How to Find Your Career Path

Hi everyone and welcome to Get Hired Live. I'm your host Andrew Seaman, LinkedIn Senior News Editor for Job Searches and Careers. I'm so excited that you're here joining us today. We already have so many of you joining us in the stream. We have Dolores from Dallas, Sammy from Detroit, Lisa from Connecticut, Aliyah from New York where I am, William from Georgia, Austin from Chicago, Jasmine from North Carolina, we have Quinn from Minnesota, Asia from North Dakota, and we have Kladisha from Memphis. So welcome to all of you. Keep introducing yourselves, tell us where you're from, a little bit about your job search or your career, and just tell us maybe what you want to get out of your career or your job search, something you're struggling with because, you know, it's a great time to really network. So maybe you see someone who works in your field, maybe they work in your industry, you can reach out to them, build those bridges, say, hey, do you want to review resumes or do you want to chat about how your job search is going? It's really great to build those connections because they're the foundation of a successful job search or career. And really, you know, there's no better time to start than right now. So make sure you're doing that. And then once you get those introductions out of the way, then what I want you to do is also ask questions because we have an incredible guest here today, and we're going to be taking those questions in just a little bit. But first, we're going to talk about career starters. And career starters, obviously, are people who are just entering the workforce, or maybe they're just trying to change careers right now and they're starting from the ground up. And we just published a really great report, and my producers will be pushing it out into the comments in just a little bit. So keep watching the comments. I'll post it a few times. And really, this is showing you about entry-level jobs around the United States. And we have these reports, excuse me, in several different countries. But in the US, what we're seeing is that there is a big pool from southern states to get entry-level workers. And it's really the biggest growth in entry-level jobs are happening across industries. So you have everything from staffing to recruiting and then hospitality, but then you have more specialized services too. So make sure that you are checking that report out. Like I said, my producers are going to be dropping that link in the comments, and you're going to really want to dive into all that data and all the helpful advice that my colleague Gianna Prudente put together. And without further ado, I want to bring someone onto the stream who's really fantastic about guiding people throughout their careers and really helping people kickstart what's going on. So I want to welcome Austin Belsak. So welcome, Austin. You are the founder of Cultivated Culture. So welcome back to the show. Thanks for having me, Andrew. It's a pleasure to be here. And it's been a minute since we caught up, so I'm glad we're back for round three. Definitely. And we have so many people joining us in the stream. We have Dale from Utah, Debbie from Florida, Joan from Ohio, we have Mathibi from South Africa, we have George from Vancouver, we have Bob from St. Louis, Sierra from Oregon, we have Brad from California, and we also have Natasha from Kuwait. So we have people from all over the world looking to kickstart their careers and networking in the So that's really great. And the first question that I have for you is, what do you think is really the job outlook right now for 2022 for people who are entering the workforce right now? Yeah, I think it's incredibly positive. And it's obviously been a bit of a rough couple of years, obviously, personally and professionally, but we've seen the market rebound substantially. So if you look at the growth in the number of new jobs and job openings, it's basically just a line that's going up into the right and we're hitting highs, if not every month, every other month. And so I think the outlook is pretty much the best that it's been before the pandemic. And a lot of companies have really figured out what the future looks like, right? I would say new normal, but I think that might be overplayed. So what the future looks like for a lot of them, and they've come up with strategies, and they've refined their budgets, and they have plans. And so now they're looking to bring in amazing people to help execute on those plans and help them get to the next level. So I don't think it's been a better time. And the timing is great, obviously, if we're especially talking about younger folks who are just starting their careers, graduating, or have been in their role for a year, maybe two years, there's going to be a lot of opportunity for those folks, whether they're stepping into a job for the first time, whether they've been working in a job, and they think, maybe this isn't for me, and I want to try something else. There's never been a better time to step into something new, whether it's your first job or a totally different space. Totally. And a lot of the economists I'm talking to, and I've been reaching out to a few of them, because we're seeing headlines, obviously, about some companies putting into place hiring freezes and hiring slowing down. But one of the things that they keep sort of stressing is that we are coming off a time of really immense growth. So we had a lot of hiring going on. So even if