Gary's Address

Gary's Address

Introduction

Hello, everyone. I'm Gary. For over a decade, I've been dedicated to developing what I call 'work-like practice' -- a method of integrating real-world work experience and guidance into education. This concept has been at the heart of my work in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors, where I've seen firsthand how hands-on experience can make a profound difference in career choice and, further, career readiness.

My speech will run about 29 minutes. It may sound long, but it has the potential to save you years. It can also make your life happier. This is why I support this mission through both donations and volunteer work.

I want to emphasize that I'm not here to pitch any particular product. Moreover, we are not marketing significant products at the moment of this recording. However, we may do so by the time you are watching this video. So, if you're looking for shorter, more enthusiastic pitches about work-like practice products, you can find them online.

My goal is simply to share my observations, identified challenges, and the logic behind my actions to address them. I encourage you to use the chat feature for your comments and questions. Your insights and queries will help improve this presentation for future listeners and potential participants.

Reflection 1: Education Meets Career

It's common for career paths to differ from what one studies in college. It's a journey many people take; that was my experience too.

In high school, I was passionate about physical science, inspired by a thought-provoking teacher and enthusiastic classmates. This led me to pursue mechanical engineering in college. However, after graduation and starting my first job, I realized it wasn't the right fit for me.

Driven by a desire to innovate, I eventually started a desktop publishing company in the early 1990s when the field was still emerging. We had to train our employees ourselves due to the industry's novelty. There was simply no formal computer training available at that time. As technology advanced, we continually innovated, even developing our own customer management and business operation systems.

I value my first college education. The skills I gained from my college experiences -- problem-solving, analytical thinking, and adaptability -- proved valuable in ways I couldn't have anticipated. Nevertheless, I could obtain them through work.

Moreover, I now recognize that my first degree didn't directly apply to my eventual career. If I had the chance to explore different fields before college, I might have chosen a different specialty.

I might have also sought another first job if I had discovered my true interests earlier. Initially, I took the job that my parents helped me land after my first degree, but finding my own way afterward led to unexpected and rewarding opportunities. My parents wanted the best for me, but they were not career experts.

I am sure there were innovative jobs available. However, neither I nor my parents looked for those jobs. We were also unaware of the importance of vocational discovery.

Reflection 2: Career as a Journey

Career development is a lifelong journey. It involves exploring different jobs, learning new skills, earning qualifications, and finding work. Our careers aren't set in stone; they change and grow over time. Here's why:

1. Personal changes: As we grow, our interests, skills, and circumstances evolve. What we aspire to at 16 may differ greatly from our goals at 40. New experiences can lead us down new career paths.
2. Job changes: Take mechanical engineering as an example. In the 1980s, when I specialized in this field, engineers used paper and pencils. By the 2000s, they had switched to computer programs. Now, they use 3D printers. In the future, they'll rely on AI and robots. The tools and methods keep changing.
3. World changes: New technology, economic shifts, and cultural trends create new jobs and make others obsolete. For example, AI and robots are transforming many jobs. This means we need to keep learning new things throughout our careers.

In high school, I thought five years of college would prepare me for life. My college back in the Soviet Union claimed to provide a strong knowledge foundation. But after 40 years in my career, I wonder: what foundation did I truly gain from acing 'Scientific Communism'?

Even for more relevant subjects, things have changed. AI-powered chatbots now offer more information than any college curriculum, providing knowledge on-demand. Do we still need to memorize potentially outdated information?

Ongoing learning and adaptation are no longer optional—they're essential in our changing world. All in all, if careers are adventures with unexpected turns, shouldn't college education adapt similarly?

Reflection 3: Practice Aids Education

In the late 1990s, I was consumed by the day-to-day operations of running my business. Ironically, a broken leg became a catalyst for my professional growth. Confined at home in an era before widespread internet access, I found myself yearning for mental stimulation.

Recognizing my predicament, my mother borrowed a book from the library -- Philip Kotler's "Marketing Management." This text was nothing short of revelatory. It opened my eyes to a wealth of pre-existing knowledge, theories, and strategies that I had been struggling to discover on my own.

