WEBVTT - WHY COMPANIES ARE DROPPING THE COLLEGE REQUIREMENT w/ RUBEN HARRIS 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.640 I'm Will Lucas and black Tag Green Money. Did you 0:00:02.680 --> 0:00:05.840 know this podcast was nominated for an Double ACP Image Award? 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:08.360 But we are and I need your support. The double 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:10.880 a CP has opened up the opportunity for the public. 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:14.000 That means you to weigh in and vote on our category. 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:17.440 And the opportunity for you to vote ends this Friday, 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:20.000 So head over to vote dot Double ACP Image Awards 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:23.200 dot net. Scrolled to the Podcast and Outstanding News and 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:26.720 Information Podcast category and vote for black Tag Green Money. 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:29.320 It's not often that we see a podcast for us 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:33.240 by us which highlights the stories of black innovators, technologists, 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:37.239 venture capitalists and angel investors, scientists and engineers with this 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:39.560 big of a spotlight. So I'm asking for you to 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:41.199 take a moment out of your day and vote for 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:44.920 black Tag Green Money. Do it now. Voting closes this Friday. 0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:50.040 Every every employer is pretty much dropping the requirement to 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:53.480 have a college degree. This non profit organisations like one 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:55.920 ten a thing to constant of the audience, Shout out 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:58.080 to one ten all these fortunate for our hundred copies 0:00:58.080 --> 0:00:59.800 that dropping the dequirement that have a cost to gree 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:04.520 be because since the pandemic kid. One point four million 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:09.160 people haven't stopped going to college and that enroll those 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:12.080 enrollment numbers are dropping. And the reason why isn't because 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:15.839 college isn't important. What people are starting to shift towards 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:19.880 the outcomes driven education bottel and it's not just about 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:22.840 did you graduate to get a certificate? Did this education 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:25.720 get you a job? I'm Will Lucas and this is 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:32.920 Black Tech, Green Money, afro Techo Austin, Texas, our very 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:35.320 young Tearran pod rails on the main stage at afro 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:38.080 Tech talking with Ruben Harris, who's co founder and CEO 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:42.200 at Career Karma, and Sydney Sampson black Well, an engineer 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:44.800 who came through the Career Karma programming about how to 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:47.840 better prepare ourselves for the changing demands of the workforce. 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:52.240 Career Karma is technology what helps match students with educational 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:55.520 opportunities like boot kids, so we're better prepared for product 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:59.840 and technical careers. Let's listen to the discussion. Hi, everybody, 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:03.960 I'm Taran Powdrew. I am the director of People Operations 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:06.600 for Blevity, and I'm really excited to be here with 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:10.000 Ruben and Sydney today to talk about rescaling and breaking 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:12.600 into tech. UM. So we have a lot to cover. 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:15.799 We're gonna jump right in. UM. So, Ruben, can you 0:02:15.840 --> 0:02:18.720 start with just giving us the backstory on a career 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:20.959 karma for those that don't know what is career karma 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:23.480 and how did it come to be? Yeah, So career 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:27.280 Comma gives product led career guidance for people or for 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:33.640 workers that are seeking skills, peers, colleges, mentorships, job opportunities, 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:37.440 but even ongoing career training after they're employed. UM. It's 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:38.960 a product that we wish that we had when we 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:41.480 were breaking in the tech when we realized that you 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:45.799 can get jobs that pay six figures without going into college. UM, 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:50.600 that was pretty interesting to me. Before career karma, UM, 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:53.160 everybody wanted to break into finance. So there's things like 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:56.400 breaking into Wall Street, UM, merging and inquisitions and we 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:59.880 started a podcast called Breaking into Startups UM. And and 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:01.440 that's how it all starts. The product that we wish 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:04.959 that we had when we recommence set All right, UM, 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:08.400 and Sydney, I know that you actually utilized career karma 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:11.560 to break in attack yourself. Can you tell us about 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:15.680 your backstory and what led you to a career Karma perfect. 