,” Avetisyan said — both of which represent big challenges that must be tackled and kept continuously top of mind. AI should elevate user experiences.
Job candidates who can show they are interested in using AI capabilities to deliver such enhancements and who show they can adapt alongside the technology will have a lot to offer CIOs.
“I would look for a data scientist who’s able to understand and integrate AI into the work that they do,” she said.
There’s still a need to demonstrate technical skills with human skills such as problem-solving, communication, and ethical awareness, she said.
“You can’t just be an exceptional coder and right away be effective in our organization if you don’t understand all these other aspects,” she said.
One more thing: While vibe coding — letting AI shoulder much or most of the work — is a buzzy concept, she said she is not ready to turn her shop of developers into vibe coders. A more grounded approach to teaching AI fluency is — or should be — the educational mission.
“We’re preparing these exceptional students to be marketable and comfortable to coexist with AI,” she said.
CIOs Rethink What Entry-Level Jobs Entail
The speed of technological change has radically reordered the IT field and the job market for new grads, said Jordan Ruch, CIO of AtlantiCare. Compared with his 26 years in healthcare IT, the changes he’s seen in the past two to three years have been drastic, particularly for entry-level roles. Programmers, service desk staff members, or help desk analysts have all been affected, especially as AI gets tapped to fulfill many tasks associated with those jobs, he said.
In this climate, there is a desire to find candidates with higher-tier skills than what were traditionally required for entry-level positions, Ruch added. In the past, these jobs were often seen as a training ground for staff members who showed promise . Expectations have changed.
“Academic programs should teach students how to become more efficient versions of themselves, and maybe shift from focusing on answers to focusing on problem-solving and creativity,” he said.
Not Just Self-Starters, AI Starters
As for programming? A programmer is still a programmer, but the job has evolved to become more strategic, Ruch said. Technical talent will be needed; however, the first few revisions of code will be pre-written based on the specifications given to AI, he said.
“You don’t need a programmer who’s going to start from scratch,” he said. Instead, programmers today start from the middle to orchestrate a series of bots already doing the coding and tools. “Almost like conducting a symphony,” or, Ruch said, leaning on another job analogy, “more about acting like an architect than doing routine coding.”
Indeed, who gets picked for a job may be less about who can code and debug the fastest because, as he put it, “That race has already been won.” The fundamentals of a technical background remain valuable, but new levels of training will be needed, especially for service desk roles, Ruch said.
“Most of the Tier One tickets are going to be managed by the technology in most organizations at this point,” he said, referring to service and help desk jobs. “If it’s not already done that way, it will be in the next year.”
According to Ruch, smaller tech teams are likely to be the future. They will use their more advanced skills to handle IT issues too complex for technology such as AI to resolve on its own. There might also be some need for staff members who understand legacy tech to keep certain skills sharp — but that might eventually fade away.
“I learned COBOL and then .NET and then a few other languages in between,” Ruch said. “But I think those skills have kind of run their course.”
Automation Changed the Game for Entry-Level Jobs
Robb Reck, chief information, trust and security officer at Pax8, also emphasized how much technology has changed the nature of entry-level IT jobs and who might compete for them.
“Many of those [functions] are things we can automate,” he said. “We’re looking for more senior folks who know how to either do that automation or use that automation to get better.”
But that does not mean new graduates will be shut out of IT jobs, he said. “I’m not necessarily looking for someone with work experience; I’m looking for someone who has experience doing the things I need done.”
One option for new graduates is to talk up projects they completed on their own, Reck said. Perhaps they automated their homes or worked on open source projects — such examples can demonstrate their ability to lean into new technologies and to be flexible to explore different options. Given the pace of change with AI, the coming months could bring drastic, unforeseen shifts to the landscape, which would make a new graduate’s agility all the more important.
Another thought for new grads and soon-to-be grads to keep in mind: With the old entry-level jobs now automated, job candidates will be competing against people who are in those seats today.
“And if the people who are currently sitting in those positions don’t embrace AI, you could be the sole part of that solution for companies,” Reck said.