Inspired by this newfound perspective, I returned to school in the early 2000s to pursue a business degree. This decision proved to be a turning point in my career trajectory.

My prior work experience breathed life into the academic concepts I encountered. Abstract theories transformed into practical tools as I recognized their applications in real-world scenarios. This connection between classroom learning and professional experience ignited a passion for my studies, as I could clearly see their relevance and potential impact.

The synergy between my academic pursuits and practical experience propelled my career to new heights. Armed with both theoretical knowledge and hands-on skills, I successfully grew my publishing business to 120 employees before ultimately selling it.

This journey highlighted two crucial ways in which education and real-world experience complement each other:

• In school, we usually start with big ideas and theories, then learn how to use them in specific situations. It's like learning the rules of a game before playing it. But we also learn from examples and experiments in school, which is more like learning by doing.
• In the real world, we mostly learn by doing things hands-on and trying different approaches. But we also use what we've learned in school to help us solve new problems we encounter.

Both ways of learning help us become well-rounded and skilled. What we learn in school becomes more meaningful when we use it in real life, and our real-life experiences make more sense because of what we've learned in school. This balance between theory and practice helps us grow and become more effective in our future careers.

Reflection 4: Test for Career Tests

In the mid-2000s, I moved from Belarus to the United States, determined to find my ideal career path in this new country. At first, I faced challenges because my English wasn't strong enough for meaningful jobs, and I had no work experience in America. Only cash jobs and colleges were available.

So, I started taking classes at different colleges. Initially, those classes were in English. By the 2010s, I was close to finishing my Bachelor's degree in the US, but I still hadn't found a meaningful job that I both wanted and could land.

Looking for help, I talked to career counselors and people from government agencies, private companies, and non-profits. They gave me advice, but I still struggled to figure out my career path.

I used a few tools like personality tests and career theories. These tools gave me some ideas, but they made things seem too simple and didn't really help me find a job or identify my path.

I identified three groups of problems with the usual career advice:

1. It makes things too simple: The tests try to match your personality and skills to specific jobs, but they don't consider how complicated jobs and workplaces can be.
2. It doesn't know enough about different jobs: Career counselors often focus on what you want, not what jobs are actually available. They don't always know the latest information about different industries.
3. It treats everyone the same: The tests don't consider the credentials one has already possessed, as well as the fact that people's interests and skills change over time.

That wasn't only my experience. I remember working with a lady who didn't like their job as an administrative assistant. A career counselor told her to try becoming a technical writer. That lady spent a whole year trying to get that kind of job but couldn't, and had to go back to being an administrative assistant.

Reflection 5: Inside of Career Prep

In my first years in the United States, I made my living while working basic, "cash" jobs. To boost my resume, I registered a non-profit organization and started acting as its director. This experience allowed me to teach business classes at a community college first and move to other colleges and universities later.

Since the late 2000s, I got to teach part-time across the U.S., Belarus, China, and Russia. Interestingly enough, I taught almost every course I was taking while pursuing my business degree.

I also organized academic exchanges, as well as programs for students to study in different countries. I also helped to review a couple of college programs.

These experiences helped me understand how colleges prepare students for their future jobs. The competencies needed for a job can be divided into three main groups. We call them "KSA" for short:

• Knowledge (K): This is the information learned about a subject. It's the easiest and cheapest to teach because it mainly requires an instructor and some basic materials like books.
• Skills (S): This involves using knowledge to do practical things. It costs more to teach because it requires special equipment for hands-on learning.
• Abilities (A): This relates to being capable of performing specific tasks required for a job. It's the most expensive to teach because it needs real-world settings, individual assignments, and feedback from experts.

Because colleges have limited budgets, they usually focus more on teaching knowledge. They offer fewer opportunities to build skills and often struggle to give students real professional experiences. As a result, students might graduate knowing a lot about their subject but lacking the practical skills and abilities they need to succeed in their jobs.

Reflection 6: Mentors Make Differences

Back in the early 2010s, I got a surprising job with the US Marine Corps. I didn't seem like the typical candidate, but my active professional profile might've helped me stand out. They put me in charge of the Russian part of a cultural program. It was a role that would show me how much of a difference mentors can make.

