Episode 29: Using AI & Training to Prove Your Value at Review Time

Annual reviews are coming, and we are not walking in with vibes and half-remembered projects. We talk about how we approach performance review season like a strategy problem: build skills that matter, document the work as you do it, and make it easy for leadership to see your value when raises, bonuses, and new opportunities are on the table. 

We share what it looks like when your employer pays for real professional development, including the Google Project Management Certificate on Coursera and how those templates, stakeholder habits, and capstone exercises translate into day-to-day work. We also get honest about company-funded degrees and certifications: tuition reimbursement caps, taxable education benefits, and the “you must stay X years” rules that can quietly change your career timeline. If you are considering an MBA, a second master’s, or any paid training, we give you the questions to ask before you sign anything. 

Then we dig into AI at work in a practical way. We cover how we use Google Gemini to search massive FDA and regulatory documents, summarize reports, and translate files, plus how “agents” and Gemini Gems can turn repeat tasks like weekly accomplishment tracking into an automated workflow. We also talk about AI hallucinations, why the human factor still matters, and how to verify answers without losing the time savings. Finally, we zoom out to skills employers still crave, like emotional intelligence, empathy, and clear communication, especially in remote teams. Subscribe, share with a friend who is dreading review season, and leave a review with the one skill you are building this year.

Transcript

Google Project Management Certificate Takeaways

Rachael 0:34

Hey everyone, welcome to Girl Gang Podcast. My name's Rachel and I'm Brandy and we are your hosts for this episode. Alrighty, guess what time of year it is? Annual reviews. Hopefully that means raises, maybe bonuses, maybe. We're hoping for the best. But we live in a kind of scary, scary world right now. So uh we figured in this episode we would talk about skills for your job, how you can continue to um take professional development opportunities even through your job. Um, maybe your job will pay for opportunities, additional schooling, certifications, all that kind of stuff. Um, another big one that came up this year was AI. AI AI just kind of blew up this year. So, what have we been doing in our jobs AI-wise? What have we learned? Um, and if you haven't dove into the world of AI, what can you do to kind of start learning about it? Um, what else were we thinking? I think kind of some pretty much sums it up. Yeah. So at least the past year for myself, um, I approached my company at the end of, oh man, it's 2026 already. So at the end of 2024, I approached my company about doing the Google Project Management Certification course. And so at the beginning of last year, they were kind enough to pay for my um advanced subscription to Coursera, and I did everything through Coursera, and I had a year to do the whole certification. Um, pro tip, don't procrastinate on that kind of stuff because I was down to the wire and had some long nights a couple of weeks ago to get it all done. But it was super interesting, really good content, um, especially going through the Google certification. They just they have really awesome videos to teach you about each step, but then they give you templates and you actually kind of work and do as you go along. And then the um so not only did I walk away with a whole folder of templates, but at the end, your kind of capstone project, it was great. We use this example throughout your entire training. Now we're gonna use a brand new example. You're a project manager, what do you do in these situations? How do you, you know, come up with the task list? How do you determine how much time it's going to take? How do you effectively talk to your stakeholders when an issue arises? All that kind of stuff. So that was really awesome. And then I've talked to a few people just about the um PMP, which is kind of the pretty tough. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

So um I actually have that book and knowledge. If you end up pursuing it, I can let you borrow it. Okay. Yeah, that'd be great. I don't know. We might want to check what version they're on versus what I have, because sometimes I update it, but I have one that you could at least preliminary.

Rachael 3:24

Um, project management uh jobs are going up. So if you feel like you're looking for, you know, a new job, new skills, project management is definitely on the rise for a lot of folks.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

There's a lot of people switching over to it too. So jump in early. Like if you have any interest in it, look into it now and don't wait until the the mark gets saturated. Yeah. Because there's a lot of people switching over to that. Yeah, most definitely. Um that's what I actually thought about doing it for a while too, and yeah, I'm glad I didn't.

Company-Paid Degrees And Payback Rules

Rachael 3:54

I mean, you could always you're you're gonna go back for your MBA though, right? I already have my MBA. Okay. So when did you get your MBA?

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Um, I graduated in fall of 2022. Twenty-two, okay. Yeah.

Rachael 4:11

Were you gonna go get another degree though?

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Yeah, I mean it's always up in the air, whether it's not to school or not. Um so I actually I got two masters. So I went the program I did, I originally wasn't getting an MBA.

Rachael 4:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

I wanted to get um because at my previous company, um, the only way you could kind of move up after a certain point and make more money was to go through management. Got it. And I thought it would be a good opportunity to do a management master's.

