Ex-Google engineer turned $7.2 billion AI CEO gets thousands of job applications a day but still can’t find candidates with a strong work ethic

Millions of Gen Z graduates are convinced they’ve drawn the short straw of the labor market: ghosting is rife in recruiting, entry-level roles feel scarce, and predictions of an AI job apocalypse are making it all worse. Yet Arvind Jain, ex-Google engineer and Rubrik co-founder, says he’s facing the opposite problem. “Students think it’s hard to find jobs, but we think it’s hard to find them,” he told Fortune. And it’s not because the applications aren’t coming in. In fact, Jain said his $7.2 billion AI startup, Glean, is receiving thousands of job applications every day. And the no.1 thing that separates the handful who hear back is not a degree, a skill set, or even an impressive CV—but a strong work ethic. “I have a firm belief that hard work solves all the problems,” Jain said. “The yardstick for me is that when I work in a group, I want to be known as the person who gives in the most.” That, he said, is the quality separating the candidates his team can’t stop chasing from the ones whose applications never get a second look. The only issue is that the candidates who have that drive are in high demand. “If you work hard, you always have lots of choices. Every company wants to work with you.” The best people he talks to have five companies chasing them simultaneously. The problem isn’t a shortage of applicants. It’s a shortage of the ones who are truly committed. It’s straight out of the playbook of Goldman Sachs CEO: the harder you work, the more options you create for yourself CEOs consistently share that the secret to success isn’t a one-off lucky break or even an impressive network, but sheer hard work. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon had 2 part-time jobs as a teenager: one at Baskin-Robbins and a second flipping burgers at McDonald’s. He juggled all of that with 3 sports and school. Even now, that he’s running the $291 billion investment bank, the CEO still finds time to DJ on the