The job was awesome because I had the freedom to try new ideas. We had great resources and not many rules, so we could use cool tech and different ways of teaching. I got to connect with top experts in the field. I'd reach out to people who wrote textbooks, created language apps, and other big names in language learning.

At first, we taught Russian using regular textbooks and conversation practice. But when our first group of students took their big language test, we realized we needed to change things up. The test was all about real-life situations, not just the stuff you find in textbooks.

This challenge led me to an amazing mentor. I teamed up with Professor Soboleva from the Defense Language Institute, a special language school in California. She agreed to try something different and became my mentor. She'd visit my classroom to see how things were going and guide our new teaching approach.

Mentors really do make a difference. With Professor Soboleva's help, we quickly came up with a new way of teaching Russian. As a result, our students matched the listening scores of students from top language schools. In a big part, this success was because of the guidance and support from my mentor.

The project only lasted a year because of money issues. Later, I did receive a promising offer from Professor Soboleva to teach at her institute in California. However, the low salary combined with the high cost of living in the area made it less attractive.

Nevertheless, even though the project was short, it had a big impact. It boosted my confidence for future projects and showed me how important mentors are for growing in our careers and coming up with new ideas.

Reflection 7: Tough, But Vital Networks

Before joining the Marines full-time, a colleague at my community college in New York suggested I think about teaching. He used to run a school district.

I looked into two school districts: one where I lived and another where the college was. Their websites showed I could teach math or physical science. When I asked my colleague which job to go for, he said science, explaining, "There are more math jobs, but, for us, it has been always harder to find science teachers."

I then asked about how to get hired. In my home district, the HR department was key. But in the college's district, school principals made the choices, not really working with HR.

This inside info wasn't on the official websites, showing how important it is to know people who understand how things really work.

After my time with the Marines, I had to choose what new job to pursue. By that time, I already moved to Virginia. School teaching didn't pay well there, so keep teaching languages or switch to IT? To help decide, I asked people working in both fields.

For language teaching, I consulted a hiring manager at a major company. Their candid response was revealing: "There aren't many jobs, but a lot of people want them. Most of these applicants have better degrees and more experience than you do. Even if you did well in your first job, it's hard for me to hire you. As a bureaucrat, I don't want to be blamed if anything goes wrong."

Getting meaningful info about IT jobs was harder. Many people only knew about small parts of the field. I saw that IT jobs were changing fast and had more options than language teaching. I also noticed that people who find IT workers for companies seemed to get tired of their jobs faster than in other fields.

Still, I got a lot of useless advice. Many people were happy to listen and give basic suggestions without really understanding my situation.

Reflection 8: Practice as a Career Tool

By the mid-2010s, I had built up a lot of experience in hands-on training. I wanted to grow my skills even more, so I decided to focus on IT training.

I started a meetup group called 'Hands-On Training,' where we set up free IT workshops on various topics. To find volunteers to run these workshops, I teamed up with a non-profit group called 'CNM.' To distinguish ourselves from the "mainland" CNM, we later began referring to ourselves as 'CNMCyber.'

People often say that working together on real projects shows who works well as a team. This idea came to life when two hiring managers asked me to host hands-on training for SharePoint administrators through the meetup group. They needed more qualified admins and were willing to train people on the job but wanted to find out who they'd work well with.

This experience, plus my background in developing apprenticeships in Belarus, really helped when I started recruiting and training people for a group that invests in startups. Startups need team members who can do many things. Interviews can help narrow down candidates, but seeing how they actually perform is what really matters.

My recruitment plan started with 1,000 candidates. Through a step-by-step process, this number went down to 100 who began training, 10 who moved on to work trials, and finally one person who got hired.

I realized something important: while I needed a specific type of candidate and had to reach out to many people, it wasn't just about finding "gold nuggets" among grains of sand. Each candidate had potential value, if not for my startup clients, then definitely for other opportunities.

