\n<\/p>\n
Sibusisiwe Khupe, 26, entered the job market once again in September after a wave of unexpected layoffs at London marketing agency Wieden+Kennedy.<\/p>\n
She knew landing her next full-time role was not going to be easy. Young workers have been hit hard by the weakening UK job market as vacancies fall and unemployment climbs to a five-year high.<\/p>\n
Khupe, however, had a plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t afford to not be confident or audacious because a lot of people are in the same boat,\u201d she said. She called herself a \u201creally hot, really talented, really funny\u201d gen Zer in a post on LinkedIn. \u201cI plastered my face across many, many slides along with my work experience. I was just very funny and authentic to who I was and just sent that to a bunch of senior executives.\u201d<\/p>\n
After about a four-month search, she landed a job that was also a step up \u2013 she is now a senior creative at Gravity Road, an advertising agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this climate, being bold and confident will go a long way because people will remember you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Gen Z workers are entering the toughest job market since the pandemic. The number of job seekers vastly outweighs the number of positions, and competition is fierce. The global hiring rate has plunged to a five-year low and the number of applicants for every job opening has increased by nearly 30%, according to LinkedIn.<\/p>\n
As companies lean heavily on AI to vet r\u00e9sum\u00e9s and even do interviews en masse, new graduates are turning to social media platforms to stand out. Young workers are using quirky, personal videos, cold emails and offbeat social media posts to reach top executives directly.<\/p>\n
TikToks are \u201cessentially becoming extensions of gen Z\u2019s r\u00e9sum\u00e9s\u201d, said Vicki Salemi, career expert and talent strategist at Monster and a former recruiting manager at Deloitte. \u201cThis generation is accustomed to creating content. They\u2019re treating the job search more like content creation than a traditional application process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gen Z is \u201caware that they have to employ every tactic out there available to them to get noticed\u201d, said Priya Rathod, workplace trends editor at Indeed.<\/p>\n
Some gen Zers in the US say they are sending out as many as 1,000 applications without landing a job.<\/p>\n
Anya Roodnitsky, 22, applied to hundreds of jobs in her senior year at Dartmouth College, where she\u2019s studying economics and environmental science. Each application took a few hours as she carefully tailored her r\u00e9sum\u00e9 and cover letter to the role. By February, she hadn\u2019t heard back from a single company.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot having a job offer lined up after college weighed down on me a lot,\u201d Roodnitsky said. \u201cI have an Ivy League degree. If I don\u2019t get a job, what was the point of me going to college and investing this much into my education?\u201d<\/p>\n
After she hit the 300th application, she sat down at her kitchen table in New Hampshire, opened PowerPoint and filmed herself reformatting her r\u00e9sum\u00e9 into a promotional slide deck, adding emojis, special skills and some desperate, self-deprecating humor. She described a $6,000 grant she got through school to model nuclear reactors as \u201cI\u2019m, like, super cool. I\u2019m basically Oppenheimer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roodnitsky ended by adding that she loves wearing business casual, will bring baked goods to the office and a plea for advice or leads. \u201cIt\u2019s getting bad out there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Young workers in the US are facing tough hiring conditions that are, by some measures, worse than they were during the Great Recession. Unemployment rates are higher, according to LinkedIn analysis, and layoffs are rising fast.<\/p>\n
Roodnitsky\u2019s 94-second video got over half a million views and thousands of shares. She had 52 coffee chats, 20 referrals, 10 interviews and finally got one full-time job offer as a solar analyst. She starts soon after she graduates this May.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstagram truly is the new LinkedIn,\u201d she half joked.<\/p>\n
Salemi said these strategies can help candidates network and land informational interviews. Video r\u00e9sum\u00e9s can also highlight soft skills like storytelling, enthusiasm and passion \u2013 helping applicants stand out.<\/p>\n
However, Salemi said it \u201cis not a replacement to the r\u00e9sum\u00e9 and structured hiring processes like applicant tracking systems\u201d.<\/p>\n
About 72% of candidates report that the job search negatively affects their mental health, and two-thirds feel burned out before they even land a job, according to recent analysis by The Interview Guys, a job-seeking website.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt often feels like they\u2019re applying into the void and hearing nothing back,\u201d said Danielle Nicholson, a gen Z career coach. \u201cThey\u2019re not even certain if the jobs they\u2019re applying for are real \u2026 it\u2019s an extremely disheartening and maddening job market.\u201d<\/p>\n
College graduates face especially tough conditions. The unemployment rate for recent grads sits at almost 6% compared with the 4.2% for all workers of any age, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou shouldn\u2019t have to become an influencer to get a job,\u201d Nicholson said. \u201cBut having some kind of professional presence online helps demonstrate that you\u2019re a real person with real skills.\u201d<\/p>\n
People who create custom videos and other materials with a strong application will stand out to employers, said Jade Walters, a gen Z career coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you go above and beyond now, you probably will do the same when hired,\u201d Walters added.<\/p>\n
Some gen Zers are taking a step further by using dating apps to build connections and land referrals. About one-third of dating app users say they use it for professional purposes, according to a recent survey by Resume Builder.<\/p>\n
Even if your \u201cHire Me\u201d video is a hit on social media, that doesn\u2019t mean employment is guaranteed. \u201cGoing viral isn\u2019t enough,\u201d Roodnitsky said. \u201cI am a very qualified person and still had to go through a lengthy application process to get my current job.\u201d<\/p>\n
And while gen Z tries out bold job-hunting stunts, there are some risks to making quirky \u201chire me\u201d presentations too.<\/p>\n
\u201cVideo or decks may highlight a candidate\u2019s misalignment with the employer\u2019s culture, expectations or even industry norms,\u201d Salemi said. And as more candidates use video, it risks losing its novelty. If a candidate decides to create a video r\u00e9sum\u00e9 it needs to be specific for that industry, role and department, career coaches say.<\/p>\n
\u201cVideo r\u00e9sum\u00e9s could be like the cherry on top if the ice-cream is the exact flavor I want,\u201d Rathod said. \u201cIt may move the needle only if you have the other exact qualifications they are looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n
But many job seekers feel like moving the needle is exactly what they need. Luna Escobar, 20, a student at University of California, Berkeley, applied to nearly 30 internships, spending roughly eight hours per application or about 240 hours in total. Feeling like there was no way to stand out with traditional applications, she posted a video r\u00e9sum\u00e9 on Instagram.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter posting the video, I finally heard back from one company after they ghosted me for months with a first-round interview request,\u201d Escobar said. \u201cIt definitely might\u2019ve pushed me to the next step. Hopefully I\u2019ll get a summer internship.\u201d<\/p>\n