To stand out in a competitive market, one Gen Zer even decided to hit the streets of Wall Street with a sign advertising he’s ready to work.
“I ended up thinking, ‘How do I get my name out there? How can I maybe make this happen in the next week?’ I wasn’t trying to make it happen in a couple months, I was trying to make it happen overnight,” Rabinowitz tells Fortune. “I needed it to happen now—I’m running out of money, it’s the time. When fear and anxiety happens, it just pushes you.”
It had been three years since Rabinowitz graduated with a bachelor’s degree in finance from Florida Atlantic University back in May 2022, but the Gen Zer has had no luck landing his dream job after applying to more than 1,000 roles.
At the time, he says most people shot smiles of encouragement, but only a handful of people stopped. However, one businessman actually took the bait; a partner at an undisclosed financial firm spoke with Rabinowitz after being intrigued by his message. The Gen Z hopeful says he was even invited up into the person’s office—surrounded by computer screens and statistics, it was a taste of what his dream career could look like as an equity trader.
“I was having fun. Saw the bull—it was a great day. Then a man in a suit walked by. He gave me a little smirk. I said, ‘Hey, I’ll work for free!…Come on, give a young guy a chance.’ He made his way over, and took my resume,” Rabinowitz explains. Later that day, he got a shot at the company. “He thankfully came down to get his lunch and grabbed me. We went up, I got the interview, and we had a great interview.”
Rabinowitz tells Fortune that the partner ultimately didn’t hire him. However, he says his Wall Street stunt was “more than worth it,” as other opportunities have since begun pouring in.
“Now, I’ve got a little bit of confidence,” Rabinowitz says. “I had nothing before, and regardless if I get a job right away or not, I know my future is bright, and I’m very proud of myself.”
“It was really inspiring to connect with a lot of people who went through the same thing as me. I think that’s why it popped off, because it’s just so prevalent in today’s age with the job market,” Rabinowitz says. “Really young grads are having a hard time with AI coming out, taking a lot of those roles away. The system is already hard to begin with.”
Parading a sign pleading for a job isn’t the only way young professionals are getting crafty to land a job.
Donning a delivery uniform, he spent more than a week hand-delivering donuts in disguise to every company he hoped to work for. Inside the boxes, he included a secret memo: “Most resumes end up in trash. Mine—in your belly,” with his resume and link to his LinkedIn profile. He got 10 interviews from the stunt, but ultimately had to return back to his home country to continue working after failing to secure a U.S. work visa.
“When you’re a graduate you think everyone’s going to say yes to you and things are going [to] work out. But it’s a matter of building up resilience,” Shenouda told Fortune last year. “You need to keep reassessing your process so that every no gets you closer to that next yes.”