Hands-on experience clarifies career preferences. However, I faced limitations in delivering comprehensive assessment results, and candidates weren't actively seeking my career assessments. This revealed a gap between the wealth of talent discovered and the ability to effectively channel it to fitting opportunities.

Reflection 9: Experience Rocks

For most of my life, I've been helping companies find the right people for jobs. Over the years, it's become clear that employers usually look at three main things when deciding who to hire:

• Can the person do the job well?
• Will they fit in with the company's culture and team?
• Are they satisfied with the salary and benefits offered?

When it comes to skills, having experience in the field is super important. It makes sense - if someone has already done well in a similar job, they're more likely to succeed in the new one. That's why many job listings say things like "Experience can replace education requirements." In the real world, hands-on experience often matters more than classroom learning. One could even argue that if education costs money, real-world experience should be worth even more!

This focus on experience is one reason why it can be tough for new graduates to get their first job. While school is important, there's something missing when a person only has classroom learning.

Here's a personal story to illustrate this point: When I first came to the U.S. for college, one of my professors really helped me understand American culture. But when I needed a job recommendation, they couldn't give me one because we hadn't actually worked together. They could only say I was a good student, which isn't very helpful when someone in their 40s is looking for a professional job.

Here's a challenge to consider: If anyone ever meets a job recruiter who says experience isn't that important, it might be interesting to ask about their own education. In my experience, it's rare to find a recruiter who actually graduated with a degree in recruiting. And if such a recruiter is found, it would be worth asking if their degree alone got them their job. If they say yes, they're probably hiring students for a college!

Reflection 10: Experience as a Craft

Careers often take unexpected turns. Unusual experiences can open up surprising opportunities. I know someone with a performing arts degree who started a recruiting business. While the business didn't succeed, that experience helped them get a job in corporate recruiting. My own career has also benefited from trying different types of work.

Project work, apprenticeships, internships, starting a business, and freelancing often give more freedom than regular jobs. These options can work well alongside traditional employment.

These unconventional jobs can help develop useful skills and expand professional networks. They might not offer all the perks of full-time jobs, but are often easier to get into. A realistic path from no experience to a paid job might look like this: volunteering, building credentials, moving to part-time or apprentice work, and eventually getting full-time employment.

However, reaching that "final" stage of full-time employment is rarely the end goal. These unconventional experiences can prepare people for future opportunities they might not even know about yet.

With regards to credential building, volunteering is usually the most flexible option. For career growth, volunteering can focus on building connections, getting credentials, or learning new skills - not just helping out.

I learned this the hard way. I volunteered at my community college's tutoring center, hoping to get job recommendations later. But when I needed those recommendations, I found out the college didn't allow staff to give them. The experience was still valuable, but if I'd known about this rule, I would've volunteered for 6 months instead of 18.

On the flip side, my volunteer work with 'CNM' fits my life goals perfectly. Over more than ten years, I've seen two good approaches to non-traditional work:

1. Full-time volunteering to quickly meet a specific need, using savings or financial help from others.
2. Part-time arrangements to slowly build credentials while keeping other activities such as a full-time job elsewhere.

Consider this hypothetical scenario: What if I had worked part-time as an engineering assistant or volunteered for a society of mechanical engineers while attending my first university? In that case, I would have graduated with a professional network, a better understanding of the industry, and a couple of years of experience.

Reflection 11: The Scarcest Resource

Many follow a familiar path: Go to school, get credentials, land that entry-level job, and then... get comfortable. Learn the ropes, start paying bills, maybe get a promotion or two. Buy stuff. And before long, it's easy to get stuck – because that job is stable and pays the bills. But here's the kicker: this doesn't leave much room to try other things.

This has been seen firsthand. Coworkers – good people – often count down the days until retirement, even though it is years away. Imagine that. Wishing life away because there is no satisfaction in how most waking hours are spent.

Career changes require resources. These projects usually take a few months and need both time and money.

Money is a great motivator. Having two graduate degrees – one paid by the government, one out of pocket – it becomes clear that when personal money is on the line, things are taken a lot more seriously. That's why at CNMCyber, some input is always asked from participants. It's not about the money – it's about the commitment.

