LinkedIn CEO: How to Stay Employed When AI Replaces Your Job | Ryan Roslansky

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0:39At least in the U.S., 50 % of college graduates this year will graduate either unemployed or underemployed. And credit card debt is being outpaced by student loan debt for the first time in history.

0:51Marina Mogilko:This is Ryan Roslansky, CEO of LinkedIn. He took LinkedIn from$7 billion to$17 billion in revenue and crossed a billion members by betting big on AI, smarter hiring tools, skills-based matching, and a massive push into video. LinkedIn is the definitive labor market platform of the world. We have amazing insights into actually what is happening across the world. His data doesn't predict the job market. It is the job market. What about entry-level jobs? Entry-level jobs across the world right now, the hiring rate that we see are down roughly 12%. While we see that hiring is sluggish across most markets, the reason that it's sluggish doesn't have anything to do with AI.

1:29Marina Mogilko:Do you think college is just kind of fading away? When I talk to people about what they should do with their career, it's less about where do you want to be in five years. It's more about over the next few months, like what new skills do you want to learn? So what are the top skills people should be adding to their LinkedIn right now? This, you know, this huge demand. Ryan, thank you so much and welcome to Silicon Valley, girl. Great to be here. I am so happy to have you. So you are the CEO of LinkedIn and also executive vice president of Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft Office. And we're at Davos today.

2:01Yes.

2:01Marina Mogilko:So what is everyone talking about? I think there's a lot of the things that I'm seeing, but I think one of the things that's probably most interesting to you potentially is I think if we were here maybe like three years ago, a lot of the conversations we would be having would be with traditional media. And this year, it's amazing to see kind of the creator influence, like up and down the promenade and kind of the role that creators are playing in this new economy. And, you know, we see it on LinkedIn. There's 4 million members now that their official job title is creator. And it's just amazing to watch this kind of new industry explode where it is today.

2:33We recognize the Davos, for example.

2:36Marina Mogilko:That is amazing. And I'm happy to be part of it. It's amazing to see starting 12 years ago and being a creator now is just a huge, huge difference. What do people say about AI? Do you think people here are more positive or negative? It's interesting. I think people are all over the place because their opinions are based on what they heard from the last conversation. What I love about LinkedIn is that as the definitive labor market platform of the world, we have amazing insights into actually what is happening across the world. And it's interesting. While we see that hiring is sluggish across most markets, The reason that it's sluggish doesn't have anything to do with AI, in our opinion.

3:17It's actually more due to macro conditions, interest rates, not AI. As it relates to AI, we see something totally different. There's actually been almost 1.3 million brand new net jobs on LinkedIn for AI, roles like data annotators. Over 600 ,000 new data center jobs exist on LinkedIn. forward deployed engineers that companies need to understand AI. So at least in terms of what we're seeing in the LinkedIn data right now, AI is a net positive addition to the job market, not something that's detracting jobs.

3:54Marina Mogilko:That's great. But what about entry-level jobs? So entry-level jobs across the world right now, the hiring rate that we see are down roughly 12%, but they are not disproportionate to any of the other jobs. So they're down just as much as all the other jobs in the world. I think kind of what I was saying before, a lot of that contraction is due, you know, large part to macroeconomic kind of climate and interest rates and, you know, you know, companies investing less in general. So then the question becomes, what do, you know, any professional, you know, even if that professionals do? And, you know, we're seeing kind of two trends emerge.

4:31One, the one that I said, which is that, you know, micro entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship, you know, a rise in creators, which is that, hey, if the traditional path doesn't exist, I need to take my career into my own hands. And number two, a real affinity now towards trade roles. And I think if you go back a couple of years ago, you know, people weren't as into these trade roles as they are right now, but especially kind of Gen Z sees as a much safer option. What do you mean? Trade world? Like first line jobs, you know, typical like trade roles, not office jobs. And they see those as more resilient in an AI world.

5:10These are the types of jobs that AI probably won't take. So we're seeing more affinity towards that as well.

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5:55Marina Mogilko:bags for$10. Plus, when you want more help indoors, get up to 40 % off select major appliances that help you supercharge your chores. Our best lineup is here at Lowe's. Valid to 422, while supplies last. Selection varies by location. See lowes.com for details. Mold Chopper excludes Alaskan Hawaii. Interesting. Have you seen like a huge uptick in creator? Like when people foot creator as job title? Right now, there are 75 million people on LinkedIn that somewhere in their profile say they're a creator. And there's 4 million people that say their complete 100 % full-time job is creator. So it's fantastic.

6:37And look at what you started.

6:39Marina Mogilko:How do career paths change? Because you also track people through their career inside the company. You start as, I don't know, assistant and then go up and up. But because I think I heard you at one of the conference talking that a lot of people are hiring generalists now. So you don't necessarily climb up the ladder. You expand horizontally acquiring new skills. Do you see that trend as well? So I think first and foremost, the really important thing, like since the beginning of LinkedIn, the feature that is requested most from members is show me what a typical career path is supposed to look like.