things are slowing, it doesn't mean that things are stopping. It's slowing down from really the rapid pace we were at. And then on top of that, yeah, some companies are putting in hiring freezes, but at the same time, it doesn't mean that all of them are. So you might hear some notable companies that are doing that, but at the same time, it doesn't mean a lot of the sort of backbone of the economy is actually putting hiring freezes. So don't let those doom and gloom headlines necessarily outweigh the reality of what's happening on the ground. And I think what you said is right, is that hiring is still going, even if it slows down a little bit, it's still going up. So that's something that's important to remember. And for people who are entering the job search right now, we have a lot of people who are graduating from college, and maybe they don't have an internship lined up. So if you're really graduating without sort of knowing what your next step is going to be, what would you suggest they do now? Yeah, absolutely. So one of the best things that you can do if you're graduating and your goal is to get into a full-time job, obviously, you're going to want to hit the job search, and you're going to want to start creating some opportunities for yourself. So the best way to do that is to start by just casting a wide net. There's a lot of channels available to us. There are obviously the online job boards and applications, there's networking, there's connecting with recruiters in your field, and so many other different channels that we can use. And my best advice is to cast a wide net at first, and start tracking what you're doing, and really start to work to understand where your results are coming from. My whole tagline is teaching people how to get jobs without applying online. A lot of folks get frustrated with the online application process, and especially as we see more jobs open, and as we see more people excited to get in the door for those jobs, the competition for them increases. So my recommendation would be, one, to always follow the data, but then two, to really double down on what's working. And what we see across the board for most of the people that we work with, and most of the people in the market, is that referrals are really the way to get in the door and really have your value seen and recognized. So the way that I tell people to approach this is to start with 10 to 15 companies that you're really, really excited about. So rather than just showing up on a job board and saying, okay, what are the new roles today? Do I like them? And if I do, maybe I'll hit easy apply or submit an online app. Instead, getting a little bit more targeted and saying, all right, this is the space that I want to be in. And here are 10 to 15 companies that are in that space that also align with my personal values and where I want to go with my career and what I care about. And then we can go really, really deep on those specific companies, researching them to learn a little bit more about what their goals look like for the next 6 to 12 months, what challenges they may be facing, what initiatives they're rolling out. And then we can really work to build a case and a narrative that aligns our experience to the company's goals, right? Helping them achieve the things that they're hoping to achieve. And then we can get out and we can start building relationships. And typically I recommend that we try to identify around 10 to 15 people at all of our, all of these target companies. So around a hundred to 150 people total. And these folks should either be able to, you know, they should be on the hiring team or they should be able to refer you in, influence your ability to get hired, or they should be able to give you some additional info and context around some of those goals, challenges, and initiatives that we spoke about. And then the hope is that we build relationships with those folks and we work to turn them into advocates who not only refer us into these companies, but who are going to go to bat for us, who are going to go to the hiring manager and say, Hey, I have this awesome guy, Andrew, who I've been talking to for a couple of weeks. You know, he just graduated. He has some awesome experience. And I think we really need to get him in the door for an interview. That's going to be your best bet to stand out from the immense amount of competition that you're likely going to be facing in traditional channels and give you the best shot of getting your value recognized. Totally. And, you know, we have so many people joining us on the stream who I think, you know, we're finding this helpful and I just want to remind them to get their questions in because we're going to be taking them in just a little bit. But I want to say hi to Aftab from Saudi Arabia, Leonard from Europe. We have Craig from Queens across the river from me on the East River. We have Hilda from Indiana. We have Bini from India. And then we have Arun from Toronto. And we have Karen from Arkansas, Anthony from Los Angeles. Hello to all of you. Thank you so much for joining us. And like I said, keep getting your questions and we'll get to them in just a bit. And, you know, Austin, you know, the next question I have for you is basically we have people who are graduating. Maybe they don't have something lined up, but some people they do have internships lined up. When I graduated from grad school, I had an internship and fellowship. So, you know, for people who are find themselves in that