Career strategist Michelle Perchuk says recent layoffs target the bottom 10% of workers, not AI itself. Employers want people who lead, build relationships, and treat AI as a brainstorming and research tool. Update your resume with a clear summary and core competencies, and use a professional photo and tagline on LinkedIn.
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like right now and how you can improve your chances of getting hired. Michelle, it's wonderful to meet you.
Thank you so much for having me.
This is an important topic because the— I mean, every day someone else is like, is AI coming for my job? What am I going to do? What skills do I need? So tell us from your point of view what the current job market is like.
Sure. So the current job market is just the reality. Companies are laying people off, but they're laying off the least productive people, the bottom 10%.
Okay.
And I understand that it makes a lot of people anxious. That companies are laying off and they may be left without a job. But the thought is not to be anxious about it. This is a moment where you have to just embrace the reality and think about how you could be unique, how you could really stand out in this very competitive job market.
Competitive indeed. So what are employers looking for? Because we mentioned the bottom 10% or at least the least productive 10%. So what are employers looking for?
They're looking for individuals that have leadership skills, Leadership skills, relationship building skills, and people who could drive transformation. And obviously people who could embrace AI.
Exactly, exactly. Embrace it. 'Cause there are a lot of folks who are like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna be replaced by a robot. I mean, I'm sure you hear this.
Yes.
What do you say to assuage people's fears?
So to embrace AI is definitely the powerful mindset to have right now.
Yeah.
AI is here to stay. The idea is not to really fear it and be afraid of it. It's to figure out how to add to your day-to-day responsibilities at work and how AI can help you be more productive and more powerful in your role.
Is there really? Because I, you know, as journalists, we struggle. We also, as news organizations, have strict guidelines about what we are encouraged to use artificial intelligence for and for not. Clearly, if we're trying to cultivate data, that I think can be a useful way to Absolutely. You use AI. What are some other useful ways to incorporate AI so that there is some sort of bridge between human intelligence and artificial intelligence?
So I always tell everyone that use AI to brainstorm with. It's like your pal, right? Have a conversation, do the research, have it process a large amount of data that could take you days or hours to complete. But when you have to process that data into something or you have to come up with original content, then it's really up to you as a human.
I like that.
AI can only do what we command it to do. Right. It can't do our job for us. It could only make it better.
Only make it better. Okay, so can we talk about resumes?
Yes, absolutely.
Especially 'cause I have young people in my life that are like, "Viti, can you look at my resume and what should I do with it?" What do we do? Do you put your resume on a LinkedIn? Do you say, "You know what, I have LinkedIn, I don't need a resume." What, hopefully the resume is not going the way of the dinosaur, or is it?
Let me clear all of that up. Please. So everyone should have a powerful resume. Okay. The biggest tip for a resume is to have an objective. You need to have a clear objective on your resume. Otherwise, the hiring manager is not going to understand what you're looking for. Okay. Okay. So the objective always has to mirror what is it that you want to do professionally? Okay. What is your dream role?
Is it right up there at the top?
It's right after the summary.
Oh, a summary.
A summary. Yes.
I'm going to redo my resume.
Yes, absolutely.
Not that I'm going anywhere, but okay.
So a summary. A summary is the human feel of who you are on your resume, which is a piece of paper.
Okay.
Then the objective, then your core competencies, then your business skills, and then we get into your experience.
Holy smokes. Okay. LinkedIn has become a powerful tool.
Yes.
I know a lot of folks who use it, myself included. What, what should we put on LinkedIn? What should we not put on LinkedIn? Because I'll be honest, I don't want to see your kid's 5th birthday party. Right. On my LinkedIn feed.
Right. So LinkedIn has to be about your professional life. Yeah. But it also has to be about what you stand for as a professional.
Okay.
So if you look on your LinkedIn page, there's always your photo and underneath there's 2 or 3 lines. We call that the tagline. That tagline needs to talk about what is it that you're passionate about as a professional. Okay.
And that could be anything. That could be you're passionate about writing, you're passionate about being a team player.
Correct.
Okay.
Because when someone lands on your page that you want them to connect with you, they need to understand what you stand for. Right. And if it's just blank or it says something very vague, the other person will not see value in why they should be your connection on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn has suddenly become a good space, I think, to sort of be introspective about who you are so that you know what to present out there because I think that's really important. If you don't know what you want, the person who's gonna hire you doesn't know what you want or know where to put you where you can succeed.
Exactly.
Excellent tips. Thank you so much.
You're welcome.
Uncertainty is a part of our life.
Yes.
We just got to embrace it.
Yes.
But put our best face forward. Yes. Fantastic. For more career strategies, you can follow Michelle on Instagram @missmichelleperchuk. Coming up next, oh my gosh, the New York Times hit game
