Pop's Two Cents

I’ve heard that it’s not a good idea to talk publicly about the job market, or how to get hired because it’s a sensitive topic to a lot of people. Many people are discouraged by this job market, but my own kids are going to be out there applying for jobs soon, and I want to give them some insight from my 16 years as a hiring manager. So this series is mainly for them and for any young person who wants a clearer picture of how some hiring managers think.

After interviewing hundreds of candidates, I’ve realized that hiring decisions, good or bad, boil down to two simple questions:

1. Can this person do the work?
2. Will this person deliver?

Those questions form a two-axis system: Technical Capability on one axis, Dedication on the other which form a 2×2 grid that is sitting in the back of a manager’s mind during every interview.

This post will introduce that framework and the next posts will break down each axis and how you can climb it.

1st Axis: Technical Capability
“Can You Actually Do the Work?”

This is the one everyone expects, and it’s usually the easiest to evaluate.
Imagine a spectrum:

• Far left: People with no experience, no skill, and no evidence of competence.
• Far right: Experts with 20+ years of solid work behind them, the people everyone else leans on.
• Everyone else: Somewhere between those two points.

If you’re in high school, college, or right after graduation, employers evaluate your technical ability through proxies:

• Your grades (yes, they still matter as a signal)
• The rigor or reputation of your school (even if it’s unfair, it’s real)
• Projects
• Internships
• Research
• Anything you’ve built or done

A 3.5 from a top engineering program might weigh the same as a 4.0 from a lesser-known school. Reputation isn’t destiny, but it changes the starting point on the map, especially for younger candidates.

At this stage, one thing matters most:

What did you do beyond the minimum required?

You’re not competing with people who simply passed the class. You’re competing with the student who built two extra projects, did an internship, contributed to a lab, and learned something on their own time.

Early on, the fastest way to move to the right on this axis is:

• Internships
• Personal projects
• Labs and research
• Real-world experience in any form

After you’re in the workforce, professional experience will take over as the dominant force moving you toward the “expert” end of the spectrum.

That’s the first axis, but technical capability won’t carry you alone, which brings us to the second axis.

Axis 2: Dedication
“Will You Deliver?”

This axis is harder to talk about because it quickly bumps into culture, boundaries, burnout, and personal values. Dedication is not simply how many hours you work. It’s about reliability, initiative, and whether you show that you’ll actually get things done.

Again, picture a spectrum:

• Left side: People who don’t show up, don’t follow through, and don’t take ownership.
• Right side: People who are reliable, consistent, and take initiative without being told.

I once worked with someone whose car was in the parking lot when I arrived in the morning and still there when I left late at night. Was this healthy? No, but he delivered.

To be clear, I’m not telling anyone to become a workaholic. Both extremes are unhealthy, but from a hiring perspective:

• Managers want people who take ownership and follow through.
• People who show dedication early in their career stand out.

Sometimes this comes from simply enjoying the work so much that showing up feels natural. When I was in graduate school, I basically lived in the lab. I got up early, grabbed breakfast, and went straight in. Most weeks I was there six days, and sometimes went in on Sundays. Nobody expected this or asked me to do this, I just enjoyed the work.

That experience taught me that dedication is observable. People notice who shows up, who follows through, and who puts in the effort without being nudged. You don’t need overwork or martyrdom to signal it, but demonstrating consistency matters and it tends to separate people on this axis more than they realize.

The 2×2 Grid: How These Axes Combine

Put both axes together and you get four categories of candidates.

1. Low Technical / Low Dedication: No skills and no reliability. These folks are rarely hired and often struggle with larger life issues.
2. Low Technical / High Dedication: Low skill now, but very motivated and reliable. These are the promising young hires that managers are willing to bet on.
3. High Technical / Low Dedication: Deeply skilled, but disengaged. They may be specialists who only show up for the one thing they know how to do. Useful, but frustrating.
4. High Technical / High Dedication: The top performers. They deliver. They’re skilled. They care. Every manager wants these people on their team.
   As a young person, your first goal is to get to the top-left quadrant. From there, experience and time will move you into the top-right.

Why This Framework Matters

My goal here isn’t to judge anyone or pretend the job market isn’t tough right now. It is. I’m also not ignoring people who are highly skilled and dedicated, but still struggling to find work. The market has changed dramatically, but I want you to understand this:

If you build real technical capability and demonstrate true dedication, you give yourself the strongest possible chance of being hired.

In the next post, I’ll go deeper into the dedication axis, discussing how to evaluate where you are, how to align passion with work, and how to move one step to the right.