No Job After BSCS? A 90 Day Plan for Unemployed CS Graduates

No job after BSCS? Start here

If you have no job after BSCS and it has been three, six or nine months since your last exam, I want to say one thing before anything else: you are not unusual, and you are not finished. A student wrote to me recently saying he had applied to more than a hundred jobs since graduation, heard back from four, and had started avoiding family dinners because every conversation came back to "kuch hua?" That message is a composite of dozens I get every year.

The numbers back this up. Pakistan's Labour Force Survey 2024-25 found that graduates make up a larger share of unemployed people (14.8%) than of employed people (8.9%). Globally, the Stanford Digital Economy Lab found that employment for US software developers aged 22 to 25 fell nearly 20% from its late-2022 peak, driven by fewer hires rather than layoffs. Entry-level hiring is genuinely harder than it was when your seniors graduated.

That is context, not an excuse. At the same time, Pakistan's IT and IT-enabled services exports hit a record of about $4.5 billion in FY2026. Companies are hiring. They are just hiring fewer freshers, more carefully. So the question for an unemployed computer science graduate is not "is there any hope?" It is "what exactly is failing in my search, and what do I change?"

This post is a structured 90 day plan for that. If you are still in your final year, from CSE graduate to your first software engineering job is the better starting point. If you want the mechanics of running applications at volume, read a job search is a pipeline, not a performance. This one is for when you have already graduated, already applied, and it is not working.

Step 1: diagnose the gap before you do anything else

Most jobless graduates respond to silence by doing more of the same: another course, another 50 applications. That rarely helps, because the problem is usually at one specific stage. Find your stage first.

Be honest with yourself here. Take a sheet, list every application you sent in the last 60 days, and mark how far each one got. Ten minutes of this is worth more than a month of guessing. If you are at the "hearing nothing back" stage, applying to jobs as a fresh graduate and hearing nothing back goes deeper on that specific problem, and why your resume is not getting shortlisted covers the CV side.

Step 2: pick one target role for the next 90 days

"I will do anything in software" feels flexible. To a recruiter, it reads as unfocused. Choose one primary target and one backup:

• Primary: the role your skills are closest to right now (for example, junior backend developer, frontend developer, data analyst, SQA engineer).
• Backup: a bridge role that gets you inside a tech company (more on these below).

Everything you build, write and apply to in the next 90 days serves those two targets. If you genuinely do not know which direction fits, spend two days with how to choose between frontend, backend, mobile, cloud, security, data and AI, then commit.

The 90 day plan, week by week

Treat this like a part-time job: fixed hours, a start time and a stop time. Roughly five to six hours a day, five or six days a week. The rest of the time is for rest, family and exercise, which are part of the plan, not a reward for finishing it.

Use the job search roadmap to track this, and the job search cheat sheet for quick reference while you apply. If you want a view of what the first months of work look like once you land something, the first job roadmap covers that.

One strong project beats five tutorials

If your GitHub is a to-do app, a weather app and a university assignment, that is normal, and it is also why you are getting ignored. In weeks 3 to 6, build one project that looks like real work for your target role.

What "strong" means:

• It solves a real problem someone would pay for or use. A small business tool, a tracker, an analytics dashboard, not a clone.
• It is deployed with a live link that works on a phone.
• It has a README that explains the problem, the architecture, the trade-offs you made, and what you would do next.
• It has at least one hard part you can talk about for five minutes in an interview: authentication, payments in test mode, background jobs, caching, a tricky query.

Good starting points: the job application tracker with keyword gap view (useful for you right now, too), or browse all FYP ideas by domain. If you are not sure which kind of project will actually move a recruiter, which final year project helps you get a job applies just as much after graduation.

Notice what is not in the plan: a new course every week. If you have been "preparing" for months, read when to stop taking courses and start building.

Targeted applications, not spray and pray

Five tailored applications usually beat fifty generic ones. For each application:

1. Read the ad and note the three things they care about most.
2. Adjust your CV summary and the order of your projects to match.
3. Apply through the company careers page when possible, and find one person at the company to message (see next section).
4. Log it: date, company, role, stage, follow-up date.

Where to look: the Sefism jobs board, the internships list (many are open to recent graduates), the companies library for careers pages, plus LinkedIn and Rozee.pk. If you are wondering what a sensible volume is, how many jobs should I apply to per day has a realistic answer.

Networking without cringe

Most graduates either never message anyone, or send "Sir, please refer me" to strangers. Both fail. What works:

• Ask for information, not a job. "I saw your team works on payments. I'm a recent BSCS graduate building a small payments project. What do you wish juniors on your team knew?" People answer questions. They ignore demands.
• Be specific and short. Three or four lines, one clear question.
• Show your work. Link your project. It gives them a reason to respond and a reason to remember you.
• Follow up once, then let it go. No reply in a week? One polite follow-up. Then move on without taking it personally.
• Show up where engineers are. Local meetups, Google Developer Groups events, university alumni groups, and Discord communities. You do not need to be loud. Being present and helpful is enough.

My post on LinkedIn for engineers goes into the profile side.