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:23.280 Hello everyone, So I'm sitting me from East Stokland, California. Uh, 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:25.880 I have had a long life. Um, I feel like 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:27.480 my life is long. I feel like I'm an o 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:30.919 G already. I'm only twenty four. I've been taking care 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:34.440 of myself since I was sixteen. So the last eight 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:38.520 years have been some of the longest, most hardest, and 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:43.440 challenging times of my life. But now so um yeah, 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:47.160 So I think back in twenty nineteen is when I 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:51.120 fell upon career Karma and I met Reuben. And up 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:56.440 until I found career Karma, I was outside during door 0:03:56.560 --> 0:04:04.560 dash delivering for Postmates, delivering for Instacart, caviar Um, every 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:07.120 single app that you can think about to make money 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:10.240 in the Bay Area. I was doing it and I 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:13.560 needed to figure out, you know, how can I use 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:18.479 my skill set, my entrepreneur mindset to you know, get 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:21.080 to a point where I don't have to work all 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:24.440 the time. I could smile. You know, I can wake 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:27.320 up happy about going to my job, and I can 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:31.080 do things that not only motivate me, but motivate other people. 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:34.359 So right, I think the day when I found a 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:37.719 career Karma app, I was actually working as a SNA. 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:41.920 So I went from delivering, you know, delivering food and 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:45.719 to working in the hospital as a SIENNA and I 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:48.880 was just like, this is not it. I'm not happy here. 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:51.640 I got so much more to offer to the world 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:54.640 and I just wanted to figure it out. My friends 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:57.839 sent me the Career Karma app. I downloaded it and 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:08.880 I've been with grouping never since. All Right, so I 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:12.159 know that squads are a core component of what Career 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:14.360 Karma offers. Can you tell us about squads? What are 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:17.240 squads and why are they important? Yeah? So there's there's 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:19.640 a few things that are important in career KMMA. So 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:23.360 when someone like Sydney comes to Career Comma there they're 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:26.280 looking for new skills. And the problem is that there's 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:29.640 thousands of job training programs that exist. So the first 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:32.520 thing that we provide is matching, UM to talk about 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:34.640 it in the second so as we match you too 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:39.400 a program. UM that can be very overwhelming because UM, 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:41.920 as you're trying to go through interviews, it's hard to 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:44.920 know you know what to ask in the interview. UM, 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:46.880 it's hard to know who else in your neighborhood and 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:49.600 in East Oakland, UM is actually going through this process 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:52.920 as well. So rather than putting you into this huge 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:56.120 network of thousands of people and the app, we actually 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:58.440 focus on small groups. So the short answer is a 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:01.200 squad is a small group. We actually connected the peers, 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:05.560 coaches and mentors and and live audio rooms. Um. And 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:07.760 so what the squad is essentially is a peer group 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:10.240 of people that are enrolled in job training programs that 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:14.839 help you stay psychologically motivated while you're enrolled going through 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:18.600 a program. And Sydney actually created one of the first 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:22.880 squads in Career Karma so that um, after they graduate, 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:25.640 they could also find jobs since most jobs are offline 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:28.159 and come to a frall. So this peer group stays 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:31.560 with you during the program and then also when you're 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:33.840 looking for a job, they let you know about opportunities 0:06:33.880 --> 0:06:37.839 that are not websites. Okay, and what would you say 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:40.600 are some of the core skills that you would look 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:42.800 for in a squad mentor like what makes the squad 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:47.719 mentor impactful? Yeah, so there's a UM. The squad concept 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:50.880 also was inspired by uh this concept called the mobile. 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:52.960 So it's a really good article in New York Times 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:56.840 called the Power of Positive People, and so UM it's 0:06:56.880 --> 0:07:00.520 about Okinawa, Japan, and it's where women live, the oldest 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:03.200 in the world. And the idea is it's easier to 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:05.840 go through life if you have a safety net. So 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:10.200 as a squad leader, you're someone that essentially is going 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:11.960 to make sure that you hold it down for your 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:14.280 people no matter what if they have a question that 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:16.760 if they're they're seeking guidance, you're gonna look out for them. 