 |
|
|
|||||
After nearly four decades on Wall Street and over 15 years mentoring students and young adults, I’ve witnessed countless young professionals struggle with their job searchesnot because they lack talent, but because they’re trapped in counterproductive habits that sabotage their success before they even begin. The job market has never been more competitive. With AI tools and vast information resources now available to every applicant, the baseline for what constitutes a “good” application has skyrocketed. Today’s job seekers have access to sophisticated résumé optimization tools, interview prep platforms, and industry insights that previous generations could never have imagined. And that means that simply having a polished resume or knowing basic company facts no longer differentiates you from the competition. A saturated job market The COVID-19 pandemic intensified this competition exponentially. Economic disruptions created a massive pool of highly competent applicantsseasoned professionals who were laid off, recent graduates whose traditional entry points disappeared, and career changers seeking more stable industriesall competing for fewer available positions. What we’re witnessing is an unprecedented bottleneck, where exceptional candidates are struggling to get through recruiting filters just because the volume of qualified applicants has overwhelmed traditional hiring processes. This saturation means that even talented individuals with strong credentials are facing rejection after rejection, not due to inadequacy, but due to sheer numbers. Employers who once received dozens of applications for a position now receive hundreds, forcing them to rely on increasingly narrow filtering criteria that can eliminate excellent candidates for arbitrary reasons. In this new landscape, it’s the candidates who go above and beyondwho demonstrate genuine initiative, build real relationships, and create tangible valuewho separate themselves from the pack. The tools are available to everyone, but it’s how strategically and creatively you use them that determines your success. The reality is that most new job seekers are their own worst enemies, repeating the same ineffective strategies that virtually guarantee disappointment. If you’re serious about launching your career, it’s time to break these five destructive habits immediately. Stop the Spray-and-Pray Approach I see this mistake constantly: talented graduates treating job applications like a numbers game, firing off identical résumés to every posting they find. During my years at one of the largest banks in the United States, I reviewed countless résumés. The generic submissions were easy to spot and equally easy to dismiss. Employers aren’t looking for someone who can fill any rolethey want someone who genuinely understands (and is passionate about) their specific position. Every application should tell a story about why you and this particular company are a perfect match. Research the organization, understand their challenges, and demonstrate how your skills address their specific needs. Yes, this takes more timebut would you rather send 50 thoughtless applications that get ignored, or 10 targeted ones that actually generate interviews? Embrace LinkedIn as Your Career Command Center I’m amazed by how many job seekers still treat LinkedIn as an afterthought. In today’s digital world, your LinkedIn profile is often your first chance to make an impression. Worse yet, many young professionals create a profile and then abandon it, missing countless opportunities for meaningful connections. Your LinkedIn presence should be as polished and strategic as your résumé. More importantly, it should be active. Share insights about your industry, comment thoughtfully on posts from professionals you admire, and regularly update your network on your career journey. We encourage young adults to view LinkedIn as a relationship-building platform, not just a digital résumé. The connections you make today become the foundation for opportunities in the future. Many of our most successful clients have landed positions through LinkedIn relationships they cultivated months before they even began their formal job search. Abandon the Perfect Role Fantasy One of the most career-limiting beliefs I encounter is the idea that you should wait for the perfect opportunity. Young professionals often turn down roles that don’t match their exact vision, convinced that holding out will yield something better. This perfectionist mindset ignores a fundamental truth: careers are built through progression. Some of the most successful individuals I’ve mentored started in positions that seemed unrelated to their ultimate goals but provided invaluable experience and connections. Early in your career, prioritize learning and growth over title and salary. A role with exceptional mentorship, challenging