Get Hired Before You Graduate in the AI Job Market

1. 0.0 Introduction: Here because the job market feels overwhelming, and on top of that, there's AI, automation, and job cuts. It feels like everything is changing faster than you can keep up. Maybe you've applied to roles and heard nothing back. Maybe you're not sure where to begin, but you can still get hired. I'm a certified interview coach and former Fortune 500 consultant. I've coached everyone from new graduates to senior leaders across 90 countries and industries from tech to automotive to oil and real estate. In this course, you'll learn. How to stop being invisible in your job search, how to create real proof, even without work experience, how to make recruiters and hiring managers take you seriously. No gimmicks. Just sharp practical tools you can apply right now, even if you feel like you have nothing to show. Are you ready? Let's begin. 2. 1.1 What’s Really Stopping You From Getting Hired: Start with a hard truth. If you're about to graduate and still don't have a job offer, you're not alone, but you're also not stuck because of the reason you think. Most students in your shoes believe the problem is lack of experience. You've probably told yourself, I didn't intern at a fancy company. I don't have a real world project to show, or I just started looking too late, but none of those are the real blockers. The real reason you're not getting hired has less to do with your resume and more to do with your clarity. Let me explain. When recruiters scan entry level candidates, they know you're a student. They know you won't have ten internships or five personal projects or a glowing recommendation from a VP. They don't expect you to be fully trained. What they expect is direction. Most students apply like this. They open a job board, scroll endlessly, and apply to anything with the word analyst, coordinator, or junior in it. No intention, no plan. Just hope, but hope doesn't convert. When your application looks like it's trying to fit into every job, you end up fitting none. What recruiters are scanning for is this. Do you know who you are, what you're good at, and what you want to do? That is your advantage, not experience. Direction. Let me give you two examples. Candidate A says, I'm a recent BBA graduate looking for a role in business, marketing, or data. I'm open to anything where I can learn and grow. Candidate B says, I'm a final year BBA student who's built out three growth funnels for college societies, and I'm looking for an entry level digital marketing role in a startup environment. I want to specialize in email and retention. Both have zero corporate experience. But which one looks like someone who knows what they're doing? It's the one with focus because direction builds trust. Here's the real blocker. It's not that you don't have work experience, it's that you don't have a story, and the story isn't about faking some grand narrative. It's about knowing how to frame what you've already done, even if it feels small. In a way that shows your direction. This is what companies want. They want people who can grow, not people who are lost. They want people who can contribute with intention, not just show up and follow instructions. Now you might be thinking, but I don't even know what I want yet. That's okay. Most people don't are supposed to have a direction that makes sense for your next move, and that's all we're focusing on right now, not your forever career, your next right step. How do you figure out that direction? Here's the simple three part framework we'll build on in the next video. One, what roles do you see yourself in based on your strengths or interests? Two, what industries or types of companies do you feel drawn to startups, finance, media, education, three, what proof can you gather to back up your interest? This could be a project, a course, a part time role, or even something self initiated. That's it. Role, industry, proof. You don't need to master all three before applying. But if you're clear about even one or two, your application will already stand out because now it won't feel random. I'll feel intentional. Let's close with this. Companies are not rejecting you because you're a student. They're rejecting you because you sound like someone trying to get a job, not this job. That's what we fix first, not your formatting, not your LinkedIn headline, not your template. We fix your clarity because when you know what you're aiming for, every email you write, every application you submit, and every conversation you have gets sharper. So before we wrap, here's something to sit with. If someone called you tomorrow and said, Hey, we have a role open. What are you looking for? Would you know how to answer? If you can't answer that in one line, you don't have a job problem. You have a direction problem, and that's what we're solving starting now. 3. 1.2 The 90-Day Window That Still Works: You're watching this and you're in your final year with no job offer in hand, I want you to hear this next line clearly. It is not too late. You are not out of time, but you are in a different window now. What most people call the final placement season or the hiring cycle is a myth. It only applies to a tiny percentage of students who go to top campuses, apply through structured portals and compete for brand name roles. If you're not part of that system or if you miss that wave, you're not doomed. You've just entered what I call the 90 day window. This is the off cycle zone. And it is very real. Let's break this down. Most companies don't fill all their roles during campus recruitment. Some don't even participate in campus drives at all, and many of them don't know who they need until later in the year. Teams shift. Budgets change. People quit, new clients come in. Suddenly, there's a gap. And that's where off cycle hiring starts. Off cycle means companies hiring when they need someone, not when a university calendar says they should. If you can show up during that window with speed, clarity, and proof that you can contribute, you are not competing with a pile of 500 resumes anymore. You are now one of the few people showing up with purpose and here's the real secret. A lot of companies actually prefer off cycle hiring. They avoid bloated processes, they avoid campus bureaucracy. They just want someone who can start soon, learn fast, and make their life easier. If that's you, you're in. Now, let's talk about where this window exists. There are three hiring zones that don't care if your college closed its hiring season last month. One, small agencies. These are creative consulting or marketing shops with less than 50 people. They need new hands all the time, but they rarely post rolls on big platforms. You find them through referrals, company LinkedIn pages, or niche job boards like Angelist or Well found. Agencies are fast. They usually skip the long interview rounds. If you have a skill set they need, design, writing, data, communication, you're in too. Start ups. Most early stage startups are always hiring, but they're doing it quietly. They want generalists, people who are scrappy, curious and don't mind uncertainty. Startups often post on Twitter, linkedIn, or even just drop a note in their newsletter or discord community. You need to look for them, not wait for them to come to you. Even a cold DM can lead to a conversation. If you say, Hey, I love what you're building. I'd love to contribute and grow in this space. You'll get noticed. Three, non campus corporate roles. Yes, big companies also hire off cycle. They just do it through their own portals or internal referrals. These are not entry level training programs. These are roles like project assistance, client support, junior analysts, operations coordinators, jobs that open up when someone leaves or when a team grows. The point is, all of these are real and none of them require you to have applied six months ago. So why don't more students know about this? Because no one teaches you how to find jobs without the university placement system. Everyone talks about applying through portals, waiting for campus shortlists or hoping that LinkedIn brings you some luck. But the real job market works differently. It's built on timing, visibility and specificity. If you can get clear on what you want, show up where people are already hiring and make it easy for them to say, yes, you don't need 50 applications. You need three that hit. Let me walk you through what this could actually look like. It's March, no job offer. You've been applying, but nothing's landing. You're stuck and you don't know what else to try. Now imagine shifting your strategy. You choose one clear role. Let's say growth marketing in tech startups. You list five companies you genuinely admire. Then instead of waiting for job boards, you go direct. You send cold DMs to the founders with a short notion portfolio, a few ideas to show how you think and what you can do. Within two weeks, you've got interviews. Within a month, a job offer. No campus system, no referrals, clarity, timing, and action. That's how the 90 day window works, if you use it right. Here's what I want you to take from this video. You're not too late, but you do need to stop waiting for the traditional path to magically reopen. There is a hiring window right now for people who can show up with focus, readiness, and proof of work. Start by identifying ten companies that excite you. Small agencies, start ups, fast moving teams, then look at what they're building, what they're struggling with. And ask yourself, where can you plug in? Even if it's for a trial period, even if it's a contract role. Once you're in, you build momentum, and that's what gets you the next opportunity. This is your off cycle advantage, and it only works if you move now. In the next video, we'll help you define your role more clearly and build your personal job clarity sheet. But today, just know this. You're not out of time. You're just in the window, most students don't know exists. Now that you do, use it. Let's keep going. 