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:18.200 And in order to do that, you have to be 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:21.760 a very good communicator. If you're having a hard day, 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:23.600 you still have to be able to put a smile 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:26.040 on your face to make sure that they stay motivated 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:27.920 as well. Um, you have to make sure they're not 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:31.360 just connected to educational resources, to financial resources. You might 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:36.640 have to help them find housing or financial um innovative 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:39.600 things like that. So those are some of the key elements. Okay, 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:42.520 so that's a good segue. Sydney. Can you tell us 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:46.200 about your experience forming the squad that you formed and 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:49.840 how that impacted your experience? Perfect? So, as I mentioned, 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:52.680 I started in Career Karma. I think it was maya, 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:56.080 twent nineteen, So I remember the first day I downloaded 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:59.480 the app. There's so much going on I'm hearing all 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:02.360 these topics stuff that I don't know, you know, what 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:05.560 is going on? What is this? What is HTML right? 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:08.640 What is JavaScript? Um? Like? What is all of these things? 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:11.520 And it didn't make sense to me. So Ruben had 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:14.040 this thing where, you know, we can all go to 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:17.040 a live zoom call. We could connect with other people 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:20.600 all around the world who were also interested in the 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:24.800 same thing. We connected, shared our stories and I was like, 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:27.520 all right, boom, I got my squad. I'm gonna call 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:32.520 my squad young and Ambitious, because we're all young and ambitious, striving, 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:35.160 you know, to change the world. And I think one 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:37.480 of my first members is in the audience somewhere, miss 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:42.959 Danielle Madri who uh but yeah. We formed this group 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:46.200 together back in twenty nineteen, and I think as of 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:49.640 right now we're hitting about we're a little over thirty 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:53.640 jobs right now that we have landed across our squad um. 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:56.960 Not only do we help folks get jobs, we help 0:08:57.040 --> 0:09:01.079 folks level up at their current job. We help folks 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:06.360 pass their interviews, We do resume reviews, we do open 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:09.480 source projects. Everything you can think of to level up, 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:12.079 break into the industry, or get to the next level. 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:14.240 My squad is doing it right now and we've been 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:16.360 doing it for the last three years. I mean, name 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:18.280 some of the companies where people got jobs and what 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:21.800 roles they had, so Boom Mamatic Centure. UM. I think 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:24.640 the first job Danielle had she was at get Lab. 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:28.240 My sister Lanie was at New Cella. UM. I got 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:31.199 two people that got hired at Lows. UM, I got 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:34.760 another guy, a couple of people that was at Twitter. UM. 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:37.360 We we just be all over the place right and 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:39.400 when people see why and they walk in the room, 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:41.000 they know who we are and they know what we're 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:45.880 standing for. That's amazing. UM. So, Sydney, can you talk 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:49.240 to us about how having this squad impacted your experience 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:52.240 as you went through boot camp? Like I said, the 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:55.080 boot camp was very hard, and it was like if 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:58.200 I didn't have my family to me, I don't know 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:00.000 how I would have made it. Like there were many 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:03.400 nights where a lot of us were trying to pass 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:07.400 projects or trying to pass lads. We didn't know what 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:09.640 to do or we would get into, you know, come 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:13.319 into a roadblock. And I had some of my Wayne 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:16.720 folks that would be online all night. So it'd be 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:20.400 like twelve midnight and I'm posting the Slack channel. Yo, 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:24.079 I ran into an issue. This project is due tomorrow. 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:26.400 Who can come online right now and help me out? 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:29.040 And I know that there's been several people that we 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:32.800 didn't stayed up all night working through errors together, working 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:38.200 through bugs together, and now like exactly exactly we cried. 