Ask Jay: The Right Opportunity Might Not Be What You Expect

**Jay Shetty** (0:00)
This episode is brought to you by Mazda. Confidence isn't something Mazda finds, it's something they practice. That's the thinking behind every Mazda, with proactive safety features designed to help keep you more aware, more connected and more engaged with the road ahead. It's why Mazda has been named Consumer Reports' safest new car brand and has won more 2026 IIHS Top Safety Pick Plus Awards than any other car brand, as of July 2026
Visit www.iihs.org to learn more. A lot can happen when an accident doesn't. Visit mazdausa.com to learn more. Consumer Reports does not endorse products or services. This episode is brought to you by Whole Foods, where your back-to-school eats are sorted. First off, they have amazing quality standards with 300 food ingredients, banned store-wide. No hydrogenated fats, nothing in store, has high fructose, corn syrup, and there's a great selection of allergen-friendly options too. Pick up your easy breakfast of frozen waffles, pack the lunchboxes with organic seedless grapes and baby carrots. Then plate up thin crust pizzas and a family style salad for dinner after a long day of learning. Shop back-to-school must-haves at Whole Foods Market, in-store or online.
I don't know what your day's been like, but I was just thinking about you for a minute. And I hope you're being a little patient with yourself, because you deserve it. And yeah, I'll talk to you soon.
Today's theme is Opportunity. And I'm grateful for the opportunity to listen to you all. Let's get started.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:47)
I'm going back to school for logistics and supply.
I graduated early in June, but I still have one semester left this up-and-coming fall. One of the requirements for my degree, I need an internship. I've applied to over 100 places, and I keep getting denial letters. It's very stressful.
I feel like I don't know how many internship applications I need to put in. It seems hopeless. Like I see so many people on LinkedIn, they have their internships. I don't know, maybe I wasn't active enough on campus. Work full-time, mother full-time, and then also going to school full-time. Now, I need to lock in on an internship. My question is, why is it this hard to get an internship?

**Jay Shetty** (2:45)
First off, I want to recognize something before we even get into the job market. You're going to school full-time, working full-time, and seeking another commitment on top of all of that. That isn't just a busy schedule, that is an extraordinary amount of responsibility, and the fact that you graduated early while holding all of that up, tells me everything about your drive. You asked, why is it so hard to get an internship right now, and how to keep going when it feels hopeless? Let's start with why it's so hard. When you apply to 100 places online, you enter what recruiters call the cold funnel. In a saturated market, a cold application often has a response rate under 2%.
Out of 100 applications, getting 98 rejections or silences isn't a sign that you did something wrong. It is the real math of a clogged system. And when you look at LinkedIn and see other people landing positions, it's easy to assume they worked harder or did more on campus. But campus activities and blind applications require one specific resource. Unstructured free time. The very thing you had to give to your work and your other full-time responsibilities. So you aren't failing at the game. You've been playing a system stacked against anyone who has to balance real life at the same time. There's a Stoic philosopher named Seneca who wrote a lot about how we measure our progress. He noticed that we tend to complain about a lack of opportunity when what we're actually suffering from is misplaced effort.
He talked about how easy it is to exhaust ourselves pushing against things that won't move, confusing sheer effort with actual movement. His point was simple. When a door isn't opening, the answer isn't always to throw your shoulder into it harder.
It's to pause and see if there's another way in. When Alex Ormosi came on my podcast, we talked about what it takes to break into an industry when you don't have a built-in network or a shiny resume. And he made it a point that applies directly to where you're sitting. He said that when you have zero leverage, you don't offer your need, you offer your value.
Most people send a cold application that says, I need an internship to graduate, here's my resume. But the person reading it has 500 of those. Alex talked about shifting from broadcast to direct outreach. Instead of applying to another 100 giant portals, you pick 10 mid-sized supply chain companies. You find the logistic manager or the head of operations on LinkedIn. And instead of asking for a role, you send a short message showing that you understand their specific operation or offering to help solve one small tedious problem for free just to prove your output. You don't need 100 companies to say yes to your resume. You need one manager to realize that someone who can juggle two full-time commitments and a degree is the most reliable person they could ever hire.