4. 1.3 Find Your Fit — Don’t Chase Any Job: I asked you right now, what kind of job are you looking for? What would you say? Would you say anything right now, I just need a start, or maybe something in business or marketing or operations? If that's your answer, I get it. You're trying to keep your options open. But here's the truth. If your answer is anything, what recruiters hear is nothing specific. In a job market that's already noisy and competitive, sounding vague doesn't make you flexible. It makes you forgettable. So in this video, we're going to fix that. We're going to help you get specific, not for the rest of your life, just for your next role. This is about direction, not destiny. And we're going to do it with one simple tool, a job clarity sheet. Let's start with the framework. It's made up of three pieces, roll, title, proof. If you get these three right, you stop looking like a lost student and start looking like a ready candidate. Let's go step by step. Step one, roll. What kind of work do you want to do every day? I don't mean the company or the industry. I mean the actual work. Do you want to write? Do you want to solve problems with data? Do you enjoy talking to people and managing tasks? You don't need to know everything. You just need to pick one or two functions that feel natural to you. Here's a prompt. When you felt useful in the past in college, in a side project, even helping a friend, what were you doing? Where you organizing, creating, analyzing, selling, that's your starting point. That's your role. Step two, title. Now that you know the work you enjoy, find out what job titles actually match it. This part is where students often get stuck. They know they like design or research or strategy, but they don't know what to type into LinkedIn. So here's a tip. Pick one of your interest areas and search that word on LinkedIn's job section. Then scroll through titles at entry level. You'll start to see patterns. If you like design, you'll see titles like visual designer, brand designer, or product design intern. If you like data, you'll see data analyst, business analyst, operations analyst. Make a short list of three titles that show up often and sound right to you. These are the labels the job market uses, and it's important you speak that language when applying. Step three, proof. This is the part that most students overlook. Once you know the role and the title, you need to ask yourself, what have I done that shows I can handle this? Even if you've never worked in a company, you probably have proof. Let's say you organized a college fest, that's proof for operations or event roles. If you run a mem page, that's proof of content creation and digital growth. If you built a notion tracker for your classmates, that's product thinking. Your proof can be academic, personal, or freelance. It doesn't have to be paid. It just has to be relevant. The goal is not to impress someone. The goal is to show alignment between who you are and what you're asking for. Now, let's bring it all together with an example. Student A says, I'm open to anything, maybe business, maybe marketing, whatever comes my way. Student B says, I'm looking for a content marketing role in a startup. I've grown a college blog to 2000 readers and manage social media for two events. I'd love to help early stage brands scale their content. Who do you think gets the interview? Student B didn't say anything flashy. They just connected role, title, and proof. That's what this exercise is about. It's not about narrowing your future. It's about focusing your effort. When you get clear, your applications improve, your DM outreach improves. Your interviews feel less like guessing and more like storytelling. Most importantly, you stop wasting energy chasing any job and start building toward the right one. Here's your task. You'll find a worksheet inside this course called the job clarity Sheet. It walks you through this role, title, proof model. Fill it out. Don't overthink it. Just be honest. You can revisit and refine it later, but give yourself a working version today. Once you've filled it, use it as your compass. Let it shape what you search for. Let it shape your resume headline, your LinkedIn summary, your outreach messages. Because once you know where you're going, you stop sounding like noise. You start sounding like someone worth hiring. And that's the shift we're building this whole course around. In the next video, we'll start putting this into action, starting with your resume. But for now, open your job clarity sheet, write it out. Remember, you're not behind. You were just unclear, but now you're not. Let's keep going. 5. 2.1 Why Resumes Fail and What Recruiters Actually Read: Start with the truth most students don't hear enough. Your resume is not being read, it's being scanned. Recruiters don't read every line. They scan fast, looking for proof that you're worth a closer look and most resumes get rejected in less than 6 seconds, not because of typos, not because you're not smart, but because the resume didn't give them anything to hold onto. This video is going to help you fix that. We're going to talk about what actually happens when someone opens your resume, what they're looking for, and how you can make sure they find it fast. Let's break it down. When a recruiter opens your resume, their brain is not thinking, how impressive is this person? It's thinking. Do I understand what they want and can they deliver value? And they want to answer that question quickly. So here's what they do. Their eyes go to the top third of the page. They look at your name, your title, maybe your summary, then they glance at your most recent experience or project. Then they close the tab, or they keep reading. That entire decision takes less than 10 seconds, often closer to six. This is called the six second scan. If your resume doesn't pass it, the rest of the document doesn't matter. So why do most resumes fail this scan? One word, noise. Most student resumes are filled with noise, buzzwords, vague lines, generic objectives, filler phrases that take up space, but say nothing. Let me show you what that looks like. Here's an example, highly motivated final year BBA student seeking an opportunity to apply skills in a dynamic work environment. Now here's the truth. Every student is motivated. Every resume is seeking an opportunity and every company thinks they are a dynamic work environment. That line says nothing specific about you, your skills, or your direction. It's noise. Now, let's try something else. Led logistics for a college fest with 2000 attendees, built systems to manage 40 volunteers and coordinated with ten sponsors. That line shows initiative, numbers, responsibility, and scale. It's proof. Here's the big shift I want you to make in your resume. Move from noise to signal, from buzzwords to actual proof, from vague motivation to real contribution, from what you hope to do to what you've already done. Because the resume's job is not to explain your entire journey, its job is to answer one question for the recruiter. Is this person worth talking to? That's it. If your resume gives a clear yes in the first few seconds, you get the callback. Let's look at what makes a strong top section. Three parts matter most. One. A strong headline, not final year student, but something like aspiring data analyst, built dashboards in Excel and SQL, passionate about consumer insights. Two, a focused summary, two or three lines, Max, not about what you want, about what you bring, what you've done, what problems you like solving. Three, recent proof. Highlight a project, internship