projects, or exposure to senior leadership can be far more valuable than a prestigious position where you’ll be isolated or underutilized. The goal is forward momentum, not immediate arrival at your destination. I often tell my mentees that your first job is rarely your last job, but it’s always your launching pad. Choose roles that accelerate your trajectory, even if they don’t perfectly align with your original vision. Master the Art of Strategic Follow-Up The job search doesn’t end when you walk out of the interview room: that’s when the real work begins. Yet countless candidates dont take full advantage of promising opportunities by failing to follow up appropriately. A thoughtful follow-up message accomplishes several critical objectives: it demonstrates your genuine interest, reinforces key points from your conversation, and keeps you visible during the decision-making process. More importantly, it shows that you understand professional norms and can manage relationships effectively. Your follow-up should be personalized, referencing specific moments from your conversation and reiterating how you can contribute to their team’s success. This isn’t about being pushyit’s about being professional and maintaining momentum. I’ve seen talented candidates lose opportunities to less-qualified competitors simply because they assumed their interview performance would speak for itself. In a competitive market, every advantage matters, and strategic follow-up can be the difference between getting the offer or being forgotten Stop Waiting Until Your Senior Year to Think About Career Strategy One of the most limiting mistakes I see is students who coast through their first few years of college without any career planning, suddenly panicking during junior or senior year when they realize competitive rols require years of preparation. Today’s job market rewards those who think strategically early. The most coveted positions, whether in finance, consulting, technology, or other competitive fields, increasingly expect candidates to have meaningful internship experience, relevant projects, and established industry connections. Students who wait until their final years find themselves competing against peers who’ve been building their credentials since freshman year. But let me be clear: starting later doesn’t doom your prospects. I’ve mentored countless students who discovered their career direction during their junior or senior years and still achieved remarkable success. The key is understanding that you’ll need to accelerate your efforts and be more strategic about your approach. The real mistake isn’t starting late; it’s continuing to delay action once you recognize the importance of career planning. Whether you’re a freshman or a senior, the best time to start building your professional foundation is right now. The Path Forward Throughout my career mentoring young professionals, I’ve watched talented individuals gain access to opportunities they never thought possible by simply approaching their job search with the same intelligence and intention they bring to other aspects of their lives. Remember, your job search can be a demonstration of your professional capabilities. Employers are evaluating not just what you’ve accomplished, but how you approach challenges, manage relationships, and execute strategies. The job market may be competitive, but it’s not impenetrable. With the right approach, persistence, and strategic thinking, you can transform your job search from a source of frustration into a launching pad for the career you truly want.
Category:
E-Commerce
Youre smart, capable, and consistently deliver results. But in meetings, your voice disappears. As an executive coach with over two decades of experience, Ive helped hundreds of introverted leaders find their voice, speak up, and lead with impact. If you’re a quiet professional, especially an introvert, you know this feeling well. You’re respected, but not remembered. You stay heads-down, hoping the work will speak for itself. But it doesnt. The truth? Many high-performing introverts struggle to be heard, not because they lack confidence or ability, but because they rely on their work to speak for itself. In todays fast-paced, visibility-driven workplace, thats no longer enough. If you want to be seen as a leader, you have to be heard. I recently coached a senior scientist at a global biotech company. Exceptionally skilled and deeply respected, she quietly disappeared in high-stakes meetings, and it was costing her. Colleagues overlooked her contributions. Leaders began excluding her from key decisions, and she was repeatedly passed over for leadership roles, not because of her ability, but because she wasnt seen as a strong presence in the room. Her insights were compelling, but she hesitated to assert them. Some leaders began to misread her silence as a lack