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:40.959 Some of us wanted to give up. Um. I remember 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:43.200 during the boot camp. I think in the beginning we 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:48.240 were all like, we can't do this, this is too much. Yeah, 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:50.680 and Ruben was like, y'all started this for a reason, 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:53.320 Like y'all got your family, Like y'all not doing it 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:55.880 by yourself. So if you have a friend, you have 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:59.200 a community, it makes it a little bit easier when 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:01.640 you run into those bugs because you've got somebody to 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:06.920 lend on. Yeah, okay, And were there any particular skills 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:10.119 that you felt like translated well from your prior experience 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:14.760 into the text base that was okay? Yeah. So I 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:18.920 think one of the main things that help me get 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:21.000 to where I am now is that I've always been 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:24.120 an entrepreneur. I've been an entrepreneur since high school. I 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:27.480 started building businesses in high school. I think the very 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:31.040 first business I built was a cleaning company. And I 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:34.880 was sixteen and seventeen cleaning houses for software engineers and 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:38.080 data scientists in San Francisco, and I was just like, Okay, 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:40.720 I have all of these skills. I know how to 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:44.480 run a company. I know how to you know, manage people, 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:47.240 I know how to manage teams. Now I need to 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:50.320 bridge all of those things into what I'm doing right 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:53.760 now in technology. Quick question, did everybody that get those jobs? 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:56.640 Did they all go to college? Nope. I didn't go 0:11:56.679 --> 0:11:59.040 to college either. I think I I was in the 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:02.440 middle of my college degree when I found you, and 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:05.959 I started becoming a career coach at Career Karma and 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:09.880 realized that people that are not saying that college is 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:11.439 a bad thing. I'm not gonna tell you all that 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:14.760 because I want everybody to get educated. I want everybody 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:17.960 to do what's for them right. But for me, it 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:20.679 was a lot going on. I was working three jobs 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:23.480 and trying to go to school, where when I found 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:26.000 a boot camp, they're like, Okay, you can do part time. 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:28.120 You can still keep your jobs. We are asking you 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:30.160 for no money. You don't got to pay no tuition. 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:32.480 We want you to learn these skills and get a job, 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:34.160 and when you get a job, then you can start 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:38.960 paying us back. Sign me yet. Yeah, that's a great 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:40.960 pivot point because I want to talk a little bit 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:43.000 about what's going on, you know, kind of more at 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:45.400 the macro level. Um. So there have been a lot 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:48.640 of shifts in the post secondary education market, particularly in 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:50.560 the last couple of years. UM, can you talk to 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:52.520 us about that, Reuben, what's going on in the post 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:55.880 secondary education market? Yeah? I mean you you've heard sudainly 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:58.520 talked about bootcasts multiple times, and like she said, it's 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:02.360 not just about bootcapts first colleges. Um. There's a really 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:06.160 good article called the post secondary education market is Unbundling. 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:10.200 So there's there's Bootcaster, there's colleges. There's corporate led courses 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:14.120 like Google Certificates. There's non degree courses like e Cornell. 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:19.239 There's massive open online courses like Cours Sera UM. But everyone, 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:22.880 every employer is pretty much dropping the requirement to have 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:26.640 a college degree. There's nonprofit organizations like one ten. I 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:29.040 think to contests in the audience out out to one ten. 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:31.800 All these fortunate companies are dropping the requirement to have 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:36.319 a cost degree because since the pandemic hit one point 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:41.600 four million people have stopped going to college and that enrolled. 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:44.160 Those enrollment numbers are dropping. And the reason why it 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:47.840 isn't because college isn't important, but people are starting to 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:52.040 shift towards the outcomes driven education model and it's not 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:54.600 just about did you graduate and get a certificate? Did 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:58.280 this education get to a job. Sidney has been talking 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:02.880 a lot about Bootcasts. Book has pioneered short form outcomes 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:09.120 driven education that is relevant for today's students. Most students 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:13.600 aren't eighteen year olds. There thirty five plus with kids 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:16.199 that can't go to schools full time. So even if 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:20.560 you make education free, you actually can go to school. 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:23.080 So you need part time and self pace options. But 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:26.880 most schools aren't free, and so there's a lot of 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:30.240 innovation happening with how you pay for education. So Sydney 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:32.240 was able to take advantage of something called an income 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:35.880 share agreement. There's things like their tuition, but these days 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:38.720 there's now employers that are paying for your college and 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:40.800 on the job training and starting to be a big deal. 