or role. Use action words. Use numbers. Show what changed because you were involved. You might be thinking, but I haven't done anything impressive. That's not true. You've done more than you realize. You just haven't framed it yet. Remember, recruiters are not looking for perfection. They're looking for signs of initiative. They want to see that you started building. Even if you're early in the journey, that could be a class project you took seriously, a side hustle you built for fun, a community event you helped organize, even a self initiated challenge you completed online. Every one of those things can become a signal if you frame it right. Here's your takeaway from this video. Your resume is a filter, not a full story. It exists to catch the recruiter's attention, not to explain everything, just to earn a second look. If you want that second look, cut the noise. Stop using the same words as every other student. Start showing the things you've actually done and lead with clarity. Because if they don't understand you in 6 seconds, they won't bother to keep reading. In the next video, we'll help you reposition your story. Even if you have no paid work experience, we'll look at how to take unpaid projects, group work, and college events and frame them like real world value. But for now, take a look at the top section of your resume. Would someone scanning it know what you bring in under 10 seconds? If not, that's where we start. Let's fix it. 6. 2.2 Student to Contributor (Repositioning Yourself Fast).mp4: Talk about something most students get wrong when applying for jobs. You keep describing yourself as a student, but employers aren't hiring students. They're hiring contributors, and that shift from student to contributor starts with how you talk about yourself. You don't need to lie. You don't need to inflate. You just need to reframe. In this video, I'll show you how to stop writing like you're still in class and start showing up like someone who knows how to deliver value. Let's start with the biggest mistake I see. Most students fill their resume with what I call potential language, lines like looking to apply my skills in a fast paced environment, interested in growing my knowledge of business operations, eager to learn from industry professionals. This kind of language sounds polite, but it does not sell you because when you lead with what you hope to do, you're putting the burden on the employer to take a chance on you. What they actually want to see is proof. Proof that you've already started doing something useful, even if it wasn't in a paid job, even if it happened in a classroom or side project or student club. How do you show proof when you haven't had a full time job yet? You reposition your experience. Let me show you how. Say you were part of a team that planned a college event. Most students write organized college Fest as part of student committee. That sounds like you were there, but not like you did anything specific. Now let's flip it. Led outreach and logistics for college Fest with 500 attendees, managed vendor coordination, and volunteer schedules. Same event, different story. Now, you're not just a participant. You're a contributor. That is the shift. Let's take another one. Say you built a project for class, maybe a marketing plan or a business simulation. Most students say, completed project on marketing strategy as part of coursework. But that doesn't show initiative. It sounds like you followed instructions. Now, watch this. Developed go to market strategy for a fictional app as part of a marketing project, conducted user surveys, and created a launch roadmap. Again, the task didn't change, but the language shows ownership. It shows that you understand what real work looks like and you're already practicing it. Every project, every volunteer experience, every time you took initiative, all of that is usable. You just need to extract it. Here's how you do that. Ask yourself three questions for anything you're listing. One, what problem did I help solve? Two, what was my exact role? Three, what changed because of what I did? Answer those three, and you've got a solid bullet point. And if you can add a number even better. Numbers are not just for finance or data rolls. They give you story wait. Did 100 people attend the event? Did you improve response time? Did you coordinate five tasks at once? Use numbers. They make vague stories real. Here's one more trick. Replace passive verbs with active ones. Don't say was involved in or helped with. Say led, built, coordinated, managed, executed, or delivered. Active language tells the recruiter, you didn't just show up. You contributed. You might be wondering, but what if I really don't have anything that impressive? Let me tell you something most students forget. Real contribution is not about scale, it's about responsibility. If you took charge of something, even if it was small, it counts. If you run a social media page for a club, if you built a notion tracker for your classmates, if you organized a study group and it worked, that's value. You don't need a salary slip to prove that you can think, lead, build, and solve. You just need to frame it in the language of contribution. Let's recap what we covered. Stop writing like a student. Start sounding like someone who knows how to create outcomes, cut vague lines, cut filler, cut potential. Instead, show proof. Be specific. Highlight what you've done, how you did it, and what changed because of it. Because when your resume reads like a list of responsibilities and results, not hopes and interests, you stop getting ignored. You start getting callbacks. In the next video, we'll take this a step further. You'll learn how to show proof even outside your resume in portfolios, online content, and simple public signals. But for now, go back to your resume or LinkedIn and rewrite three bullet points using the method we just covered. Pick one project, one event, or one initiative. Answer the three questions. Add active language. Add numbers where you can. This is how you stop being seen as just another student. And start being seen as someone ready to contribute. Let's keep going. 7. 2.3 Add Real-World Proof Beyond Your Resume.mp4: Let me ask you a simple question. If someone looked at your resume right now and wanted to see your work, could they not just read about it, but actually see it. See what you've built, written, designed, solved, or led. For most students, the answer is no. And that's a missed opportunity because when you apply to a job, you're not the only one sending a clean resume. You're not the only one with a decent degree or a student project to list. So how do you stand out? You stop telling and you start showing. This video is about how to build visible proof of your work, even if you've never had a job. Let's start here. Proof is not just for designers. Proof is not just for developers. Proof is for anyone who wants to be taken seriously. If you've done something, anything that shows effort, thinking, or contribution, it can become proof, led a college fest, created a content plan for a club, built a tool in Excel, wrote a breakdown of something you learned. That's proof. Today, proof is currency because in a noisy, competitive AI saturated market, it's not enough to say, I'm good at this. You have to show it. Where do you show it? Let me give you five simple options. Pick the one that fits your style. You don't need more than one to start. One, notion. Best for generalists, organizers and people who like clean structure. Make a simple one pager with project summaries, links, screenshots. You can show your role, results, and what you learned all in one scroll. To, Github. If you build anything with code or data, this is home base. Organize your repos, add a clear read me. Include a few lines explaining what problem you were solving. Even small personal projects count. Three, B hands. If you do anything visual, design, UI, content creation, branding, use B hands. It gives your work a clean display and lets you explain your process. Four, Substack, writers, strategists, analysts. This one's for you. You don't need a full newsletter. Just one solid article that shows you can explain something well, break down a project, reflect on an internship. Share a useful insight. Five LinkedIn. Yes, your LinkedIn is a proof layer. Most students use it like a resume upload. But it can do more, post something you've learned. Share a project, link to your other work in the featured section. One thoughtful post can open doors. Now let's shift the mindset. You might be thinking, I don't have anything impressive to show, but you do because proof is not about perfection. It's about visibility. What matters is that you've started. Did you build a tracker that helped ten classmates stay organized? That's a tool. Did you grow a