This Is a Hard Time to Start a Career. These Two Words Can Help.

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This Is a Hard Time to Start a Career. These Two Words Can Help.

Advice on building a rewarding work life, even amid employment gloom.

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Eddie Guy

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By

Jodi Kantor

Jodi Kantor is an investigative reporter who has spent decades writing about work. This article is adapted from her forthcoming book, “How to Start: Discovering Your Life’s Work.”

April 19, 2026

To the graduates of the Class of 2026, recent graduates and those who love you:

Congratulations and I’m sorry. You’re graduating into a job market unlike any we’ve known. The messages you’re getting about work are overwhelmingly negative. Our task, at this festive but fraught time, is to figure out how you should respond.

We raised you to scale the twin peaks of Mount College — getting in, covering the costs. Now you’re being warned that your degrees may not lead to opportunity. Or even stability.

Prognosticators say entry-level jobs will be vaporized by artificial intelligence. Economists express alarm at the rising share of the unemployed who hold college degrees. On the left,

labor activists

warn of exploitation. On the right, traditionalists urge women to stay home and reproduce. Both sides agree: Don’t expect work to be a source of fulfillment.

Family members hover close, reading the grim reports, texting well-meaning suggestions. Friends anxiety-bond. “Doomers” say that careers don’t matter because we’re all headed for collapse. Cynics advise just making as much money as quickly as possible. The process of looking for a job, never easy, has turned digital and much lonelier. Interviews are sometimes conducted by A.I. programs that pose questions, record video answers, then insta-score the results.

Last year at Columbia, my alma mater, students asked me to give the undergraduate commencement address and tell them: How, in this crazy environment, are we supposed to find and start our life’s work?

The question gripped me. I’ve written

about

employment

for many years, and now my college-age daughter and her friends face the same question. I gave the speech but couldn’t stop there.

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