of confidence or conviction. What she experienced is common, especially for introverts. Research from Harvard Business Review shows that introverts are often overlooked for leadership roles, not because theyre less effective, but because they dont actively show up. When they stay under the radar, they risk being underestimated, no matter how valuable their contributions. Great work isnt enough if no one sees it. You have to make it visible. And that means speaking up. You dont have to be the loudest voice in the room. But you do need to be the one people remember when the meeting ends. Thats what shifts perception. Thats what gets you noticed. The good news? You dont have to change who you are. You just need a strategy to speak up with clarity, confidence, and impact. Heres how. 5 WAYS TO SPEAK UP WITHOUT BEING LOUD These five strategies are designed specifically for quiet professionals like you, who want to be heard by adding value, not volume. 1. PREPARE WITH PURPOSE As an introvert, preparation is your superpower, but dont overdo it. When preparing for meetings, you dont need to know everything; you just need to know what matters. Dont just bring data; bring perspective. Before the meeting ask yourself: Whats the one thing I want leadership to know? What decision are they facing, and how can I help move it forward? 2. CONNECT TO OUTCOMES Subject-matter experts, and many introverts, tend to explain their full thought process, but that can lose your audience. Instead, lead with the impact. Link your input directly to results. Leaders pay attention when they hear how an idea drives business value, solves a problem, or moves the team forward. 3. DROP SELF-MINIMIZING LANGUAGE Introverts often over-qualify their ideas to sound polite or careful, but it comes across as uncertainty. Skip phrases like This might be silly . . . or Im not sure this makes sense . . . and say, Heres what I see or One idea we havent explored yet. If you catch yourself starting with a qualifier, pause. Say it silently, then switch to a more confident version before speaking. 4. START WITH WHAT MATTERS Skip the long preambles. Dont ease in with, Let me walk you through my thinking . . . Go straight to the value: Heres a risk I see or One angle that havent been mentioned . . . The faster you get to your point, the more likely people are to listen and remember it. 5. FOLLOW UP TO EXTEND YOUR INFLUENCE Many introverts find that writing helps them organize and express their thoughts clearly, so use that strength. After the meeting, send a follow-up email summarizing key points or outlining next steps. This reinforces your ideas, keeps your contributions visible, and positions you as someone who drives clarity and action. YOURE IN THE ROOM FOR A REASON If youve ever stared at a table of senior leaders, or a Zoom screen full of them, and thought, What am I doing here? youre not alone. But you werent invited as a favor. Youre here because you add value. The question is: Are you making it clear why your voice matters? The next time youre in a meeting, dont disappear. Show up. Speak up. Let your quiet wisdom be heard.
Category:
E-Commerce
Next time you Venmo a pal for that dinner from the other night, consider tossing a few bucks to the federal government. The U.S. government operates a website that lets anyone donate toward paying down the national debt, apparently, and now it takes Venmo. Jack Corbett from NPRs Planet Money first spotted the change, which added the app into the mix as a payment option. If youve lost your Venmo password, never fear, you can still help reduce the public debt with a bank account, debit/credit card, or even a PayPal account. Its not immediately clear who decided to add a payments app mostly used for settling rounds of drinks to the U.S. Treasury website, but Trump administration officials do have a preference for Venmo, which is infamous for making users transactions and friends lists public. Mike Waltz, former national security adviser, not known for his OPSEC (thats operational security for the uninitiated) was spotted with a public Venmo contact list prior to being ousted from the administration. Its difficult to imagine any American actually tossing money at the federal government beyond what they pay in taxes, but those rare souls do existand theyve been giving the U.S. government cash for decades, sometimes doling out more than $1 million at once. The U.S. currently operates $36.7 trillion in debt, which unfortunately renders the almost $70 million donated since 1996 totally insignificant. If youve got expendable income, almost anything seems like a better option. Its been a particularly rough month. Not only did Trumps big beautiful bill slash hundreds of billions from Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, but it will also tack another $3.4 trillion onto the national debt over the next 10 years.
