Turn AI Into a Career Advantage

Women Road Warriors

The episode explores how professionals can navigate the disruptive impact of Artificial Intelligence on the job market. Guest Michelle Perch

Key takeaways

• AI is effective at automating repetitive tasks but lacks capabilities in leadership, empathy, and relationship building.
• The '3 C's, 2 T's, and 1 L' equation for interviews: Collaboration, Creativity, Communication, Teamwork, Technology excellence, and Leadership.

Main topics

• AI and job security
• Transferable skills

Notable quotes

Employers hire because their 'hair is on fire.'

Conclusion

The episode serves as an empowering guide for professionals to leverag

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:01) This Speaker 2 (0:01) is Women Road Warriors with Shelly Johnson and Kathy Takaro from the corporate office to the cab of a truck. They're here to inspire and empower women in all professions. So gear down, sit back, and enjoy. Speaker 5 (0:23) Welcome. We're an award-winning show dedicated to empowering women in every profession through inspiring stories and expert insights. No topics off-limits on our show. We power women on the road to success with expert and celebrity interviews and information you need. I'm Shelley. And Speaker 4 (0:42) I'm Kathy. Speaker 5 (0:44) Is AI coming for your job? That's a question a lot of people are asking right now, and for good reason. The World Economic Forum reports that 40 % of employers expect to reduce staff in areas where AI can automate the work. That sounds pretty unsettling. But AI is also creating new opportunities for people who know how to use it, solve important problems, and bring something to the table that technology can't easily duplicate. No job's completely secure, but there are ways to make yourself much harder to replace. and perhaps even use this moment to move into something better. So how do you protect the job you have and position yourself for whatever comes next? Be invaluable. Michelle Perchuk says employers hire because their hair is on fire. They have a problem, and they need someone who can solve it. Michelle is a career acceleration strategist, negotiation coach, and talent acquisition expert. Speaker 4 (1:43) She's known as the career whisperer, the founder of Speaker 5 (1:47) MTV Coaching, and a member of the Forbes Coaches Council. She's been called the fairy godmother who makes career dreams come true, and for good reason. She sees her clients' potential before they do. With more than 18 years of experience working alongside HR executives and C-suite leaders at Fortune 1000 companies, she knows what makes decision makers say yes. Michelle's here to help us stand out, upskill strategically, and become as layoff-proof as possible in the age of AI. Michelle, welcome to Women Road Warriors. We're excited to have you. Speaker 3 (2:22) Thank you, ladies, for having me. Super excited to be here. Speaker 4 (2:25) Wow, that's quite the introduction. You're awesome. Thank you. You Speaker 5 (2:31) have certainly covered so much territory in your career. And I want our listeners to get to know you as well. I know no employee is literally layoff proof. When you talk about becoming layoff proof in the age of AI, what does it mean in practical terms? And how can you help people? I mean, you've got some tremendous insight here. Speaker 3 (2:52) Yes, yes. I absolutely love helping people and bringing my knowledge from the other side of the hiring table because that's where 70 % of my career took place. and now I'm working with the job seeker, individuals can really augment their career trajectory going forward at this point is through a variety of ways. Number one is adapting the right mindset. So AI is here to stay. I know a lot of people think that it has nefarious kind of, you know, outcomes and so forth, but Let's focus on thinking positively. AI in the business world is very effective in replacing repetitive tasks. So it allows an employee to be a lot more effective and better at what they're initially hired to do versus doing the repetitive tasks. So if you're an executive right now and you're worried that AI is coming to get your job, just think about... How can you be more adaptable? How can you run towards AI versus away from it? And like I've been coined, think about how to make AI your pal, that friend that you call that you want to brainstorm ideas with, but not exactly the friend that is going to tell you exactly what to do. Speaker 5 (4:18) Okay. I think a lot of people are afraid of AI. Speaker 3 (4:21) Well, it's understandable because they don't know it that well. And people fear. something that they don't know that well. People also fear change. It's like in my favorite book of all time, Who Moved My Cheese? People are afraid of change because it's comfortable to do what you know, and not many people want to get uncomfortable to work with ambiguity. It truly is the way that we're kind of wired. Now, how do we... Make ourselves indispensable. Speaker 5 (4:57) Because certainly if AI can replace people who cost money and AI is cheaper, how do we be the power and the value that the company still want? Speaker 3 (5:10) The way to do that is to figure out what things AI cannot do. AI cannot do leadership and AI cannot do transformation. AI cannot do relationship building. AI can do repetitive tasks, but it needs somebody to give it the prompt. So AI was really invented there to serve us. So something that was invented to serve us cannot keep us accountable. So let's say I program my AI to make me go to the gym. It will remind me. to go to the gym, but it actually will not come into my room and kick me out of bed. So that's the difference between being prompted to do something as a reminder versus keeping you accountable. Another human being can keep you accountable. Speaker 5 (6:05) That's true. What jobs? Not everybody wants to be a leader. Across the