Rachael 4:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Um, so the program I did was actually uh Science Management and Leadership was the program. Yes. Um so it would have some more technical classes, kind of like you know, how do you deal with the industry more so? Um, but then they said for an extra year of classes, which is five extra, because there's five terms and a year for the night program I was doing, but you can get your MBA for an extra year and a little extra money. Worth it. Yes. I was like, I'm already used to going to school, I'm already in this routine, work was fine to pay for it. Yeah. And so yeah, I got two master's degrees completely completely f well, I shouldn't say completely free because part of it was considered taxable income, so I had to pay a little bit of taxes on it. Like that just came out of my paychecks. So in the grand scheme of things, it was you know, pocket not pennies on the dollar for what it would have actually cost me to to do it.

Rachael 5:48

Yeah. Um yeah, I did my master's in higher education administration, and then I was working on an MBA before I left higher ed, but then I stopped because then it wasn't free anymore. Yeah, I get it. I didn't want to pay for it after that.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

But my rule of thumb has always been if it's for my career, my company's paying for it. Oh yeah. Um even if you're pivoting, like, because all my if you have a good boss at least, they're gonna be like, you know, what's your next step? Like, what do you want to do? What can like do you want to pivot to a different department? Do you want to rise up in this department? What do we need to do to get you to those long-term goals? And that's a good boss, yeah, well, then you know, help you pay for for that stuff. Like I said, my boss knew I wanted to do like supervisor and then manager and things like that at the time. So she was like, Yeah, you can do a management degree, yeah, and you know, all this stuff.

Rachael 6:43

Well, and coming from education, I feel like we were always focused on professional development and then moving into the tech world, it just you really have to seek out those opportunities more, at least at my company, they're not against it, they're just you know, they're it's not top of mind. Yeah, it's not top of mind for them. They're kind of um, you know, talking about how do we make the product better, more usable, that kind of thing. So when I approached them, they were receptive to it, which was nice. That's good.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Um yeah, I'm sure that was a bit of a reality check because even like normal educate like normal teachers have to do, they do all kinds of development throughout the year and during the summer and and all of that.

Rachael 7:24

So well and you realize like once you get out of the education world, it's really easy to not educate yourself anymore. You're like, oh, so many other things are happening, you know. Yeah, life life, yeah. So if it's not a priority, it's not gonna Yeah, and that's why I think I procrastinated so much on the project management thing, because I was just thinking, oh, like it'll be fine, it'll get done, it'll get done, and then I was like, fuck, it's here. Yeah. I mean, that's how I live life. Exactly, exactly. So, but hey, it got done. But that being said, I think I need to do a better job of just saying, you know, maybe every quarter I come up with a new training that I work on and just make sure I kind of allot it into my schedule.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

So you know you just gotta set those boundaries. Like, I need this time during the week to now. I will say, like, when I went back to school, one of the rules was I was not allowed to work on assignments and things like that during the work hours. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Which was fine. I mean, even when when we were slow, I still would work on it, but you know, I made sure my priority was my work and then um, but that was actually in the agreement I signed. Um because one other thing you need to look into as well, especially if you're doing like a formal degree, is what your company requires back from you. Yeah. Um like you have to stay two years or something after you finish your degree. So I started my program when we were one company and I finished it after we were bought out. Got it. And the original company would give me more per year for my degree. Got it. But most of that money was considered taxable income. And then I had to stay for five years.

Rachael 9:13

Ooh.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Yeah. However, when we switched, I was the new program was more in my favor, so I wasn't grandfathered in because it was better. So while I didn't get as much money throughout the year, it was still enough to cover all of my my tuition. Yeah, you know. Um and then none of it was taxable income and I only had to stay two years.

Rachael 9:41

Oh, nice. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

So now had I gone to a a more expensive school, like a private school. Well, I guess it was private, but if I'd got done a more expensive program, it probably would have taken me longer because I would have maxed out my reimbursement faster. Yeah. But makes sense. Trust me, by the time that I wasn't, I was like, oh, two years, like I'll work that and then some because I'd already been at the company for five years or whatever, but let me tell you when that two years hit, I was already looking. Yeah. I was like, okay, I'm right in the hook, right in on the wall, I gotta get out of here. Yep. So oh yeah, that makes sense. Um but did you feel that you got your money? Like, had you paid for your certification out of pocket, do you feel like you would have gotten your money's worth? Yeah, I do. Um because sometimes like Udemy and Coissera or Coursera. Yeah. I did it through Coursera. Yeah. Sometimes you have to really look at reviews and things like that. Cause sometimes they're just like a bunch of presentations someone put together and they're not worth what you're paying for. Yeah.

Rachael 10:47

That's what I've given that it was the Google one, I think that there's probably better uh better structure there because it's Google. Um but yes, I do feel like I got my money's worth out of that.

