Failure to launch new careers isn’t personal

Hi! I’m Stephen, CEO of BeamJobs. I’m fascinated by job searching and hiring, and I love helping people take the next step in their careers. I want to help you on your career journey…or at least, call out some job-hunt wackiness (I’ll also read every reply, if you want to vent about your experiences with the hiring process today).

This week, here’s what’s on my mind about the job search:

Failure to launch is a problem with the system

Because my job is figuring out how I can get people hired, I can spend a huge chunk of my week reading about the state of things and summarizing it with some perspective in an email. (Please don’t waste your time on this, I will waste mine so you don’t have to 😆)

One of the worst parts of writing and sharing this newsletter, though, is that, in a challenging market for hiring, most of what’s happening is consistent and negative. But I’m an “eat your vegetables first” person, so we’ll hit the news and then give you advice you can use (and a fun dessert at the end).

A few weeks ago, we talked about hiring at the start of graduation season. Back with a bit of an update:

CNN is sharing anecdotes about liberal arts majors struggling to find entry-level jobs despite putting in a ton of effort, and calling it a trend for anyone with a college degree. Is that a bit of a reach? Definitely. Is it entirely wrong? Nope, there’s some truth. Am I asking myself questions that state the obvious? You betcha!

As we consider as a society whether paying for college even makes sense these days 🧐, Wall Street Journal looks for value in a college path that pays off (that’s right, we’re getting you past the paywall 🤫): Compared to private ed or community college routes, a degree in a solid major from a public state school is a relative value.

But, degree or not, the competitive market comes for all of us. We’re looking at an unemployment rate for students graduating with bachelor’s degrees of 12%, up quite a bit from the 8% we saw in 2023. That’s…not great. And that old faithful “learn to code” isn’t the right answer anymore, either.

I promise I’ll share some tips on how you can respond to all this negativity in a minute. But just know, market trends blow like the wind, and we’re all facing an adverse headwind together—if you’re struggling to find a great job in a time of stiff competition, it’s not your fault.

It’s the everyman vs the executive

It’s not like employees and bosses have been on the same page through most of the history of capitalism, but the distance between the bigwig and the worker bee continues to grow.

When I see these two stats together, it makes me sick: in 2023, CEO pay at S&P 500 companies (AKA, the big fish) grew 13% in 2023, while private-sector workers saw an average comp growth of 4.1% (and that’s not including the impact of rampant inflation). Of course, the workers feel most of the pain of layoffs, long hiring cycles, and cost-cutting measures from the top, leaving many feeling demoralized by the grind.

What’s even more frustrating is how employers are against the wishes and needs of the workforce. This piece outlines some concerning differences: Most workers want remote or hybrid options, pay transparency on job listings, and faster hiring processes that don’t include ghosting. Pretty reasonable, yet execs want and do the exact opposite 🤮.

Hardline stances will hurt employers when the market turns, as they’ll deal with more turnover and job dissatisfaction—employees will, and should, hold grudges against bad-faith power plays. Whether you’re more Howard Beale from Network or Dee Snider from Twisted Sister: We’re not going to take it anymore!

While I’m technically a CEO, I’m a small fish in a worldwide pond of exactly six employees—and I’m proudly “team everyman.” At BeamJobs, we’re fully remote with flexible workdays, trust across the team, and no plans to change that. It’s sort of a golden rule thing, I guess…except, I weirdly work best at like 11pm-1am, and I’d hate to see anyone else burn the midnight oil for a day job.

Making the odds be ever in your favor

Speaking of helping job seekers in what feels like the hiring Hunger Games 🦹‍♀️🏹: We’ve established we’re sailing through some rough seas. So what makes you hireable when the going is tough?

A few folks from Harvard Business School who study this stuff weigh in here, and I’ll try to summarize:

• Having foundational skills and being flexible go a long way.

• Persistence is critical, and staying the course can still get you where you’re trying to go.

• Plus, all it takes is a single yes.

• Many experts think things are likely to improve in the short term.

• You might not find your dream role right now, or where you end up may look a little different than where you started the search, but better days are likely ahead.

If all else fails, there’s AI. We’re still in the early days, but evidence suggests that anyone who can demonstrate aptitude and experience working with AI is immediately likely to get more interest and interviews from orgs.

While you probably don’t want to claim 10+ years of experience using ChatGPT for work, even if the JD asks for it, turning to AI tools for your benefit as a job-seeker is more than fair game. Our resume builder uses an AI trained on thousands of winning resumes to give you advice to get your application to the top of the virtual pile, and we can literally give you a customized cover letter in seconds through our AI-powered cover letter generator—use your resume and the job description to make it sing your praises and hit all of the right notes.

Whew, okay, deep breaths and patient persistence. We’ll get through these choppy seas together.

Mumbo-jumbo in job interviews is the worst…

Are you “a real risk-taker who also plays by the rules?” Confident but not overly confident, and a “reliable maverick?” Then do we have the job for you!

Take a minute to enjoy this silly sendup of corporate nonsense, and think about that time or two (or more) when you’ve heard lots of this stuff in an actual interview—I know I have 😂.

You got this,

Stephen Greet
Co-founder and CEO, BeamJobs