Stop Chasing Job Titles & Do This Instead | Jodi Kantor on Finding Your Life's Work

For white-collar workers, the recent headlines about AI are more than a little bit fear-inducing. AI could automate millions of white-collar jobs within 18 months. College graduates are booing commencement speakers who bring it up. And women — whose jobs are three times more likely to be automated — are falling behind on AI adoption. So what do you actually do? Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist Jodi Kantor has answers. Her new book, How to Start: Discovering Your Life's Work, grew out of a question her Columbia University students asked her that she couldn't shake: how, in this environment, are we supposed to find our life's work? The answer, it turns out, applies just as much to a woman reinventing herself at 52 as it does to a 22-year-old just starting out. Chapters: 0:00 – Relax about coherence: the Reem Kassis story 1:02 – Intro: AI, white-collar work, and what comes next 2:50 – Why grads are booing AI commencement speakers 5:42 – Inside the Columbia speech that sparked the book 8:24 – The Craft + Need framework explained 11:47 – Why "learn to code" advice keeps failing us 13:42 – The helicopter parent trap in job searching 15:45 – Embrace struggle: the only way out is through 16:01 – Jodi's own career failures and comeback 17:09 – Why mentorship is in danger 18:21 – Advice for women starting over later in life 20:16 – How younger mentees can help us grow 21:13 – Relax about coherence (full story) 24:49 – Is a non-linear career path actually an asset? 26:02 – How to get beyond the digital hiring wall 26:18 – Jodi's 3 cold outreach tips that actually work 28:53 – Wrap-up and book recommendation Resources & Links: 📖 Ready to turn your savings into a paycheck that lasts a lifetime? Pre-order Jean's new book, The Forever Paycheck, out September 9th: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo... 🧠 Join the HerMoney InvestingFixx Club: https://join.investingfixx.com/ 💬 Got a question for our next mailbag? Email us at [email protected] 🎧 Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts: https://pod.link/1098802558 ❤️ Liked this episode? Give it a thumbs up and share with a friend who needs to hear it.