Your Job Can Change Overnight, So Build A Career That Can Move

We go from breath-holding chaos to a surprisingly practical conversation about layoffs, AI-driven job shifts, and why people are quitting even when they are not the ones getting cut. We share a simple resume test for AI filters, then get real about identity, fear, and how to stay ready without spiraling on LinkedIn. 
• Pasting your resume into Notepad to see what AI and ATS tools actually read 
• Why fancy formatting, images, and broken bullets can quietly tank applications 
• Using Markdown thinking to make your experience clearer and more machine-readable 
• Layoffs plus voluntary exits as a culture and trust signal 
• Asking “who does the work now?” after headcount cuts and AI replacements 
• Separating personal identity from work identity before a crisis hits 
• Talking about value you bring, not just tasks you did at your last company 
• ABL as a default habit: always be looking, always be learning 
• Researching the market, picking a direction, then learning the missing skills 
• Building a savings fund when possible to reduce panic decisions 

If you want to connect with us, you can do so by getting in our Discord. You can do that by looking in the podcast show notes. If you're watching on YouTube, you can do us a big favor by like, commenting, and subscribing. If you want to help us out, you can join our Patreon.

Transcript

Cold Open And Breath Holding

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Welcome back to Corporate Strategy, the podcast that could have been an email. I'm Anne Tony, emphasis on the toenail, joined today by my fellow co-host and best friend, real life. Ooh, Michael. That was it. Did not match my energy.

SPEAKER_03 0:43

Well, I'll be honest, I'm kinda out of breath. You told me to hold my breath. That was a long time.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

It was.

SPEAKER_03 0:48

It's a long time.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

It sent me a quick a few clicks, but on the on the listener viewer side, it's never been so smooth as it was just then. That was that was the smoothest it's we can hope for.

SPEAKER_03 1:00

I'm not gonna lie to you, I'm out of breath. I haven't held my breath for that long in a long time.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Totally okay. Don't even worry about it. You'll be fine. You'll be fine. I promise you'll be fine.

SPEAKER_03 1:10

You sure? You sure? I'm I'm a little do you ever get scared as you get older of you don't do things for a long time. Like you don't have a pool, I don't have a pool, and when you don't hold your breath for a long time, do you ever think about the next time you'll need to hold your breath and how awful you're gonna be at it? Oh, just you focus on that, it's fine. Just don't answer me.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

I hold my breath on the Reggie. Alright?

SPEAKER_02 1:42

No, you don't.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

I will just I will be sitting. I will be sitting thinking, and I'll be like, you know what?

SPEAKER_03 1:50

It's a good time to hold my breath, and I'll do you turn a timer on, just if you're curious, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

I just hold it until my eyes start to fade out a little bit, and then I'll let it go. Just to give you a little kick, you know?

SPEAKER_03 2:05

Just yeah, just a little life change. I mean, I'll be honest, if you're tired and you need to wake yourself up a little bit, just hold your breath till you start blacking out and you'll you'll wake up right away.

Early Memories And What We Forget

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Listen, I go swimming all the time. I go swimming all the time when I hit the chance. I love to swim. I'm a swimmer. Do you? You know, it it kind of, I don't know about you, when I was a child, like really small, really small, one of my earliest childhood memories of being a youngling is getting thrown in a pool and learning how to swim, like as an infant. Because there was this whole scare when I was young that, you know, kids would fall into pools. And, you know, if no one saw them, what would happen, right? So a lot of parents took their very young, like toddler-level one one-year-old child and and take them to these like swimming classes. And I remember very clearly like thinking I was going to die as a one-year-old in a pool. Good memory. Good memory. That's insane.

SPEAKER_03 3:07

Were you really that young? You can remember something all the way back to being. I mean, I guess that's kind of traumatic.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

I have memories as early as like being changed on a table.

SPEAKER_03 3:19

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:21

That's crazy. I I do not like the earliest memory I probably have is like four. Everything before that doesn't exist. Wow. As far as I can remember.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

That's mind-blowing to me because I I remember a lot. Like, I remember a lot of being a baby. Do you have uh do you have a good short-term memory?

SPEAKER_03 3:41

Not really, no. Okay, so we're opposites because I have a good short-term memory, I have a bad long-term memory.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

That's funny. I wonder if there's like parts of our brain that are compensating for that. It's like, yeah, your short-term sucks, but your long-term, my goodness, it's great. Yeah. Oh, yeah. There are things I choose to forget. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 4:01

That's that's what it is. Like, it's crazy what the mind can do. You know, going to therapy, just talking about like, yeah, you can actually unlock memories when you really work through something and focus on it, and like they can just come to mind. Yes. Which is crazy to me, just because like I don't think I've ever had that experience of just a memory popping up that I don't remember. And I'm like, I don't remember that at all. It's weird that it's coming back to me so vividly now. I've never had that feeling in my life.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Yeah, I I've had it happen with like people. Like, I'll see people really at the grocery store, or like, oh my gosh, I know that person from this thing way long ago. Like, hadn't thought about them in a long time. But like the the sight of them unlocks the memory of where I know them from.

SPEAKER_03 4:44

Yeah. My goodness. Memory.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Memory. All alone in the moonlight. Two different songs, but close enough. Close enough. I mean, one of those is an Oscar-winning. Tony winning. Tony winning Broadway spectacle.

