Gen Z Candidates Build Their Own Experience Pipelines As Employers Redefine Entry-Level Hiring
Key Points
Entry level hiring tightens as companies shrink classes, delay start dates, and rely less on traditional campus pipelines, leaving candidates with fewer clear paths into roles.
Marc Rudajev, a DAT Strategist at TRON DAO, explains how both employers and candidates are adjusting to a market where old signals like GPA carry less weight.
Candidates stand out by building real experience through projects, using AI effectively, and clearly communicating their value to employers.
It was never easy to get a job, clearly, but it used to be a much more straightforward process. Nowadays, there's still the traditional path, but social media has opened a thousand new pathways too.
Marc Rudajev
DAT Strategist
TRON DAO
The 2026 entry-level job market is defined by constraint. Companies are hiring smaller classes, stretching timelines, and pushing start dates, turning what was once a structured campus-to-corporate pipeline into a bottleneck with real consequences for Gen Z employment. With traditional talent acquisition pipelines slowing in some sectors and a challenging job outlook ahead, many young professionals are not waiting around. Instead, they’re hacking their own ways around the roadblocks.
Marc Rudajev sees the hiring breakdown from both sides of the market. He is a DAT Strategist and Board Advisor at TRON DAO, a blockchain ecosystem, and a former Executive Director at Morgan Stanley. He also teaches high school mathematics, giving him a direct view into how students are approaching the job market alongside how employers are redefining what signals actually matter.
Because companies are hedging their bets, candidates are learning to operate like free agents. With campus career centers losing their edge, that friction is forcing young people to diversify how they search for roles and accumulate experience. “It was never easy to get a job, clearly, but it used to be a much more straightforward process,” Rudajev says, recalling a time when students mostly relied on campus recruiting events and follow-up calls. “Nowadays, there’s still the traditional path, but social media has opened a thousand new pathways too.” To cope with smaller analyst classes, candidates are widening their outreach across platforms and developing digital networking skills along the way.
From homeroom to boardroom: Ambitious candidates are taking matters into their own hands, launching everything from sports nutrition products to recovery devices. Rudajev points to his own high school seniors who recently built Locked In, an app designed to help schools manage smartphone use. “Now they’re in the process of raising money and hiring, and these are 17-, 18-year-old kids,” he explains. “Even if it doesn’t succeed, they’ve got that experience. When you apply for a more traditional investment banking job, they can point to what they did for the last three, four years.”
For many HR leaders, the parallel paths raise a practical question. How do you spot capability when the traditional signals are muddy, and a growing share of meaningful work happens outside formal programs?
The GPA mirage: Amid widespread discussions about grade inflation, Rudajev points to recent data comparing Harvard’s 1957 grades to its 2026 outcomes to illustrate how baseline GPAs have climbed. “A 3.8 GPA today is not a 3.8 from 30 years ago,” he says. Because the traditional academic metric is too noisy to be useful on its own, recruiters who lean heavily on GPA may miss candidates who have developed product and stakeholder skills through side projects.
The open-book AI test: With corporate demand for AI employee skills rising, many hiring managers are evaluating how candidates actually use tools like ChatGPT, regardless of classroom bans. “The students or adults who know how to use AI are going to be significantly more efficient than those that don’t,” Rudajev says. He likens testing a modern worker’s research skills without allowing AI to an antiquated library-only rule. “We can’t pretend it doesn’t exist.”
Brilliant but boxed in: With soft skills mattering now more than ever, Rudajev has seen a pattern play out repeatedly. “Throughout my career, some of the people who rose through the ranks the fastest were those that had the gift of the gab. Then on the other hand you’d have those who were some of the smartest people I’ve ever met. They get respect and do well, but they don’t jump up because they’re insular. They’re in their own little bubble.”
The candidates who stand out now are the ones who can translate knowledge into something others can understand and act on, regardless of whether it was built in a classroom, on a deal team, or through an independent project. What matters is not just what they know, but how clearly and confidently they can express it. “At the end of the day, showcasing your value is one of the most important things,” Rudajev concludes. “You need the skills and the knowledge, but you also need to be able to communicate it.”
