Recently, a reader sent me a private message, saying that finding a job is very difficult now, asking me to review their resume and if I had any job search advice.
To be honest, I don’t have much say in this matter. After all, I was fortunate enough to avoid a wave of “layoffs” by choosing to go abroad, so I haven’t truly participated in the competition.
However, I’m also very aware that in the current market environment, especially for recent graduates or those with limited work experience, and given China’s 35-year-old age limit, finding a job is increasingly difficult.
I looked at his resume; he has a master’s degree and overseas experience. But today’s job market seems to value what you can do and what you’ve done more than before. In other words, education is important, but ability is more crucial.
Just taking this opportunity to talk about job searching, I want to share about someone I’ve recently been following who greatly inspired me.
His name is Gabriel Petersson, a high school dropout who later became an OpenAI Research Scientist through self-study.
A High School Dropout Joins OpenAI#
Gabriel Petersson, a Swede, didn’t even graduate from high school. He used ChatGPT to self-study Ph.D.-level machine learning knowledge, worked at Midjourney and Dataland, and joined OpenAI’s Sora team in December 2024, becoming a Research Scientist at 23 years old.
Note, he didn’t just not go to college; he didn’t even finish high school.
He said in a podcast:
“Knowledge is not a problem anymore.”
Meaning, AI has made acquiring knowledge extremely easy. What’s truly important is action and the ability to apply it. Universities no longer monopolize knowledge; you need to proactively learn and do.
He also emphasized the relationship between ability and education:
“If you’re smart and can use ChatGPT, you can get a job tomorrow.”
In other words, academic qualifications are no longer a stepping stone; ability is the most core competitiveness.
These views perfectly explain the strategy he later adopted: not relying on academic qualifications to get interview opportunities, but directly creating opportunities through action.
Interview Strategy Needs a Complete Overhaul#
In the past, our job search logic was like this:
Write resume → Apply → Wait for interview → Showcase abilities in the interview.
The problem is, in those brief minutes of an interview, it’s actually very difficult to truly demonstrate your capabilities. What interviewers see is mostly you “saying” what you can do, rather than what you’ve “done”.
Gabriel’s approach is completely different. He doesn’t wait to be interviewed; instead, he actively researches what target companies are doing, what they plan to do next, and then directly builds a demo.
This is what I call the “nuclear weapon” strategy:
Don’t just showcase skills in an interview; prepare your achievements beforehand.
How Exactly to Do It?#
Step one, research the target company. Look at their product roadmap, tech blogs, and job descriptions on their careers page to understand what they plan to do next and what problems they are solving. Remember, what companies care about is actually very simple:
“Companies just want to make money.”
They don’t care about your academic qualifications; they care about whether you can build products and create value.
Step two, get hands-on. Build a working demo that addresses their needs, or solve a real problem within their product. It doesn’t need to be perfect, but it should run, be visible, and illustrate the problem-solution.
Step three, proactively showcase. You can directly contact their team Manager, or even higher-level personnel, and show them your demo. You can also record a video, upload it to YouTube, and send them the link.
Imagine this process through Gabriel’s experience: At Midjourney, he created the world’s best-performing web image grid—using OffscreenCanvas and a custom loading queue to smoothly render thousands of images. And Midjourney’s core interface is precisely an image grid. What you build directly ties into their most crucial product experience. This isn’t just demonstrating that you “know a certain technology”; it’s solving a real problem they have.
Why Is This Strategy So Effective?#
Because when you place a completed demo in front of recruiters, you simultaneously send two signals:
You are prepared.
Most candidates just mass-apply with resumes, while you’ve taken the time to deeply research their business, which in itself is a form of pre-screening.
Your hands-on ability is exceptionally strong.
Writing “familiar with XXX framework” on a resume and directly delivering a working project are on completely different levels of persuasiveness.
The first two signals can be conveyed by anyone who seriously builds a demo. But if you can also accurately determine the other party’s needs and implement them in advance, in their eyes, you are not just a “candidate,” but someone who is already doing the work. This is the highest reward of this method, and where its true power lies.
At this point, they will likely hire you directly.
In 2026, This Is One Way to Seize Opportunities#
Now, all industries are being impacted by AI, and job openings won’t be as abundant as before. Under these circumstances, the traditional path of “submitting resumes and waiting for interviews” might become increasingly inefficient.
The essence of this strategy is:
Shift the competition from “who has a better-looking resume” to “who is already solving problems”.
This isn’t just advice for job seekers; it’s also a mindset worth adopting for everyone—don’t just wait for others to give you opportunities; create opportunities through action.
Open source projects are still a good path, but if your goal is clear, building a demo specifically for a target company is often a faster, more direct route.
Don’t put all your hopes on those few minutes of an interview.
Many times, an interview is merely a confirmation process.
What truly determines whether you get an opportunity is often the preparation you’ve done before the interview.
