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KP Unpacked
Join serial entrepreneur KP Reddy for conversations and discussions around innovation, technology trends, and AI for startup founders, innovation catalysts & investors focused on the built environment (and beyond!)
KP Unpacked
Mapping Out Your Career
As we journey through KP's recent experiences within Abu Dhabi and Dubai’s startup ecosystems, we glean fresh insights on the ever-evolving job market, emphasizing the importance of community involvement and crafting your own definition of success.
Our conversation challenges the well-trodden narrative, suggesting joy in one’s career is a culmination of perseverance and strategic planning. As we discuss the changing economic landscape, marked by the decline of plush perks and increased performance expectations, this episode provides a strategic guide for building a robust foundation for the future.
Want more discussions like this? You can connect with KP Reddy in the Catalyst Network online community at https://kpreddy.co/catalystnetwork!
You are listening to KP Unpacked with KP Ready a weekly dose of insights for innovators and startups from the built environment and beyond. Want more discussions like this? Join KP's exclusive online community, the Catalyst Network. To learn more, visit kpreadyco slash Catalyst Network.
Speaker 2:Hey, welcome back to KP Ready Unpacked. I'm not KP Ready, my name is Jeff Beckles. I'm the Senior Advisor and Head of Marketing at KP Ready Company. I am joined, as always, by KP Ready himself. He is the founder and CEO of Shadow Ventures. He's the author of now his third book, which is Creating the Intangible Enterprise, and one of my great joys every week is sitting down with KP.
Speaker 2:We're obviously not in the same spot today In fact, we're in drastically different spots today but every week we get to sit down and unpack one of the things that he has posted on LinkedIn. So the first question is are you following KP Ready on LinkedIn? Second question is if your answer was no, why not? You need to go there. Go to LinkedIn, search KP Ready, k-p-r-e R, e, d, d Y and follow him there, because a couple of times a day, uh, kp's posting there and he's sharing his insights, he's sharing his experiences, he's he's um, telling you what he's talked, talking with people, about what he's learning from the people that he he encounters, and and sometimes it's just sort of sort of a recap of his experiences, but they're always interesting posts, many times thought-provoking, if not pot-stirring. So go follow KP on LinkedIn, but this 20 minutes or so that we have right here right now is our opportunity to unpack one of those posts so that you can get into the mind of KP. You, too, can say hey, kp, what were you thinking when you posted that on LinkedIn? What inspired that? So, kp, thanks for joining me today.
Speaker 2:The big question is, I said we're in drastically different places today. So I'm in Indianapolis, you're not in Atlanta today. Where are you? I am in Abu Dhabi today and I'm in Indianapolis. You're not in Atlanta today. Where are you?
Speaker 3:I am in Abu Dhabi today and. I will be in Dubai later in the week, so spending about 10 days out here.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right. So that's that's not. That is for those of you that are wondering that is not suburban Atlanta.
Speaker 3:So, yeah. I'm doing a session with NYU Abu Dhabi on Monday, so that's what I'm primarily here for, but I've been having some great meetings with some very large corporates here and some startups, and it's definitely an interesting ecosystem, which I'm sure I'll be writing about shortly as I catch up.
Speaker 2:I am. I have no doubt about that. And again, just like I said in the intro, these are where KP's posts come from. I mean, they're so thought provoking because you know he's traveled to Abu Dhabi and he's headed to Dubai and he's having these conversations, and so many of these, these LinkedIn posts come. So many of these, these LinkedIn posts come directly from those experiences. But, kp, your, your youngest son, graduated from Georgia Tech.
Speaker 3:Actually my eldest.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, sorry, I misspoke there. Your, your, your eldest son, graduated from from Georgia. That, now that I think about that, that was so incredibly wrong. That's like. That's like 20 some years wrong right there.
Speaker 3:He's, he's, he's brilliant.
Speaker 2:But so KP's eldest son just graduated from from Georgia Tech, about a week ago, I guess. And it's that season, right, it's that time, yeah. So this post that we're going to talk about today is about essentially it's about graduation posts. So I'll give an overview and then we can go through and unpack it. It starts out KP writes with all the graduation posts. I thought I could share some thoughts. Here's my two cents One embrace continuous learning.
Speaker 2:Two build on your strengths and seek diverse experiences. Three networking and relationships are key. Four be open to mentorship and feedback. Five be adaptable and resilient. Six contribute to your community. And seven define your own success. So obviously, as we said, and as I incorrectly said in the beginning, your eldest son just graduated from Georgia Tech and so you're going through it. Right, and many of the people that are listening to this, I'm sure, have children that have or are graduating from college or even high school. Right, there's obviously a difference there, but it's graduation time, so I assume that's what inspires this post. But as we unpack this, why did these seven points come to mind for you?
