The job market right now is brutal. Despite low unemployment, the application process is broken. Dozens of submitted applications without so much as a “Your achievements are impress, but…” reply back.

I get asked all of the time for advice on getting a job so I thought I’d take this newsletter to share some ideas with you. 

Step 1: Know Thyself

Almost everyone starts looking for a job before they look for themselves.

What are you obsessed with even when you’re not at work?

For me it’s building connection through community; meeting new people; creating experiences for the members of my community to get to know each other on a deeper level.

The act of community building is easeful for me. Easefulness is when you create with joy. It’s not easy, meaning with little effort. Easeful is when effort comes easily.

I love conversing with people and finding threads of commonality. I’m deeply curious about how people work.

This morning in Florence I met the founder of Deribit, a derivatives exchange that sold to Coinbase. Not because I was trying to meet the founder of Deribit, but simply because I’m curious about everyone I see.

So I know jobs with these sorts of titles would suit me well:

• Community

• Ecosystem

• Business Development

If you’re uncertain about what gets you fired up, start by asking your friends and family:

• What do I get really excited about?

• Design the worst possible job for me. What would that look like?

An energy journal can help you realize your dream job. Whether you have a job or not, record just a few days of your life in 30 minute increments and ask:

• What was I doing?

• What was my energy level, from 1-3? 1 = draining; 2 = tolerant; 3 = energized

Record the spikes and valleys. Every job comes with tedious tasks, but we want more energized hours than draining hours. And we want at least tolerance when it comes to the day-to-day.

Step 2: Get Coffee

Now that you’ve identified the rough roles and titles–who has the job you want? How can you build an authentic relationship with them in a way that’s generous to them and their time?

Maja, the author of Velvet Noise, has a fantastic Substack about entering “through the side door,” and why job applications alone don’t work anymore: https://velvetnoise.substack.com/p/how-to-enter-side-doors 

In 2016 when I wanted a job in crypto, I went on LinkedIn and simply searched the term “Blockchain” (back then, it was a small industry).

I DMed every single person with blockchain in their title in New York and asked them to go to coffee. Most people said yes!

I remember having coffee with one recruiter who actively recommended I not join his company, and instead referred me to a different company where I eventually got an offer.

For your target companies, find every single human connection you have into the company.

And if you don’t have the network or the connections–that’s okay. It’s not something to feel guilty or overwhelmed by. It’s never too late to start. Meeting the right people today will set you up for success at your next job.

When you structure a networking meeting, do the basics:

1. Come prepared with background on the person. Even 15 minutes of search will show you commonalities–whether mutual friends, shared educational or job experiences

2. Run a great meeting!

• Get to know the person first if you don’t know them. There’s no substitute for being curious about someone. The goal here isn’t to get a job, it’s to make a connection.

• Ask about their role–what gets them excited, what their favorite part of the job is, and what the actual day-to-day looks like. You’re trying to listen for the parts that would get you excited, and embody that genuine excitement when you eventually go in for an interview.

• What has made them successful inside the company?

• What advice would they give to someone looking for a role today?

3. End with an ask: “Who else do you think I should meet?” Even if the person you’re meeting can’t connect you directly to the role, they might know someone else who can.

Generally people want to be helpful. They want to see you succeed.

Step 3: Build your public resume

Not your actual resume but your proof of work. If you’re a writer, publish your writing. If you’re a community builder, show off your community in public. If you love hosting events, publish the results! If you’ve done Step 1 correctly and you actually have a passion and an obsession for something, then that passion should show through your work.

Even while I was running SheFi, I ran a side event with my Marisa Rowland called Uncommons. It brought together uncommon thinkers about uncommon themes in technology in an event space in Chinatown. We covered topics like cryogenics, urban design, longevity, and meme culture. I made no money doing this, only raising enough sponsorship to cover the cost of throwing the event–Marisa and I just thought it’d be fun. The photos, results, and sponsor testimonials speak for themselves.

To be clear: I’m not asking you to do free work. I’m asking you to do what you would otherwise already do for free, but in public. There are no rules in 2026. Invent a role for yourself by showing what you can achieve when given the opportunity.

AI Tip of the Week 💡

Most women know what's in their coffee. Few know what's in their makeup.

When I realized how little I understood about the ingredients in the products I used every day, I built myself an AI-powered database to help me make better decisions.

It turned hours of research into minutes — and I still use it today. Check out my post about it:

Crypto + AI Roundup — SheFi Edition 🏇

Crypto Roundup.

• Cboe, the company behind some of the biggest options markets in the world, launched its own prediction market product this week. Cboe Predicts lets people make simple yes-or-no bets on where the S&P 500 will close, with contracts already available through Interactive Brokers and coming to Charles Schwab next. The clever part is how Cboe structured it: these are technically security options trading under the existing options rulebook, rather than event contracts caught in the regulatory fight between the CFTC and state gambling authorities. Prediction markets are not staying in their own strange corner of crypto. Wall Street is finding ways to pull the format directly into ordinary brokerage accounts.

• Congress passed a giant housing bill this week that quietly included a ban on the Federal Reserve issuing a CBDC through the end of 2030. The House passed it 358–32 after an 85–5 Senate vote, sending it to President Trump. The United States is not rejecting digital dollars. Privately issued stablecoins are being encouraged while a government-issued digital dollar is being pushed off the table. That is a very specific vision for the future of money: digital, but built and distributed by private companies rather than the central bank.