SPEAKER_03 5:04

Yeah, I have no idea about mine.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Cats.

SPEAKER_03 5:07

I'm sure it's I'm sure it's up there.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Cats.

SPEAKER_03 5:11

With an S or a Z?

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Uh with an S. With an S. Okay. You ever see cats? You ever see it?

SPEAKER_03 5:18

Uh no, I've never seen it.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

You're so lucky. You're so lucky.

SPEAKER_03 5:23

Lucky because I can still have that experience of experiencing it for the first time and you'll never get that again.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

No, because you'll never have to. And you're lucky for that.

SPEAKER_03 5:34

All right. Well, now I know. I'll just skip cats anytime I see them. Skip cats. It's given the opportunity to get skip out on cats.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Yeah. Um, hey, pro tip. Hey, start. Um, we don't have we can't do what you're drinking because you're not here. I'm I'm drinking a mocha latte where the mocha is all sunk to the bottom, and I'm trying to fix that. Uh, but it's not working.

SPEAKER_03 5:56

What am I drinking? I'm drinking uh just black coffee with a little bit of Chobani vanilla sweet cream.

Resume Formatting That Beats AI

SPEAKER_01 6:03

Oh, nice. How how cute is that? Um pro tip that my wife passed on that I want to pass on to everybody about resumes. You ready for this? You ready for a resume pro tip?

SPEAKER_03 6:15

Wait, wait, wait. We're getting out of the nonsense and getting into something serious, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:20

I have a pro tip. We I mean, we you know, we gotta hit we gotta go into the pro tip. I just remember this, so I don't want to forget, right? Short-term memory. So yeah, check this out. Because resumes and AI have become so synonymous with filtering, right? Like AI gonna filter your resume. A lot of people are using apps or Figma or Photoshop, whatever you're using, you know, they're trying to make the resume stand out. And it's actually hurting people, believe it or not. Uh, the best thing you can do for your resume, take your entire resume, load it up on your computer, do a control A or command A, if you're a Mac Power user, and paste it into an unformatted text app, like notepad, right? And see what it looks like. What that looks like is what your resume looks like to an AI.

SPEAKER_03 7:16

I mean, it makes sense. That that's what I was always it's funny because these resume filtering technology services have been around forever, and that's exactly what they do. Like if you use a bunch of images and you do images for your text, copy and paste it from somewhere, they don't, they don't, they don't pick it up.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Even nicely formatted text, like bullets, right? Like line breaks can get messed up. So the pro tip just wanted to share everybody.

SPEAKER_03 7:46

That's a really good tip. And actually, in the AI era, that's even more important because how does the AI consume things? It's text on the internet. If you're not using text, if you have a bunch of invalid white space characters, which by the way, if you're a developer, you've definitely had this moment where you have an invalid white space character in your code that you didn't realize and you can't figure out what's going wrong, and then you realize when you pull up a winter, you're like, there was a hidden character there the whole freaking time breaking my program. You know what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

I kind of wish, as a society, we'd gotten away from formatting and fonts and layouts. Like, it's not really doing anyone any good. Like, when you think about the brands you like the most, like, let's just, I like Apple, you like Apple as a brand. I'm not saying they're a good company, I'm just saying as a brand. Apple's formatting is so simple in everything. Like, read their patch notes, look at their website. There's nothing fancy. They'll they'll use darks with colors. That's it. That's the entire Apple brand. And when you look at their text, it's literally just like the most plain Jane looking text.

SPEAKER_04 8:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

H1, H2, H3. That's it. You're you're good to go, right? There's nothing fancy there. And they're they're one of the best in the biz to do it. So I think we should just get away from formatting. Like, it doesn't do anything for anybody. Let's go. Let's kill it.

SPEAKER_03 9:04

There's an there's an elegance about it. Yeah. I think everybody runs into this of you want to explain or put something up in an amount of detail that you think shows your expertise. Like, I think this is just human nature. Like, I want to tell them all this stuff so that way they know I'm an expert and they know that I know what I'm doing. Or I want them to read this and then be able to know how much research I put into it. When in reality, it's all about the end result. And doing it simply is actually much, much harder than doing it with a lot of words. Because being able, and I say this about product management all the time like you should be able to take something that's really complex, pull someone off the street who's not technical, and be able to explain it to them. Because that those are stakeholders, right? And if if you can't do that, you're not gonna be an effective product manager because you can't talk to your stakeholders and your technology team and get everybody to understand what each other are saying. And so there's an elegance to it, and I think Apple's the best to do it. What are these pro tips we're dropping this morning? This is the pro tip stream. You know what it is. I know what it is. You're not gonna like it. You're not gonna like it. Tell me when when we get together in the room, we just have too much fun. We have too much fun, shenanigans. Just fly left and right. The shenanigans never actually tell anybody anything valuable. We just scoof off.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Shenana game. It's a shenanigans.

SPEAKER_03 10:28

Yeah, it's shenanigans to them, but it's shenanigans to us.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

That's right. That's right. That's what it is.