position, what should they be doing to making it a success? But then also, you know, how can they maybe turn that internship into a full time job? Definitely. So there's a couple of things that you want to do when you land an internship that are really going to help you maximize the outcomes of that experience. A couple of the mistakes that I see people make when they start is they kind of show up and they hope that the company is going to have this blueprint for them that's going to give them everything that they want. And that's not typically the case. Instead, you know, the company might have some idea of what they want you to do. Maybe it's working on one specific project or maybe it's supporting a specific initiative or whatever it is. And there are varying degrees of, I would say, structure for these internships. Some of them are highly structured and some of them are highly unstructured. And instead of letting the company dictate, you know, your outcomes and what you get from this experience, I think it's much better to put yourself in the driver's seat. And the best way to do that to start is to think about what specifically you want to get out of this role. So one of the biggest things I hear from a lot of folks who are just starting their careers is that they're struggling with experience, right? I don't have enough experience or other people have more experience than I do, or I don't have the right experience. So all of these things can come to the surface when we're recent grads or when we've been in our role for a year, whatever it is. So if we want to capitalize on this internship, one thing that we can do is think about the exact experience we want to build. So looking ahead, when we say, okay, I want to have a full-time job in this specific space, maybe this specific role, maybe these specific sets of companies, what exact experience do I need to be competitive? And then how can I work my way back to the internship that I'm in now to create a plan to enable me to get that experience? So that's the first thing I would do is create that expectation and kind of that blueprint for yourself so that when you start, you can make sure that the experience that you're getting is aligned to your goal of generating results or outcomes that align with the area that you want to get into. So that's the first thing. The second thing that I would say is just networking as much as you possibly can. This is another area that is a little bit murky for a lot of folks. A lot of people know they need to network. We tell them that they need to network, but not many people know exactly how to actually go out there and execute on it. So one of the things that can help you really make this easier is just tapping into the pool of folks that are available to you right now. When you're starting an internship, you can essentially play that new employee or new intern card, and that will get you in the door with a lot of folks. So my recommendation would be to get out there and specifically try to locate the people who are working in the roles that you would want to get hired into down the road. And I would set up time. I would offer to buy them coffee. I would go hang out with them. And I would say, okay, one, can you tell me about your job in your own words? I've heard it in the job description, in the interviews, but I want to hear it from you. What do you do on a day-to-day basis? And then I might ask them about the biggest challenge that their team is facing or the biggest opportunity that their team has in front of them right now. And then finally, I might ask them for their best piece of advice for an intern or somebody who's new at the company. So through that, you're going to build some rapport with these folks who are in a position to influence your ability to get hired at the most, and then at the very least, are at least able to give you a lot of information that will help you understand how to best position yourself to get hired into these roles at another company. So that's the second thing, is to talk to as many of those people as you possibly can. And then third, what I would do is make a point to actually get the results. I've talked to a lot of folks who go into internships and then they leave. And I say, well, what happened there? You worked on this project. I see it on your resume. What was the outcome? And they tell me, well, Austin, I don't know. I was only there for three months. So how could I possibly have any outcomes? Or I was just an intern. I didn't really do anything meaningful. And both of those things are kind of damaging, especially the second one for our self-talk. But then the first one, because we're not actually getting the results that we want. So I'd say two things here. The first is that you need to understand that if you're a part of the team and that team achieves an outcome, you were a part of that outcome and you can absolutely take credit for those results. Now, this isn't to say you can show up and be like, yeah, I did this specific thing and this was all me. But instead, you can say, hey, I was part of this team that achieved this really awesome result. And here's the specific thing that I did. In terms of actually getting those results, the best piece of advice I can have is at the very end of your internship, send an email to every single person that you interacted with and just ask them if you can keep the lines of communication open. And they'll likely say yes. So then when they do get those results, you can