An old friend called last week, a guy I’ve known for 35 years with some of that

time from when we scrambled together in the political swamp on Capitol Hill. After

catching up on the obligatory immature bro stuff he came out with the purpose of

the call: He was seeking advice regarding his daughter.

Marcus was aware of my insufferable books and parenting crusade – unfiltered but

always entertaining - and he was calling me because he was obviously desperate.

“Nellie, I need some help. Courtney moved back home after graduation to job hunt

and we’re all losing it.”

Actually, a lot of parents are losing it right now. 3.9 million souls graduated college

in 2025. Any reasonable person asks how that number can be absorbed into the

American workforce. I certainly do. For example, job postings at Handshake, a

campus recruiting platform (which my Navy recruiter sons uses to identify potential

officers), are down 15% over the past year while the number of applications has

risen by 30%. “The labor market for recent college grads in 2025, so far, is among

the most challenging in the last decade, apart from the pandemic period,” Jaison

Abel, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, told NPR.

Even more alarming, a majority, 62%, of the Class of 2025 are concerned about

what AI will mean for their jobs. They should be. A recent report by Oxford

Economics noted, “there are signs that entry-level positions are being displaced by

artificial intelligence at higher rates.” And it’s not just anecdotal or “guesses.”

Check out this headline from CNBC: "Generative AI adoption linked to 13% decline in

jobs for young U.S. workers, Stanford study shows."

Hence, when I got the call from Marcus and we chatted about his daughter’s

quandary and our job hustles long ago, I responded to her with the note below, a

distillation of what I’ve gathered over the years. It is longish, but maybe it’s of help

to young people out there. And yes, also to their parents.

_________________________________________

Hey Courtney, ole Nellie will start this out in typical, direct fashion: I’ve been let

go from jobs, out of work, and hustled to find employment at least a dozen times over my

career, both in the olden times with your Dad and just a few years ago. I know the

scene too darn well – the grind, the despair, the up moments, interviews that go nowhere,

phone calls and emails unanswered, rejections piled high, and the unbelievable

relief of being finally hired. Moreover, given my awful political affiliations, the

search was sometimes especially difficult.

1. OK, you just graduated in International Communications.

Now, here are the key questions to ask yourself and if this seems rudimentary,

good – then you’ll have all the answers. What is it you exactly want to do?

Write press releases and produce a ton of social media content; the latter is the

mainstay these days in public affairs and communications work. Work for a

big firm in their corporate communications department on international issues,

work in a small PR firm? Non-profit? Work for the USG? Work in a county or

municipal organization in their communications’ office? If you have no idea

of what these varied workplaces mentioned above are like (and I didn’t know

when I came out of school), then you dig into the Interweb and research them.

Google questions: What is it like working in a corporate communications

office? What about a boutique PR firm? What skills are they looking for?
Do I have a better shot if I say I can in-person five days a week? How do I get

through the front door to an interview? Again, if these are all sophomoric

questions and you know the answer, then it should be easy.

2. Now, maybe the hardest task of all:

Define in three sentences who you are, what you’ve done thus far inside and

outside of college, and how that translates to being a great hire for any

employer. This statement is something that is going to be your pitch to anyone

and everyone, it will be at the top of your resume and on your LinkedIn

profile (more on that later) It will and should come automatically in any

conversation you have with anyone connected with hiring and with all of the

contacts you start to make and to whom you reach out. This is the legendary

“elevator speech” which is concise and winning.

3. There is much, much more to the job search than emails and online

applications.

A typical LinkedIn job posting receives 180 to 220 applicants; many times

this threshold is hit within several hours. Indeed.com notes a job hunter sends

out three to five applications every day. This is an overwhelming blizzard of

online activity. How to set yourself apart?

Get out there. Landing any position comes down to the hustle – in person.

Make incessant phone calls to anyone associated with a job posting and if

directed to VM, leave a VM. Try to set up face-to-face meetings with anyone

and everyone you can find after digging into a job announcement or at a firm

in which you’re interested. Seek – be pushy! – for names and numbers of

relevant individuals. Otherwise, you’re just another email in an Inbox jammed

up with countless other faceless applicants.

