From Nicki Joiner

I spent three hours at dinner with fellow speakers tonight, and somehow ended up talking about the one thing I really don’t enjoy talking about: myself. 😅 It got me thinking about why networking feels so uncomfortable for students, and whether we’re asking them to do something we’ve never really given them a chance to practice.

961 students. Two workshops. And 908 students who voluntarily took the time to write feedback about their experience.

Yesterday, I spent about 10 minutes asking a few people in my network to put my name forward for a speaking opportunity. Less than 24 hours later, I had an inquiry. 🙌

We teach students all the mechanics of networking, but how often do we talk about the motive behind it?

We keep telling students to do more. More clubs. More leadership. More things to add to the resume.

But after reviewing 50,000+ resumes, I can tell you more is not what makes someone stand out.

This week’s Future Friday is about helping students stop collecting experiences and start understanding the impact they’re already making.

Earlier this week, I got a reminder of an interaction I hadn’t thought about in almost three years.

It made me think about how much time we spend trying to quantify impact. I do it too. Numbers give people context and help us understand the scale of our work. But not everything that matters can be measured…

I’ve been on eight flights in seven days, and it has been a really good week full of opportunities I’ve worked and prayed for. And I am also completely exhausted.

I think I’ve always struggled to let those two things exist at the same time, so this week’s Future Friday is a reminder that you can love what you do, be incredibly grateful for it, and still need a break.

We don’t have a shortage of career readiness programs.

We have K-12 doing one thing, colleges doing another, and employers wondering why students aren’t ready for work.

At some point, we have to admit the programs might not be the problem.

We talk a lot about making students “career ready” but where are they actually getting stuck? Because we can’t choose the right solution until we diagnose the actual problem.

We tell students they need to network but are we actually teaching them how to become someone people WANT to refer?

After moderating a panel on networking this week, I’ve been thinking a lot about what actually makes networking work.

And I think we might be measuring it all wrong 👀

I spend a lot of time on college campuses, and there’s one thing I hear from students way too often:

“I wish I would’ve known this sooner.”

So it got me thinking… if I could rebuild how colleges prepare students for the workforce from scratch, what would I change? Turns out, I have some thoughts 😅

This platform is largely for “wins”, so I’ve never really talked publicly about the 21 months where I was “losing” before I got my job at JPMorgan Chase.

But I’ve been thinking about that period of my life a lot this week, especially as I’ve watched some really exciting things happen in my career.

I’ve had it on my heart for almost a year to write a letter to all the fraternity and sorority professionals in the month of August, so I here I am sitting in the MSN airport making that happen.

Shout out to Thea Rachel Zunick, Ed.D and Dr. Adam Joiner for the photo 🙃

I got a reminder this week that I needed….

After submitting five conference session proposals, only one was accepted. My first thought? “But I’m qualified.” That’s when it hit me: being qualified gets you into the conversation. It doesn’t always make you the choice.

I want to reflect on that concept with you all this week!

I wore a full suit on my first day at JPMorgan Chase, and by the time I got to the elevator, I realized I was the most dressed-up person in the building. Nobody told me to wear a suit. I just assumed it.

Gen Z is noticing that the rulebook was written with somebody else’s life in mind, and they’re asking a fair question: professional, according to who?

Arizona State University just launched a Bachelor’s degree in Content Creation, and the internet has a lot to say about it but I think the real conversation isn’t about the degree. It’s about how quickly our definition of a “real job” is changing.

This week’s newsletter dives into why I’m actually team ASU on this one.