I hear it every day: The job market is awful. No one is hiring. Competition has never been harder. My immediate and instinctual insights include: Maybe, not true, and so what?

The job market continues to change at the speed of business. Yes, there has been a cooling in industries like finance and tech, but jobs that require AI literacy, mad sales/presentation skills and project management have never been hotter. It may take a mindset change to recast old titles and tasks into relevant and transferable candidate criteria.

Some observations:

• Your LinkedIn profile is everything, and relevant work experience may count more than your college degree, your major and your GPA. True story.
• Your abilities to grow business, solve problems and pivot with organizational change should be clear and measurable and well-documented. Companies love to hire nimble and flexible winners.
• Your resume, cover letter and LinkedIn profile need to stand out in a way that is both authentic and comfortable to you. Read them out loud (no, I am not kidding about that) and then lose the stiffness of words that don’t sound genuine.

And you need to be seen. Hate networking? Close your eyes, grit your teeth and just do it.

• Your friends, neighbors, co-workers and former classmates have contacts that you don’t have. You won’t feel like a stalker if you’re able to write a short but sincere LinkedIn invitation because you are a job seeker who is excited about their company’s current opening/listing for xxxxx and can they find 15 minutes for a quick (audio) call, to give you some free advice on company culture?
• Get brave and clever with a dead-on cover letter because you’re got nothing to lose by doing that. Who can resist the jobseeker who writes that you are moving to New York and bringing your smarts, your Canva skills and your entire xxxxx network with you, and that you are anxious to share all those things with just the right employer?

More, more, more in next month’s post, with specific advice for new grads to land FAST.