Is it difficult for graduates of lesser known universities to find jobs?

Not so much.

In the US higher ed providers are seeing some significant shifts away from traditional top tier universities, toward more affordable colleges.

The key factor is becoming the success and rating of individual programs, rather than prestige of the university as a whole – And much of the change is being driven by employers focus on skills :

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3669412/companies-move-to-drop-college-degree-requirements-for-new-hires-focus-on-skills.html

Certain jobs, like Supreme Court justice, yes. Otherwise it is way more about the other factors. As long as it’s a real, accredited program, you get out of it what you put in.

I graduated from a small, unknown university in 1985. No employer has ever looked at where I went to school. They only cared that I actually went to school and finished.

So I’m going to say MOSTLY no.

First, your GPA and college only really matter for how good your FIRST job is in most fields. I work in IT, and while sure, we’d LIKE to see that you got your degree from a prestigious IT program, I find that it has minimal correlation with how good a prospect someone is. So we put minimal emphasis on it. Google or Facebook likely would care more. Talking with other people in a few other fields, they mostly said it worked that way in their fields.

However, there clearly are some fields were school matters rather alot. Medical and Legal for example, I’ve heard these folks bragging about their school even when they’re very established in their field. Like graduating from Harvard is more important than your 20 years of legal experience?

But I think for most fields, it won’t matter much for most of your career.

In general it’s not a problem as long as it is considered to be a legitimate school and not some online sham.

My husband went to a lesser known school (it’s bigger and better known now) and he’s a VP in a fairly large company and has been director level in very large multinational companies.

Going to prestigious schools like ivy league can help you network and get jobs, especially when you are first staring out.

What are you studying?

I graduated from Humboldt State University in 1977 and I’ve never had a problem getting very good professional jobs. I’m no big success story but I’ve made it to the upper middle class.

Is the program of study accredited by the proper accreditation board? yes, many fakes and sham boards exist too. Be careful with lesser known schools pulling scams like this If the school itself is not properly accredited, strongly consider going elsewhere. That is the question you should be asking. That’s what big employers will look for. Scrutiny over this is becoming more widespread as B.S. universities pop up and people are trying to pass themselves off as being educated. The more well known a school is, the better your chances are though. There are a lot of pay to play degree programs out there and just straight up degree mills that look legit but are complete shams. Then there are just low-quality, for-profit schools that you should stay away from.