Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
Growing up, I always enjoyed math and science which steered me over to becoming an engineer in my career. After being able to land my dream job at a company that designs, develops, builds, and supports one of the world’s most advanced products, I wanted to help others do the same.
Job hunting was and is the hardest thing ever — until I figured out the right job-hunting frameworks.
In 2016, I had the hardest time finding a job out of college.
I applied to 100+ jobs and in 1 month, I would hear back from absolutely no one. I thought it was normal and part of the game — that applying to jobs online felt like a black hole.
These results are terrible and it was because of my resume.
My resume looked absolutely terrible.
I didn’t know how to write a resume.
No one taught me and I messed up in not having a mentor or even seeking feedback from colleagues.
How would I know any better what I was doing was wrong? I thought it was all part of the game.
After an eternity of trial and error, I figured out what the right job searching frameworks were which led me to land my dream job.
I aspire to teach all of those trying to land their dream jobs the right frameworks so that they too can land themselves opportunities they wouldn’t be able to.
It was through the creation of my career services business which developed the creative side of my career.
I had a business idea and a story, but I needed a platform to be able to communicate it.
Through the creation of short form and long form video content, I’ve been able to amass millions of views and resulting in thousands of monthly clicks per month on my business website.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
My company truly focuses on giving customers a high-quality experience. I’ve been able to help hundreds of them land their dream job through clear cut frameworks that I’ve developed in my experience as an engineering career coach.
One day recently, in the sauna at the gym I go to, someone I knew said to me “I saw you on TikTok”
Getting recognized in real life was one of the craziest things ever to happen to me regarding my business career. It was so surreal and almost like a “We made it” type of moment.
Prior to beginning my career in my business regarding career services and video creation, I was just working as an engineer. I never even remotely thought about social media or video creation back then, but now video creation is such a huge part of my business. It’s so integral in my day-to-day life such that I’m constantly thinking of ways to create new content or increase the quality of how I currently create content.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
1. Courage
Business is one of the most grueling things ever. It takes an insane amount of courage to be able to spend hundreds of hours on something, with no idea that it’s going to work or not. There are also many intimidating situations in business such as interfacing with clients or other business leaders in challenging phone calls, demos, meetings, negotiations, and closing deals.
2. Industriousness
Business requires long hours of constant trial and error to figure out what works. Tons of early mornings, late nights, and constant consumption of coffee to grind out work was needed.
3. Resilience
Can you fall down and get back up? Business will knock you down on your feet multiple times, but the most important thing is to be resilient to the failure that will inevitably come your way.
Let’s now move to the main point of our discussion about AI. Can you explain how AI is disrupting your industry? Is this disruption hurting or helping your bottom line?
AI is disrupting the career coaching industry in both good and bad ways. Good such that there are many tools that are being integrated and implemented in day to day job search to streamline the process for job seekers. It’s an extremely great idea in theory, but the bad is that there are a lot of garbage tools out there. Ultimately though, I do believe that the best do rise to the top, so we will see which companies and players provide value with AI.
Which specific AI technology has had the most significant impact on your industry?
Mostly tools that streamline job searching. This includes AI job search automation, AI job interview copilots, resume and cover letter generators — all really great stuff. If we can get these tools to give us EXACTLY what we need as opposed to a good enough, even better.
Can you share a pivotal moment when you recognized the profound impact AI would have on your sector?
I am constantly building in the career coach and job search niche. I cover subjects such as resume, cover letter, LinkedIn optimization, and mock interview help. To build and market myself as an authority, I constantly post on social media and have built a large following of 30K+. Because I’ve built myself as an authority, there are several AI job search tools that have contacted me to market their services. Some come out with great products, but most are still developing. It’s still extremely early to understand the downstream impacts of AI going forward.
How are you preparing your workforce for the integration of AI, and what skills do you believe will be most valuable in an AI-enhanced future?
As an engineer, I believe in garbage in and garbage out. There will be a lot of “prompt engineering” where to get the best answer, we need to feed it the right inputs. Because this will eliminate a lot of the need for things such as brute force calculating, we will need to develop a better strategic thinking as individuals to take advantage of AI being able to do tedious tasks for us.
What are the biggest challenges in upskilling your workforce for an AI-centric future?
People are slow when it comes to change. We must be patient before we can dive in head first in an ever-changing landscape.
Is what we are producing with AI of high quality to our downstream end user and customers? Are we really providing value? What favors are we doing to those if we provide no value through the use of AI?
Ultimately, no matter what the situation is, I believe in a value driven approach such that I aim to provide value to those that need it.
What are your “Five Things You Need To Do, If AI Is Disrupting Your Industry”?
1 . Stay on top of things
It’s important with an ever changing landscape that AI brings us such that we stay on top of things. Some easy ways to do so are to follow those that heavily use AI, forums, news posts, and to constantly socialize with those that are also in a similar space. Socializing goes a long way regarding staying up on industry trends.
2 . Research
Research is paramount to develop knowledge regarding AI. Although the technology is relatively new, there is an ample amount of research through search engines such as google or forums such as Reddit to easily get your feet wet.
3 . Adapt
Can you use AI to streamline any of your day-to-day functions? Like I mentioned above, maybe you can use it to streamline your job search, you can use it to create lists, you can use it to track spreadsheets. Identify where it can benefit you from a personal or business standpoint.
4 . Execute
Instead of just reading about or researching AI, use it. Execution goes much rather than reading or research ever will. See how you can use it to benefit your life. Maybe even pick up coding so that you can contribute to developing large language models that will power the technical infrastructure of the world.
5 . Evaluate
Use AI for awhile and see what the actual improvements to your life are. Is it actually making things faster for you? Is it slowing you down? Is it giving you a headache? You will need to periodically set checkpoints to ensure that AI is helping you and not hurting you.
What are the most common misconceptions about AI within your industry, and how do you address them?
That all AI tools are garbage. While many AI tools can be garbage, there are a select high quality ones that aren’t. Some of these AI tools will change how you do things and can save you time and money down the line.
Don’t know how to write a resume? You can simply use ChatGPT to help you format one.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?
“To become more confident, you need to become more competent”
To make business work, you need an absurd amount of confidence in your own abilities to get things done. When I stumbled upon this phrase, it made me realize that the only thing I need to become more confident is to put in the reps. Practice, study, read, execute, and doing things over and over while racking successes along the way is an insanely positive feedback loop when it comes to building confidence. When you’re more confident, it carries when you’re doing marketing, sales, writing, or doing anything related to your business.
Off-topic, but I’m curious. As someone steering the ship, what thoughts or concerns often keep you awake at night? How do those thoughts influence your daily decision-making process?
Ultimately, I think about is what I’m doing worth it? What if I’m doing all this work for something that I don’t end up wanting down the line? There are a lot of uncertainties that come with life, however, I wouldn’t want to be doing anything other than what I’m doing today. It’s extremely fulfilling and enjoyable to grow, develop, build, and provide value.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
For everyone to take matters into their own hands and take responsibility, accountability, and ownership for their actions and their situation. As much as we want others to help us, it’s ultimately up to us individually to execute upon what we really want.
How can our readers further follow you online?
Follow me @ultmeche on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter.
Additionally, check out ultmeche.com — a career resources website focused on giving jobseekers the best tools they can get to land their dream jobs.
Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!