How to Get A Job in an Age of Uncertainty

10 Time-Tested Tips That Work

These are uncertain times. While I’ve lived long enough to know that there is little certainty in life, there’s no doubt I could make the case that what we are experiencing today is extraordinary uncertainty. Case in point is the job market.

I get questions every day from current and former students about finding a job. Lately, I’ve seen an increased frustration whether they’ve just graduated or are about to graduate. They are not alone.

According to LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence study, confidence to get or keep a job for Americans is at its lowest since the pandemic and more than half have been actively looking for over a year. I am not one to make predictions, but given what we’ve seen in the early days of the new administration combined with companies using AI to increase efficiencies (code for cutting jobs) that confidence level is not going to go up any time soon. According to a 2024 Microsoft survey 53% of those surveyed were concerned that AI could replace their jobs.

A Reality Check

All is not lost. I’ve had experience living through times of increased uncertainty. I entered the job market in a recession. I’ve lived through several since, the dot-com crash, the 2008 mortgage crisis, and NYC during 9/11. I worked at CBS when the company merged with Westinghouse and Time Warner during the AOL debacle. I lost my job twice. I know it’s not easy, but I also know it is not impossible to navigate the turbulent waters and not just survive, but thrive.

Your Mindset Makes A Difference

The question becomes how to stay focused on the goal - in this case, getting a job when there is so much turmoil. Hard skills are important but it’s putting your soft skills into action that sets you apart. Here’s what has worked for me.

Acceptance

This is one I have struggled with myself but acceptance is necessary in order to move forward. It’s easy to wallow in the challenges and obstacles. It’s harder to accept that this is what we are dealing with, like it or not, and planning a strategy from there. So if a job is what you’re after accept that it’s not going to be easy. It never is. It never has been. Follow that with the acknowledgment that even though it will not be easy, you will eventually get a job, and allow yourself to believe that.

Learn to let go

After my first big deal when I started selling radio ads, my then boss congratulated me. Not used to that kind of acknowledgment I downplayed it and told him I was just lucky. In that moment it was what I truly believed. He was not much older than me but offered some wisdom that has stuck ever since. He told me that he did not believe in luck. He believed if you made a habit of doing the right things you would be in the right place at the right time - hence what I was calling luck.

I have learned over the years the key to that philosophy is to stay disciplined, do what needs to be done every day, manage the stress so it does not turn into impatience, breathe, and then let it go. It may not be tomorrow or next week or even next month but eventually what you want will arrive.

Have A Strategy

It’s A Numbers Game

Essentially when you are looking for a job you are selling yourself and like all selling it is a numbers game. Yes, you want qualified leads but in times of uncertainty, this is no time to get too picky. It’s one thing to envision your dream job, but for now, you may have to settle for the on-the-way to your dream job job.

Uploading Your Resume Isn’t Enough

Anyone who thinks uploading their resume to a portal via LinkedIn is going to get them a job is sadly mistaken. In the year 2025, corporate HR could not make it much harder to get face-to-face in front of a hiring manager - which at the end of the day is where the decision will be made.

Instead, the sorting process starts with an algorithm that may or may not sift out the best candidates from the virtual pile. They’re looking for keywords, not key people. (Note: algorithms are helpful but they’re not perfect. We’re already learning that GenAI can help us, but just like humans it’s far from infallible.)

This is not to say you don’t need to apply for open positions. Of course, you do, but if all you’re doing is applying and waiting, the odds are you will continue to apply and wait and wait and wait.

Think Outside The Box

Breaking through the barriers to entry is probably the most challenging in today’s environment where we can barely get past the ChatBot who answers the phone to get to a human. When I started out you could literally sit in the lobby of an office and wait, hoping someone would break down and give you twenty minutes to pitch yourself. Those days are gone. Today you need a security check to get into an elevator.

But again, this is not impossible. It just means you have to think more creatively. Find the email for the hiring manager. Follow the company on LinkedIn. See what mutual connections you have. Go crazy and keep the post office in business and send a letter on nice stationery that stands out from junk mail. Look for ways to get your resume to the top of the virtual pile and risk being annoying. Instead look at it as being persistent.

Build Your Network - Online and Offline

I have never once gotten a job because of my resume. Not once. And I’ve had some pretty great jobs. But I have gotten jobs because of the networks I’ve built over time - that if nothing else got me in the door.

If you’re new to the workforce you’re just building your network. So start with whatever your University offers. Join organizations in your field. Whenever possible attend events in-person. No matter how attached we are to our phones, nothing will ever replace the importance and effectiveness of connecting with someone in the real-world.

Check your screen time. If you are spending more time scrolling TikTok and Instagram than you are on LinkedIn or having a real-life conversation with someone who might help you, it’s no wonder you’re not making progress in your job hunt. (Note: a connection on LinkedIn is not necessarily a relationship. Connecting with someone and having absolutely no interaction for the next few years does not equate to someone who is going to help you get a job or give you a reference.)

Now for the Real Work

Get Your Story Straight

If you cannot tell us who you are, what you do, and why this makes you a viable candidate in one sentence we are not going to want to know anything more. That one sentence will not only help you convince a hiring manager, it will also help you develop your pitch and convince yourself.

Convince Yourself First

In my book, Crafting Your Pitch, A Storytelling Framework, I stress that until you convince yourself you have a great idea you won’t convince anyone else. The same holds true for a job. If you are going into an interview not one thousand percent convinced you are the prime candidate, you won’t convince anyone else.

Be First

I continue to be shocked at how many people do not send a thank-you note after a meeting or after I have helped them with something. I am shocked at how many times I have let someone know about an open position and they waited a week to apply. Be first. Don’t wait. The old sales wisdom that if you snooze, you lose still holds a lot of weight.

Be Human

At the end of the day getting a job is about one human connecting with another human and inviting them to join the team. So be human. In other words, don’t sound like the GenAI version of the email you wrote to introduce yourself or to recap the meeting you just had. Sound like you have given this some thought. If you can’t come up with three good reasons to remind them why they should hire you, maybe they shouldn’t.

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💭 If that doesn’t make sense maybe this does:

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🥰 Guilty Pleasure: Rewatching Brothers and Sisters on Hulu