Bring what you did
Classes, group projects, jobs, and clubs. You will see which of the classes you have already taken count toward each path.
Sourced AI-exposure scores for every career your students are weighing.
Cairn Careers is an AI-exposure assessment that college career centers give their students. Each student enters up to three paths, and Cairn scores each one against federal task data and names the one gap most likely to hold that student back. Your office gets a cohort report you can forward to a dean.
Already a partner campus?Partner sign-inA flat-fee pilot for one term, with a cohort report ready for your dean.
Cairn Careers is a product of Phronesis Labs LLC and is not affiliated with Cairn University or Cairn Group.
For your officeOne cohort report for your office
What your students built on their dashboards, added up: steps done, evidence answered, samples on file, paths compared. No names, and small groups are hidden.
One flat fee No per-student fees. The terms are on the pilot page.
Built by a PhD psychometrician On federal task data. No language model touches the score.
Every score is sourced O*NET, Eloundou et al. (2024) in Science, and METR*, each linked on the methodology page.
The market you are graduating into, with the sources attached.
Checked October 4, 2026
- 1,016occupations scored, matched from 54,000+ job titles. Every path you weigh resolves to one.1
- 5.6%unemployment among recent college graduates, ages 22 to 27.2
- 42%of recent graduates work in jobs that do not require their degree.3
- 3published sources behind every score: O*NET task data, Eloundou et al. (2024) in Science, and METR's* long-run trend.4
- O*NET 31.0, Occupation Data (1,016 rows) and Job Titles (54,269 rows), O*NET Resource Center
- Federal Reserve Bank of New York, The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates, 2026:Q2 update
- Federal Reserve Bank of New York, The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates, 2026:Q2 update
- Cairn Careers methodology page
Exposure tells you which tasks a job is likely to lose. The plan starts there.
The route
Career planning that will end with a resume you can send.
Stuck for months with no concrete career plan? It usually looks something like this.
- Your resume lists a major and a campus job, but not the survey you ran, the club budget you managed, or the lab report your professor praised.
- You have applied to entry-level roles for weeks and heard nothing back, and nobody can tell you what to change.
- Every headline says AI is coming for entry-level work, and almost none say which of the jobs you are considering it actually touches.
- Your family asks what you plan to do after graduation, and you do not have an answer you can explain.
You have done more than you think. The hard part is turning it into something a recruiter can read.
Build the resume and LinkedIn
Each experience will become a resume bullet and a LinkedIn line tied to the paths you are weighing. On the roadmap for pilot partners.
Check it against AI
See which of your skills stay in demand as AI changes the work, then pick your first move.
What you haveMarketing class group project: ran a campus survey for a local coffee shop.
Resume bullet (sample)Designed and ran a customer survey for a local business and presented pricing recommendations to the owner.
No resume or work history needed. Bring your interests, coursework, and what you have done so far.
How the AI-exposure score is calculatedSample roadmap (partner sign-in)Why no major is AI-proof, and how to evaluate one
Your degree, put to work
You put years into college. Show employers what it bought you.
Cairn Careers will show which of your classes already count toward each path and turn them into evidence employers can see, so your education reads as proof and not a list of course titles.
Compared with a chatbot
How this compares to asking ChatGPT.
Most students try the chatbot first. Here is what each one gives you.
Asking ChatGPT
- Answers from patterns in its training data.
- Cannot show you where a number came from.
- Pay, growth, and AI risk mixed into one reply.
- Will often write a number for you when you do not have one.
Cairn Careers
- Scores each path against federal occupational task data.
- Names and links every source on the methodology page.
- Keeps pay and growth separate from the exposure score, so you can see what moved the result.
- Never invents a number. It asks the question that produces one.
In short: ChatGPT answers your career question from patterns in its training data and cannot show where a number came from. Cairn Careers scores the specific paths you are weighing against federal occupational task data, links every source, and keeps pay and growth figures outside the exposure score.
Read the methodologySee the full comparison
Also compared: Cairn Careers vs CareerWing, Cairn Careers vs Career Mirror, Cairn Careers vs Make the Leap.
Sample dashboard
Maya's sample dashboard
Student dashboardWhere you stand, Maya.Sample data
The full sample dashboard is open to partner campuses. Request a demo login.
What the pilot includes
Seats you assign. Each student scores up to three paths and sees which tasks in each job hold up to AI, with pay and growth shown beside the score and never inside it. Your office receives a cohort report.