SPEAKER_00 11:00

So that's good.

Rachael 11:01

Yeah, that's good.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Yeah, I know in my industry, um ours are more like quality related. Um so like Six Sigma, green.

Rachael 11:10

Which we talked about that. Like we talked about like lean. I mean when you do like agile and like kind of go into project management with more of a lean focus. So they did touch on those things a bit. Okay. Yeah. Which is another big certification, like outside of project management right now. Like if you can get certified in um like a green green belt. Yeah, a green belt, like that's kind of something that people are looking forward to.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Oh, trust me, I grew up with it. My dad's a master black belt. Oh he even helps write the test. Wow. I don't think I knew that about your dad. That's legit. Yeah. You might have mentioned it one time, but that's badass.

Rachael 11:47

So I grew up learning all about that. However, that was a hard fucking class. And like I started the MBA and I did marketing. Fucking breeze. I'm like, yeah, I got this. You know, this is what I've been doing forever. Then got into um like the operations class, and I'm like, what the fuck is this? Like, I gotta do math and shit. I don't understand.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Look, he's I'm very similar to him. So you can imagine he's been. This is why I'm the writer in the group. I'm very he's very analytical. Um, but yeah, like I grew up and he's always like, Oh, are you gonna get it? And I was like, Well, what my current position is now, like you have to do projects at the end of it in order to qualify for your certificate, and it has to be like an actual improvement in your company. Yeah. And with mine being a union operated factory and stuff like that, there's already very strict guidelines, and like you'd then have to deal with like the bylaws and things like that. So it's really hard to initiate big changes that are required for you to get your certifications. Yeah. So I kind of took a step away from those, and they're not really needed for what I'm doing, yeah, or where I see myself going with this company.

Rachael 12:59

Yeah.

Practical AI Use At Work

SPEAKER_00 13:01

But I am, you know, kind of switch into the the AI aspect of it. Like my company's really pushing us to use it. Like there's a whole ambassador program, and um Yeah, tell tell me more about that.

Rachael 13:16

Because you're in pharmaceuticals, so I would guess that it's probably a little bit more restricted as to how you're using the AI, but I'm curious as to how you're approaching it.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

Yes and no. Okay. I mean, first rule of thumb with AI is it's only as smart as the humans that programmed it or the information you tell it.

Rachael 13:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Um and what's nice about it is I can take a big hundred plus page document from the FDA with all the regulations and guidelines in it. I can dump that PDF into Gemini, which is I use Google Gemini at work. Okay. And I can just start asking it questions and it'll read through the the whole document and answer it for me. Nice. Or and then like right now, because you know, I'm still learning learning to trust it, and sometimes it can be a little difficult with very specific questions whether it answers correctly or not.

Rachael 14:21

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

Um, I'll then ask it like what section was that in? And then I'll go in and and read it. But then I don't have to go and scroll through 150 pages. Yep. I mean, while there yeah, there's a table of contents and stuff, but sometimes it's hard to tell what's actually in each one. Yeah. Um, so we use it in that regard. Um, I also use it um to like write reports and things like that. So I give it all the data and I tell it to summarize for me. And I can like do conclusions and data analysis with it. Not like super in-depth data analysis, like we still have another software for that, but I mean it it is super professional wording. Because there's sometimes where I'm like, I don't know what to say about this, or I feel like I'm repeating myself a lot. Yeah. Um, or I feel like I'm saying the same thing just slightly different, and then I'll go in and like reword it and use more um adult words meaning you know, longer syllable, just more sophisticated vocabulary than I might be thinking to use. Can you set up agents within Gemini? Like as you're comp I guess. What do you mean by agent?

Rachael 15:33

So maybe it's not with Gemini, but maybe it's more so we use a system called Dust, and Dust uses Gemini, so like Gemini is one, we have Claude, and we've created these agents that we will tell it a prompt. So we'll say, like, you're an onboarding specialist doing X. I want you to pull the data out of this and confirm what the product should do based on this. So if you have a question about our product, it'll answer the question about the product, and then based on the answer to the um that you're asking, then it'll write a message to the client as to is it possible to do with our product, is it not possible to do with our product? So with Gemini, like you just throw in a question and it kind of answers it for you or documents it, but an agent is acting as like an executive assistant or a CFO or like a person that's structuring it in a certain type of way.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

And I don't know, I guess I'd I'm sure it has that capability, but in like I'm not in a client-facing role whatsoever. Um, and we do almost everything in-house, so we're not trying to sell our product in our marketing team, might do some of that. Got it. Um, but we use what we call gems. So Gemini has gems.