board, what jobs are definitely going to be needed? in the age of AI, because we know that some jobs are going to be eliminated. How do people find their place? I'm sure that we're kind of facing what we did with the Industrial Revolution. You know, you didn't need horses anymore. The blacksmith was not as important because we had cars. How do we transition? Because I think there are a lot of people who have no clue and they're really terrified. Speaker 3 (6:41) So you don't need to be a leader. to exhibit leadership skills. In every single profession, if you could figure out how to step up to the plate and make a difference, it could go from being an admin to being a hospital administrator to being a school teacher and the list goes on and on. How do you step up to the plate to make a difference? That's a leadership skill. You don't necessarily need to have MD or VP next to your title. Keep working on those skills that make you unique, that make you drive the human experience. Here's what's happening. The more prevalent AI becomes, the more value there will be placed on human relationships. So focus on your relationship building. Focus on listening skills. Focus on building your empathy and emotional intelligence. Those things will never be replaced by AI. Speaker 4 (7:43) Oh, I was going to say in reference to what you were just asking, Shelley, here in my world, the wonderful world of mining, five years ago, AI came in and 80 trucks, we now have 90 trucks that are robots. So that's 90 people that lost their jobs. Speaker 4 (8:06) We've been doing this for five years, and now they're starting to realize that in our particular kind of mining, AI doesn't necessarily work because it's not a rock mine. It's oil sand, so everything's getting stuck, and you need people to come in and get these robots unstuck, and you need people to come get these robots to move out of the way when they've broken down. And although they want to bring in... a lot of robots. Now they're talking about bringing in like dozers and other pieces of equipment that are autonomously run. Well, although people are terrified about losing their jobs, in the reality sense of it, you still need people to do it in my industry. And so now they're bringing in people back to drive the trucks to bring ore specifically because that's where the money is. So they're trying to balance it out. The fact remains that it's very terrifying about there is a lot of people that did lose their jobs. But I think in the bigger scope of things, like what you're saying about make yourself indispensable. Well, that's what I kind of did five years ago. I learned to operate other equipment that they can't make robots. Right. So regardless of even though they're bringing truckers like trucks autonomously, I'm operating different equipment that they'll they'll they'll never be able to. So I kind of made myself indispensable here at work. So I think what you're saying, Michelle, is basically the same thing. Whatever industry you're in, you need to find, look for what's going to make you stand out. Speaker 3 (9:41) Yes. And there's always a better version of your particular role. So AI is just the revolution that we're going through right now. We've gone through many, many revolutions. I mean, in my career alone, I remember where everybody was a QA tester or a computer programmer trying to reprogram all the computers in the Y2K. Like once Y2K came, all of those skills and all of those positions were really eliminated. So those people needed to transform. and use their transferable skills, which I would love to talk about, use their transferable skills to get into different roles. So change is inevitable. It's unfortunate that AI has such a negative image right now. Very few people have a positive image of AI. I guess movies like Matrix and, you know, all those futuristic movies make us afraid. Oh, yeah. But I don't think we should be afraid. I think that AI ultimately is here to help us because it's kind of going to force us to be kind of honest with ourselves. And that's an interesting way to look at that. Speaker 2 (11:01) Stay tuned for more of Women Road Speaker 1 (11:04) Warriors coming up. Speaker 1 (11:09) Dean Michael, the tax doctor here. I have one question for you. Do you want to stop worrying about the IRS? If the answer is yes, then look no further. I've been around for years. I've helped countless people across the country, and my success rate speaks for itself. So now you know where to find good, honest help with your tax problems. What are you waiting for? If you owe more than $10,000 to the IRS, or haven't filed in years, call me now at 888-557-4020 or go to mytaxhelpmd.com for a free consultation and get your life back. Speaker 2 (11:42) Welcome back to Women Road Warriors with Shelly Johnson and Kathy Takaro. Speaker 5 (11:51) If you're enjoying this informative episode of Women Road Warriors, I wanted to mention Kathy and I explore all kinds of topics that will power you on the road to success. We feature a lot of expert interviews. Plus, we feature celebrities and women who've been trailblazers. Please check out our podcast at womenroadwarriors.com and click on our episodes page. We're also available wherever you listen to podcasts on all the major podcast channels like Spotify, Apple, YouTube, Amazon Music. Audible, you name it. Check us out and bookmark our podcast. Also, don't forget to follow us on social media. We're on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, and other sites. And tell others about us. We want to help as many women as possible. We're talking with Michelle Perchuk about how to become more valuable and harder to replace in a workplace that's rapidly being transformed by AI. you need to find a better version of your role to stay competitive and develop transferable skills. Michelle spent more than two decades recruiting for Wall Street and Silicon Valley and has worked