I met someone recently, a young college graduate, who was looking for a job, career, and direction. My most simple advice was perhaps the most absurd. He should get 3 job offers, and turn down 2 of them.
True. . . but anything more tangible and useful?
As of 2025, the job market overall is not great right now: a) interest rates are high vs. the last 30 years b) geopolitics is tainting business decisions. c) CEOs are trying to decide if they should hire, or not. d) GenAI is getting smarter, better, easier; this will disrupt a LOT of white collar work.
I was clueless coming out of college
No, seriously. You can ask my first internship boss (MS) or my parents (HK, MOK). I wanted a job so that I could call myself independent and not depend on my parents. My motivations were suspect and my skills were anemic. Basically, not great.
So no shade here at all. We are all just learning how to do great work, get paid, retire early.
So what’s the advice?
So, from my vantage point of 20+ years in corporate, teaching at a business school, and interacting with 400+ super-bright and ambitious Emory students every year, what are super basic, actionable items to position yourself for good work?
1. Create a Linkedin profile
Create a LinkedIn profile. This is crazy basic and important.
Add a professional photo (not one where your ex-girlfriend is cropped out). List your education, skills, experiences, and your bona fide. Do some simple benchmarking of people you know, and respect. How are they crafting their online resume? Marketing = making it easy to buy, so make it easy for companies and employers to find you.
Trust me, if you spend 1/10 the time on your Linkedin profile as you spend on your other social media profiles, it’s gonna boost your salary, understanding of business.
2. Craft your resume
Remember that your resume is bait. Show off what you know and have done. It should vary by different kinds of jobs (e.g., consulting vs. sales vs. marketing) you are targeting. Ask your friends who are discerning and grumpy to pick it apart. The resume should be clean, tight, relevant, thoughtful, and show lots of evidence of your awesomeness.
Hot Tip: When you have job description, 1) make sure it’s a live one. Find someone in the company to help you confirm that they have not filled it out already. 2) use ChatGPT to decode it. . .2a) what kind of work is this 2b) what kind of people are they looking for? What kind of skills? 2c) what are the key things I should emphasize (warning = do not lie)
3. Use your CMC (career management center)
The career management center at most business schools are good. At Emory, we are great. Look at our placement statistics or interview one of our students, and they crush. This is something we are hugely proud of. Of course.
If you have access to a CMC, use it. Their job is helping you get a job. They know who is hiring, what they are looking for, which alumni could be helpful, and tons of other ambient information.
Hot tip: There are a LOT of people who want to help you; it’s your job to find those people, be clear about how they can help you, then be professional, respectful, and ask for help.
4. Develop an elevator pitch
In the age of TikTok, you need to be able to explain yourself concisely (1-2 minute tops)
- What kind of problems do you solve (for clients and companies)?
- Why are you the right person for this (experience, approach, proprietary services)?
- What’s the benefit they will get? How might they quantify those gains?
- Why should they believe you? Do you have testimonials?
Practice. This should be natural, not forced. You are not selling. You are merely making it easy for people to understand what you do, how well you do it, and get them “up-to-speed” quickly. After 2 minutes, they should have a fair idea of what kind of conversations they should have you OR they realize they are not a qualified buyer. . . both good things.
5. Learn selfishly
Learn like an adult – with intention. Learn selfishly. Continually ask questions like:
- What are 3 things I could learn this month that will help my customers, projects, career?
- Why does XYZ matter? Can I just find this out on ChatGPT instead?
- How do I hardwire this into a product, service, something I can sell?
- Is there a way to vibe-code an agent to do this for other people?
- Who are 10 people who know a lot about this? How can I get on their radar?
- What are 3 steps I can take this week, to get a boatload of this work done quickly?
- Which of my college professors can I send a Linkedin message about this?
- What are 2 adjacencies (things similar) to what I am currently doing, or selling?
- Which companies would hire me to do this?
6. Make the time
Excuse: I don’t have time.
Grumpy Gen-X blogger: Really? For this next week, set your iPhone, iPad, and PC to tell you how much time you spend on YouTube, email, Instagram, TikTok, News, StockTrading, Facebook, WhatsApp, NetFlix, Hulu, Disney, HBO Max, Paramount, Apple+, playing phone-based games, taking selfies, and goofing off. Okay, now divide that by 1/3, and dedicate that to this mission.
If you are not working a 50+ hour job, then you have time: Coursera courses, informational interviews, audiobooks. Time to experiment. Time to offer help to people who will apprentice you. Time to watch “How To” YouTube videos on something you want to learn. Time to duel with ChatGPT and get your next 100 questions answered.
This is not a hobby. Hobbies are fun, open-ended, and joyful. Finding 3 job offers is work. It is a valuable thing – therefore, rare, competitive, personal, and time-intensive. So do the work. Set apart enough time. Hold yourself accountable. Get feedback and advice from people you respect. When things don’t work, do a post-mortem. Get lots of feedback .
