I have a spicy theory: 2026 is 2006 all over again. 😬
Here's why it matters right now. There's a growing AI skills gap between what employers are asking for in job postings and what students are putting on their resumes - and I just got to see the data on it live with the Jobscan team. If you coach students, this is the most important chart you'll look at this semester.
The 2006 lesson: when students missed the memo
Think back to the digital stone ages of 2006.
It was already obvious that software was going to eat the world (Marc Andreessen would put it in exactly those words a few years later). Tech companies were going public. Jobs were being created everywhere.
And yet the number of students choosing computer science actually went DOWN.
According to the Computing Research Association, the share of incoming undergrads planning to major in CS fell 70% between 2000 and 2005, and CS bachelor's degrees dropped 17% in a single year. Right as the biggest opportunity of their lifetimes was taking shape. 😮
Students just weren't getting the message about where the future was headed.
And I think it's happening again.
What the Jobscan data shows about AI skills in job postings
This week I got to co-host a live data reveal with Rhys Dowbiggin and the Jobscan team. They pulled first-party data from over a million real job descriptions and resumes that job seekers uploaded to their platform between Q2 2025 and Q2 2026.
Here's what they found:
📈 "AI agents" in job descriptions: up 5.1X in 12 months
📈 "Prompt engineering": up 3.5X
📉 The generic term "AI" on resumes: actually FELL over the same window, while it more than doubled in job descriptions
Employers are shouting. Students are whispering.
And before you say "that's just software engineering jobs" - it isn't! The fastest growth in AI language was OUTSIDE engineering. Customer success roles jumped 12 points. Content and writing roles jumped 10. Product and UX roles jumped 6. All of them outpaced software engineering.
One more twist: five classic soft skill terms (communication, collaboration, project management, agility, strategic planning) actually declined a bit in job descriptions over the same period. Employers are talking less about generic soft skills and more about named AI capability.
(Side note: let's stop calling them soft skills. They're power skills - and they matter more than ever. More on that in Revenge of the Liberal Arts.)
Why students aren't meeting the moment
Nobody is surprised that AI is showing up in more job postings. The interesting question is why students aren't keeping up.
My theory: mixed messages.
Students see the same headlines we do. But unlike us coaches, they also sit in classrooms where faculty are saying "AI is banned in my class." So in one ear they hear "you really shouldn't be using this stuff," and in the other ear employers are saying "we need to see it on your resume."
That's a real moment of conflict for a 20-year-old. Which voice do you listen to?
Add in the cultural pushback (Rhys pointed out the commencement speakers getting booed for mentioning AI) and you get a student who IS using AI every day, is actually fluent in it, and leaves it off their resume entirely.
That's how a digital divide forms. A few lucky haves learn to translate their AI fluency into employer language, and the have-nots get stuck on the sideline. Just like 2006.
Three moves career coaches can make this semester
Here's the thing - we are the coaches of the world. We don't have to accept that as the way it is. 🙌
Three concrete moves:
1. Be the adult in the room on AI. Unlike faculty colleagues who may be avoiding the topic, we can say to students: "AI is here. It's here to stay. There's a right way and a wrong way to use it, and we're going to show you the difference so you walk into that next job ready to rock." That message earns career services a bigger seat at the table.
2. Teach students to translate, not to inflate. Most students have real AI experience - they just don't recognize it as resume material. The job is to connect what they've actually done to the exact language employers are using. Have them run this prompt with any job description they're targeting:
Here is a job description I'm applying to: [paste it]. First, list every AI-related skill, tool, or phrase it mentions. Then, here is how I have actually used AI in school, internships, projects, or work: [describe it honestly]. Write 2-3 resume bullets that connect my real experience to the language in this posting. Do not invent anything I didn't do.
That last line is the whole ballgame. The goal is alignment with the employer, not fiction.
3. Get students in the door. None of this works if students don't show up. NACE found that graduating seniors who used even one career center service averaged 1.24 job offers, versus 1.0 for those who used none - 24% more offers. That's a stat worth sending to students AND their families before internship season.
The takeaway
In 2006, a generation of students missed the software wave because nobody made the opportunity clear to them.
In 2026, the data says it's starting to happen again with AI. But this time, career coaches can see it coming.
Close the gap: name the opportunity out loud, teach students to translate their real AI experience into employer language, and get them in the door.
Career coaches: are your students getting mixed messages about AI on campus? Let me know in the Comments!
And if you want to see how a student's LinkedIn profile stacks up against what employers are searching for, grab a free LinkedIn profile makeover - straight from a LinkedIn insider. ⚡