Navigating the Changing Job Market with May Wilson

Topic

Graduate Division Announcements, Professional Development

Date

February 25, 2026

Written By

Jonathan Landeros-Cisneros

Navigating the Changing Job Market with May Wilson

Following our recent article on graduate student internships, which featured a student panel facilitated by May Wilson, Assistant Director for Graduate Student Employer Engagement at Berkeley Career Engagement, we recognized an opportunity to take a deeper dive into the broader challenges and opportunities graduate students face in today’s evolving job market. Wilson’s unique position, working closely with both graduate students and employers, offers a valuable dual perspective on how the landscape is shifting and what students need to know to navigate it successfully.

In this companion piece, GradPro Professional Development Liaison Jonathan Landeros-Cisneros interviews Wilson to explore how employer expectations are changing, which emerging industries are seeking graduate-level talent, and what strategies students can use to position themselves effectively in this dynamic environment. From the impact of AI on job searching to the evolving value of research experience, Wilson shares practical insights that extend well beyond internships to help graduate students chart their path forward with confidence.

The Evolving Landscape

Jonathan: What are the most significant changes you’ve observed in the job market for graduate students over the past few years? (Are there emerging industries or sectors that are increasingly seeking graduate-level talent that might surprise students?)

May: Based on my research and insights from my colleagues, the first trend is that industry is shifting to a “skill-based” hiring market. You’ll see that many job postings have veered away from only putting “Must have X degree” to now posting “X degree OR 3+ years of experience” and sometimes outright just saying “5+ years in highly analytical and quantitative environment.” They [employers] don’t want to deter someone by making the job description too limiting with a strict degree requirement. You may have only ever used skills A,B,C to solve problem Y, but this shift now has employers caring more about the skills and less about the fact you used them for a problem that doesn’t pertain to them.

AI is the big elephant in the room. In terms of trends in industry, it’s led to an influx of jobs, especially at the graduate and postdoc level. I tell scholars to look beyond the tech industry if they are interested in AI because it is increasing in all sectors – healthcare, government, and social impact, etc. There’s also an increase in positions on the “human” side of AI, e.g., research positions around HCI (Human-computer interaction), and careers in the governance of AI.

A more somber trend is that the career journey has become increasingly taxing on one’s mental health. Nowadays, application portals ask for your tailored resume and cover letter, LinkedIn profile, and then ask you to repeat everything you have in your resume in the writing sections of the portal. After you apply, you may have 4-8 rounds of interviews, some of which may be with an AI bot that just records your answers, while others may be 3 hours of a technical assessment. And then on top of all of that, we are seeing a higher number of candidates receive no updates from the employer after their interviews. Don’t attempt every single step of the career journey in one go. Set aside clear times for each section of the job search: for example, mornings for resume building vs nights for cold messaging on LinkedIn. Make appointments with your career counselors so we can validate you and build up your confidence!

Jonathan: How have AI and technology impacted the job search process, especially for graduate students?

May: AI can sometimes be a handy assistant in the job search process. It can be used to take a job description and find similar job titles associated with the skills listed. Other times, it has been used to identify similar industries that are adjacent to one’s interests. Members of Berkeley Career Engagement have written up a “Utilizing Generative AI” page on best practices when using AI for the job search.

On the flip side, some employers are adjusting their job searches to be run by AI, and that can leave candidates feeling very dejected. Resumes might be wrongfully auto-rejected because the AI didn’t find everything it was programmed to look for. First-round interviews are going in the direction of being hosted by an AI bot that asks you questions like Siri and records your answers via video. The job search has become a mental olympics.

Jonathan: How can graduate students identify which market trends are worth paying attention to versus which are just noise?

May: AI has flipped the job market in just a few short years so trends aren’t lasting as long as before. However, there are some practices that I believe are here to stay for a while.