Rachael 16:56

Yeah, I just so I said, Can you create Gemini agents? And it says we have Gemini gems, which are your personal ones. Yeah. Okay.

Using Gemini Gems For Weekly Wins

SPEAKER_00 17:04

So basically, if I'm asking it to do the same thing over and over again, okay, I can create a gem. Got it. So that's an agent. It's a template, yeah. Okay. Got it. So okay, so they just call it gems. Interesting. Okay. Um, so we're learning how to use those. Um, my first kind of experiment with that is I keep track of what I work on every week. Okay. Um, so that way when your annual reviews and stuff come around. Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that. I can pull everything I did. But how do you keep track of that? Um well, I used to just keep a handwritten planner and I would go back through it, but now with AI, I fill out a Excel spreadsheet. Okay. Um and I type like what I did each day. And then no, not an Excel spreadsheet. Sorry, I started with that, but then it I did some research and it said a Word document was better. So I searched. So now I just do a quick like almost like a to-do list. Like I did this, this, and this, got it, and then my gym now pulls like once a week from that document and summarizes each week for me. Got it.

Rachael 18:17

And then So you created your own gym.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

I did.

Rachael 18:20

So and you can create multiple gyms. You can create as many as many as you want.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

Well, as much as your license allows, I guess, probably. Like if you don't we have the paid version because it's through work. Got it. Um, but if the free version, there might be some restrictions because they all want you to pay for the premium.

Rachael 18:37

So when you create a gym, are you stating like I am this type of person and I want you to do X or you're you just feed it this Word document and say, like, can you do this?

SPEAKER_00 18:48

Yeah. I based on this file and what's in it, can you summarize what I did each week? Interesting. Okay. Yeah. And then we also have what we call LM Notebook.

Rachael 18:59

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

Um, because we write a lot of uh protocols and SOPs or procedures and things like that. So what we can do with that is I can take an FDA regulation document, I can take a European regulation document, I can take our other site procedure documents, and I can load them into it, and then I can say create a protocol um align doing XYZ based on what I'm allowed to do from these documents, and it'll write up an entire protocol for me. Got it. Um interesting. Yeah. I haven't gotten as much into that as my boss has, um but I'm getting more familiar with it. Also, it's nice. Um, so I work for we both work for European countries, uh companies, not countries. Um and I got a document that was in French the other day. Aww. And I had to translate it for you. I just dropped it into Gemini and it spit out a English version for me.

Hallucinations And How To Verify

Rachael 20:12

Nice. So that was kind of cool. So have you run into um so basically you have like agents and then you have like the dust, which is more it takes all these different ages and can agents and kind of combines them. Um and then you have uh L did you call it L L? What'd you call it? LM. LM. Okay. And I don't know what the LM actually stands for. So I'm thinking that, or like we use bagel, that takes like all of our um like our insights and our product feedback, and it like analyzes them to see like what trends and things are coming. So when I was doing kind of research on this, like how to make yourself stand out more in an AI world, understanding like what an agent is and how to create an agent and talk to an agent, but also the fact that um the terminology that they're saying is um like an AI orchestrator. So if you know kind of understanding like how you're connecting all these agents and putting them all together, um, that's like a big term that you can kind of use moving forward. So that's like your dusts of the world. And then if you need more of like the brain and the analytics of it, then finding um a system like that. Have you run into um Gemini is probably pretty good at this, but like something hallucinating, like not being correct?

SPEAKER_00 21:39

Yes, um maybe not just flat out wrong, but more it's a it's a conditional question. Like in one situation it could be other than this, or in another situation. So, like an example, we were um I'm gonna get specific here. We are bringing in this livestock feed, it's a medicated feed that you like sprinkle on top of the like food they you give them daily. Okay. It's like a supplement. Okay. And um upon doing research, like we uh like the active ingredient we typed like is blah blah blah.

Rachael 22:23

Um is it sorry if anybody can hear this? Branson is just like scratching away. He's gotten it.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

Oh sorry, he was distracting me. Anyway, um where was I going? New feed. Oh yeah. So we like Googled it and it was actually saying that it's um only used in the US, like every other country's banned it. So then we're like, Oh, okay. Um why is it, you know, like and basically there's pe certain research that's saying that it could get into like the meat product and milk product if you give your cattle this versus um because like especially Europe is much more sensitive to that kind of stuff than like the FDA is. Yeah. But the FDA is saying as long as it stays under this dosage, it won't come through. Like the meat and and milk product and stuff. And they actually because they allow the supplement to be used, there's extra testing that has to be done. Like if it's a dairy cow, they test the milk to make sure it's not gotten it. Um, especially if it they feed more than they should, kind of situation. Okay. So for us it was like we asked the question, is this dangerous to humans? This active ingredient. Yep. And it said yes, probably. Um it did, but we were more concerned, like, if I touch this powder or it like lands on my clothes, yeah, is it dangerous? Yeah. And it was answering as if we were talking about digesting it, like eating it for the product. Okay. So I think that was just more of a question that needed to be more specific. And um, and again, it just depends on where it gets its sources from. Like it has a whole internet, and there's a lot of conflicting information on the internet for any topic. Yeah. Um, so you just I always double while AI saves me a lot of time doing things, I still take a little extra time to check it. Yes.