7:12LinkedIn, you have all this data. So if I want to become a CFO or a CEO or an accountant or whatever, what is the path that people take? And the reality is in the data, there is no such thing as a linear career path. It's all over the place. So the more that people first and foremost recognize that you have to take your career into your own hands, there's no natural path that exists that you just get on, I think is really, really important. Right now, it's more important than ever, though, because skills are changing. The types of skills that are necessary for a specific role on LinkedIn have changed north of 25 % over the last couple of years alone.

7:51We expect they'll change by 70 % by 2030, largely influenced by AI and new tools and new ways of doing these professions. So, you know, I often when I talk to people about what they should do with their career, it's less about where do you want to be in five years. And it's more about over the next few months, like what new skills do you want to learn? Because to your point, these roles are flattening. Generalists are more and more where people are going these days.

8:16Marina Mogilko:So what are the top skills people should be adding to their LinkedIn right now? It's funny. There's this, you know, this huge demand kind of on both sides of the spectrum. Obviously, like AI literacy is important. And I think no matter what your role, your profession, familiarizing yourself with these tools is a really, really smart investment in your own career. You don't have to love them. You don't have to use them all the time. But just familiarizing yourself, putting yourself in the mindset that I'm going to figure out how I can be better at my job through AI is one thing. So a set of AI skills.

8:50But just as important on the other side are human skills, curiosity, creativity, courage, communication, compassion, the ability to work with other people, the ability to sit down with someone and actually have a conversation. You can't just be mired in using technology in a bubble and be successful in a lot of work settings. Just be able to disagree and commit with someone, to be able to communicate with someone, to help galvanize people to get something done. And so I think the key right now is that combination of, you know, learn those AI skills. And then if you've got a way to be strong on those, you know, more human skills, they're typically called soft skills.

9:31I think that's a misnomer. They don't, you know, soft kind of feels like it's less important. I think they're more important than ever.

9:37Marina Mogilko:When you talk about soft skills, as someone who hires on LinkedIn, I don't really sort people by like, oh, creative or whatever, but I read their posts. So what I found really helpful in hiring is that now we hire based on content that they post because it shows their personality. It shows how deep they are in the subject. We just hired a YouTube strategist who's amazing. And we hired him purely based on what he was posting about building a YouTube channel. I love that. So we always thought that the extension of your LinkedIn profile isn't just where you went to school, where you've worked, what skills you have, but the ability to demonstrate the actual knowledge that you have in your head by posting on LinkedIn.

10:21And it's awesome to hear that you use that as a way to understand someone's identity better.

10:26Marina Mogilko:Yeah, you don't have to jump on a call. You don't have to do anything. You just read the posts. Yeah, saves a lot of time. So people post more on LinkedIn. That's what. Also, as someone who started posting actively on LinkedIn last year, and we made something that's equal to a full-time salary just on LinkedIn, we grew from$10 ,000 to$50 ,000, almost$50 ,000 in a year. Wow, congratulations. So LinkedIn is definitely the social network right now. Thank you. Thank you for that. By the way, any tips to grow on LinkedIn? You know, LinkedIn is unique because our platform exists to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.

11:03Our feed exists as a mechanism to showcase your identity, exactly the story that you just told. So that if I'm trying to get hired, or I want to make a name for myself in a specific field, the content that I share is a way to do that. Other platforms tend to stem from, you know, their vision is around, you know, entertainment or, you know, large engagement. Our largest business is in recruiting. So we don't come at it from a perspective of, you know, we're trying to help you get, you know, a gazillion likes or, you know, 10 billion views or something like that. we're trying to help you create authentic content that only you can do based on the skills that you have what you have in your head get that on the platform to the right people who may be able to you know learn from that or do something with it or hire you because of it and that's where we find success so i think that that's just a different mindset that we always tell people about using linkedin you may not get you know the views you get on so many other platforms but the people you reach, the quality of the audience, the opportunities that come are what we're really trying to do.

12:14Marina Mogilko:You get the right views. Also, what I noticed as a creator telling your personal stories, especially if they're tied to some events, really, really helps grow. I think it's interesting. I mean, I think especially more in the younger generation, it always kind of felt taboo to talk about anything that felt not buttoned up and professional on LinkedIn. but more and more, I think the next generation, not only are they okay with it, but it actually tells a lot more about who they are, their personality, what they know, how they think. It's really kind of refreshing to see that happen on LinkedIn. Absolutely.

12:48Marina Mogilko:Let's go back to our LinkedIn profiles. There's a huge section, education, right? And a lot of people would take like top university, small courses just to have that name, right? Because it meant a lot. Do you think college means as much these days or because we can acquire any skill online, is just kind of fading away? So two things. One, I dropped out of college very early on and was really focused on the skills that I needed to start a company and be an entrepreneur. So I had kind of a mixed view on that. I do know right now, at least in the US, 50 % of college graduates this year will graduate either unemployed or underemployed.

