The job market no longer exists

The job search is broken

You don’t need me to tell you that, but last week I was invited to an invite-only event at LinkedIn, where they shared with us their internal data about where the job market is going.

Warning: it’s not great

• 56% of professionals are currently planning to leave their job even though 76% of people feel unprepared for their job search

• Hiring is 20% slower than pre-pandemic levels

• Competition for roles has doubled

What these stats are saying is that we are living in one of the worst job markets we’ve ever been in. People aren’t feeling a sense of reward and progression at work, so they want to leave. But companies are slower to hire due to all the uncertainty about the future, and the roles they are hiring for are more competitive than ever.

So if you’re searching for your next role, or just trying to find some stability in what you’re doing for work right now, this isn’t the best of news. But there were also some morepositive elements of this that I’m excited to share.

How to create your own career

I’ve said before that you shouldn’t aim for a career that can fit on a business card. And right now, I think that’s exactly what people are realizing on LinkedIn.

One of the people we heard from was Kory Kantenega, their Head of Economics, and he mentioned that more and more people are experimenting with content creation and entrepreneurship.

“We’ve seen a 90% rise of creator titles, and a 70% rise in founder titles”

-Kory Kantenega Ph.D., Head of Economics @ LinkedIn

What this means is that professionals don’t just want to be a product manager or work at a big consulting firm. The last few years have revealed these jobs as what they actually are: shiny titles that can be taken away in an instant.

So they’re betting on themselves. They are starting the Substack. They are sharing their passions on YouTube. They’re coaching others on how they can advance their own careers or build wealth.

And if you’d like to join them, I’ll be breaking down how I built my own career in a new series shortly. But in the meantime, if you’re curious and have any questions I can answer for you — just shoot me a message!

The job market is dead. Long live the skills market

I’ve shared my thoughts before on how I think the job market is dead. In a world where companies are flooded with hundreds of applications per role, and candidates are seeing fewer and fewer jobs that match their experience and expected pay, I think that building a flexible and relevant skillset is key. And it’s what LinkedIn is seeing in their research as well:

“We spoke with one company that doesn’t even hire for specific job titles. They’ll bring a candidate in, show them the tools they’re using, and then ask the candidate to build something based on their skillset and areas of interest”

-Kory Kantenega Ph.D., Head of Economics @ LinkedIn

In this new world of work, it won’t matter how long you were at your last company or where you went to school. If you’re keeping on top of the latest ways to build solutions and solve problems, you will win. Agency is now more valuable than elitism.

And if you’re looking for one specific way to communicate this, LinkedIn has you covered.

Now on LinkedIn, you can show your verified skill level with popular AI tools like Descript, Lovable and Replit directly on your LinkedIn profile. And they’re bringing on additional partners like Gamma, GitHub and Zapier soon.

note: this isn’t an ad, I just think it’s really cool and a total validation of something I’ve been shouting for months

ICYMI:

Even though January felt like a whole year, it’s now February. Which means it’s Black History Month! Last year, I brought attention to how only 6% of black people in this country earn more than $100,000 per year.

And this year, I’m sharing the one career path that I think is helping even the scales of economic opportunity for us. Watch this to learn more:

One day, Isaiah will ask me what I do for work. And I don’t really know what I’ll say to him.

Will I call myself a content creator? Online career educator? Social media influencer? Full-time internet oversharer (probably the most accurate)?

I think a lot about what I’m subconsciously teaching my son about work, careers, and jobs through what he’s observed about how I work. Some weeks, he rarely sees me at all in between brand trips, all-day shoots, and writing sessions. And then on a random Tuesday, I’ll send his nanny home early just to spend some extra time with him. My name is in magazines, my face is on ads across the internet, but he’s never seen me in a suit or in an office.

This is something I struggle with today as well. I often find myself at parties and playdates where I’m introduced to people whose professional titles are more straightforward. I’m guilty of hiding behind things like “I used to work in consulting..” or “I have a corporate background, but..”. There is still a bit of shame I carry as I adjust to a life I never planned on living.

But after my time at LinkedIn, I am starting to realize the benefits of my made-up career.

The uncomfortable hunch I have about the future of work is that it will produce extreme economic rewards for those who can carve out a market of one for themselves and what they can offer others. And it will be increasingly harder economically for those who cannot. So I would think deeply about the value you can uniquely provide, and chase the undefined, messy path to create your own career.

Because the harder you are to define, the harder you are to replace.

read previous notes here

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