What new grads get wrong about the job search, says Harvard-trained career expert

CNBC

13-05-2025

Suzy Welch thinks that most new grads are approaching their career search backwards.
As a professor at NYU Stern School of Business, she's seen firsthand the pressure that graduates face to find a job – any job – as soon as possible.
In her view, students are encouraged to pursue the short-term goal of finding employment over the long-term work of identifying the right career path.
"Students can come out of college without having gotten an education in the most important thing that they need, which is who we are and our purpose," she says.
Since 2021, Welch has taught "Becoming You," a course she created to help students discover their values, goals and innate gifts, at NYU, where she also serves as the director of the Stern Initiative on Purpose and Flourishing.
In her course, students take a variety of unique tests to determine their "area of transcendence": the career path that best aligns with their values and aptitudes and provides financial security.
Welch shares those lessons in her bestselling new book "Becoming You: The Proven Method for Crafting Your Authentic Life and Career," which debuted on May 6.
These are her best tips for new graduates entering the job market.
Before diving into the job hunt, Welch urges young professionals to pause and look within.
"Do not try to get a job until you know who you are. Do that work first," she says. "You think the hardest thing is going and finding a job, but the hardest thing is going and finding yourself. After that, finding a job is easier."
She recommends asking yourself these key questions: "Who am I? What are my values? What am I uniquely good at, and what is calling me emotionally and intellectually?"
In Welch's experience, many high-achieving graduates find themselves on a "conveyor belt" toward popular industries like finance, tech and consulting, even though those industries may not be the best match for their unique skills and interests.
At Welch's alma mater Harvard, a survey of the class of 2024 found that 21% of 2024 graduates plan to work in finance, 16% will work in tech and 13% will pursue consulting, according to the Harvard Crimson.
Welch encourages new grads to consider a broader range of careers and industries when they begin their job search.
Otherwise, she says, "you're going to go to the job market and try to retrofit your personhood to the world, whereas in fact, you need to know who you are, and then go find the places in the world that are actually meant for you."
Welch compares being on the wrong career path to trying to sign your name with your non-dominant hand. Once you switch to the correct hand, the writing flows much more easily.
"You can avoid getting on the wrong conveyor belt if you just do the work up front of figuring out your values, your aptitudes and your interests so that you can identify your purpose and then go towards it," Welch says. "You need to know who you are, and then go find the places in the world that are actually meant for you."
If that's not enough to convince you, Welch has another hard truth to deliver.
"Here's the dirty little secret that no one tells you: if you wedge yourself into the job that you're good enough at, but that is not truly 'you,' you actually wash out of it at around age 40."
That's when companies start culling high-level, highly compensated employees who are performing well, but not thriving, she says.
After taking her course, Welch says, several of her previous students chose to leave prestigious positions to pursue a more authentic path.
Though changing course in your job search might "make people's heads explode," according to Welch, "in the long run, it's going to build the right career."