Coursera CEO’s high ideas for grads to remain aggressive as AI takes jobs

With entry-level jobs declining as employers proceed to deploy AI, Coursera’s CEO has shared his high ideas for graduates to remain aggressive within the job market and stand out in interviews.

Greg Hart, former technical advisor to Jeff Bezos at Amazon, turned president and CEO of on-line studying platform Coursera in February 2025. He instructed CNBC Make It that within the age of AI, it is essential for younger individuals to pursue further studying alongside a level.

“The recommendation that I give to my sons… is among the greatest issues that you are able to do is to enhance your college diploma with micro credentials particularly,” he mentioned within the interview.

Micro credentials are brief programs that present a certification for a particular talent or data they usually take much less time to finish than a conventional diploma or diploma. It is grow to be more and more essential to complement levels with further certifications, as graduate jobs are prone to being changed by AI, Hart mentioned.

Main corporations have been shedding workers this yr and have cited AI as a part of the rationale, from Amazon making 14,000 staff redundant because it bets on AI to Salesforce slashing 4,000 buyer help roles saying AI can do 40% of the duties on the firm.

In the meantime, 62% of U.Ok. employers anticipate that junior, clerical, managerial and administrative roles would be the most probably be misplaced to AI, in keeping with a current survey of two,019 senior HR professionals and choice makers by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Growth (CIPD.)

Moreover, the U.Ok.’s Institute for Scholar Employers present in its annual Scholar Recruitment Survey that 1.2 million purposes have been submitted for simply 17,000 graduate roles, highlighting the extreme competitors and the restricted positions accessible to younger individuals.

“They [micro credentials] show to employers that not solely did you get no matter college diploma you are learning, however you augmented that with one thing that’s typically far more workforce targeted,” Coursera’s Hart added.

As AI dominates, many staff are pursuing upskilling alternatives with LinkedIn’s Expertise on the Rise report, earlier this yr discovering that AI literacy was the most well-liked talent that folks have been including to their profiles.

Hart defined that recent graduates going into job interviews ought to spotlight their character and character traits alongside their expertise.

“Say you are a teenager in college proper now, you might be typically going to get employed into your first job based mostly totally on the traits that they see in you,” Hart mentioned.

“They’ll be assessing your mindset and your traits as a human being greater than your expertise, as a result of by definition, you actually haven’t got a lot expertise and they also’re probably not hiring you to your expertise, they’re hiring you to your… character traits.”

Hart outlined that “one of the vital essential traits” that employers need to rent for are “people who find themselves proactive and onerous working and take initiative, who show to be prepared, learners.”

One of the simplest ways to point out these traits is having micro credentials alongside your diploma, particularly ones which can be tailor-made to your subject. For instance, Hart inspired his son, who’s a finance main, to take an extra course on AI for finance.

Actually, specialists beforehand instructed CNBC Make It that staff who’ve been laid off on account of AI ought to prepare themselves up on new expertise together with rising AI literacy by way of brief programs, slightly than pursuing a brand new diploma which might be extra pricey and time consuming.

Having the dedication to pursue further studying demonstrates that additionally, you will convey these traits to the job, they instructed CNBC.