By Ana Altchek
Publication Date: 2025-11-12 14:53:00
IBM’s chief scientist has advice for recent grads hoping to land a software engineering job: Stop only chasing the tech giants everyone else is pining after.
“Don’t just go for the standard ‘I’m going to go and work for Google, Microsoft, IBM,'” Ruchir Puri told Business Insider.
Puri, who has spent over three decades at IBM, said that as AI reshapes every industry, software engineers are needed across all sectors — whether that’s transportation, manufacturing, or retail. He said job seekers should widen their search “beyond a narrow set of technology companies” and also consider the “massive enterprise landscape.”
For example, a company like John Deere, the world’s largest agricultural equipment manufacturer, may not be top of mind for a software engineer looking for a job. However, Puri said the company is a household name, making a measurable impact. Other similar companies are hiring software engineers to help drive industry transformation, and…
