FutureProof You

FPU Ep 2 #podcast
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dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: [00:00:00] To another episode of Future Proof U's podcast, F Yourself. We here at Future Proof U are passionate about teaching sustainable career skills that you can use over and over again throughout your work life. I'd like to reintroduce our founding team. My name is Dan Yu. After a long career in financial services and fintech, I made a pivot to recruiting 10 years ago.

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: And one of my dreams has always been to spread the word about career search and job

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: search. John, why don't you introduce yourself?

john-lovig_1_01-29-2025_121427: Yeah. My name is John

john-lovig_1_01-29-2025_121427: Lovig. I have been in the recruiting world, both in house and agency side for 15 years, specializing in digital and tech talent. I'm super passionaTe about demystifying the recruitment process and helping people find

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: Excellent. I'll pass it over to

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: Aaron.

aaron-makelky_1_01-29-2025_101427: Thanks guys. I'm Aaron McKelkey. I'm a career educator, teacher, and leader. I continue to [00:01:00] teach in the classroom, but a year ago I started teaching outside the classroom and have been in the content creation and. AI integration spaces for the past year, which has been a great adventure and something that we teach here at Future Proof U.

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: All right. 2024 was a great year for us where we had a whole slew of classes and we taught a few dozen students and 2025 is looking even better. So today, we're going to highlight our next round of classes coming up right around the corner in February. Which will be focused on helping you hit the ground running on making a career change and hopefully for the better.

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: So briefly, we've got four classes in February. John, could you detail

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: the four classes? Just quickly go over them.

john-lovig_1_01-29-2025_121427: Yeah. So these four classes?

john-lovig_1_01-29-2025_121427: make up

john-lovig_1_01-29-2025_121427: what we call our job search masterclass, for the month of Feb. our first class comes up February 7th next week, and that [00:02:00] is, the LinkedIn quick start guide. This is all you need to know to get, a LinkedIn profile up and running for you to start to be successful. and hopefully draw more attention to your profile. on February 13th, we're teaching personal brand and networking basics. so how to continue to elevate yourself as a personal brand, as well as how to start to introduce yourself to people, whether it's online or in person, February 21st is all about networking at scale through the lens of content. So how can you use content, to really draw people into you and start to really network with you? and last but not least is February 27th, which is Ace the Interview. it's a session around how best practices with interviewing, storytelling, and really articulating the points and impact that you've had throughout your career.

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: Great. And, the audience, please visit our website, futureproof you. com, to find about more information and how to sign up for [00:03:00] classes. And Aaron, I got a question for you. you're our resident AI expert, but you've actually taken, the whole slate of our classes, along with a Of course, other students.

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: what did you get out

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: of the classes?

aaron-makelky_1_01-29-2025_101427: Yeah, quite a bit, Dan. I have always been in the same exact job in the same field for 15 years. And something I hear all the time out of teachers in the classroom is, how do I get out or what else could I do? I've only ever taught English or elementary or music. And learning from you guys, how the recruitment process works. In education, most of us don't even have a LinkedIn, and you're a real weirdo if you post on it all the time like I do since I've taken your classes. inverse, though, is true. Because so few people do it, it's so easy to stand out and improve because the mean is terrible. It doesn't exist. and we realized, [00:04:00] resumes and cover letters are Not as important as we thought, because how many job applications do we see these days that ask for a LinkedIn profile? 99 percent of them do. And how we, how Future Proof U has taught, that's like your resume and other things, and it's publicly facing. Everybody can see it. In fact, you want them to see it. What I've done is just try to take those things to heart and, I've turned into a content creator. I've turned into a networker.

aaron-makelky_1_01-29-2025_101427: I've. The conference I went to after the networking course that Dan and John taught, my colleagues with me were like, what are you doing? You didn't go to all the sessions. And I told them I was in the vendor hall schmoozing the vendors while no one was there. And they're like, why would you do that? now I know that guy and I can get an internal referral at his firm, or he actually. Connected me with a future gig. And he's Hey, this Aaron guy's really good. You should have him help with the project. It was solely because I schmoozed them and traded stickers [00:05:00] at the vendor exhibit of the conference. It's one of those things, what we teach is thought provoking, but if it's action provoking for you and you go do it, it will completely change your life.

aaron-makelky_1_01-29-2025_101427: You just have to put in the work.

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: So glad that you were able to operationalize, right? Really put into action exactly what you learned right after learning that in class. So that's awesome. And we'll get back to chatting about our classes in a couple minutes, but I'd love to give the audience some context on what we see going on right now.

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: So with all the changes in multiple industries,AI is on the, is on the top of the news every day. it's changing how work is being done, automating many rules based tasks. and then, also, many companies are changing their policies, from remote to hybrid to return to office.

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: And then now the, obviously there's a big push to eliminate or reduce the, the amount of, effort going into DEI. [00:06:00] And so John and I, being professional recruiters, we've seen many people, Many people, John? They start to look around for new roles. That, all of these new things that are happening.

