Coursera CEO’s top tips for grads to stay competitive as AI takes jobs
Greg Hart, President and CEO of Coursera
coursera
With entry-level jobs dwindling as employers continue to use AI, Coursera’s CEO shared his top tips for graduates to stay competitive in the job market and stand out in interviews.
Greg Hart, former technical advisor to Jeff Bezos at Amazon, became president and CEO of online learning platform Coursera in February 2025. He told CNBC Make It that in the age of artificial intelligence, it is important for young people to obtain additional education in addition to a degree.
“The advice I give my sons is, one of the best things you can do is build on your college degree, especially with microcredentials,” he said in the interview.
Microcredentials are short courses that provide certification for a specific skill or knowledge and take less time to complete than a traditional degree or diploma. As graduate jobs are at risk of being replaced by artificial intelligence, supplementing degrees with additional certifications is becoming increasingly important, Hart said.
Large companies are laying off staff this year and have cited artificial intelligence as part of this; From Amazon laying off 14,000 workers by betting on AI, to Salesforce cutting 4,000 customer support roles by saying AI could do 40% of tasks at the company.
“Let’s say you’re a young person currently studying at university, often in your first job you’ll be hired primarily based on the qualities they see in you.”
Greg Hart
President and CEO of Coursera
Meanwhile, 62% of UK employers predict there will be assistant, clerical, administrative and managerial roles will most likely be lost to artificial intelligenceAccording to a recent survey of 2,019 senior HR professionals and decision makers by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
Additionally, the UK Student Employers Institute found in its annual Student Recruitment Survey that: 1.2 million applications Only 17,000 graduate positions were applied for; This underlines the intense competition and limited positions available to young people.
“Them [micro credentials] Show employers that you not only earned the college degree you studied, but also augmented it with something that is often more workforce-focused,” Coursera’s Hart added.
As AI takes hold, many employees are pursuing the upskilling opportunities LinkedIn offers Skills on the Rise reportEarlier this year, we discovered that the most popular skill people added to their profiles was AI literacy.
‘I’m hiring you because of your qualifications’
Hart explained that new graduates who go to job interviews should highlight their personality and character traits as well as their experience.
“Let’s say you’re a young person currently in college, often in your first job you’ll be hired primarily based on what they see in you,” Hart said.
“They’re going to evaluate your mindset and traits as a person rather than your experience, because by definition, you don’t really have a lot of experience, and so they’re really hiring you for your personality traits, not your experience.”
Hart stated that “one of the most important characteristics” that employers want to hire is “people who are proactive, hard-working and take initiative, who have proven that they are ready and who are learning.”
The best way to demonstrate these characteristics is to have micro-credentials specifically relevant to your field, alongside your degree. For example, Hart encouraged his son, a finance major, to take an additional course in artificial intelligence for finance.
In fact, experts have previously told CNBC Make It that employees laid off because of AI should train themselves in new skills, including increasing AI literacy through short courses, rather than getting a new degree that is more costly and time-consuming.
In a statement to CNBC, they said your determination to pursue additional learning shows you’ll bring these traits to work.
