![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/pizza_hat.png?w=2048\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
When every internship she applied to needed experience she didn\u2019t have yet, one Gen Z grad took matters into her own hands and used a creative method to land a job.<\/p>\n
Gone are the days when you can walk into a job just weeks after throwing your graduation cap into the air. In today\u2019s overcrowded working world, entry-level jobs often require two to three years of experience. Internships were poised to be a solution to this conundrum, but as one American University student soon found out while trying to bag work experience, nowadays it\u2019s hard to even land a role fetching coffee for corporate executives.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a first-gen college kid utterly perplexed by the internship paradox. I needed experience to land an internship, but I couldn\u2019t get experience without one,\u201d Ayala Ossowski, 26, told Fortune<\/em>.<\/p>\n But after hearing crickets from over 100 applications, she decided to resort to unusual networking methods.<\/p>\n The Gen Zer was already working 20 hours a week at a pizza shop in suburban Washington, D.C., or as she puts it, \u201cone of the wealthiest, most influential neighborhoods in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Being face-to-face with powerful people while she served them a slice got her thinking: \u201cWhy can\u2019t these people give me a job?<\/p>\n \u201cThe barrier I realized was that all they saw was the girl who was giving them pizza,\u201d she adds. \u201cI needed to give them a reason to look at me as a potential employee.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s when Ossowski decided she was going to start wearing a baseball cap emblazoned with her university logo on the front to every shift.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI needed to give myself some sort of credential right off the bat, that tipped off to them that I was studying,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n Just as Ossowski predicted, the baseball cap was a conversation starter.\u00a0<\/p>\n Instead of making painful small talk while they waited for their pizza order, customers were looking at the hat\u2019s logo and asking: \u201cOh, American University, do you go there?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n They were probably being polite and didn\u2019t anticipate much of a response, but anytime Ossowski was asked about the hat she\u2019d launch into her elevator pitch.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYep, I\u2019m a student there studying public relations and marketing,\u201d she recited her rehearsed lines. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m actually currently looking for an internship for the spring if you know anyone who\u2019s hiring. Enjoy your pizza.\u201d<\/p>\n Anyone looking to copy Ossowski should be warned: You\u2019ll get many strange looks while selling yourself at the cash register of a pizza joint (or a bakery, pet-supplies store, or clothing boutique, for that matter).<\/p>\n \u201cMost of them would just kind of laugh nervously and they didn\u2019t really know what to make of it\u2014because it is a little odd,\u201d she recalled. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t care because I knew it would work. I knew this would be the only way to get my first foot in the door.\u201d<\/p>\n Her instincts were on the money. After a month of puzzled expressions,<\/strong> all it took was impressing the right person to conclude her job search.<\/p>\n \u201cEventually someone took a chance on me because they appreciated my tenacity, grit, and willingness to ask for what I so desperately wanted,\u201d Ossowski added. \u201cI got the job, and my last shift at the shop was the very next week.\u201d<\/p>\n Finally, Ossowski had the experience she needed to rack up more work experience. One internship led to another, and now, a few years on from the fateful moment, she\u2019s a PR manager in Cisco\u2019s communications team. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThose experiences that I had helped me get the job today,\u201d she beamed. \u201cIf I hadn\u2019t worn that hat and if I hadn\u2019t gotten that first internship, I don\u2019t know where I would have ended up.\u201d<\/p>\n Even if you\u2019re not serving D.C.\u2019s elite residents, young job seekers shouldn\u2019t sleep on networking\u2014or at the very least putting in the effort\u2014on their student job.\u00a0<\/p>\n Not only is it a good use of your time, but it enables prospective employers to see how you operate in a real-life work setting\u2014even if that\u2019s behind a bar or cash register. Ultimately, you never know who\u2019s watching you.\u00a0<\/p>\n Unbeknownst to her, Ossowski had already impressed her future boss before even asking him for work.<\/p>\n \u201cThe customer before the person who ended up granting me my first internship was a very, very difficult customer. Everything was wrong with their order. It was taking too long; their kids were hungry. It was a terrible situation,\u201d she explained. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve spent many years in the service industry, so I dealt with them with grace, helped solve their problem, and they left happy.\u201d<\/p>\n The hiring manager told the graduate later on during the interview that her handling of the customer was a \u201cbig reason why\u201d he gave her his business card.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s why Ossowski also recommends keeping your elevator pitch short and sweet: \u201cIt tees off to them that you\u2019ll be able to compose yourself well in a high-level meeting and that you won\u2019t be babbling on.\u201d<\/p>\n And if pitching yourself isn\u2019t something you\u2019re comfortable with, no problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI love talking to people and I am really good at pitching myself, so those were the strengths that I used in order to help me. Use your own personal strengths to stand out in any way that you can,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe market is so saturated with such incredible talent that it takes some creativity in order to stand out from the crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n When Ossowski first shared her story with Fortune<\/em> in 2024, the job market was tough. But today, it\u2019s even tougher as young people stare down an uncertain economy, a wave of AI-driven redundancies, and the worst job market we\u2019ve seen in 37 years.<\/p>\n Her core advice hasn\u2019t shifted, but she\u2019s added one thing. \u201cBe intentional about what you\u2019re consuming and how it makes you feel.\u201d <\/p>\n Social media, she warns, has a way of distorting reality for young job seekers. <\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re constantly reading negative comment sections or comparing your journey to someone else\u2019s highlight reel, it\u2019s going to affect how you see yourself and your situation\u2026 The job market can be hard enough without letting the internet talk you out of your own potential,\u201d Ossowski adds. \u201cTrust yourself, tune out the noise, and keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n A version of this story originally published on March 10, 2024.<\/em><\/p>\n Have you used an unusual hack to break into your career? Fortune wants to hear from you. Get in touch: <\/em><\/strong>orianna.royle@fortune.com<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n #Arrow #Button #Icon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When every internship she applied to needed experience she didn\u2019t have yet, one Gen Z grad took matters into her own hands and used a creative method to land a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9596,7138,424,426,427,428,1946,1887,4450,4451,9595],"class_list":["post-7267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-arrow","tag-button","tag-career-advice","tag-careers","tag-evergreen-refresh","tag-gen-z","tag-icon","tag-job-hunting","tag-recruitment","tag-the-interview-playbook","tag-where-the-jobs-are"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}It only takes one person to notice you<\/h2>\n
Graduates: You never know who\u2019s watching you\u00a0<\/h2>\n
Two years on, the market has only gotten harder <\/h2>\n