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: It's also the new year, right? people are trying to, think, new year, new me type of thing. But they're trying to get ahead of the game. And Aaron, I'd love to ask you. what have you seen in the world of AI, just in the, in the past

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: couple of years and how it's changed people's lives?

aaron-makelky_1_01-29-2025_101427: Yeah, I'd say this, it has a really low barrier to entry right now because no one is going to be the expert in something that hasn't existed publicly for, really just two years. And my background, I'm not a coder, programmer, developer. I'm just a teacher. And what I see is the bleeding edge is light years ahead of the mean.

aaron-makelky_1_01-29-2025_101427: The average marketer, teacher, business person, entrepreneur. And there's a space for people who can connect those two [00:07:00] groups. I think of myself as a conduit. I'm not the bleeding edge, but I'm a little bit ahead of the mean and I can help those two groups close the gap. And what I've seen is people become the AI lady in your office, at your firm, at your school, even in your state. People say oh, I see your stuff on Instagram all the time. You're the AI guy that I see, because I combine the content with the AI. But it's a good example of you don't have to be an expert. I don't have a degree in that stuff. I can just translate what the nerds say to the lay people, fairly effectively, but I would say this, our kids, I have a two year old daughter.

aaron-makelky_1_01-29-2025_101427: They're going to be the first generation that grow up around robotics. They're going to have AI based teachers and tutors. The people getting into the business world right now are no longer going to have just a team of human employees. AI agents are here. And that [00:08:00] trend that we saw to virtual assistants, the same thing is happening where people are shifting that type of work, data entry, scheduling, replying to emails, booking sessions to AI agents. And now we basically have robots doing things alongside of us for the first time in history.

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: And you mentioned the low barrier to entry, right? just this week, right? Deep Seek being the big splash, coming out of China. Being the top downloaded app on on the app store, Being, that type of,watershed moment, Where, now it's still to be determined on how much compute power they actually used.

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: But everyone should look up, the stories around deep seek and, what people are speculating about it. and they've proven. That, using this open source type of philosophy, may not take the billions of dollars of chips and developmental talent, to [00:09:00] compete right in the world of AI, which then brings us to the job world, right?

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: The, the job market, John, what,

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: what do you think this means for people's careers?

john-lovig_1_01-29-2025_121427: Yeah. ultimately it starts with, What's this mean for funding? if it's not taking billions and billions of dollars and huge data farms that also have a huge environmental impact that has trickled down on careers with tech companies, but it also does with energy companies because if we don't need to build more, ways of getting energy, we don't need to hire in that area.

john-lovig_1_01-29-2025_121427: So in a way it Probably will negatively impact our job market here. But again, with all negatives, there's also positives because, because of that, it may enable more entrepreneurs here, right? Because if DeepSeek is truly as. efficient and as cost effective as it is, they will be able to enable more people to scale things than before.

john-lovig_1_01-29-2025_121427: Before the barrier to entry was you need to get VC funding for [00:10:00] billions and billions of dollars. So now DeepSeek can enable more AI innovation, within, other companies. I think the other thing too, is what you're still seeing with other companies. Are we creating an open source model that can be used to tailor to anything or do we want something bespoke?

john-lovig_1_01-29-2025_121427: Do we want our own proprietary model? and so you'll still see some funding, but now it's it's going to be interesting to see if some of those companies that were vesting in proprietary models, if they scale their efforts back because of what's happening with DeepSeek.

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: Absolutely. Totally agree, John. let's move on from AI to some of the policy changes that are going on. RTO, right? Return to office. John, what have you seen,in, the job

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: market, right? Do you think that people are moving?

john-lovig_1_01-29-2025_121427: it's so first and foremost, return to

john-lovig_1_01-29-2025_121427: office is starting to become more Even more common. and certainly the new administration has set the tone with government employees having to return to office five [00:11:00] days a week. I'm seeing more and more postings with five days a week in office. it's a power move by companies today.

john-lovig_1_01-29-2025_121427: it's no longer a candidate's job market. It is the company's job market and they're using it as a negotiation point.if you want to go for a high salary, you're coming in for five days a week. If you want a little bit of a cut on there, maybe we can give you some hybrid days. and I think it will cause some people to start to leave, companies, but I also think quite frankly, people are going to have to start to figure out. Is this happening? Is this a trend that is just going to continue to go back to where status quo was before? I don't think we'll ever be five days fully in office for everybody, but I do think, return to office is going to look closer to what it was, before the pandemic then after.

aaron-makelky_1_01-29-2025_101427: about with the federal employees that have that [00:12:00] option?

aaron-makelky_1_01-29-2025_101427: you can get the eight months severance. What do you think is going to happen with those?

john-lovig_1_01-29-2025_121427: It's going to be interesting because think about it this way. The transition from federal to state, To somewhere else is going to be can be tough, right? There's a lot of roles within the bureaucracy of our government that don't apply to anything else. And you're,okay, maybe I'll go to state government. State governments have been doing this too. So it's not like it's purely on federal. for the return to office, it's a lot of people, 2 million. I question if this is like an attempt at a silent layoff, which I'm sure it is just a lot of companies do, in order to reduce the size of government. I don't know. I don't know what people can do because eight months sounds really good, but there's plenty of people who will be on the market for more than eight months. And, unless they have some other nest egg or they're. Their partner is earning enough for the whole family. They might want to, at the very least, wait, [00:13:00] go into office and look for a new job while you still have a job because eight months can go by really quickly.

