Is The UCI CS Major Game Over? A Reflection By A Recent Grad

23 November 2024

There have been a lot of doomsday posts about the CS degree lately, so here’s my two cents on what one from UCI is actually worth. I graduated in 2024 with a CS and BIM double major.

Should you stay in the major?

Stay if this is the thing you’d want to be doing for the next thirty years. If you’ll put in hours outside of class because you want to, not because a syllabus told you to. If a hackathon sounds like a fun weekend. If you’d build the thing in your head just to watch it work. If you’d still take the job at a teacher’s salary.

Leave if you’re only here for the money. Or because everyone in your friend group is doing it. Or because your parents would be disappointed otherwise. Or because someone on TikTok made it look like software engineers get paid to sit around.

And leaving is fine. Genuinely. You’re going to work for thirty-plus years, and you can’t spend all of it hating your job. The world is big and you might turn out to be great at something you haven’t tried yet. If you’re weighing a switch, I wrote a guide to all eight CS-related majors at UCI that covers where each one leads.

Is the job market terrible?

Yeah, but it’s been getting better, not worse. The 2023 grads got hit hardest. 2024 was a little easier. With rates coming down, I’m seeing a lot more postings for 2025 and beyond. Google barely hired anyone in 2023 or 2024 and is back on campus now with real headcount.

What makes recruiting so hard right now?

Standing out. There are just too many people applying. Almost every UCI student lists the CS 122B project on their resume, so if that’s your whole portfolio, you aren’t ahead of anyone. You’re exactly average. Recruiters don’t care much about class projects.

What works is building something yourself and getting actual users on it. That’s a lot of nights in your room while your friends are out, and it’s hard to talk yourself into it if you don’t like the work.

Do you really need 1000+ LeetCode problems?

No. Interviews have gotten harder, sure. 50 problems used to be enough, and now it’s closer to 200. But past 250, you’re mostly wasting your time. It’s the same data structures with a new coat of paint. The “1000 or you’re doomed” thing isn’t real. If you genuinely enjoy competitive programming, then go nuts. Just don’t grind out of fear.

How do you improve your odds?

Think of it as a funnel and work out where it’s leaking. Roughly, for citizens and green card holders:

Then fix whichever stage is leaking:

• Not getting OAs? Your resume needs work.
• Failing the OAs? Do more LeetCode.
• Interviewing but no offers? Practice interviewing.
• Ten final rounds and nothing? At that point you’re just cursed.

I won’t put numbers on this for international students. Sponsorship distorts the funnel so badly that I’d be making them up.

Is UCI good for recruiting?

Semi-target. Offers aren’t going to fall out of the sky the way they might at an HYPSM career fair, but the school on your resume isn’t what’s screening you out either. At most companies a UCI CS degree clears the bar, and from there it’s your projects and experience doing the work. Quant firms are pickier, though I’ve watched people from here land offers at top quant shops, so maybe I’m wrong about that too.