Rachael 24:40

They call it like the human factor. Like you have to make sure that you still have the human use it to like structure your stuff, absolutely, get you like the initial results, but then you also have to take responsibility for anything that it produces, and then you send to clients um and just make sure you're double checking it, like reread it.

SPEAKER_00 25:01

Make sure it makes sense, make sure it's actually saying what you want it to say, yeah, yeah, all of that. Um, and kind of going back to like annual reviews and like continuous education opportunities. I have talked to my manager and my director, and I because in the past I've been wanting to get trained on more of the like software validation work that we do in our company, um, which is all like our computer systems and and things like that. Um, and so I thought it would be a good kind of stepping stone into doing more AI-based training because I know a lot of people are nervous and scared, it's gonna replace people and everything. And and if that is the case, I want to be the person who understands and knows how to use it because I'm gonna be the last one it replaces them.

Rachael 25:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:56

So that's true. Um, that's actually been talked about uh after our our annual reviews and everything. We go into what we call goal setting, which is what we're in right now. And I, you know, lay out what I want to uh we have like annual goals through the business, like financial and safety and all of that, but then I also can go in and and update my personal development goals.

Rachael 26:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

In every department at my company gets um a certain budget set aside strictly for training. So that could be going to conferences and going to seminars within those conferences to like maybe learn about new technology or maybe there's a better, more efficient way of doing some kind of manufacturing that we do or something like that. We can go in and and do that. Um there's also more and more AI conferences popping up. And I was trying to get I was trying to go to one um this year, but uh it was in Ireland, so it was a little expensive for our budget. So I was like, dang it.

AI Data Centers And Environmental Costs

Rachael 27:07

But so I think I was really afraid to embrace it at first because AI? Yes. I didn't know how to use it. I thought that I was killing the environment. Like there were there's just you know, there's a lot of unknowns there, so definitely um if your company like if your company has spaces where you can use uh AI, I think you just have to embrace it. Even our CEO, our CEO posted in R thread um a couple of days ago, and he's like, hey guys, I spent 15 minutes. I built an agent, I was just like act as a CEO, do this, do that, and it took me 15 minutes and it already saved me a shit ton of time. Yeah, so just like take 15 minutes out of your day, test it out, see if you like it or not. But if you don't have those tools, then I think you can go. I mean, Gemini's free, you can use Chat GPT, there's also Anthropic, which is also called uh Claude. So you have options, but that also comes down to the environmental aspect. So we did a little bit of research here. Um, so I need to find this stat that we saw, but so Gemini seems like it's the best.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Yeah, so basically when we say environmental concerns, I know um in our immediate area there have been, I think I can count four or five data centers wanting to be built in the area. Um so if that sounds familiar in your in your area, they are data centers to support AI because um the AI computers with how they look up information and process it and everything, it produces a lot of heat and energy. So they have to have these giant data centers that have all these um water cooling aspects and like um airflow and things like that to keep them from inner or overheating. Yeah. Um, and these data centers are massive, um, and there's you know, potential of well, one, they're just clear-cutting, like if it's a forested area or something, they're just clearing it out and building this giant building. And then, you know, there are concerns around, you know, if they're using this water to cool it, and they a lot of people are concerned when they, you know, release it back out because it's cycled, you know, is that gonna pollute near like actual nearby water sources and things like that? And increase your electric bill, your water, like you know, who ends up paying for that additional. And do does the area they're building in have the infrastructure and the power grid to even support that kind of situation? So there's a lot to to think about. And there's kind of this balancing act that I feel like I personally am doing constantly. You know, I have a company that's constantly like use it more, use it more, use it more, but at the same time, um part of me is like, okay, well, am I encouraging these data centers to pop up and just um, you know, just overpopulate and over construct in areas?

Rachael 30:15

Yeah. So and it depends like on can the citizens like really fight back on some of these things? Because in St. Charles, for instance, like people have been very vocal about how they don't want data centers. Yeah. But then where my parents live, there's supposed there's potential for a data center to go in, yeah, and their neighbors are like, fuck this, we're like moving if that's the case, but they don't have the population to probably not make it um happen.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

But um they can also, depending on the company and the construction and all of that, um, if they get in with like the right politicians and stuff, they could enforce eminent domain as well. And then it doesn't matter.