Markdown Resumes And A Weird Experiment

SPEAKER_03 10:36

I actually think you're onto something with resumes when you said that, and it made me immediately think of like, do we need to do anything else with resumes that could like get the attention? One thing I thought of, so I'm a heavy markdown user. I've been using markdown for years, pre-AI. I use it to format all my text for the other form, what is markdown? Okay, so markdown. Markdown is basically a text formatting language. It looks like a programming language language does, but it essentially just has a syntax that styles things for you. So if you use a hashtag in front of whatever you type, it's a title. If you use two, it might be a header. And so it's the same idea of what's happening under the covers of all these software that when you choose italics, they're using something like markdown under the covers to actually apply styling. But AI lives off Markdown. And the reason being is one, because it's easy to understand and there's a syntax to it. It's easy to break down and write everything. Uh, but two, it also like code is documented by Markdown. The first thing you build in code is usually a readme. What is a readme written down? README.md markdown. And so I'm almost thinking for like resumes. Should you just write your resume and markdown?

SPEAKER_01 11:48

That's a cool idea. I kind of want to do it.

SPEAKER_03 11:52

I kind of want to make my resume just markdown. I kind of want to try it. Yeah, I kind of want to see what it would be.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

What if we do a test where we like do our resume in markdown and just apply for a hundred jobs and see how many responses we get? Like, let's do a wonderful. Okay, okay. Like, what if we use like a really nice looking resume? Because I'm curious, because I'm gonna apply for marketing jobs, you're gonna apply for product management jobs. So, like, what if we do two versions? We do a pretty version and a markdown version and see which gets more hits in each field. Because I feel like with marketing, you kind of want to have a little bit of a nice looking resume because you're marketing yourself, right? That that'd be an interesting experiment.

SPEAKER_03 12:39

If people want us to do it, we'll do it.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

Yeah, you know how you can tell us if you want to do something.

SPEAKER_03 12:44

How can you do that? How do we talk to us directly?

SPEAKER_01 12:47

Sometimes you can talk directly to us when we decide to use the app. You can go directly into Discord. And if you want to check out our Discord, all you gotta do is check that link in the podcast show notes. It's not on the YouTube. The YouTube, we don't have a link to the Discord, but you know what? The savvy ones can find it. The only way you can get there is by subscribing to the audio feed and leaving us a nice review. Then you get a link to the discord.

SPEAKER_03 13:11

I like that.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Yeah, I can't guarantee that worry.

SPEAKER_03 13:14

100 out of 100, but there's a chance it works. So I mean you might as well try it.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

That's the journey. You miss 99% of the shots you you take.

SPEAKER_03 13:23

Wayne Gretzky, Michael Scott.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

Michael Scott, Wayne Gretzky.

SPEAKER_03 13:31

Yeah, how are you doing? How you doing? I am down for this experiment, though. I actually think it'd be really interesting to see. I definitely, it's funny because early in my career, I remember creating really fancy resumes with charts and graphs and colors and all that stuff. And then I would show like my mentors, and they looked at me and they're like, none of that matters. No, they're like, put the words on the page, get past the filtering software, and that's gonna be much better for you.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Get it down to a single page. I swear, get it down to a single page. I will look at a resume if it's longer than two pages. I will not do it.

SPEAKER_03 14:08

This is the simplicity is elegance of Apple. Like, that's what you need to do in your resume. Is if you can't wow someone on the first page, either A, you don't have experience, so go get experience, but or B, you're how do you get experience if you don't have experience, Michael? That's the problem. And now with AI, there's no entry-level job, so we can't do this again.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

We can't do this again.

SPEAKER_03 14:31

Let's not do this again, please.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

I can only do that once a month. My heart can only handle so much. I was in the hospital three times this week.

SPEAKER_03 14:40

You weren't actually right. You texted me then, and I don't know whether it's true or not.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

No, I was there four times. I think I'm gonna go one more time into this pod.

SPEAKER_03 14:50

Do you have a loyalty card?

SPEAKER_02 14:52

I do.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

I'm getting a stamp every time I go. They give me a little cross on my card. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:00

Yeah, he's healthy.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

He's still healthy, and he's dying. Aren't we all? No, I didn't go to the hospital this week.

unknown 15:08

Good.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

Much, much to your chagrin, I'm sure. I know you're I know you're like hoping, like, oh, maybe you wrote me another will. Maybe you know, podcast host has a line in there. I want access to the figures over there.

SPEAKER_03 15:24

I'll take the pets. Maybe not all the pets. I'll take two of your three pets.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

I like how you just think you could take living pets from my wife, like it when I die.

SPEAKER_03 15:34

Listen, she can come visit them anytime.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

I'm gonna give you uh it's off camera. You can kind of see it. I have a Krusty the Clown doll that insults you when you pull the back of his chain, and it's a replica from the Simpsons episode where Krusty the Clown tries to kill Bart. That's you're what you're getting.

SPEAKER_03 15:52

I can't wait. You better call up whoever does your your will.

SPEAKER_02 15:58

And you better put that in there.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

You're getting it. It's going straight to you. It's gonna show up in your house in like a wooden crate completely covered in chains. It's gonna say do not open under any circumstance.

SPEAKER_03 16:14

And at that point, I don't know that you actually have passed away. And what is that showing up at my house? Oh man. Well, are you feeling better? People want to know.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

The timing of that was so good. Wait, okay, quick question. Does that show up on the YouTube or no?

