What Actually Gets You Hired in 2025

Table of Contents

• Mindset: Peek Behind the Curtain

• Life Skill: Control the Controllable

• Career Advice: What Actually Gets You Hired

• This is Cool: CivAI Deepfake Sandbox

• Bonus: $10,000 Giveaway 🤑

MINDSET OF THE WEEK
Peek Behind the Curtain

Love this idea from Bridget about peeking behind the curtain at what’s engaging young learners. Gotta be careful though.

I’m like Darren in the comments. I know for a fact that I would get sucked in to these videos and the algorithm, if I allowed myself to download the app. I am TikTok and Instagram abstinent 😇 

The video Bridget shares is superrrr interesting. Maybe this is old news for educators, but not for me. The creator is someone studying law talking about all the AI tools she uses to study and battle procrastination.

This wasn’t one of those “let AI cheat for me” examples. Seems like she was actually using the tools to study more effectively 🤝

AI has a ton of potential in that space. For example, I use Speechify to read almost everything online that’s longer than a paragraph. You wouldn’t consider it AI like you do ChatGPT, but the truth is, most things today are now being supercharged by AI.

Like it or not, students are going to be using the best tools available to get the job done. You would be too. Doesn’t hurt to try and understand what those are.

You can watch the video Bridget shares, below.

Or if the camera is too shaky for you (I get it), here’s the tl;dr:

She introduces the video talking about the must haves in tools she uses to help with studying:

• Free or super cheap

• Intuitive/easy to use

• Actually accurate; no hallucinations

Then she introduces the (non-sponsored) tools that she is recommending:

1 - NotebookLM

• Big fan of this recommendation. This is what I used in last weeks edition (with screenshots; 3rd section) and have talked about here before. I use this tool daily. Basically works like a ChatGPT - you can have a back and forth conversation (and more), but it only uses the sources you give it.

2 - Notability - with audio sync

• This actually looks pretty cool. Powerful note taking app, but with a feature called audio sync that lets you record the lecture, and sync up to when you made the notes. So she annotates a powerpoint with notes, and records lecture at the same time. Later when studying, she can click the note she made on the ppt, and it will sync to that point in the recorded lecture for her to listen to the prof give more context, if her note wasn’t clear.

3 - Goblin Tools: Magic ToDo

• This ones simple, but I get it. It basically takes any task/goal you give it, and then breaks it down into super manageable, bite sized chunks. A lot of people get overwhelmed looking at how tall Everest is. Lot easier to climb Everest when you focus on one peak at a time.

For the youngins reading this, let me know if you’re using any must have tools I can share with the community.

I actually wrote ‘let me know if you’re using any cracked tools’ to sound cool, but it felt so forced 😭

LIFE SKILLS
Control the Controllable

I recently pitched the principal of a high school where I live to let me run a life skills club 🤞 

I’d meet with students once a week for an hour after school for 12 weeks.

There would be mindset and life skill content for students to work through independently before the session. During the in person time, it would be all conversation and reflection about the content they just consumed.

And then after the session, they’d have the rest of the week to actually apply that weeks mindset and life skill in the real world. Each week would be something new.

Stoicism being the exception. I made it a core pillar. It’s a recurring guest.

If I could mandate one subject that I thought all students should have to take in order to live successful lives in 2025, it would be Stoicism. But it would be an action-based class, because Stoicism is an action-based philosophy.

There are many misperceptions, and varying definitions of the philosophy, but at it’s core, it’s a set of tools you can employ to live to your highest potential, and thus, a good life.

Living to your highest potential includes not giving energy to things that are outside of your control.

If you can’t control something, what is the point of focusing on that thing??

This is a muscle and a skill that becomes a lot easier with time, repetition and self-reflection.

The click moment for me years ago was when I read this line from Marcus Aurelius.

That was 2000+ years ago and still truer than ever. That’s one of the reasons I find Stoicism so interesting.

