Jack Weis, a Princeton chemical engineering PhD who graduated summa cum laude from Rice and is an Eagle Scout, has applied to more than 2,300 jobs over two years and still cannot secure a permanent position.
Weis conducts graduate research on ice formation that was cited by Nobel laureates, yet he finds himself living in his parents’ basement in Salt Lake City after repeated rejections and silence from employers.
He said automated hiring tools and processes have limited his prospects, and he reported being ghosted even by local crab cake vendors who once seemed promising.
Hiring Friction, Automation And Alternative Paths
Economists describe the market as low-hire, low-fire, meaning workers with jobs are staying put and newcomers face fewer openings. This dynamic is squeezing educated job seekers like Weis from entering many workplaces.
Weis also worked as a paid contractor teaching large language models complex chemical engineering concepts and earned about $70 per hour for the work, according to his account. When the project ended, he said the team informed 800 gig workers of layoffs through a mass Slack message.
His application experience includes one-way video interviews and timed gamified assessments. He missed a 72-hour McKinsey consulting test while backpacking without cell service. The test required organizing a virtual forest ecosystem in a game, which he could not complete on schedule.
Faced with automated portals that often do not reply, Weis is pursuing other avenues. He is studying for the LSAT to consider law school. He has filed rule-making petitions with federal agencies, including requests to decouple health coverage from employment. He is prototyping laser-equipped drones that use AI to target invasive weeds.
Weis framed his response simply: if the system will not hire you, build your own value. His actions illustrate how some highly credentialed job seekers are turning away from traditional hiring pipelines toward self-directed projects and advocacy.