check back in and you can just set a calendar invite too. We might not know exactly when the results come. So maybe a month down the road, three months down the road, we set a calendar invite and we just follow up with them and we say, hey, Andrew, hope you're doing well. Obviously, it's been a couple months since the internship ended, but I know we were really excited about the launch of this specific initiative. And I just wanted to check in and see how to go. Did you hit the numbers that you were hoping for? Did you all run into any challenges or did any new questions come up? I'd just love to understand how that went because we spent a lot of time working on it and I've been super excited about that. And so that creates the space for, in this case, you, Andrew, or whoever that person is to share with you exactly what came out of it. And now you can take those results. You can put them on your resume. You can put them on your LinkedIn profile. You can work them into the interviews that you have. And that's just going to make you a more competitive candidate than all the other folks who can only talk about the actions that they took and they're not able to speak to the exact value that they drove. Yeah, definitely. I think that's really good advice. And I guess for people who are lucky enough to have a job lined up after graduation, what would you say is the advice for them? I assume it's similar to the people who are in an internship because an internship should be like a job. Absolutely. It's pretty much the same type of setup. First 90 days, what I'm looking to do, and I would say actually to take a step back, the change would really be in the type of connections that you're making. So if you're an intern, you really want to be connecting with the folks who can influence your ability to get hired and also the folks who are working in the roles that you want to get into because that's really what's going to give you the information and the strongest network for your next step. If you're already hired into this specific role, we want to expand that scope a little bit and shift it. So really who we're looking to impress are the people on our team and then also the people who can have that impact on our future. So when we think ahead to that next promotion or even two promotions down the line, who are the people that we need to know? Who are the people that need to understand the value that we bring to the table? And those are going to be the people that we add to our list. And then I would also just change up the questions a little bit. So again, as that new employee, you have the new person card, and most people are going to go out of their way to talk to the new person, but you only have about a three-month window to make this happen before the newness wears off and you're just another person who works at the company. So you want to capitalize on that window. And the best thing that I can recommend is to create that list of people who, again, are going to have the ability to influence your trajectory. And I'm going to email one of them every single weekday, and I'm going to aim to get coffee with one of them every single weekday. And I'm going to do the exact same thing where we sit down and I ask them questions. And two of the questions are going to be the same. One is going to be different. So the two questions that are going to be the same are, I'd love for you to explain your role in your own words. And I think this will be pretty interesting because a lot of these people that you're meeting with may or may not be in the same space that you are. So for me, my career has been in sales and partnerships, but we've worked with a lot of other folks. We've worked with finance and marketing. And so these aren't people who are in my direct field, my area of expertise. So understanding their job and their own words, and sort of in layman's terms, allowed me to better understand exactly what they did and how they viewed it, and therefore how I could best engage with that. So I find that that's always really helpful. And then obviously, what's your best piece of advice for a new person at this company? You're going to get so many great pieces. What I would say is, take these and put them in a spreadsheet. And when somebody gives you the same piece of advice, just add a plus one in the column next to it. And then what you can do is, after you've talked to 20, 30 people, you can go back and look and see, okay, I'm going to filter by most frequently mentioned all the way down to least frequently mentioned. And now you know, okay, these are the pieces of advice I should really be taking because this is what multiple people have told me. And these are people who have been really successful at the company. The new question that I want you to add into this mix is basically saying to the person, if you can wave a magic wand and have my team do or change or create anything that would make your job easier, what would that be? And by asking this question, essentially what we're doing is getting the blueprint for how we can help this person. And truly, the way that we build great relationships is by adding value to others. So if you go out there, and again, you talk to 20, 30 people in your first 90 days, and you get a whole bunch of problems, issues, requests, feedback, you can take that and again, save it maybe in that same spreadsheet. Now you have the blueprint for exactly how you can help these people. And if you're able to affect some of that change