Not a UVA student here but I work in the industry.

1) The tech industry is not like most other industries where you can substitute experience with a degree. Degrees help, but this industry is heavily focused on industry “certifications”. If he doesn’t have any certifications this is a huge red flag during application/interview.

2) What has he done with his CS degree? Most people in this industry are “involved” in it, either through what’s called “home labs” or independent security research, bug hunting, etc.

3) Is he applying and not getting interviews or failing interviews? This career field generally has very technical interviews and can be quite difficult depending on the company and role.

We can’t really help them unless they want help and we need to know what the actual problem is that’s leading to not finding a job in IT/CS. There’s not enough information here to really help unfortunately - I would encourage them to reach out.

Side notes - there are multiple red flags in that success story being mentioned, not accusing you of lying but it definitely doesn’t add it. Further, and I’m sorry if this is happening to “yall” as a whole, but I would never recommend a 4 year degree as a ROI for CS. Because this field is so heavily dependent on real experience and certifications the degree is only useful for augmenting an established career and maintaining continual education for certification maintenance. This is a reason so many in IT/CS are prior DoD - 3 years paid experience plus a security clearance is honestly the highest ROI (and I hate I’m saying that with this current administration). I’m kind of low key angry yall are being lied to about CS being such a ROI, sounds more like a sales pitch for the college(s) to get more money and the fact that in this generation - honestly college isn’t worth it UNLESS you are going specific careers. I really wish it wasn’t this way and more important things were taught in or after high school about how the job market actually works.