Rachael 31:05

Yeah. But this is saying that Chat GPT queries five times more carbon than Gemini. So if you were questioning like, should I be using Gemini versus ChatGPT, you know, go for Gemini always.

SPEAKER_00 31:21

That makes me feel better. I mean, still not you know, the you know, the solution. I hope like Google and all the other companies are working to to make things more efficient and all of that, but I use almost exclusively Gemini, so that makes me feel better that it's at least same less uh of a concern. Yeah. And yeah, that's why like I don't I know you don't get on Facebook very often, but there's these trends that'll come around and everyone's making all these AI images.

Rachael 31:53

People are up at like they're either like totally on board or people are like, Why are you killing the earth for this stupid photo? Yeah. I do see those.

SPEAKER_00 32:01

Um so just kind of think about that the next time you make one of those photos.

Rachael 32:08

Um There are certain people I can think of. I'm like mm, every time you make that photo.

SPEAKER_00 32:13

Yeah. I I was I did it occasionally and then I like did research on what it was actually like like the manpower or not the manpower, but the the energy and everything it takes to make a photo, especially, versus like uh just asking it a question. And and photos take up so much more um the electricity and heat and processing power and all of that. Um that makes sense. So just you know, be be mindful of what you're using AI for because it can definitely escalate and then everywhere's got a data center. So just something to think about. Yeah, that's true. But I'm not saying don't use AI because that is the future, like it's coming whether you like it or not, but just kind of be mindful of how you're using it until the technology improves more.

Soft Skills Employers Still Want

Rachael 33:07

Yeah, but embrace it, but educate yourself on it for sure. What about skills that I mean, since it's review season, AI is big right now. Um what are some other skills that you feel like employers are looking for right now outside of the AI?

SPEAKER_00 33:27

Well, I'm currently interviewing people. So this kind of um goes right into that. And uh soft skills, I think, especially in my industry, can be very hard to find because you typically think of engineers and scientists as introverted, very black and white. You know, I ask a question and you don't elaborate, you just answer analytically, you know, like yeah, you don't elaborate, you don't, you're not maybe the most personable. And so that is something that I at least look for when I'm interviewing people. Um I know my company, uh HR always comes out with a list of these soft skills like um conflict management, critical thinking, um things like just more emotional intelligence, that kind of thing. They actually come out with a list of of trainings that are free to us that we can take that are still business related, but they are the softer skills um that uh you don't necessarily learn in a textbook or a course um in school or anything like that.

Rachael 34:47

Yeah. Yeah, I definitely think like the emotional intelligence, being able to connect with somebody kind of understand even being able to read cues. Social cues? Social cues in person and virtually. I feel like virtually is also key now since we're at least for me, I'm fully remote. So trying to understand what do you what does it mean when you're being quiet or like what does it mean when you know something's happening? So that's been important. Also working coming from education and working in tech now, being able to take more of the techie types of things and understand it enough to put it into terms that somebody might not understand. Yeah. Um use less jargon. Less jargon, yeah. That's definitely helpful.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

Yeah. Um, I also think empathy, yeah, learning, you know, um, I think that's a a good one in the workplace and just understanding because everyone's one everyone's work-life balance is different, and like you don't know what they're taking home. Like, I have a great work-life balance. I also am not one to take work home with me. And by that I mean, yeah, I work two days a week from home, but I don't come home if there is a problem at work. I don't come home and stew on it, but some people do, and you know, you have to understand that that's not every like some people go home and they have three kids, they have to feed and do homework and bathe and get them to bed. So they're not thinking about work, so don't expect them to come in having solved something overnight because you're the one that stewed on it. And depending on the time zone, it's especially for you.

Rachael 36:30

Yeah, so like I'm still working on things and my friends' people are off of work, so um Friday afternoons when they're already done. Shit hits the fan every no, every Friday afternoon shit hits the fan, and I'm just like, why? Why did you try to import all these people? Why did you try to launch your community? Like, don't do anything on fucking Friday afternoons and don't do it.

SPEAKER_00 36:52

We're always like, Oh, well, we can't get an answer because they're off till Monday, so this is a Monday problem now.

Rachael 36:59

Yeah, no, this is why I'm like, if I still drank, I'd be like, let's fucking have a few drinks after this because it's a fucking nightmare.

SPEAKER_00 37:07

Yeah, no, we're always like, let's have our meeting on Friday afternoon so it becomes a Monday problem.

