ACM CareerNews for Tuesday, May 20, 2025

ACM CareerNews is intended as an objective career news digest for busy IT professionals. Views expressed are not necessarily those of ACM. To send comments, please write to [email protected]

Volume 21, Issue 10, May 20, 2025

The Fastest-Growing Jobs For New Grads and How to Land One
ZDNet, May 8

With little or no real-world experience, it can be difficult for new grads to land a position with a top tech employer. To help new grads navigate the job market, LinkedIn has published its Grad Guide 2025, giving insights into the fastest-growing industries, job titles, cities, and occupations. Unsurprisingly, tech roles were among the fastest-growing titles, with artificial intelligence engineer leading the way. The third-ranked tech role was datacenter technician, and the fourth was systems engineering.

The fastest-growing opportunities for new grads were actually in industries such as utilities, oil, gas, and mining, and not technology. Yet, tech is not entirely out of the equation, thanks to infrastructure investments and the rapid adoption of new tech. LinkedIn also gathered tips from experts about navigating the job market. One key point of advice is being proactive about landing a dream role. For example, new grads are encouraged to say yes more often, accepting jobs and opportunities outside their comfort zones.

Click Here to View Full Article

Best Paying Tech Jobs: Future-Proof IT Careers
Spiceworks, May 14

To secure one of the best-paying tech jobs with long-term IT career potential, you will need to know what skills are in demand, which tech roles need to be filled, and the trends shaping the future of the tech job market. If you fail to keep your tech skills current, you run the risk of becoming outdated in the eyes of recruiters. But if you understand the challenges businesses face and how their tech needs will evolve, you are well-positioned to benefit from ever-changing job market shifts.

In order to find future-proof IT occupations, it can be useful to analyze data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which continuously publishes employment projections outlining demand for various occupations over the next 10 years. Three of the best-paying tech jobs stand out as having particularly bright futures: IT manager, cybersecurity analyst, and software developer. All three occupations commanded a 2024 median salary two times greater than the median wage of $49,500 for all U.S. occupations, with IT manager salaries climbing up to 3.5 times higher. Additionally, projected growth in each of these occupations far exceed the 4% employment growth estimates among all U.S. occupations between 2023-2033.

Click Here to View Full Article

Top Career Routes For Automation Experts
Silicon Republic, May 15

Automation is an exciting, evolving and dynamic industry for STEM professionals looking to have a real world impact. Amid the technological transformation of the workplace, automation is now front and center for many organizations. Requiring a wealth of hard and soft skills, new automation roles are being created on a regular basis. Three of the top opportunities open to qualified professionals include automation engineering, automation consulting, and automation architecture.

Automation engineering is becoming a core role in several industries, including healthcare. People skilled in this area are responsible for designing, building and maintaining the various automated machines and processes required by organizations and institutions. This particular path is suited to people who enjoy the complexity of automation. This can be a good match for candidates with strong mechanical expertise and a keen mind when it comes to problem solving. While every organization will differ and have their own requirements, typically an education in a STEM subject will be necessary, as well as specific skills in areas such as AI, data and programming.

Click Here to View Full Article

Sending Thousands of Job Applications With No Response?
Dice Insights, May 15

For many technology professionals, the current economic environment may call for changes in how they navigate the job search. This is especially the case for job seekers who may have sent out thousands of job applications with no response. Beyond updating a resume, crafting personalized cover letters, and optimizing applications for applicant tracking systems, there are certain steps that IT professionals can take to ensure that they stand out during the job search.

Before implementing any changes to your job search, it is crucial to conduct a thorough analysis of your current approach. For example, if you are solely relying on general job boards for your applications, that could be a problem. It could also slow down your job search if you are sending out the same generic resume for every position. As a general rule, you should also be tailoring your cover letters, not just your resume, to the specific requirements of each role. If you are consistently securing interviews but failing to advance beyond the initial stages, it might be time to rethink your answers to key questions. Your responses will provide valuable insights into where your current strategy might be falling short. In many cases, the lack of success can be attributed to a combination of factors, including insufficient targeting of applications, an underdeveloped personal brand, or a limited and ineffective networking strategy.

Click Here to View Full Article

Candidates are using AI more than ever during the job search, often in an attempt to separate themselves from the competition. Used well, AI can be your most powerful copilot. Used poorly, it can quietly disqualify you before a human ever sees your application. In fact, there are five AI-related job search mistakes that candidates often make, with the most common one being an over-reliance on AI to write an entire resume or cover letter. In addition, some candidates are using AI in a way that over-inflates their skills and experiences.

AI resume and cover letter generators promise to help you create professional documents quickly. But these tools often generate generic content based on keywords, which can make your application blend in with the rest. With a single ChatGPT prompt, you can have a resume draft in seconds. But if you stop there, you are hurting your chances. Remember: AI-generated resumes read like they were written by a robot, because they were. AI can help you with structure and grammar, but it cannot capture the nuances of your personal brand or unique career story. Worse yet, you also risk having a nearly identical resume as another applicant because you are all asking for the same keywords and skills. As a result, use AI to improve rather than replace your writing process. And make sure to personalize the content with specific examples from your own career. Your resume should reflect your unique journey, not just a collection of skills and accomplishments pulled together by AI.

