Getting a degree isn’t a job guarantee right now.

At 5.7%, the unemployment rate for recent college graduates is its highest in three years. And underemployment of new graduates sits at 41.5%, so even those working are in jobs that don’t require the degree they just spent years earning.

In fact, since mid-2023, new entrants to the labor market have made up 85% of the total increase in unemployment.

This isn’t bad luck or timing. It’s the worst job market to graduate into in recent years. Anyone telling graduates to “just network more” isn’t paying attention to the data.

But researchers who have studied graduates who entered the workforce during previous economic downturns have found something unexpected: The difficulty itself generates advantages that aren’t immaterial—in fact, they correspond to actual competitive benefits later in life.

Advantage 1: You’re Building Higher Frustration Tolerance Before the Stakes Are Raised

Even though it feels bad right now, new graduates’ resilience will be stronger for it.

Research shows that early career rejection and uncertainty, when metabolized rather than avoided, build stress inoculation . This is a type of resilience that makes future pressure easier to manage. The research is specific: moderate adversity builds mental toughness.

One caveat: This assumes the stress of a job search remains manageable. For graduates facing genuine financial uncertainty, the pressure can easily become too much. The research suggests that this works against resilience, not toward it. Still, too little resilience and they’ll never develop the muscle.

People who encounter genuine adversity early develop more realistic coping mechanisms than those who don’t hit their first major obstacle until mid-career. When that moment arrives—maybe in the form of a failing project, a bad boss or an unexpected round of layoffs—many are forced to build that resilience from scratch. But new graduates will already have it.

The job search itself, from the rejections and ghosting to the constant pivots, is an unplanned but rigorous training ground for managing uncertainty. That skill compounds.

Advantage 2: Your Expectations Are Calibrated to Reality, Not To a Fantasy

Awareness that first roles post-grad probably won’t be everything graduates hoped isn’t a lower standard—it’s an accurate one.

Emory researcher Emily Bianchi analyzed data from thousands of college graduates over four decades and found that those who graduated during economic recessions were more satisfied with their jobs than those who job-searched under better economic conditions.

Bianchi’s findings aren’t about being grateful to simply be employed. They’re about reference points. Recession graduates know what the market is like, so a stable job feels like a win, not a consolation prize.

Graduates who enter the workforce in a good job market anchor higher, and feel as though they’re underperforming when doing normal, entry-level work. Those who enter under harsher conditions find meaning in stability.

That difference pays off. Graduates who anchor themselves in reality advance from it, rather than spending their career mourning a fantasy.

Advantage 3: You’re Building a Broader Professional Network Than Your Counterparts in Easy Markets Ever Had To

If one path is closed, exploration is always an option.

Graduates entering tight job markets are forced to build their networks more creatively and broadly than those who walked straight into work post-grad. They’ll take on more informational interviews, pursue more lateral connections, work in industries they hadn’t considered and build relationships with people outside of their target field. Necessity drives all of these connections.

That wide-ranging early networking builds “weak ties,” which research shows are a predictor of career flexibility . They generate unexpected opportunities, particularly because they reach beyond their immediate circle.

One new graduate, in her frustration about her job search, posted this Instagram reel that went viral. In it, she pitched her skills, talked about exactly what she wanted and why she would be a great hire. That video was seen by so many people who connected with her and wanted to help her that she eventually landed a job at her dream company .

The graduates who stepped straight into their planned roles didn’t have to build relationships outside of their intended lane. But those who couldn’t had no choice but to network widely—and that’s an advantage in the long run.

Advantage 4: Constrained Starts Produce Faster Skill Diversification

A lateral start isn’t a detour. It’s a different kind of fast track.

Taking a job below their target level or in an adjacent field forces breadth that a straight-line career path rarely demands. Graduates broaden their skill set and their understanding of how organizations actually work.

Moreover, doing more with less, covering gaps in lean teams and working across functions are all conditions that produce something organizations want to hire: generalists with real depth. For example, someone who has touched operations, client management, and communications all early in their career understands how the pieces connect. That context is hard to teach and hard to replicate—especially in new graduates.

The advantage doesn’t accrue automatically. In fact, graduates who start post-grad underemployed are 3.5 times more likely to remain underemployed 10 years later. Graduates can avoid this by building on what they learn, documenting their progress and treating every skill as a credential for elevation.

The person whose role encompasses two or three fields at a smaller company—rather than one cog on a large team at a larger company—in year one isn’t behind. In most cases, they’re ahead.

Advantage 5: You’re Entering With No Illusions About Job Security, Which Makes You a More Intentional Career Builder

The entry-level job market is the worst it’s been in 37 years .

Amid the adoption of generative AI , junior worker demand drops—and with economic uncertainty , hiring of entry-level workers is falling even more.

The graduates who understand this aren’t naive about the employment contract. That’s a tool. The generation that graduated into the post-2008 labor market became entrepreneurial—not because they wanted to, but because they had to, without traditional paths available to them.

Constraint breeds agency, and the graduates who know from day one that careers are meant to be built—not just happen to them—make different, better decisions regarding skill development, relationship investment and organizational loyalty.

Three Concrete Things To Do Now

While navigating the post-grad job market, three actions will pay off long term.

Document your adversity resume.

Keep a running list of what you're navigating. Include the rejections, the pivots and the unexpected roles. In five years, it’ll become a story of resilience, even if right now it feels like chaos.

Take the role that teaches, not just the one that pays.

In a tight market, the job that gives you the most transferable skills beats the job with the best title.

Invest in relationships before you need them.

The network you build while you’re struggling is more durable and more diverse than the one built from a position of strength.

The job market didn’t give this graduating class the start they planned. But the start they got is building something the planned path never could have. The question isn’t whether this moment is hard—because it is. The question is what they’re doing with it.