To the Graduating Class of 2025: Real Talk Career Advice for High School and College Grads

What's strong advice for graduates in 2025?

[Audio fixed! Thank you to our devoted listeners for letting us know about the echo issue on the first upload! :D]

Worried about careers in the age of AI?

What advice would you give graduates about to embark on modern careers?

In this episode, Dr. Joan Palmiter Bajorek discusses career paths for high school graduates, emphasizing the importance of being strategic in education and exploring various options. 

School teaches you something different from modern jobs.

Traditional careers are evolving in front of our eyes.

Stability is not guaranteed... so what do YOU do??!?!?!

She outlines 3 main paths: traditional college education, trade skills, and digital businesses. Joan stresses the significance of a growth mindset, financial literacy, and self-care in navigating the evolving job market influenced by AI.

📘 Check out the Amazon Instant Bestselling Book: Your AI Roadmap: Actions to Expand Your Career, Money, and Joy

Sound Bites

• "You can make money and own your time."
• "Curiosity is key in a fast-changing world."
• "You can make more money, I promise you."

Takeaways

• 📚 Education: Consider being a B + student to explore opportunities. 
• 🔧 Trades: Trade skills can lead to lucrative and stable careers. 
• 💻 Business: Digital businesses offer scalability and flexibility. 
• 🌱 Wellness: Self-care is essential for long-term success. 
• 🧠 Mindset: Curiosity and a growth mindset are crucial in today's world. 
• 💰 Finance: Understanding financial aspects is key to stability. (Section 2 of the Your AI Roadmap book!)
• 📈 Growth: Feedback helps in personal and professional growth. 
• 🤖 Technology: The job market is changing rapidly due to AI. 
• 🎯 Career: Explore various career paths beyond traditional education. 
• 🚀 Future: The future holds new opportunities for graduates.

Learn More

YouTube! Watch the episode live @YourAIRoadmap
Connect with Joan on LinkedIn

✨📘 Buy the Bestselling Wiley Book: Your AI Roadmap: Actions to Expand Your Career, Money, and Joy. Featured in Forbes!

Who is Joan?

Ranked the #4⁠⁠ in Voice AI Influencer, ⁠⁠Dr. Joan Palmiter Bajorek⁠⁠ is the CEO of ⁠⁠Clarity AI⁠⁠, Founder of ⁠⁠Women in Voice⁠⁠, & Host of ⁠⁠Your AI Roadmap⁠⁠. With a decade in software & AI, she has worked at Nuance, VERSA Agency, & OneReach.ai in data & analysis, product, & digital transformation. She's an investor & technical advisor to startup & enterprise. A CES & VentureBeat speaker & Harvard Business Review published author, she has a PhD & is based in Seattle.

Disclaimer: Our links may have affiliate codes. This is an educational podcast and not intended as legal, career, or financial advice. Seek professional gu...

Chapters

• 0:00 Navigating Career Paths After Graduation
• 6:54 Exploring Trade and Apprenticeship Opportunities
• 11:11 The Rise of Digital Businesses
• 14:44 Key Takeaways for Future Graduates

