Why “everything is doomed” is the worst career advice right now

In not too long, college seniors will walk across stages across the country and end a pivotal chapter in their lives. Not long after their caps are flying through the air, the next chapter begins, and it’s one that has students feeling more and more uncertain.

Little to no job creation, growing fears of an AI workforce takeover, worries of war decimating economies — it’s a lot to stomach your first time heading out on the employment line.

But not everyone is so pessimistic. Marketplace’s Sabri Ben-Achour spoke with New York Times journalist and best-selling author Jodi Kantor, whose new book, “How to Start: Discovering Your Life’s Work,” posits the kids are going to be alright, if they can just figure out – you guessed it — how to start. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Sabri Ben-Achour: What is a piece of advice that well-meaning adults give to young people that you think is total BS?

Jodi Kantor: The single worst piece of advice right now is that everything is doomed. That's not true. I mean, we have to be intelligent about observing the economic data, but a person is not a statistic. Just because you read a story in the newspaper saying what the hiring picture is, that is not casting your fate in stone. You do have some agency in this process, and, also, the kind of disruption we're experiencing right now always creates giant opportunities.

Ben-Achour: Central to your advice are what you refer to as “craft” and “need.” Can you explain that?

Kantor: Craft is the special skill you have that other people do not. These are things that take time to learn, but your craft is yours to keep. It means that you are not interchangeable. You are not disposable. Craft, however, becomes much more powerful when you pair it with need. Need is propulsion. Need is some greater cause, some gap in the market that you are going to fail if you're just starting out.

Ben-Achour: How do you identify what your craft is, and also, how do you identify what the world needs? Because, you know, at one point, people were saying, “Oh, the world needs more software engineers,” you know, and AI is hacking away at those jobs. So, I don't know. How do you identify those things?

Kantor: It's a process; it involves struggle. I mean, this is just a time of struggle for young people. Starting has always been hard. This era is making it harder. But what I want young people to have is a great struggle because there's a big difference between a struggle that's just about feeling depressed and watching Netflix versus a journey of excitement, discovery, mistakes, originality, insight, learning, etc.

Ben-Achour: Students we've spoken to on the show have described the economy as confusing, something that they try not to think about. You make an argument about not focusing too much on the initial amount you make fresh out of college. Why is that?

Kantor: A first job is for two things: It's to earn, for sure, but it's also to invest in yourself. You want to earn, but you also want to learn. This is the foundation of your craft. The thing that's also very important is that you have to go work for the best people you can. The people who work for good bosses, bosses who care about your self-interest and are going to teach you, like, that's the biggest differentiator I see over time.