Speaker 3:Well. So there's a couple of things. One, I think there's just a lot of noise in the market. The reality is the job market. If you look at what happened in last year's graduating class, the high performers got job offers from the Bains, the McKinsey's, the BCG's, et cetera, and then we're promptly told that their start date would no longer be August, their start date would be October, and then that start date got pushed out to January. So if you look at this kind of bull run of unemployment that we've had, where students just kind of people showed up to campus and gave them job offers, right, it's just that they didn't really work, have to work at it. It's been going on for a while. So when I look at my son and I know, by the way, between my other teaching activities at Georgia Tech and NYU and Columbia pretty much, I always allocate time for students to reach out to me. So I spend a lot of time with students Because apparently children are our future so I do spend a lot of time with the kids and there's just a stark difference right now with this graduating class.
Speaker 3:Looking back at last year, their buddies from last year going oh, they just all got jobs. And people before that. Oh, they got jobs and signing bonuses and now they're being told like, well, we're not really hiring entry level right now, and so you have to look at that. You have to look at all the tech company layoffs. It used to be you graduate with a computer science degree, you automatically have a job. That is not the case. There's been so many technology layoffs and companies are saying, well, I really can't afford the learning curve to bring someone in straight out of school. And there's all this talent out there, I can get that talent. And you've seen some of the salaries correct salary correction unless you're a top AI engineer. There's been some salary correction. So the market is a very different market. Call it 12 months later and what happens is these kids, they don't have the skills and they think, oh, I click on job openings on LinkedIn, that's how I get a job. And it's like that's not how you get a job. That's not how you get a job in a tough market. So I just started jotting down and when I got out at Georgia Tech in 94, I had friends with master's degrees in electrical engineering working at Macy's like doing retail sales. They could not find anything. So I don't think it's that bad, but I think it's bad enough and I think these kids have just not been taught any of these skills. So I thought it would be good to wrap it up into how to be out there One of the things around community service.
Speaker 3:There are only so many resumes you can send out. You have a lot of time on your hand and instead of you know you spend all morning sending out resumes and responding to emails. Fine, you have plenty of time. So instead of goofing around with your friends, maybe go give back, because the reality is, once you start working, you don't have time to give back. Once you start work, if you're early, you know early career, you know you're grinding it out, you're trying to prove yourself there's not a lot of room left for for for giving back. So it seems counterintuitive sometimes, but it's like this is when you actually have time to give back and do it now do you want to connect with KP?
Speaker 1:Join his exclusive online community, the Catalyst Network, today. Visit kpreadyco slash Catalyst Network. That's C-A-T-A-L-Y-S-T. Network.
Speaker 2:I'll push back on that a little bit. I actually don't think it's counterintuitive. I mean, maybe it is counterintuitive, but if we start to unpack that a little bit, I actually don't think it's counterintuitive. I mean, maybe it is counterintuitive, but if we start to unpack that a little bit more, I mean, these are seven points that you make that in a way help these students become more marketable, if we want to say it that way. But these are also seven points that are fantastic life lessons.
Speaker 2:You know, contributing to your community, of course, right, that's a bigger picture thing. But if we pick on that one in particular, hey, you're sending out your resumes in the morning and then you're going and you know, volunteering or whatever that community service looks like. Volunteering or whatever that community service looks like, all of a sudden, right, if you're actually participating in this, you're actually, you know, putting the effort into this. All of a sudden, that one's number six, by the way. If you're reading the post, it says number six contribute to your community. That will also connect you back to number three, which is networking and relationships are key. So I think there's a lot of overlap in these and, as counterintuitive as it may seem, to say, hey, don't spend all your time searching for a job. Give back, because now you have time. There's also another side to that coin. So I love this, I love this list.