The world changes quickly, humans don’t.

For anyone curious about Stoicism, I always recommend this book as a starter. It does a solid job introducing the history, and explaining the key concepts with simple visuals and analogies.

After you understand the basics, then its time to pick up anything Ryan Holiday has published.

CAREER ADVICE
What Actually Gets You Hired in 2025

There are going to be exceptions to the rule, and some industries will move slower than others, but this is it. It’s a teachable, repeatable formula:.

• Take action on things that allow you to build real skills - and then understand how to leverage tools to tell people about it.

Or put more simply: do things and tell people.

You don’t need post-secondary to do things, or tell people, in 2025.

It’s not a contrarian viewpoint any more to question the value of post-secondary. It’s not the sure thing that it used to be. Not even close.

Even graduates from elite MBA programs are struggling to find jobs.

The only reason Lindsay even said her take was controversial is because she’s good at LinkedIn and knows how to get you to stop scrolling. Worked for me.

Not saying students shouldn’t still participate in post-secondary, but they should recognize that it’s much harder these days to exchange that piece of paper alone for meaningful employment opportunities.

Prove it with a portfolio. And then make sure to tell people.

THIS IS COOL
Deepfake Sandox

This is equal parts cool, and scary.

Why tell kids about the dangers of deepfakes, when you can show them. Using their faces. This new tech makes that possible - no technical skill required.

You don’t even need to upload a photo. And luckily, you can’t.

The websites uses your webcam, and then lets you choose what setting you want your deepfake to exist in, ranging from you in prison, to you in a courtroom, all the way to the more playful you riding a unicorn.

The people behind this program are building tools like this to bring awareness to the importance of the conversations that need to be had around the ethics and implications of technologies like this.

The tool doesn’t save your photo. It’s just for illustrative purposes.

“We believe that firsthand experience with AI is crucial for making informed decisions about its future.”

It’s definitely a conversation starter.

Want your the kids in your class to put their phone down? Open class with a demo of this technology. Ask for volunteers.

Just be prepared to follow it up with a meaningful, important discussion.

They also have a few other tools/demos worth exploring with your students:

• Voter Turnout Manipulation Using AI

• AI-Powered Cybersecurity Threats

• Swifties for Trump Image Generator

BONUS
$10,000 Micro Grant Giveaway on myBlueprint

This went live this week 🎉 So excited.

This was one of the special projects I have been working on for the myBlueprint community. It’s a proof of concept in its current form, but from the very early feedback we’ve been receiving, we’ll be growing and scaling this program.

My experience coaching teenagers at TKS taught me that young people are far more capable than society typically gives them credit for. They can do meaningful work now, they just need a little guidance, support, and ideally - resources.

That’s where these micro grants come in. In collaboration with the DMZ, an early stage technology incubatory and startup ecosystem, we’re giving away 20 x $500 micro grants for students to build tech related projects with.

The DMZ wants to help support the future of entrepreneurship in Canada. And luckily, they are putting their money where their mouth is.

This collaboration is limited to high school students in the Greater Toronto Area. The DMZ runs a free summer program for students, so they’re also looking to drive applications to that in-person program.

My bigger goal is to build up a $100k+ fund of available micro grants for the upcoming 25-26 school year. A different company would sponsor each month, focused on a different theme.

These DMZ micro grants are tech focused because the DMZ supports tech entrepreneurs - that’s their thing. But I would also love to see a month dedicated to community focused projects, environmental focused projects, trades focused projects, etc.

A different theme & company for each month of the school year, all in support of students working on engaging projects of their choosing.

Students need opportunities to develop hands on, real-world skills.

Good old days of relying on your resume and report card are long gone, friends.

These micro grants help students do things, and tell people 😉

If you know of any companies/organizations that would be open to a conversation about sponsoring a few thousand dollars worth of micro grants to put in front of the 1 million+ students using myBlueprint across Canada, warm introductions are always appreciated 🙏