In this HCI Webinar, I talk with Lee Rubin about work life balance and employee well being. Lee Rubin is a visionary culture leader with over a decade of experience in B2B sales. She first came up with the idea to help companies plan better corporate events back in 2014 when tasked with planning an event for her team. Lee is a leading pioneer of the virtual events space, pivoting Confetti from in-person to virtual team building following the 2020 pandemic. Her deep expertise and passion lies in helping companies scale and improve company culture.

In this HCI Webinar, I talk with Mary Hagen about choosing people over automation in the age of digital safety. Passionate about giving back and leaving a positive impact, Mary Hagen is the proud CEO of Colossal, the leading nationally registered professional fundraiser. Under Hagen's leadership since 2021, Colossal has made an extraordinary impact on fundraising with a commitment to supporting diverse charitable causes and organizations across the globe. Raising a remarkable $183M through its innovative online competitions, Hagen has successfully showcased that Colossal's unique approach to philanthropy is an effective model for ultramodern times.

In this HCI Webinar, I talk with Paul Falcone about recruiting and interviewing in a tight labor market and how to identify 'high-probability' hires. Paul Falcone is a renowned expert on effective hiring, performance management, and leadership development, specializing in helping companies build higher performing leadership teams. He spent the last three decades in human resources executive roles at organizations including Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, NBCUniversal, Time Warner, and City of Hope Cancer Center Hospital.

This video addresses a critical disconnect between the career aspirations of young people and the actual needs of the labor market. It highlights how many youths, driven by passion and influenced by popular culture, flock toward highly visible, glamorous careers like YouTubers, gamers, musicians, and fashion designers. However, this enthusiasm overlooks many essential yet less visible jobs—such as plumbers, supply chain managers, and skilled trades—that the world urgently needs to function smoothly. This mismatch creates a significant problem, where young people invest time and money into careers that may lead to underemployment or unemployment, while vital roles remain unfilled. Highlights 🎯 There is a significant gap between the careers young people dream of and the jobs the economy actually needs. 🧙‍♂️ The “four horsemen of career confusion”—poor guidance, visibility bias, lack of experience, and personal consequences—cause career misalignment. 📉 Many young people face underemployment or unemployment despite investing heavily in education. 💼 Career guidance is often inadequate, with limited counseling and reliance on social media or informal advice. 🔗 Stronger partnerships between schools and employers, including apprenticeships and internships, can bridge the gap. 📊 Embedding real-time labor market data into career education empowers better decision-making. 🔄 Continuous feedback loops between employers and educators help improve career programs dynamically. Key Insights 🧭 Career Guidance is Crucial but Neglected: The video underscores that career counseling in many schools is either minimal or ineffective. Without professional guidance, students rely on unreliable sources like social media trends or anecdotal advice from friends and family. This leads young people to pursue “popular” careers that may not offer sustainable employment. Effective career counseling should be data-driven, ongoing, and start early (around age 13-14) to shape realistic aspirations. This insight highlights the urgent need for educational systems to invest in career services as a core function rather than an afterthought. 🎭 Visibility Bias Skews Perception of Careers: The glamorization of certain professions in media and popular culture creates a skewed understanding of viable career paths. Professions such as lawyers, doctors, and entertainers receive abundant exposure, while essential fields like supply chain management, cybersecurity, and skilled trades remain largely invisible. This lack of awareness prevents many young people from even considering these vital roles. Addressing visibility bias involves diversifying career education to include a wide array of occupations, thereby expanding the horizon of opportunity. 🏗️ Experience is a Gateway to Informed Choices: Abstract knowledge of a job is insufficient for making informed career decisions. Hands-on experience through internships, apprenticeships, and workplace visits is critical for young people to understand what a job entails. Without this, students may pursue fields that do not suit their skills or interests, leading to frustration and wasted resources. The video stresses the importance of integrating practical experiences into education, mirroring successful international models like Germany’s apprenticeship system where students learn and earn simultaneously. 💔 Misalignment Has Long-Term Consequences: The personal and economic toll of career misalignment can be severe. Young people who start their careers in low-paying or unrelated jobs face lifetime earnings reductions, hampering their financial independence and quality of life. Beyond economics, the emotional impact includes anxiety, disillusionment, and loss of confidence, which can affect mental health and overall well-being. This insight calls for career systems that support not only economic outcomes but also psychological resilience. 🔄 Collaboration Between Schools and Employers is Essential: One-off career days are insufficient to bridge the skills gap. Instead, structured, ongoing partnerships are necessary. Regular communication forums where educators and industry leaders exchange information on future skills demand can align curricula with labor market needs. This collaboration ensures that education systems can adapt proactively, preparing students for the jobs that will exist, not just those that exist now. 📈 Labor Market Intelligence Empowers Strategic Decisions: Embedding real-time data about job growth, salary ranges, and in-demand skills into education transforms career planning from guesswork into strategic decision-making. When students, parents, and teachers have access to reliable labor market insights, they can make better-informed choices that balance passion and practicality. OUTLINE: 00:00:00 - The Gap Nobody Talks About 00:01:04 - The Four Horsemen of Career Confusion 00:02:26 - Who Gets Hurt? 00:03:27 - Three Big Fixes That Actually Work 00:04:37 - Building Bridges to the Future

