Safe to Break, Ready to Ship

I hired a newbie handyman to replace five faucet fixtures. He and I both assumed he knew what he was doing. Nothing leaked before. That night, every sink he touched started dripping. Three callbacks and extra parts later, the total bill far exceeded what a licensed plumber’s—plus the time and trust you can’t get back. He skipped the instructions (and the silicone washer) and applied quick fixes that created long-term problems. Every time he came back to “fix” the issue, I paid him again. Eventually, I had to hire someone else to undo the damage.

My home-improvement misadventure isn’t just about plumbing. It shows what happens when someone enters a professional space without the right mindset, habits, or support—and it mirrors what’s happening in the job market: new hires are landing roles but failing to deliver. Not because they’re incapable, but because they’ve never practiced what matters.

School rewards finishing steps under a rubric and controlled conditions. Work rewards troubleshooting ambiguous problems, collaborating under constraints, communicating with stakeholders, and standing behind the result. In school, you can drop a class, work solo, and show up only for the tests. In the workplace, your success depends on others—on communication, collaboration, and execution under uncertainty.

The Illusion of Readiness

I’ve worked with hundreds of recent grads in the past three years. Even the ones with master’s degrees in computer or data science often haven’t deployed to AWS or Azure, never pushed a PR through GitHub, and never worked on a cross-functional team. They’re smart and eager—but unprepared. In real work, the absence of a clear answer isn’t failure—it’s the job. If the solution were obvious, AI would already be doing it. Your value lies in navigating ambiguity, asking better questions, and building together.

The data back this up. Employers consistently rank critical thinking, communication, and teamwork among the most important competencies, yet only about 55.9% of employers rate recent graduates as very/extremely proficient in critical thinking (Job Outlook 2025; NACE). New grads are struggling. In Q2 2025, the unemployment rate averaged 5.3% and the underemployment rate held at just over 41%, according to the New York Fed’s quarterly tracker. (Federal Reserve Bank of New York)

Education does many things—cultivates curiosity and character—but it also has to build the capacity to plan, collaborate, and deliver in the real world. Without that, graduates in any field struggle on the job.

When I ask students how much of their grade depends on working with others, the answers are almost unanimous: group work is limited and often carried by one or two people. As Clarissa Shen put it during our meeting, “There’s very minimal teamwork in school… one or two people end up doing the whole group project.” Julian added, “In school, your grade is mostly your own effort. At work, your success depends on others.” Academic success usually revolves around working independently against a clearly defined rubric. That design makes grading efficient. Most jobs don’t work that way.

What’s missing?

Workplaces exist to serve customers and stay alive. They need people who can turn fuzzy requests into a plan, align stakeholders, document decisions, and follow through—together. For many early-career folks, even communication now feels “unnatural.” I often ask, “Have you talked to XYZ and tried to work it out?” The answer is usually no. That’s not a character flaw—it’s a practice gap. But when communication stalls, leadership turns into logistics. I go from CEO to every volunteer’s secretary—not because people lack intelligence, but because they haven’t built the habit of proactive collaboration. That’s the missing middle: the space between knowing what to do and knowing how to work with others to get it done.

Three habits school doesn’t grade—but work does

1. Discovery before delivery. At work, there are no packets; you write the first one—clarify the problem, confirm constraints, draft a plan, then iterate. (If your job does have a packet where every step is repeatable and defined, it’s likely to be automated or offshored.)
2. Collaboration as a performance skill. Perspective-taking, timely feedback, and a shared “definition of done” are learned behaviors. If teamwork was limited or uneven in school, it will feel awkward later—until it’s practiced on purpose.
3. Execution in uncertainty. Many early professionals wait for instructions, assuming someone else will clarify the path. In real work, initiative is the first step. You ship small, check outcomes, document changes, and own defects.

Parent tip:

• Ask your teen to identify the problem and give them the freedom to propose their own plan.
• Agree on what “done” looks like—one or two clear signs you’ll both check for.
• After finishing, have a 3-minute chat: what went well, what was hard, and what they’ll change next time.

