Millennials are now the largest generation in the American workforce, but many of them are still struggling to find that dream job.
As the CEOs of diversity recruitment platform Jopwell, Porter Braswell and Ryan Williams have made it their mission to help job seekers find the company that best fits their needs and employs their skills. While the young CEOs recognize the stiff competition of today's economy, they agree that there is one key thing millennials can do more of to help them stand out from the crowd.
"The biggest thing a person can do is be proactive when it comes to owning their career," Braswell tells CNBC Make It.
In 2014, Braswell, 29, and Williams, 27, quit their jobs on Wall Street to launch Jopwell in an effort to help alleviate corporate America's diversity problem. Partnering with top companies like Airbnb, American Express, Facebook and Goldman Sachs, Jopwell connects candidates from Black, Latino/Hispanic, and Native American backgrounds to employment opportunities they may not generally be exposed to.
To utilize the platform, students and professionals create a free profile on Jopwell that includes information like their resume, personal interests, skills and leadership qualities. Afterwards, candidates can search the many job listings posted on Jopwell, while partnering companies can contact individuals directly who they feel are a good fit for their needs.
The most successful candidates, says Braswell, "take time to do some self-evaluation. It takes being proactive, and reaching out to platforms and mentors and putting yourself in the best position possible to meet opportunities, and I think that a lot of people in our generation don't necessarily take the proactive approach."
It's advice that Braswell and Williams have taken themselves. The two have been focused and aggressive about utilizing their network to grow their platform into what it is today.
The biggest thing a person can do is be proactive when it comes to owning their career.Porter Braswellco-CEO and co-founder, Jopwell
"The moment Porter and I first left Wall Street to start Jopwell we started really tapping into the connections we made over our careers and in school," says Williams.
Three years later, that proactive approach to making the right connections has helped Jopwell grow into a platform that helps more than 60 of the world's leading companies continually diversify their employee base.
Going the extra mile to make the right connections in today's job market, say Braswell and Williams, is key to landing a role at your dream company.
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