Transcript

0:00

Hey folks, welcome back to another episode of Your AI Roadmap. Lovely to see you here. This morning I was featured on a different podcast that I'm excited for you all to hear, dropping November this year actually, as I record this in June 2025. The host for that podcast was talking about high school graduation and advice that I had for parents and graduates. And I thought what a fantastic way to frame this to think about careers at pivotal junctures, especially high school graduation, navigating that next path, college graduation, going on and thinking about life beyond college. So this episode is specifically for graduates in 2025 thinking about careers. in this modern age. So if I were graduating from high school today or I was talking to somebody, no I think this is really interesting because I have cousins who are 15 years younger than me and so thinking about them navigating their paths, I think about them as my little cousins except now that they're now they're taller than me so I'm reasonably tall but they're really tall and bajoriks come tall. So I'm thinking about this advice I think about them in mind and advice that I'd give them. advice I would give you all. not a career counselor. There's a disclaimer at the end of this podcast, but I hope that I expand your mind for yourself, maybe your kid, maybe your neighbor, and people thinking about that. So I see specifically after high school graduation, three big paths. So you could go to college, college here in the United States. can be six figures worth of debt if you do not have someone like a parent paying for college. So this is a pretty big burden. It's also a four year minimum. Sometimes it's also up to five or six years. So that's a large amount of money and time. If someone is paying for your college, so this is path number one, I'm labeling it. If someone else is paying for your college or maybe you a huge scholarship, there's a specific reason that you're going to college and you know why, and you're not gonna be saddled with a huge amount of debt. that will be with you for decades to come. I do recommend going to college, but I recommend that you be a B plus student. That's right. I'm not saying that you put all your eggs into the traditional basket because college is preparing you probably for a job that may not exist in the future. Let me say that again. College the way it is today, may have great socialization, it may have great networking opportunities for you to meet people of your own age bracket. It's fun, right? College is exploring the world and no longer probably living with your parents. so college is great for that, but being a B plus student, I don't mean just party the rest of the time. I mean explore. I mean take that internship. Go to that hackathon that the college offers, right? Use your student email address, use... the being a student strategically along your path and where you wanna go. Maximize having that .edu email, apply for things, be an intern, leverage being a student and don't be like me, always getting that A plus, just be B plus student and know your overall goals. That makes sense? So that's the college path, very traditional path. Path number two. If you say, hey, I do think I will get into six figures of debt or I hate school, I want to consider a different path. Here is my strong recommendation to you. Go into AI proof or these will be some of the last things to be automated by AI. I got a list for you. They pay well. You ready for this? Consider paths becoming an apprentice in wind turbine technician work, elevator installer and repair. relatively entry-level positions can pay $90,000 a year. Aircraft mechanic technician, electrician, plumber, industrial maintenance technician, millwright, I'm honestly, I don't know what that is to be very fair with you. This is from Perplexity, boilmaker, HVAC technician, appraiser. Okay, so these are, you go in person, you work with your hands. These are traditionally trade and blue collar work. But I'll tell you of all the different robots I've seen, the plumber robot, the electrician robot, is gonna be a very expensive robot to make. You probably, if you just are one of the biggest plumbers in your city, you could make a chunk of change. That is a robust, recession-proof thing. I know a lot of people are trying to do more DIY, use AI to help them with their plumbing issue, but when it goes really, really wrong, they pick up the phone, they call somebody, and usually you pay through the nose. Very, very expensive. So if you are considering a trade path, maybe people are laughing at you or that's not a very cool thing to go into construction, just know that you can be in a recession-proof industry, you can make money, and you can own your own time. So I strongly recommend that as a path. Get that apprenticeship thing. Look at a list and see which one might call to you. If you love using your hands for work, this could be an excellent opportunity for you. Okay, path number three that I'm gonna talk to you about is online digital businesses and things. So I've heard more and more that people wanna become influencers and that's interesting. I myself am an influencer. You have to monetize it. If you have passion for something, if you wanna sell something on TikTok, great, I love that for you. Make sure that you monetize it. that you pay your taxes, right? Digital businesses are fantastic. They're scalable, right? You can sell PES and things, but make sure that you're also upscaling in the fiscal aspect. You are paying your rent, that you are being an adult about it, if that makes sense. So hopefully there is maybe an adult helping you with packaging, with paying things, with paying yourself and making sure you have a Roth IRA, for example. So really being thoughtful about a digital business is a great option. If you love social media stuff, if you are in a digital world and that lights you up, that is a totally great path. So high school graduates, recommendations from Joan. College path, B