Nobel-cited Princeton PhD sends out 2,300 job applications, still has no steady job
A Princeton PhD whose research the Nobel committee reportedly cited has applied for more than 2,300 jobs in about two years without landing a steady one, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Jack Weis, 30, earned a PhD in chemical engineering from Princeton University in 2024, with research on ice formation, and has since sent out more than 2,300 applications, the Journal reported.
Pakistan's Daily Jang, citing the Journal, said the Nobel committee cited his ice-formation work as an example of machine learning in science when announcing the 2024 physics prize.
He began with pharmaceutical research roles and national laboratory postdocs, then widened his search to software engineering and food-preparation jobs, including at a company that sells frozen crab cakes, the Journal reported.
Weis has applied for more than 2,300 jobs in about two years, most without an interview, according to the reports.
From January 2026 he worked part-time at $70 an hour for a startup that hires specialists to train AI, but his hours swung widely and his contract was ended in March, Daily Jang reported.
Weis now lives in his parents' basement in Salt Lake City, is preparing for the law school admission test and is exploring a business built around an AI-designed weed-removal drone, Entrepreneur reported.
"If I truly believe I have some value, I should go out and get it," Weis was quoted as saying.
Cooling labour market
The case comes amid what the Journal's Lindsey Ellis has described as a "low-hire, low-fire" labour market, in which unemployment is low but hiring for many new graduates has been slow.
Long-term unemployment, defined as 27 weeks or more, hit its highest level in about a decade this summer outside the pandemic, and college graduates' unemployment has overtaken non-graduates', Daily Jang reported.
Among college-educated New Yorkers aged 22 to 27, unemployment stood at 7.3% in March, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander said, citing Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
