You know that feeling. You spend hours crafting,
I don't know, 50 resumes. You tailor every single
one. You check the grammar. You cram in all the
right keywords. And then you send them out into
the void. And you get nothing back. Just silence.
Yeah. It's this incredibly painful feeling, right?
Like the whole system is just rejecting you.
It is brutal. And if you're feeling that, you
are absolutely not imagining it. We dug into
the source material for this. Reports from McKinsey,
the World Economic Forum. And the numbers are,
frankly, A little shocking. Even graduates from
places like Arver Business School are struggling.
The data shows something like 23 % of them didn't
have a job secured right away. So the old rules,
they're just dead. So if the people who did everything
right are hitting this wall, what does that mean
for the rest of us? Welcome to the Deep Dive.
Our mission today is to unpack what is really
going on and build a clear, actionable roadmap
for you in this new AI era. Yeah, we're going
to break it down into three key parts. First,
we have to understand the two big forces that
actually broke the job market. You know, why
are successful companies not hiring? OK. Second,
we'll define that skills gap you hear about.
What are the things companies are actually desperate
for right now? And then the most important part
will give you the solution. A four step plan
complete with the exact AI tools and prompts
you can use to become what they call plug and
play. This is all about taking back control.
Let's start there. The foundational problem.
Why are these huge successful companies freezing
hiring or even during layoffs? The first force
seems pretty simple. Everything just costs too
much money. That's it. Exactly. You feel it at
the grocery store, but businesses feel it everywhere.
Their rent is up, their software licenses are
more expensive, supplies. Everything is spiking.
And when costs go up, leadership gets very conservative.
They just stop taking risks. And hiring a new
person is a huge risk, financially speaking.
It's not just the salary you see on the job post.
Not at all. They had to factor in the laptop,
the software, insurance, and maybe six months
of pay before that person is even fully up to
speed. Precisely. They're running those numbers.
And with so much uncertainty out there, they're
cutting costs now, just in case. That's why we
saw all those layoffs in Big Tech and on Wall
Street. Those companies weren't failing. They
were just getting lean. They were getting lean,
preparing for a storm, even if it's not raining
yet. Which brings us to the second force. And
this one feels a little weird. I think you called
it the AI paradox. Yeah. This is where it gets
really interesting. Because... Everyone is talking
about how powerful AI is, but the research shows
most companies have no idea how to use it yet.
A McKinsey report said only about 1 % of companies
have AI fully integrated and working perfectly.
1%. So if 99 % of them haven't figured it out,
why is it causing so much disruption? Shouldn't
they be hiring more people to solve that? You'd
think so, but it's all about fear and expectation.
A CEO looks at a tool like ChatGPT or Claude
and thinks, okay, why would I hire a junior writer
for 80 grand a year when in six months, AI might
do 80 % of that work for like... 20 bucks a month.
That uncertainty is the real killer. It is. The
idea of what AI will become is enough to make
them just freeze all hiring for those kinds of
entry level or support roles. They're just waiting,
waiting for the tech to settle down. So with
those two pressures, high costs and this sort
of technological fear, does that mean companies
are just refusing to hire anyone that needs to
be taught? Yes. Tight money means no training
budget. They demand day one job competence. Day
one job competence. Okay. That brings us right
to this idea of the skills gap. It's this infuriating
situation, right? You have thousands of people
looking for work and at the same time you have
employers complaining, we can't find anyone to
hire. The gap is because the old model is gone.
It used to be that a company would hire a new
grad and plan on training them for six months.
But with money so tight, they just won't do that
anymore. A degree is fine, but if you don't have
the specific skills they need today, they'll
just leave the position empty. Which is wild!
So we need to know what those skills are. The
World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs report
was really clear on this. And the first one isn't
just about, you know, being a hardcore programmer.
It's AI and big data literacy. It's more about
knowing how to work with data. Exactly. Can you
look at a giant messy spreadsheet and pull a
story out of it? Can you use an AI tool to summarize
a thousand customer reviews into three key takeaways?
It's about being a force multiplier, using the
tech to work faster and smarter. The second skill
feels less technical and more about just surviving
in this kind of market. Oh, absolutely. It's
resilience and flexibility. The soft skills are
the hard currency now. I mean, business plans
change overnight. Companies need people who don't
freak out when the entire strategy shifts on
a Monday morning. They want proof that you can
adapt. And that you can bounce back from a failure
without needing your handheld. And that third
skill, the sources say, this is maybe the most
important one for a long career. Lifelong learning.
The old way of doing things. You go to school
once. You use that knowledge for 40 years. That's
just over. The tools we use change every six
months. I mean, I still wrestle with prompt drift
myself. Can you explain what prompt drift is
for anyone who hasn't heard that term? Yeah,
it's simple but frustrating. It's when you have
a prompt that works perfectly in, say, chat GPT.