small Instagram page for your club? That's marketing. Did you organize a college event? That's project management. Don't underestimate the small things, frame them properly, and they become powerful. Let's look at what this looks like in real life. Say your resume says worked on marketing for student club. Now your proof link leads to a notion page with sample posts, a small analytics chart, and three lessons you learned from running the page. Now, you're not just a student. You're a content strategist with real world input, or maybe your resume says completed data project for class. Your proof is a github repo with your dataset, your analysis, and a short substack article walking through your process and takeaway. That shows more clarity and effort than most entry level portfolios and here's the result. Now when you apply to a job and include that proof link, the recruiter doesn't have to imagine what you can do. They can see it and that makes you memorable. Let's land this. You don't need a perfect portfolio. You need a living link to your effort. Your proof layer tells the world, I'm not just waiting to be hired, I'm already building. Here's your task. Pick one of those five platforms Notion, Github, Behance, Substack or LinkedIn. Choose one small project. Write a short description what it was, what you did, and what happened. If you can add one screenshot or Link, then publish. It doesn't need to be fancy. It just needs to exist. Once that's done, add it to your resume, add it to your LinkedIn, add it to your outreach messages. Because now when someone checks your application, they won't just see potential, they'll see proof, and that changes everything. 8. 3.1 What AI screening tools actually look for.mp4: Talk about the thing most students blame before they even apply the ATS or the applicant tracking system. You've probably heard it all. The bots are rejecting your resume. You need AI optimization. Your application will never make it unless you use the right keywords. Let's slow that down. The ATS is not rejecting you because you're a student. It's not some enemy sitting between you and your first job. It's just a system and it rewards clarity. It doesn't reward confusion or copy paste tricks. In this video, we'll break down what the ATS really is, how it works, and how to make it work for you. No fear, no fluff, clarity. Let's get into it. First, what is the ATS? It's not a robot. It's not AI magic. It's software. Think of it like a giant inbox with search filters. That's all. Recruiters use it because they don't have time to read 300 resumes one by one. The ATS helps them filter by skill, title, keyword, or location. It turns your resume into plain text and makes it searchable. But here's the part no one tells you. If your resume is built using two columns, textboxes, logos, graphics, or fancy fonts, the system might not read it properly. Even worse, it might strip out half your content. That means your experience could be invisible before a human even sees it, and that's not because you're not qualified. It's because your resume was hard to read. Now let's talk about keywords. The ATI system looks for matches. But it's not scanning your resume like a lawyer. It's just checking if this resume speaks the same language as the job post. Here's what that sounds like. If the role says basic data analysis and you've done a project in Excel or Google Sheets, but you wrote worked on class assignment, the system may not connect the dots. What do you do? You translate. Don't fake it. Just use their language to describe your real experience. Project tracking, email campaigns, Canva graphics, social scheduling, event logistics. These are all real skills. You just need to say them the way the job post does. Now, here's where most students mess this up. They try to beat the system instead of working with it. They go online, copy five job descriptions, paste all the keywords into their resume, and think they're being smart. They use tools to write a summary that sounds professional but says nothing. The result, every recruiter sees the same exact resume over and over again, buzzwords, keywords, empty phrases, no signal, no proof. And here's what happens next. The recruiter skips it. Why? Because if your resume looks like it came from a bot, it feels like you didn't care. A June 2025 article from the New York Times revealed that LinkedIn is now seeing over 11,000 job applications per minute and a major reason is AI tools that auto apply, rewrite resumes or flood job boards with identical content. Recruiters are overwhelmed and they're tuning out anything that looks too polished, too generic, or too disconnected from real experience. So let's fix that. Here's what actually works. One, use a clean one column layout. No graphics, no logos, text. Two, read the job description and borrow language truthfully. If they say content scheduling and you manage your club's Instagram, use that phrase. Three, show proof. Don't write helped run events. Write managed logistics for a 200 person campus event. Don't write social media for NGO, right? Created and posted ten updates during a month long fundraiser. You don't need huge results. You need clear evidence that you showed up and contributed. Four, keep your tone human. Your resume should sound like you, not like a corporate robot. Cut out lines like seeking to leverage my skills in a dynamic environment. Instead, just say what you did and what happened. Now, here's one more thing you can do. Open your resume. Copy and paste the content into a plain text editor like notepad. If it still reads well and everything shows up in order, your formatting is safe. If it looks broken, fix it before you apply. This is a fast way to test if the ATS will actually understand what you're sending. Let's step back. The ATS is not rejecting you because you are not good enough. It's passing along resumes that are clear, focused, and aligned. That's it. Your job is to make your resume speak the language of the role. Not in a fake way, but in a way that connects your real experience to their real need. If you do that, both the system and the human behind it will pay attention. Here's the takeaway. AI is not the blocker. Vague resumes are, you don't need to trick the system. You just need to make sense. Be specific. Be honest, be clear. You've done real things. Let them show. Now, let's keep going. 9. 3.2 Smarter AI Prompts to Tailor Your Resume.mp4: Face it. AI is part of everyday life now, so why not use it to improve your resume? The goal is to make AI actually useful, not just trendy, because, yes, you can use tools like hat GPT to sharpen your resume, but only if you know how to guide it. This video is about how to prompt smarter, how to get better output, and how to use AI to make your resume stronger, not robotic. Let's get into it. First, here's a simple rule. AI reflects the clarity you give it. If your prompt is vague, the output will be vague. If your prompt is specific, the output will feel real, helpful, and human. Before you even open a chat window, take 30 seconds to write this down. What is the role you're applying for? What have you done that relates to that? What keywords or language does the job post use? You're not feeding this into the AI yet. You're just thinking clearly before you start because AI isn't a shortcut for thinking. It's a tool to help you express what you already understand. Now let's try a bad prompt and improve it. Bad prompt. Rewrite my resume to help me get a job. Sounds easy, but the output will be generic. Here's a better version. Smarter, prompt. I'm applying for a growth marketing internship at a consumer tech startup. The job asks for experience in content, analytics, and campaign strategy. Here's one of my experiences. Created social media content for a student club, grow followers, and managed basic reporting. Can you rewrite that bullet to sound clearer and more results focused? See the difference? Now you're giving context, you're pointing to a real goal. You're inviting AI to help you say it better, not do your work for you. Let me show you a before and after. Original bullet, worked on social media for college club, created posts and tracked engagement. Prompted rewrite with AI, planned and created weekly Instagram content for a student run club, grew followers by 40% and used engagement data to adjust posting strategy. Same facts, sharper framing, clearer results. That's the power of guiding the tool. Let's take another example, a resume summary, original summary, final year student interested in marketing, analytics, and business roles. Looking to gain experience and grow my skills. It's not wrong, but it says very little. Now here's a smarter prompt. I'm a final year student who has run two small campaigns for college events. I like working on messaging, audience behavior, and