The two-step process to secure a job or internship in an AI-driven market

It’s no secret that internships offer a higher chance of landing a full-time job. However, they can be hard to nail down. Landing a full-time graduate job has become increasingly competitive, especially in an era where AI is prevalent.  

Researchers such as Sarah Bana talk about how companies will use AI to perform tasks like research and information gathering, basic content creation, and administrative tasks that were usually given to entry-level employees. In one study, 69% of hiring managers believed AI could do the work of a recent college graduate.

This begs the question: How can you land an internship or a job as a young person just starting in the workplace? And the short answer to this is to build solutions, rather than just apply.

Step one: Identify your values, interests, and goals for impact

The starting point is the hardest step. It’ll take time and patience, and most importantly, a commitment to a path forward. Rather than being open to any internship opportunities, you’ll probably need to hone in on one. This gives you the time to fully explore it and apply your skills to stand out from the crowd.

For instance, if you have a degree in communications, you may want to dig a bit deeper into your values and explore which sector would inspire you. Are you interested health, engineering, education, infrastructure, and environment? Do your research and find one or two companies that inspire you and would be your dream job.

This step requires significant commitment. Barry Schwartz, in his influential research on “The Paradox of Choice” found that people fall into two categories: “maximizers” and “satisficers.” Maximizers exhaustively search for the best possible option, and “satisficers” set standards, meet them, and are content. His studies revealed that college students who were maximizers reported significantly lower satisfaction and higher levels of regret than those who were satisficers when it came to selecting sources.

By adopting a satisficer mindset, you’ll conserve your cognitive resources for deeper, more meaningful work. You won’t waste them on the psychologically taxing process of constant comparison. 

Step two: Get to know the company, and help them improve

Next, it’s time to study the company and what they do. You’ll want to use the product (if you can), talk to various employees, and study the competitors. You’ll also want talk to the competitors’ employees, and try to figure out what you could improve and how.

GenAI tools will be extremely helpful in this process as you sift through the details. Every company has projects and automation solution needs that they don’t have the bandwidth to create. An outsider’s perspective can be invaluable to an organization. Don’t be afraid of building a technical solution, and build a working prototype.

If you’re able to get feedback from real users, do that before you present that solution to the company. Ideally, you want to get in front of the person who is leading that effort or someone with decision-making power.

Yes, the time commitment to do this will not be trivial. However, your efforts will be focused and highly directional. You won’t be spending hundreds of hours sending a generic application to open positions. You might, however, spend the same amount of time on this project.

What you will demonstrate is a few key characteristics, such as initiative, ability to innovate and build, and complex problem-solving skills. If you can build a working prototype and present it clearly to the project or team lead, you’re much more likely to land a job. Yes, even one that the company isn’t actively hiring for. AI skill sets are incredibly valuable in an AI-driven workplace. And what if you don’t get hired? You’ll still end up with a portfolio of work that will strengthen your résumé in a way that applying to hundreds of jobs does not. 

AI is changing the nature of work, how we hire, and how we grow in our careers. The traditional path from entry-level to gradual advancement is slowly becoming obsolete as companies use AI to automate the first-rung tasks. But you can be in control.

Just as YouTube washed away the gatekeeping control universities had on knowledge, AI tools now offer you a chance to buck the hiring process. You won’t need to waste hundreds of hours and mental energy submitting to traditional application channels and hiring algorithms. Instead, you can use these powerful tools to research companies deeply, identify their actual problems, and build working solutions that demonstrate your value. And you can do all this before a recruiter sets up an interview.  

You show what you are truly capable of, which is something that no generic application form would capture. And in the end, this gives you the power to design your own entry point to your dream organization.

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