The Future Entry-Level Job Is Your Own Business

Why Your Kid Should Stop Thinking Like an Applicant and Start Building Now

The Death of the Traditional Path

Entry-level jobs are vanishing. The traditional path—start low, prove yourself, climb—relied on human grunt work: junior analysts, support reps, editorial interns, junior coders. AI now does much of that faster, cheaper, and without complaint. But companies still want experience. They just won't give you the chance to get it. The ladder's gone. You have to build your own steps.

The new trend is clear: companies are hiring fewer junior developers and more experienced software architects who can direct AI. That means setting goals, designing systems, reviewing output, and catching the subtle failures AI misses. The low-level tasks are automated. The jobs that remain start at a much higher level.

Two Paths Forward

So where does that leave young people? With two paths forward: either build something compelling enough to get funded, or build enough real projects that demonstrate the experience companies now demand from day one. Both require the same approach—stop waiting for permission to learn and start creating real value.

Start Building in High School

That work should start in high school. Build something. Use AI heavily in everything you create—show you can direct it, manage its output, and catch its mistakes. Make an app. Start a podcast. Contribute to open source. Build tools for your school. Volunteer to manage real projects for nonprofits. You can make products with teams too—find marketing or sales co-workers. You don't have to do everything yourself.

It doesn't have to make money—at first, or ever. Most successful startups begin with a product and figure out monetization later. The goal is to learn how to build, lead, and support real things that people actually use.

Each project becomes part of your portfolio—a modern résumé made of action, not adjectives. The experience becomes the product. The process becomes your proof of work.

The Warren Buffett Example

Warren Buffett, the greatest investor of the past 70 years, started his business journey at age 6, selling chewing gum door-to-door after buying packs from his grandfather. By 7, he was buying six-packs of Coca-Cola for 25 cents and selling individual bottles for 5 cents each—a 5-cent profit on every six-pack. At 15, he partnered with a friend to buy a used pinball machine for $25, placed it in a local barbershop, and when it proved successful, expanded to multiple machines across three barbershops in Omaha. They eventually sold the entire pinball business to a war veteran for $1,200. This early entrepreneurial experience gave him deep understanding of how businesses actually work—understanding that would prove invaluable in his legendary investment career.

Don't Skip the Fundamentals

And don't skip the fundamentals. Study traditional computer science—understand what the machine is doing even if you're not doing the work yourself. But your classes should also include business, marketing, and management. Just because AI can write code doesn't mean you can afford to be ignorant about how to sell what you build, manage projects, or lead teams. Delegation without understanding is how bad systems—and bad decisions—happen.

Learn to code, yes. But also learn to sell. Study storytelling. Learn how to work with other people. Learn how to lead. AI will do the tasks. Humans will give it direction.

Make Your Own Job

Most important: stop thinking like someone waiting to be hired. In the world we're entering, employers aren't looking for potential. They're looking for proof. That proof is your output.

There are always investors looking to fund promising startups. The capital is there. The question is whether you've built something worth funding—or demonstrated enough real experience to land the new entry-level positions that start where junior roles used to end.

Don't wait for a company to give you permission to learn. Make your own job.