Skills-based hiring is not going away so grad students can better prepare for the market by identifying job description trends early. Do you see that working with cross-functional teams is a high priority in the job titles you seek? Then you should be trying to insert yourself in collaborative spaces, whether paid or unpaid, so that your resume/CV is fully equipped when you go to apply.
Internship experience is valuable. As employers move to a world where they value seeing you explicitly highlight skills for their company, they love it even more when they see that you have real-world experience in their industry. As soon as you have an inkling of wanting to explore an industry. I recommend you begin searching for their internship timelines. You can use this as a starting point: Resource Links_GradPro+Career Center Internships Panel_Fall 2025
I don’t believe that you have to be an AI expert to avoid becoming obsolete as a worker. I see AI usage as synonymous with Microsoft Excel usage. Office workers nowadays are expected to know the basics of Excel, for example, but they aren’t expected to know every formula. I see that also with AI. Employers are probably going to expect that you have the skills to use AI – either prompting it to review material, using it to identify domain trends, etc., but I don’t foresee it becoming a standard to know how to code algorithms, or how to run internal processes with AI.

Employer Perspectives & What Graduate Students Need to Know

Jonathan: What skills are employers prioritizing now that might be different from a few years ago?

May: Now more than ever, employers are valuing soft skills as highly as the hard, technical skills. Employers are looking for candidates who can demonstrate emotional intelligence. Almost every single job description that I see includes “Be a key technical lead…”, “Work with cross-functional teams…”, “Presentation of research findings to clients…”, etc. It’s no longer enough to just put a “Skills” section and list these traits. They [employers] want to see to what extent you have demonstrated these behaviors in your prior work.

Particularly for graduate students and postdocs, employers have this stereotype that this demographic has only ever worked in isolation for their research. It’s extremely important to showcase in your resume that you’ve worked in teams with other scientists, that you’ve presented a complex topic to an audience, or that you’ve innovated a new technique.

Strategies for Success

Jonathan: What advice would you give to graduate students who are trying to stay competitive in this changing market? (including networking, and job search strategies)

May: Networking is a huge must in this changing market! Having conversations with someone who can give you insider tips on the application process, or even better, having someone who can give you a referral in the company, is key to gaining traction in today’s career battles. I know that for many graduate students, hearing the word networking creates the same pain someone would get from stepping on Legos, but you don’t have to become someone who makes everyone laugh. You don’t have to become someone who is always called charismatic. Just be your authentic self and ask questions from a place of genuine curiosity. “How did you transition into this field?” “What’s a value of this company that you are really aligned with?” “What were some hardships you faced breaking into this field?” When you start off with questions that show you did some research and put some care into the conversation, a spark of trust begins. From there, a lot of possibilities open up due to trust.

Another piece of advice is not to just type in your degree level when searching on a company’s page to find the roles that may pop up for it. Sure, when you do this, you get opportunities that have been tailored to your demographic (A PhD role focused on research skills, for example). However, it’s incredibly likely you are missing out on a bunch of other opportunities. Again, the job market cares more about definitive skills. Some opportunities don’t ask for a degree, but require years of experience, making graduate students great contenders.

Jonathan: What resources or tools do you recommend for graduate students to stay informed about job market trends?

May:

Sign up for newsletters from companies and associations.
Many employers have this mentality that if you want to be a part of their industry/sector, then you will make an effort to be in their spaces. They expect you’ll read their monthly newsletter, or you’ll attend their webinars because you are “focused only on them.” Due to this mentality, many jobs and opportunities appear through these channels, so there’s a lot of benefit to signing up. These internal channels can also help you stay on top of the hiring cycle for the industries you are interested in. For example, in January, consulting firms just sent out their first wave of details for upcoming info sessions for candidates in advanced degree programs.
If you don’t know where to start, then you can use O*Net – navigate to the middle of the page where it says “Advanced Searches” and click on “Professional Associations.” From there you can type in a keyword/job title/profession and it will populate the associations found throughout the web.
Take advantage of Handshake!
This is a platform you are paying for with your student fees, so use it for all its worth. Our grad team at Berkeley Career Engagement has been working on making it more tailored to your needs. There are different collections based on your background/interests:

Use these collections to view job titles frequently used in your industries of interest. Also, use these collections to see what upcoming events are available for you to attend. The employer events that get posted in these collections are great opportunities to hear directly from recruiters about what the trends are in their organization and in their field overall.

This article was written by Jonathan Landeros-Cisneros, a Professional Development Liaison and a Ph.D. candidate in the Berkeley School of Education.