#upskilling

Up $28 Today

All of you doom and gloomers keep saying IBM is finished
We got a big investment in Quantum

I took today off to upskill in Quantum and tomorrow I will be taking another course. You can not keep a good company down

ARVIND DELIVERS AGAIN

There’s a push to complete the skills assessment. What are they doing with them? I don’t trust them with any information.
We no longer have a training goals so they’re not upskilling

Mass layoffs continue to impact Silicon Valley tech workers. Artificial intelligence is driving these job cuts and reshaping the industry. Many displaced employees struggle to find new roles despite extensive experience. Companies are now highly selective, often demanding specific AI skills. Workers are adapting by upskilling, networking, or exploring new career paths.

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-05-19/ai-layoffs-jobless-tech-workers-silicon-valley

So many employees refused to learn AI skills and adjust.

Wouldn’t surprise me if they were monitoring token usage and decided LRs based on people not even trying to adapt and modernize their skillsets.

self-inflicted stupidity to not adjust to the future.

was laid off in January but finally landed a new gig this week, now I can cash out the remaining few months of my severance. definitely a tough job market. Spent the last 4 months applying for jobs and upskilling my tech stack. I applied for over 350 jobs, about 30% got thanks but no thanks emails, 67% completely ghosted, and the remainder varying forms of interviews. while the new job pays a little less than wf, but has a lot of career upside, great benefits, and in office requirements are much less stringent. Definitely a different job market, but there are jobs out there. try not to get discouraged

We went through Cloud Cert Fest and Skill Academy programs with the expectation that cloud training would translate into meaningful internal opportunities and role stability within the bank.

Instead, cloud outcomes remain largely undelivered, while many trained engineers have been impacted by layoffs and organizational restructuring. In parallel, roles are increasingly being filled through external hiring, including engineers from Amazon and JP Morgan Chase.

This cloud cert fest ran by R.B, working in the bank . We all are laid off.
This raises a difficult but important question about alignment between upskilling investments and actual workforce planning—especially when training programs are positioned as a pathway to job security, yet the outcomes tell a different story.
Do DV and GK have visibility into this situation? What is the real status of Skill Academy and Cloud Cert Fest outcomes?

A major theme for this fiscal year will be to get technical quick or get left behind. In the era of AI there will no longer be an excuse to not create revenue regardless of your organization.

BNY Mellon’s shift toward AI, digital workers, and platform‑based operations is reshaping job families across the bank. Roles built on repetitive processing, documentation, reconciliations, onboarding, KYC refresh, and basic QA are being automated or moved to lower‑cost hubs. As the company expands its agentic‑AI model—where one employee supervises dozens of autonomous agents—traditional career paths in operations and service centers will continue to narrow.

Employees can protect their careers by moving toward the work AI cannot easily replace. The most resilient paths include:

- AI governance, model oversight, and risk controls

- Exception handling and complex client‑service roles

- Data quality, lineage, and supervisory functions

- Platform product management and workflow design

BNY Mellon is also training thousands of employees to build and manage AI agents. Learning these tools—prompting, workflow orchestration, and agent supervision—positions employees for the emerging “human‑in‑the‑loop” roles that will grow as automation expands.

The most vulnerable job families are those tied to manual processing, standardized workflows, and mid‑skill operational tasks. Over time, many of these roles will consolidate or disappear entirely.

The strongest strategy is to pivot early: build AI‑adjacent skills, move toward analytical or client‑facing work, and position yourself where judgment, escalation, and oversight—not repetition—define the role. Learning to become a carpenter or electrician are also attractive options.

Wall Street Journal: 4/19/2026 #WSJ 📰

Verizon’s Dan Schulman is all in on AI, but he warns that it is time for business leaders to acknowledge its disruptive potential.

For a big-company CEO with big AI ambitions, Verizon's [vz0.24% v
Dan Schulman doesn't pull punches about the pain the technology could unleash on America's workforce.
Just months into the job, he has predicted 20% to 30% unemployment within the next two to five years. He warns that advancements in humanoid robots could upend the manual-labor jobs still seen as safe today. And he has pushed for more education and reskilling to help workers adapt to the intensifying tech disruption.
Couched in the blunt AT talk is a warning for other CEOs: Be candid about the coming disruption, or risk a public backlash. “It’s a very difficult time, and everyone knows it is,” Schulman said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “So I think being authentic, being realistic, telling the truth, as best you can” is key. That belief, he said, is why Verizon created a $20 million career-transition and retraining fund for the “age of AI” when the company began laying off 13,000 workers last year.
Schulman's big picture has also included sweeping job cuts. The 13,000 #layoffs he announced shortly after his appointment
as CEO in October were Verizon's largest ever —but necessary to make Verizon more efficient, he said. Altogether, he is seeking to cut $9 billion in costs. Verizon has said its #layoffs weren't related to AI.
The carrier was "too hierarchical, way too bureaucratic, way too process-oriented as opposed to outcomes-oriented," Schulman told investors at a Morgan Stanley (M5100% ) event last month.
In meetings, he has repeatedly told Verizon staff they must embrace AI, describing it as core to the company's future. He used it himself to comb through some He used it himself to comb through some 8,000 responses after asking employees how he could reduce bureaucracy, he said.
Schulman's embrace of Al goes deeper than cost-cutting. He envisions a company wholly reshaped by the technology, from improved customer service to more personalized options for
consumers.
And he has encouraged staffers to talk to their children about Al at the dinner
table. In one all-hands, Schulman recommended that staff ask Al to write their obituary to see how the technology works and how it frames their lives. He
has also invited staffers to experiment with AI by writing poems to their loved ones. (He said he has done the same for his wife.)
Some employees responded by using Al to write poems for Schulman-and they weren't bad, he said. ~
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/the-ceo-preaching-straight-talk-about-ai-and-job-losses-a3aaaaf1?