Rachael 37:12

Exactly. So I mean that's nice, but yeah, our platform always tends to like just stop working or like be a little slower on Fridays, and I'm like, well, that's because the France team's gone.

SPEAKER_00 37:22

Sorry. Now I will say it's kind of funny you mentioned that because when I was in a client-facing role at my old company, yes, Friday afternoons were terrible because shit did hit the fan. Yeah, I'm like, what? And then I had to like try to get a hold of the client and be like, hey, this happened. What would you like us to do? Yeah, here's your options, and they'd be like, Right. So um, yeah, I've been there. And but now that I'm not in a client-facing role, it's very nice Friday afternoons when your corporate office is six to seven hours ahead of you.

Turning Skills Into Review Evidence

Rachael 37:51

Yeah. So how can you go into your review pitching these skills that you've learned? So, like, I took my project management certification. I did learn a lot of AI, like I learned how to do agents. I guess I'm curious how are we approaching our employers today? I mean, I feel like the world that we live in today, it's a competitive world, you know. Yeah, finding jobs is, you know, hard. Keeping jobs, like you want to make sure that you are an asset to the company. Yeah. Um, what are some skills that you've taken into your reviews to say, like, okay, maybe my employer didn't pay for this, or maybe I paid out of pocket for this, or you know, how did this training certification enhance my skills and become make me a more valuable person to you? And are you specifically stating that in your reviews, or you're just assuming that they're understanding that? I, like I said, I document what I do throughout the year. So it's not questionable. You're just like, I did all of this shit. Like, don't even try to question it.

SPEAKER_00 39:02

Yeah, I almost it's almost like a a like a a to-do like a tick box list that I give them. Like, I don't try to fancy it up and put it in like paragraphs. I'm like So they really can't question it. This, this, this, this, this, you know, I got this deliverable, this deliverable, this deliverable. I make it very black and white, very like, yeah. If you try and make it fluffy, they're not gonna read it. Yeah. They've got a bunch of other reviews they have to do. And is that something that you're just doing on your own? Or okay. So actually, so I work with all older men like Gen X or M Boomers.

Rachael 39:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 39:37

Um, and uh they've actually had me kind of teach them how to make my Gemini Gym. Yeah. Um, because they were like, when they came time to review, this one guy was just beside himself because he could not remember what he did eight months ago, ten months ago.

Rachael 39:58

Well, yeah. And you just push that stuff out of mind sometimes. Like I go back through my calendar actually, I go week by week, and I'm like, oh shit, I forgot about that client, I forgot about that client. Yeah, ooh, they were terrible. I definitely pushed them out of mind.

SPEAKER_00 40:10

Yeah. No, and that everyone does that. And so I learned very early on in my career to I had a really good mentor at my second company I work for out of school, and they were like document everything. Yeah. Um, so I unless it's like a junk mail or it's like a oh thanks for doing this email, I actually save all of my emails related to a project and then I go back through those for the year. I'll set like the the filter and put like that calendar year in and just make sure maybe I didn't put something in my planner or in my my gym now. Um like a communication. Got it. Um when I was client facing, I kept every single um email from a client that was like, Good job, kudos, like thanks for doing this. Nice. Um so I had that I mean if if it's not in writing, it didn't happen. Yeah, um so I make sure I I keep a very organized inbox as well.

Rachael 41:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:15

Um but so yeah, I was teaching my boomer coworkers how to do the gym so that this year, like next year when would they do their review, they can just have Gemini summarize everything they did for them. And um like we have f like core cop competencies that we have to we have like five of them. Yeah. And we have to like rank ourselves on how we did and um give examples of why we thought that. And I actually used Gemini for that as well. Nice. Um so what I did is I took um because HR comes out with like this is what you should be doing at this level for this competency, you know. So I took all of that information and I uploaded it into Gemini and then I entered everything I did for the year and it pulled out everything that was related to that competency and then based that on the different level and it like scored me.