This research explores the growing disconnect between the career ambitions of young people and the actual needs of the modern labor market. Research indicates that students often gravitate toward highly visible, "passion-driven" roles while overlooking critical sectors like manufacturing, technology, and renewable energy. This misalignment is driven by a lack of professional career counseling, limited workplace exposure, and a failure to address the impacts of artificial intelligence. To resolve these gaps, the research advocates for stronger partnerships between schools and employers, enhanced data transparency, and specialized training programs. By integrating real-time labor market intelligence into education, policymakers can help youth find sustainable paths that balance personal fulfillment with economic reality. Successful models from countries like Switzerland and Singapore illustrate how systemic feedback loops can build a more resilient and productive workforce.

Abstract: Youth career aspirations increasingly diverge from labor-market demand across developed economies, raising concerns about long-term workforce sustainability, productivity, and individual wellbeing. Drawing on recent survey data from Latvia and comparative international evidence, this article examines the structural drivers of aspiration-demand misalignment, including limited professional career guidance, inadequate labor-market information, minimal work-based learning opportunities, and absent discourse on technological disruption. The analysis quantifies organizational and individual consequences of these gaps, then synthesizes evidence-based interventions spanning enhanced career guidance infrastructure, employer-education partnerships, AI literacy integration, and demand-responsive communication strategies. Real-world examples from education systems, employers, and policy initiatives in Finland, Singapore, Switzerland, Germany, and Australia illustrate scalable approaches. The article concludes by proposing three pillars for building long-term workforce planning capability: recalibrating educational-economic dialogue, embedding distributed labor-market intelligence, and institutionalizing continuous feedback loops between education providers, employers, and youth. Findings suggest that aspiration-demand gaps reflect systemic information failures rather than inherent youth preferences, pointing toward actionable, evidence-led solutions for policy-makers, educators, and employers globally. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This conversation explores the growing disconnect between the career ambitions of young people and the actual needs of the modern labor market. Research indicates that students often gravitate toward highly visible, "passion-driven" roles while overlooking critical sectors like manufacturing, technology, and renewable energy. This misalignment is driven by a lack of professional career counseling, limited workplace exposure, and a failure to address the impacts of artificial intelligence. To resolve these gaps, they advocate for stronger partnerships between schools and employers, enhanced data transparency, and specialized training programs. By integrating real-time labor market intelligence into education, policymakers can help youth find sustainable paths that balance personal fulfillment with economic reality. Successful models from countries like Switzerland and Singapore illustrate how systemic feedback loops can build a more resilient and productive workforce. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This research examines the often-overlooked question of AI and labor displacement: not just which jobs are exposed to AI disruption, but which workers have the capacity to adapt if job loss occurs. We explore recent research showing that while 37 million U.S. workers face high AI exposure, vulnerability depends heavily on factors like financial resources, age, geographic location, and skill transferability. The research reveals that approximately 6.1 million workers—particularly women in clerical and administrative roles—face both high AI exposure and limited adaptive capacity. The research demonstrates evidence-based organizational and policy responses aimed at ensuring AI's transformation of the labor market promotes shared prosperity rather than concentrated hardship, with a focus on targeted support systems, skill development programs, and building systemic resilience for the most vulnerable workers.