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Varun Mayya

Varun Mayya

LinkedIn CEO on Which Jobs Will Matter in 5 Years, Getting Hired, Advice for Indians and More

Varun Mayya · Nov 11, 2026 · 56:34

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In this conversation, I sat down with Daniel Shapero, CEO of LinkedIn, and got him to reverse engineer his entire career on a whiteboard. Yes, a whiteboard where he walks us through starting a company as a math student back in 1998, watching three startups collapse one after another, getting an MBA to regroup, spending four years at Bain doing due diligence on companies for private equity deals, and then landing at LinkedIn almost by luck, where he built a sales org from just himself to a team of 1,500 people before working his way up to COO and eventually CEO.Uploaded 30-08-26The whiteboard session also gets into the skills he didn't have at every stage, the people who took a bet on him when it mattered, and the decisions that looked reckless at the time but ended up defining his career.We then get into where jobs are actually headed with AI. What should a 22 year old in India be doing right now. Which roles are quietly disappearing. Why entrepreneurship, healthcare, and data center jobs are booming while old-school skill sets are getting wiped out fast. Daniel pushes back on the "AI is cheating" mindset some people online have, explains why real skill still beats knowing how to prompt, gives advice to someone in their 40s who feels like they're falling behind, and talks about where LinkedIn is headed with video, short-form content, and paying creators directly.00:00 Highlights00:59 Reverse-Engineering the LinkedIn CEO’s Career14:23 Becoming CEO After 18 Years at LinkedIn16:28 What Changes When You Go from COO to CEO?19:41 What Should a 22-Year-Old in India Do in the AI Era?21:21 Which Industries Are Growing in India?24:20 Does a College Degree Still Matter?27:23 How LinkedIn Is Adapting to New AI-Era Jobs29:08 Open to Work and the Changing Culture of Employment31:31 How LinkedIn Makes Money and Why India Matters33:10 How AI Agents Are Changing Job Applications and Hiring36:33 Which Jobs Are Growing and Which Are Fading?41:49 Are Colleges Leaving Graduates Behind on AI?44:43 LinkedIn’s Strategy for Creators and Video49:26 Closing Thoughts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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