Link below...

# How Experienced Professionals Are Still Getting Hired in a Biased Market

Many late-career professionals are being pushed out of roles earlier than expected. Some are encouraged into early retirement despite not being ready. Yet a significant number are still landing strong opportunities. Their success is not accidental. It reflects a strategic shift in how they approach the job market.

The hiring system often works against older candidates. Automated screening, compensation assumptions, and implicit bias create structural barriers. Waiting for fairness is ineffective. The professionals who succeed adapt instead.

## 1. Rewrite the Resume Around Results

Most seasoned candidates write resumes that read like job descriptions. That approach fails. Employers care about outcomes, not responsibilities.

Instead of listing duties, quantify impact:

• Reduced time to hire by 35 percent by implementing performance metrics.
• Generated 12 million in revenue and captured 18 percent market share in nine months.
• Increased operational efficiency through process redesign and KPI tracking.

Numbers signal business value. Decades of experience provide a deep well of measurable results. That is a competitive advantage when presented clearly.

It is also advisable to remove unnecessary age signals. Graduation dates, roles older than 15 to 20 years, and outdated technical skills add little value and may introduce bias.

## 2. Close Skill Gaps With Precision

Generic learning is inefficient. Instead:

1. Review 10 job postings in your field.
2. Identify repeated skills and language.
3. Compare them against your resume and profile.

If data driven decision making appears frequently, show metrics. If stakeholder engagement is emphasized, highlight examples clearly. Targeted alignment matters more than broad training.

Applied AI literacy is increasingly important. You do not need to be an expert. You do need practical usage. Identify one manual task in your field and automate or streamline it. Then quantify the improvement. Demonstrating real application shifts perception from outdated to current.

## 3. Build Relationships Before You Need Them

Desperate outreach rarely works. Reconnecting only when unemployed offers little incentive for others to help.

Instead:

• Reengage former colleagues while employed.
• Offer value before asking for favors.
• Stay visible in your industry by contributing insights and commentary.

The objective is referral access. Entering through trusted networks reduces dependence on automated screening systems.

## 4. Consider Fractional or Project Based Work

Full time employment is not the only option. Fractional roles are expanding across finance, marketing, HR, and operations. Many companies want senior expertise without full time overhead.

Working 10 to 20 hours per week across multiple organizations can:

• Provide income diversification.
• Offer schedule flexibility.
• Match or exceed full time compensation in some cases.

Framing your value as a targeted solution to a specific problem often makes hiring decisions easier for companies.

## 5. Reframe How You Describe Yourself

Avoid emphasizing years of experience. Instead, focus on problems solved.

Not:
"I am a marketing manager with 20 years of experience."

Instead:
"I help B2B SaaS companies scale from 1 to 10 million in revenue by building demand generation systems."

Organizations do not buy tenure. They buy results.

## Adapt Strategy, Not Expectations

The system may not change quickly. Bias and automation are real constraints. The professionals who continue to get hired share consistent behaviors:

• Quantified resumes
• Targeted skill alignment
• Practical AI usage
• Strategic networking
• Openness to alternative work structures
• Outcome based positioning

The market rewards relevance and measurable value. Position yourself accordingly.

• This is from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSblhOCY6bM

so that 20 million reskilling declaration by Dan was just a scam ? I got this from HR ..

That is correct, Udemy and EDX are the current upskilling opportunities for impacted employees.
If additional upskilling opportunities arise, further communications will be provided.
At this time, we will be closing your case. If additional assistance is needed, please create a new case for support.

We have no control over leadership decisions but we do have control over keeping our skills up-to-date because as history has shown rapid decisions, knee-je-k decisions, and lack of understanding creates constant change. Maybe this video might help you understand -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfjGZCuxl-U

With AI, employees can upskill within a month, while some managerial roles struggle to adapt. From a business standpoint, restructuring management layers can be more effective than laying off employees who are quickly learning and delivering value.