in some capacity or another, that's going to give you a lot of social capital with that person, which you can then cash in on when it comes time for that promotion, when it comes time for that raise, when it comes time to get on that project that you were really, really hoping for when you took this job, you're going to have invested in these people, they're going to be ready to invest back in you. So pretty much the same advice, you know, at a high level, but the way that we implement it, the way that we think about it, and the scope of it is a slight adjustment for folks who have jobs versus folks who are just going into internships right now. Yeah, those are really great points. And you know, we have so many questions coming in that I want to get to. But first, you know, I think a lot of people when they first start off after graduation, or we're entering the workforce, they end up feeling a little bit lost, and they make up a little bit of mistakes along the way. What's your advice for people who maybe feel lost? And also how to avoid common mistakes once they're entering the workforce? Yeah, so you're speaking about me here, Andrew, like this is my background, right? I graduated from college, I had a biology degree, I had terrible grades, I had a 2.58 GPA, and I had no idea what the heck I wanted to do. Like I picked biology because I thought I could become a doctor. And I wanted to become a doctor because it made my parents happy. And it made their friends, you know, not an approval. And my teachers were excited about it, but not really because that was something that I was actually excited about, or I was actually passionate about. So I graduated from school, and I just took this job that sort of aligned with my degree and what I could get into. And I absolutely hated it. So I had to make an entire career pivot within the first couple years of my career. And that was really freaking hard, to be honest. You know, I went through the traditional channels, I talked to these people and said, Hey, I've gone to you for advice for my whole life. And you know, here I am again, asking you, how do I make this change? And they all kind of told me the same thing, you know, tweak your resume, tweak your cover letter, apply for some jobs online, and it's a numbers game, you know, just keep throwing stuff out there. And that didn't work for me. You know, I applied to over 300 places in two months, when I started my job search, I got a big fat zero in terms of results and offers. And so I had to pivot and kind of create my own system. So if I could share some advice with the people out there who are getting out into the world, and aren't really sure what's right for them, or maybe feel like they took a misstep, right, they thought finance was right for them, they start working in a job in investment banking, they're like, Oh, my God, the hours and the culture, and I don't love this, I want to do something else. I just want you to know, first and foremost, that's totally normal. I think it's a ridiculous expectation that we're supposed to know exactly what we're, what we're supposed to do for the rest of our lives so early on, right, we pick this major, and that's supposed to define our careers, which is, you know, the next 40 years of our life. And how could you ever, how could you ever expect somebody who's, you know, 18 to 21 years old to know that, you know, all of us included. And so I actually just posted about this today how I don't have a five year plan. And I don't have a 10 year plan, I have a one year plan, because 10 years ago, I wanted to be a doctor, then, you know, seven years ago, I was working medical device sales. And then five, six years ago, I got my job at Microsoft. And now I help people with careers, like my career path has been all over the place. So the biggest thing I can say to people who are feeling this is that one, it's normal to feel this way. But in terms of taking action, that's really the best thing that you can do is to get out there and explore and act on this stuff. So the way that I like to frame this up is to start by thinking about what you're curious about, what are you interested in now, if what you're doing is not so interesting anymore? And then can you go find people who are doing this new thing? So let's say, you know, I was in medical device sales, and I wanted to work in sales and technology. So can I go out and find people who work in technology sales? And can I reach out to them? And can I talk to them, ask them, you know, what a day in their life looks like what they love about their job, what they don't love about their job, because that's important to know, too. And even more specifically, can I find people who jumped in from a non traditional background, I love the features that LinkedIn has in its search engine for this specific reason. One thing that I did was I made a list of 10 to 15 target companies. So you know, Microsoft, Google, LinkedIn, Amazon, etc. And then I went and I made a list of 10 to 15 companies that were operating in the space that I was in in the moment. So the medical device sales space, so Johnson and Johnson, Stryker, you know, etc, etc. And basically, what I'm getting at is, if you can make a list of your 10 target companies, and then 10 companies that are in the industry you're in now, you can actually go run a search for your target job title, then you can use LinkedIn's current company filter to put in your target companies. And then you can go use their past company