You get great results. Then a month later, you
use that exact same prompt and the output is
suddenly... Worse, or just different, the AI
model itself changed underneath you. Wow. And
so you have to constantly be learning how to
work with the new version of the tool. Companies
need to see that you can teach yourself without
being told. So in this environment, is that kind
of adaptability actually more valuable than,
say, a static four -year degree? Adaptability
is vital. Self -teaching ability outweighs a
static four -year degree now. OK, that pivots
us perfectly to the solution. We get the problem.
Money's tight, AI is confusing, companies want
people who are ready to go now. So how do we
become that plug and play person? This is the
action plan. And it all starts with the hardest
part, which is changing your mindset. Step one,
fix your mindset. You call this the owner mentality.
Right. You have to stop thinking of yourself
as a passive job seeker, just waiting to get
picked. You have to think like a small business
owner. The old way is asking, what do I have
to do? The new way is asking, how can I add value
to this company's bottom line right now? You
stop asking for a job and you start offering
solutions. And when you think that way, step
two, the freelance first strategy makes a lot
of sense. A full time job is a huge risk for
a company, but a small freelance project. It's
super low risk for them, and it's high reward
for you. They can try you out on one specific
project for one week. If it works, great. If
not, no big deal. But for you, you get real experience
on your resume. You're not unemployed. You're
a consultant. But what about the risk for the
person? You know, losing stability benefits that
kind of thing. That's a totally fair point. The
benefits piece is real. But what we're seeing
is this strategy often leads directly to a full
-time offer, way faster than just applying online.
You do one great project, the hiring manager
already knows and trusts you. They often just
say, hey, this is working. Do you want to stay
on full -time? It shortcuts the whole process.
Okay, so let's get into the specific tools that
make this all work. The free AI tools. I think
you said most people are using them all wrong.
Totally wrong. You need to treat AI less like
Google and more like a really strict but very
effective coach. Okay, tool one. chat GPT or
Claude. You're saying don't just ask it to write
a cover letter. Use the interview simulator prompt.
Yes, tell it. You are a skeptical hiring manager.
I'm a junior analyst. Ask me three really tough
questions and then score my answers from 1 to
10 on clarity and confidence. That kind of practice
is invaluable. And for the cover letter, there's
a specific prompt for that, too. The cover letter
creator prompt. You paste in the job description,
you paste in your resume, and you tell the AI
to write a letter that focuses only on how your
skills solve the problems listed in their job
ad. No fluff. Just pure value. OK. Next up is
tool two. Teal. This one is for beating the robot
gatekeepers. Yeah, the applicant tracking systems,
the ATS. That software reads your resume before
any human does. It's just looking for keywords.
If you don't have enough of the right ones, you're
out. Instantly. Teal helps you optimize your
resume against the job description so you get
a high match score and actually make it to a
person. And finally, tool three. Perplexity AI
for interview prep. How is this better than just
Googling the company? Because it synthesizes
information, Google gives you a list of links
you have to sort through. Perplexity gives you
the answer. You can ask it to summarize the company's
biggest challenges, its main competitors, and
its latest news all in a few clear paragraphs.
Whoa. Just imagine walking into an interview
with that. A custom intelligence report on their
biggest problems sitting right in front of you.
That's... That's an incredible advantage that
just didn't exist a couple of years ago. It changes
everything. OK, so that brings us to the last
two steps of the plan. Step three, build a portfolio.
It's all about show, don't tell. Exactly. A degree
is paper. A portfolio is proof. It proves you
can actually do the work. And look, if you don't
have clients, just make up a project. Redesign
the Spotify homepage. Write five marketing emails
for a new Nike launch. Document your process.
That is ten times more powerful than a bullet
point on a resume. And that portfolio is what
makes Step 4, the cold outreach method, possible.
Because the best jobs aren't always posted online.
They're almost never posted. So you find someone
at a company you admire. You send them a short
note. compliment a specific project they worked
on, briefly mention your skills, and share a
link to your portfolio. And this is the key,
do not ask for a job, just connect. The conversation
is what creates the opportunity later on. So
for someone who is starting from absolute zero,
what's the first move? Building the portfolio
or shifting the mindset? Mindset is foundational,
but the portfolio is the proof that enables cold
outreach success. So to pull this all together,
The job market is tough. It's expensive for companies,
it's moving incredibly fast, and it is brutally
competitive. If you're feeling exhausted sending
out those applications, that's a completely normal
response. It is. But the big opportunity here
is for people who decide to be active instead
of reactive. The people who are getting hired
right now aren't always the ones with the fanciest
degrees. They're the builders. They're the ones
learning the new tools, the ones who refuse to
wait for permission, and who create their own
momentum with actual concrete work. You have
access to everything you need. You've got the
internet. You have these incredible free tools
like ChatGPC, Teal, complexity, the knowledge
is there to start building your own path. You
really do have to choose your own way forward.
So what's the first small action you'll take
today? Right now. Will you try that interview
simulator prompt? Or maybe just run your current
resume through Teal against a job you're interested
in. That one small step is all it takes to start
building that momentum.