It used to be about, “Can you do the job?”
Now it’s about “Can you make a better impression
than the other 200 people who can do the job?”
What’s truly different today is the quality of the competition, and the sheer volume of it. The fact is the economy in most countries is not growing fast enough to handle the number of entry-level employees (top STEM graduates excepted). Millennials, young adults now in their twenties, are the best-educated generation, yet they also have higher unemployment rates than we’ve seen in recent decades. They make up about 40 percent of the unemployed in the U.S. Even when they find a job, the picture isn’t always pretty. Many new grads are in jobs that don’t require a college degree, others settle for jobs outside their area of study.
It’s always been beneficial to distinguish yourself, but now it’s absolutely necessary. Personal branding rules in the new world of work, and you can rule, too. You must be better prepared, possess marketing savvy, and conduct a smarter job search. But you can do it.