As connected as we are in this world, it’s quite difficult to match up supply and demand of people. It’s not Amazon Prime. All the products (people) are not the same. You need to highlight your strengths, passions, goals clearly. You need to be visible to recruiters and companies. You need quality companies; are they really worthy of you?
7. Ask smart questions of serious people
This is another way of saying you should network and do informational interviews. Stay curious about the job opportunities that are out there. Find out who in your ecosystem is “killing it”. Who is hiring? Who is so busy and successful that they need help? Who has a problem they can’t figure out? Ask people for advice.
Hot tip: Successful older people love helping coachable, eager, fun people. I do.
8. Create a portfolio of work
We are in the show-me era. Employers don’t want to know about your “potential”, they want to know where you’ve done it before. It might not be the exact same thing, but show me something similar. For a sales job = what have you sold? For a marketing job = what have you marketed? For a consulting job = who have you consulted.
Show your work on Substack, YouTube, Linkedin, GitHub, Figma, Quora, your personal blog.
9. Get in more reps
Apparently, there was a great case study where a film professor divided up the class into two groups. Group 1 had to submit a large QUANTITY of photos to do well in the class. Group 2 had to submit only one great photo.
- Question: Which group of people had the better photo?
- Answer: Group 1, the quantity group . . . because they kept experimenting, trying new things out, getting better
Seth Godin, my marketing hero calls it “Shipping Art.” So many practical tools on getting started here.
Get started and keep going. Less talk about cooking, and instead, cook.
10. Play to your strengths
I am a big fan of playing to your strengths. This is a terrible time to be average (think: GenAI). We are all unique (yes, God made us that way) and we should lean into that n=1. What is your unfair advantage?
- What you were naturally good at as a kid?
- What are you good at that is difficult for other people?
- When do you have flow, and forget that time is passing?
- What do people compliment you on?
- What do you do that other people get paid $$$/hr to do?
11. Future-proof yourself
Where is the demand? What do people want? What does GenAI do poorly?
If you were going to open a store, you’d find out what people want. Why open a store for something boring, undifferentiated, unprofitable, heavy, seasonal, expensive, and irrelevant? Same thing for our careers.
Don’t spend 5 years getting good at something that is going away. We need to future-proof our careers. There are a ton of articles about which careers have a good runway (time) and relevance in the age of GenAI.
Note: this is something I am doing too. Higher education will look different in 3 years, 5 years, and 10 years. If I want to do this until I am 80 years old, need to stay curent.
12. Keep grinding
“Dream Bigger” is something I told 2 people this week. This applies to myself too. Big dreams require big motivation.
Thomas Friedman had it right in 2005, The World Is Flat (affiliate link) and opportunity (and competition) is boundless. Now with GenAI agents and “digital employees”, we gotta hustle. Question: Are you willing to hustle? How much?
For you to be So Good They Can’t Ignore You (Cal Newport, affiliate link), you better be damn good at what you do.
On a scale of 1-10 commitment:
- 1 = almost none; I’m interested in a lot of things; I’ve seen YouTube videos on it
- 3 = low; I’ve talked to a few people, put some ideas down on a Google Doc
- 5 = average; I’ve taken a Coursera class on it, I’ve put it on my resume
- 7= above average; I’ve told people this is what I do; I’ve put my reputation on the line
- 8 = technician; I’m doing the (right) work and getting paid while I learn
- 9 = professional; I care about the craft; I keep asking my clients how I can do better
Look, I am not the most disciplined person – ask my family, or wife. So, this is all advice I should take myself. Find ways to set yourself up for success (read: Atomic Habits, affiliate link). Rewire the cue, craving, response, reward cycle.
What would you NOT mind spending 3 years getting even better at? When you are 67 years old, and someone sends you an email asking if they can hire you for a 2 day workshop, or project, what is it that you want to be famous for doing?
13. Stay motivated, feed your heart
Early in your career, it’s a grind. Think of it like a S-curve, where in the early days, it’s a LOT of input, and not a lot of output. Basically, you are a beginner baker you’re not that good. You are burning your croissants, and in Great British Baking Show parlance, you have lots of “soggy bottoms.” It’s easy to get discouraged. So listen to motivational podcasts, chalk up the small wins, surround yourself with advocates and cheerleaders. Stay in the market.
Tim Ferriss always talks about building up the “overcoming fear” muscle. Do things that scare you. Keep doing that, and less will scare you. Raise your hand in class. Ask for help. Be vulnerable with people who love you.
14. Two Coursera specializations that might help:
I created these online courses hoping this can help your career and professionalism:
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Management Consulting here (5 courses, 70 videos)
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MBE Mastering Business Essentials here (6 courses, 90 videos)
Notes:
Of course, in 1993. . .there was no Mosaic browser (or useful way to browse the Internet). Also, there was no Linkedin, or Spotify, Quora, GitHub, etc. . . so everyone today is in a lovely spot to experiment, learn, show their work, and thrive.