4. LinkedIn.

From personal experience, I can't emphasize enough: LinkedIn is a phenomenal

platform. It may not get you a job but your very presence on it is essential. Check

this out: When I joined LinkedIn in 2007 (suggested to me by a lobbyist pal

always savvy on where the world was going) it had about eight million members.

Today that number is 1.1 billion; 239 million of those are Americans, meaning

most of the working and savvy adults in this nation. No doubt you are on it; if

not, creating a LinkedIn profile begins with your resume and here are some tips

to make your profile count. Even better into is at this link:

https://www.linkedin.com/business/sales/blog/profile-best-practices/17-steps-to-

a-better-linkedin-profile-in-2017 /12 steps to a better LinkedIn profile in 2025

1. Photo and background graphic. Look professional – elegant blouse or dress

for women, shirt and tie and even blazer for men. The look should be mature

and alert, not some picture with a fraggly hairdo or a t-shirt. Background

graphic should be solid and substantial, not spacey flowers and moonbeams.

2. Summary statement – that’s the three-sentence pitch noted above plus two

sentences expanding it to include more information. No one will read three

paragraphs of desperate emoting. Keep it short.

3. Experience. This section provides for entries for previous jobs or activities.

Go easy on the jive about “strategic leveraging…policy coordination….cross-

functional synergies…cultural modalities…” Hiring managers roll their eyes at

that gibberish. Emphasize in every entry that you had responsibilities and also

use numbers, i.e. “helped coordinate 9 events in four cities…delivered 11 written

products on…created content receiving 5,000 impressions across X, IG, FB…led

team of 4 students to….” that sort of thing.

4. Network and Connections. You may have 120 connections on your LIn page.

That’s not enough; 54 percent of users have 500 connections and 27 have 500

to a thousand. Send to each connection you already have a quick note that

you’re looking for work along with the three-sentence pitch noted above. It’s

worth every cent to get a Premium membership and to see who is checking

you out and have the ability to send unlimited messages to anyone.

Additionally, it’s easy to do searches on the platform; reach out to alums from

your college in your area of interest, to the affinity groups all over LinkedIn.

Join them, comment on their posts – I mean, you should be doing 10 to 15

comments a day on other peoples’ posts and also be energetic in reposting

their stuff so you get your feed going. You should post material as well – an article

you found of interest, an event. Activity all the time is key.

Important: Outreach: For the individuals who you respect and admire, reach out –

ask them for a 15-minute zoom meeting, informational in nature. Even better,

ask them if you can meet in person. This has the dual benefit of getting you

out of the house and face-to-face with a human being, which is what a job is

all about. Check this out: Search for jobs on LinkedIn | LinkedIn Help /

https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a511260

These efforts may lead to no jobs but it gets you out there in the real

world. And, the LinkedIn deal is not only just for the immediate desperateness of

the job search, this is for life. In fact, in my realm, any time a name comes up on

a screen or even a conversation, a person will quickly go to the person’s LIn

profile; in our modern age of speed, this profile check is the fastest and most

comprehensive way to get a take on someone.

5. Last, the Grind.

This means reaching relentlessly out to individuals and firms that you

think are a fit for the job you’re looking for. And seeing them in person!

Get out of the house! Identify 10 firms in Philly that you think could be a fit,

even if they’re a reach. Dog them. Not just emails, but phone calls. Leave

voice mails, Get people on the phone and say, hey, can I have 20 minutes of

your time? Work the women especially – they’ll have a soft spot for a girl out

of college and looking to make it. Just get in their offices and then you’ll get

familiar with how to act, dress, and respond to potential employers. This is a

practice run and the repetition will give you invaluable experience for when

you are in the thick of it interviewing. Make this a routine to get out and in the

mix of people who can help you.

You can do it! I know – because I had to do it. As a, ahem, seasoned adult in

2009 when let go by the Obama administration, I did everything you've read

about above, including cold calling at more than 150 Senate and House offices

trying to finesse interviews - anything - with Hill staffers. Humility became my middle

name.

___________________

That’s all Nellie has. Feel free to contact me on any of this stuff. I’ve been in your

position more times than I care to think about. It’s grueling and despairing

sometimes. Sure, the online grind has a place for sure. But there’s a lot more. Only

those who get on the phone and get pushy and get on the streets and go the extra

mile every day are going land something. That should be you.

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