Your 2024 Career Mindset Guide
The Job Market Is Never Going to Be the Same. Here’s How You Can Shift Your Mindset to Weather The Madness
I officially finished my fall semester of graduate school this week and now I’m on my holiday break! Hey everyone! I forgot to tell you. I’m officially a graduate student at Georgetown University’s Master’s in Business Analytics program. Yes, I’m officially a data science-y student. I just finished two recent final projects. For my first project, I constructed and evaluated on the performance of logistic regression, decision tree, and random forest models on a team of five people utilizing a pseudo company’s dataset. For my second project, I created a simple Streamlit machine learning web application, combining LinkedIn user data and a logistic regression model built in Python and Jupyter to predict whether or not people are more likely to use LinkedIn or not. And it works I might add!
I know, this is insane. It was only early last year when I created this blog talking about my growing interest in data science & analytics — and now I’m learning how to think like a data practitioner with my classmates in the comfort of my own home minus two on-campus residencies. But enough about me. This post is for you and for your eyes only.
Last year, I published my 2023 Tech Job Search Guide, which is my most popular Medium post to-date, so I want to thank you all for reading it because it was truly a labor of love. Since I published that post, the job market has gotten worse. You can’t escape the drama. LinkedIn. TeamBlind. Fishbowl. Reddit. Twitter. Tiktok. Everyone knows something is off, but most don’t want to admit it. I told you last year that this transitory period was going to be a clusterfuck, but we have only touched the tip of the iceberg.
I’m not a pessimist, but I think these next 12 months are going to really push us to our limits through the market and political corruption, fallacies, defeatism, and self-criticism so that we can come up on top on the other side. We need new coping tools to help reprogram ourselves and undo what we were socially conditioned to think as this “new world” finally takes shape. Let me be honest with you all…
The Real Revelation
We’re all screwed. I don’t think you understand how bad it is. I don’t have all the pieces to the puzzle, but let’s start on familiar ground. Millions of working professionals (and still counting) were lost during the height of Covid-19 pandemic and our leading institutions are still not talking about it enough. Thousands more are suffering from Long Covid symptoms, which is preventing them from reentering the job market altogether. In addition, hundreds of thousands of competent professionals have either been fired, quiet quit, layoff, or “old school” quit from their jobs since the Great Resignation of 2021 and 2022.
Corporate America used the George Floyd incident as a short-term PR spectacular, all to trick the masses into thinking that they were going to change their tunes about hiring, retaining, and promoting more diverse talent and fostering more inclusive, work-life-balance environments. If that were the case, then why do white women still make up more than 60% of all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) professionals years after the movement? Most businesses only can about profit and profit triumphs your work hours, your million-dollar projects — and ultimately, your dignity. This is an employer’s job market now and we are just living in it until you fully get out of this dying matrix we call ‘your current everyday life’.
With all these layoffs, can companies successfully ship efficient products and satisfy their customers with leaner teams? Why are so many companies still forcing people to come back into the office, while not reassessing their company cultures and social responsibility policies after one of the most disruptive global events so far of the 21st century? Heaven forbid we get into another pandemic or another geopolitical situation, will companies still be asking their employees to return to the office? This is all by design, folks. Get it into your heads!
We’re also entering a huge electoral year in a few weeks where AI-powered disinformation and misinformation campaigns are predicted to further subvert our critical thinking skills and civil rights. We have an untreated 400+-year old mental health and self-identity crisis that will never go away unless the Greater Collective makes severe, profound changes in every aspect of contemporary life — changes that I don’t see coming any time soon in this country until it is too late. Career experts have said for years that 80% of jobs can only be accessed in the hidden job market through networking. At times, I think that motto is not enough in this employer-style job market, but more about that later.
The OpenAI board of director fiasco last month was one of the main reasons why the white male, tech-boy elitist power structure has hit its limit. As much as I love to be at the center of the latest big data and tech innovations, I will never blindly put my trust in an organization that could fire me seven months down the road or dissolve entirely if a larger controversy surfaced. We all wish we could be rehired as quickly as Sam Altman. Instead, we are being dealt with an flawed, several months waiting process all to hear a final decision about our job prospects.
The typical email response goes like this: Unfortunately <insert your name here>, after interviewing you and your impressive background, we decided that to move forward with someone else with an even more competitive background than you. Sorry, kiddo. You were not the “right fit”. In plain English: 1.) We have more qualified candidates than what we can pick for this role. 2.) You’re culturally different than the rest of the team 3.) We found someone else internally, but had to post the job description online to protect the company for legal reasons. 4.) We have incompetent, outdated HR policies and systems that work for a selected few and won’t change because we like to keep everything the way it is. This is all by design, you guys. All by design. I just hope rehiring Altman was the right, ethical decision for the future of AI and not a critical point in human evolution that we as a society would have to reexamine decades from now because the truth was not told to us. I can’t wait to see the documentary. Netflix probably already has the script. I hate when businesses are not transparent with their drama, especially when said drama is public and documented.
