Azeem Azhar

So one way would be that as a novel resource, I may not know how long you're willing to stay somewhere.

The last thing I want to do is hire someone who's going to stay for six months.

So is there something that the candidate can do to prove

a long-term interest in a particular direction?

And then the second thing that I need to know is that work is tough and I need to know that you've got the grit to stick through the ups and downs, stick through being told what to do.

And are there ways in which you can evidence that

The second feels it's a little bit easier to evidence because you can say, well, I went off and did a seven-week route march just with two bags of M&Ms and I came out the other side.

Then there might be ways of evidencing the first.

Do you think if we could do that, if graduates could do that, that would help address the concern that this very, very scared hiring market is exhibiting?

Let's turn this into that specific piece of advice.

So there'll be lots of people listening out of the tens and hundreds of thousands who will have kids who are in that final year of college in their undergrad.

There's a bit of pressure, but there is time.

There's time a few months before you really formally hit the hiring market.

If there is one thing

that junior should do, that mom and dad should encourage junior to do so that when they get out there in the fall of 2026 to look for a job, they're best placed?

What is that one thing?

You know, economists often talk about payoffs.

Ben, we've got a payoff out of this conversation with your last two pieces of advice.

Ben Zweig, thank you so much for the time today.

Thank you.