Shadowing Practice: My Wharton MBA is Useless in This Market - Learn English Speaking with Video
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195 sentences
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My Wharton degree was not enough to land a single offer in 2025.
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This was a sh show.
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32 ,000 jobs were lost last month.
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32 ,000 jobs were lost in that private sector in November.
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Job growth is hovering around zero, essentially.
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The government says we added 119 ,000 jobs last month.
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LinkedIn says there's basically one posting for one job seeker.
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So why did I spend $180 on LinkedIn Premium to compete against 847 people for jobs I'm overqualified for
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and still can't get an interview?
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If you're in your late 20s or 30s, you have a good resume, you checked all the boxes, and you're still getting ghosted and auto -rejected,
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then this video is for you.
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There are two realities that we're seeing.
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If you look at the headlines, the story is, Jobs are being added.
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Unemployment is low.
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The economy is resilient end.
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On the flip side, if you look at your inbox, the story is I have a Wharton MBA,
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I have recognizable logos, I thought I did everything right, but I can't even get a human to look at my resume.
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Those are two realities coexisting in this market.
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And if you feel like you're going crazy trying to make the sense of these two realities, you're not alone.
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You're not imagining it and you're not overreacting.
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On paper, you look fine.
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You might be doing some freelance or part -time work.
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But in practice, you are stuck in limbo, unable to access the opportunities that you know you could crush.
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If we haven't met before, hello, this is Yujin.
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I'm a management consultant based in Boston.
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Today, let's talk about three things.
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First, why is this happening?
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Second, where you actually sit in the job market map?
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And third, what you can start doing now so that 2026 will feel very different.
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Let me start with my own little horror story.
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LinkedIn premium.
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So I paid $30 a month for nearly six months.
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That's $180 to buy front row tickets to my own rejection.
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Every week I watched in real time 300 applicants, 600 applicants, 1 ,847 applicants.
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For roles where descriptions might as well have been copy pasted for my resume.
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I felt like I was a really good fit
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And still, no response or an odd rejection email on Saturday at 4am.
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I know that no one's actually looking at my resume at that time.
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At this point, I was starting to feel glad when I got a rejection email.
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At least someone or something triggered it to say something, not just ghosting in silence.
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One night, I was coming back from the Boston airport past 1am
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and staring at my resume at the back of an Uber.
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Mr. GPT said that my ATS score for my resumes was 98%.
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I was using the right keywords, dropping in brand name schools, promotions, numbers like 19 million, 27%, 5200 employees impact.
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And still, rejection after rejection, even for roles I had referrals.
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I did a case interview for one company, did a full strategic deck, multiple late nights, only to get a rejection for lacking relevant experience.
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Then why was I interviewing in the first place?
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Meanwhile, the macro story says, companies keep saying they have huge skill gaps.
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So on paper, they're desperate for talent.
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In your inbox, they're eager to ignore you.
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And this gap has been creating a very specific kind of shame for me.
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I started to think maybe my experience is as good as I thought.
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Maybe other candidates really is 10 times better than I am.
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Maybe I'm the delusional one.
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Or maybe I'm too old for this role.
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But let me clarify this for both of us.
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The shame that you and I felt is not a personal failure.
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It's a sign that the map that we've been using for
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so long for our career no longer matches what's actually out there.
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My late grandmother from Korea survived the Korean War.
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Her advice in life was very simple.
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Work hard, don't complain.
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Do more than you're asked.
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Show up early, stay late, and the universe will pay you back.
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For her generation, that was mostly true.
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Study hard, good school, good job equals stability.
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And naturally, her mentality was passed on, and I grew up in that equation.
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Collect the right grades, the degrees, and the right logos, and you'll be okay.
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But that equation is broken now.
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Today, almost 40 % of skills that we use at work will need to change or be updated by 2030.
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So what happened in 2025 wasn't you got lazy, you're not good enough, you're secretly fraud.
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What actually happened was structural.
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Companies started to cut headcounts in the name of AI transformation.
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But most of it was panic and cost -cutting.
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The rules we grew up with were written for a different game
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and we've been unknowingly turning their confusion into our personal shame.
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So let me show you in a simple way what is going on and why do we feel suddenly unemployable.
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Imagine a two by two matrix.
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On the x -axis, we have replaceable skills, irreplaceable skills.
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On the y -axis, we have low demand sectors and high demand sectors.
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That gives us four boxes.
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Top right, irreplaceable skills, high demand sectors.
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These are people doing hard to transfer work in places that are actually growing.
