Advice for career starters from every generation in the workplace

Starting a career has never been simple. But throw in a years-long pandemic that redefined the world of work, and a recession following that, and you’ve got a whole new kind of challenge.

Who should you turn to for advice? Is it your friend’s dad, who has run a company for a couple decades? Or should you talk to someone who found their first job more recently, like that friend who graduated in 2020 and moved away to start their dream career? Or maybe you should try to find a hiring manager who can share what they look for in new employees? 

LinkedIn has gathered advice from all these types of professionals, and many more. The more information you have, the better armed you’ll be to launch your career on the right foot. 

Here’s a roundup of the best advice for today’s career starters we found, from professionals across industries, generations, genders.

Be yourself and try new things

Dai’Ja Reed realized six months into her first full-time job that she wasn’t in the right role. After graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2019 with a Bachelor’s degree in risk management, insurance, and financial planning, she accepted a position as an account coordinator at the Medical Society of Virginia insurance agency. But, as Reed says, “sometimes you have a dream job and then when you get out to start doing it, you realize it's not what you made it to be in your mind.” 

Over the next year, Reed was intentional about finding her next move. She made lists of her likes and dislikes, her strengths and weaknesses and the circumstances in which she does her best work. The work paid off: She found her current job as an underwriting assistant at specialty insurance company Verus. She says this thinking process also helped her get to know herself better, which she considers a huge strength in the job search and in life outside of work. 

Career coaches, HR experts, and successful professionals of all ages echo Reed’s sentiment: Knowing what you want and staying true to who you are are essential assets to finding the right career.

Charlie Saffro, Gen X

Current job: President, CS Recruiting

Favorite job: “I sometimes miss my waitressing days, although I have to admit I really love what I do now in my current role.”

Best advice for career starters: “Invest time to build your LinkedIn profile and personal brand. Companies are hiring for ‘cultural fits’ and character more than ever, so they want to get to know you beyond your resume!”

Alyson DeMaso, Gen X

Current job: Founder and CEO, Raising Beauty

Favorite job: Founder and CEO, Raising Beauty

Advice for career starters: “Get grounded in what you want your life to look [and] feel like, who you wish to be, and then seek career opportunities that support your vision. Plan your career to support your life. Not the other way around.”

Dr. Chris Stout, Baby Boomer

Current job: Founding director, Center for Global Initiatives

Favorite job: Clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Center for Global Health, College of Medicine, University of Illinois, Chicago

Best advice for career starters: “Have a direction, but it doesn't have to be the right one (or the only one).”

Vaibhav Singh, Millennial

Current job: Software engineer at Amazon

Favorite job: Barista at Starbucks

Best advice for career starters: “Take risks, change jobs often and try to work in diverse fields if possible. Try learning new things everyday, make friends and have fun!”

Foster an appetite for learning

Knowing yourself isn’t all it takes to find your dream career. Professionals from every generation highlighted the importance of cultivating curiosity and the eagerness to learn in their advice to people starting their careers this year.

Amit Parmar, CEO at A.I.-powered employer branding platform Cliquify, says his willingness to explore new fields helped him build the career he loves today. He graduated college with a degree in medical technology, and he then took a job at Johnson & Johnson as a research scientist. His boss at J&J asked him if he’d be interested in learning to run the lab’s business operations while attending graduate school on the company’s dime. Parmar said yes. He graduated with a master’s in human resources from Rutgers in 2004 and has been working in HR ever since. 

His first job in HR was with IBM as a consultant for Fortune 100 companies. He had to learn a lot on the fly at that job, which he says got him hooked on gaining knowledge and staying curious at work.

“We’re hiring right now,” he says, “I don’t care if you know how to code. How quickly can you learn something? That’s what I really look for.” 

Andy Yost, Gen X

Current job: CMO/Advisor, Kinsa

Favorite Job: Head of Platinum Card, American Express

Best advice for career starters: “Lifelong learning and networking are foundational to building the skills necessary for a successful and satisfying career. Always be adding something new to your career toolkit!”

