The 20's Survival Guide

Why The 9-5 Isn't As Bad As You Think (Ft. Leah)

• Emily Astley • Season 2 • Episode 76

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This week, we’re joined by Leah (@thatyoungprofessional) to talk about how to make the most of your 9-5 and your life outside of it in your 20s.

We get into why social media loves to hate the 9-5 (and what it gets wrong), how to actually negotiate the salary or promotion you deserve, and how to stay ahead in the current hot mess of a job market, thanks to AI, uncertainty, and a lot of noise.

No matter where you are in your career, this episode is packed with practical advice to help you build confidence, balance, and momentum in your work life.

Enjoy!

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SPEAKER_01:

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the 20 Survival Guide. This is your host, Emily Astley. And it has been a hot minute since we have spoken about careers and jobs on this podcast. And today I am not doing it alone. I have Leah, who is otherwise known as that young professional, on Instagram and social media. And I have followed her journey for a little while now, and I think she's great. And she is coming on to talk about everything that we really need to hear around salaries, around what we really think about a 9 to 5 lifestyle, a 9 to 5 career, AI, the job market, everything and more. So welcome to the podcast, Leah.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for having me. I'm super excited.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm so excited to have you. We're starting the episode with a corporate quick fire quiz because I just thought we needed to hear your thoughts. And there's so many things when it comes to the corporate world, like there's so many little cliques and there's so many little like inside jokes and things that I really find icky. But I have not spoken, I've not actually briefed you on the questions. So you have no idea what I'm about to ask, but we're gonna just go straight in. Don't think, just answer and let me know. Because I feel like you could have some good answers on this. So my first one is what is one corporate buzzword that you hate?

SPEAKER_00:

I cannot stand nice to e-meet you. Yeah. I actually think it is the worst thing ever. I would just say nice to meet you, look forward to meeting you soon in person. There is just something that feels so unnatural about it, and even though it's true you're e-meeting someone, I just really don't like it.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I know. It does sit wrong, and I was saying, I have to admit I I have done this before, and I deserve to be ridiculed for it because it's gross, I won't be doing it again. But I just don't really like when someone says that to me, so it makes me feel a bit unnatural. It's very unnatural.

SPEAKER_00:

One I really don't like is low-hanging fruit, okay? I just think it sounds, like we've said, very unnatural, but there's just something about it that is so unnecessary and almost embellished. Just talk about it in plain English, simple terms, and get to the point. That's all we need.

SPEAKER_01:

Why does work have to be associated with fruit? Like it's just a bit weird. I just don't I just don't really like the term. I feel like it does sound a bit it does sound.

SPEAKER_00:

It's overly sophisticated when it doesn't really need to be. If someone is talking about going for the low-hanging fruit, they just need to focus on the most important or urgent tasks. Just saying that. A lot easier to just say that. But people love using these corporate lingo and jargon just because it makes you sound better.

SPEAKER_01:

It makes you sound better and it makes people who don't understand feel really confused about case, which is not great. The next one, work from home or working in the office?

SPEAKER_00:

This is such a good question, and something that I'm always asking people. For me, I'm definitely work from home because I do so many hobbies and things in my spare time that I need the time when I'm at home so I can just quickly go straight into something as soon as I've logged off. But I do think that is value to being in the office, and I am recognising that, which I think why which I think is why hybrid work can be quite nice, but I don't like these return to office mandates, five days in the office a week, because that's not recognising flexibility. And it's 2025, you need to be flexible.

SPEAKER_01:

You're so right. I don't think it's fair, especially for mothers or people who are older who have like way more priorities when it comes to other people that they are looking after. I just think that sometimes when I put on a good outfit and I feel put together and I'm going into the office, sometimes I work better. I actually do, but if it's five days in the office, no negotiation, strictly there, like there are going to be days where I just will just really struggle to get up or really struggle to, you know, be in the office and actually focus as much as if I'm at home, and I can just enjoy a morning maybe that is a little bit more relaxed, get more stuff done. I just think a balance is important these days, like as you said, we are in 2025. You should be able to be flexible. It doesn't mean that you're not gonna get the best work, best work out of your employees.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. And the other thing is, especially now it's getting colder, a lot of people are off sick. If you're not feeling well, I know this has happened to me. I'm not feeling great, but I'm feeling well enough to work, but from home, I don't want to give everyone my germs or illness. But if you have to be in the office every day, you're likely to take a sick day, so the company is actually losing out on employee efficiency and productivity.