filter to put in the companies that align with your current industry. And what you're going to get is a list of people who used to work in your current industry who now work in your target industry, who also work in the target roles that you're aiming for. And it's so easy to reach out to those people and say, Hey, I saw that you made this transition, that is super cool. I'm trying to do something similar. And I just love to learn a little bit more about your journey and the obstacles you face and the things that you did that employers bought into. So talking to these people is going to be the best first step. And then the next thing you can do is just get out there and try some of the stuff like really dip your toe in the water, roll up your sleeves, try to find ways to build real world experience in these areas, but do it in a realistic fashion. So for me, what I landed on was a 30 day I called it a mini pilot. So I'm going to go out there and I'm going to try this new space for 30 days. I'm going to give it 100% for 30 days. And at the end of 30 days, I'm going to reassess. And if I still love this, I'm going to continue to double down. But if I don't, I'm going to give myself permission to quit because I don't want to continue investing in something that isn't right for me. Now I can confidently cross this off the list, and then I can shift into my next mini pilot or my next phase of research. And then you can just rinse and repeat until you find something that's for you. And if you do this, yes, it requires some work up front. But once you have that clarity that this is the direction that I want to head in, you can focus 100% of your time and energy getting on that path. And then once you're on it, all the work that you do, all the experience you build, all the relationships you build, that's all going to compound and you're really going to be able to accelerate the trajectory of your career. Yeah. And you know, I think something people should know, and I know you alluded this to this in your story is that you've switched careers and pivoted a bunch of times. So this is something that you know firsthand about starting fresh or coming to an area where you don't have a lot of experience. And I think that's really great advice. And we have so many questions coming in. And in fact, I think your last answer will help, especially Elizabeth and Katie, who basically said, Elizabeth says, I did an internship and I'm currently looking for work, but companies are not looking at this as real experience. What's the best way to push through this? And then Katie says, I graduated this month and have been searching for a few months with no luck. What should I do? And it sounds like retooling your approach and maybe taking the approach that you just described would be a good way to start out for them. Absolutely. And first and foremost, I just want to say that, I mean, can we just talk about how ridiculous it is that companies have these internships and then don't say their real experience? Like what's even the point then? Like why are we doing this? And also the fact that so many of them are unpaid or you get college credit for them. Like, come on guys. I mean, if people are doing work for you, we need to pay those people. That's the way this whole system works. So I think it's important to mention that upfront. But unfortunately, as long as companies are going to take this fairly ridiculous view of folks who are just starting out in their career, if we want to win in the job search, yes, we can talk about that. And I feel grateful to be in a position and to have the platform to be able to speak out on some of these things that I disagree with in the hiring process. But are these things going to change by the time we want a job? Likely not. And that's something that I really had to struggle with when I was going through the process because there were so many things that I wish I could change. I wanted my value to be recognized. I didn't want to be ghosted. I wanted my experience to actually count as real experience. But I also knew at the same time that if I didn't find a way around this system, I wasn't going to get the results that I wanted. So two things can be true. Like this process can have aspects of it that are broken. But at the same time, we need to understand that we're in control of our careers. And we need to essentially play the game with the rules that are in front of us if we want to win the game and succeed for ourselves. So we can't wait for other people to change things for us. We need to change things for ourselves. And that was really the mindset that I brought to the table here. And the biggest recommendation that I can have or that I can give to people out there who are looking to make some sort of transition or get into some sort of job here is to get out there and find a way to build your own experience. And there are so many different ways to do this. So for me personally, I read a whole bunch of books on digital marketing. And then I actually went out and I set up my own website and I played around with it. I rolled up my sleeves. I actually got in there. And then I started to offer freelancing services at first for free to just local businesses. I said, I do your marketing. I'll help you optimize your website for SEO and this other stuff. And once I got some results, I actually went out and I started charging people and I started, you know, 50 bucks a month and then a hundred and I worked my rates up. And eventually I was just