Speaker 2:You know those of us I graduated a year before you did, those of us that graduated in that era. I guess, if you will, both of us, you and engineering, me and architecture. I remember I was in Chicago, you were in Atlanta, the cranes had stopped, there's nothing going on, there's no construction going on and making all the phone calls and dropping in and all those things. Number five be adaptable and resilient. You learn that in that type of scenario over time. You have to. But I agree with you this time, right now, is not that bad. But these are great lessons that you're sharing that hearken all the way back to that period of time. You know, hopefully we don't see that level of unemployment or difficulty in finding a job. But, like I said, I think these are great marketability tips, but also great life lessons.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think one of the other motivations in writing this post was I don't think people know how bad it is. The economic data right now. It's one big head fake Inflation numbers, all of this. The data is just not great, and I'm fortunate enough to have access to data that isn't necessarily publicly available. And when you do that, when you juxtapose what I run into across the publicly available data, like credit card debt is now at an all-time high, credit card defaults are at an all-time high. I mean it's bad out there and you're going to see, you're already seeing companies doing mass layoffs, even the ones you didn't expect to do mass layoffs. You're doing mass layoffs. So it's just a tough market all around, and so you take inflation and you take not a lot of wage growth happening. It's kind of a problem. So I think these kids graduating are in a spot that they don't quite have never been in, and I think we're we're actually going to. I think the next six months are going to be a little bit of those unprecedented times economically.
Speaker 3:It all happens very slowly, until it happens very quickly, we're having one of those moments.
Speaker 3:So so that that was part of it too. I think you know when, when we look at that, and then you know the the first point about embracing continuous learning too. I think you know when we look at that and then you know the first point about embracing continuous learning too. I get it Like you just been hitting the books for four or six years, whatever. The last thing you want to see is a book. But you know you got to be like book a week. That's just what it is. That's just life. Book a week is just life. Um, if you want to be a high performer, if you want to camp out in a cubicle and lay low at a big corporation.
Speaker 3:You probably don't have to worry about it, um, but you know, a lot of the kids I've talked to are high performers. They're kids that are, that are perplexed. Now they're graduating with highest honors. They have zero job offers. Zero job job offers. They've had internships, I mean all of it. So I think it's really important to keep that academic, keep that learning muscle going and not let it atrophy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and if you jump from number one, so number one was embrace continuous learning. And if you jump from number one, so so number one was embrace continuous learning. If you dropped out at number seven because something you just said there really made me think about this number seven on this list is define your own success. But, like you said, you, you talked to a lot of high performers and so they're graduating with honors. They they have with honors they have, they have been successful by the societal norms, the education you know, the institutional norms you know, maybe mom and dad's norms, that type of thing, but, as you said, no job offers. So that probably doesn't fit in that, that same normal that they're used to. So talk to me about this define your own success. You say define what success means to you. What do they need to be thinking about?
Speaker 3:So I think it's incredulous coming straight out of school to talk about things, about chasing your passion, chasing your dream. It's like get to work okay and whatever it is, because, guess what, your first job is not gonna be your last job. It's like get to work Okay and whatever it is, because, guess what, your first job is not going to be your last job. It's not your forever job. Just get to work Two. If you want to be a billionaire, do not apologize. Do not apologize for not giving two shits about passion in your job. You can go be an investment banker, like, and I think sometimes these kids are coming out and they're getting judged around oh, you need to follow your passion, be happy. I'm sorry, that's not the phase of your Be happy, is not that phase of your career? Go be miserable and make a shit ton of money and start laying the groundwork for your future. That's okay, that is an okay goal to have.
Speaker 3:But I think somehow we're telling these kids that, like, it's not about the money. Tell them what makes you happy. Yes, in your 50s. So I think they get this advice from their parents or whoever that are in their 50s and 60s, which is where they're at. They're at the point where like, oh, it's really about being happy in your job, but there's nobody that should be happy in their job in their 20s, maybe in their 30s, it should be quite miserable. I mean, you're laying your foundational work because you don't know anything. You know and I think once you have earned the right to be happy, you know and pay your bills and have configured your life in a certain way. That's fine.
Speaker 3:But I just see kids. They kind of get slammed for saying like, hey, what do you want to do when you grow up? Make a shit ton of money. They should be fantastic. Somebody needs to. Instead they get told well, it's not just about money, it's also about being happy. Yeah, maybe. I think it's like for some reason we say Chase, do what you want to do, but if it involves being a capitalist, then except for that.
Speaker 2:I think, a good analogy, because a lot of the work that we do touches the aec sector. And you know, it's, it's easy, it's, it's probably cliche, right, the just just go and do something that, uh, that makes you happy, follow your passion, etc. If we think about that in terms of building you, you just mentioned laying the foundation. That's true, right, you're 20 something years old. Depending on your degree, you're probably somewhere between 21 and 26 or something like that. That's the foundation, right, that's the stuff that's in the dirt, it's the ugly stuff, the messy stuff and the pretty stuff, the happy stuff, the fun stuff, the showy stuff that's on the upper floors and it takes you. Don't start building up there. There's, you know, unless they're doing something differently in Abu Dhabi. You know, like building from a crane down. You know it doesn't work that way.
