Since she was 19, Jen Kushell has been helping young people and entrepreneurs build businesses and careers. In 1993, she created the first global network to connect young entrepreneurs in 75 countries. In 2008, the “career doctor,” as she is affectionately called, amassed young leaders from 160 countries online. Now as the CEO of YSN – Your Success Now (YSN.com), she is taking on an even bigger task: Answering the challenge of global youth unemployment by building GO, the Global Opportunity Marketplace. As a matchmaker for talent and opportunity, GO is a platform that arms emerging adults with the tools they need to discover their passions, launch their careers, and find success.
The website,YSN.com/GO, enables the most ambitious young people on the planet to shop the world for opportunity, just like they would a travel site for adventure.In addition to penning New York Times bestsellers like Secrets of the Young & Successful, Kushell has been globe-trotting to work with the U.S. Department of State on their Global Entrepreneurship Program. She is also working with other delegations from around the world, discovering first-hand that opportunity is everywhere. “The time is now to address this issue head-on, to crowdsource opportunities and talent from around the world. The more connections we make, the more we can help young people to gain experience and employment, and to explore the kinds of entrepreneurial ventures that create new jobs,” explains Kushell.
Here are Jennifer’s tips on how to find job opportunities and secure a job in this next generation marketplace:
When did you start?
This quest to impact the global workforce actually began when I was 19, in college, with the Young Entrepreneurs, Network. Back then, the focus was on connecting and empowering young entrepreneurs – aspiring, emerging and successful – trying to make their big ideas a reality.
This November, as Global Entrepreneurship Week is celebrated in over 100 countries, I’m feeling pretty nostalgic, because we actually created the very first online network to connect them, 20 years ago back in ’93 on CompuServ. It’s incredible to see how resources to support entrepreneurs and young people have since exploded around the world.
What was the tipping point when you decided to take this approach to address unemployment?
Both of the last market crashes wiped out my existing businesses, but somehow having to rebuild and reinvent made everything better and smarter the next time. That’s the funny part about how failure works, isn’t it?
When the dot com bubble burst, my ex-husband and I went off to a beach in Belize to figure out what to do with our lives next. I had built a pretty strong foundation of contacts, content, clients, media exposure and my dedication to helping my peers fulfill their potential was unwavering. The big shift from focusing on entrepreneurs to unemployment and the young workforce in general was simply a matter of market economics.
When I started the movement to support young entrepreneurs, I was the only one kicking and screaming for people to pay attention to them, support them and fund them. The market had changed dramatically and everyone was clamoring to get in on hot young startups.
What we realized was that in general, most people weren’t entrepreneurs, but what our generation was craving was control and ownership of their lives, and that could be achieve by leveraging the secrets and strategies of the most successful people who were achieving really incredible things early on in their careers. We kicked out Secrets of the Young & Successful to test the theory and when that hit The New York Times Bestseller list, we knew we were onto something. The whole mission shifted to helping young people find success in their careers, whatever that meant.
What sets you apart from job sites like Monster and Glass Door?
If you ask around, most job seekers and employers hate job boards. Same with resumes. And career fairs. As far as we’re concerned, they’re all becoming outdated.
We’ve built everything around the idea that searching for work and career planning in general needs to be completely updated and reimagined, especially for younger people. We don’t believe in defining work so narrowly, but instead as a full spectrum of opportunities – from internships to volunteering, projects, startup experiences and even business ownership through franchising, licensing. Opportunities are practically unlimited.
We encourage people to GO travel the world, pursue their passion and build experience through a range of experiences that could very well be life changing. And we package it all beautifully and surround it with great content. It’s a whole different experience meant to get people excited about the much bigger broader possibilities out there.
What keeps you motivated?
Seeing the pilot light go on in people, when they suddenly see their future in a whole different light. We get letters, emails and social media posts describing it every day. We literally get the chance to change the course of people’s lives and that’s enormously empowering and inspiring.
Are there any success stories that you’d like to share?
From YSN: Shannon O’Brien was a shy teen in Boston when we first met, but went on to travel the world and become a World Rotary Peace Scholar after catching the bug from us. Michael Teoh got our book in Singapore at a big youth organization conference, wrote us to say his prospective on the world had changed entirely from it, and he went on to win Your Big Year, a global competition to cultivate leadership, since becoming one of the most recognized young leaders in Malaysia.
While GO is still pretty new, a 15 year old inner city kid we work with just returned from China, a young leader from Liberia, we’re connecting with other leaders throughout Africa, we’re about to start sending young talent into sustainable farming villages in Sierra Leone, and elsewhere, we’re working on connecting a young girl in Pakistan studying nanotechnology with a Southern California start-up, helping the travel and tourism industry find young talent. There’s so much happening. It’s all gelling right now.
Why should students think globally in terms of employment?
There are three billion young people on the planet and one billion are entering the workforce now. That’s a lot of competition. Having a college degree, talent and ambition just isn’t enough to find employment anymore. You have to be more strategic. 73 million young people are unemployed globally, too, that’s a staggering statistic.
The issue is, there are plenty of young people with talent, but we also believe there is tons of untapped opportunity. We want people to get up and GO find it, pursue their passion, their interests, experience the world, cultural awareness, become more globally savvy, so they’re more competitive in the workforce.
What are the jobs of the future?
So many of the best jobs of the future, frankly haven’t been invented yet. Industries and entrepreneurs are questioning, innovating and ideating constantly. New companies and products and services are launched every day, in every corner of the globe.
That said, the tech space will surely continue to grow. That’s why we need to start training more young people in programming, science, technology and engineering (known as STEM education). Healthcare, especially alternative treatments, will continue to evolve. Education as a field is being reimagined. Energy and sustainability are big growth areas.
As the world becomes smaller and more interconnected, people want to experience different places, tastes, and people. That means foodservice, transportation, and communication platforms will continue to grow. Travel and tourism is on the rise and there are insane opportunities around the world at every level. I think franchising is going to keep growing, offering people the dream of business ownership. Those are a few areas that stand out most.
Are resumes still relevant? If so, what are 5 to 7 of the most important things it should convey?
Resumes are still a necessary evil for a lot of job seekers, but I personally detest them, and think they’re quickly becoming antiquated. I like to encourage ambitious people to build a portfolio of their work, write a bio, and find a more creative way to show what they’ve really accomplished to life. No one wants to be judged by a piece of paper. It’s belittling. And it certainly can’t come close to doing you, your personality, or your work justice.
Is it necessary to have a digital profile to complement it?
Absolutely! Be sure to do a social media brand audit of yourself first so you know what people are going to find when they search you.
What are five of the most effective tools to have in your job hunting toolbox?
I’ll use the term “tools” conceptually.
1. Solid online profiles
2. A strong network of industry connections, advisors and supporters
3. A library of research you’ve done to stay on top of that latest trends in your field
4. Great endorsements from past employers, partners, colleagues
5. Tangible success stories to tell about the value you’ve created. (Ideally, how you made money or saved it).
