Career coach Michelle Perchuk says recent graduates face over 40% underemployment and should use AI as a differentiator. She advises building a resume that tells a story, networking with alumni on LinkedIn to learn their AI practices, and positioning yourself as someone who can use AI fluently.
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Coming up for the summer this week, many people think fun in the sun when you think about the summertime, right? But for more than a million college graduates, this time also means the urgent job search begins. Sure. And they're coming into one of the worst job markets that we have seen in decades. Right now, unemployment rate for recent grads over 5%. Wow. Yeah, this is a record high, and more than 40% of recent graduates are underemployed, meaning that the jobs that they do not typically require a college degree. Wow, wow, wow. You see it there. So how can you start optimizing your job search? Well, I sat down with an expert to find out. Joining us now is Michelle Perchuk, a career coach and CEO of MTV Coaching. Michelle, thank you so much for being here.
Thank you, good morning.
Let's get into the first question here. Why is the job market so bad right now? And can you give us an idea of kind of the uphill battle that we're seeing for recent college graduates?
So the job market is bad because a lot of companies are cutting the people that are not producing. So like Oracle laid off a couple of thousand. So there's a lot of competition and a lot of people are fearing that they're competing with so many people and they'll never find their dream job. The way to look at it is focus on being unique. How can you beat out the competition versus living in this your mindset that, oh my God, oh my gosh, you know, we have all these people interviewing for one job. Yeah. Instead, focus on how unique you are and how you could solve the employer's problem.
So what is that exactly? What are those tips that can help you stand out?
So it all starts with a resume. Having a clear objective on your resume as what is it that you want to do and what problem you could solve for the employer is absolutely key. Also being a storyteller. You know, people at interviews usually get into the chronological order of things that happen in their career. The key is to create a unique story where you're captivating and the employer feels like they could trust you with solving their problem.
Yeah, having a story, having something there.
Absolutely. For young college grads, it could be a little bit challenging because they actually don't have the experience, but in fact they do. They just went through a 4-year degree or a 6-year degree, and all of those projects that they did in, in university or in college, that's in fact experience. So learn how to craft that into your story.
I love that idea. I never thought about that. I know one of the biggest things when we talk about what college grads are facing now, artificial intelligence, AI, it's kind of seen as a boogeyman. Some say that it's so far a job killer. Is that true?
Not at all. I actually coined the term saying make AI your pal. So get used to talking to AI like it's your pal. Use it as a sounding board. Embrace it. It could really help you perform in your job better. So instead of fearing it, figure out the way to use it, how you could be more effective.
What are some simple things that you could do to show your prospective employer, hey, I can make AI work for me? Because it's easy to say, oh, just make it work for you. But what are those— you know, things that we can do specifically? Yes. Because we use it all the time in our daily lives. Is that something I could put on my resume?
So the key for college grads is to reach out to alumni that went to their school who are kind of 2 or 3 years ahead of them. To reach out, LinkedIn is a wonderful tool. And talk to these professionals who are already a few steps ahead of you and say, I'd love to hear how you're embracing AI in the workplace. Get it right. From them and then reverse engineer and figure out how you could use that to show an employer how you are AI fluent.
That is such a good point. I often get young, younger journalists who come to me and ask me, okay, what did you do? Well, I graduated a very long time ago, very different. But if you talk to someone who just graduated going through it and are answering the questions that you're probably gonna be asked, it makes so much sense.
Absolutely. Absolutely. Using AI for project management, using AI for just, Sorting your thoughts, being more effective. I mean, that is a game changer today because no one is really using it.
So Michelle, thank you so much. MTV Coaching.
That's right. We appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me. Just so
