AI and jobs: Sara Smolevitz explains how you fit in.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Join us now is Sarah Sarah. I'm going to try
your name. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's all evs Yep, you got it, all right.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
All you welcome in. Thank you for being here. You're
a design manager at code Ninjas. To talk about the
tech based learning and leaning world we're in right now.
I'm really curious and I'm anxious to talk to you
because the job market is changing so fast every day
before our very eyes because of AI and all the
technology going on. So let's talk about where we are

(00:29):
with this job market and where people need to be
to be in this job market if they plan to
get into it first of all, and second all stay
in it.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah. Absolutely, I think especially as AI becomes more and
more prominent in all jobs, people really need to know
how to use it as a tool, not to rely
on it. I think there are so many tools out there,
even starting from chat, GPT and all those generative AI
platforms that take a lot of the work out for

(00:59):
You need kids to learn how to really use it
as a partner, much like you would use a calculator,
for example, in math class. To really use it as
a tool, but it can help you accomplish kind of
small tasks, but then figure out how it can kind
of free up your understanding, your conceptual thinking to focus
on greater tasks and how you can apply that kind

(01:22):
of in the job field. So whether that's taking out,
you know, some more menial tasks and just allowing you
to think about kind of the bigger picture, I think
is probably the direction that we're heading into right right.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
You know, it wasn't too long ago with the development
of computer technology and writing software, and if you weren't
up to speed on certain things that had to do
with tech in the computer world, computer science, then you're
going to miss out in the job world. And if
you were on top of it, you had a great
opportunity to pretty much land a pretty decent job. And now,

(01:55):
I mean, I would imagine there are people in school
right now that are just starting their freshman year in
college that by the time they graduate, AI the way
it is now is going to be obsolete compared to
where it's going to be in four years.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
M h Yeah, absolutely. And I think we're seeing a
lot of articles even coming out of you know, recent
college graduates who have software engineering or computer science degree
is really struggling to find jobs, which is a scary
perspective to think about, but kind of to the earlier point,
I think a lot of those kind of tasks are
being replaced and they're almost taking not the fun out

(02:30):
of it. But I recently read an article about how
AI is kind of making the computer and software engineering
space a bit more like a factory, where the AI
is kind of taking the fun out of it and
the software engineers are really focusing on I don't know,
there's less creativity applied to it because I think the
AI is really responsible for doing that, which is just

(02:53):
kind of an interesting perspective, and I think something that
students coming up are going to have to face and
kind of figure out, like what lane they sort of
want to be in, and how they want to partner
with AI, and maybe just like the broader context around it,
what do they actually want to be working towards, even
if it doesn't look like a stereotypical software developer jobs.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, if you were speaking to a high school, you know,
class of seniors, you know a couple of hundred kids
sitting in an auditorium they brought you in to talk about.
All right, you're always planning to go to college here's
some of the areas that you might want to consider
and things that you probably absolutely need to you know,
be involved with as far as studies go. What would
you recommend to this classroom of seniors sit right there

(03:34):
in front of you.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, that's a good question. I think like moving forward,
you know, as our world continues to face you know,
big problems and big design challenges, just thinking about what
those issue areas can look like. Whether that's focusing a
lot more on data science, I think is probably a
field that's going to continue to expand and build up.
I think kind of building off of computer science, but

(03:58):
I think machine learning is always a field that's going
to continue to grow. I think anything in the sustainability
space and finding solutions that can allow us to you know,
continue to live safely and build just efficient systems to
maximize our use of the environment. I think any of
those in a lot of right kind of using AI

(04:21):
but in tandem with a topic that you're passionate about, and.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
So yeah, I mean, no matter what, no matter is
what field you decide to go into, AI is going
to be a part of it in some way for sure.
Sarah Smolwitz, thank you so much. Learning design manager at
code Ninjas,