Students are calling on the University to better advertise and provide adequate career support as they navigate one of the toughest job and internship markets since the COVID-19 pandemic.
More than 30 students said the University’s career services have not eased their concerns or helped them secure employment in a struggling job market — one some companies predict will be the worst for college graduates in five years by the end of 2026 — citing limited promotion of available resources and often learning about resources, like online networking sites and career advising through friends or professors instead. Despite students’ calls for improved career support, a University spokesperson said GW increased the number of career fairs this academic year from nine to 11, and the Center for Career Services saw an 11.5 percent increase in career coaching appointments over the past year.
Piper Hogg, a senior majoring in international affairs, said she feels GW has advertised few career resources this year, leaving her worried about entering the “rough” job market after graduation. She said she has had to expand her job search beyond D.C. and the federal government, especially as the field she hopes to enter — aiding women internationally — is receiving reduced federal funding.
“When I do look into anything from GW, in terms of like, here are some companies to look into, there are no job postings whatsoever,” Hogg said.
Hogg said that when the University promotes career support, it’s only the resources students are already well aware of like the employment website, Handshake. She said she even learned about GW Career Connect, a platform that connects current students with alumni in their field, from a friend, not from any officials.
“The stuff that’s easy to find is so basic, it’s kind of like, ‘Do you think I’m dumb?’” Hogg said. “I know to look at this stuff.”
Asim Ebrahim, a senior majoring in human services and social justice, said while he is looking to go to graduate school first, part of him is still nervous about entering the job market after earning his master’s because he keeps reading negative news about the poor job market for college graduates.
He said he had a professor who encouraged his class to familiarize themselves with many of the professional resources available to him and his peers like GW Career Connect, but if he hadn’t taken that class, he wouldn’t have known they existed. He said even still, resources like Career Connect are “not helpful at all,” adding that other platforms like LinkedIn already exist and serve a similar purpose, while Career Connect is “basic” and “repetitive.”
“I get what they were trying to do with it, but I feel like they kind of put 50 percent into it, and they’re like, ‘Okay, this is as good as it needs to be,’” Ebrahim said.
A University spokesperson said students receive initial exposure to career services in their First Year Experiences courses and are currently building credited courses in each undergraduate school, where career development managers will serve as instructors. They said the University has numerous outreach efforts for career support, including newsletters, events and offerings through Handshake, as well as a social media presence on Instagram and LinkedIn.
Anna Nunes, a first-year history student, said she worries about the current state of the job market because she is unable to find summer internships. She says she finds it difficult to secure entry-level internships without any experience, since most require prior work experience, based on her interactions with employers at career fairs.
Internship postings on the job site Indeed were down compared with the past five years, slipping below the 2019 level. Handshake reported an average of 109 applications per internship posting in 2025, nearly double from 2024.
“If there’s no opportunities for people of lower experience to get even lower experience jobs, then you can’t really build up at all,” Nunes said.
The entry-level job market is considered to be one of the poorest since the pandemic with an underemployment rate — measuring those with jobs that do not use their skills — of 42.5 percent as employers expect a small increase in hiring and most plan to either freeze hiring or cut jobs this year. The unemployment rate among people aged 22 to 27 with college degrees is near its highest level since the pandemic ended at 5.6 percent.
Nunes said it would be helpful for GW to host a career event with companies that are primarily looking for students to fill entry-level intern positions, something she feels current career fairs don’t offer as employers look for students with higher levels of experience. She said she had previously attended a career fair focused on history and archival studies looking for an entry-level internship, but wasn’t able to find many opportunities for her current experience.
“I felt like going in there I was a little lost, and I didn’t really know what I was supposed to be doing there,” Nunes said.
The University spokesperson said officials have offered more career fairs and expanded their focus to host specialized, industry-focused fairs aligned with students’ academic and career interests.
Izzy Saler, a junior majoring in political communication, said she’s been able to find internships through the School of Media & Public Affairs, citing their career newsletters and alumni networking opportunities. But she said the University as a whole has failed to support her as she searches for internships in the “really poor” job market, especially in the wake of the Department of Government Efficiency’s cuts across the federal government and the rise of artificial intelligence in the workplace.
“I don’t really go to the career center, or have a lot of like front facing interactions with them,” Saler said. “I think they sent an email out once in a while, but it’s not very personalized, and no one knows who their career people are, even where they are.”
The spokesperson said six federal agencies — including the Central Intelligence Agency, State Department and National Institutes of Health — cancelled their registration to the Career Exploration Expo in the fall because of Department of Government Efficiency cuts, but have since recruited students through posting job and internship opportunities on Handshake targeted towards GW students.
Diya Nair, a sophomore majoring in psychological and brain sciences, said professors have advertised job and internship opportunities to her in her classes, but she wishes the University advertised Handshake more to first-years because she found out about the resource from her friends. She said she wasn’t aware of Handshake for part of her first year at GW — adding that it has been slightly helpful in searching for jobs — and she wants professional development to be integrated into the classroom more to better expose students to the options available to them.
“But having more events, having periods where they come in and talk to us about, ‘Here are your opportunities,’ would be really helpful and give us the option of more resources,” Nair said.
