With the “bottom rung of the career ladder breaking,” according to Aneesh Raman, chief economic opportunity officer at LinkedIn, new graduates and other workers early in their careers face less certain paths for getting professional toeholds and experience that can serve them over their lifetimes. That also ups the stakes for managers and mentors to help young workers identify and cultivate the skills that will best serve them.
We reached out to leaders from a range of organizations and perspectives on talent for their advice for how young workers can best futureproof their careers. Their answers—which arguably are relevant to all of us as AI changes our jobs—are excerpted below, edited lightly for length and clarity.
Teuila Hanson, chief people officer, LinkedIn
AI literacy is quickly becoming a core skill in today’s workplace—the percentage of job listings requiring this skill have increased more than sixfold on LinkedIn in just the past year. Regardless of your industry, finding ways to incorporate AI tools into your day-to-day work will help you stay ahead of the curve. That said, human skills that technology can’t replicate are just as important: adaptability, collaboration, and clear communication remain irreplaceable in any role. What employers care about most is your ability to learn and evolve. Showcasing your coachability and commitment to continuous growth will set you apart in that critical first year and beyond. The future belongs to people who can pivot quickly alongside their companies as the world changes, and mastering this agility early in your career will become your greatest competitive advantage down the line.
Jordan Taylor, CEO and co-founder, Medley
Focus on building and strengthening your growth mindset. If you own your capacity to learn and grow, you’ll be able to embrace challenges, receive feedback effectively, and continuously improve. You’ll also be able to engage more effectively with others. Your first year out of school is a big transition—you’re figuring out how to work, manage your time and energy, and care for yourself without the structure you’ve been used to. If you’re able to have a growth mindset across all of these areas, learnings will compound in your first year on the job and you’ll start off on a strong foot. Congratulations to all 2025 graduates!
A few traits 2025 grads may not have, but should in order to succeed at work today and in the future are:
- Learn how to have productive, constructive, and empathetic conversations with people you fundamentally disagree with. I tell leaders all the time: put people on your leadership team who you disagree with, maybe even don’t like, as it will lead to better outcomes. Learn to agree to disagree and still be good colleagues and even friends.
- Be data-driven. All day, every day, a ton of information is thrown at us. Some good, some bad, some true, and some untrue. My advice is to resist consuming and believing everything you read. Wean yourself off social media echo chambers and, rather, do the work to get to the underlying facts, even on complex, nuanced topics. Listen to both sides, then form your own opinions based on data and analysis, not who yells the loudest.
- Be an upstander. With the increasing complexity of the world around us, there is a lot of risk for things to go wrong, creating more challenges for employees and the organizations they work for. As navigating the business world becomes trickier, it’s critical to remember to stand up for others. When you see something that is wrong, or you think might be wrong, dare to say something and intervene—even if it is small. The worst thing that can happen is that you are wrong and learn from it.
Scott Cowen, president emeritus, Tulane University and author of Lead and Succeed
I would look for a mentor. I talk about this in Lead and Succeed, but mentors were formative for me in my education and early career. Without those mentors, I don’t think I would have done a lot of the things I did, like pursuing a doctorate degree and a career in higher education. It was one of my mentors who pushed me to pursue a position at a major research institution, which led me to Case Western Reserve University and ultimately, Tulane. Mentors, people who have been successful and are willing to take the time to help you, can help you be the best person you can be in the job you have now—but they can also help you envision a future that suits you even better. Let them in, ask them questions, and let them help you.
Start by becoming deeply customer-obsessed. Whether your customers are external clients or internal teams, prioritize getting in front of them, listening closely, and understanding their biggest pain points. The most valuable employees are those who take the time to learn what truly matters to the people they are serving. That begins with empathy and curiosity, but it will enable you to think critically about their needs and actually help solve real problems which will take you further in the long-run.
Joe Marchese, general & build partner, Human Ventures
Be curious and try a lot of different roles to discover where your strongest skillsets are. Jump into the jobs that allow you to do the most amount of things, even if you don’t like them. You’ll naturally excel at the things you enjoy doing, but building a broad set of skills early on will create a wider and diverse path of future opportunities.
And give value before you ask for value. How can you be helpful—don’t just tell people you want to pick their brain or learn from them. Show that you have agency, and that the world doesn’t happen to you.
Athena Karp, SVP of Product Marketing, Workday
I would recommend for all new grads starting their careers to spend as much time as they can tinkering with AI—the iteration cycles of learning how and in what ways AI is different from humans and the ways it can serve you as employees in getting work done in new ways to bring out your unique skills, to come up with ideas that beat the competition or find novel ways to deliver value to customers and peers, to eliminate mundane work, and hopefully to find a way enjoy the work you do more.
We need to shift from thinking of ‘future proofing’ jobs to preparedness for the continual evolution of jobs, which includes a worker’s ability to fully embrace the tremendous benefits that AI can bring to them in maximizing the power of AI collaboration to get work done, as work will continue to shift at a rapid pace. It is critical that new grads and all workers embrace the skills that will matter most, including curiosity and adaptability.