getting paid to learn, which was pretty awesome. So that's one option for people. The other is to just get out there and start building stuff. So if you're in a field where, you know, this is readily available, maybe you want to be a software engineer. Maybe you want to be a data analyst. Maybe you're a UX designer, right? It's really, really easy to go out there and just start creating projects that you're excited about. And one of the easiest ways to do this is to go audit companies. So maybe you have your list of 10 to 15 target companies. Let's say that you're a user experience designer. You could actually go audit an aspect of that company, you know, user experience for their website, for their app, for their product. And then you can build out a case study and you can put it up on your personal website. You can put it in the featured section of your LinkedIn profile. That's another way to go about this. A third way is to actually just start writing about the topic. So one of my friends, he worked in finance. He actually went back to get his MBA and then he realized he wanted to work in blockchain and there's no traditional path for blockchain. You just kind of have to build the experience yourself and work your way in. So he said, I'm going to write 75 articles about blockchain. And what that's going to force me to do is actually learn about the space. You know, they say, if you can teach other people about a topic, you truly understand it. And if we're writing about a topic, we're essentially teaching and therefore we need to understand it. So that goal of 75 articles essentially was a forcing function for him to get out there and educate himself in this new space. That also has the added benefit of creating visibility, right? So if you made it a goal to create one post about your target industry for the next 60 days on LinkedIn, not only are you going to educate yourself in this new space, but you're also creating this breadcrumb trail of evidence of you actually learning everything. And then, oh, by the way, LinkedIn has some pretty awesome organic reach. And so people are going to see your content and they're going to say, oh, wow, this person knows their stuff about this new space. So that's an additional way that you can go about building experience. But the most important thing here is that we can't just wait for somebody to offer us the experience. That would be the ideal scenario. That would be the dream. That would be my expectation of companies. But that's not the reality right now. And so if we want to win, we have to accept that for what it is. And then we have to understand that we control our future. And by going out and creating these results for ourselves, that's really how we're going to be able to make stuff happen. Totally. And I think that's going to help some even more people in the comments section. I know Paul said he wanted to know what to do when you don't have a lot of work-related experience. So I think Paul Austin just gave you a really good roadmap. And we don't have a lot of time, but I do want to get in another question. And we have a few here really about networking. And Aaliyah, Lily, Edward, basically, they all want to know how to build connections. Lily says she doesn't have a alumni network to fall back on. Aaliyah says that she's an introvert. And then Edward says that he has a job but has been working remotely and can't build the connections that he might be able to while working in an office. So how would you suggest that people, despite their circumstances, really reach out and build bridges and build a good support system and network for themselves? Yeah. So I'm really glad that these questions came up, Andrew, because we're in a brave new world now. And virtual networking is really the bulk of networking these days and has been for the last couple of years. And I think people should really take advantage of that. So the most important thing to realize about networking is first, I think, just who you are. So one person mentioned that they were an introvert, and I'm also an introvert. So the idea of going to a meetup or going to a conference and shaking all these people's hands, that gave me so much anxiety. And when I did it, I was so burned out. I was so drained, and the rest of my day was essentially gone because I needed to recharge. So what I started to do was think about different ways that I could engage that first felt authentic to me. And one way to do that was to connect with people I was genuinely excited and interested in talking to. So if I went to a conference, one, I didn't know anything about any of these people. And then two, most of them weren't really like my people, if you know what I mean. But LinkedIn has totally changed that game. We can go to somebody's profile, we can see their background, we can see where they're from, we can see the content that they create and the comments that they leave. So we can very easily find people who are our people. And then we're excited to engage with them. And that right there just totally changes the game. When we create that energy for ourselves to say, hey, this person's really cool. And just from knowing them, that's going to benefit me. That's one of the easiest things that you can do. And then the second thing is to engage on your terms. So if you're remote and not in an office, or if you're an introvert and don't want to meet face to face, engaging with people's LinkedIn content is such an easy way to start building these