performance data. Can you help me write a resume summary that sounds confident and specific? AI output, final year student with hands on experience planning and analyzing campus event campaigns. Passionate about audience insight, content performance, and creative strategy, seeking an entry level marketing role in a fast paced team. Much better, and that's with just one clear prompt. Here's what you should do moving forward. For every job you apply to, write one custom summary and tailor two to three bullets. That's it. You don't need to rewrite your entire resume every time. Just show the recruiter that you made this effort for this job. Because most people won't. Most people will keep sending the same version everywhere. When you show that you understand the job, even a little, you build trust. Let me give you a short script to copy and edit for yourself. I'm applying for a job title at company name. The job post mentions key skills or values. Here's my current resume bullet, paste your version. Can you rewrite it to match the language of this role and show real contribution? That one prompt can save you hours and it makes your resume look like it was written with care, not copied in bulk. To close this out, remember this, AI is not a cheat code. It's a mirror. If you give it lazy prompts, it gives you lazy output. But if you bring it a sharp mind and a clear goal, it becomes a powerful writing partner. Use AI to help you say what you mean, not to say something generic. In the next video, I'll show you how to organize your applications so you don't waste time starting from scratch every time. But right now, pick one bullet point and one job post. Try one Smart prompt and see what comes back. That's your edge. Let's keep going. 10. 3.3 Build your "1-click" job application system.mp4: Guess how your job search feels right now. You find a job. You open your resume, you make a few edits, you start writing a message, then delete half of it. You try to be tailored. Then you wonder if it even matters. That's not a job search. That's burnout on repeat. In this video, I'll show you how to build something better, a simple reusable system that helps you apply faster without sounding generic. I call it your one click job application system. It's not a trick. It's not a shortcut. It's just what happens when you get organized around clarity. Here's what most people do. They either send the exact same resume to every job. Or they burn out trying to customize everything from scratch. Both paths are slow. Both paths are low impact. The goal here isn't perfection. The goal is to stop overthinking every move and start showing up consistently. Your one click system is a set of four simple assets, a strong base resume, a ready to go pitch paragraph, a few clear proof links, a message script that doesn't sound like spam. That's it. Once you have these four, you don't start from zero each time. You tweak what matters, you send with confidence. You move on. Let's build it. Step one, your base, resume. This is your starting point, not your final version. It should reflect your current role, title, proof. It should include clear result focused bullet points. Save it as a clean PDF with your name in the file. Keep it short, sharp, and honest. Step two, your pitch paragraph. This is your introduction. Think of it like your verbal elevator pitch. But in writing, a good pitch paragraph answers three things. Who are you? What have you done? What are you looking for? An example. I'm a final year student who's managed events created digital campaigns and helped organize messy things into working systems. I'm looking for an entry level role where I can contribute early and keep learning fast. It's simple and human. It's not supposed to be perfect, but it works. Step three, your proof layer. This is where you stand out. Attach one link that shows real work, Notion, Github, B hands, Substack or LinkedIn. Doesn't need to be fancy, something that shows effort, a campaign breakdown, a personal project. A tool you built, a blog post you wrote. One link that says, I'm already building, step four, your message script. This is for cold outreach, warm intros, or applying directly. Don't overthink it. Use this starter. Name. I'm exploring early career roles in field. I've worked on relevant thing and would love to learn more about your team or current openings. Let me know if there's a good way to connect. That's all. Short, direct, low pressure. Now, put all of this in one folder. Call it your job kit, keep it ready. The next time you find a role that feels like a fit, you don't spiral. You open the kit, you adjust one or two things. You send with intention. 15 minutes. Done. That's momentum. Because here's the truth. Most students don't get rejected because they're not smart. They get rejected because their application didn't show clarity, or they never sent it at all. You've already done the hard part, you've reflected, you've reframed, you've rewritten. Now it's time to put that into motion. Here's your task. Build your one click system, one resume, one pitch, one proof link, one message, put them together, save them. Use them. That one move will save you hours, more importantly, it will keep you in the game. 11. 4.1 Why most job openings never reach job boards.mp4: Start with a simple truth. About 40% of all hires come from employee referrals, but referrals make up less than 10% of total applicants. That means referred candidates are four to five times more likely to get hired than someone who applies code. Let that land while you're refreshing job boards, sending out applications, and editing your resume for the tenth time, someone else got hired because they were already known, already trusted. So if you've ever thought, why isn't anything working, this is probably why. Let's break it down. Here's how most hiring decisions start. A manager realizes they're short staffed. Maybe someone just quit, maybe a new client came in, maybe a deadline moved. Now they need help, but they don't jump straight to posting a job online. They start by asking, do we already know someone? Any strong applicants from before. Can someone internal step up? Any referrals? Only if that turns up nothing, do they write a job description. Then it goes to HR, then it gets approved, then it gets posted. By the time you see it on a job board, they may already have someone in mind. When you hit Apply, you're not early. You're often last in line. That's the hidden job market no one tells students about. From a recruiter's view, job boards are chaos. One post can bring hundreds of resumes. Most are irrelevant, some are copy pasted, others are vague. Recruiters are busy, they skim and they look for signals. The strongest signal is trust, someone referred, someone familiar, someone vouched for warm channels save time, they reduce risk. They lead to faster, better hires. If you're not getting calls back, it may not be your resume, it may be that you're unknown. Let's fix that. You don't need big connections. You don't need to go viral. You need to stop being invisible. Here's your warm visibility plan. Pick five companies that feel right. Pick companies where the work genuinely interests you. Five is enough. Follow three to five people from each skip HR. Follow managers, designers, analysts, real team members. Read what they post, learn their language, add one thoughtful comment per week. Not great post, not love this, add value. I tried something similar during a campus project. Thanks for sharing your approach. It's helpful to see how real teams handle this. One good comment a week builds your presence. Build one public proof. Link use Notion, GitHub, Substack, or a pinned LinkedIn post. Simple is fine. One project, what you did, what you learned. It doesn't have to be pretty. It just has to be real. Send three messages a week. Your script. Hi name. I've been following your work at company. I'm a final year student, building toward a role in field. I've been working on short example and would love to learn what stands out to you when hiring early talent. It's not a pitch, it's a connection. Some will reply, some won't. Either way, you've shown up. Let's compare two students parts. Student A applies to 50 jobs online. No follow ups, no signals, no proof. Student B picks five companies, follows 15 people, comments weekly, builds one proof link, sends three messages a week. In four weeks, who gets noticed? Exactly. This is not about volume. It's about quality of attention. Most job openings don't make it to job boards. Real hiring starts with real people. If you wait for a listing, you're late. If you show up early, you're ahead. Here's your system. Five companies, 15 people, one comment per week, one proof link, three messages per week. This is how you stop applying blind. This is how you start getting seen. It won't work instantly, but it works. People hire people they remember. Let's make sure they remember 12. 