Click Here to View Full Article

Mid-Career Professionals Must Learn to Understand and Use AI
Computer Weekly, May 16

As businesses and public sector organizations adopt AI at an accelerating pace, the tech industry faces the potential for huge disruption. The tipping point, of course, was the introduction of ChatGPT in late 2022. According to research by OpenAI and the University of Pennsylvania, an expanding set of workplace roles will soon be affected by generative AI. That is making it more imperative than ever for mid-career professionals to learn and understand AI.

The release of ChatGPT was a wake-up call for governments and businesses alike. Increasingly, there is a sense that they must prepare for inevitable disruption. According to new research, people over the age of 40 in mid-career professional roles are the most at risk of major job disruption as businesses integrate AI into their operations. AI is no longer a future concept. It is here and it is affecting everyone at every level. The good news is that professionals may not be replaced if they are re-trained for the new era of generative AI.

Click Here to View Full Article

For New Grads and Tech Professionals, LinkedIn’s AI Job Search Could Be a Lifeline
Yahoo, May 15

LinkedIn’s new AI-powered tools aim to make the job search easier and more aligned with what professionals and new grads actually want from their careers. At a time when layoffs and hiring freezes dominate headlines, these tools could help job seekers discover new job opportunities that they might have otherwise overlooked. With these new AI-powered tools, LinkedIn is attempting to help job seekers not only find hidden roles but maybe even discover what they want to do in the first place.

Right now, two-thirds of professionals find it challenging even to know what jobs to look for on job search platforms. Thus, the redesigned search feature will allow LinkedIn users to describe the job they want very broadly. Whether you have dreams of bringing your creative talents to the healthcare space or project management skills to the video game industry, the search system interprets your request and filters jobs that align with your interests. With AI job search, job seekers have a tool that understands them and turns their skills and aspirations into opportunities. This feature is invaluable for recent graduates as they open themselves up to the possibilities of what life after college looks like. In a competitive job market like today, the best thing anyone can do is be open to exploring new possibilities. In addition to helping users discover more job opportunities that align with their goals, the platform is introducing hiring transparency features, like verified listings, response time expectations, and insights on which employers are actively reviewing applications, to combat the rise of fake job listings.

Click Here to View Full Article

Why Non-Tech Workers Do Not Trust AI and Fear for Their Jobs
Inc.com, April 8

A new Pew Research survey examines public concerns about AI, in an attempt to shed light on worker concerns about the proliferation of AI within the workplace. Perhaps unsurprisingly, non-tech experts feel differently than AI experts about the impact of AI. The Pew data shows that non-tech workers are far less likely to think positively about AI than experts. Only 17 percent think it will benefit the U.S. positively over the next 20 years, while 56 percent of experts think it will. General worries center on how AI could totally change how people work, radically overhaul the kind of expertise and training new job seekers will need, and even outright replace human workers.

The Pew data shows that just 23 percent of U.S. adults surveyed think AI will have a positive impact on how people work in the next 20 years. The negative impact people expect from AI is clear. A majority (64 percent) of the public thinks AI will actually lead to fewer jobs. Meanwhile 73 percent of AI experts think AI will have a positive impact on work, and only 39 percent think AI will steal jobs, perhaps pointing to a broadening gap between what experts know about AI and what the average person thinks they know. Both AI experts and the public identified certain types of job as being more replaceable with AI than others. Interestingly, the negative view of AI skews more toward female respondents. For example, 22 percent of men in the survey think AI will be a positive force in America, versus just 12 percent of women.

Click Here to View Full Article

What Is Programming in the Age of Artificial Intelligence?
Communications of the ACM, May 6

Rapid innovation in the field of AI is now raising questions about what it means to be a programmer, as well as where the programming profession is headed. Just a few years ago, it was relatively simple to define programming, and what a typical programmer career looks like. But not any longer, with the ability of AI to generate code of its own, and to correct the code produced by humans. In order to think about the future of programming in the age of generative artificial intelligence, it is important to explore the history of computing as well as to analyze how educational institutions are already changing the way they teach programming.

To get an idea of where programming is headed, it can be useful to consider what educators, and not just industry practitioners, currently perceive programming to be. Educators are often the ones who facilitate the first encounters of students with programming, especially if these students matriculate without prior programming experience. Consequently, educator perspectives will determine how novices will face the learning of programming in the era of generative AI.

Click Here to View Full Article

A Case For Pragmatic Engineering Leadership
Blog@CACM, May 13

Being a leader in engineering involves not only anticipating future developments but also thoughtfully considering how these changes may impact the team. You need to plan carefully and make thoughtful decisions, not just let things happen by chance. Many times, it is about shielding teams from damaging distractions that have nothing whatsoever to do with the underlying business model. This is particularly important to keep in mind, given all the buzz and hype around artificial intelligence, and the race to embrace new AI solutions.

Leaders and team members should focus on solving genuine user problems or team problems with validated objective evidence. As best as possible, they should ignore the latest hype. New technology implementations should solve a validated user or internal problem, and should be based on evidence. Along the way, leaders should have regular conversations where builders can share their opinions about the feasibility and value of potential work. As a general rule, leaders should not scale up a new technology or make major changes without doing a thorough analysis and identifying the impact of adopting it. They should also require all major new technology implementations to have pilot programs that have defined success metrics before scaling.

Click Here to View Full Article

Copyright 2025, ACM, Inc.