Stop Updating Your Resume

3 high leverage moves that actually land jobs in 2025

You’ve sent out 43 resumes. Maybe more. No calls. No responses. No idea what’s wrong.

Here’s the truth: your resume isn’t broken. The system is.

Gen Z is the most educated generation in history — and the most underemployed:

Everyone starts with their resume. But after reviewing thousands, I can tell you — the good ones all blur together.

The Resume is Dead

As Zoe Williams put it bluntly in The Guardian:

Forget polishing your CV – you’re better off working on your connections. That’s the depressing reality when every vacancy attracts thousands of applications, all written by AI.

She’s not wrong. With every job posting drawing thousands of AI-generated applications, even a great resume is just more noise.

You don’t need better formatting. You need more leverage.

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High-Value Activities to get a Job in 2025

1. Get Out of Your House

You need to get out of your house and get to know people because people (not resumes) help you get jobs. As a 1st generation college student, I know the challenges of building a network from scratch, but the highest value activity for someone looking for a job is getting to know people, sharing what you want to do, and building relationships.

Practically, start with who you already know and where you can get easy introductions. Make a list of your family, friends, and acquaintances. Then make a list of places you attended school, alumni/business networks, and any professional industries that could provide warm introductions to companies/places you want to work.

That quirky high school teacher might have better connections than you think.

Your college professor likely has business contacts they leverage for industry research.

Your uncle who lives in California may get coffee with someone who would give you a job.

99% of you will not follow this advice because it’s easier to pretend you’re doing something high value (like refining the action verbs on your resume for the 1000th time) as opposed to actually doing something high value (making connections and meeting people).

Yes. Digital life is frictionless, but that ease is costing you opportunities.

You need to build a network of people that want to support you and are willing to vouch for you when the next job opens.

2. Use ChatGPT to Outwork 100 Applicants

If you’re reading this, I bet you spent $20 on something frivolous this month (me too).

You need to go to ChatGPT, sign up for a $20 monthly Plus plan, and use it for all of your job-seeking activities as a little assistant.

Here are some high value prompts you can give your new AI assistant:

• Refine my resume for these roles (and give it links to the roles you’re interested in)

• Create a list of 20 companies that I should target based on my education, background, experience, and goals. Give me specific titles of roles, current open roles on their Careers site, and build a tracker so that I can track my progress over time

• Write a creative and effective message that I can send to this person who works at X company. Here is the link to their LinkedIn profile. Craft it in a way that is tailored to their seniority and role at the company

• I’m frustrated and feel stuck. What are three things I can do to reset and make progress in my job search?

At some point in the future, access to this technology will be extremely expensive but, for now, it’s $20 per month.

You don’t need to master AI, just start using it. This $20 tool can 10x your job search if you let it.

3. Stay in the Game (Even When It Feels Rigged)

Look, the job market is broken. Applicant tracking systems ghost 95% of people without a glance. Your well-meaning parents say to “just follow up” or—even worse—you just need to try harder.

You’re not crazy. You’re just playing a game with invisible rules.

Don't be most people. Endurance is your edge.

The people who land jobs in this market aren’t always the smartest or most qualified — they’re the ones who have a plan and are still persisting when others stop trying.

The market doesn’t reward perfect resumes. It rewards persistence and people who make connections.

So build your system. Run your play. And keep showing up after others quit.

I’m rooting for you.

-Justin

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