My daughter Danielle graduated from the University of Wisconsin last week. This afternoon weâre hosting her graduation party, along with her brother Grant, who just finished high school.
This letter is for her, the class of â26, and the parents who watched them walk.
Danielle,
Four years ago when we dropped you off in Madison, the plan was set. Youâd have the time of your life and learn the ins and outs of fashion design. Before long, models would be walking the Fashion Week runway wearing your looks.
That November, ChatGPT launched. Today, AI can create runway-ready looks in seconds.
At last weekâs commencement, when the speaker talked about AI, the audience booed. So did your friends, and graduates across America.
Itâs strange to be booing a technology; nobody booed the Internet or the iPhone. But itâs also completely fair. This summer was supposed to be filled with road trips, weddings, and apartment hunting in Manhattan. Instead youâre wondering if youâll spend your career working at our neighborhood Applebeeâs.
Itâs not just you. New college graduate employment is at its lowest level in decades. Analysts are arguing over whether this is because of AI, tariffs or remote work. Those debates are interesting, but you still need a job.
And getting a job is broken.
The old process was clear: build a resume, do the interviews, pick the best offer. Todayâs graduates apply to hundreds of openings without even landing an interview. Some job seekers are embedding hidden text in their resumes to trick AIs into picking them.
This yearâs commencement speakers have all the answers:
Embrace AI. SoâŠGive it a hug?
Get on the rocket ship. Wait, Iâm an astronaut now?
Get used to change. Done. But I still need a job.
Start your own company. Cool. Will that pay next monthâs rent?
This advice sucks.
As a dad, Iâm biologically compelled to give advice. Here it is:
Instead of sending out a hundred resumes, talk to a hundred people. Teachers, alumni, friends, Uber drivers. DONâT ASK THEM FOR A JOB. Ask them for advice and the names of other people to talk to. Most of it wonât be as good as your dadâs, đ€ but people love being listened to. And one of those hundred people will know somebody whoâs hiring.
Build something real. Recruiters spend an average of seven seconds scanning a resume. Give them something different: a portfolio, a lookbook, a custom collection. This stands out and spares the poor souls still slogging through a thousand resumes.
Get a shitty job. Applebeeâs wasnât the plan, but itâs a good start. It gets you out of the house, makes a few friends, and earns some money. Youâll quit that job when you find a better one.
One final thing: make your boss like you. We older folks complain that todayâs grads are entitled. Show them youâre not. Do the grunt work. Be easy to manage. Smile.
Permit me one more bit of dadsplaining.
This is part of a bigger trend. In fields most exposed to AI, jobs for workers 22-25 are down 13 percent while older workers are up 9 percent. AI agents need to be managed by humans with experience, so companies are cutting college hiring. But that will leave them short-handed when older workers retire.
Entry-level hires need the same things AIs do; companies just call them by other names. Instead of context, itâs new hire orientation. Instead of guardrails, itâs defined roles and responsibilities. Instead of reward signals, itâs quarterly goals. The irony is that weâre learning to onboard AIs at the same moment weâre forgetting how to onboard people.
Most executives reached the top because they knew how to develop people. Giving someone their first job, showing them the ropes, helping them grow into a leader. The best moments of my career have been promoting someone who deserved it.
Your AI agent isnât going to say thanks, invite you to its wedding or bring its new baby into the office.
Okay Danielle. You have a graduation party to get to.
We donât get to choose the time we live in. When I was in college, the hot new technology was pay-at-the-pump. I saw the internet, the iPhone, and now AI, and was lucky enough to work at Google before big tech turned into the hunger games.
People say AI will be the biggest disruption to society since the Industrial Revolution. And your graduation landed smack dab in the middle of it.
Analysts love to predict the future, but the honest answer is nobody knows.
We wonât know everything by the time Grant gets his degree, but weâll know more. I hope I wonât have to write a version of this letter to him.
Youâll be fine. Iâm here to help. One of those hundred people you talk to will land you a job.
Iâm proud of you. Now go enjoy your party.
Dad Joke: What do you call a university dedicated to lettuce? The college of cabbage đ€Łđ„±
Beautiful daughter. Beautiful message. Oh-so-wise, too!