Millions of Gen Z graduates believe they have grasped the short straw in the labor market. Ghosting is rampant in recruiting, entry-level talent seems to be in short supply, and predictions of an AI employment apocalypse are making matters worse. But Arvind Jain, a former Google engineer and co-founder of Rubrik, says he’s facing the opposite problem.
“Students think it’s hard to find a job, and we think it’s hard to find a job,” he said. luck. It’s not because we don’t receive applications.
In fact, Jain said his $7.2 billion AI startup, Glean, receives thousands of job applications every day. And the biggest factor that separates the handful of people who respond isn’t degrees, skill sets, or even impressive resumes. But a strong work ethic.
“I have a strong belief that all problems can be solved with effort,” Jain said. “My criteria is that when I work in a group, I want to be known as the person who contributes the most.” That’s the quality that separates candidates his team can’t stop chasing from those whose applications are never revisited, he said.
The only problem is that such motivated candidates are in high demand.
“If you work hard, there are always plenty of options. Every company wants to work with you.” The best people he talks to have five companies chasing them at the same time. The problem is not a lack of applicants. There is a lack of people who are truly committed.
This is straight out of the Goldman Sachs CEO’s playbook. “The harder you work, the more options you create for yourself.”
CEOs consistently share that the secret to success is pure hard work, not one-time luck or a great network.
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon worked two part-time jobs as a teenager. One at Baskin-Robbins and one at McDonald’s flipping burgers. He juggled all of this with three sports and school. Despite running a $291 billion investment bank, the CEO still finds time to DJ on the side.
He recently told Gen Z graduates that his father instilled that work ethic. And that was the lesson I wanted to pass on to the 2026 generation as they enter one of the toughest job markets in history.
Similarly, Josema Shipchandler, CEO of the $30 billion cloud communications platform Twilio, has previously said that the secret to her career success was working hard every day from 4:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., including during her college years.
By the time he was 31, Mr. Shipchandler was already the CFO of a multibillion-dollar GE business, and he said: luck It turns out there is a direct correlation to the amount of time he spends at work. “If you were willing to put in the effort, they were willing to give you the opportunity,” he said. “So I had a lot of opportunities there.”
“If you want to work an 8-to-5 job, coach your kid’s sports team, and have evenings for yourself and maybe have another hobby or interest, that’s great,” Shipchandler added. But he cautions that “I’ve never spoken to a colleague” who doesn’t follow the same strict routine.
NBA champion Metta World Peace (formerly known as Ron Artest) spoke candidly about why logging more minutes than the guy next to you is the surest way to get ahead.
World Peace once showed up at the gym at 8 a.m., but Bryant had already taken a shower and was on his way. “He took a full body shower. He was done,” World Peace said. luck. “And I thought I was trying.” The next day, he returned at 5:30 a.m. to get a first-hand glimpse of just how far Bryant was willing to go to become one of basketball’s greatest players.
What about take-home? High performance is relative. No matter how early you start or how much time you put in, someone else will always want to do more.
As World Peace says, “There’s always someone trying harder.”
Another thing Gen Z can do now to stand out in the job market: Learn AI.
Jain doesn’t deny the structural challenges facing today’s young job seekers. In the UK alone, there were more than 1.2 million applications last year for just under 17,000 postgraduate roles. Meanwhile, Americans report that their odds of finding a job are now at an all-time low. A Mathematics degree graduate applied for more than 1,000 jobs in the UK for over a year, but after failing to secure a single offer, he moved his job search to Austria.
And as AI and automation replace many entry-level roles, competition for what’s left will only intensify.
And as AI and automation replace many entry-level roles, competition for what’s left will only intensify. We receive so many applications for roles that even at Glean, our team can only fill out about a fifth of the applications we receive. “We’re looking for people to come to our website and apply,” Jain said. “We don’t have the resources to go there.” That means a burden is firmly placed on applicants that cannot be ignored.
What is his most specific advice? Master AI and put it into action today.
“Now is the time,” he said. “You can do so many amazing things with this incredible tool.” In his view, candidates who fully embrace AI can work 10 times faster than those who don’t, and the gap is only widening. “Once you master these tools, you can create amazing software, systems, applications, images, and videos. Use them to unleash your creativity.”
The good news is that it’s easier to get started than most people think.
“AI isn’t hard. You don’t have to sit through a 10-hour course. Go to one of these AI tools, whether you use Gemini or ChatGPT or whatever, and talk to them like a colleague. Ask them to do something for you.” And this advice applies no matter what industry or role you’re in. “If you actively embrace AI, you can become a new era of marketers and paralegals.”