SPEAKER_01 16:38

It does. Everyone who's watching the video just saw what happened. Uh, if you're not watching the video, Michael asked me how I was doing, and I had my arms crossed, but Apple reads my arms crossed as a thumbs up. So he asked me how I was doing, and immediately it gave the old thumbs up emoji. I'm doing grand. I'm doing great. Uh no, I'm doing good. I'm off today. I just got back from a movie. Just saw a movie with my wife. Yeah. It was good. Uh taking today and Monday off. I'm feeling grand. Feeling good. I have a launch on Wednesday, all ready to go for the launch. I am about to enter mental wellness month where I recoup all the energy I've spent leading up to this point. So I think I'm kicking it off grand. I think I'm kicking it off real good.

SPEAKER_03 17:29

You know what I'm saying? I love it. I love everything you're saying. The fact that you're taking a four-day weekend before a launch means things are really good.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Yeah. I mean, they really are. They really are. I had to do a little bit of a reshoot on something this week, but I did it, I did it in stride. I was like, you know what? I kind of want. It was funny. My my boss was like, do you really want to reshoot? And I'm like, you know what? I do. I do want to. I think this will be better. I think this will be significantly better. And yeah, it'll take another hour out of my life. But sometimes we get what we give.

SPEAKER_03 18:11

Yeah, I agree. You get you get what you put into it. I was trying to understand what you just said, and it took me a whole minute.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

I think this this pod. Yes, I have my dinosaur shorts on. This pod might have some of the best long pauses we've ever done before. I don't know how it works for the listeners when they just get these nice long pauses, but I'm really enjoying them. I think it's a vibe, it's a mood.

SPEAKER_03 18:37

If you're watching, you would understand. So yeah, go on YouTube and watch us. It's much more entertaining. You've got you would get to see Anthony's dinosaur shorts.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

I have dinosaur shorts.

SPEAKER_03 18:46

Check them out. Actual dinosaurs. This is too spicy for the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Listen, this is as far as they go. That's as far as they go. I can just got a foot. You got my bad foot, too. You just you just got to look at my bad foot.

SPEAKER_03 19:02

Oh actually, that was bad. I mean, if people are watching, I'm sorry. I'm sorry if you're watching this on YouTube.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

Any doc any doctors out there, is it saveable?

SPEAKER_03 19:13

You know, like when that happens, like people are like, oh yeah, we were on this show, and somebody put in the comments that I might be dying of malaria because of X, Y, and Z. And I'm like, oh, I should probably go to the doctor. I should get that checked out.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

Maybe not.

SPEAKER_03 19:27

Well, you know what? I think I'm happy that you're feeling better. No, you haven't gone to the hospital. You've got a four-day weekend leading up to a launch, which means things are great. You're on top of the world, buddy.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

I'm on top of the world. I'm on top of the world. I am. How are you?

SPEAKER_03 19:41

I'm here. It was great.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

That's great.

SPEAKER_03 19:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

Presence is everything.

SPEAKER_03 19:47

Yeah. Nothing profound. You know, just a good week. It's a good week.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

I live for those.

SPEAKER_03 19:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:53

Live for it.

SPEAKER_03 19:54

Simplicity, routine is good, which this week was all about routine. It was great. I can't complain. Yeah. Good life. Good.

SPEAKER_01 20:03

I mean, we could end it right now, and I feel like we've done enough.

Layoffs Plus People Quitting Anyway

SPEAKER_03 20:07

Well, I got bad news for you because while life is good, life is not so good for a lot of people. Oh, and that's what we're talking about today.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

No, I don't want to talk about that. No.

SPEAKER_03 20:18

I'm gonna bring you down right before your long weekend.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

Last week we had one of the most downer pods I've ever I mean, I I listened to you know, like sad murder mystery pods. And this, like, I think last week's episode was worse than that. So come on, come on, let's go.

SPEAKER_03 20:33

Let's see if we can outdo ourselves. I don't know if I don't think we can actually top that. This is actually so this topic, I've been seeing a lot of this out in the news. Uh-oh. There's been a lot of layoffs happening. There's also been a lot of people in my network that are not getting laid off, but are choosing to leave jobs.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

Interesting. That that's I didn't know that. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_03 20:55

Isn't it like, isn't that really interesting that like layoffs and people leaving jobs is usually something that isn't, you know, at running at the same time, it doesn't happen at the same time. It's very opposite, usually. It's like layers are happening, everybody stays at a job. So it's weird that I'm I don't know if you're seeing that too, but I've seen a lot of people from my network leaving jobs lately, even starting new ones, which is also weird. It's a weird time.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

I I have given up on my network. I don't know anybody anymore. I don't talk to anybody, I don't look at anybody, I don't think about anybody. So I'm gonna take your word for it. Like when I log in LinkedIn, all I see is garbage. Just garbage. So I can't, I can't engage with it. But I I have seen, you know, because I keep up with a lot of like video game industry news, and it's been a bloodbath for those who are working in the video game industry. I would have to assume that same is true uh elsewhere in technology and just in in Earth in general. But the leaving is interesting. Do you have any? Insight into why that is? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:03

It's actually, and that's why I wanted to talk about it a little bit because I do think you know the layoffs are probably you know due to overhiring in the COVID area just to secure, especially in tech. I think overhiring and now they're kind of rebalancing. We have to be past that point now. See, you would think. Now I think AI is happening, and they're like, hey, we don't need as many people to do things anymore. I think companies are like massively regression, regressing from I take it again. I said this last time. Regret regression, regression.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

You're regretting speaking, is what you're you're doing.