4.2 Cold outreach that works.mp4: Talk about something most students avoid cold outreach. You've probably heard it's awkward or desperate or that no one replies anyway. But here's the truth. When done right, cold outreach is the most efficient way to bypass the job board traffic jam and get directly in front of people who can actually hire you. Not as a favor, not as a pitty reply. As someone with potential who showed up with proof, this video will teach you how to do that with messages that work, tone that builds trust, and a system that makes it feel natural. Let's get into it. Here's why cold outreach works better than you think. Recruiters are not waiting for your resume. They're busy, they're overwhelmed. They're dealing with hiring freezes, candidate dropouts, team pressure, and changing timelines. When they find someone who already fits even partially and shows up early with clarity, it saves them hours of work. That's why cold outreach works. It is not annoying, it's helpful. If you make it easy for them to see why you might be a fit, they're far more likely to respond than if you just apply and disappear. There is a difference between the tone that gets you ignored and the tone that gets you noticed. The mistake most students make is asking for too much too soon. Can you help me find a job? Would you be open to a call this week? Can you refer me? These come across as needy or rushed or unclear. Instead, ask for perspective, ask for insight, ask for their opinion. That feels collaborative. It positions them as the expert, and it makes them more likely to reply. Now there is a message formula that works. It has only three parts you need. One, signal your intent. Let them know why you're reaching out in one line. Hi, Pam, I've been following your work at Clearbit and learning a lot about customer ops or Hi, Jim. I saw your recent post about early career hiring at Fintech startups and wanted to reach out. Don't start with hope you're doing well. Don't bury your message in fluff. Get to it. Two, show small proof of effort. Mention a project, a course, a tool you used, something that says, I'm building toward this. I'm a final year student working on Async onboarding flows in Notion for my campus club. Or I've been learning tableau and trying to replicate product dashboards I see in public case studies. This shows you're not waiting to be taught everything. You've already started. Three, ask for insight, not a job. Here's where most outreach fails. Never write, Are you hiring or can you refer me? Instead ask, I'd love to know what stands out to you when you're hiring early talent or anything you wish more students showed when reaching out. It's low pressure, but it gives you useful data, and it often opens a real conversation. Part four, here are some sample scripts that actually work. For example, recruiter DM, entry level job. Hi, Angela. I came across your profile while exploring roles in marketing ops. I'm a final year student building small workflows in air table and Notion to automate tasks for our student magazine. I'd love to know when you're reviewing entry level applicants, what signals do you look for beyond the resume? Another one. It's for a hiring manager DM. Start up. Hi, Sam. I've been following your updates on building the product team at Apple. I'm a student exploring product design and recently built a customer feedback prototype in Figma. Would love to hear what makes someone stand out in early stage teams like yours? Alumni DM from Same College. Hi, Kelly. I noticed you also graduated from Arizona State and now work at North Refrigeration. I'm currently in my final semester and curious about content strategy roles. I've been writing short breakdowns of start up GTM strategies on Substack and would love your take. What helped you bridge the gap between college projects and full time roles? Each message is short. It's clear. It shows effort, and it respects the other person's time. Now, you need to know that systems make this easier. Don't send 30 messages in one day. You'll burn out and don't overthink every line. Here's your rhythm. Send two or three messages a week, save the ones that worked. Track replies in a simple sheet. Follow up once after seven days if needed. That's it. Consistency beats volume. What happens after they reply? If someone replies, don't freeze. Thank them. Acknowledge their time and keep the conversation simple. If they offer advice, reflect it back. That makes sense. I hadn't thought about showing my process. I'll try that in my next project. If they offer a next step, say yes. If they don't thank you and stay in touch. You don't need a job offer in the first message. You just need a reputation that builds over time. Cold outreach is not about begging for a job. It's about showing up early with intention and proof. It's about making someone's hiring process easier. It's about being remembered before the job even goes live. You do that by being specific, by being respectful, by being a builder, not just a browser, one thoughtful message can open a door faster than 20 cold applications. The best part, you're in control of it. In the next video, we will talk about how to stand out publicly, even if you have no personal brand or big following. See you there. 13. 4.3 LinkedIn proof posts that get replies.mp4: Let's get one thing straight. You do not need a personal brand to stand out. You need a signal. That signal says, I'm learning something that matters. I'm building something with intent. I'm thinking like a contributor, not a bystander, right now, the easiest place to send that signal is LinkedIn. Not to become a thought leader, not to chase likes, just to get seen by the right people at the right time. Here's how to create three kinds of proof posts that get attention without sounding like you're trying too hard. You don't need followers. You don't need results. You just need clarity. Think about what a hiring manager sees every day, generic resumes, half baked cover letters, buzzwords that mean nothing. So when someone shows up on their feet, talking about what they're building, what they're learning, or what they're exploring, in a clear, honest way, it stands out immediately. That's a signal. It tells people you're paying attention, you care about your craft. You're already contributing even before you get paid to, and if you do this well, something surprising happens. You won't just get likes. You'll get messages, from people hiring, from people watching, from people who never even posted a job. This is how opportunities actually happen. Let's start with a post about what you're building. If you've worked on any project inside class or outside, talk about what you made and why. Here's an example. Last week, I built a student onboarding flow in Notion for our campus club. We had 40 new members join and it was getting hard to track interest. I created a quick form linked to a database, added auto tags by interest, and shared an onboarding checklist, still figuring out how to improve adoption, but it's already saved our core team hours tools used Notion, Google Forms, Canva, always open to better ideas on Async onboarding. That's not bragging. It's thoughtful, clear, and specific. People in operations team building, Ed Tech, they'll see it and recognize the kind of thinking they're looking for. Next, write about what you learned. You don't need a certificate or a degree to post this. You just need a moment of insight. Try this version instead. I've been learning tableau recently, and something clicked this week. Building charts is not the challenge. Making people understand them is. I designed a basic sales pipeline dashboard using dummy data. Visually, it looked fine. But when I asked a friend to interpret it, they were confused. That's when I realized clarity beats complexity. Now I'm simplifying layouts, adding direct labels, and trying to tell a story in just a few charts. If you work in data or dashboard design, I'd love to know. What's one principle you always follow when building for real users? That doesn't make you look junior. It makes you look sharp. You're not just learning, you're reflecting, that's rare, and it shows maturity. Now, let's talk about what you're exploring. Even if you're still figuring things out, you can show direction. Try this. Exploring growth marketing has been surprising. I used to think it was just paid ads and influencer collapse. But reading breakdowns from early stage teams, I'm seeing how much of it is psychology, positioning, and landing page flow. I'm now testing a mini campaign for our debate society to increase attendance at our finals, not perfect, but good practice. If you've worked on small scale growth experiments, I'd love to hear how you got started. This