Career
TRUTHS
A practical guide to building a career you love — from the fork in the road at 18 to the reputation you retire with.
Five books. One great conversation.
Career questions the news is asking right now.
Research: AI Is Changing What Employers Want from New Hires
Research-backed finding: AI is raising the bar for knowledge workers, not eliminating them. The winners pair domain expertise with AI fluency, cross-functional thinking, and the ability to redesign workflows around AI — not just bolt it on. Essentially the empirical case for the Personal Brand argument: 'being good' now means being known for judgment and synthesis AI can't replicate.
AI Is Wiping Out Entry-Level Jobs. Here's How to Surf the Wave and Not Get Crushed by It.
Reframes the entry-level collapse as opportunity: target employers still hiring young 'AI-native' talent, build distinctly human skills (relationships, storytelling, negotiation, judgment) early instead of mid-career, and swap 'am I happy?' for 'am I growing?' Maps almost one-to-one onto First Job and After High School.
AI Boom Is Fueling Demand for Skilled Trades
As AI reshapes white-collar work, the physical infrastructure powering it — data centers, electrical build-outs, HVAC, industrial construction — is driving surging demand for electricians, plumbers, and technicians. A real-world counterweight to the 'everyone codes' advice young people still hear.
The Journey Most Aren't Prepared For
The Case for Teaching Career Planning as a Required Course in American High Schools
A research whitepaper on the career-planning gap in American high schools: graduates are making the biggest decisions of their working lives without a required course in how to make them. The paper assembles the national evidence, examines why advisory programs haven't closed the gap, and argues the remedy is instructional.
students 16–18 feel very prepared for the path they want
state codes require career planning as a taught, graded course
of 15-year-olds can't name what they expect to do at age 30
James E. Willett
James has spent his career hiring, coaching, and leading teams across industries. Career TRUTHS is the guidance he gives friends, colleagues, and his own kids — collected into books for anyone building a working life on purpose.
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