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For Gen Z, the entry-level career ladder is getting steeper by the month\u2014and there\u2019s no sign of it letting up. Unemployment among recent grads has climbed to 5.8% (the highest since 2013, excluding the pandemic) as companies rethink hiring amid AI-driven productivity gains.<\/p>\n
The pressure is already forcing young people to rethink what it takes to stand out\u2014especially in fields where six-figure pay once felt like a given. But for those aiming for Wall Street, one Goldman Sachs executive has a blunt message for young professionals trying to get ahead: Know what you bring to the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cThink about one\u2019s role and how that fits into the broader business environment,\u201d David Kostin, Goldman Sachs\u2019 chief U.S. equity strategist, said on the Goldman Sachs\u2019 Exchanges<\/em> podcast.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you understand where you sit and your contributions to the commercial process, then you can see how that changes over time.\u201d<\/p>\n As AI-powered automation replaces jobs at a fraction of the cost of human labor, understanding the value of your own skills\u2014and whether tools like ChatGPT can outperform them\u2014has never been more critical. Investing in the development of in-demand skills may well determine whether you remain employable in the future.<\/p>\n Luckily for those unable to put an exact number to their job function, it\u2019s not just commercial awareness that is key in the current market.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kostin\u2019s advice reflects a broader shift inside Wall Street firms, where technical skills, like using AI tools, are increasingly expected\u2014but no longer enough on their own.\u00a0<\/p>\n Judgment, context, and self-awareness are also becoming real differentiators.<\/p>\n Data from LinkedIn backs up Kostin\u2019s thinking. While AI literacy tops the professional networking company\u2019s list of the fastest-growing skills in the U.S., softer skills like conflict mitigation, adaptability, process optimization, and innovative thinking round out the top five.<\/p>\n Goldman Sachs\u2019 CEO David Solomon has echoed the view that for those with dreams to one day earn six figures on Wall Street, not all is lost, and AI is not expected to be an outright job killer for bankers.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no question that when you put these tools in the hands of smart people, it increases their productivity,\u201d Solomon told Axios in October. \u201cYou\u2019re going to see changes in the way analysts, associates, and investment bankers work.\u201d<\/p>\n He added, \u201cBut if you\u2019re looking at it and assuming an organization like Goldman Sachs\u2026is just going to have less people, I don\u2019t think it works that way.\u201d <\/p>\n Even so, the pipeline into Wall Street is tightening. At several business schools, including MIT (Sloan) and Dartmouth (Tuck), the share of graduates entering investment banking has slowly declined. At Harvard, Columbia, and NYU (Stern) placements have held up better, underscoring how competitive the path has become.<\/p>\n And even for those who manage to break in, the ride isn\u2019t always smooth. Layoffs remain a constant threat in an industry prone to cyclical downturns, and some junior bankers have already faced this reality.<\/p>\n Solomon has urged young employees not to shy away from opportunities.<\/p>\n \u201cI would tell you that sometimes the best opportunities come from being asked to do something you don\u2019t want to do, and actually taking it on and trying to do it. Because that\u2019s when people grow the most. That\u2019s where I grew the most,\u201d Solomon told his company\u2019s summer interns in July.<\/p>\n Looking ahead, Solomon encouraged patience in an era defined by uncertainty.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have no idea where your career will take you; you have no idea where your life will take you,\u201d Solomon added. \u201cBut it\u2019s an incredible journey and you\u2019re at the beginning of it, and my biggest and most important message is don\u2019t be in a hurry.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #grads #face #jobpocalypse #Goldman #Sachs #exec #tells #Gen #commercial #impact<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For Gen Z, the entry-level car… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[2005,1979,542,1423,446,752,3907,304,300,2097,5132,3767,1731,2136,5448,522,2098,1284,1981,5134],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6137"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Don\u2019t know your worth? Human skills are also in demand<\/h2>\n
AI won\u2019t kill Wall Street jobs, but it\u2019s ramping up competitive pressure<\/h2>\n