Family pressure and your mental health

This part of unemployment is rarely talked about honestly, and in Pakistan it is often the hardest part. Relatives asking at every wedding. Parents comparing you to a cousin. Your own guilt about being at home while friends post offer letters.

A few things that help:

• Tell your family the plan, not the feelings. "For the next 90 days I am doing X, Y and Z, and I will update you every two weeks" lands better than "I am trying". Parents worry less when they can see structure. How to handle family pressure about your career choice has scripts for these conversations.
• Protect your routine. Wake up at a fixed time, get dressed, work from the same place. Unstructured days drain motivation faster than rejection does. More on this in how to stay motivated while unemployed after graduation.
• Measure inputs, not outcomes. You control applications sent, messages written and practice hours. You do not control when a company replies. Celebrate the inputs.
• Stop comparing timelines on LinkedIn. You see everyone's announcements and nobody's six months of silence. Why does everyone seem ahead of me on LinkedIn is worth reading on a bad day.
• Get help if it is more than stress. If you are not sleeping, losing interest in everything, or having thoughts of harming yourself, please talk to someone you trust and a mental health professional. In Pakistan, Umang runs a mental health helpline. Asking for help is not weakness.

If rejection itself is getting to you, how to deal with rejection after many job applications is a good read.

When to take a non-ideal job

At some point, the question becomes: should I accept something that is not what I wanted? My general view:

Take it if it is in or near tech, you will learn real skills (working in a team, shipping to users, debugging production), and it does not trap you in a contract that stops you from moving on later.

Think carefully if it is unrelated to your field, requires a long bond with heavy penalties, or pays so little that you cannot cover basic costs.

A job you are not proud of, while you keep building toward the one you want, beats another six months at home for most people. Money and structure reduce pressure, and "currently working as" reads far better on a CV than a gap. I cover the trade-offs in detail in should I accept a low-paying first job in tech.

QA, support and trainee roles as bridges

These roles are real careers in their own right, and they are also some of the best ways in for a graduate who is stuck:

Examples you can look at on Sefism right now include SQA trainee roles, trainee developer programs and associate QA engineer openings. A QA role plus evenings spent automating tests is one of the most reliable paths into development I have seen. The QA test suite for an open-source web app is a strong project if you go this way.

Day 90: review honestly

At the end of 90 days, sit down with your tracking sheet and answer:

• How many applications did I send? How many replies, tests, interviews, offers?
• At which stage did most applications stop?
• What did I build, and did it get mentioned in any interview?
• What will I change in the next 90 days?

If you have an offer, great. If not, you will almost certainly have moved the bottleneck further down the funnel, which is real progress. Adjust and run the next cycle. For a sense of realistic timelines, how long does it take to find a first developer job helps calibrate.

My honest read

Being jobless after graduation feels personal, but most of the time it is a fixable process problem: the wrong CV for the role, too few targeted applications, a portfolio that does not show real work, or a weak spot in the online test. The graduates I have seen break out of it did not suddenly become geniuses. They got specific about where they were failing, built one thing properly, and kept going for longer than felt comfortable.

Ninety days is enough to change your position meaningfully. It may not be enough to get your dream job. That is fine. The first job is a starting point, not a verdict on your career.

FAQ

What should I do if I have no job after graduation?

Diagnose where your search is failing (volume, CV, tests or interviews), pick one target role, build one strong project, and run targeted applications with a tracking sheet for 90 days. Consider bridge roles in parallel.

How long is it normal to be unemployed after a CS degree in Pakistan?

It varies a lot by skills, city and field. Several months is common in the current market. If you pass six months with no interviews at all, the problem is almost always the CV or targeting, not you.

Is it bad to have a gap on my CV after graduation?

A gap of a few months is normal. Fill it with visible work: a deployed project, open source contributions, freelancing or a relevant course with a real output. Explain it plainly if asked.

Should I do a master's degree because I cannot find a job?

Only if you want the degree for its own sake or it opens a specific path (for example, study abroad). Doing a master's to escape a job search often delays the same problem by two years.

Is QA a good first job for a CS graduate?

Yes, if you treat it seriously. Many strong developers and engineering managers started in QA. Learn automation while you are there.

Learn it on Sefism

• Job search roadmap and first job roadmap
• Job search cheat sheet
• Jobs board and internships
• How to get a developer job with no experience
• Free learning resources

Ask your own question

Your situation has details this post cannot cover: a low CGPA, a gap year, a specific city. The career questions library has answers to many of them, and you can ask your own. Want a learning roadmap built around you, written answers to your own questions and a place to discuss your FYP? Create your free Sefism account. Members can also book a one to one session when they want to talk it through.

Stay in touch

• LinkedIn: where I share roadmaps, career advice and honest takes on hiring. Follow, or message me.
• X (Twitter): short practical thoughts on engineering and careers.
• Instagram: quick tips and a more personal side.
• Sefism Discord: find other graduates running their own 90 day plan and keep each other accountable.
• Sefism on YouTube: walkthroughs and talks.

Cover photo by Светлана Химочка on Unsplash