When young professionals are advised on career development, the advice they receive often sounds familiar. They're encouraged to find mentors, build networks and ask questions. They’re urged to develop relationships with people who can offer guidance, context and opportunities.

This is sound advice. However, it assumes young professionals already know how to build these relationships. It assumes they've had enough practice initiating conversations, navigating awkwardness and developing trust with people they don't know well yet.

Linda Lin , a clinical psychology professor at Emmanuel College whose work focuses on well-being, friendship and social connection, sees a growing gap between the connection many young adults crave and the confidence they feel to create it. In a recent interview, Lin described classrooms that used to buzz with conversation but now feel eerily quiet as students sit on their phones. She also remarked on students who are struggling to find their people in environments where casual interaction no longer feels natural.

These observations reflect an important challenge facing young professionals entering the workforce. Previous generations often developed interpersonal skills organically because daily life required repeated social interaction. School, dorm life and early workplace experiences gave young professionals countless opportunities to make conversation, learn to read social cues and build relationships over time.

Today's young professionals still require these same skills. The difference is that many are entering adulthood after years of pandemic-induced social disruption. They are also encountering a world where opportunities for connection are less built into everyday life. As a result, skills that previous generations often developed naturally may now need to be developed with far greater intentionality.

Lin's observations are consistent with broader concerns about young adults' well-being. The World Happiness Report 2024 ranked the United States 23rd globally, marking the first time it fell outside the top 20 since the report began. The report also showed a striking age divide: the U.S. ranked 10th for adults 60 and older, but 62nd for people under 30.

Social connection is one important part of that picture. The U.S. Surgeon General has identified loneliness and social isolation as public health concerns, linking insufficient social connection to increased risks for mental and physical health challenges. For young professionals, in particular, these concerns extend into the workplace because relationships influence how people learn, develop confidence and build a sense of belonging.

Why Connection Has Become Harder

For many young adults, the pandemic intensified a problem that had already begun to emerge. It interrupted years of activity that are often central to identity development, social exploration and relationship-building. High school and college students lost access to many of the repeated interactions that help people build friendships and social confidence. Student organizations, campus events, informal gatherings and everyday interactions with peers became far less available.

At the same time, the pandemic accelerated patterns that were already taking shape. Digital communication became even more central to daily life. Remote and hybrid work structures became more common. And greater convenience reduced the need for many small daily interactions, from running errands to attending meetings to asking simple questions in person.

Lin describes this as a societal tradeoff. On the one hand, we've gained flexibility, efficiency and convenience. On the other hand, some of the built-in connection that once came from leaving the house, sharing physical space and interacting with people in ordinary ways has weakened.

The Missing Reference Point

Older workers remember a more socially interactive version of school, work or community life, allowing them to adapt more easily to these social changes. But many young professionals don’t have that same reference point. They know that connection feels hard but rather than attribute the difficulty to environmental changes, they may internalize it as a personal weakness.

This is where the challenge can become self-reinforcing. If a young professional feels awkward introducing herself to someone new, she may avoid the interaction. Avoidance brings short-term relief, but it also removes the opportunity to learn that the conversation likely would have gone better than expected.

Research on the "liking gap" helps explain why this happens. A study published in Psychological Science found that people often underestimate how much their conversation partners like them after an interaction. The researchers observed this pattern in multiple settings, including conversations between strangers, first-year college students getting to know dorm mates and adults participating in a personal development workshop.

Lin connects this research to the everyday experience of social anxiety, where people often imagine an interaction will be more awkward or unwelcome than it actually is. Even when a conversation goes well, people do not always update those assumptions. Without repeated opportunities to practice, the brain has fewer chances to learn that discomfort is manageable.

Why This Affects Career Development

Professional development depends on much more than formal training. New employees learn by watching how others handle pressure, communicate with senior leaders and recover from mistakes. They learn when and how to speak up, listen, ask for help and make decisions.

Employers continue to value communication, teamwork and professionalism as career-readiness skills. For early-career professionals, however, fewer opportunities for informal connection can weaken that process. A technically capable employee may be unsure how to build visibility, ask for support or develop credibility with colleagues. Without consistent interaction, it becomes harder to develop the judgment and confidence that grow through experience.

This challenge extends beyond individual careers. Organizations invest significant time and resources in recruiting new graduates, yet many assume interpersonal skills will develop naturally once someone joins the company. Lin's observations suggest we reexamine that assumption. If the environments where those skills have traditionally developed have changed, organizations may need to play a more active role in helping employees build them.

What Young Professionals Can Do

For young professionals, the opportunity begins with repeated exposure. Lin emphasizes that friendships and professional relationships don't form through a single interaction. They develop through consistency, familiarity and small moments of trust over time.

That means engaging in activities where the same people repeatedly gather. Employee resource groups, professional associations and recurring industry events can all provide opportunities to practice connection. The specific activity matters less than the consistency.

Young professionals can also lower the stakes of each interaction. Not every conversation needs to become a friendship, mentorship or career opportunity. A brief exchange before a meeting, a thoughtful follow-up after an event or a simple question to a colleague all reinforce the idea that connection is built one interaction at a time.

Awkwardness should be expected rather than interpreted as evidence that something went wrong. Most people focus more on their own discomfort than the other person’s experience. As the research on the liking gap suggests, other people often enjoy these interactions more than we think they do.

Organizations have an opportunity to make relationship-building more intentional. Structured onboarding, mentoring programs, peer cohorts and cross-functional projects create repeated opportunities for employees to learn from each other. Rather than assuming connections will happen organically, leaders can create environments where they are more likely to develop.

Managers also shape the day-to-day experiences that help relationships grow. A few minutes of conversation before a meeting may seem insignificant but, repeated over weeks and months, those interactions help people become more comfortable with one another. They also create opportunities for employees to ask questions, share ideas and build trust before higher-stakes situations arise.

In-person time deserves careful consideration as well. Bringing employees into an office only to spend the day on video calls does little to strengthen connection. When organizations ask people to be together physically, that time is most valuable when it supports collaboration, mentoring, learning and the kinds of informal conversations that are difficult to replicate virtually.

None of this suggests organizations should abandon flexibility or technology. Both have created meaningful benefits for employees and employers alike. The challenge is recognizing that efficiency and connection are not always created in the same ways. As work continues to evolve, organizations may need to become more intentional about creating the kinds of experiences that help people develop interpersonal skills alongside technical ones.

Young professionals still need strong relationships to learn, grow and succeed. What has changed is the path to developing those relationships. Previous generations often built interpersonal skills as a byproduct of everyday life. Today's young professionals increasingly have to build them intentionally. Organizations that recognize this shift will be better positioned to support the career development of young professionals by helping them become confident, connected employees who are prepared to thrive over the long term.