And, generally, money is often easier to come by. Time can be contributed, sponsors can be found, grants applied for, even government support accessed. But time? No one can give extra hours in a day.

Here's something that might surprise. When hiring for a startup, a thousand applications were reviewed to hire just one person. The biggest challenge wasn't finding skilled people. It was finding people who could dedicate time to practice-based training.

Most adults have families to support and need a steady paycheck. Taking a risk on a startup or spending time exploring new careers and skills? That's a luxury many can't afford.

Onboarding training at CNMCyber is quick – we're talking months, not years like traditional degrees. But even a few months without a paycheck is too much for many adults. It's a catch-22: new skills are needed to advance, but there's no time to learn them.

Reflection 12: Career as an Enterprise

A career is like a journey with ups and downs, and unexpected turns. But it can be more than just finding a job when needed; it can be about actively managing and growing one's professional path like a personal enterprise.

Indeed, managing a career can be much like running a successful business. Out of many comparison points, I would like to highlight two.

Firstly, one's ability to land various jobs makes up their career portfolio. This involves building strong credentials, learning new ones, maintaining reliable abilities, and possibly letting go of less productive activities.

As businesses offer two or more products for sale, having two or more jobs is a feasible option. "Bread" jobs provide financial stability, while "butter" jobs are driven by passion and bring satisfaction.

Let's take my situation as an example. With strong skills in training, securing a job in that field is doable for me. However, specializing requires focus. As AI becomes increasingly important, I could gain experience by volunteering on an AI project or starting a small AI training business. This approach would combine my existing skills (the "bread") with a growing field that interests me (the "butter").

As another example, my interest in vocational discovery might lead me to work at a public school and offer an after-school program like WiseNxt once in the system. In that case, my "bread" job would also be a key to my "butter" job.

Secondly, a successful career needs many skills: planning your path, building up your qualifications, understanding job markets, giving good service, and handling marketing, sales, and money matters. It's like being a jack-of-all-trades in the work world – part job expert, part career guide, part office manager, and part networking pro.

Smart business owners often hire experts to help them. In the same way, getting outside advice can really boost your career. If companies split up tasks to work better, why shouldn't those on the job market do the same? If rightly managed, it shall save time and money.

Educaship as a Solution

There's a big mismatch in higher education: colleges focus on giving knowledge, but due to high costs, students often lack professional experience until after graduation. Meanwhile, employers want experience.

Both college and career management require a lot of time, which can be tough for those with family responsibilities and limited free time.

These realizations made me want to create the career products I wish I had when I started my professional journey. And the first point is that education, mentorship, and real-world experience should be combined from the start, not separated by years. Why?

1. Learning without doing is like studying bike riding without ever getting on a bike.
2. Working without structured training takes longer to show results.
3. Career advice should be ongoing and based on real job experience.

I began working on a project called WorldOpp, aiming to help entrepreneurs in areas with fewer opportunities by teaching them through hands-on learning and providing funding for their businesses. When our main financial supporter changed plans, we had to think of a new approach.

That's when I came up with Educaship. It mixes education, career guidance, and real-world experience. We plan to launch Educaship in two versions: a free version for those who volunteer with CNMCyber and a paid version under a separate brand called 'Careerprise' (combining 'career' and 'enterprise').

Pillars of Educaship

I believe that Educaship will revolutionize career preparation one day. However, as of the moment when this video is recorded, it is still an idea, concept, vision.

Nevertheless, three core pillars of Educaship can be clearly seen now.

Firstly, we have the educational component. I want to be clear: we're not trying to replace existing educational systems. There are many excellent institutions and training programs already. Our goal is to complement these programs. We're working to form partnerships that can enhance existing curricula with real-world projects, internships, and apprenticeships. We'll also offer focused training modules to prepare participants for hands-on experiences. For those seeking knowledge beyond our core offerings, we aim to support their continued learning.

The second pillar of Educaship is mentorship. Having an experienced guide in one's professional journey can be valuable. However, finding a suitable mentor can be challenging and often costly. At CNMCyber, we've developed a network of experienced professionals, including retirees and career transitioners, who are willing to share their knowledge.