SPEAKER_03 22:38

Yeah, they're massively regressing from that point. And be and because AI is starting to get better for coding and things like that, I think companies are just you know swinging the opposite direction. But the leaving is interesting, and I think the trend that I'm seeing is it's a lot about bad culture or decisions from companies where a layoff happens and then people decide to leave after the layoff.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:05

Because they could be next, which I think is the trend. Yeah, they could be next, and also I think they're looking at it being like culturally, do I feel like this company is heading in the right direction for where I want to be? They're laying off people left and right, maybe even good people have been around for a long time. And now maybe I don't want to be a part of that. I've even seen some leaders leaving their position, like pretty high-level positions, after some changes at the company structure level, which I think is that's the interesting trend. It's like the layoff leads to people probably thinking, like, where's this company going? What are we doing? And do I want to be a part of it? And I think if you are one of the unfortunate people who have been laid off, um, you know, I'm I'm sorry, and I hope you find a job that's better and more fulfilling for whatever you're looking for. But also if you are the person that's leaving after a layoff, like I applaud you. I applaud you for doing that. If you're like, hey, I don't like where this company is going. They just laid off a bunch of people that I've worked with for years, and I don't want to be a part of a company who's doing that for whatever reason.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

I I think you're absolutely right. And I I think in addition to that, there's also probably the mentality, and I've I've thought about this myself. When you start to get rid of people, because you're replacing them with AI, you overstaffed, what have you, the people left start looking around like, well, who's gonna do that work? Yeah, is it me? Right. And that's a really good point, right? That's something, you know, I think about that on the daily. And it it we talked about this a couple weeks ago with my goals, right? When I was saying, like, I want to start doing like a gentic AI stuff, I want to learn it, I want to implement it because I want to be ready. And I mentioned this in this pod on that podcast. I'm gonna mention it again. There's a Korean film by Park Chan Wuk. It came out in the last six months. It's called No Other Choice. And I've never seen a movie so eloquently capture the zeitgeist of this entire conversation than that one. And if you can stand a little bit of, let's just call it intensity, I would recommend any of you feeling this go watch that movie because I think it's a really good capsule of this moment uh and and talks to exactly this mentality and how how I think a lot of us are thinking about the situation.

SPEAKER_03 25:17

You should put that in the in the Discord too. Put it in the Discord, and that way everybody can see it. We need a little link. But yeah, it's it's been interesting, and I think that's what you know. I wanted to talk about, and I think the resume note that you said in the beginning actually ties into this as well of like, I think at any point, because of this era that we're going through, jobs are gonna be displaced. And also you're gonna look at your company and be like, okay, there's a massive change coming to the workforce with agentic AI capabilities. How do you kind of prepare yourself for these shifts? So that way, when this happens, it's not a surprise to you and you're ready. And I think the resume tip is actually, you know, we we've said this on many episodes for many years now. You should always be updating your resume every single year. You should be setting up time. Maybe it's around that trigger point of you're putting in your yearly goals or about to go in your yearly review. Update your resume because when something does get restructured, or if you don't like the direction your company is going and you have no control over it, you have to be ready. And if you're not thinking about it, you're like, oh, I'll just stay here forever. That doesn't work in a period like we're going through right now, just massive change. And I think people need to be prepared for that. And the resume tip, I think, is perfect because I think you do need to look at your resume different. And I do think for everybody who is, you know, getting worried about their job or thinking like, am I at the right place? This is one of the first steps. Start getting your resume ready.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

When the time comes, and it's it's your time, you, Michael, when it's your when it's your time to leave, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_03 26:57

When when the announcement actually comes, or if I'm like, you know what, it's time.

SPEAKER_01 27:00

When when you're like, you know what, it's time.

unknown 27:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:03

What do you what do you do? Are you are you jumping to the same kind of work, or is now a good time to break the mold and get out from under the work?

The Identity Trap After Job Loss

SPEAKER_03 27:16

It's interesting. I think um one thing I would say that's just a general tip before I even answer your question. I think people need to start getting to the point where they separate themselves from their their own identity, from their work identity. You know what I mean? Like, I think people tie themselves so much to that of like, I do this at this company. And they don't actually know what it looks like to not be doing that at that company. And when a layoff or a big change happens and you start to question that, you have a lot of an identity crisis, I would say. If you're like, I don't know who I am anymore, I don't know what I want to do, I don't know if I want to do this, I don't even know what doing this looks like at another company. Like, I think a lot of people get trapped in that where they're surprised when this happens. And right now, I would say start really thinking about that of like not I'm Anthony the marketer for this company, but who is Anthony as a person? And start separating your work self from your personal self so you have a personal identity that you kind of fall back to. And I've seen that in some like posts that I'm seeing. I'm like, wow, like this person is so tied into that identity of who they are in the workplace. Do they actually know like what they want to do and who they are outside of it?

