For most teenagers, getting a driver’s license at age 16 is a milestone in independence. This allows them to drive to a friend’s house, watch a movie, or skip the bus to school on their own time. For 16-year-old Connor Vukelich, it was the inspiration to start a business.
Vukelich was looking for a job after getting his driver’s license in high school. But he and his friends all kept running into the same problem. It was almost impossible to find the problem. Most were outbid by more senior-level applicants, applying for “ghost jobs” and interviewing only to be ghosted by employers.
Frustrated by this experience, Vukelich created Poppin’ Jobs, a platform specifically targeted to job seekers between the ages of 16 and 24 in the United States. It currently hosts a database of 100,000 potential job seekers. Vukelich built the platform as an alternative to traditional job sites, which he said tend to prioritize senior-level talent and instead focus on demographics that require more specialized guidance.
“So we thought, why isn’t there a site dedicated to helping entry-level people find jobs?” Vukelich said. luck About conversations with friends back then. “More specifically, Gen Z is bringing us into the workplace and helping us through the process, because this is something we have never done before.”
Today’s job market is becoming less favorable by the day for people looking to gain a foothold in entry-level positions. AI threatens to wipe out a large portion of the entry-level job market. This is a view echoed by Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleiman, who believes this will happen within 18 months, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who warned that it would affect half of entry-level white-collar workers (though he has recently softened that statement). According to a recent Anthropic study, AI can already, in theory, automate the majority of tasks in management, business, finance, law, and other white-collar industries, replacing rote tasks primarily for entry-level employees.
Current state of the entry-level job market
To address the hurdles faced by young job seekers, primarily the ghosting, competition, and experience barriers that prevent high school and college students from securing a spot on the first rung of the career ladder, Poppin’ Jobs features tools such as resume writing and an AI interview assistant to guide you through the hiring process, which is new to most people. And for those who don’t yet have a license, Vukelich has a solution for that, too. It’s a local job map for people who only have a bike to get around.
Despite much talk about the ensuing “apocalypse” for entry-level jobs, the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds has not yet increased significantly. According to the St. Louis Fed, the youth unemployment rate remained at 9.5% in April. This is a slight increase from before AI became a hot topic, when OpenAI released its first AI model in November 2022, when the unemployment rate for 16-24 year olds was around 8%. However, it has fallen from the highest level of 10.6% recorded in November last year.
Part of the reason is that some college graduates change the types of jobs they pursue shortly after leaving campus. A recent ZipRecruiter survey found that entry-level, white-collar jobs are becoming increasingly difficult to find, so the majority of college graduates are finding work in entrepreneurship, the gig economy, and post-graduation freelance positions.
Now a 20-year-old student at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, Vukelich is focused on increasing the number of employers on the website in hopes of attracting more local jobs and volunteer opportunities.
He recognizes the threat that AI poses to the job market and is actively looking for ways to teach Gen Z how to integrate AI tools into their skillsets. Data supports this approach. A recent study by AI startup Writer found that employees who know how to use AI and use it frequently are more likely to receive a raise than those who resist adoption.
Vukelich said he has had many conversations with students at the university. His advice is always the same. “The only thing people are looking to hire for is passion or knowledge of how to use AI in combination with their own knowledge,” he said.
