👋 Hello!

Welcome to the eighth edition of The Early Impact, the newsletter that provides you with news, updates and resources on how to build your career as an emerging professional.

As we now sit comfortably in Spring, it’s been another exciting month! For you, of course, I’ve got some great content to share, but for me, I had the chance to host a Q&A panel with some senior leaders from my firm about essential market skills and relationship-building techniques (read more about it here), donate some blood using my social impact time, and become an AI champion within the firm (you would have seen in previous editions of the newsletter the importance of AI.

Plus, in mid-October, I’ll be speaking in a webinar on “The Consulting Edge - Beyond Technical Skills (you can find out more here).

If you want to keep up to date with more of my professional work, feel free to follow my LinkedIn!

Now, let’s get into September’s content!

📰 News & Updates

The monthly roundup of emerging professional news and updates

• Australian job market robust even as growth is stalling: Australia's unemployment rate was steady in August despite economic growth flatlining over recent months, with employment growing solidly and job market participation remaining at record levels. (WSJ)

• The hottest courses to help keep up with the pace of change: Executive education spans an ever-rising number of subjects such as AI, the energy transition and data analytics - but which are the most in-demand? (AFR)

• How to get a white-collar job without a degree: University enrolments are declining as more high-school leavers like Tony Nguyen (featured in the article) AND ME (not featured in the article) skip campus and head straight to the workforce. (AFR)

• Global hiring intentions hold steady in Q4, ManpowerGroup survey shows: Companies’ global hiring intentions are expected to hold steady in the fourth quarter of 2024, even though the outlook for the quarter ahead was weaker than the final quarter of 2023, ManpowerGroup's Employment Outlook Survey showed. (Reuters)

• The two trends making Gen Z tech grads less' job ready’: An acceleration in the pace of technological change and the switch to online learning during the pandemic have left today’s technology graduates less prepared for the workforce than previous cohorts. (AFR)

• Early-Career Women Suffer From Ageism More Than Any Other Group, According To Report: According to the 10th edition of the McKinsey and LeanIn.Org Women in the Workplace report, 49% of women under 30 have experienced ageism, compared to 38% of women over 60. Of particular interest is that levels of ageism equal out between men and women once they reach 60, so the disparity is more pronounced in younger workers. (Forbes)

• With Amazon ordering all staff back into the office, what can you expect from your workplace?: Tech giants have split over WFH rights, with many Australian businesses adopting hybrid approaches to when and how people need to attend work. (ABC News)

📑 Publications

Useful references, documents, and sources

• Is the Faux-Productivity Problem Real or Imagined?: 67% of respondents deny they fake activity, but if you ask their managers, though, it seems the jury is still out, with 48% of managers saying that faking activity is a common issue on their team. (Workhuman)

• How to spot when a CV has been written by AI: It’s not always easy to tell when a CV or cover letter was written by generative artificial intelligence – at least not for humans. But perhaps the biggest red flag is the lack of personality or the sense that the words on the page are so abstract and vague they could be used to describe anyone. (AFR)

📢 Opportunities

Limited-time career paths, educational scholarships, and professional growth opportunities that can shape your future

• Devpost: Join the world's best online and in-person hackathons. Multiple hackathons are listed here.

• Tech Council: Virtual Work Experiences for young learners to explore technology careers and jobs for free.

• Kaggle: Grow your data science skills by competing in exciting competitions. Multiple competitions are listed here.

• Career Diary: Find your passion. Join a community. Explore new hobbies. Multiple different opportunities are listed here.

• Hackathons.com.au: a curated list of upcoming hackathons and STEM challenges in Australia, New Zealand, and around the globe. Multiple hackathons and STEM challenges are listed here.

🗓️ Events

Online and In-Person events for progressing your career

• The Consulting Edge - Beyond Technical Skills: A webinar on Oct 16th about why soft skills are the secret sauce to a successful consulting career, and what a day in the life of a graduate in consulting looks like!

