What is a Problem I Can Help Solve? (with Tom Rath)

About this episode

Kim Scott interviews Tom Rath about his book 'What’s The Point' and discusses career choices in the context of current workforce challenges.

While the podcast team is taking a Radical Sabbatical, Kim is interviewing authors of the books that have had a big impact on her in the past two years. In this episode she’s speaking with Tom Rath about his new book What’s The Point. Graduation speeches are often filled with lofty advice for how to approach the upcoming transition from school to the real world–a topic that feels especially fraught at this moment of AI Anxiety.  Speakers often urge newly minted graduates to “follow your passion.” But is that the best way to decide what type of work to focus on as a career?  Perhaps a better approach is to figure out what the world needs and how you can best contribute. Tom Rath stresses the importance of surveying the landscape and identifying the big problems the world is facing. Then, identify your skills and develop them so that you can help address the issues that concern you.  One fascinating point Tom makes is that 90% of people in the workforce fall into roughly 50 different occupations. However, most of us are only exposed to a handful of these 50, often only what their parents or parents’ friends do for a living. Wouldn’t it be better to give young adults…

People in this episode

Host: Kim Scott

Guest: Tom Rath

Topics covered

• career advice
• AI anxiety
• personal development
• workforce trends
• exposure to careers

Keywords

• career
• passion
• skills
• workforce
• exposure
• AI
• transition

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: What’s The Point

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