Kinjil Mathur, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of the American software services company Squarespace, recently advised Gen Z job seekers to work “any hours and at any pay” to avoid becoming “unemployable.” In an interview with Fortune, the Indian-origin executive recounted how she landed her first job nearly 20 years ago. She started as an intern at the travel firm called Travelocity and then worked her way up through Conde Nast, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Foursquare before becoming CMO at Squarespace. She shared her early experience of reaching out to businesses and people in her city, asking for internships and offering to work for free. She expects the same from Gen Z job seekers, whom she believes are at risk of becoming “unemployable.”
Speaking to Fortune, Ms Mathur recalled that she did not expect to get a job just after obtaining a finance degree in 2000. She was “worried about her future”. “Every single summer I was trying to find some internship. I just wanted to get experience,” she told the outlet.
Ms Mathur shared her experience of reaching out to businesses and people in her city, calling up corporations, asking for internships and offering work for free. This worked for the New York-based exec as she landed an internship at a travel company called Travelocity during her first summer at the University of Texas and worked for free which made a priceless impact on her resume.
In your early career, “you’ve got to be willing to do whatever it takes,” Ms Mathur said. “I was willing to work for free, I was willing to work any hours they needed – even on evenings and weekends. I was not focused on travelling,” she said.
“You really have to just be willing to do anything, any hours, any pay, any type of job – just really remain open,” she added.
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Further, Ms Mathur warned that once you land an internship, “you’ve got to take it incredibly seriously”. After all, employers can close doors just as quickly as they can open them, she said.
Ms Mathur suggested that unemployed Gen Zers need to ditch their list of demands for prospective employers – including plenty of working from home, minimal working hours and a generous pay check – and start hustling. “The list of criteria for people coming out of college, or in college, right now is so long,” she said, adding that your time will come to be picky.
For now, Ms Mathur advised young job seekers to say: “If anyone can give me any kind of experience, I would be forever indebted to them.”