is curiosity in action. It's not vague. It's not lost, it's honest and focused. All three of these post types work because they're grounded. They're written like a human. They avoid jargon, they avoid asking for attention. None of them say, please hire me. None of them fake credentials. None of them try to impress everyone, and that's what makes them impressive. When someone reads a post like this, they don't see a student. They see someone who's already showing up with intent, a lot of people overthink visibility. They think they need hundreds of followers or polished graphics or weekly content. You don't need any of that. One post that shows what you're building, learning, or exploring is enough to get noticed. Even if no one comments, even if you get three likes, people are still watching. They're remembering your name. They're forming a picture of who you are. They're deciding whether you're the kind of person they'd want on their team. You can make this easier on yourself by reading your post out loud before you share it. If it sounds stiff, rewrite it. If it sounds like you, post it. You're not posting to go viral. You're posting to build credibility. So here's your move this week. Post one signal. Just one. Choose a format, what I'm building, what I learned. Or what I'm exploring, write it, speak it out loud, post it, then send three messages, not to pitch, to say, Hey, I've been learning about topic and shared something I built here. Would love your thoughts if you have a minute. That's all. You don't need permission to be visible. You just need to stop hiding. This is not about building a brand. It's about building trust in public. And when you show up with real signals, the right people pay attention quietly at first, then all at once. 14. 5.1 What hiring managers actually look for.mp4: Break a myth right at the start. Hiring managers are not looking for perfect answers. They are not scanning your GPA. They're not memorizing your resume line by line. What they're really trying to figure out is simple. Will this person show up, learn fast, and stick around? That's it. In this video, we'll break down what hiring managers actually pay attention to. Most importantly, how you can stand out, not by sounding perfect, but by being clear, reliable, and ready to contribute. Let's get into it. When you walk into an interview, you're not being tested like it's an exam. You're being assessed like a teammate. Here's the question behind every question they ask you. Can I trust this person with real work? That trust usually comes from three things. One, you understand what the role involves. Two, you've made an effort to prepare. Three, you come across as someone they'd want to work with. Let's break these down with specific helpful examples. First, you understand what the role involves. Most candidates walk in and talk about themselves, what they want, what they've done, what they hope to do, but strong candidates flip it. They show they understand what the company needs. That could sound like this. From what I've seen, this role supports the sales team by helping clean up CRM data and keeping outreach aligned. I've worked with Air table and Google Sheets for similar tasks, and I'm confident I could get up to speed on your system fast. Or I noticed your blog hasn't had fresh content in a few weeks. If this content role includes calendar planning or writing drafts, I've done that for our college newsletter and I'd love to help fill those gaps. You're not guessing, you're showing thoughtfulness, and that gives the manager one thing relief. They don't have to decode what you can do. You've already connected your background to their need. Second, you've made an effort to prepare. This doesn't mean you've done the job before. It means you've taken it seriously. You've tried the tools, you've studied the company, you've even created something on your own. That could look like. I've been shadowing SAS tools like Loom and Zapier to study how they do onboarding. I even wrote down a few ideas for how to make welcome emails more helpful. Or I wrote a tear down of your pricing page and shared it on Substack. I wanted to explore how early stage companies balance clarity and conversion. Even if it's small, even if it's unpaid, this shows that you're not passive. You're someone who builds, reflects, and applies what you learn. That's more powerful than any bullet point. Third, you come across as someone they'd enjoy working with. This one is underestimated. You're not being hired to sit alone and follow instructions. You're joining a team. They're thinking, Will this person be calm under pressure? Will they respond well to feedback? Will they ask thoughtful questions? This doesn't mean you need to be extroverted. It means you come across as someone who listens, who shows curiosity and who respects people's time. Here's one way to show that. Ask questions that show real interest instead of asking, What's the culture try. I read that your team shifted from inbound to outbound sales this year. What does that change for someone in this role day to day? They see you as someone who's already thinking like an insider, not just a student hoping for a chance. M, I need to sound confident. Reality, you need to sound prepared. Confidence without substance is easy to see through. Preparation feels calm, steady, grounded. M. They want someone with experience. Reality, they want someone dependable. If you've led college projects, handled logistics, written articles, build tools, even for class, those count. You just need to talk about them clearly. Say, I built a three page onboarding guide in Notion for new volunteers and it helped cut down training time by half. Not. I helped onboard volunteers. Myth, the goal is to impress reality. The goal is to earn trust. People don't hire you because you're perfect. They hire you because they believe you'll follow through. That belief comes from how you speak, how you prepare, and how you connect what you've done to what they need. Here's a prep checklist you can follow before your next interview. Read the job description and rewrite it in your own words. Write out how your past experience, even if limited, maps to those needs. Think of one project or proof point you can talk about. Prepare one thoughtful question based on your research. Speak your answers out loud and make sure they sound like you remember this, they're not looking for perfect. They're looking for effort, thought, clarity, that's what builds trust. That's what gets follow ups, and that's what makes you the one they want to call back. You don't have to win them over. You just have to help them believe. I could see this person on the team. That belief starts with you. Preparing, showing up, and treating the interview as a conversation, not a performance. Let's keep going. 15. 5.2 Answer with proof, not personality.mp4: Talk about interviews. Me specifically, how most students answer behavioral questions and why their answers fall flat, even when they sound right. You've probably heard this advice. Be yourself, show your personality. Speak with confidence. And while that might help calm your nerves, here's the truth. Personality is not what gets you hired. Proof is because in every interview, the unspoken question is this. Can you solve problems when it actually matters? If your answers don't give evidence, you get skipped, even if you're smart, hardworking, and passionate, because at the end of the day, interviewers aren't looking for the smartest person in the room. They're looking for the clearest, calmest, and most credible one. And you can absolutely be that person 14 sentence story at a time. That's what this video is about. You'll learn one simple tool that makes your answers stronger, a four sentence structure. It's clear, fast, and powerful, especially when your experience is limited. Let's start with why most answers fail. Imagine you're in an interview and the recruiter asks, tell me about a time you handled a challenge. Here's a common response. Yeah, I was in charge of a college event and things weren't going well. I took initiative and got it done. It sounds okay, but it's vague. What challenge? What action? What result? Here's a stronger version using this four part framework. Context, action, outcome. Reflection. Let's break it down. During our annual college fest, our event team fell behind because two core volunteers dropped out one week before the event. I stepped in, reorganized the timeline, reassigned tasks, and created a shared checklist so we could track progress together. We hit all our promo deadlines and had 150 sign ups, the highest turnout that year. I've since reused that checklist system for two other student events, and it's helped prevent delays every time. Let's walk through it. Context. Set up the situation clearly. One sentence. No