Category:
E-Commerce
As the U.S. backs away from key climate, aid, and scientific investments, Europe is stepping in to pick up the slack. Europes latest intervention? Saving a plan to build one of the worlds largest, cutting-edge telescopes. This week, the Spanish government offered to pay $470 million to take over one of the most ambitious astronomy projects in history, known as the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). In the deal, Spain would also provide the unconstructed mega-telescope a home atop a rugged peak on La Palma, one of the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa. After massive proposed cuts to the National Science Foundations $9 billion budget, the project faced a financing shortfall that likely spelled its doom. Trumps cuts, detailed in late May, slash the foundations budget by more than half, jettisoning funding for the TMT while keeping another $3 billion telescope project, the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) under construction now in Chile alive. Faced with the risk of this major international scientific project being halted, the Government of Spain has decided to act with renewed commitment to science and major scientific infrastructures for the benefit of global knowledge, Spains Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities Diana Morant said. When constructed, the telescope will be a modern scientific marvel. Named the Thirty Meter Telescope for the size of its mirror, the project was designed to take on some of astronomys most compelling questions, searching the deep skies for signs of extraterrestrial life, evidence of the universes origins and clues about the nature of dark matter. Compared to images from the James Webb Space Telescope, a triumph of engineering itself, the TMT will produce images four times sharper. A controversial telescope Pondering the universes biggest mysteries is a shared human experience, but the TMTs journey to investigate them has proven surprisingly divisive. The plan to build a mega-telescope with a mirror as big as a blue whale began in 2003. The project evolved over time into a consortium of scientists from around the globe, an organization now known as the TMT International Observatory (TIO). The group determined that the ideal site for the massive lens was the summit of Hawaiis highest peak, Mauna Kea. While Mauna Keas high, dry summit attracts astronomy projects and already hosts thirteen other telescopes, the peaks history as a sacred place in Hawaiian culture prompted a public outcry from residents and conservationists who wanted the TMT built elsewhere. The mountain is known as the home of the god Wakea and plays a central role in native Hawaiian creation stories, a status that inspired a resistance movement against plans to further develop the area. Its not the projects first pick, but Spains offer to host the project is a natural fit. The Spanish island of La Palma was already the telescopes backup plan, and like Mauna Kea it offers a remote, high perch with consistently clear skies and infrastructure already in place from other international observatories. In 2019, the Government of Spain already expressed its willingness for the TMT to be built on this island, and now, six years later, it is taking a decisive step with a strategic investment that will benefit the European Union, Spain, the Canary Islands, and especially La Palma, Spains Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities said. Trump-era cuts to science funding werent the first time that the U.S. budget imperiled at least one of the two major next-generation telescopes in the works. With the GMT still on track, its counterpart might have a brighter future under an eager government across the ocean. “While some countries are cutting science investments and even denying it, Spain is a refuge for science, Morant said.
Category:
E-Commerce
If youve been confessing your deepest secrets to an AI chatbot, it might be time to reevaluate. With more people turning to AI for instant life coaching, tools like ChatGPT are sucking up massive amounts of personal information on their users. While that data stays private under ideal circumstances, it could be dredged up in court a scenario that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warned users in an appearance on Theo Vons popular podcast this week. One example that weve been thinking about a lot people talk about the most personal shit in their lives to ChatGPT, Altman said. Young people especially, use it as a therapist, as a life coach, Im having these relationship problems, what should I do? And right now, if you talk to a therapist or a lawyer or a doctor about those problems, there’s legal privilege for it, theres doctor patient confidentiality, theres legal confidentiality. Altman says that as a society we havent figured that out yet for ChatGPT. Altman called for a policy framework for AI, though in reality OpenAI and its peers have lobbied for a regulatory light touch. If you go talk to ChatGPT about your most sensitive stuff and then theres a lawsuit or whatever, we could be required to produce that, and I think that’s very screwed up, Altman told Von, arguing that AI conversations should be treated with the same level of privacy as a chat with a therapist. While interactions with doctors and therapists are protected by federal privacy laws in the U.S., exceptions exist for instances in which someone is a threat to themselves or others. And even with those strong privacy protections, relevant medical information can be surfaced by court order, subpoena or a warrant. Altmans argument seems to be that from a regulatory perspective, ChatGPT shares more in common with licensed, trained specialists than it does with a search engine. I think we should have the same concept of privacy for your conversations with AI that we do with a therapist, he said. Altman also expressed concerns about how AI will adversely impact mental health, even as people seek its advice in lieu of the real thing. Another thing Im afraid of is just what this is going to mean for users mental health. There’s a lot of people that talk to ChatGPT all day long, Altman said. There are these new AI companions that people talk to like they would a girlfriend or boyfriend. I dont think we know yet the ways in which [AI] is going to have those negative impacts, but I feel for sure it’s going to have some, and we’ll have to, I hope, we can learn to mitigate it quickly.”
Category:
E-Commerce
Sites : [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] [54] [55] [56] [57] [58] [59] next »