Reskilling the American Workforce with Sue Bhatia
Apr 12, 2019, 02:29 PM
We have an impressive guest today. Sue Bhatia is the Chairman and Founder of Rose International which is a global IT and business services provider. Sue immigrated to this country to pursue the American dream. She was happy with her job, but felt climbing the corporate ladder would take too long, so she took a big chance and founded her own company.
She is now able to do that she loves and create a positive impact. She works to help promote and develop women entrepreneurs, and she is passionate about everyone finding work that they love. She has won several awards including Fast Company's Top 25 Women Business Builders in North America and Enterprising Women of the Year from Enterprising Women Magazine. She is passionate about the future of work and technology and shares why reskilling the American workforce is a must.
Show Notes
- [03:18] Sue grew up in New Delhi, India. She came to the United States in 1987.
- [03:45] Her first years here were hectic. She got married and received her masters degree in management information systems. She had two children and was really happy with her job.
- [04:39] She thought she was living the American dream until she was offered a raise and realized that it would take forever to achieve the type of success that she wanted.
- [05:11] She had seen her workplace hire many temp workers, and decided to start her own agency.
- [06:00] In spite of naysayers, she quit her job and got to work. She got a lot of rejections and realized that it was harder than she thought.
- [07:08] She kept trying and got three large contracts and business began to take off.
- [07:16] In six months, her husband had to quit his job and join her.
- [07:32] He ex-boss also came and joined her.
- [07:44] The business has come a long way. They hired 10,000 people in 2017 and 10,000 people in 2018.
- [09:54] The future of work is here. A lot of skills are going away because of automation. We are going through a huge digital transformation.
- [10:18] Next year, there will be twenty billion Internet of Things connected devices.
- [11:21] There are 30 million us workers in danger of losing their jobs to artificial intelligence. 1.4 million of these jobs will be disrupted by 2026. 57% of this will affect women.
- [11:40] Women are in more support positions than men are, and these are the jobs that are going to be automated.
- [11:58] In order for people so survive in their jobs, we have to learn new skills and reskilling is.
- [12:16] 65% of kids in elementary school today will be doing jobs that don't even exist today.
- [12:24] One of the most valuable skills right now is emotional intelligence combined with artificial intelligence.
- [12:37] All of our jobs are being impacted by artificial intelligence, big data, and virtual reality.
- [12:52] We all need to be open to change and lifelong learning.
- [13:48] Relating to people and thriving in a team culture and being collaborative are valuable skills.
- [14:18] Soft skills are really going to be in demand going forward.
- [15:02] AI is humans coding machines to learn over time.
- [17:39] Colleges need to find a way to incorporate soft skills. People with STEM skills earn statistically $30,000 more.
- [18:45] Students need to be open to learning and not narrowly defining their goals. Be open and let the market and your internal definition of success take you in the right direction.
- [22:46] Sue studied architecture and then management information systems, but the skills that really helped her as an entrepreneur we're having a goal-oriented mindset and having the ability to take risk.
- [23:29] One of the main risks that she took was immigrating to America. She is open-minded and is willing to try things and see what happens. Flexibility has also helped her a great deal.
- [24:28] Having a business is like surfing. There's no firm ground under your feet.
- [26:14] Sue loves having the ability to make a positive impact in so many lives through her business.
- [28:03] People do business with people they like, so relationships are key. It's important to have a transparent honest relationship with everyone involved with the company.
- [29:51] With entrepreneurship, the key is to enjoy the journey, and you have to adapt and reinvent yourself over and over again.
- [30:55] Leading by example is very important. It's also important to create a positive work culture where people want to do their best.
- [31:37] Leaders are also responsible for watching the market and keeping track of the latest trends in their industry. And always leading from the heart. As well as, creating a ladder for people to move up.
- [32:29] Leaders also need to have the resilience to face the ups and downs.
- [33:51] Her most pivotal moment was starting Rose International. She also realized that she is more capable than she thought.
- [34:50] She saw an Iraq Vet panhandling. Which then led to starting Deployment to Employment this is a program set in place to hire veterans. They have hired 800 veterans over the last couple years. They have created a support system to help veterans find a job with resume writing workshops and more.
- [37:44] Stress is a part of life. Negative thoughts are part of our survival mechanism. To handle stress Sue practices mindfulness and keeps things in perspective and focuses on the positive. She also loves connecting to nature.
- [41:00] Define what success means to you and be clear about what you want to do and research very carefully.
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