• Network Like a Pro: A webinar on Oct 29th designed to help you harness the power of professional networking.

• Build Club: A community of AI Engineers, researchers and builders pushing the frontier of AI forward. Join us and build your startup with a community who cares about AI. Multiple events are listed here.

• QPay: Discover university clubs, events, and merch. Multiple events are listed here.

• Sydney AI, Data and Tech Events: The hottest technology and AI events in Sydney! Multiple events are listed here.

• Melbourne AI, Data and Tech Events: The hottest technology and AI events in Melbourne! Multiple events are listed here.

🧠 Thought Leadership

Expertise, insight, opinions and experience in careers

• Why you’re not alone in enjoying your job: Satisfied employees are convinced they are lucky exceptions in a world of toxic bosses and burnout. (AFR)

• The new corporate ladder is flatter than ever: What are the skills a modern-day executive needs, and if you have aspirations for leadership, how do you go about making it to the top? (AFR)

• The allure of the loud know-nothing: Do huge entry-level salaries encourage the selection of assertive, confident, forceful people rather than quieter, shyer rivals who are more competent? (AFR)

• Heading back to the office? Here are 5 ways to make the most of it: There are, of course, wonderful advantages to remote or hybrid work, but there is also new evidence for the benefits of going back to the office. (Forbes)

• The best time to upskill? All the time: Rather than having a mid-career break to take a six-month or year-long executive education course, upskilling and reskilling is now considered a decades-long endeavour, spanning an entire working life and potentially consisting of multiple short courses. (AFR)

• 4 Signs That Climbing The Corporate Ladder May Not Be For You: A fulfilling professional career looks different for everyone. While many find the traditional path of climbing the corporate ladder attractive, not everyone dreams of a fancy title or the corner office with the best view. (Forbes)

• Struggling to make decisions at work? Learn how to build confidence: Effective decision-makers balance competing priorities and options while staying deeply aware of the needs of their stakeholders, from employees and colleagues to customers and investors. (The Conversation)

• ‘We need to talk’: the hidden cost of unclear messages: The “emotional overhead” of trying to decode ambiguous emails is just one piece of problematic fallout from poor communication at work. (AFR)

🛠️ Featured Tool

One great career tool you need

Arc, the browser reinventing the internet

There are a lot of browsers out there, like Safari, Chrome, Edge, Brave, and Opera.
But I’ve been using "Arc" by The Browser Company (BCNY) for a while now (I joined in December 2022), and it really does live up to its vision of “a better way to use the internet” by “saving you as much time as possible”.

Initially, I wrote this as a long section listing the browser’s features in productivity, organisation, and customisation (I can’t forget about AI, either!), but there’s honestly too much to discuss.

If I were to turn it into an anecdote, I would think about Atomic Habits by James Clear (a great book!). In my mind, BCNY is making browsing better, 1% at a time, by optimising and upgrading all these different parts of the browsing experience.

Try out Arc: https://arc.net/gift/14613893

🃏Quick Extra

A bonus from me

This is maybe a bit of a different “Quick Extra” than I usually include in the newsletter, but I found an article with 100 tiny tricks to help with everything from digital overwhelm to lumpy sugar and unpaid bills.

The article lists 100 small tips to help people improve their lives and reduce stress. The tips cover various topics, and the author hopes that these small changes can help people feel more organised and less stressed. The article is inspired by the start of the academic year (for those in the Northern Hemisphere) or, for me, the new financial year/half-year milestone, which often motivates people to make positive changes in their lives.

My favourite tip: #47 Automate savings: Sol recommends setting up automatic transfers to a savings account each time you get paid. “This small action ensures that you’re consistently building a financial buffer, even if you occasionally forget to set aside money manually. Over time, these automated contributions can significantly help in achieving your financial goals.”

…and that’s all for this month’s edition of The Early Impact. Feel free to hit 'reply' and let me know how I did!

Cheers,

Noah

P.S. I post on LinkedIn about cybersecurity, emerging technology, careers, and learning & development.