Read how the score is calculatedStudents
Your career center can add Cairn for a term. Send them this page, or leave your school and we will tell you when Cairn reaches your campus.
Why this exists
A guide should be honest about what it knows.
Built by a PhD research scientist
Brooke Houck, PhD · Founder
“I built Cairn Careers because I kept getting annoyed. Every week there was a new headline about which jobs AI would wipe out, and almost none of them said how they knew. When I traced the claims back, most rested on a job title and a guess. In my field you do not get to publish a number without showing where it came from. Students are making one of the most expensive decisions of their lives on claims that would not survive peer review, and they deserve the standard I am held to.”
Guides
Research guides
- How weak ties help you get a first job
What the research says about acquaintances, strong ties and family connections when a student has no network yet.
- Why no major is AI-proof, and how to evaluate one
How to check the jobs a major leads to task by task, with pay and growth read as context.
- Turning a class project into a resume bullet
A four-step pattern with before and after examples from different majors.
FAQs
Questions people actually ask.
What is Cairn Careers?
Cairn Careers is a career-planning tool for college students and recent graduates. It scores each career path you are weighing for AI exposure from your interests, coursework, and experience, and will add a sequenced plan toward a first job. It is a product of Phronesis Labs LLC and is not affiliated with Cairn University or Cairn Group.
Is Cairn live today?
The scoring engine behind Cairn is built and running today. The student experience on this site shows what it produces when it is pointed at someone choosing a path rather than holding a job, and partner campuses get that experience first. The methodology page sets out how the score is calculated.
How is the AI-exposure score calculated?
Each task in an occupation is weighted by how much of the work it accounts for, multiplied by that task's AI-exposure value, and the result is placed on a 0 to 100 scale. Task data comes from O*NET, exposure values from Eloundou et al. (2024) in Science, and the three-year outlook from METR's* long-run time-horizon trend. The full calculation is set out on the methodology page.
Does the score predict whether I will lose my job?
No. The score measures task exposure, meaning what current AI can already do, not whether a particular job will disappear. It cannot see your employer, your skill, your judgment, or the relationships you build, and it is not career, financial, or legal advice.
Which entry-level jobs are most exposed to AI?
Exposure follows the mix of tasks inside a job rather than the job title, so two roles that sound similar can score very differently. Work that is mostly drafting, summarizing, routine analysis, or standardized documentation tends to score higher, while work that turns on physical presence, negotiation, or accountability for a judgment call tends to score lower. Cairn Careers scores the specific paths you are weighing rather than publishing one general ranking. The same applies to majors: why no major is AI-proof, and how to evaluate one.
Do I need a resume or work history to use it?
No. You bring your interests, your coursework, and the experience you already have, including class projects and part-time work. There is no resume upload and no work-history requirement.
How is this different from asking a general AI chatbot about my career?
A general chatbot produces an answer from patterns in its training data and cannot show you where a number came from. Cairn Careers scores your paths against federal occupational task data and published research, names and links every source on its methodology page, and keeps pay and growth data structurally separate from the exposure score so you can see exactly what moved the result.
Where does Cairn Careers get its data?
Occupational task data comes from O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupational database. AI task exposure comes from Eloundou et al. (2024) in Science. The capability trajectory comes from METR*. Pay and growth figures come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and are shown as context only, and they never enter the exposure score. Every source is linked on the methodology page.
Who is Cairn Careers for?
College students and recent graduates deciding what to aim for and what to do next. It is most useful if you are choosing between several paths, or have already chosen one and want a month-by-month plan toward a first job, which is on the roadmap for pilot partners. Cairn is launching through partner campuses; ask your career center, or send them the institutions page. It is not built for people already established in a career who are planning a mid-career switch.
What does Cairn Careers cost?
Cairn is sold to career centers and programs through a flat-fee pilot for one term. The price, what is included and the guarantee are on the Founding Partner Pilot page.
The next marker is yours
Find my first move.
In development with partner campuses
* This projection uses METR's established long-run time-horizon trend, not the faster 2026 estimates. Those newer figures come from a task suite near saturation, carry very wide confidence intervals, and measure software tasks specifically, so extrapolating them across all occupations is not yet reliable. See MIT Technology Review, "This is the most misunderstood graph in AI," February 5, 2026, https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/02/05/1132254/this-is-the-most-misunderstood-graph-in-ai/