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: this goes right into, using tech, right? To potentially bolster your job or even your job search. Absolutely. That,AI is, obviously becoming ubiquitous, but ultimately it's still part of being a human and interacting with other humans. And that you guys, know me to say that,EQ over IQ, right?

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: You got to have the EQ. But yeah, Aaron, I'd love to hear, your thoughts around, how,should people be more ruthless with the technology that

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: they're using?

aaron-makelky_1_01-29-2025_101427: I think we're still in the experimentation phase. A lot of people don't know how to apply this stuff. We see these benchmarks and these grandiose declarations of this is the new best thing and it's PhD level math and the average companies going, so what? What does that do for me on a Tuesday with [00:14:00] my marketing firm? the people who really will bring value are the ones that know how to integrate it, not the ones that are necessarily making the newest thing. Because 99. 9 percent of the market goes, I don't even know what that means, let alone. Oh, I can fire all my humans and put DeepSeek on a server and it does their job.

aaron-makelky_1_01-29-2025_101427: we still have to figure out how to apply this stuff like any technology. But I do think this, let's look back at the two thousands. how many businesses and entrepreneurs scoffed at websites and the internet, and there were laggards. And sometimes you can carve out a little niche for yourself, but history tells us this as the resident historian.

aaron-makelky_1_01-29-2025_101427: Okay. I should have built a website. I should have learned those tools then. Okay. let's not repeat that mistake. And we can be critical of AI and we can be cautious and consider the ethical use of it. But if you are ignoring it, you're going to be very easily replaceable.

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: [00:15:00] Which is the perfect, segue to, let everybody know that, in March, Future Proof U will be talking about and teaching our AI classes. stay tuned for more information on that. just right ahead of us starting next week, John, we've got these four classes, right? So February 7th.

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: Right. LinkedIn quickstart guide, February 13th, personal branding and networking basics, February 21, the, networking at scale with content and February 27. it's, ace the interview. And everybody should know, a little bit about

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: the when and the how. So if you go over that,

john-lovig_1_01-29-2025_121427: Yeah. sorry, I got distracted. I should have put us on, on, I should have put it on do not disturb because I just got a client meeting invite. what was the ask again? Hang on, let me, thank you. Descript

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: [00:16:00] the,with all of these classes that are coming out, what's the,the details, logistics, the when and the how.

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: each of our sessions are going to be, at lunchtime Eastern time. So during your lunch break, grab a sandwich, join our session. Although maybe not want to be munching a sandwich during, during our conversations, but,the first one, February 7th is on a Friday.

john-lovig_1_01-29-2025_121427: So LinkedIn quickstart guides on a Friday.personal branding and networking basics will be on a Thursday just to try and change things up for people. If you can't attend one of the sessions, but you absolutely want to, we will have it available afterwards for purchase, or you can, if you decided to sign up and can't attend, you'll get the download after. but then, same thing,February 21st is networking at scale.on Friday. Yeah. With content. and finally, Ace the interview, which is on Thursday, the 27th

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: Alright, everyone can go to futureproof u for more information and signing up. class size will be [00:17:00] limited. of course all of the classes will be recorded, but the best part about it is that you'll get a lot of attention in the classes from John, myself, and Aaron. we'll be able to go over your profile, your,what you've done as, as far as your personal brand, are you using content?

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: And also, at the end with. The interview process and how to really crush it in your interviews.as John said, all students will be able to get the recordings and the notes. I will suggest that you attend the live classes. I really do believe that the magic happens in live classes because you'll get instant feedback.

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: and Aaron, you,you were part of the classes. I think you got a lot out of them, which is great.

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: Any other final comments, Aaron?

aaron-makelky_1_01-29-2025_101427: And don't forget that this

aaron-makelky_1_01-29-2025_101427: is also

aaron-makelky_1_01-29-2025_101427: part of your networking is you get to meet and interact with us and the fellow students and you. If you're at the networking at scale with content and going, who's going to like or comment on my first LinkedIn post I ever [00:18:00] make? eight of us, like the minute that you post it, because we're now in your network. Yeah. And if you're hearing this in the future and go, Oh man, it's not February 2025 anymore. Go check out the website because we'll have a digital version and there's going to be more, iterations of these live in the future as well.

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: Yeah,just because we're running them in February live, and then your recordings will be available, does not mean that we won't, have more live classes. We're all about teaching live. As much as we will have the classes available,for download, and watching asynchronously, we really encourage you to be in class.

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: sign up at futureproof u. com any final comments,

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: John?

john-lovig_1_01-29-2025_121427: No,we hope to see somebody there.

dan-yu_1_01-29-2025_121429: Excellent. So thanks for tuning in. This has been another episode of Future Proof U's podcast, F yourself. For John and Aaron and the Future Proof U team, I'm Dan U and we'll see you again soon.