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Think deep technical experts experts in high growth AI
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or data unique domain experts in fast -growing industries
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or operators who can design
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and lead real transformation box number two top left replaceable skills high demand sectors crowded entry -revel roles
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and hot sectors hundreds of people who can run the same
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dashboards write the same emails manage the same generic projects
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and now going counterclockwise bottom right irreplaceable skills low demand sectors these are very skilled people in shrinking
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or stagnant areas think experts in legacy systems niche functions being centralized
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or outsourced and now to the danger zone replaceable skills
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and low demand sectors your work is seen as interchangeable
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and the industry itself isn't really growing now where do suddenly unemployable people sit usually somewhere between replaceable skills
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and lower crowded demand
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or irreplaceable skills built in the wrong place a lot of
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our resumes were built in environment where the logos did the
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heavy lifting our day -to -day work looked very similar to everyone else's the system rewarded polish
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and reliability more than uniqueness and leverage so when we leave
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that environment we suddenly realize oh i'm competing against hundreds of people who can tell almost the exact same story
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that i can that's why your linkedin feels like a slot machine right now you're not a bad candidate.
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You are already good enough.
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You're just playing in this box of two by two that is overcrowded and under differentiated.
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Once you see where you are in this map, the real question becomes then how do I move boxes?
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Here's a part that I'm betting my career on.
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Around Q2 of 2026, this tension will snap.
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Companies will eventually realize
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that they don't just need people who know how to use ai tools they actually need translators
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and i'm not talking about language translators these are translators between the messy real world problems
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and what ai can actually do executives who speak in big visions
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and goals technical teams who speak in models and metrics
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and the translators are the people who come in understand how the business really works decide
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when to trust a model and when to override it
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and fit tools into real workflows without breaking anything
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while taking responsibility for this implementation and change
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and the market's been already moving in
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that direction we're seeing a lot of customer success managers ai engagement managers the fastest growing jobs right
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now are the ones that mix technical literacy human skills like problem solving communication
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and judgment by 2030 experts estimate
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that 170 million new jobs will be created in ai enabled green transitions
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and care economy all the work that keeps people healthy, educated, and supported.
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And about 92 million roles will disappear.
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That's a net gain of roughly 78 million jobs.
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So this is not going to be a permanent crash of the job market.
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It's a messy reshuffle.
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And the winners will be the ones who come out as translators between old processes and new tools,
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between humans and algorithms, and between what looks good in a slide and what actually works on Monday morning.
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Your job is to position yourself as one of those people
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in at least one clear context not the person who knows every ai tool
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but more of in this domain
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and for these problems my judgment is very hard to replace
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so before you click away do this 30 second exercise with me grab your notes app
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or a piece of paper whatever's nearby step one list your
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top five skills not the ones on your resume the ones
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that people actually come to you for
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so for instance things like i can walk into a messy situation
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and figure out what's really going on i can get people who hate each other to agree on the plan
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or i can turn vague ideas into a slide or memos
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that people can understand i can spot one number in the spreadsheet
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that will actually blow up next quarter write down whichever five for me these are the five
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and step two is circle the skills
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that you think will take at least six months for someone else to replace
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and be honest if you left your team
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which of these would they really struggle to replace
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if you circled fewer than two that could be the reason why you feel unemployable right now.
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It doesn't mean that you're not talented.
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It just means that the market sees you currently as replaceable in a crowded box.
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And this is an exercise that someone taught me as I was complaining, why do I feel like nothing is landing for me?
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The good news is that this is a solvable problem, but you have to see where you are first.
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When you're done with that exercise, leave a comment below on what's that one skill that you circled for yourself.
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And step three is start your 2026 portfolio.
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Open a clean document and title it problems I solved that wasn't in my job description.
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Under that, start collecting stories like we had no process for X, so I designed one.
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Everyone was confused about why, so I created a simple way to explain it.
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We were stuck between two bad options, and I found the third option.
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Those are translator stories, and those are the raw materials that will position you differently in 2026.
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So where does this leave us?
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You might still need to keep applying.
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I am still applying.
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But I want us to change how we read this rejection and silence.
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Instead of feeling they ghosted me so I must be worthless.
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Let's reframe that.
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Try.
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This is one more data point that the box I'm playing in is overcrowded.
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And I need to move boxes.
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2025 broke a lot of us.
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Including me.
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Because we believe that the problem was us.
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We internalized broken hiring systems.
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Outdated job descriptions.
