A Social Media Feed For Job Posts, The Latest Jobs Report And More

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Scrolling through TikTok during your lunch break again? If your “for you” page is anything like mine, you’ve probably seen posts of employees filming themselves getting laid off or recruiters breaking down the latest #CareerTok trend. You may have even searched for “day in the life” videos to learn more about what it’s like to work at a certain company.

“Gen Z—more than any other generation—is more acclimated to consuming video content as their source of truth, news or opinion,” Adam Robinson, founder and CEO at recruiting software company Hireology, told me in a recent interview.

Even some job platforms are following suit. To add that similar level of serendipity to Gen Z’s job search process, Handshake, a jobs site for college students, launched its new interface, adding video tools for employers and social media-like scrolling features. The “feed” allows students to swipe through job postings, events such as career fairs, alumni reviews and advice, as well as short-form videos created by employers, another new tool. In my latest story, I spoke exclusively with Handshake cofounder Garrett Lord about the revamp and what it means for Gen Z job seekers—and the companies who want to hire them.

The new design comes amid a tumultuous job market and continued layoffs (see below for the latest news). Yet, Lord says there’s still demand to hire employees, including college students.

Read on for more workplace news and career advice for navigating the changes. Hope it’s a great week.

WORK SMARTER

Practical insights and advice from Forbes staff and contributors to help you succeed in your job, accelerate your career and lead smarter

Watch for these red flags during the interview process.

If you have a toxic boss, there are ways to cope that don’t involve quitting.

But if you are quitting, here’s how to write a thoughtful resignation letter.

First job? Here are steps to budget.

CAREER ADVICE Q&A

Prior to joining Papa Johns in 2020, Amanda Clark worked at Taco Bell and Procter and Gamble. Interesting enough, the COO studied theater and psychology in college. I sat down with Clark to discuss nonlinear career paths and her advice for climbing the corporate ladder.

Having a theater background actually does help in business—because first of all, you have to present quite a bit, so it definitely helps with all the presentations and even with general communication.

You have to have an open mind in your career. Maybe I had a different thought when I was starting out my career that it would really be a straight line: “You major in this and you go on to do this. I’m a psych major, maybe I’m going to go on to run a clinic.” And sometimes you change. You get exposed to new things, and I think people need to keep an open mind and also know that sometimes—and I used to roll my eyes when I’d hear this when I was younger—your career isn’t always a straight line. Sometimes it zigs and zags to get to the place that you ultimately want to get to. If you keep the destination in mind, the journey may look very different than what you originally set out to have it look like.

First of all, you’ve got to start with yourself and ask, “What do you want to be as an employee, and what do you want to contribute?” Then you can start to influence teams.

I always thought it would be great to have the opportunity to really influence culture from a higher level and also have an opportunity to maybe give some people a chance that others would have overlooked in certain business settings. I’ve been fortunate to have been able to do that and have that opportunity, so I think that’s one of the reasons why I always aspire to be in that C-suite and be able to help people just like I was helped from different points in my career by those same people.

I feel in the early 2000s, there was this trend of making your opportunities your strengths, and there was a big focus on that. For me personally, I was a psych and theater major. There are some things that I’m really good at, and there are some things that I’m just not going to be great at. I’m never going to be an accountant. And when that trend came along, I was so focused on my opportunities and how I can be better at accounting, for example, that it made me lose the sense of what I was good at, and it made me lose a lot of confidence. That’s just not the right way to go about it.

What you want to do is focus on making your strengths superpowers and just knock those strengths out of the park. When I think about how I use that now with my teams, I look at my teams as individuals and what their individual strengths are, and I try to balance them. I don’t try to make everyone a perfect person. I try to balance the team as a whole, understanding each individual’s strengths.

My advice for people who want to climb the corporate ladder, so to speak, is to be yourself and to be your authentic self and to embrace your strengths. Turn those into superpowers, and find an organization that values those things, because that’s exactly how you’re going to be successful. If you’re always trying to fit the mold of something that you aren’t, you’re working too hard and it doesn’t need to be that way. You’re masking the strengths that you really have.

TOUCH BASE

News from the world of work

This Gen Z job site is creating a social media-style feed for its jobs platform: Handshake, cofounded by Forbes 30 Under 30 lister Garrett Lord, announced its new scrollable feed Tuesday that allows students to swipe through job postings, events such as career fairs, alumni reviews and advice, as well as short-form videos created by employers.

Why a recession is still around the corner: Job growth is hot, inflation is cooling and stocks continue to rally. So why do some economic experts continue to forecast a recession? Forbes’ Bob Ivry looks for the answer.

Layoffs: UPS plans to reduce its workforce by some 12,000 employees, the shipping giant announced on its fourth quarter earnings call last week after it fell short of expectations at the end of 2023. Social media company Snap is laying off about 10% of its workforce. And Uber plans to cut more than 150 workers as part of its decision to shut down its alcohol delivery service, Drizly.

Jobs report: The U.S. added far more jobs than expected last month, according to data released by the Labor Department. Unemployment stayed flat at 3.7%, below forecasts of 3.8%.

CHECKLIST

Add these books and videos to your to-do list

• In this video, Eugenio Aleman, SVP and chief economist at Raymond James, joins “Forbes Newsroom” to react to the January jobs report.

• In this story, contributor Rachel Wells highlights five leadership books to add to your 2024 list.

NUMBER TO NOTE

That’s the number of people who were laid off from U.S.-based employers last month, according to a new report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

With the exception of January 2023, when 102,943 job cuts were announced, last month saw the highest number of layoffs since January 2009, when 241,749 people lost their jobs, Forbes’ Mary Whitfill Roeloffs reports. If you’ve found yourself affected, one contributor shares her tips for navigating a layoff.

QUIZ

Adam Neumann, the cofounder of which co-working company, is plotting to buy back his now-bankrupt former company alongside billionaire Dan Loeb’s hedge fund Third Point?

1. WeWork
2. Impact Hub
3. Regus
4. DropDesk

Check if you got it right here.