Previously, our mentorship program was primarily in-person. As we adapt to changing circumstances, we're developing an online platform at cnmcyber.com. This digital network aims to provide mentorship to participants, regardless of their location.

Now, let me introduce what we consider a key feature of Educaship: practical work experience. We've developed a platform called Opplet. It's a digital workplace environment with various applications and tools. While not a perfect replica, it aims to provide a setup that allows participants to engage with authentic professional scenarios.

From Educaship to WiseNxt

We believe there's a strong need for the Educaship approach, but we expect it will take 2-5 years to fully implement. The biggest challenges we anticipate are finding qualified mentors and forming partnerships with schools. Since educational institutions are not typically known for quick changes, incorporating our hands-on method into existing programs will need careful planning and execution.

As we work on Educaship, we realized we could start with something simpler right away. That's where WiseNxt comes in. It's part of Educaship but focuses on helping students discover their strengths before choosing a career. Think of it as a big playground where students can explore different jobs, like analyzing products, building websites, planning events, managing computer systems, or leading projects in various fields.

We first thought about launching WiseNxt in Ukraine, but plans change. Now, we're getting ready to introduce it in Kenya in the next few weeks as part of the "KenyaX" program. "KenyaX" will serve as a platform for hands-on practice.

Getting into professional fields early has a big advantage that is often overlooked. It gives students industry insider status and helps them build professional networks sooner. These networks are crucial for finding jobs later on.

WiseNxt for Vocational Discovery

It's never too late to start exploring career options and discovering what truly excites a person, but it's certainly never too early.

Time is crucial in career development. While younger people usually have more free time, the current system often delays hands-on practice, which often hurts the connection between education and real-world application.

Trying different jobs is the best way to learn about them. Early exposure to various roles helps find the right fit. This can happen through projects, gap years, part-time jobs, or volunteer work.

Practical experiences can help individuals understand what type of work aligns with their abilities and passions or, at the very least, facilitate career exploration. However, vocational discovery -- the process of exploring and identifying one's interests, skills, strengths, and potential career paths -- is largely ignored by existing workforce preparation systems.

The cost of higher education or vocational training tends to dramatically exceed, let's say, the cost of an automobile. This expense includes not just tuition but also the time and support needed from parents or others while in college or training school. Despite this, vocational discovery often receives fewer resources than a car purchase. People don't buy cars just because they saw them in a movie or a salesperson recommended them as the best buy. So why do we agree to invest in expensive career preparation without any form of a test drive?

Even if someone wants to undergo vocational discovery, career counselors are likely the first place they would go. However, the overwhelming majority of vocational counselors can be likened to medical doctors without measurement tools. Vocational aptitudes are no simpler than medical conditions, yet vocational counselors are expected to make a diagnosis without the equivalent of blood tests, x-rays, sonograms, or CAT scans -- relying solely on the individual's words.

As a combination of work-like practice and career counseling, WiseNxt is being designed to address those challenges.

Join the Career Revolution

Our approach is revolutionary because it goes beyond simply delivering standardized curriculum or even replicating job situations. We're creating a comprehensive ecosystem where:

• Learners explore diverse roles to discover their vocations and strengths.
• When asked, "What do you want to do when you grow up?", our graduates have a clearer understanding of their options.
• We collaborate with educational institutions to secure internships or apprenticeships in students' chosen specialties.
• Graduates enter the job market with formal training, practical work experience, and a range of career opportunities.

This vision began as a personal mission, initially developed with my children's futures in mind. Though they've grown, the journey has proven invaluable. I'm deeply committed to making this dream a reality and would gladly dedicate my life to its success.

I have just shared my personal story to showcase the problems work-like practice can solve and illustrate how the concept of using it as a learning backbone developed and evolved over time. I am highlighting once again, I'm not here to promote any particular product that we work on, but explain the logic behind them.

I invite you to be part of this transformation – as a participant, parent, supporter, or advocate. Will you join us in revolutionizing education and career development?

And, finally, if you have better ideas for how to advance work-like practice or to revolutionize career preparation in other ways, I'd be happy to support your initiatives.