By Alliance Intern Eleanor Hulan, U of MN
Like many other people my age, I have gone through significant periods of unemployment and underemployment. When I had a job, it was easy to buy into the job market being incredible, as I read in The Economist, The New York Times and Bloomberg. Although the job I found paid my bills, it didn’t quite fit my areas of interest or career goals. Sadly, the statistics underscore the challenge so many young people are facing.
The NY Federal Reserve points out that “labor market conditions continued to be challenging for recent college graduates” (ages 22-27) with an unemployment rate of 5.6% as of March (vs. 4.2% for all workers) but their underemployment rate (working in jobs that do not typically require a bachelor’s degree) is a shocking 41.5%.
Long-term unemployment across all ages is surging, CNBC recently reported. This term means jobless for at least 27 weeks, and 1.8 million Americans fit the bill. It is now at 25%, up 45% from 2019 and 55% from 2023.
At the same time, the economy is great for some people. Stock prices are at record highs and the American GDP is at 2% annual growth, outperforming its European counterparts. But there is something that the statistics don’t fully capture – an unease, a fatalism, a despair.
My Personal Angst in My Job Search and Career Hopes
When I went into the hiring ecosystem, I realized just how difficult this process could be, even in a large city where multiple national companies are headquartered. I tried and tried and couldn’t get a job, despite sending out hundreds of resumes for posted positions, almost always with no response.
This year-long stretch of unemployment challenged my confidence, my faith in myself. I began to regard the belief I had in my skills and abilities as naive and childish. Who was I to think I could provide value to a company, let alone one in the environmental field I desired to enter?
Although I’m employed now, and happy for it at a time when so many can’t find work, I’m not where I’d like to be. I feel in stasis, not to mention the crippling fear that AI and other cost-saving measures will phase out the careers I’d like to enter before I even have the chance. It really is a crushing weight, especially if you’re prone to struggles with self-doubt already.
Embodying Sustainability Further Complicated an Already Difficult Job Search
In my heart of hearts, what I really wanted was a job that would make a difference and be aligned with my long-term interest in helping to protect the environment. The difficulty in my search was compounded by seeking a job that fully embraced sustainability.
My conceptualization of sustainability is not just about “green” ways of living, although these are essential, which I’ve written about previously. It’s a holistic way of viewing the relationship between oneself and the natural world, and mental health, personal fulfillment and meeting the fundamental needs of everyone are also important parts of it.
Kantor Applies Her Path-Breaking Investigative Reporting to the Job Plight of Young People
Now, as an intern working with the Alliance for Sustainability, I want to share this Sustainability Tip about hope, which is something that can be extraordinarily difficult to find. Award-winning NYT author Jodi Kantor provided a blueprint to recapture some of this hope, first in her 2025 Columbia graduation speech, then in a self-help book she wrote based on her experience, How To Start: Embracing Aspiration in Uncertain Times.
She was half the NYT reporting duo who broke the Harvey Weinstein story, upending an entire industry and providing fuel for the #MeToo movement. Kantor is an incredible investigative journalist and a compelling speaker. In her own words, she “doesn’t write advice books,” and finds herself “surprised to be rising every day at dawn before my own workday begins, to generate these pages.”
Kantor Explores Hopelessness
Kantor begins by acknowledging the origin of the hopelessness many young people are feeling: “For anyone who has not applied for a job lately, an update: The process has turned digital and sterile. Many employers rely on AI programs to conduct initial interviews — posing questions; recording video answers; then insta-scoring the results and shooting recommendations to the company.”
Worse still, almost every source predicts a loss of jobs, especially entry level, as AI continues to proliferate. The World Economic Forum found that 50 million jobs will be impacted by AI in the upcoming years. 40% of employers expect to reduce their workforce by handing over tasks to AI.
Of all the fields to enter, whether post-grad, as a career change, or straight into the workforce, sustainability science, education and activism can feel particularly fraught in the US. The 2027 EPA budget under the Trump administration proposes a 52% decrease in funding.
The NOAA workforce was reduced by 20%. In 2024, corporate TV news spent 12 hours on climate change news, less than 1% of overall programming. It can feel like an uphill battle all day, every day, to get people to respect the most basic of truths.
Kantor also expounds upon how alumni, established professionals and hiring professionals seem to be failing young people more than before, by not responding to inquiries and eschewing mentorship roles.
Kantor Provides Hope
Jodi Kantor advises being alert to unfulfilled societal needs, and your own personal strengths, or craft.
Her solution is a dual approach of encouraging readers to identify a need and then find their “craft”, something that “can never be taken away from you.” For her, it was journalism. She also writes about friends who found their calling in history, the restaurant industry, and teaching.
“Craft is why an AI summary, even an accurate one, feels blank, because it’s missing an author’s voice and intelligence,” says Kantor.
Kantor explores the development of her own craft, which is investigative reporting. She exposed Weinstein and others like him and disrupted an industry of exploitation that was allowed to proliferate for far too many years.
Kantor and Twohey had immense difficulties constructing their piece and getting women to speak on the record, but the movement that followed was a reminder that no institution is too big for reform. In this case, Kantor paired her desire to make a difference with her craft in reporting.
In reflecting upon how best to apply Kantor’s doctrine of “need” and “craft” to my own life, I found a source she quoted in her book – the new dean of Columbia University – particularly useful. He encouraged students to observe their somatic reactions to work and hobbies – when their body tenses, when they feel that tension release. As Kantor relates about the dean:
“As an undergraduate, he enrolled in a premed program but felt tight and uncomfortable. He got a teaching gig. The second he stood in front of students, he felt looser and more alive.”
The dean’s advice is worth considering for yourself. Think about times in your academic or professional life you’ve felt the most comfortable and happy. This can help you identify a craft.
Some Actionable Thoughts on Building a Meaningful Career
So – what can you do?
- Reach out to people you find inspiring, by email or in person. While Kantor acknowledges that professionals are now less likely to take on a mentorship role or give advice, a slimmer possibility doesn’t mean you should stop trying.
She suggests reaching out personally instead of just clicking send on an application. “You’re unlikely to locate those doors, or even the most exciting, original jobs, on career portals built to service giant audiences,” she says. “Force yourself to reach out…Bring questions, good ones.”
One useful strategy is to see if you can get a 15 minute informational interview or to explore the possibility of an unpaid part-time internship in order to develop a relationship with an organization. It’s valuable because you can learn new skills, gain great experience on your resume, get personal references and even possibly be offered a job. - Identify the information gaps you see around you, maybe in your workplace, school or friend group. Then identify what you find best in yourself – this is the “craft” Kantor speaks of. How can you fill these gaps?
Minneapolis provides an incredible blueprint for a vocation that can develop under the worst of circumstances. Grassroots leaders took charge, and information was disseminated in a decentralized manner via Signal chats and private groups. Of course, skill in these areas may not be the resume every company is looking for, but I think Kantor would encourage finding a workplace that does value these skills. - Make your own way. Organizations like the NYT and talented journalists like Kantor are important, but so is constructing a new way to get news. In her graduation speech, Kantor said,
But when it comes to our information environment — also vital to our well being, also a basis for everything we do, and yet also polluted and rapidly decaying — I don’t even see a strategy yet for how we get to a new and more stable place. The search for those answers seems very daunting, but what a high calling. What a need to fulfill.”
I think this quote from How To Start is a fitting reminder of how not to give into our own worst instincts. “Resist the urge to arm yourself with uniformed cynicism masking as pragmatism…We do not know yet what the world will offer you.”