- [Interviewer] When you started your first job
what's something you wish you'd known?
- It doesn't need to be so existential,
like it doesn't really say that much about you.
You can just be doing a job
and also be a person outside of that.
(upbeat music)
- [Interviewer] What is your passion?
- I'm passionate about a good spreadsheet.
- Writing a D&D campaign for my friends.
- I'm passionate about motorcycles right now.
- My passion is fashion. - Hiking.
- Improv. - Comedy.
- Design. - Dancing.
- This is so cheesy but I just really like helping people.
- People.
- For me it's the people.
- My passion is to simply do nothing.
- [Interviewer] What is your passion?
- It's not something I've figured out yet.
- [Interviewer] How long have you been trying
to figure it out?
- I don't, since people started asking me
what I'm passionate about.
(interviewer chuckles)
- I am passionate about roller skates.
I build roller skates for a living.
- [Interviewer] Whoa!
- [Interviewer] Is passion something
you can make a career out of?
- Yeah.
- Yeah. - Yeah, definitely.
- [Interviewer] Have you figured out how
to make your passion your job?
- Yes, I'm a musical theater teacher. (laughs)
- [Interviewer] Whoa!
- My passion is working with dying people really
because we as a culture tend to, like,
push dying people to the side
and so I go sit with them when they're dying
or I go meet every hospice client in my county.
- [Interviewer] What's your current job?
- Right now I'm unemployed.
- I'm not working.
- In between jobs,
so I am just cat sitting right now. (laughs)
- [Interviewer] Do you have LinkedIn profile?
- Absolutely.
- [Interviewer] Has it helped you at all?
- Absolutely!
Yo, LinkedIn is fire.
I was recruited from LinkedIn twice.
- I found my last four jobs through LinkedIn.
- It's the main reason I got the job that I have today.
Very grateful for LinkedIn for that.
- [Interviewer] What job do you have right now?
- I work as a software engineer.
- Social worker.
- HR consultant.
- A dog walker.
- [Interviewer] What do you love about that?
- I get to see dogs.
- I decide my own schedule.
- They pay for my school
and they give me like health insurance and dental.
It's worth it or I'm trying to make it worth it. (laughs)
- [Interviewer] Do you think there is a career
that you could be passionate about?
- Yes, game developer.
- Nurse. - Art.
- Music. - Writing.
- Sketch comedy.
- I mean it's, no, maybe, I don't know.
I'm young, so.
- [Interviewer] Well, why don't you take that leap?
- Fear, rejection.
- [Interviewer] What's the biggest risk
you've taken in your career?
- I would say moving.
- I moved over from my hometown.
I don't have a job.
This is a very expensive city to be in
and my parents were breathing down my neck, asking me,
"Are you gonna be flipping burgers?"
"If I need to, yeah."
- [Interviewer] What's the biggest risk you've taken
in your career?
- I dropped out of college.
- Choosing to leave the military.
- Not having money.
- Following my passion.
- I was working in PR.
I quit, took a 20k pay cut, ended up at a nonprofit.
- It's risky sometimes to do what you know you need to do
instead of what you've been told to do.
- I think that if you're passionate about something
you're gonna work even harder.
You can make a good amount of money.
- I'm very passionate about psychology.
I love learning about trauma and PTSD,
so that's really what I love, and money.
- I think I'm passionate about making money.
- [Interviewer] What drives you?
- The need to be financially free.
- [Interviewer] Can money buy you happiness?
- Yes.
- Money does buy you happiness.
- Money opens doors for like basically everything.
- It's good to pursue your passions, but it's also
good to make sure you can take care of yourself.
- You need to put food on the table.
- People need money.
I mean, that's the reality.
The systems are not always set up to benefit everybody.
- [Interviewer] Can money buy you happiness?
- It can buy you better distractions from sadness, but no,
I don't think it can buy you happiness.
- Honestly, some of the happiest people
are not the richest people in the world.
- [Interviewer] If I handed you a big wad of cash,
you'd be happy, right?
- I mean, I guess money does make you happy.
- [Interviewer] Money or passion?
- I pursued passion over money.
- Passion.
- Passion. - Passion.
- Oh god, passion
because if you pursue money you're gonna lose it.
- I've pursued money before.
You just end up in like a toxic workplace.
- It was a really toxic work environment.
Having my LinkedIn profile helped recruiters contact me.
They helped me ASAP get out of the situation.
- I love my LinkedIn profile because I'm able to
connect with a lot of individuals within my industry.
- It's a great tool, too, even for those that are
like in jobs that are not a normal 9:00 to 5:00.
- It's not like Instagram.
More focused on how we collaborate on our career site.
- Honestly, it's made connections really, really easy,
especially as a college student.
- I'm kind of in a position as a college student
where I want to apply to internships
and apply to jobs directly through LinkedIn.
- [Interviewer] In what ways does Gen Z view the workforce
differently than generations before?
- I don't live to work; I work to live.
- I don't really prescribe to this,
the whole idea of work being who I am.
- It doesn't need to be so existential,
like it doesn't really say that much about you.
You can just be doing a job
and also be a person outside of that.
- [Interviewer] Gen Z, Millennials,
how do they view work differently than your generation?
- Well, I viewed it as gettin' outta school.
- For Boomers, like someone like my father,
they're more willing to accept a job
and stay there for 20, 40, 50 years.
- My generation, it's more like jumping around,
trying to make what works for you,
as opposed to like following the same work
for the same company 'til you're old
and they give you a watch.
- We're disillusioned.
We don't see things working correctly and want to fix it.
- Our traditional 9:00 to 5:00 structure was built off of
the concept that there would be single-income households.
Life isn't like that anymore.
- [Interviewer] When you started your first job,
is there something you wish you'd known?
- Would want to tell myself to really
ask questions and be confident in that.
- I need to be asking for these positions.
I need to be asking for this money.
I need to be asking to make me happy
and not just making the company happy.
- If you're applying for a job
and they're like asking for your desired salary,
I say like shoot for the moon, you know?
- If you have the right people in your corner
that are willing to give you those tools,
you're straight, you're set.
- [Interviewer] Speaking of networking,
do you have LinkedIn?
- Yeah. - I do.
- I love LinkedIn, actually.
I spend so much time on LinkedIn.
- LinkedIn is my love language.
- [Interviewer] What do you mean?
- Going on LinkedIn
and like writing nice things about people,
that's how I express my love.
- [Interviewer] Have you used any of their free courses?
- Yes, the free courses are pretty good.
I use the product design course, site manager course,
and also product roadmap mapping course.
- [Interviewer] They do have these like
free learning courses via videos.
You can help take your career to the next level.
Is that something that you'd pursue?
- Yeah, for sure.
- I love LinkedIn.
I just checked LinkedIn right before I came in here.
I am legitimately, crazily into it.
It's the best.