Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jodi Cantor knows the job market is very bleak for young people right now. But she doesn’t want them to give up hope of finding a fulfilling career.
“The world is sending a terrible message to young people right now: ‘You’re not wanted,'” she told CNBC Make It. “I don’t think that’s true. Anyone who has spent time in the workplace knows that we rely on the next generation of talent.”
Kanter, an investigative reporter for the New York Times, is determined to help young professionals maintain their “aspirations” for the job, she said. Her latest book, How to Start: Discovering Your Life’s Work, was inspired by conversations she had with Columbia University students as she prepared her 2025 undergraduate commencement address.
“Students asked me one of the best questions I’ve ever heard: ‘How do we find our life’s work in this environment?'” she recalls. To find the answer, Kanter reflected on her years of reporting on workplaces and asked herself, “Who is successful and happy?”
The people that came to mind, including child psychiatrists, conflict resolution facilitators, and cookbook authors, all had one thing in common. Their work involved both “skills” and “needs,” she says.
Cantor defines “craft” as the combination of specialized knowledge and human skill. “Craft guides the hands of a surgeon as he restores the bodies of accident victims. This is how writers, composers, and directors hold audiences’ attention for hours at a time. This is why expertly prepared restaurant food is so delicious,” she writes in How to Start.
Kantor said mastering skills can prevent workers from being “treated as disposable or replaceable,” which is especially important as AI threatens the survival of some jobs. She believes that human skills are irreplaceable, and in her book argues that even accurate summaries produced by AI “feel blank” when compared to summaries written by humans, because they “lack the author’s voice and intelligence.”
What’s more, successful people are always “chasing needs,” says Kanter. They pinpoint a problem in their community or field and dedicate their skills to solving it.
The best way to identify needs is through “independent observation,” Kanter said. “Using your eyes and ears, can you clarify what human needs you can meet and what you will need through your work: what kind of care, what products, what information?”
Kanter said he had “the AI era very much in mind” when writing How to Start, and acknowledges that the impact of AI on work is a major concern for today’s young professionals.
A February report from consulting firm Mercer, based on a survey of more than 12,000 people around the world, found that the percentage of workers who said AI-related unemployment was their top workplace concern rose from 28% in 2024 to 40% in 2026. According to a Gallup report released in April, nearly half (48%) of Gen Z workers believe the risks of AI in the workforce outweigh the potential benefits.
Still, Kanter cautions against making important career decisions based on fears about new technology. “I truly believe that we don’t know what the workplace will look like in five or 10 years. There are too many predictions and the reality is very uncertain,” she says.
Her aim, she says, is to provide “proven and lasting knowledge” that will help young people choose fulfilling careers at any time.
Kanter says finding your life’s work doesn’t mean ignoring prudence or logic. In her view, “follow your passion” is unrealistic advice for today’s young professionals. Instead, young people should focus on how they can “align their interests with what the world needs,” she says.
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