Speaker 3:Oh no, no, I think that's one of those things, and I do think there's been 10 years of a frothy economy where mediocre talent was making great money. It's all shifting, and I think it's going to first impact the kids that are coming straight out of school versus people. It's a lot harder for companies. Companies don't deliver pay cuts to people, they just let them go. The market adjusts itself. For the kids coming straight out of school, there's no signing bonuses. Three years ago, all these kids that I know they're all getting signing bonuses, things like that. None of that's true. None of it. When you join our firm, we're going to send you three months of training so you know how to do your job. We're not training you. Go figure it out. We hired you because you had good grades. Go figure it out. There's no training. So yeah, but I think it is. The thing that kind of gets me, though, is this whole idea that you're not allowed to say it's about money.
Speaker 2:You get judged for that well, I mean, ultimately it's uh, it's necessary right. You mentioned credit card debt and defaults and you know housing crisis housing affordability is is a whole other it's related.
Speaker 2:Obviously, all of that involves money, all of that involves earning. We cannot get away from that. I think before it's not lost to me that, as we have this discussion, number four on your list was be open to mentorship and feedback. Right, if you're you know, it may be as simple as hearing this. You know, hearing KP Ready say you know it's OK to not give two shits, it's OK for it to be about money and accepting that, okay for it to be about money and accepting that. Right, hearing, hearing that kind of feedback and mentorship and and not accepting it, embracing it. But I think also that's that's some of the best advice you can have. Surround yourself by people who are a step or five steps or 20 years ahead of you that can say hey, you know, this is what you need to be, this is what you don't know. You don't know what you don't know. This is what you need to be aware of as you take that next step forward.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think part of what I talk talk about too is you can't just say, hey, be my mentor, and then at the second meeting, hey, can you help refer me to a job?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and what? And one thing that I think a lot of people get wrong probably of the 20 or 30 people that ask me for referrals and that can be a vendor, like a law firm or accountant or PR firm, whoever or people I rarely do it. I only do it if it makes me look good. I only do it if I'm out with someone else and they say, hey, I'm looking for somebody with XYZ talent that's really good at da-da-da-da-da, and I'm like, okay, I have somebody, if I happen to have somebody. Because if you can make just a perfect referral to somebody that makes as a mentor, that makes you look good and you're never going to like you know, you're never going to make a referral to somebody that's just not going to make you look good and that takes and part of that takes time right, part of looking good is just fit for the job, but a mentor is not going to refer you to anything unless they get to know you and actually understand your strengths and weaknesses. That takes time.
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Speaker 2:As I hear you saying that, I mean, that's so. That's number four on the list be open to mentorship and feedback. Number three is networking and relationships are key. And, as I hear you saying that, you know I can, I can see somebody listening to mentorship and feedback. Number three is networking and relationships are key. And as I hear you saying that, I can see somebody listening to this and hearing oh my gosh, kp doesn't refer anybody. What kind of egomaniacal guy is he? That's not what. That is right.
Speaker 2:That is a human truth, because if you ask KP or if you ask me for a referral, or whether it's a, if it's a mentorship relationship or even even a networking relationship, good networkers will have the exact same attitude. There's a lot at stake, right? If you say, hey, jeff, I, I, I know that, uh, that, um, you used to be part of the leadership of this firm over here. Well, you introduced me to the you know whoever and whoever. I can't take that lightly. There's a lot at stake there, socially. There's a lot at stake there, because if I introduce you or I make that referral and you end up, you know, a total schmuck, then that reflects poorly on me, right, you're asking me to expend some of my social capital in order to make those referrals.
Speaker 2:So if you hear this and you go my gosh, the amount of ego it's not ego at all, it's like. This is reality. This is social capital that we're talking about. Right, think of it in terms of relationships. You're not going to make an introduction to your sister or your brother or your cousin or whatever. If you think that this person that wants the introduction is not right for them. You know, would not be a good fit any anything in that realm. You're just not going to do it. And the mentorship and networking relationships are are very, very similar to that.
Speaker 3:No, I think that's that's just it, right. We're all trying to develop quality networks, not just large networks. There's this guy that will literally send me a text every couple of weeks with all this random stuff. And I know him. He's not a random person, he just sends me random stuff.