Remember when they actually wanted you to develop new skills and move up? That focus on employee growth is totally gone now. It's a big change from how things used to be.

You’ ve been monitored every minute in office and every key stroke that you type. Writing is on the wall. Not your fault. This is simple math - the company has more than what it can chew. Layoffs will continue through out 2026. Doesnt matter what rating you got. Exceeds rating and promotions mean cr-p as it is relative. Time to upskill and time to work on your resume. Start looking around for a job. Dont wait to be layed off - your severance will not be big anymore - trust me its an exec here. Get out as a hero at your will once you find an opportunity elsewhere.

Don't be naive and rely on this company. Use the training BofA offers to make yourself valuable to other employers. When you're in demand, a layoff notice isn't a crisis, it's an opportunity.

I know it's not a fun topic, but with everything happening, it's probably smart to think about your next move. For some of us, that might mean taking a step back to learn new skills or even switching to a role with a better long-term future, even if the pay isn't perfect right now. The goal is to make sure you're still valuable on your own terms for the rest of your career. It's not fun, but that's what I've been focusing on.

Why is nobody picking up new skills? It feels obvious the auto industry is shrinking fast with automation and outsourcing. People are going to get left behind if they don’t start preparing. Learning something new and looking elsewhere could be the smartest move for the future.

Anyone using EDX/UDEMY to "skill up"? What courses are you considering or have started already?

I am looking forward to going back to work tomorrow.
Last year I logged in 93 Hours of learning. I did more than Think 40.

Jim Kavanaugh said to upskill, so I did. I led a Watson X challenge team, Arvind's bold leadership is going to make IBM a power player.

I was hired in June of last year and I know I can get to be a Band 7 this year.

https://fortune.com/2025/11/12/next-level-leadership-cisco-leaning-on-recruitment-upskilling-staff-ai-era/

Use your time to learn and get education. You have over 10k per year in Tuition reimbursement. Start using them the day you are eligible. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

I see some people internally are taking Oracle AI Agent course. Is there any sense to take it if I plan to move from O? Anybody using it globally or it's just only internal tool and it's a waste of time?

Prepare NOW. Do NOT be complacent. BEG your leadership for L&D funding NOW. You MUST up-skill with certifications to be considered for a job in this horrible job market. Start applying NOW!

1. Write LinkedIn recommendations on the profiles of those impacted. This helps in their job search.
2. Update your own LinkedIn profile.
3. Offer to share your network, make connections for others.
4. If impacted, take full advantage of any job search help, career coaching, or upskilling opportunities.
5. Reach out to anyone you feel may be struggling - get together for a walk or just chat over zoom.
6. If you are struggling, reach out to literally anyone and get some support.
7. Go outside. Fresh air, sun, exercise can all help. Take a shower, get dressed.
8. If you’re not impacted, take today and feel all your feelings. It’s okay to be mad, scared, etc. Process it and move on.

Steve Miranda made it pretty clear today at its keynote in AI that support role are going to be replaced by an ai agent.

Skill up and start looking. Don't be a fool.

Accenture job cuts are in the news once more, and this time, there are conversations on reskilling occurring parallelly as we speak. During an earnings call on Thursday, Accenture acknowledged that it is “exiting” employees who cannot be retrained for artificial intelligence skills, according to Business Insider. The Accenture layoffs have defined its AI era, with sweeping cuts that have reportedly affected about 22,099 jobs in the last two quarters. As of August 2025, the company’s headcount stands at 779,000, a steep drop from the 801,099 reported in February.

https://www.thehrdigest.com/accenture-job-cuts-clear-the-room-for-reskilling-employees-who-can-keep-up/

Everyone is saying upskill - can we share specific skills that are valuable? AI certification? Agents? What is valuable

Yes, I was laid off, and I was in shock, especially since I had a good performance review and my metrics were always strong. I cared about my job and my customers, but after three years, I realized the following negative points. The only positive aspect was my coworkers; everything else was disappointing.

• Don’t get comfortable. I did, and I never expected this layoff, but no one owes you anything.
• Upskill. I started this process five months ago, and the job market is brutal. If I had stayed at Oracle for ten years, it would have been almost impossible to re-enter the market.

• Understand that layoffs are not over. They will continue next year. Don’t be a fool; have a plan, save your income, upskill, and be ready to move on!

• There’s no pay raise. Why would you want to work at a place that doesn’t offer raises?

• It’s pointless to work on weekends when you might get let go anyway. I did that, and it was a mistake.

I'm actually glad this happened after three years rather than after 28 years.

I have Oracle on my resume, which is the only positive. However, I would never recommend Oracle as a place to work.

Sorry, but it's as simple as that.