Related articles
TL;DR
Entry level hiring tightens as companies shrink classes, delay start dates, and rely less on traditional campus pipelines, leaving candidates with fewer clear paths into roles.
Marc Rudajev, a DAT Strategist at TRON DAO, explains how both employers and candidates are adjusting to a market where old signals like GPA carry less weight.
Candidates stand out by building real experience through projects, using AI effectively, and clearly communicating their value to employers.
Marc Rudajev
TRON DAO
DAT Strategist
DAT Strategist
The 2026 entry-level job market is defined by constraint. Companies are hiring smaller classes, stretching timelines, and pushing start dates, turning what was once a structured campus-to-corporate pipeline into a bottleneck with real consequences for Gen Z employment. With traditional talent acquisition pipelines slowing in some sectors and a challenging job outlook ahead, many young professionals are not waiting around. Instead, they’re hacking their own ways around the roadblocks.
Marc Rudajev sees the hiring breakdown from both sides of the market. He is a DAT Strategist and Board Advisor at TRON DAO, a blockchain ecosystem, and a former Executive Director at Morgan Stanley. He also teaches high school mathematics, giving him a direct view into how students are approaching the job market alongside how employers are redefining what signals actually matter.
Because companies are hedging their bets, candidates are learning to operate like free agents. With campus career centers losing their edge, that friction is forcing young people to diversify how they search for roles and accumulate experience. “It was never easy to get a job, clearly, but it used to be a much more straightforward process,” Rudajev says, recalling a time when students mostly relied on campus recruiting events and follow-up calls. “Nowadays, there’s still the traditional path, but social media has opened a thousand new pathways too.” To cope with smaller analyst classes, candidates are widening their outreach across platforms and developing digital networking skills along the way.
From homeroom to boardroom: Ambitious candidates are taking matters into their own hands, launching everything from sports nutrition products to recovery devices. Rudajev points to his own high school seniors who recently built Locked In, an app designed to help schools manage smartphone use. “Now they’re in the process of raising money and hiring, and these are 17-, 18-year-old kids,” he explains. “Even if it doesn’t succeed, they’ve got that experience. When you apply for a more traditional investment banking job, they can point to what they did for the last three, four years.”
For many HR leaders, the parallel paths raise a practical question. How do you spot capability when the traditional signals are muddy, and a growing share of meaningful work happens outside formal programs?
The GPA mirage: Amid widespread discussions about grade inflation, Rudajev points to recent data comparing Harvard’s 1957 grades to its 2026 outcomes to illustrate how baseline GPAs have climbed. “A 3.8 GPA today is not a 3.8 from 30 years ago,” he says. Because the traditional academic metric is too noisy to be useful on its own, recruiters who lean heavily on GPA may miss candidates who have developed product and stakeholder skills through side projects.
The open-book AI test: With corporate demand for AI employee skills rising, many hiring managers are evaluating how candidates actually use tools like ChatGPT, regardless of classroom bans. “The students or adults who know how to use AI are going to be significantly more efficient than those that don’t,” Rudajev says. He likens testing a modern worker’s research skills without allowing AI to an antiquated library-only rule. “We can’t pretend it doesn’t exist.”
Brilliant but boxed in: With soft skills mattering now more than ever, Rudajev has seen a pattern play out repeatedly. “Throughout my career, some of the people who rose through the ranks the fastest were those that had the gift of the gab. Then on the other hand you’d have those who were some of the smartest people I’ve ever met. They get respect and do well, but they don’t jump up because they’re insular. They’re in their own little bubble.”
The candidates who stand out now are the ones who can translate knowledge into something others can understand and act on, regardless of whether it was built in a classroom, on a deal team, or through an independent project. What matters is not just what they know, but how clearly and confidently they can express it. “At the end of the day, showcasing your value is one of the most important things,” Rudajev concludes. “You need the skills and the knowledge, but you also need to be able to communicate it.”