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:45.680 So long story short, um, the education system will continue unbundling. 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:47.760 It won't just be every day that I mentioned. There 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:52.840 will be individuals training people, um, launching their own courses. Um, 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:55.880 there's organizations like reforge and on date that exists. Why 0:14:56.000 --> 0:15:02.200 Combinator is an education institution, so UM that optionality, those 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:05.880 stacks of course are going to also create more difficulties 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:07.760 in choosing where you want to go to school, which 0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:11.080 is this process by analysis, which is why matching to 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:15.000 the right education matters, and why one education system won't 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:17.720 train the entire world, and why you need some some 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:21.840 some kind of directory. Yeah, so there's a lot of 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:25.040 opportunity then for people who are seeking a post secondary education. 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:29.120 How should people be strategically thinking about how they invest 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:32.800 in their education? I mean, I think it's really important 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:34.920 to understand, like why are you signing up for education? 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:38.040 I think most people that are going to school And 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:41.600 some people will disagree with me on this, and that's okay, Um, 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:44.680 is you're going to school to get a job in 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:48.920 more money. Um. And for a lot of people, even 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:51.880 after they graduate, whatever they studied and they're actually not 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:56.320 using it in their employment. And so if I were 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:58.080 you and you're trying to figure out where you want 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:00.840 to go to school, I would ask them how many 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:04.720 people have gotten jobs in the role that you want. Um, 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:08.640 do they have an online or part time self pace options. 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:12.840 This is really important because some people will say online 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:17.560 education isn't for me. But after the pandemic hit, the 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:22.200 remote work genie came out of the bottle. I mean, 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:24.960 people are here at Avro Tech, so shout out to 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:27.560 Afro Tech. But for the last two years this was 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:31.480 all in the metaverse, right, That's what helped it survive. 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:36.040 But now employers have to provide either fully remote work 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:40.080 options or hybrid remote work options. So you actually don't 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:43.240 have a choice but to learn how to work with 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:45.880 other people online. So if that's going to be the 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:49.120 case and people are always going to be learning, then 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:52.160 you should probably find to learn. You should probably learn 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:54.480 how to learn online because at some point in your 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:57.520 life you're going to be educated in that way. In 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:02.160 my opinion. UM. Third, it's important to find a cohort 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:04.320 of people that are like you, that are going through 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:07.760 this as well, because you're not always going to be 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:10.320 able to cry on the shoulder of your teachers, like 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:12.440 you'll be able to ask your teachers questions, but also 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:16.639 your teachers might have limited amounts of time and especially 0:17:16.680 --> 0:17:19.400 as the world, because of world global because of remote work, 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:21.280 you're not going to have that peer group of people 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:22.879 that are going to help you along the way. And 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:27.639 then finally you have to decide that you really want this, 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:30.679 because I promise you, if you're trying to do anything 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:33.280 that's hard, you're gonna feel like quitting and you're gonna 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:36.560 have to psychologically put yourself to go through this. Career 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:41.480 navigation isn't about education. Career navigations about psychology. So you 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:46.560 have to decide first today. All right, well, Sydney, can 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:49.000 you tell us about some of the factors that you 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:53.520 considered when you were weighing your options around post secondary education. Definitely, 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:56.960 to me, it was all about my future, um, And 0:17:57.040 --> 0:18:00.400 it was like, I can either keep doing what I'm 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:04.160 doing now, keep stressing, keep working hard, keep working two 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:08.520 to three jobs, or I can imagine life ten years 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:11.840 from now. Imagine you know, the house I want, the 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:15.240 family I want to build, Um, Imagine just getting up, 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:18.200 going to go clock in to work, you know, having 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:20.919 stand ups, then going out for lunch, being able to 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:25.159 run Like we don't get those things in these you know, 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:29.040 regular jobs, these regular nine to five working labor jobs. 