Jodi Kantor offers career advice for graduates facing AI uncertainty

Graduating now is not the same as graduating five years ago, and Jodi Kantor’s advice starts with that reality. The best choices for new adults are no longer only about prestige or speed; they are about surviving a labor market that is softer than the overall headline suggests, learning to work with AI instead of pretending it is optional, and building human connections that can outlast a shaky first job search.

The market graduates are walking into

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York says conditions for recent college graduates were still challenging at the start of 2026, with unemployment around 5.7% in the first quarter and underemployment at 41.5%. The underemployment figure matters as much as the unemployment rate itself: many graduates who do find work are landing in jobs that do not fully use their degree. The New York Fed’s tracker goes back to 1990, which gives today’s class a long historical benchmark, and the comparison is not flattering.

That backdrop makes the national unemployment rate, 4.3% in May 2026, look deceptively reassuring. The economy can appear stable while young workers are still getting squeezed at the entry point. For graduates, that means the first offer matters less as a finish line than as a foothold, because the market is rewarding flexibility, speed and evidence of usefulness more than polished but vague ambition.

Why AI is now part of the first job decision

Handshake’s Class of 2026 report makes the shift impossible to ignore. This is the first graduating class to have spent nearly its entire college career alongside ChatGPT, launched in November 2022. In that group, 85% of seniors use AI and more than a third use it daily. In other words, AI is not a novelty for this class; it is part of how they study, search and work.

Employers are signaling the same shift. Handshake found that as of March 2026, 10.3% of internships and 4.2% of full-time early-career jobs mentioned AI keywords, nearly double a year earlier in the case of full-time roles. At the same time, job postings were 2% below last year and 12% below pre-pandemic levels, while senior pessimism rose from 46% to 62% over two years. The lesson is blunt: AI knowledge is no longer a nice extra. It is becoming a minimum signal that you can adapt to how work is actually getting done.

Kantor’s own remarks at Columbia College’s Class Day keynote in 2025 captured that mood. She told graduates that many feared nearly every professional field was a bad bet, that AI might upend employment, and that some internships, lab offers and job plans had already been canceled. She said she was answering students’ question of how to find or start their life’s work in an environment where certainty had already disappeared.

Debt is no longer just a finance choice

For graduates heading into a market like this, debt has to be treated as a career decision, not only a tuition decision. When underemployment is at 41.5%, borrowing heavily for a degree without a clear path into a field with real demand can leave you carrying fixed costs into an uncertain first job. The risk is not just the balance itself; it is the loss of flexibility when the first opportunity does not pay enough or arrives later than expected.

That does not mean avoiding all debt at any cost. It means matching borrowing to the strongest possible case for repayment, including the likelihood of landing work quickly, the wage level in your field and whether the degree gives you portable skills. In a market where even internships and job offers can be canceled, the safest debt is the kind attached to a realistic plan B.

How to enter the job market with less illusion

The first job search in 2026 calls for fewer assumptions and more proof. Employers are screening for candidates who can show they understand AI tools, but also for people who can translate that fluency into concrete output. A resume now has to say more than that you used AI; it has to show that you used it to research faster, analyze better or produce work with clearer judgment.

Kantor’s broader framing, which she later expanded into her book How to Start: Discovering Your Life’s Work, is useful here because it treats uncertainty as the starting condition, not a temporary glitch. Her remarks grew out of conversations with graduating students about what was on their minds, and that instinct still fits the moment. If the old advice was to follow a linear path, the new advice is to start with the most workable opening, then keep moving toward better information.

Why network-building matters more when the pipeline is thinner

When job postings are below last year and below pre-pandemic levels, relationships become more valuable because the formal pipeline is weaker. That is especially true for graduates in a year when some internships and job plans have already been pulled back. A strong network does not eliminate a tough market, but it can reduce the time you spend invisible.

The practical move is to build ties before you need rescue. Stay in touch with professors, supervisors, alumni and classmates; ask for specific introductions; and treat informational conversations as part of the job search, not as an awkward side project. In a moment when many peers are worried that almost every profession looks risky, the people who can vouch for your work may matter as much as the application itself.

The clearest message in Kantor’s advice is that uncertainty is not a reason to freeze. It is a reason to be deliberate about debt, disciplined about the first job and serious about the network that will carry you into the next one.