Job EXPERT Peter Wood on The Worst Job Market in 10 Years!! How to Build Online, Upskill & Find work

Founder and CEO of The Graduate Guide, Peter Wood returns to Personable to break down how graduate careers are changing, why traditional hiring is broken, and what it really takes to build ambition, confidence, and opportunity in a broken labour market.

Since first appearing on the podcast, Peter has scaled The Graduate Guide from a content driven community into a platform tackling the graduate skills gap head on, culminating in its acquisition by The Apprenticeship Group. His work sits at the intersection of education, startups, recruitment, and social mobility, with a clear mission to help people prove what they can do rather than where they come from.

In this conversation, Peter shares what he has learned about ambition, careers, community building, LinkedIn growth, venture capital, and why curiosity may be the most undervalued skill of the next decade.

He explains:
◽️ Why the graduate job market is fundamentally broken
◽️ How ambition gets lost and how to reignite it
◽️ What companies misunderstand about junior talent and AI
◽️ How The Graduate Guide evolved from content to acquisition
◽️ Why apprenticeships and upskilling are the future of work
◽️ How to use LinkedIn intentionally rather than chasing vanity metrics
◽️ What it really takes to stand out in a hyper competitive world

00:00 Returning to Personable and the Graduate Guide’s evolution
02:10 Solving the graduate career crisis
04:00 Why helping everyone is harder than it sounds
07:54 Building community instead of chasing brands
12:06 AI, skills gaps, and the future of junior roles
18:11 Apprenticeships, upskilling, and long term talent
22:20 Curiosity, boredom, and ambition
27:04 Social media, influence, and responsibility
29:26 Entering the VC and startup ecosystem
33:31 Outlasting competition and building momentum
37:56 What Europe needs to succeed in venture capital
40:12 Helping the average person unlock ambition
47:00 How LinkedIn actually works
53:42 Intentionality behind high performing content
1:02:38 Legacy, ambition, and long term purpose
1:09:44 One lesson to take away

Peter Wood:
◽️ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petermwood_/?hl=en
◽️ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-m-wood/

Harvey Bracken-Smith:
◽️ LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/harveybracken-smith
◽️ Instagram: https://instagram.com/harveybsmith
◽️ X (Twitter): https://x.com/harveybsmith_
◽️ Newsletter: https://personable.substack.com/
◽️ Website: https://www.personable.media/

Personable Podcast:
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◽️ LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/personablepodcast
◽️ TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@personableclips
◽️ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JOTYDER6m2FDrlhop4api
◽️ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/personable/id1671640111

Additional:
◽️ Fundraising: https://www.loulouracefoundation.org/donate

Personable is a podcast dedicated to helping listeners become the best they can be by learning from the world’s best in their respective fields. This mission is inspired by my mother, Louise, who encouraged me to become the best version of myself before she passed away from cancer in 2023. 

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