Show me (not tell me)

1. A planning brief for a fuzzy task (problem, constraints, steps, risks)
2. One mid-stream feedback request with decisions captured in writing
3. A delivered outcome with before/after evidence (screenshots or photos)
4. A brief postmortem (what changed and why)
5. One cross-role handoff (PR review or stakeholder update)

If you can show ≥4, you’re job-ready. If ≤2, you don’t need another lecture—you need guided practice.

Why curaJOY volunteers land jobs

At curaJOY, we don’t just assign videos to watch. We mentor. We model. We co-create.

Real work means safe-to-break practice. curaJOY invites youth, parents and career transitioners to co-create on real projects—and we absorb the operational costs and risks that come with early defects (slower sprints, rework, extra QA and mentor hours). We contain those risks with layered guardrails: staging-only access, synthetic or de-identified data, code-owner reviews, feature flags with fast rollback, and no volunteer write access to production. We expect defects and teach ownership—ship small, test, document, fix, and learn—so when things break (and they will), the blast radius is limited to staging and we—not customers—absorb the cost to fix.

Temitope Durotoye said it best: “Assignments are fictional. At curaJOY, our work affects real people in real time.” Our volunteers and fellows work on real-world projects that require teamwork, emotional intelligence, and strategic thinking. They collaborate across time zones, cultures, and disciplines. They learn to ask better questions, give and receive feedback, and own their impact.

And the results speak for themselves. Many curaJOY volunteers who previously struggled to land interviews now work at top tech companies—not because they had the perfect major, but because they learned how to lead, communicate, and build together. Recruiters can see merged PRs, live features, decision briefs, usability notes, test plans, and the confidence that comes from delivering production-quality code to real users. That portfolio tells a better story than GPA alone.

Spotlights
• A., CS ’24 → Cloud engineering apprentice after leading three PRs, adding tests, and co-authoring a postmortem.
• M. L. Engineering ’25 → Research analyst after shipping a reproducible ETL notebook and stakeholder brief.
• J., Design ’24 → Product design volunteer after running two moderated usability tests and iterating a design spec.

Software Engineer

John Doe

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What you can do—this week

Educators: Grade process and portfolios, not just answers. Give students real ambiguity to resolve and require public artifacts (briefs, tests, reflections) with peer review.

Experienced professionals / Corporate ERGs: Volunteer as a Team Mentor for a feature or a few sprints (~4–6 hrs/week). Co-lead a pod of 4–6 fellows: one weekly stand-up, async PR/design reviews, and two office hours. We provide the brief, rubrics, and staging environments; you model professional habits (planning, feedback, postmortems). You’ll leave with anonymized artifacts and a short impact memo your company can use for CSR or skills-based volunteering credit.

Early-career talent: Use the self-check above. Build the missing artifacts in 30–60 days. Share them publicly and ask for feedback mid-stream.

Funders: The future of work depends on programs that build not just knowledge, but habits and active mentorship. Underwrite practice that produces evidence. We publish outcomes and anonymized artifacts from each cohort.

Observe before you underwrite: Join our Demo Day to watch fellows defend plans, walk through test results, and own postmortems. If the “missing middle” resonates after you’ve seen it live, we’ll share restricted options (mentor hours, cloud/testing credits, independent evaluation) and a reporting cadence that fits your program.

Choose your on-ramp

• Adopt a Feature ($10–25k): Underwrite a specific feature in MyCuraJOY or a stand-alone tool—cover cloud credits, staging/test environments, QA time. Receive a short throughput memo and anonymized artifacts.
• Sponsor a Feature Pod ($50k): Fund a pod (4–6 fellows + mentors) for 6–8 weeks—mentor hours, reflective supervision, and reporting. Get quarterly outcomes and anonymized plans/tests/postmortems.
• Mentor a Feature (no cash): 4–6 hrs/week for 4–8 weeks; we supply briefs, rubrics, and safe sandboxes. Your team provides reviews and professional cadence.

And if you’re a student or recent grad and slightly scared, remember: Your degree is a foundation. Your mindset is your launchpad. Your ability to collaborate, communicate, and adapt—that’s what will carry you forward.

At curaJOY, we’re building that bridge. Walk it with us. It’s going to be okay.