If someone forwarded you this email, feel free to subscribe below.

Check out all live early career job openings on Forward’s job board, updated weekly.

Making a new connection is hard… but so is keeping that connection alive. Here are three ways you can keep a new networking connection active (without taking up too much of your time, or theirs):

You don’t have to constantly ask for meetings with people - sometimes that isn’t what is helpful. But these sorts of messages are a way to build lasting connections, and community more broadly!

Over 90 minutes, we will cover:

I’m having conversations with recruiters, hiring managers, and other talent decision-makers weekly, and want to share tidbits of what I’m learning with y’all here too! 

FYI - these aren’t direct quotes, but a summary of a longer conversation!!

This is definitely a scary thing to hear. What does it mean for candidates?

For both non-technical and technical job seekers, what this means is that we have to re-imagine what skills we are developing and how we are speaking about them.

Here’s an example of what this looks like if I was applying to an entry-level marketing job:

BEFORE: “I have a weekly email newsletter about the tech scene in Austin that I send out using MailChimp. It goes out to 5k subscribers, and has an average open rate of 45%”

AFTER: “I have a weekly email newsletter about the tech scene in Austin that I send out using MailChimp. In order to more quickly and efficiently create the content, I learned how to use a tool called Jasper AI that allows me to create a month’s worth of content, that I then go in and personally edit. That saved me 4 hours a month, which I put towards growing my subscribers by 15% since the start of the year.”

Here’s why this is impactful.

We know AI is the future (for everyone, not just engineers). But a lot of companies are still trying to figure out how to leverage it. The best way to stand out in a competitive, and rapidly changing market, is to demonstrate that you have the core skill (ie writing email newsletters), but the resourcefulness/savviness to use technology to elevate that skill (ie using Jasper AI to create more time to work on the important stuff!)

Job searching is hard work. You deserve a break. Here’s how I took time to rest and recharge this week!

If you’re in Texas today, you know it is way too damn cold to do anything outside. Self-care is cozy today, with a fake fireplace and my current favorite book, The God of the Woods by Liz Moore!

Thanks for showing up this week! We appreciate you. See y’all same time next week!