Julee A. Wingo, Baby boomer

Current job: Owner, Wingo and Associates, LLC

Favorite job: Consultant in learning and development at Kellogg Company

Best advice for career starters: “Manage your own development by looking for opportunities to grow your skills [and] knowledge and let as many people as possible know what you are capable of and what you enjoy doing.”

It’s about who you know

As you explore the fields that interest you, you’re bound to meet professionals who want to help you on your way, just like others helped them as they were coming up. This is how you begin to build a network, which American Industrial Acquisition Corporation’s Bobby Blumenfeld says is “the most important thing you can do.”

Over his five-decade career, Blumenfeld says one of his only regrets is not developing a network at a younger age. These days, he says, social media and digital tools have made it easier than ever to foster your network and keep track of everyone in it. He advises career starters to stay in front of the people they network with by posting thoughtful commentary on the businesses they are interested in and finding real connections. Your strongest connections may turn into mentors, and he urges career starters to find several, if possible. 

If you don’t know where to start, Blumenfeld advises career starters to read industry news, listen to podcasts and panels, follow industry leaders on social media and contact professors who focus in your areas of interest. He also suggests you cast a wide net, following paths that pique your interest. You never know where the next thing you read or connection you make will take you. 

“I got most of my jobs from my network, I get customers and clients from my network,” he says. “It’s the people you expose yourself to. That’s where you get a job through a friend of a friend. Now you have a job. That’s how it always goes, that’s the network.” 

Cecily Whiteside, Gen X

Current job: Owner of Sora Creative Content & SEO Strategy 

Favorite job: “What I do now, helping clients get found on Google. A close second was magazine editor at a glossy for-profit magazine in a small town.”

Best advice for career starters: “Building relationships is central to your career, so invest time and effort into maintaining them with those above you in the company hierarchy and below you as you move up.”

Gertrude Nonterah, PhD, RN, Millennial

Current job: Medical writer

Favorite job: “Being a medical writer and speaking to audiences about career change and courage.”

Best advice for career starters: “By strategically building your relationships … building a resume that immediately connects with recruiters and learning from informational interviews, you will gain more traction in your job search than ‘spraying’ your resume everywhere hoping something will stick.”

Evan Hartzog, Gen Z

Current job: Senior talent associate at Wayfair

Favorite job: “My current job as a senior talent associate.”

Best advice for career starters: “To be coached is to be loved!”

Ludovico Verniani, Gen Z

Current job: Founder, Quadra

Favorite job: Founder, Quadra

Best advice for career starters: “Don't be another cold resume. Go to career fairs and get in the face of recruiters to leave memorable introductions.”

Bobby Blumenfeld, Baby boomer

Current job: Director North America, AIAC (American Industrial Acquisition Corporation)

Favorite job: “One that helps others to succeed.”

Best advice for career starters: “Treat your co-workers, employees, network and relationships with respect. When you’re moving up in your career, you never know if one day you will need the help of others.”

Enjoy the ride

Above all else, make every effort to enjoy your career. The average person will spend over 90,000 hours working in their lifetime. If you do your best to know yourself, stay curious and make meaningful connections, you will have the toolkit you need to build a career you love. 

Zach Mercurio, Millennial

Current Job: Author and meaningful work researcher

Favorite Job: “My current one (and being a dad).” 

Best advice for career starters: “Remember, long-term meaningfulness in life and work comes from contribution and usefulness, not acquisition and achievement.”

Lance Halley, Gen X

Current job: Global client executive, Medidata

Favorite job: Supply officer, United States Navy

Best advice for career starters: “Enjoy your journey, learn and grow; and if you're not, talk to people you trust about what you could change to start enjoying it.”

For more guidance on beginning your work life, check out the 2022 Guide to Kickstarting Your Career, an in-depth and data-backed look at the entry-level job market right now. 

Good luck out there, career starters!