Why You Need to Be More Strategic About Your Career Than Ever
No, it’s not just you: the vibes are off.
A “secure career” has felt like a joke for a while, but whatever was left of it seems to be breaking down and drifting away over the past few years: layoffs, a hundred applications to a single position posted an hour ago, the constant vague threat of The Robots Taking Your Job…and everyone else’s.
Things feel weird enough that you might feel like lying on the floor and screaming. That sounds more cathartic than spending another hour tailoring a resume only to have it immediately rejected by AI (at this point, are the robots just creating resumes for other robots to read while the humans just quietly panic about their own job?), or going through several promising rounds of interviews only to get ghosted, all just to wonder if anyone’s career will still exist in five more years.
How did we get here?
The System is Broken
You already know that much. You’re living it. But the good news — or at least, commiserate? — is that not even hiring managers can keep up with it all. That’s why they’re tapping in the AI resume reviewers, for better or for worse.
It's not you, beautiful, fearless job seeker. It's them. Job boards are full of the same 12 opportunities, applicant tracking systems are a mess, and bad actors are out there giving bad career advice because all that matters to them is getting enough eyeballs on it to make money off of The Almighty Algorithm. Add in the complications from AI — should you be using it? how much? which one? — plus a hefty dose of corporate greed (quiet firing, anyone?), and you have the perfect recipe for existential career despair.
All of the important information is highly fragmented, and nobody has a clear understanding of what's effective or what works. "Solutions" pop up promising quick fixes, and you teeter between feeling sorry for the desperate people in the comments who jump at them and wondering if maybe this one might have the answer. Choose wrong and you’ll be disappointed (and poorer) in a few weeks or months.
It’s exhausting. Demoralizing. A little crazy-making. Hell, you’re reading a blog right now. What is this? 2008?? No, thank you, we already lived through that recession.
What You Can Do About It
We are not here to promise you One Weird Trick is going to fix everything. (If that were the case, we’d be with the other grifters somewhere on social media selling you a Quick Fix Course.) We do have some advice, though.
First: It’s not you, really
We’re not therapists, much to our mothers' chagrin, but we still feel like we owe it to you to tell you, cheesy as it sounds, not to lose confidence in yourself due to a broken job market. You’re not getting calls back for interviews because it’s becoming increasingly likely that no one with real human eyes has ever even seen your application.
You are not an Imposter Person with no skills. It’s just that a line of code with no ability to understand the layered nuances of human careers refined your resume down to a set of keywords, and another several lines of code decided none of them was the right one. Repeat a hundred times.
Second: It’s dangerous to go alone
So take this with you: there are other people in the same boat. There are communities built around this problem, and that’s the kind of support and understanding you need to bolster you through yet another round of interviews or another automated rejection in your inbox for a role you’re perfect for on paper.
This is where networking comes in, because it is, to a certain degree, a “who you know” game. But we don’t mean showing up to every single event in your city that’s loosely related to your industry and hoping you meet the right person. Be strategic.
And we don’t mean that in a weird, ruthless kind of way, but in a “be smart about how you’re spending your time so you don’t burn out” kind of way. Instead of cold emailing or messaging a hundred people in your field on LinkedIn, asking to “pick their brain for a coffee chat”, figure out where people in your target role spend time and go to those places.
That can be online, in real life, or a combination of both. Just show up and talk to people; ask them about themselves, their roles, and the experiences that led them there. (Pro tip: Most people love talking about themselves, especially if they’re at a networking event.) Yes, it can be awkward, but it can also get you the introduction you need to move forward. And it’s not always where or when you expect.
Another note here: the point is to build a real community in these places where you spend time, not to be transactional. You want to be smart with your time, but spend that time building real relationships with the people you’re interacting with. Give where you can, too, don’t just take. It’s okay if you don’t have a lot to give right now, but make it a priority to come back and give in the future if that’s the case.
Third: Are you still on the right career path?
Don’t limit yourself to the career vision that anyone else ever laid out for you: your younger self, an old mentor, or LinkedIn’s suggested roles. The skills you’ve gained over the course of your career could set you up for opportunities you’ve never considered before. Getting the same role at a different company or pursuing the next rung in the career ladder you’ve been climbing isn’t the only option.
Spend more energy on the right things (like that research and strategic networking) vs. the things that make you feel like you Did Something Today…like doomscrolling LinkedIn and half-heartedly doing the “Easy Apply” to 12 more jobs again.
Do some deep research alongside a little career soul-searching and figure out what the possibilities are. Not everyone needs their job to be their passion in life, but you might also find an alternative you’re more excited about than what you were doing before.
If you don’t know where to start, we can help.