relationships, emailing people back and forth, going into the DMs, all these are ways that we can communicate with people without having to meet them in person. So I think it's really important to start there as the foundation. And then what I would say is that, you know, the most important thing that I think people misunderstand about relationships is how they need to be built correctly. And the best way I can describe this is that relationships are like a bank account. So we all have checking accounts, likely. And you know, if I spend more money, or if I withdraw more money than I have in my account, I'm going to overdraft my account. And that's really what relationships are all about. If I show up and I ask you, you know, hey, Andrew, I want to work for your team at LinkedIn, can you refer me in, and we've never talked before, there's no deposits in this bank account, you know, I'm going to overdraw with you, you're going to ignore me, you might say no. And if I try to come back to you again, you might be like, Oh, like, here's this Austin guy again, asking me for more stuff. And that's not what we want. So instead, what we need to do is start making deposits into the bank account. And maybe you know, I see that we have this LinkedIn live. And so maybe I share it with a whole bunch of people on my team. And I say, Hey, Andrew, I know you have this live coming up with Austin, I shared it with a bunch of people on my team, because I think they're going to get a lot out of it. Or maybe they see that you have a new podcast. And maybe they want to go review that podcast, maybe they go look up, you know, hey, how would I market a podcast, maybe I'll go around the search for that. And I see that one of the things is, you know, reviews, reviews really help podcasts. And so I think, well, you know, a lot of people probably reaching out to Andrew, what does he really care about? Well, he has this new podcast. And maybe I can cut through the noise by leaving a review, right? So now I'm doing research on you, I'm understanding things that you might be interested in. And for everybody watching, you know, feel free to leave a review on Andrew's podcast. But that could be a way to connect with you, right? So just finding ways to make it about the other person first, that is really how great relationships are formed. And it's just a muscle, you just need to get out there and start practicing it. I would love if people could leave us a good review on my podcast, get hired with Andrew Seaman. You can listen to the Apple podcast wherever you like to listen. Thank you, Austin. No, that was really great. It's such great advice. And, you know, you gave so much over the course of this half hour. And for anyone watching, you know, follow Austin, we've been showing his LinkedIn profile at the bottom of the screen, and we'll probably do it again, right as I'm saying this, but also make sure that you watch this again, if you missed any part of it, make sure you share the LinkedIn Live if you think your friends or your connections can benefit from it, maybe add what you took away from today's conversation. But Austin, thank you so much for another great and wonderful conversation. Thanks for having me, Andrew. It's always a pleasure and happy Friday to everybody who tuned in. We really appreciate you spending time with us and hope you have an awesome weekend. Yeah, thank you. You too, Austin. And to all of you out there, thank you so much for joining us. As always, we will not have a show next week, but we will be back the following week, the first week of June, and my colleague Gianna Prudente will actually be hosting that day. She'll be talking to two people from NASA about internships and jumpstarting your career from an internship and making that really lasting impression with an employer. Careers are not rocket science, but sometimes, you know, careers are in rocket science. So, anyway, that's all for my bad jokes for today, and at least on air. And, you know, don't worry, though, even though we're not broadcasting next week, we're going to have great programming all the time on the LinkedIn news page. And, in fact, on Monday, May 23rd, my colleague Nina Melendez will be discussing how to connect people with a prison history to employment opportunities. She will be talking to Linda Schaefer, who is the chief people and operations officer at Checker, and Richard Bronson of the Commissary Club to explore ways to reintegrate people with a history of prison into the workforce and why it's necessary now more than ever. Again, that's Monday, May 23rd at 3 p.m. Eastern time on the LinkedIn news page. It's such an important and interesting space that people are working in right now, and it's really important because there are so many people out there that have served time or have a criminal history that will show up on a background check. And, you know, these people, you know, have sort of paid their debt and everything. It's important to get them back into the workforce. And there are a lot of great organizations out there doing so and helping them get back into jobs and careers. So be sure you're keeping an eye out for that on Monday. And, obviously, like I said, we'll be back in two weeks. But until then, please take care of yourself. The world is obviously up and down all the time. So make sure you're taking care of yourself. You can only get a job. You can only be a good candidate if you're healthy and well enough to do so. So until next time, stay well and best of luck.