• Mark Cuban is still not done with Voyager. Investors in the collapsed crypto brokerage are appealing the dismissal of their lawsuit against Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks, arguing that his promotion helped make Voyager feel safe before it went bankrupt in 2022. The original case was dismissed because the judge said the claims did not have strong enough ties to Florida, not because the allegations themselves were disproven. Other celebrity promoters, including Rob Gronkowski and Victor Oladipo, already settled for $2.4 million, leaving Cuban and the Mavericks as the last major defendants. Years after the last crypto cycle collapsed, courts are still deciding how much responsibility a celebrity carries when their endorsement helps turn trust into deposits.

AI Roundup.

• This is the ChatGPT moment for biology I have been waiting for. Arc Institute released Proto, a programming language that lets scientists describe what they want a protein, piece of DNA, or RNA to do, then coordinates more than 120 biological tools and AI models to design it. Underneath, Proto generates possible sequences, scores them against the desired outcome, creates new mutations, and keeps optimizing until it finds promising candidates. Researchers were able to produce functional designs after testing tens of candidates instead of screening thousands. It still requires real laboratory testing, but the distance between having a biological idea and creating something testable just got dramatically shorter.

• Japanese AI company Sakana AI released Fugu Ultra, which it says performs alongside frontier models such as Fable 5 and Mythos Preview. The interesting part is that Fugu is not really one giant model. It is an orchestrator that decides which outside models should handle each part of a problem, using cheaper models when it can and frontier models when the task demands them. It can also run multiple agents in parallel and combine their work into one answer. Frontier AI capability may no longer depend only on who trained the smartest model. It may belong to whoever gets the best collection of models to reason together.

• Anthropic is hiring an Enterprise Community Lead for exactly $320,000 a year. Read the job description and the most valuable requirements sound deeply human: make a power user feel seen in a DM, build trust with technical practitioners, and hold a room with a Staff engineer and an executive in the same conversation. Anthropic can use Claude to produce a flawless community newsletter or event plan in seconds. It is paying a human $320,000 to create belonging, judgment, and trust. For anyone worried about what work survives AI, this is a pretty clear signal. Become the person people trust enough to keep showing up for.

SheFi Global Events 🌎

Stay connected with SheFi around the world. From meetups and summits to workshops and special partner events, this is where you’ll find the can’t-miss gatherings happening across our global community.

06/26 Virtual: Investment Club with Gauthier Vila: Members only

Learn more about Zyfai, a non-custodial De-Fi Yield agent built on smart wallets.

06/28 Milwaukee: Walk & Talk: RSVP here

Join SheFi Wisconsin for a relaxed Walk & Talk along Milwaukee’s lakefront.

07/02-03 Munich: Ethereum for the Real World: RSVP here

July 2-3rd in Munich, the Deutsches Museum becomes the home of ETHis - Ethereum for the Real World.

Two days of programming across the tracks that matter most right now: RWAs, DePIN, ZK, privacy, governance, AI. SheFi members helped build the protocols on that stage. Come see what that room looks like.

Here's a 20% code for 2-day passes (not possible for the 1-day ones): 1KEFVKPDWYWS

07/03 Lisbon: SheFi Lisbon X TheBlock: RSVP here

​Join us for a SheFi Summer Meetup at The Block Lisboa, hosted on the rooftop patio as the city settles into a warm Friday evening in July! It’s a chance to catch up, meet new faces, and enjoy a relaxed after-work hangout.

07/11 Laguna: SheFi Philippines Official Launch: RSVP here

Join the official launch of SheFi Philippines, bringing together women, allies, builders, founders, creators, students, and professionals interested in exploring opportunities in Web3, digital finance, and emerging technologies.

07/21-22 Toronto: EthWomen Toronto: RSVP here

Hey ladies Toronto and Florida ladies! SheFi wants to extend the invitation to you from ETHWomen. We welcome you to a women focused section of the growing Futurist Conference. Completely free to join!

Crypto Events 🌎

Going to ETHCC, Token2049 or Devcon? Join our Global Events Telegram Chat: https://t.me/shefisummit

• 06/25 Rio de Janeiro: MetaMask Community Builder Night Rio, Brazil Edition: RSVP here

• 06/25 Virtual: The Agent Has Your Keys: Secrets Management and Security in the Age of Autonomous AI: RSVP here

• 06/25 Munich: Ethereum Munich #5: RSVP here

• 06/26-27 Lisbon: PWN Global Summit 2026: RSVP here

• 06/30 Virtual: Future-proofing your Career: Marketing in the Age of AI — powered by Metana |Tech Bootcamp: RSVP here

• 07/11 San Francisco: The Pink Screen IRL: Vibe Lab: RSVP here

• 07/20 Virtual: Global Design Sprint: Harnessing Gender Data for Inclusive Regulation: RSVP here

• 10/08 San Francisco: InTheRoom: Trust, Presence & Connection - #SFTechWeek: RSVP here

• 11/17-18 Florida: EthWomen Florida: RSVP here

• Devcon 8 India Volunteer Application Form: Apply here

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