13:31and credit card debt is being outpaced by student loan debt for the first time in history. So there's something that's not really working in the current system. I am nowhere close to going so far as to say college isn't worth it. The social experience, the learning to, you know, the soft skills and you being able to be around people and communicate, I think are critical. And And if you're fortunate enough to be in a college environment to have that experience, I think it's really, really worth it. But I think that it's really more about a lot of those soft skills for most professions than the typical hard skills that we always thought about from college in the past.

14:13And more importantly, more and more now when recruiters or anyone looking to hire on LinkedIn or starting their process, they aren't looking at what school did you go to. They're looking at what skills do you have or what did your last post look like so I know more about you. So it's mattering less than it has in the past what school you went to.

14:33Marina Mogilko:Are you still betting on college for your daughters? Because then I have three daughters, right? Absolutely. And I think, again, I think a lot of the social components of that are critical. It's a great place to learn how to grow up, to learn how to interact with other people, to form a network, to make mistakes. And so, you know, while I would never mandate anything that any of my children do, you know, so far, at least my oldest one, like that's the career path that she's taken and she's having a wonderful time. Have you ever regretted dropping out? I think I missed a lot of really fun years by leaving college early.

15:05That's for sure.

15:06Marina Mogilko:All right. That's, yeah, still a big question. So you are releasing a book, Open to Work. Can you talk about how someone can use this book to navigate their future? I feel like you're the best person to write this book, by the way, because you have all the data, you're seeing what's happening on the market. And yeah, I'm looking forward to reading it. Thank you. So it's been actually kind of unique because I've spent 25 years building, you know, internet products where you can build a product and test it out with people and see what happens and then change it really quickly. When you write a book, you write it and it's kind of final and you hope and, you know, pray that it goes out there and people find value out of it.

15:43So we're excited to release it soon. But it's a book that was written to help people really understand and bring some clarity to what career paths look like in an AI first world. There's a lot of uncertainty. I think people are scared. They don't know where to start. They don't know where to turn. This book acts as a guide to help you understand how to think through it, what AI can do, what AI can't do, the importance of the human skills that we just talked about, and how you can kind of pull those two things together and figure out what you want to do with your career and make the best career path.

16:14for yourself. You know, it's not a crystal ball, but, you know, it's, we try and leverage a lot of the things that we know and see on LinkedIn to help people make right career decisions, because it's so difficult, especially when you're starting out to know what to do or how to think. And right now there's just so much, you know, unique craziness in the world of, you know, what does AI mean for jobs and roles and skills? So at the end of the day, if we can help more people make smarter career decisions, like that's what we're aiming to do. And we do that every day through LinkedIn, but we wanted to try something different approach as well for people who maybe aren't on LinkedIn or just, you know, want to kind of see it in the book form.

16:51So.

16:52Marina Mogilko:Is there a principle from that book that you can share that people can use to guide their careers? I think most importantly, a lot of what I see on LinkedIn are people just absolutely hyper-focused on the hard skills, the AI skills, the technical skills, and they're completely dismissing the human skills. So we talk about it in five C's that we think are critical for you to learn and to master that will make you stand out in the future. Curiosity, courage, creativity, compassion and communication. Like learning and understanding the importance of those five skills are where I would invest the majority of my time right now as a professional.

17:35Marina Mogilko:It's interesting because we have a lot of tools on how to develop our hard skills. But when it comes to curiosity, how do you even acquire them? So it's hard. I mean, some people are fortunate enough to be born with it. But we do a lot through LinkedIn Learning to also help through the data that we have to teach techniques and how to think about a lot of these soft skills. People think they can't be learned, but they actually really can be learned. They need to be practiced like any other skill. But again, I think it's kind of that misnomer that soft means it wasn't as important. and just kind of bringing that to the forefront, I think is the most important thing right now.

18:07Marina Mogilko:You guys know how much work goes into this podcast. Thank you so much for your support. I started in a newsletter to share more my business mistakes with this and another company that I'm running, AI tools that I'm testing and using actively, and behind the scenes of building my team. It's free and lands in your inbox every week. Link is in the description. Let's keep learning together in this new AI era. I've heard someone say in the next five to 10 years, you either become an entrepreneur, maybe with a new niche, or you die. What would you say? Like die as a professional. I hope that's not the case.

18:47I absolutely expect that AI is going to democratize access to opportunity in a way that so many people that have always wanted to create something or start something, build a business, be an entrepreneur, will have the tools to do it. I don't think it's going to be the only path, but I do think we will see many, many more entrepreneurs. And I think that's a really, really good thing. Yeah.

19:14Marina Mogilko:Yeah, me too. Can you give me, you think, top three jobs for the next three to five years? Top three as defined how? Most in demand. So right now, there's a role called data annotator. You know what this is? No. It's fascinating. So anytime you use a large language model, at the end of the day, the way that those models keep getting better and better are there are many. human beings that are being paid to evaluate the output of those models based on their expertise. So, maybe you're a, I don't know, a cardiologist is your full-time job in the real world and the real life, but a large language model company is trying to make their model better for people who are asking questions around heart health.