backstory overload. Action. What did you do? Not we, not the team. What did you do? Outcome. What happened? Use a number if you can. Reflection. What did you take away? What changed in how you now work? Let's do another example. Question. Tell me about a time you had to deal with a team conflict. Here's how a student answered. In our group project for a data science class, we were randomly assigned. One teammate didn't show up for the first three days. I proposed that we split the tasks by interest, took over the unassigned portion temporarily, and kept the teammate in the loop in case he rejoined. We still finished the project on time, and our instructor rated our presentation among the best in class. I learned that having structure makes it easier for people to re engage without feeling blamed or pushed out. That's a fantastic answer. Not because it's dramatic, but because it's clear. The student showed initiative, diplomacy, structure, and impact, all in four sentences. Let's now build your own interview story Bank. Grab a sheet of paper or open notion or Google Docs. Here's a simple table to use. Theme situation, what I did, what happened, what I learned. Teamwork challenge, leadership, conflict, mistake ownership. You want four to six strong stories from class projects, freelance or part time jobs, campus event management, volunteer roles, club or society leadership, personal side projects with structure. These stories will cover most questions like. Tell me about a time you worked in a team. How do you handle conflict? Describe a challenge you overcame. When did you show leadership? Tell me about a time you made a mistake. One story can fit multiple prompts. For example, the campus fest story could answer challenge, ownership, or even leadership, don't overthink it. Just make each one real, clear, and intentional. Let's go even deeper. Now, you need to know about red flag interview behaviors. These are the most common mistakes students make in interviews. Mistake one, starting with traits instead of stories. I'm a great team player. That's not a story. It's an opinion. Mistake two, telling group stories with no personal action. We planned the event, we did this, we handled that. You didn't say what you did. That weakens your credibility. Mistake three, no outcome. I tried something, but I'm not sure what happened. That sounds unprepared. Always close the loop. Mistake four. No reflection. And yeah, it worked. That's not enough. What did you learn? What would you apply again? Now, for the most powerful technique of all, say your answers out loud. Once you've written your stories, don't just read them silently. Say them. If you stumble or ramble, you'll notice it immediately. If it's longer than 30 seconds, trim it. If it doesn't sound like you, rewrite it. A good interview answer should sound like a smart version of how you actually talk. Not like a blog post, not like a resume and definitely not like a LinkedIn caption. Final challenge. Here's what I want you to do next. Pick one story. Anyone. Use the structure. What was the situation? What did you do? What happened? What did you learn? Write it. Speak it out loud, time it under 60 seconds. Now revise. If it feels sharp and clear, great. If it feels fuzzy, go back and cut anything that doesn't serve the story. You don't need to sound perfect. You need to sound real and ready. 16. 5.3 Pitch yourself in 60 seconds.mp4: Talk about the moment that makes most students freeze. It's not the hard interview question, it's the soft one. So tell me about yourself, or what are you looking for right now? Or walk me through your background. This is where the panic kicks in. Because when you're a student or recent graduate, your mind immediately goes to what you don't have. I haven't had a real job. My degree isn't from a top school. I've done projects, but they're not impressive. I don't know what I want yet. You feel like you have nothing to say, but that's not true. You do have something. You just haven't structured it yet. In this video, we'll fix that. You'll learn how to craft a 62nd self introduction that sounds confident, focused, and credible, even if you've never had a paid job, and you'll walk away with a clear template and one challenge. What is that we will find out. So what's the goal of your pitch? Your 62nd pitch is not about proving you're the most qualified. It's about helping the other person understand three things quickly, who you are, what you care about, what direction you're aiming for. That's it. If you can say those three things calmly and clearly, you'll already be ahead of most applicants. Here's the structure, the four part pitch structure. You'll break it into four short parts. Start with identity. What are you currently studying or doing? Mention your focus. What kind of work, domain, or problems are you interested in? Share a quick example. A project experience or proof that shows your interest is real. End with intent. What are you looking for next? Let me give you a few examples. Then we'll break them down. Let's take an example of a business student. I'm a final year business student at Toronto University with a focus on digital marketing and campaign strategy. Last semester, I led a project to help a small local business grow its Instagram presence and increase their reach by three X in four weeks. I realized I really enjoy working on strategy that's close to real users. I'm now looking for an entry level marketing role where I can build campaigns from insight to execution. How about another example of a data learner without a degree? I'm currently self learning data analytics while finishing my bachelor's degree. I've been building dashboards using Tableau and Google Sheets to practice real world business cases. One of my favorite projects was visualizing attendance and revenue for a college fest using past data. I'm now looking for an internship or junior analyst role where I can apply what I've learned and work with real data problems. Are you someone who is unsure but curious? I'm graduating this month with a degree in psychology, and I've spent the last year exploring how tech and behavioral science overlap. I worked on a college project mapping how people use habit trackers and what keeps them consistent. I don't have a fixed path yet, but I'm especially drawn to product research and user behavior. I'm exploring opportunities where I can contribute to early stage teams and keep learning. Now, let's break down why these work. Each pitch is clear about the students' current status, anchored by one real example, not a laundry list of everything they've ever done, calm and intentional. Honest about where they are and what they're looking for next. And that's the secret. You don't need to sound impressive. You need to make sense, but there are some things you need to be careful of. Avoid overloading your pitch. Don't list every class, every tool, every side interest. The goal is to give a focused intro and not a resume monologue. Avoid using filler phrases. Cut lines like, I'm a highly motivated student seeking to leverage my skills in a dynamic organization. No one talks like that. It's empty. Use your real voice. Don't apologize. Don't say I know I don't have experience or I'm just a student. Your job is to communicate direction, not defend your past. Now, how about we build for you? Here's a fill in the blank template. I'm currently your identity, student, learner, et cetera, focused on topic or domain. Recently, I described one thing you did that shows interest or initiative. That helped me realize what it taught you or made you curious about. I'm now looking for internship role project where I can contribute and keep building. Fill it out. Speak it once, then rewrite it in your words. Your action for today is simple. One, write your 62nd pitch using the four parts structure. Two, record yourself saying it on your phone, Zoom, or voice memo. Play it back and review. Did you sound clear? Was your message focused? Would a recruiter or new connection know what you care about? If not, revise and try again. You don't need to be perfect. You just need to be intentional. Your pitch should feel like you and just slightly more prepared. No one expects you to have it all figured out, but people do need to know what to do with you. That's what a good pitch delivers. It gives direction. It builds trust, it opens doors. You're not introducing a resume. You're introducing a real person who is ready to contribute. That's enough. Say it like it matters. You've now built the tools to move beyond applications and into conversations. You're ready to be seen, to be trusted, and to get hired. Remember, it's not about perfection. It's about showing up with proof, clarity, and intent. Go apply this now. The next opportunity could already be waiting for you. I wish you the best.