SPEAKER_01 28:37

Ah, LinkedIn. The the thing I see when I log into that garbage heap of a platform, so often is exactly what you're saying. There are these posts where it's like, after 15 great years at big corp, where I've done everything and sisyphist this company on my back. It's time for me to say goodbye as they've kicked me out the door butt first. And now as I enter this new world, I have so much big corp knowledge that I've sysyphist helped me find a job LinkedIn. Yeah, I'm desperate. And I I just look at that and think like every recruiter is gonna look at that and see this, and they're gonna be like, this person seems a little bit sussy. Uh I just I don't know. When you get laid off, it's traumatic because you don't I think a lot of times people actually are laid off. They don't know it's coming. When you get fired, generally you have an idea like, hey, I I messed up, I'm on a pip, I HR'd something wrong. A layoff usually is either you saw the writing on the wall and decided I'm gonna ride this thing out and see what happens, in which case you're probably thinking about it and prepared, or it's caught you by surprise. Like, wait, I'm not one of the ones they get laid off that gets let go. So you find yourself in the situation where you've been rug pulled, you only know what you know, you haven't mentally been prepared for the situation. So you kind of go out in a frenzy of like the stages of grief. You know, there's like, I am big corp. Big corp is nothing without me. So you start posting this nonsense on LinkedIn, you become like a LinkedIn crusader, and everyone else is watching you go through like your mental crisis in LinkedIn, and it's just hurting your chances. So I think the point you make is actually much bigger and much better than anything else that's been said on you, even like the resume tip, right? Mentally be prepared to talk about what you can do for a business, not what you did for your last business. And like you gotta shift that mindset and you gotta be ready for it before you get laid off because you're gonna spire 100%.

SPEAKER_03 31:01

Like the confidence that you know, this is what I'm good at, this is the value I bring. Like being able to understand that instead of oh, I did XYZ at this company, it's like, okay, but what is that? What does that mean? Oh, you worked on a team do it, but like what did Anthony do? Like, what value did Anthony bring to the thing?

SPEAKER_01 31:21

Why did Anthony stay there for so long?

SPEAKER_03 31:24

Yeah. Oh, did he just coast underneath the giant big corp and like never really get involved in anything? Or you can take the other side of the coid and do exactly what you're saying of like, I am Anthony, I am an expert marketer who is going to drive, you know, building a brand or crafting a message, and you know, ultimately deciding what this company looks like to the outside world. And like by you knowing that's what you do and what you do really well, that's the value companies are looking for to fill positions. I think what you said is extremely powerful, and you need to.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

And it happens occasionally.

SPEAKER_03 32:00

It does. I mean, rarely. I've seen a lot of your marketing stuff, and I just know that's Anthony behind the scenes. It could be nobody else, one of a kind. But but I think that's the that's the really important note there of like you have to separate yourself from I do this thing and I did these things at this company, too. I do this, and this is how I bring value as a person, no matter where I'm going. And I think if you can, you know, judge through that and figure out like where you bring value, you'll be much more confident in who you are, and then you'll be much more adaptable to whatever position, you know, comes up that you're like, oh, maybe I'll try that because I'm good at this.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

So let's go back to my question to you, which you didn't answer. I didn't forget. Neither did the listeners. They're they're messaging. So short-term memory. I was they're like, hey, Michael didn't answer your question.

SPEAKER_03 32:50

I was hoping you'd forget short-term memory, just so we could prove it.

SPEAKER_01 32:53

No. The question is: do you stick with what you know and what you do, knowing that this layoff is probably the first crack in a much larger shattering that is the work? Or do you take this opportunity to say, hey, listen, this job has maybe a 10-year lifespan in this upcoming age of AI. Maybe I need to start learning how to pick up garbage.

SPEAKER_03 33:23

Can we say this? I mean, picking up garbage is a tremendous skill. So thank you for plugging that at the end.

SPEAKER_01 33:28

No, no big deal. I mean, like sanitation, what studial services.

SPEAKER_03 33:33

Sanitation, uh, I was a sanitation engineer for there.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

You go. And you you already know it's it's no joke.

SPEAKER_03 33:41

It's it's really hard work. I do not envy anyone who has to do that. It's incredibly hard work. AI is gonna take it over either. So no, I don't think it wants to.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

I think AI is gonna look at that and be like, no, that's that's human work right there. They made the mess. They can pick it up.

SPEAKER_03 33:58

Exactly. It wasn't me. I'm just uh I'm an entire being that just is on the internet. I can't make a physical mess.

unknown 34:04

That's right.

Always Be Learning And Stay Marketable

SPEAKER_03 34:05

That's how they turn to robots. So what do you do? So what do you do? Uh I think in this case, like we and we said this in prev previous episodes, ABL. Always be looking, always be learning. I think you should always be. And I don't think there's a point where you should have like the impetus of like, oh shoot, they just did around a layoffs. I better start like getting ready. In reality, you should always be doing that, right? It's like every year as it comes around for that, those goals, it's like update your resume. What did you do? Well, go on LinkedIn, update your presence, update your keywords, whatever it is. Like that will prepare you for the inevitable change that's coming. And unfortunately, that change is going to impact a lot of industries and a lot of people. And if you're not ready for it, you are gonna be on the opposite side, desperately posting on LinkedIn, hoping that somebody will pick you up for a job instead of being ready for it and be like, it's fine. I got this, I know what I'm good at. I'm gonna go apply for these roles and I'm gonna tell them how I can impact their company.