Rachael 42:09

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:09

So that saved me a lot of time and it was more analytical than personal because I feel like some people um either underestimate themselves or overestimate themselves, and this just gave a more like this is what you did. Yeah, that makes sense. But then I just copy and pasted that into my like little online thing. So it actually saved me some time because it can be really confusing and kind of like I'll do like sometimes I might like a two and a half. I'm like a level between a level two and a level three, and you know, yeah, it'll tell me if like oh you should delete more towards the three because of this. Um but yeah, I mean my I work my as much as I'm like, oh my job's easy, you know, blah blah I still work my ass off. Um and I feel like and I've had good managers too, but I feel like if you uh show up every day, you d you do your work, you show initiative, you uh help others when they're like falling behind and stuff, your management's more likely to give you funds for continuous uh education and things like that. So usually when I go in and ask, um so I'm getting um a training for some software some statistics software that I want to use for our department. No, I can just go in there and be like, hey, I found this training, it costs this much, it takes me this long to do will you approve it or not? And my manager always has to go to our director because it's his technically his fund. Yeah. Um but they both know that like it's not gonna interfere with my my work. They know I'm gonna get everything they asked for done on time or as fast as I physically can, because sometimes I'm waiting on other departments to get my work done. Um, but I think having they're gonna be less inclined. Like if I showed up late all the time, I they were constantly bugging me that I was past due on documents and things like that, my work was sloppy, anything like that, they would be less likely to I'd almost say reward me with more training. And everyone's like, Well, why would you ask for more work? But if I can put these skills and certifications on my resume, yeah, one that helps me negotiate a set me. maybe a higher salary salary apparently you can't talk. Um you know maybe I do want to switch departments and that's gonna help me switch over. Or you know, there's all these these things that it can benefit me. Yeah. Even if I leave the I mean they're still willing to pay for this and I could leave the company. Yeah. You know, it's not a benefit the company. Exactly. So that's the It's a win-win. Yeah. Um so I really think just having a good a good relationship improving your return on investment for these certifications. Because some of them can be pretty expensive. Yeah. Um I know like the black belt and stuff several thousand dollars. Yeah. Um which doesn't sound like a lot when your company's making millions but if you've only got like 10 grand in the training budget for five people a couple grand is like your whole allotment.

Rachael 45:27

You could use Gemini though to create a presentation for you to say why I need to why you should select me for this black belt training.

SPEAKER_00 45:35

I'm pretty good at selling myself.

Rachael 45:38

I don't have that problem but that's a good idea for people to struggle with. Yeah. That was part of um in the project management certification they would do some clips saying like here's how you can use um you know Gemini to help you create slides, help you, you know, present yourself better which was really nice. So yeah. So overall um okay first and foremost if your employer will pay for training start there or or degrees think of it. Training degrees anything if you don't have to pay out of pocket for it very first strategy then you can go to like LinkedIn learning Coursera Udemy all those types of things see if you want to pay out of pocket for it if your employer won't pay out of pocket for it. But there are a lot of free resources so Gemini ChatGPT Claude all those they all start free like you can start searching and then if you search too much sometimes they make you want to pay for it or you just wait till the next yeah it gives you like 24 you know and there's different layers of it so there's like fast there's learning mode and then there's another mode so um just start with the fast you know the quickest and then you can be asking questions. But wherever you want to start if you're like I have no idea what AI is just go to one of these and just ask like what is it or even just Google it and ask what it is.

SPEAKER_00 46:58

So even Google now is using Gemini to like yeah because they'll summarize yeah just summarized you just gotta double check your courses but yeah for a quick answer it's nice that I don't have to go to all these different links and click and I'm like the summary is so nice. If I had had AI imagine when I was in college right imagine where I mean and I'm not saying I I mean I know how I was in college. I probably would have used it to write papers and things like that. But just the research side of things even in like high school would have gone I mean in grade school I was using encyclopedias like yeah the internet wasn't really developed in grade school. Yeah and now these kids can just ask their phone or tablet and there you go.

Rachael 47:45

Yes. Hey but that's where the critical thinking skills come in like you still have to you know round out the you know millennials are arguably the most rounded out generation.

SPEAKER_00 47:58

Yes. Like we have those old school critical thinking you know boots on the ground habits but we also know how to work technology too. Yeah we got to those personal skills and we have a good balance.

Rachael 48:13

So start researching AI understand how to create agents I think if you start to test out how to create your own agents and then use a tool to like combine agents and see how subagents can work together that would be a good skill to have and then research you know environmental impact while you're doing it with AI but use it to upskill yourself use it to go into your reviews um you know search how you can we can you can go into negotiations.

SPEAKER_00 48:44

If you have a Gmail account and like my work uses a go the Google platform for our email Gemini will even like tell you how to write a more professional email. Oh yeah it corrects me all the time. Yeah all those blue more concise yeah here's a more concise way to um so I mean you could even start small by just playing with it for your emails and things like that and then you could work your way up. It can be very overwhelming if you don't understand it or you know think it's scary. So start small slowly you know build your confidence with it.

Listener Feedback And Closing

Rachael 49:17

And um and we're obviously still learning so we'd love your feedback if you use a certain program or have found something that works really well let us know. Text us your thoughts your comments absolutely yeah anything like my life easier right exactly need to be more efficient. Okay everyone well thank you so much for listening good luck with your annual reviews this year. Get that bonus yep get that bonus let's go vacation time um so until next time stay bold stay empowered girl gang out