I was watching CBS Sunday Morning, as I do every weekend, and there was a story about how hard the job market is for new grads. I was only half-listening due to a headache from too many margaritas the night before, but I did perk up when an economist they interviewed explained that AI was only responsible for replacing maybe a tenth of jobs. Can’t blame the robots, so who is to blame?
According to the applicants themselves, they are mass-applying to jobs on Indeed, LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter, “insert job site here”, and are just absolutely confounded when they don’t hear back…one of them said, “you just submit into some void.”
It made me think of the blog, Becoming the salesperson of you that I wrote in 2016.
The irony? The advice given by recruiters and employers was to use your network, don’t pray and spray; job seekers were told to go beyond the online application and make a connection. OMG, you have to talk to other humans – eek!
If you want to build a relationship, get referrals, you have to become known…
– Jeffrey Gitomer
If you want to get a job, you have to put in the work. You have to be visible; it is not hard to stand out right now, everyone is taking the AI shortcut, and is dumbfounded when it isn’t working.
You are only as good as your network and personal brand, so I’d suggest you build one.
- Get out and get out often. No one ever made a name for themselves sitting on their ass, hiding behind a computer. Research professional organizations, networking groups, nonprofits in need of volunteers, and GO. If you are terrified of networking, get over it. Life happens in the uncomfortable, so you’d better get comfortable.
- Get off TikTok and get on LinkedIn. Write posts, publish articles, comment interact, add value, and build connections. DO NOT slide into people’s DMs asking for a job, connection, or freebie. If you don’t have any value to add, come back when you do.
- Give of your time and talent. If you want the business community to embrace and hire you, you need to give back. Join a nonprofit board because you believe in the mission and show up and show up often. People will notice you and the work you are putting in. Being a good person pays off.
- Say yes. You read all of these articles about the power of ‘no,’ but when you are just staring out, there is much more value in ‘yes.’ Say yes to EVERYTHING – every breakfast invite, lunch event, volunteer opportunity. Eventually, you will have the luxury of being more strategic about where you put your time and talent, but in the beginning, you have to give, give, give. When I started out, I joined every board, committee, and volunteered for everything.
- Emulate the leaders. Learn from those who have gone before. Stalk the people in the industry or job you want and study how they did it. They have a playbook they followed, learn from it, and then go forth and do.
Being a young professional in a competitive market is tough…but it isn’t impossible.
Your network is your net worth, and there are no shortcuts to building one – so leave ChatGPT and Claude out of it.
**By the way, the job seekers CBS interviewed…acquired jobs through their networks. Weird, almost like I’ve been saying that for over a decade.
