Millions of young adults from Generation Z are unemployed – and thanks to the cuts induced by artificial intelligence In initial level functions in companies, getting the first job is getting harder.
He heard of a Genz young woman who worked as a waitress at a major technology conference just to put her resume in the hands of recruiters, and a graduate who sent cold emails to her dream employers with the “aggressive proposal” subject.
Now, another unusual way to get recruiters’ attention is viralizing: putting your resume inside a donut box.
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In 2016, when Lukas Yla moved from Lithuania to San Francisco to pursue his big dreams in the technology industry, he quickly realized that getting a job in Silicon Valley was harder than it seemed.
A lightning fell as he bit a newly prepared handcrafted donut. Who would resist opening a box of these delicious treats?
Thus, the marketing expert, with five years of experience, began to make a Deliveroo style dress (British online food delivery company]a list of his dream employers and a secret memo to put inside the donut boxes. Yla spent more than a week delivering the donuts to all companies on his wish list, disguise.
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“I ended up delivering 50 boxes, addressed to marketers,” he told BBC at the time. “Often, the receptionist passed the donuts straight to the recipient. Sometimes they called him the reception: I could deliver the donuts and explain why it was there.”
When they finally opened the box, they were received with the message: “Most resumes end in the trash. Mine – in their belly,” along with your resume and a link to your LinkedIn profile. To increase his chances of success, he even revealed the extreme measures he was taking to the press.
The aspiring marketing professional got at least 10 interviews. However, he told the Fortune who failed to get a work visa and therefore continued to evolve his career in Europe, having since worked as a director at Uber’s competitor, Bolt.
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Years later, Yla’s joke is viralizing again. A sign of how the job market has become bleak, social networking users are rescuing their curriculum hack inside a donut box as inspiration for desperate for employment.
“Brilliant marketing and a reminder that sometimes breaking the rules (with style) is exactly what is needed,” says a Facebook post, which has already accumulated about 90,000 likes.
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Closed market
Getting a vacancy of initial level has never been so difficult – so generation Z needs to be creative. Millennials are the most educated generation in history, with generation Z behind. However, their financial perspectives and chances of being hired are significantly lower than those of Generation X graduates.
And although the scenario of the internships changed, with some offering six -digit wages – quite different from the days when Millennials sought jobs without remuneration, just to get coffee – get an opportunity after school or college is becoming increasingly difficult.
Just 10 years ago, 94% of students had been able to get employment or continued in education the year following graduation, according to data from the UK Department of Education. By 2024, only 59% of graduates had full -time jobs 15 months after graduation. Many are using unemployment allowance to survive.
Similarly, more than 4 million young people from generation Z in the US are currently unemployed. In China, the government said that in February 1 in 6 young people was unemployed.
It is not surprising that more than half (57%) of the 2025 class feels pessimistic about starting their careers, according to a survey of 1,925 people on the Handshake job platform. This represents an increase over 49% in the previous year.
Other strategies
Thus, the search for job in generation Z is getting more creative – and it’s working.
After six months trying unsuccessfully to get a place, a young candidate named Basant Shenouda told Fortune that monitored the events that recruiters attended and volunteered to be in these events to have a chance to deliver their resumes. She ended up getting an internship at LinkedIn.
Another Candidate of Generation Z, Ayala Ossowski, wore the University baseball cap at work at pizzeria and took the opportunity to talk about his experience when customers asked. She got a place at Cisco.
“The market is so saturated with amazing talents that it is necessary to be creative to stand out in the crowd,” Ossowski told Fortune.
This story was originally published on Fortune.com
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