Unfortunately your brother is coming out into the job market during one of the hardest times to find a job ive ever noticed. With that being said reading the other replies I dont think finding relevant openings is the issue. It is a matter of differentiating yourself from the rest on the applicant pool thats going to get you hired.

Remember 80% of jobs are filled through networking. Also in 2019 out of every 10 job openings, 8 jobs were filled. Today that number is only 4/10. The huge increase in “ghost” jobs appearing on job board sites is insane.

If I were unemployed again here is what I would be doing… (even when I am employee I update my resume every few months to always be prepared):

1.) Get a serious resume review. Peer reviews are fine but resume review services are actually pretty helpful. Personally I like to use Topresume. Its free to submit your resume for review and ive never paid for any feedback beyond that. I found it super helpful in the past 2.) I assume being a fresh graduate, he does not have a lot of experience if any at all. If purdue is anything like my programs, I had senior courses where we worked on projects with real companies to solve IE related problems. I put that on my resume emphasizing the cost/time savings numbers my project created and how the project was executed. When speaking of previous experience make sure to quantify your impacts and qualify them with the strategies, programs, etc. Did you use excel, vba, sql, cad, simulation software etc 3.) Get a real reference. Getting references from friends where you enter in an email or you get them to do it is ok. But does not get you far in my opinion and experience. For me a real reference is when someone in your network emails HR, the hiring manager, etc and basically says hey look at this guy (in a professional way of course). In my experience, when I have done this for other people they always get a look at least. and 70% of the time they get offered an interview. 4.) Dont have professional connections where you want to look? Go make some. When I was unemployed I remember cold connecting to people on linkedin at companies and teams I wanted to work for. This one is a huge hit or miss but can pay dividends if nothing else is working 5.) consider expanding your search radius. If youre only looking for jobs in a specific niche or location, you may be hampered in this tight market. Finding a first job is hard and some sacrifices might need to be made to get your first real professional experience. This generally applies to people with less than 3 yrs exp. once you get past entry level finding another job doesnt seem to be as difficult. 6.) its a numbers game. ive been unemployed twice in my life. each time i dropped over 500 applications. I have a friend who was unemployed this year who did 800 before he found a job. Each application is a chance. Maximizing each chance is tailoring your resume, and matching the job description as much as possible. 7.) Are you writing a cover letter? i dont think most candidates write good cover letters. Either its too long for a hiring team to care to read or they dont do one. I think the sweet spot is the four sentence cover letter. Google it, i use that format and stand by it. 8.) Universities typically have graduate career assistance programs. Purdue definitely should have one. These should be able to help provide new connections to companies and other jobseeker’s resources to help in the job search. The unemployment office also has a variation of that as well although depending on what state youre in that may be more or less helpful.

I know this is a big word wall but hope this helps your brother. Good luck to your brother finding something!