plus student, leveraging being a student. If it's subsidized, paid for, scholarship, parents, caretaker, trust fund, whatever it is, that could be a path for you. Path two, trades, apprenticeship. recession-proof, stable, potentially blue collar job that pays money and you can scale it to build your own business in the construction space, in the HVAC space. I have a friend whose partner works in the HVAC, makes a quarter million dollars a year in the HVAC industry. It's a very manual business, but it makes a lot of money. I have my cousins. Uncle's business is in the plumbing industry. They have made multi millions and now give back to their family and pay for kids as houses type of money What's another example? I Mentioned this before I'll mention it again. So I paid a contractor to build a fence around my house and I was talking to him and You know, I was like wow contractor work like tell me more about that he can work with whoever he wants because here in Seattle almost everyone is in tech. So there are not as many people going into becoming a contractor. He can work with whoever he wants, be paid basically whatever he wants. He's like, you you want this? Here's the dollar sign. There's a huge backlog of work. He gets to set his own schedule and make quite a bit of money. So again, that's a job you may have to rise through the ranks before... making your own company, but is absolutely depending on where you live, being a contractor, any of the jobs I just mentioned are an option in most cities here in the United States, and I'm guessing abroad as well. HVAC is something that will always be needed. Fixing that elevator, will always need to probably be someone who fixes the elevator, even if there's a robot to help you fix the elevator, there's still a human monitoring the robot, yeah? Okay, and then the last third one being that digital business. scaling, email marketing, TikTok flywheels, selling things on Instagram, et cetera. Digital businesses are that third one. And all of these can be AI enabled, obviously, but those are the kind of career paths. So of those things, I think I mentioned with all three of them, one of the things I wish in college, and I honestly wasn't ready for it. I think I've heard that phrase. You only learn what you're ready for and maybe you hear it, but actually understanding it or incorporating it. I wish I'd known the fiscals of more of these things way, way, way, way, way earlier. No matter if you work a day job, you will always work for someone who can sell. If there's a salesperson, you may always have to work for that person if you can't get your own work. that ownership of a business is crucial for the decision of how much people get paid, who gets let go, like sales and ownership are really key. And knowing the fiscals, like the number one thing is making the money, like being able to close deals, let's take some examples. The college path, like that B plus student, getting that experience, going to different things and learning how that company makes money. For example, when I was in college, I did an internship with a photography business. I was really, really into photography at the time and I noticed how the commercial aspect of the photography went, that this photographer did commercial shoots as well as teaching classes and so forth. And honestly, I saw how unhappy the business owner was and I was like, wow, if you have to slog this hard and make that little money, maybe this isn't the field for me. So by that hands-on learning was really, really helpful in understanding more of the fiscal's, understanding the financial mechanisms behind the business can be crucial to making sure that you are stable, that your family is stable, that you can put food on the table in years to come. Now, the thing number two, choosing your lifestyle. So I have definitely worked myself really, really hard across the last decade and it's been a newer thing in my life to work on taking really good care of my mental and physical health. I can't say that I'm perfect every day, but I work out, I sleep, I go to therapy, I eat my vegetables, I work really, really hard on that. And so you can fill your day. You can also become more strategic and figure out what makes you money and how to spend the rest of your time. Yeah, so especially with an AI driven world where you could just fill your calendar with more things potentially. Is that really getting you to your goals? So taking care of yourself and choosing your lifestyle as you figure out the money. So you figure out the money stuff, you start working on making money, and then you also figure out your lifestyle to make sure that you're not burning yourself out. I know quite a few people who have money in the bank and their bodies and minds are not being taken care of. And that's not a place that I want for you, dear listener. Okay, so we got money, we got lifestyle. Number three, growth mindset and curiosity. This world is changing so fast, so fast. So being curious, saying, ooh, I'd love to learn more. that's changing? I would indeed like to learn from you about that topic. Just keep that curiosity up, growth mindset, you can get better. I heard that the rehearsal, that weird HBO show, they are doing stuff about critical feedback, constructive feedback, and the idea that we can give constructive feedback. Now, I think it's really important. So feedback can be like, you failed, or that was a terrible idea, or great work. This is just feedback. The concept with constructive feedback is that someone can actually take action on that feedback, that it can construct different outcomes. So I love to ask people, can you give me constructive feedback? How could I have done that better? I'd love to understand, because I do want to get better. We all start from somewhere, right? Maybe you start at zero, maybe you start at negative five, maybe you start at 10, I don't know. But I know that to become an expert, excellence is in the details. So really think of how can I get better and