SPEAKER_01:

That's such a good point. I think also if I am ill and it is five days a week, I would try my best to just come in, anyways. Even if I am slightly ill, yeah, which then means okay, I could probably still work but more in the comfort of my own home and do better work than just slog myself in and feel like I couldn't get anything done all day just to be showing appearance.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. Sometimes you would in that situation you would definitely be more productive at home. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, the worst email accident or typo you've made.

SPEAKER_00:

I recently spelt someone's name wrong the first time I emailed them, and that was quite embarrassing. I never normally do that. I'm normally so thorough with checking things, but it happens to everyone. I think another one is definitely CCing in the wrong person or someone that shouldn't have seen an email. That's always a bit of a sticky one, but I think everyone goes through these mishaps.

SPEAKER_01:

I've heard someone actually say tits instead of tips. That's quite bad. Which is really bad, and I think it was to the entire office for um, you know, work drinks, after work drinks, and snacks and tips on something. And it was like entire email chain that's really hard. Right. And that's really hard. Yeah, you do have to be careful. You have to be careful, you have to read it over like five times. Um post post-work drinks or paddle.

SPEAKER_00:

Paddle, 100%, but I'm very biased because I love playing sport and I don't really drink. It's paddle all the way. I'll still go to after work drinks, but I can't tear down a game of paddle.

SPEAKER_01:

I agree, I think that especially if you're in a place where they have Thursday night drinks, that's great, but I'm a lightweight and I can't keep up as much. So I think I'd rather be in a place where I can play sport sometimes. Sometimes I definitely want to be going for the drink, but I don't want to drink too much in a work environment and lose composure.

SPEAKER_00:

You heard so many stories about people sharing way too much at work drinks because they've drunk too much, it's and it's such an easy hole to slip into. So I just go play paddle, save myself the travel.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely, and no one is going to like tell you, oh, do you don't you know only have one drink or so? People are going to buy you drinks on the company card, like they're gonna keep buying them, keep going on rounds. It's hard to say no, and you don't want to say stuff that you you wish you'd go home the next day and you go home to work and you're like, oh my gosh, someone knows this about me that I wish they don't.

SPEAKER_00:

It's like a hangover, but ten times worse. It's never happened to me because as I said, I don't really drink, but I do know my fair share of people who it's happened to. Not ideal.

SPEAKER_01:

Last one, what's the worst team building activity?

SPEAKER_00:

I cannot stand the icebreakers you get when you have to give an interesting fact about yourself, but it's something like what's your favourite chocolate bar, what's your favourite ice cream flavour? It's so boring and it almost makes you feel like you're back in primary school and it's not building the team whatsoever.

SPEAKER_01:

It sounds hilarious that people actually do that.

SPEAKER_00:

Still do that, I know. I mean you get some really great activities. We did one recently at work, um we made we all made top trumps, so you had to give yourself a certain score or rating based on different activities or skills. Really, really funny things like your ability to build a snowman or something like that. And it was a really great way to get to know people and unique quirky facts about them, which I actually quite liked. It wasn't corny or cheesy the way some activities are.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I love that. I love that. What was your score on to build a snowman?

SPEAKER_00:

I think it was about 65 out of 100, which I'd say is I'm quite modest with it. Some people really vouch for themselves.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you can just you can tell people's character types when when you play your games. Exactly, exactly. I have so many more, that was really fun, but I feel like we should probably get into these episode topics, and one of the things that I wanted to start off with today is around nine to fives. Something I've seen recently and I wanted to bring up was how much hate nine to fives are getting on social media right now. So I don't know if it's just my page, but I so many people are saying, just in general, that the nine to five lifestyle, the nine to five work setup is very, you know, soul-sucking. Just you're selling your soul to the corporate world, and you know, you have no freedom, it's not very attractive, you're not cool, you're not an entrepreneur who's able to work on their own time, which sounds really, really glossy, it's not always that glossy. But why do you think it gets so much hate?

