{"id":501448,"date":"2026-06-15T22:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T22:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/501448\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T22:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T22:29:11","slug":"why-todays-young-professionals-need-more-grit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/501448\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Today\u2019s Young Professionals Need More Grit"},"content":{"rendered":"

My university\u2019s graduation ceremony, like schools across the country, was filled with the usual sort of platitudes: Go after your dreams<\/a>, be courageous, do something bigger than yourself, don\u2019t shrink in the face of adversity, and so on. All great thoughts and what graduates and their family members needed to hear in that moment of celebration.<\/p>\n

They should also know that what comes after will be a lot of hard work, uncertainty, and, yes\u2014adversity. The job market is tough and likely getting tougher. The world, and the world of work, is shifting underneath our feet as we speak, and we don\u2019t know where it will be in a year, five years, or more. Lots of organizations are pulling back from hiring, especially new graduates and other young professionals.<\/p>\n

When I speak to college seniors, I like to share research from today\u2019s hiring managers that examines their concerns about new hires. More than half say recent grads are unprepared for the workforce and are difficult to manage. Sixty-five percent say they had to fire at least one recent college graduate within the past year (Resume, 2025). <\/p>\n

The reactions from students are typically mixed, ranging from shock to acceptance to wanting to argue the point. What I always tell them is this: The frustrations that today\u2019s older adults have with the younger ones are nothing new. The same things were said about my generation and will continue to be said about the next. This is the nature of generations mixing in the workforce.<\/p>\n

And, whether true or not, perception is reality. If you are surrounded by people who believe young people have no work ethic, lack motivation<\/a>, are entitled, have a bad attitude, and are unprepared for work, then it\u2019s your job to prove those people wrong.<\/p>\n

Recently I heard an HR leader<\/a> say, \u201cYoung people today need more grit.\u201d And I think that\u2019s true. The job market has been hard before, and navigating work as a new grad has always been challenging. But there\u2019s something different about what\u2019s happening today, due to the headwinds of AI<\/a>, layoffs, and downsizing, not to mention still-lingering impacts of the pandemic. <\/p>\n

Today\u2019s young professionals, if they want to be successful, are going to need to get a little gritty, in addition to that degree they just earned. Today’s employee is measured not on potential, but on the ability to navigate uncertainty, make an impact, and work through adversity with a high-level of professionalism from day one. And while that may seem unfair, the good news is, for most fields, it’s the soft skills that will help you stand out in this environment. And those are skills you can develop.<\/p>\n

The Power of Soft Skills<\/p>\n

In any list of competencies that today’s employers are looking for, you’ll see some combination of problem-solving, initiative, resilience<\/a>, flexibility, agility, creativity<\/a>, self-awareness, and communication skills alongside the need for technical and AI fluency (Future, 2025; Job Outlook, 2025). And while “grit” does not explicitly appear on these lists, it underlies them, as employers are no longer willing to teach these skills to new professionals. They’re expecting the employee to show up ready to contribute on day one, and willing and able to acquire the skills and knowledge they need on their own. If you want to succeed in today’s workforce, if you want to get ahead, you simply cannot do it without grit.<\/p>\n

Grit, a term made popular by psychologist Angela Duckworth, is essentially having the qualities of persistence and perseverance to sustain effort toward a goal. More specifically, \u201cachievement is the product of talent and effort, the latter a function of the intensity, direction, and duration of one\u2019s exertions toward a goal\u201d (Duckworth et al., 2007). It\u2019s not enough to be talented, smart, or focused to be successful, in other words. It\u2019s talent and effort, and the ability and willingness to sustain that effort over time. Grittiness may not be mentioned nor measured by the hiring manager, but your ability to pursue your goals in the face of uncertainty, adversity, and a rapidly changing world of work is key to your success.<\/p>\n

How Do You Do It?<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, telling someone to \u201cget gritty\u201d doesn\u2019t exactly lead to clearly defined behaviors at work or anywhere else. Here is where I would like all young people to start.<\/p>\n

Know your strengths and lean into them. Figure out what you\u2019re good at and how to capitalize on those things where you are. If you\u2019re great at working in teams, find projects that let you do that. If you have strong analytical skills, raise your hand for those projects. Being gritty means not waiting for someone to put your strengths to work. It’s finding places where you can contribute to support the organization and your team’s success.
\nKnow your weaknesses and develop a plan to address them. Everyone has things they don\u2019t do well. And just because you aren\u2019t good at something doesn\u2019t mean you don\u2019t have to do it, especially when it comes to work. This is what working through adversity and challenge is all about. The gritty professional is the one who acknowledges their learning and ability gaps, and seeks out opportunities to grow in those areas, without having to be told to do so.
\nGet and stay educated. In today\u2019s world of work, the most successful people are those who are lifelong learners. Get educated on your role, organization, and industry. Know what\u2019s happening with the job market, AI, the economy, and other factors that may have direct impact on you. There is no excuse for not having knowledge today. Make \u201cbeing a learner\u201d one of your top strengths.
\nSet and work toward your goals. Today\u2019s workplace has little time or patience to help you figure out where you need to be. If your manager doesn\u2019t provide goals for your work, then set them for yourself. Think in 30-60-90 day increments and set goals for how you would like this role to connect to your longer-term career<\/a> plan. Share these with your manager to make them part of the process. But don\u2019t sit back and wait for someone to tell you what to do. They won\u2019t.
\nKnow the difference between failure and mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes, and you need to get ready to make a lot of them. What matters is not whether you\u2019re messing something up; it\u2019s how you react to it and what you do with that information moving forward. A gritty person uses setbacks as learning opportunities, fixes their mistakes, and moves forward. And yes, you may fail at some point. But most things in life that seem like failures are just mistakes. Learn to spot the difference.
\nFind your people. Finally, always remember that even in this high-tech, AI-run world, we are all only as good as the people with whom we surround ourselves. Build relationships with your co-workers, with mentors and sponsors, and with your community. Your skills and your relentless pursuit of your goals can only get you so far. Your people are the ones who will open doors for you, give you the feedback you need along the way, and stand in your corner when others won\u2019t. Be as gritty about building relationships as you are about the work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"My university\u2019s graduation ceremony, like schools across the country, was filled with the usual sort of platitudes: Go…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-501448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}