What you learned at orientation is already outdated

If you're an MBA candidate or recent graduate still applying for hundreds of jobs online, you're competing in a game where the odds have gotten dramatically worse. According to Jeremy Schifeling (a former career director at Ross School of Business and an ex-LinkedIn employee who now runs The Job Insiders), AI hasn't just changed how you should search for jobs. It's fundamentally broken the traditional approach that b-schools have been pushing.

Here's the data point that should make jobseekers rethink their process: Referred candidates now have a 20x advantage over online applicants – up from roughly 10x over the past few years.

AI-generated applications have absolutely crushed the market: "Everyone's using ChatGPT not just to apply to business school, but to apply to jobs after business school," Schifeling explains. "Referrals are the last trusted source of good candidates. Everything's a deep fake."

The numbers come from two major applicant tracking systems – Lever (2016 data) and Gem (current AI-powered data) – showing a clear trend: as application volume explodes, the only reliable signal recruiters trust is a human vouching for another human.

However, when Schifeling asks rooms of 100-500 MBAs about the best way to get a job, everyone screams "referrals!" Then, he asks who has actually gotten one. All the hands go down.

The second major disconnect? Some MBAs are laser-focused on the wrong employers.

"We MBAs tend to fetishize the biggest companies – the Goldmans, the Googles, the McKinseys," Schifeling says. "But if you look at the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report, a huge percentage of all openings are actually in the smallest companies."

While Amazon – once Ross's biggest employer – just laid off tens of thousands of people, smaller firms continue hiring and growing. The long tail matters more than ever, but candidates fixate on brand names they recognize as consumers – rather than exploring companies where they'd have better odds and, potentially, a bigger impact.

"Why not work at Anthropic or OpenAI or someplace actually building the future?" Schifeling asks. "Someday, they will be the Google. You'll have that early employee brand halo – even if they're not as big as the mega giants."

So, if referrals are 20x more effective, how do you get one? Schifeling's approach involves unlearning much of what business school taught you.

Stop with the elevator pitch. Nobody wants to be sold to. "Business school creates this armor around you where you're out there as a warrior trying to open up opportunity," he explains, "when in fact, you should just be a human and connect naturally."

Here's his step-by-step framework:

Use LinkedIn's real power (it’s not InMail) – Most LinkedIn users haven't been on the site in years, so direct messages often go nowhere. Leverage mutual connections. Find your school’s alumni at your target company. Identify second-degree connections. Get a warm introduction that proves you're not a stranger – you're part of the club.

Make the conversation about them – Drop the rehearsed pitch about why you're a great fit. Instead, be curious. Ask about their journey:

"We all know that we prefer to talk about ourselves," Schifeling notes. "But we somehow don't extend that to other people. We think what they want to talk about is how they can help this student get a job at their company, which of course is not the goal."

Close with the right question – After building genuine rapport, ask:

"If you were back in my shoes at [our alma mater]… knowing what you know today, what would you be doing to get your best shot at a job at [their company]?”

The framing matters. It's empathetic, specific, and gives them permission to share actionable advice – without making them feel like they're being hit up for a favor.

Actually follow up – Most people let connections wither after one conversation. Don't be most people. Let them know you used their advice. Stay in touch – the referral often comes later.

According to Schifeling, MBAs are often over-indexing on the “basic” use of AI tools and underutilizing its capabilities where it really matters.

"The biggest mistake I've been seeing is that people say AI is for this very narrow set of things – writing resumes, writing cover letters, writing LinkedIn profiles. In fact, those are the worst possible applications because they make you seem like everyone else."

Unfortunately, generic ChatGPT-generated cover letters make you a commodity.

Instead, use AI for:

Aim to use AI to differentiate yourself and expand your options – not to blend in with every other MBA candidate sending identical cover letters and applications.

If you're treating your resume and LinkedIn profile as separate projects, you're making a critical mistake. "People have this wrong mental model that recruiters somehow only want to see different stuff on your LinkedIn than your resume," Schifeling explains. "No recruiter wants that. They want consistency. They want you to be the person on paper who's the person online."

The fix is simple: Take everything from your carefully crafted resume – the bullet points, keywords, achievements – and put it on LinkedIn. Give people that clear, consistent story.

Why? Two reasons:

Recruiters use LinkedIn Recruiter, which costs $10,000 per seat annually and gives them access to every professional in the world through keyword search. The same keywords that matter in your resume matter on LinkedIn.

When asked what MBAs should focus on mastering, Schifeling doesn't say AI, SQL, or any hard skill. "Don't worry about mastering AI, don't worry about mastering SQL," he says. "Worry about mastering empathy."

Understand your audience:

"If you can understand them, you're going to be way better equipped to serve them," Schifeling explains.

As marketers know – and MBAs should, too – everything starts with understanding your audience.

To wrap things up:

🛑 Stop:

✅ Start:

The candidates who adapt quickly to this new reality won't just land better jobs – they'll build careers where they may never have to search again.

Jeremy Schifeling is the founder of The Job Insiders and trains professionals on using LinkedIn, ChatGPT, and other tools to facilitate job searches. He has published two best-selling books on LinkedIn and ChatGPT and led AI + LinkedIn trainings at more than 300 organizations.