Then there are the ghost jobs. There are more “ghost jobs” being populated into the market than there are real jobs for every competitive, highly-qualified candidate out there and companies will never tell you that. Many of these jobs you see on these popular professional job search sites, even the “remote-only” platforms, are not real. It’s a cat and mouse game and unfortunately, we’re the mouse still thinking that the piece of cheese tied to a piece of string is the real deal, when it’s our own demise.
For the these last several months, I have been cringing at some of these “we’re hiring” LinkedIn posts. You know which ones. The ones where a recruiter, the friend of a recruiter, or the hiring manger themselves of a Big Tech or tech adjacent company is looking for a <insert popular job title> to join their fabulous team. Four to five hours have passed since the post was published and the post has already received over 1,000 likes with 50+ comments, all from credible candidates who then pitch about their “several years of related experience” angle in the comment section.
Let me be honest with you. I have commented on some of these posts and have reached out to some of these recruiters. But it still pains me to see that we collectively have to embody the “picks me” archetype for a gatekeeper who may not read your comment, but will probably not even entertain your application or direct message you because they have way more candidates than they can imagine or will niptick at your employment gaps without caring about that despite those gaps, you may very well be the best candidate for that job. But adults have our own biases and preferences and until the system changes, many in positions of power will continue to preserve the image that everyone else has a fair shot at getting the job or at least an initial interview.
It’s almost anticlimactic when I hear companies that wipe out their recruiting and talent acquisition teams only to see the same former recruiters post on LinkedIn about how hard it is to find a job in this market! No shit, Sherlock. The lack of respect and self-awareness we have for one another and for how the system itself is undermining our intelligence is unfathomable. And don’t get me started on how these shifts in work environments (wait I have already have) are being powered behind the scenes by certain AI systems to trim off the unnecessary fat or “headcount”.
As a creative and data science professional, I have the right to be overly cautious and critical about AI, but these recent layoffs and record-level corporate profits should get your hairs on your arm to stand up. Don’t get me started on the ongoing geopolitical wars, increasing wealth distribution divide, high-profiled sexual assault allegations, and other humanitarian aid crises that we don’t hear on this same of the pond. We’re literally screwed if we continue to watch idly from the sidelines.
So What Can You Do About It?
We can never be fully prepare for the road ahead. If you believe in astrology, the U.S. is still in its Pluto return in Capricorn until November of 2024. Capricorn is all about elitism, structure, generational wealth, legacy, and the status quo. Starting next year, Pluto will come in and out of Aquarius until it stays in that sign permanently until 2043. Aquarius is all about technology, wars, medical breakthroughs, the Collective, revolutions, and the cessation of the status quo. We haven’t had Pluto in Aquarius since the 1770s to the 1790s. Does the American Revolutionary War and the Haitian Revolution ring any bells? So if we continue to challenge the status quo and make these permanent lifestyle changes, we will witness authentic, seismic revolutions go off across the globe like small ticking bombs. The real societal change that we desperately need to thrive as a species, not to merely exist.
Aquarian energy is two-fold: it ideally represents equality, but its Uranian side knows that in order for the world to be more egalitarian for future generations, it must fight and challenge the status quo to win. In particular, this country crumbling infrastructure and almost disregard for human life is a 400+ year ticking bomb on the verge of exploding. In other words, societal collapse. The things you only read about in your history classes of former empires throughout human history, but never thought it could possibly happen in your lifetime. It didn’t have to be this way you know, but the longer we wait for those in power to change instead of believing that you‘re the change, the longer we’ll wait for that fleeting chance at justice. We have been so prideful and ignorant for so long that we don’t want to fight back. But of course, this is all by design. The following information are more than tips or life lessons that should be taken with a grain of salt. These are truths.
Truth #1: Learn to let go
Take this example. You’re a high-performing operations manager at a very well-known but small AI supply chain startup in Seattle, Washington. You want to pivot into technical program management, but your current work environment is making it hard for you to pivot because of preserve nepotism and the status quo. You have reason to believe that most of your coworkers are out to ruin your reputation. You then check out LinkedIn and pick about 5–10 technical program managers that you have 1st or 2nd LinkedIn connections with to conduct informational interviews about their career advancement and their responsibilities as a technical program manager at their respected organizations.
You then received a referral from one of those technical program managers who thinks you’re stellar and will vouch for you if you apply to this cool technical program manager position at her company. You do apply and she gives your resume over the hiring manager. You finally get your application over to the only decision-maker that counts. What should you do next? Forgot about it for a few days until you “follow up” and then try to repeat the same steps with other jobs of interest. Sure, you may secure multiple interviews and eventually that sweet job offer you always wanted, but no matter how much networking you do in this employer job market, you are still not guarantee a job or a seat at the table.
Learn to detach yourself from your ego. Learn to understand that if this hiring manager doesn’t respond to you after several failed attempts on your end, then that connection or career opportunity wasn’t met for you. The faster you “cut that cord”, the more your predisposed attachment to material things. Don’t forget to follow up with the hiring manager but “forget” you made that connection and apply to multiple jobs that not only fit your career trajectory and your transferable skills, but pays you well, has the right benefits and company culture that can take your career to the next level.