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:32.119 You don't get these luxuries right, Like, so the fact 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:36.520 that tech it gives you that opportunity, like to do 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:39.000 things that you've never been able to do before for 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:42.119 your family. Like right now, I finally got a house. 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:45.200 I never had a house growing up. You know, like 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:49.000 it feels so good. It feels so good that when 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:52.040 I get paid, I can pay my bills and I 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:54.760 don't have to worry about Okay, let me pay this bill, 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:57.159 or let me eat top Romen for the night. You know, 0:18:57.200 --> 0:18:59.600 I don't gotta worry about those things because tech put 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:01.920 everything in a place for me. So you gotta think 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:04.800 about yourself. You gotta think about what you want. You 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:07.520 gotta think about your life ten years from now, twenty 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:10.320 years from now, thirty years from now, forty years from now, 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:12.960 Like you got to think about that, what do you want? 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:14.920 Who do you want people to look at you as? 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:17.359 What do you want people to look at you? You 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:19.879 know when you walk in the room, Like all of 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:22.440 that matters. And to me, like I said, I wanted 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:24.680 to live luxury, so baby, I had to go get 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:29.960 it all right, Uh, Ruben, can you talk to us 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:32.360 about the role that employers play. How do they fit 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:36.360 into the post secondary education ecosystem. Yeah, I mean, I'll 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:39.200 take a step back and talk about the segment employers. 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:43.439 So before I mentioned a career common house, job training programs, 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:46.600 find qualified applicanst we have about two and a half 0:19:46.680 --> 0:19:49.040 million people a month that come to us looking for 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:53.720 career advice, mostly women and people of color. And UM, 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:58.240 what's interesting about this whole phenomenon now is that employers 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:04.800 themselves wanted take an active role in people's education. UM. 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:09.040 Sydney talked a lot about, um, the luxuries that education provides. 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:12.840 And there's a lot of fear in the market right now, 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:17.080 a lot of layoffs, there's there's a recession that's coming. Um. 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:19.680 But what a lot of people forget is that benefits 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:24.440 were introduced during the depression, during the the Roosevelt era 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:28.280 to compete in the market. And so there's health care benefits, 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:32.600 there's for one, key benefits, but there's also education benefits. 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:37.920 Now pretty much any employer can actually pay for your education. 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:40.240 You know, the g I Bill which is available for 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:43.160 veterans to pay for your education existed. So there's things 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:45.320 like I says in the first tuition. But I know 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:48.120 where Sydney works and at a lot of employers they 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:51.199 will actually pay for your education. So there's actually a 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:54.479 whole movement of people that are just going straight into 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:58.200 education and the employer will either pay for your skills 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:02.680 training or your college action. There's a whole big phenomenon 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:07.920 called UM stackable credentials. So sometimes you can choose to 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:10.080 do a boot camp and get college credit, and if 0:21:10.080 --> 0:21:13.159 you want to advanced to do college, you can. And 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:17.040 so now Career Common started to work with employers UM 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:21.520 providing product led career guidance for employees that want to 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:25.240 continue up leveling their careers UM and and figure out 0:21:25.240 --> 0:21:27.960 how to get all these points solutions that they've invested 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:30.159 in to talk to each other and really manage that 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:33.560 experience and to end And why do you think that 0:21:33.680 --> 0:21:36.040 employers are kind of moving in this direction of like 0:21:36.160 --> 0:21:39.639 pivoting away from kind of the more traditional educational benefits 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:42.760 and going more in this direction. Here's here's a cool 0:21:42.760 --> 0:21:46.320 step that I just learned. So fifty of babies born 0:21:46.320 --> 0:21:49.240 in the last decade are going to live until a 0:21:49.320 --> 0:21:52.760 hundred and four. Fifty percent of the babies in the 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:54.760 last decade are going to live until a hundred four. 0:21:54.960 --> 0:21:56.639 What does that mean is that means that we're gonna 0:21:56.640 --> 0:22:01.399 switch from a three stage career where you go to 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:06.800 uh school, work and retire to you know, fifty age 0:22:06.800 --> 0:22:09.480 fifty being the new thirty, right, so you're gonna actually 0:22:09.520 --> 0:22:12.320 be working longer, so you're gonna go to multiple schools 0:22:12.320 --> 0:22:15.600