Speaker 3:And now I just delete, mean I don't even look at it, maybe I'm missing something, but he just sends me stuff that's just so irrelevant. Um, or he'll ask me to like if I'll talk to somebody, or you know. It's like, no, like you know, I just think it's the same thing sometimes the founders do do to me. I'll pass on investing in them and they're like is there anyone you can introduce me to? I'm like why do you have time for that?
Speaker 3:I have to say, well, I passed on this investment, but for you it's a great one. That's not how that works. I think there's just you know, you know, and I think when you deal with like grown people and executives, you know, if there's, they'll ask me if this person's so good, why aren't you hiring them? That's the best question to ask, right, um, and I so I think yeah.
Speaker 2:And I and.
Speaker 3:I also think on the relationships and networks. It can't all be done on the internet, it can't all be done via text thread or discord or whatever. So it's it's just so important to be out there. You know, and I was coaching a kid the other day. I was like, hey, you should go to this trade show. He said, oh, it's $1,000. I'm like so you don't want to go to the trade show? He said it's $1,000. And I was like do you want to go to the trade show? He's like, yeah, I'm like well, call them, call them. Tell them you're a student, tell them you don't have that, but you're a student and you're super interested in coming to the trade show there's a really good chance.
Speaker 3:They'll either give you a discounted ticket or let you in for free. If you don't actually want it, then fine, don't call anyone. Either you want something or you don't want something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think in this whole conversation what a lot of this boils down to in this entire list of seven points, and I'll reread it here momentarily as we wrap up. But you know, we're talking about humans, right? We're talking about human to human contact, human relationships here, and as much as we're involved with technology and developing technology and the future of technology and everything else, we're still talking about human relationships and it's. You know, you may not be planning on plugging your book here in this episode, but I'm going to plug it for a second again, if you. If you missed this at the beginning.
Speaker 2:Kp's new book is called creating the intangible enterprise and it's about the skills that you need to develop in order to thrive in an ai driven world. It may surprise you when you dig into that book to learn that he's really talking about human skills, about humanity around technology, and this whole list is about being human. You're not being hired by a robot, so you can't be a robot. So I'm a big fan of talking about empathy and a big fan of talking about self-awareness and things like that. You know, if you read down through this list and all the I'm just reading the headlines all of the places where KP expands on his thoughts here in this post. You're going to see that humanity coming out in all of these ideas. So let me read it one you're going to see that humanity coming out in all of these ideas so let me read it one.
Speaker 3:Oh, go ahead your point, Jeff. Nobody's looking to hire a robot, Because if there is a robot they'll go buy it.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:If you're worried about commoditization, if I can buy it off the shelf. Why would I hire you?
Speaker 3:The robot wins. Don't be a robot.
Speaker 2:I think that's the title of this episode Don't be a robot, all right, let me read this post one more time Again. If you're not following KP Ready on LinkedIn, there's a wide variety of things that he thinks about and posts about. You ought to be following him, kp ready ready, on linkedin and uh. So, as we're recording this, he posted this three days ago, which which would put it about um, probably the 13th or so of May KP writes with all the graduation posts. I thought I could share some thoughts. Here's my two cents.
Speaker 2:Number one embrace continuous learning, and, of course, he expands on that. I'm not going to read the whole post. Embrace continuous learning. Number two build on your strengths and seek diverse experiences. Number three networking and relationships are key. Number four be open to mentorship and feedback. Number five be adaptable and resilient. Number six contribute to your community. Number seven define your own success. So you know, if you're a graduate, if you're a 2024 graduate, or maybe even 2023 or looking forward to 2025, I would pay attention to this post, or send this post to a graduate that you know, and there's a lot packed in here. That's great advice and it's things that graduates need to learn, and also post-graduates. So, kp, thanks for this post and thanks for the conversation today.
Speaker 3:All right, thanks, jeff, good seeing you.
Speaker 2:Good to see you Enjoy the heat there.
Speaker 3:It's only 100 degrees, it's fine.
Speaker 2:Just like Atlanta, all right.
Speaker 3:We're centigrade and Fahrenheit converge.
Speaker 2:That's pretty extreme, all right. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll be back again next week for another live recording of KP Ready Unpacked. Until then, thanks for listening. Like us, share us so that other people can find these unpacking posts and they can learn more about the thought process of KP Ready. Thanks everybody. See you next week.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to another episode of KP Unpacked. You can connect with KPReady today at kpreadyco that's K-P-R-E-D-D-Yco and additionally follow him on LinkedIn at wwwlinkedincom. Slash I-N. Slash KPReady until next time.