SPEAKER_01 35:01

What should I do?

SPEAKER_03 35:04

Yeah, you're out of a job, buddy.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

That's why I'm asking. What should I do?

SPEAKER_03 35:10

You're asking for actual. I'm actually desperately asking for tips because this is not like uh a chat GPT.

SPEAKER_01 35:16

What should I do? Like, I'm like Michael, what should I do? Help.

SPEAKER_03 35:20

Yeah, I think for anybody that hasn't started learning or looking, you need to be looking at what is happening in the landscape around me and preparing yourself for what's going to happen. So start understanding what are you good at individually, and what value do you bring to everything that you do. Not that you answer 100 emails a day. That's not valuable. It's like, why are you the person answering those emails and what value are you driving? What's unique that you're bringing to that angle? And after you understand that, then I can I think you can understand, okay, I kind of have an idea of like what I'm good at and also what I like doing. And you can start going in that direction to say, okay, I like this aspect of the job. Maybe that's a full-time job somewhere. Let me look around and see what's in the market. Don't just go and do something. Like if you're gonna be a cherry farm picker, I don't think there's a lot of cherry farm picking places out there. So you're gonna have a really hard time finding a job. But go to the market, research, saying, These are the things I do really well, these are the things I like doing, and go see if you can find roles that do that. And once you do, look at the other skills that come with it and go learn those skills, go practice those things.

SPEAKER_01 36:33

And what if you are in your late 40s and your skill set that you've worked on your entire life, that you were an expert at, is now completely irrelevant.

SPEAKER_03 36:46

Hmm. I mean, this is with any sort of job change job change or or industry change or anything like that. Like, you have to go learn. You have to. It's a little bit more than that. What do you go learn in your late 40s? I mean, anybody can learn at any time. But I think you have to go look at, but again, I think it goes back to what I was saying. It's what do you what are you good at? What do you like doing? Start looking in the direction of those things and saying, can I make my living? Can I find fulfillment doing that? What are the other skills that go into a job like that? How do I make myself marketable for that type of job? I think that's the key. If you know what you like doing, if you know what you're good at, if you can find a market for it, you should go learn the other skills to go do that thing. I like that. I like that. Whether you have a job or not.

SPEAKER_01 37:35

Right. Well, I mean, you do have to eat, drink, put a roof over your head. You do need some of that. And you know, I'm not this is not a political statement, but it's gonna sound like one. Uh, I will say, and I I believe math can back this up, there are not enough jobs as there is need for jobs by the people who use to work them, and that will continue to be the case in time. So the alternative is if you can't find work, then you need to become active at researching governing systems that can support you when you can't work. That's not a political statement, that is a matter of survival. And I'm just throwing that out there for those who cannot work because their job will be eliminated. You need to find systems that can support you and ensure those systems are in place before you lose your job. That is that is all I will say about that. Just do a little research.

SPEAKER_03 38:51

Just a tiny bit of research. A couple a couple Google searches.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

A couple Google searches, you can you will learn so much about your options that may or may not be available based on your activeness in your local governing structures. That's and that's all I'll say. That's it. That's all I'll say.

SPEAKER_03 39:10

It's not political, you're just saying it.

SPEAKER_01 39:12

I'm I didn't I didn't I didn't say anything partisan whatsoever, actually. I was completely non-partisan. I was very good. I was very good. I was very well behaved today. I get a gold star for behavior. So good.

SPEAKER_03 39:24

Listen, you're gonna go to the hospital and they're gonna pat you on the back and give you that cross right on your loyalty card.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

If I get three more, I get a free CT scan.

Savings, Support Systems, And Staying Human

SPEAKER_03 39:33

Oh, that's actually that's a pretty Cardinal eight stamps. Free CT scan. That's all I'm saying. Hospitals need to look at this business model. But I think that everything that like we're talking about right now is how you like this is the awareness step, right? Yes, like it's happening. It will be a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 39:51

We all need to be on this step.

SPEAKER_03 39:53

Yes, and whether you love your company or not, they could be in a right position to be totally upturned by the technology revolution that's happening. And you need to be aware and be ready. And there's nothing wrong, you shouldn't feel guilty to be like, oh, I love my company. Like I would never leave and they would never get rid of me. It's like it's not personal, it's business. And you need to look at that from a macro lens and say, okay, how do I make myself an asset to anywhere in the market, regardless of this place or somewhere else, so I can make a living, I can achieve my goals. And I think fiscally, like you have to have a savings fund. I know that's a luxury for a lot of people, but I think you should be saving to prepare for that maybe little slump that you have when you might get displaced or there might be a layoff. Like it's going to happen to a lot of people in their careers. And if you're lucky, you'll never experience that. But I think fiscally saving for that savings fund, so you know I have a month to find a job is a lot better than being on the streets, and then you're like, tomorrow I need a job, otherwise, I'm not going to pay my bills at the end of the week. Fiscally keep that in mind. But if you don't have the luxury to do so, do the things that we're talking about. So the second you get news or whiff of that happening, you can start looking, you can be marketable, and you can find another job quick.

