Just got my first job as a data scientist. Got a 30% raise from my part time job at IBM. The economy is fine.

#tl;dr: Just got my first job out of college as a data scientist, 30% raise from my part time job at IBM, the economy is fine. Your personal experience isn't the entire economy.<br><br>Couple of details: I am an international student in the US (not in a particularly popular city), pursuing a Master's in Data Science. I had no prior experience in the field except for a few MOOCs and projects. I interned for IBM this summer as part time data analyst. It was a contract job and I was paid pretty much the same as a full time employee. Few months before completing my course, IBM told me they couldn't extend my contract (I think it was because of me being international student and the red tape) and I had to find a job. Luckily by then I already had enough skills to be desirable enough. At the end of my contract I had a couple of offers from IBM and other companies. IBM told me they couldn't sponsor my visa so I had to reject. Got an offer from another company with 30% raise, enough to live comfortably in a slightly expensive city.<br><br>From my experience, you don't need tons of experience to land a job in the industry. You just need to be good in what you do for your age group (and be in the right field, please don't be a humanities grad you will starve). It also appears that there is a shortage of enough skilled people in the field I'm in. I'm not in a popular city by any standard. The cost of living is a bit high here but I can live comfortably in the 80k range. The other two cities I got offers from were very cheap so I could've lived comfortably in the 70k range if I had to. Also had a ton of other offers which I rejected because I had to choose the best one (by best I mean the one that had best work-life-balance and support for international students, the company culture and work environment are great).<br><br>So yeah, the economy is fine.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>Edit: Thank you so much for all the kind words and congratulatory messages! Unfortunately, I can't reply to all of them individually, but I read every single one and I am very grateful for the support! Don't give up on your dreams :)