This next job is not your dream job. Detached from that superficial idea that we were drilled down in us until we could repeat it like a robot in your sleep. As long as the old system still holds power and doesn't reward meritocracy, your dream job is a forever changing illusion. Your mission is to secure a lateral job that you can get you closer to your “dream job”. But remember that your dream job is not real because you as an individual will change. Your life mission on this earth, however, which is not your dream job, will not change because it adapts to any environment or obstacle at your way. When you act on your life’s purpose to help improve humanity rather than act on the materialistic pursuit of a great job, then you can walk into any room or company with the intent of being of service to them, regardless of your title or seniority. If things don’t plan out the way you want them to be, you will always have your life’s purpose. Jobs are just temporary means to an end, created by the system to enslave you.
Truth #2: Always Stay Strategic Yet Flexible
I can call myself a planner. I need structure because I’m in graduate school with different classes and team projects to do — a skillset I did not develop fully in my undergraduate years. My plans changed and my life made so many detours that I lose count and I didn’t appreciate the journey until recently. I was so hellbent on becoming a product manager during the early years (probably purely out of status, see that Capricorn energy again?) that I didn’t see other opportunities that I could take to pivot into tech. When I decided last year that product management was not the right career path after all, the abundance started to really come in in many unimaginable ways: data science and analysis and screenwriting.
So, as the year winds down and you’re compiling your 2024 plans, leave some room for chance and uncertainty because we’re living in very uncertain and unprecedented times. Like I said, our financial systems are so corrupt that we are going to need more than a market correction to lift us from inflation and high interest rates. If the stock market were to crash again and envelopes into a deep depression (not recession, depression), your job, your career prospects, your multiple income streams will not matter because the value of the U.S. dollar would deplete into obscurity. If this were to happen next year or within the next few years, what will be your next course of action?
I know that change is scary, but don’t be disappointed around this time next year if your goals and current path went another direction and are not in alignment. What if you apply to 1000+ UX Designer jobs, do and say the right things, network extensively, and still don’t get the “dream” or “lateral” job that you always wanted? Maybe it was not the right time to pursue UX Design. Maybe UX Design is what you meant, but the universe is telling you to work for yourself and start a startup or side business to full-fill needs of a certain population. Maybe the universe is telling you that UX Design is not part of your “life purpose” and that should pursue something else, which leads to my final point.
Truth #3: Be indispensable for you only.
I think most people don’t understand the gravitas of the situation that we’re living in even after all that we have endured these last 4–5 years. Even the most secure professionals who haven’t bear witnessed a layoff or a firing in their professional careers are not immune to company instability. Only the only largest company shareholders are the sole winners. Everyone else is dispensable. Become the best person that you can be for you. You need to carry the same mindset everywhere you go.
And to my “tech influencers” out there still kicking, I haven’t forgot about you! Stop telling people half truths to folks about what’s it’s like to work for “XYZ” company or the tech industry just to sell your products and services. For example, there was no “September Rush”. The only rush I saw was the growing number of people applying to all types of jobs, including those coveted FAANG internships and rotational programs. Otherwise, the vast majority of candidates would have received decent, well-paying jobs by now. We are not in pre-Covid times anymore.
Many (not all of you) have had consistent careers with very little to no employment gaps. Your family and friends may have experienced unemployment, but you most likely haven’t. Also keep in mind what whatever service or product you‘re offering to folks may not be applicable to everyone. You’re already part of the system. Many of you are the gatekeepers. You already have the connections, the leverage/pull, and networks all set ready to go if your organization were to let you go. But unlike most people, especially people of color, we don’t have those support systems going into this line of work. Will you be ready if this country were to economically collapse tomorrow? Let’s be real. Could you bounce back? No one is immune to what’s about to come.
The amount of scamming and deception I’ve seen these last 2–3 years from individuals and organizations alike selling people dreams of possibility for profit is the reason why you as the professional have to remove others from the equation and work on you first. However, very few people nowadays want to challenge the status quo from the outside or within. People, including my former self, are comfortable with preserving that Pluto in Capricorn energy that I was talking about earlier. Since we’re still living in a capitalist society, late-capitalism or not, people have to make a living. You can create side hustles and side projects, but just don’t overwork yourself to death trying to keep up with appearances. It’s not worth it anymore. If there is one thing the pandemic has not taught us was to slow the hell down!!
Automate your career as much as you can because it is not the time to be stressed out. Experience life outside the matrix. Travel. Immense in different cultures and ways of life while you’re still living. Live in the present moment. Attend those sought-after industry conferences. But do you at the end of the day. Don’t put all your hope, luck, trust, and money in anyone first except yourself, even if that person have a proven track record of helping others. Have those people as your allies or mentors, but you are the first and only denominator in your life. If you are spiritually and mentally attune into what you are meant to do in this lifetime, then the abundance will come in. Until then, you have to train yourself to become the most indispensable asset that you can be, but don’t overwork yourself. Take baby steps. Plan accordingly, but sometimes leave caution to the wind.