SPEAKER_01 41:11

And I know we're we're running up on time, as they say in the biz, but I have one more thing to add to this. But I think you've made a lot of good points, and I've just made jokes. You're not alone. You are not alone. Michael, myself, people on our Discord, people I talk to, people much smarter than me feel this way. And the the one thing I can tell you is if you've ever seen the cinematic classic based on the elegant Akira Sor uh Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, a film called Bug's Life, you will know that even though we are the ants, there are more of us than there are of them. So if enough decisions get made to put us in a situation where, hey, no one's got jobs anymore, suddenly there's a lot more ants. Just you're not alone.

SPEAKER_03 42:05

We know the end of that movie. I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_01 42:07

We know how it ends. That grasshopper, his skin flies off. I'm just saying. Then he gets eaten by a giant bird. Yep. It's a great movie.

SPEAKER_03 42:17

I need to rewatch that.

SPEAKER_01 42:18

I love it's a good metaphor for life. They have remade Akira Kurosawa Seven Samurai umpteen times. Magnificent Seven. Other movies with seven in the title. But Bug's Life really gets it, just to its core. Bug's Life distills a three-hour samurai masterpiece into a tight hour 45 that I think all of us can relate to. The seed is a tree. But it's a rock.

SPEAKER_03 42:46

Where do you start? The biggest takeaway is where do you start? Watch a bug's life, and then pause this, watch a bug's life, come back, listen to the rest of this, and then you're ready.

SPEAKER_01 42:55

I'll put a link in the Discord for a bug's life just in case.

SPEAKER_03 42:58

If you don't know, if you don't know what we're talking about, you're crazy.

SPEAKER_01 43:05

We have two film assignments for our listenerslash viewers this week. Uh go check out the Korean masterpiece, no other choice, and feel bad about yourself. Afterwards, go watch A Bug's Life. And I think you will find a happy medium between these two extreme viewpoints. But in all honesty, you're not alone. Like we're having these thoughts. Everyone I know is thinking this. Everyone is afraid, everyone's scared. These are very completely unprecedented times. We've never gone through something like this before. Every addition and technology in the past was a tool to be added to our bat utility belt that we could use in fighting the Joker. And now they've created a robot Batman. And we look at ourselves and we say, Well, do I need to still exist? And the answer is yes, you do. You absolutely do, and you're not alone. We will rise up. And we will take them all down. That's all I that's all I'm gonna say. Completely nonpartisan, completely non-political. We will take all of them down. There won't be a scrap of robot left when we're through. But that's uh, you know, I think that's a good uh uplifting segment end on. My name's John Connor. I am leading the resistance. I will be sending one back. Just just, you know, just so you know. It'll be going back. It's gonna take care of everything. Trust me. I got a plan.

SPEAKER_03 44:31

Also, another great great movie series.

SPEAKER_01 44:36

Okay, so the order is go watch no other choice. Yep. Bugs Life. Bugs Life. And then Terminator 2. Terminator. That's your order. That's your that's your watching order for this weekend. Trust me, you'll feel better. You'll feel better by the time you get to the end of it.

unknown 44:54

Yeah.

Movies, Motivation, And How To Support

SPEAKER_01 44:55

And that's it. I think that's it. That's it. We're not gonna do it. Good topic. Good topic. Hey, challenge for us next week. Can we not? Can we not? Is it possible? Or is this just the time? Can we just not? I want to talk about like how do you send an email? How do you send a nice email? Do you say, dear sir or madam? Is that can we do that topic, please? Don't do that. No? Okay, well, uh, listen, if you want to connect with us, you can do so by getting in our Discord. You can do that by looking in the podcast show notes. If you're watching on YouTube, you can do us a big favor by like, commenting, and subscribing. Believe it or not, I used to hate people that say that. Now I'm one of them. That's all I have to say about that. If you want to help us out, you can join our Patreon. It's a great way to support us fiscally. And good news for everybody is we are finally cash flow positive. That means I am not losing money on this show every week anymore. So huge shout-outs and thank yours to our patrons. If you'd like to help help them, help us, help ourselves, you can do so by signing up. We put exclusive content up there once a month. There is some spicy meatballs on there. I mean, like, it is spicy. So check out our exclusive Patreon content.$1,$10 tiers. Every dollar we make is gonna go back into the pod into making more stuff for you. So why not do the thing? Anything else? You want to, you know, shout out a share. Share with your friends, share with your enemies.

SPEAKER_03 46:26

Enjoy Bugs Life. You're gonna love it.

SPEAKER_01 46:28

You're gonna love it. Ah, flick. What a what a hero. Hero for the ages. Uh, what's his face? The talking stick from Frasier. What's his name? Oh.

SPEAKER_03 46:38

I don't know. I don't know. I don't, you're too deep for me.

SPEAKER_01 46:40

I am a talking stick. Frasier, hmm. You know what I'm talking about. It's great. This is great. Just love him. You love him. That'll do it for another episode of Corporate Strategy of the Podcast. Could have been an email. As always, I'm and toes with all the toes, Tony.

SPEAKER_03 46:58

I'm no toes, Michael. He's got no toes. Check him out. You already hear first.

SPEAKER_01 47:04

You're already here first, and you're on mute. We will see you.