truly listen to the answer. I read it in a book recently that if they make fun of your appearance, that's one thing, but if they're actually critiquing the content, that's where we can be focused on. So constructive feedback. Might be as you are getting your business together. Someone says hey You do a great job at sales, but your emails like in like your sales in person You do a beautiful polished job people really confident, but those emails that you send us follow-ups are really not strong They don't look professional right and so you could say okay constructive feedback I got some strong positive feedback about my in-person sales, but my follow-up would be email could be stronger. So then I would also say, what does a strong email look like? What is the expected professionalism of this email? And so you get better and better and better. And by actively listening, hopefully you can continue to improve and be curious about how to be exceptional. And we're all learning and growing. I think that's related to the balance of learn, grow, push yourself, take care of yourself. Yeah? All these different pieces together. And one of the things I've also realized along my journey is in the last three years, there are some pieces of advice that I took from people. So I did take the constructive feedback. Definitely go down this path. Do not do that path, blah, Those are pieces of feedback from specific people and some of it is helpful. Some of it has skyrocketed my career and some of it actually wasn't helpful. And that advice made sense for that person. in that context, but I took it as a don't do X and mapping that onto future things and then later realizing literally two and half years later being like, wait a minute, that could be a perfect fit for my business and it wasn't a good fit for this person. Or maybe the person who gave me that advice didn't have this other context, didn't have these building blocks in place that that was important to them. I'm being a little bit vague because I don't want to offend my mentors and also I'm processing things on my journey from constructive feedback and as I build my business, working on the business and working in the business. Okay, I've gone deep. Let's go back to the top here. So if you are a college grad and you are listening to this or you're a high school grad and you're listening to this, let's go back to those main things I was talking about in different paths. thinking about college, how you used college. Hopefully being a B plus student, leveraging being a student towards different things, learning more, exploring, being curious, getting some socialization in. Considering trades and apprenticeship stuff, digital business stuff, and within those paths, looking at money, the fiscals, how do you take care of yourself today, in the future, yeah? Choosing your lifestyle and being really thoughtful about taking care of your mind and body. And then your growth mindset and your curiosity to continue to learn and evolve. If we don't learn, we become stagnant. We can fossilize and normalize something that doesn't exist anymore. And then we go dinosaur. Yeah. So I really love the idea that we continue to evolve and grow, grow and learn and become stronger and realize decisions are in different way. So, class of 2025, I am so excited for the future for you. It is not going to look like the past. And I think. That's a wonderful thing. I'm really, really excited for you. If you liked this content, be sure to check out other technical content on other episodes that we have here at Your AI Roadmap. Learn more about AI and the fundamentals, definitely especially listening to season one of this podcast. And I'm really, really excited for you. The last thing I'd say is that if you say, career stuff, money stuff, Joan, you mentioned that stuff, I maybe need to get better, then my primer. My number one I'd recommend to you, 101 stuff is in your AI roadmap, the book, which is the future proofing your careers or modern careers based on the data. Based on data driven stuff would be in the first part, part one of your AI roadmap, the book. And then the second part of the book is all about money, future proofing your income. I have myself 22 income streams and anyone, anyone listening to this can make more money. I promise you. In fact, I give 57 different ideas about income streams that you could build today. They're legal. They're not MLM. They are not MLMs. They are not crypto. They are boring, basic, and scalable. So I recommend you check that out. Right now, I think it's on Amazon for like 25 bucks. There's also the audiobook. You could just continue to listen to this podcast. That is free. You can also check out if your AI roadmap is at your library yet. requested on the Libby app for the library near you. So overall, I'm really, really excited for you. I am really excited for your next steps. I'm excited for my cousin's next steps as well. And I'm sending out the best vibes to you about thinking about your career, your kid's career, the opportunity for that neighbor kid in your neighborhood to really think through how school and institutions and the world today at Age of AI are shifting in how we can best prepare the young people around us for the world as it continues to evolve and change. All right, see you again. and if you would like, subscribe, continue following the podcast. Downloads help my team so much. You have not seen, we have hit over 80 countries that this podcast is listened to in, and your downloads from different places in the world light up my team. from small small towns here in the United States to far-off locations all around the world. We really really appreciate your downloads, your likes, your subscribes, your commenting, sending it to a friend. I'm thinking about you. Check out this podcast episode. Those mean so much to my team who do the work behind the scenes. So we'd really really appreciate if you do that. I'll see you again for another episode of Your AI Room Map another time. Cheers!