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Employers slapping AI transformation on top of plain old cost -cutting
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And we thought this was happening because if I was good enough, this wouldn't be happening
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My Korean grandmother would still say, keep going, don't give up, do your best
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But if she were 28 in 2025, I think even she would quietly admit that the game has changed
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The rules didn't, we're in the middle of a chaotic shift
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There will be millions of new rules coming up, especially where tech and human judgment meet
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The market will rebuild around people who know how to work with AI,
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not ignore it, and not sitting there scared and waiting to be replaced by AI.
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And for us who will survive this breakdown,
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we'll come out knowing where we sit on that 2x2 matrix and intentionally finding work and skills that will be irreplaceable.
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Those are the people who will design what will come next.
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So this week, instead of three more hours of tweaking bullets on your resume,
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I invite you to spend that time documenting your wisdom the part of your work that takes years to transfer,
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the part that never shows up in job description, and the part that AI can't see or do.
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That's what will set us apart for 2026.
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That's the foundation of our new translator identity.
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So that's what I'm doing tomorrow.
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I'm going to close my LinkedIn jobs tab
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and start opening a new document of things that only I know how to do.
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Your story will help someone see that all of our experiences are valuable and start connecting the dots to make a shape.
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I hope this resonated with you.
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You're not alone.
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You're not crazy in this job market.
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This is just chaotic, but I'm in it with you and hope that this exercise prepares us better for the coming year.
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Thank you for watching and remember to come back to my next video topic on
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “My Wharton MBA is Useless in This Market”. This video has 195 sentences and 2189 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:26. The speaker talks at a natural 176 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| resume verb | /ˈɹɛz.ə.meɪ/ | To start (something) again that has been stopped or paused from the point at which it was stopped or paused; continue, carry on. |
| rejection noun | /ɹɪˈd͡ʒɛkʃən/ | The act of rejecting. |
| translator noun | /ˈtɹænzleɪtɚ/ | A person or thing that translates various forms of text. |
| ghost noun | /ɡoʊst/ | A disembodied soul; a soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death. |
| skill noun | /skɪl/ | A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate. |
| judgment noun | /ˈd͡ʒʌd͡ʒ.mənt/ | The act of judging. |
| logo noun | /ˈloʊ.ɡoʊ/ | A visual symbol or emblem that acts as a trademark or a means of identification of a company or organization. |
| transformation noun | /ˌtɹæns.fɔɹˈmeɪ.ʃən/ | The act of transforming or the state of being transformed. |
| messy adjective | /ˈmɛsi/ | In a disorderly state; chaotic; disorderly. |
| applicant noun | /ˈæp.lə.kɪnt/ | One who applies for something; one who makes a request; a petitioner. |
| ignore verb | /ɪɡˈnɔː/ | To deliberately not listen or pay attention to. |
| silence noun | /ˈsaɪ̯ləns/ | The absence of any sound. |
| solve verb | /sɒlv/ | To find an answer or solution to a problem or question; to work out. |
| compete verb | /kəmˈpiːt/ | To be in battle or in a rivalry with another for the same thing, position, or reward; to contend. |
| collect verb | /ˈkɑlɪkt/ | To gather together; amass. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| blow up verb | To explode or be destroyed by explosion. | |
| come back from verb | To become successful, confident or effective again after an injury, setback, failure, embarrassment, etc. | |
| come up verb | To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly. | |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| give up verb | To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone). | |
| show up verb | To appear, arrive, or attend, especially suddenly or erratically. | |
| write down verb | To produce or set (something) down in writing; to record something. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- There are two realities that we're seeing.
- You're not imagining it and you're not overreacting.
- Today, let's talk about three things.
- Second, where you actually sit in the job market map?
- Then why was I interviewing in the first place?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | has been creating · we've been using |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | were lost · being added · was passed |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who can · people who know · people who come |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | haven't met · have been · we've been |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 48 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'm, can't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: grandmother /ˈɡɹæn(d)ˌmʌðɚ/, algorithm /ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/, worthless /ˈwɜːθ.ləs/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: rejection /ɹɪˈd͡ʒɛkʃən/, transformation /ˌtɹæns.fɔɹˈmeɪ.ʃən/, equation /ɪˈkweɪ.ʒən/, transition /tɹænˈzɪʃ.ən/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/
- Long words — get the stress right: transformation /ˌtɹæns.fɔɹˈmeɪ.ʃən/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, operator /ˈɑpəˌɹeɪtɚ/, implementation /ˌɪmplɪmənˈteɪʃən/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like resume, rejection, translator.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.