Promotional poster for Jodi Kantor’s James Patterson
Speaker Series event.
@JPHP_MU / INSTAGRAM
María Castaño, Arts & Entertainment Editor
On Tuesday, Sept. 15, the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Jodi Kantor came to Manhattan University (MU) to present her latest book as part of the James Patterson Speaker Series: “How to Start: Discovering Your Life’s Work.”
The book follows a self-help narrative, based on a question a student asked her about how young people are supposed to find their life’s work, as attributed in the preface of the book. Specifically, Kantor’s work seeks to guide young people on how to navigate finding a fulfilling job and purpose in an increasingly uncertain environment.
The book was officially released on April 21, according to the Little Brown & Co. publishing house, and was brought to campus by the suggestion of Helene Tyler, Ph.D., professor of mathematics, who moderated the event.
Kantor acknowledged the generational differences between the workforce she entered and the one that exists today. She explained to the audience that she wanted to avoid falling into false optimism, while writing the book was to focus on tangible solutions recent graduates can adapt to navigate the highly competitive and AI-ridden entry-level job market.
“I want each of you to look for a craft,” Kantor said. “[A craft is] some special skill or expertise that other people don’t have. It’s what makes you valuable in the workplace… you have something you know how to do that prevents you from being treated as disposable or interchangeable… Any of us who are employees can be fired at any time, but your craft can never be taken away from you.”
This idea of having a craft to help differentiate yourself from other candidates is one Kantor explains in more detail in its own dedicated chapter in the book by the same name. She went on to explain how to substantiate and justify a craft.
“By this I mean, what are other human beings going to need over the course of your working career,” Kantor said. “I’m asking you that because I don’t want your career to be like a lonely paddle up a river. I want you to be buoyed by the rushing river of other people’s needs.”
Kantor reflected on the implications that the intrusion of artificial intelligence has for younger people, explaining that her approach of craft and need is born from her understanding of this generation’s anxieties.
“Your generation is being told something terrible because of AI,” Kantor said. “[The] implicit, or sometimes even explicit, message that you’re not needed. That AI is going to render entry-level workers superfluous… Anybody who has spent time in the workplace can tell you that we need young workers. This is how we get fresh life, fresh ideas, fresh talent into the workplace.”
In a separate interview with The Quadrangle, Tyler discussed Kantor’s narrative in “How to Start” and what sets her approach to career development and finding purpose apart from more traditional perspectives.
“I don’t think she offers fake [optimism],” Tyler said. “I think there’s a difference between fake optimism and hope… [and] what choice do we have but to put one foot in front of the other and try to take in all of the information that we can and make reasoned and sound decisions with it? That’s not fake optimism. That’s resisting a fatalist mindset.”
Building on this idea, Kantor mentioned during the event that, on pages 11-13, she highlights the importance of not settling for such an integral part of our lives as our jobs, since they are key to finding happiness.
“Work is how we spend our time,” Kantor said. “I have never met somebody who was miserable at work but a happy person. We spend so much time at work it tends to determine our emotional temperature… [So] just because times are difficult, don’t settle too early… Above all, this is the most important thing in the book… Don’t give up before you start.”
Tyler reflected on Kantor’s social awareness, noting how it comes through in the nuanced understanding she brings to the book. There is a recognition that her advice wouldn’t apply equally to everyone who reads it.
“I think a lot of advice that I’ve heard people give to young people starting out will feel targeted to a specific population and completely misses the mark for a whole other segment,” Tyler said. “I appreciated how Kantor paid attention to how her advice could be received and put into action, depending on where the student would be coming from… and given the genuine socioeconomic diversity among our student population, I was glad to see that.”
Open to the public, the event pulled in a wide cross-section of the MU community, from faculty to alumni and current students. Benjamin Rosado, a sophomore digital media art major, went to the event with no prior knowledge of who Kantor was and left feeling content with what the event presented.
“I wasn’t familiar with Kantor before this event, but going helped me feel more connected to her life story,” Rosado said. “It [made] me feel more confident as to what I can do as a student to prepare myself for when I am going into the real world.”
The event resonated with Rosado, who found Kantor’s story relatable yet uplifting for students to hear.
“I think she gave good advice,” Rosado said. “She went through a relatable experience [dropping out of law school]… [And] she was realistic about it, but in a way that wasn’t discouraging. Some people would [say] don’t follow your dreams at all, [but] she didn’t say that.”
For Rosado, that realism was the point – proof that ambition and practicality didn’t have to cancel each other out.
“You need to be responsible, and you need to have a plan,” Rosado said. “I think that’s something that a lot of college students need to hear. A lot of students have in their heads that [their] dreams aren’t worth it. When in reality, you just need to be a hard worker.”