From Breadth to Depth: How to Create Opportunities in a Dynamic World (Part Two of My Conversation with Quynh Xuan Nguyen)

The world has been changing rapidly, so how can you develop your skills to work in such an environment? In this second part of our conversation, Quynh describes how she strategizes between depth and breadth in learning new skills in order to adapt to the changes in our world, whether those be limited job prospects or new AI technologies like ChatGPT changing the nature of work. Also, how do you find your way while still remaining true to yourself?

Her strategy has been to use breadth by developing skills across a wide variety of contexts to decide what she most likes to do in life and to adapt to the ways new technologies change work itself and the skills necessary for such work. As she gets older and more established, she then uses this to decide what areas she would like to explore in depth of the what she discovers that she enjoys most in life and also seems to pay well enough in the current economy. This is a resilient strategy in today’s changing world.

Here is more information about her life coaching, yoga, and self-improvement initiatives: https://songthanhthoi.me.

The Hustle of Finding Your Way in Life: Part One of My Conversation with Quynh Xuan Nguyen

How can you build a career for yourself when you have many interests in life? Quynh Xuan Nguyen has had many, many passions and is not the type of person who easily focuses on only one activity or job all day, everyday. In the first part of our interview, she describes how she developed multiple interests overtime to build several side hustles and careers ranging from becoming a yoga instructor to a banker to a data analyst, worked for different companies around the world, and what she learned from her adventures.

Multiple side hustles, I have found, are particularly common in Southeast Asia, like in Vietnam where Quynh lives. There many young adults such as her often must develop multiple careers and income streams to withstand unreasonable jobs, limited opportunities for advancement, changing economic conditions, and other societal trends she discusses in our conversation. These problems definitely occur in other parts of the world as well and may well be something you have faced. Not everyone enjoys doing one thing, or has the ability to do so in the contemporary economy, and her life provides helpful inspiration for how exploring multiple paths at once can build self-satisfaction and resilience.

Here is more information about her life coaching, yoga, and self-improvement initiatives: https://songthanhthoi.me.

Data-Driven Diversity: How Evidence-Based HR Can Create Equitable Organizations (with Élide Souza)

What is it like to use data science to understand employees in an organization to help improve people’s experiences at the firm? In this next podcast interview, I spoke with Élide Souza, a people’s data science at the Brazilian bank, Banco BV. She manages a data science team that researches how to improve employee’s experience and increase diversity.

This is part of a new trend called “People Analytics” where organizations hire data scientists within their HR (Human Resources) departments to conduct social science research in order to help improve organizational culture. In our conversation, she describes how she approaches such social research, including how she addresses potential bias, approaches intervention, and navigates the ethical implications of such work.

As a fellow social science-focused data scientist, I find this work fascinating.

The Shifting Gears: Women’s Voices and Generational Change in South Korea’s Workplace (Interview Part 4)

In this final part of our conversation, SungHee Oh discusses how she learned she was passionate about union work and how she became the Director of International Affairs at the KPTU.

Over the course of our entire conversation, SungHee, Director of International Affairs at the KPTU, discusses gender-based discrimination women have encountered since entering the transportation industry, generational shifts among the youth changing societal dynamics in South Korea, and the increase in gig workers in the transportation industry. She explains how the comparatively more senior KPTU has sought to adapt to these contemporary changes to the transportation industry.

This is the second interview in a new podcast interview series in which I talk with experts about the social issues that help shape our world. You can see the first interview in the series about the, at the time, upcoming 2024 election here.

Disclaimer: I was having some technical issues, so that’s why during parts of the interview, I may sound a little glitchy. Luckily, SungHee sounds mostly fine.

Links of the Materials We Discuss:

KPTU website: https://kptu.net/english/index.aspx

KPTU FB page: https://www.facebook.com/kptu00

The Shifting Gears: Women’s Voices and Generational Change in South Korea’s Workplace (Interview Part 3)

What are some of the biggest issues currently facing workers in South Korea, particularly in the transit industry? This third part of our conversation focuses some of the overall concerns women face within South Korean society.

Over the course of our entire conversation, SungHee, Director of International Affairs at the KPTU, discusses gender-based discrimination women have encountered since entering the transportation industry, generational shifts among the youth changing societal dynamics in South Korea, and the increase in gig workers in the transportation industry. She explains how the comparatively more senior KPTU has sought to adapt to these contemporary changes to the transportation industry.

This is the second interview in a new podcast interview series in which I talk with experts about the social issues that help shape our world. You can see the first interview in the series about the, at the time, upcoming 2024 election here.

Disclaimer: I was having some technical issues, so that’s why during parts of the interview, I may sound a little glitchy. Luckily, SungHee sounds mostly fine.

Links of the Materials We Discuss:

KPTU website: https://kptu.net/english/index.aspx

KPTU FB page: https://www.facebook.com/kptu00

The Shifting Gears: Women’s Voices and Generational Change in South Korea’s Workplace (Interview Part 2)

What are some of the biggest issues currently facing workers in South Korea, particularly in the transit industry? This second part of our conversation focuses on the issues South Korean women have faced as they enter the workforce within the transportation industry.

Over the course of our entire conversation, SungHee, Director of International Affairs at the KPTU, discusses gender-based discrimination women have encountered since entering the transportation industry, generational shifts among the youth changing societal dynamics in South Korea, and the increase in gig workers in the transportation industry. She explains how the comparatively more senior KPTU has sought to adapt to these contemporary changes to the transportation industry.

This is the second interview in a new podcast interview series in which I talk with experts about the social issues that help shape our world. You can see the first interview in the series about the, at the time, upcoming 2024 election here.

Disclaimer: I was having some technical issues, so that’s why during parts of the interview, I may sound a little glitchy. Luckily, SungHee sounds mostly fine.

Links of the Materials We Discuss:

KPTU website: https://kptu.net/english/index.aspx

KPTU FB page: https://www.facebook.com/kptu00

The Shifting Gears: Women’s Voices and Generational Change in South Korea’s Workplace (Interview Part 1)

What are some of the biggest issues currently facing workers in South Korea, particularly in the transit industry? This first part of my conversation with SungHee Oh focuses specifically on the development of gig workers and generational shifts among South Korean youth within the South Korean transportation sector.

Over the course of our entire conversation, SungHee, Director of International Affairs at the KPTU, discusses gender-based discrimination women have encountered since entering the transportation industry, generational shifts among the youth changing societal dynamics in South Korea, and the increase in gig workers in the transportation industry. She explains how the comparatively more senior KPTU has sought to adapt to these contemporary changes to the transportation industry.

This is the second interview in a new podcast interview series in which I talk with experts about the social issues that help shape our world. You can see the first interview in the series about the, at the time, upcoming 2024 election here.

Disclaimer: I was having some technical issues, so that’s why during parts of the interview, I may sound a little glitchy. Luckily, SungHee sounds mostly fine.

Links of the Materials We Discuss:

KPTU website: https://kptu.net/english/index.aspx

KPTU FB page: https://www.facebook.com/kptu00