HYDERABAD: As students and young graduates from Telangana and elsewhere in the country chase the American dream, in many ways meritocracy remains at the core. But a surge in computer science graduates and AI is making life hard for students in the US.
Illinois and Texas – two favourite hubs for Telugus in the US to pursue higher education and employment – are among the top 10 toughest states to get into a career, revealed a study.
According to a AI productivity platform ‘Plus’, which analysed public data from last year to create an index ranking the worst states in which to start a new career, Nevada, Georgia and Arkansas are placed in the top three spots.
Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and New Mexico are the other states where students want to pursue their careers.
Not only it is tough to find regular employment, students are also finding it hard to get part-time jobs. They blame it on the huge influx of Indians landing in the “land of opportunities” to study computer science engineering (CSE) and related courses.

“The craze for CSE is definitely one of the reasons why the career of many youngsters is finished even before it’s started,” said S Angad, who studied master’s course in computer science in the US and returned to India recently as he could not land a job.
“I waited for a job for about one-and-a-half years. I did not find it worth the struggle and I came back as I felt it is better to be a king in the small jungle rather than being a monkey there,” he said.
‘Core engineering graduates get jobs in lesser time than CSE’
Although he had an offer with a firm after his graduation, the job offer was cancelled following the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, he claimed.
Many graduates also pointed out that while those who complete CSE and other courses take 12 to 18 months to get into a decent job, those with core engineering – electrical and mechanical – degrees take much lesser time. The pay is also said to be about 1.5 to 2 times more for core engineering graduates.
“I struggled for over a year to find a job. This month, I got a job with a big firm. Previously, I lost several opportunities as firms were not willing to file for an OPT extension or H1B in near future. I freelanced for a few months and then worked with a startup,” said Ansuman Sasmal, a techie working in Wisconsin. He said IT professionals were now struggling to land jobs.
As far as part-time jobs are concerned, many graduates are said to be struggling as some are willing to work even for $6 per hour. “We are not used to such low pay scales. But, there is nothing our students can do as we are competing with fellow countrymen and lakhs of immigrants from other countries landing there for jobs. Students need to realise that they need a strong resume with multiple skill-sets to get a job in this volatile scenario,” said Ajaya Kumar, who runs a consultancy in Hyderabad.