SPEAKER_00:

Do you think it's fair? I think it comes down to one main thing, and it's about how you define freedom. And this is the thing: there's a big narrative online with entrepreneurs and digital nomads, and they get a lot of freedom because they have location freedom, they can work where they want, and time freedom, they don't have to work nine to five, they can set their hours. So for them, they're quite free. But the problem with that is they probably can't switch off outside of those hours. And someone working a nine to five, you don't have time freedom or location freedom unless you work a remote job. Very jealous if you do. Yeah. But you can switch off, you know, at the end of a workday or on a weekend, you can close your laptop. And I think the reason is because people view freedom differently, which is why there's this big narrative floating around on social media that makes people in a nine to five feel like they're not feel like their life isn't as enjoyable as others.

SPEAKER_01:

I vouch for that. I think I'd love to go, you know, I'm gonna say Bali, like use Bali as an example for like the digital nomads, but I think as much freedom as that might sound, I would get really isolated. I'd feel quite lonely if I was the only one working out there on a laptop all day every day of the week. I'd need some human interaction. I think that's another upside of a nine to five, yeah. Which you know, it depends. Maybe you do have other people out there if you are, you know, working as a digital nomad. The fact that you can have like a community at work if it's a good place of work, I need to be around people, and that's another thing that I like about a nine to five.

SPEAKER_00:

There are a lot of benefits to nine to fives that I think people quite easily discredit because of this work for yourself, be your own boss kind of narrative going around. You know, even things like paid time off or annual leave, yeah, you know, the fact that you can go on holiday, not work, but still be earning your salary. I know it's not unlimited, obviously, but it's still a massive benefit because if you're working for yourself, you can't really get a proper break unless you hire people, but you're never really able to switch off. So, in some ways, nine to five does give you that freedom to switch off and kind of set clear boundaries between your work life and your personal life.

SPEAKER_01:

Totally. I think that's so valuable as well to be able to have that, and like you were saying before, you can create a life out of your nine to five that's not in your nine to five, so the time when you are off work by doing things that are active and not just going home and doom scrolling, and then you feel like the only thing you've done all day is work, but if you keep yourself busy and you have these activities and you do fun things after work, you're also not just taking away your freedom, you've got a life that's outside of it, which is probably what's going to help you enjoy your job more or make you feel like you have more freedom.

SPEAKER_00:

Definitely, and I think the main problem is, and this is why people discredit nine to fives, is because a lot of people are quite miserable in their lives, and so let's say you're working a job you don't particularly like, but you're not fueling your job outside of work, so there isn't really a lot in your life that you're enjoying. This is why I say it's so important to people that you build a life for yourself outside of work, you don't want your whole identity to be centered around your job. No, you're so good you know, you've got to invest time and you've got to invest time into your hobbies, your passions, passion projects, whatever it is that you're doing, it's so important because it means that your job does not become your whole life.

SPEAKER_01:

I couldn't say that better. I think like making sure that even if you are tired every single day because you have a really stressful job, to spend some time to put something in your calendar with a friend, or have some activity after work, at least just one day a week, to keep you busy, to keep you stimulated and think about things that are fun other than just work. I agree and have downtime that's not just scrolling. I think another thing I see on social media is around people retiring by the time they're 30, like working three jobs. I've seen this girl, and her Instagram account is literally I work three jobs because I want to retire at 30, and she works in a call center and she works like in a marketing job and something else. But I was seeing this and I was thinking, This is incredibly ambitious. Wow, but I think the reasoning behind it is if you work a nine to five, you don't really have any freedom, complete freedom until you retire, and then once you retire, you're able to do all these things that you couldn't have done when you were in the nine to five. What would your thoughts be or your take be on working to retire at at such an early age?

SPEAKER_00:

Firstly, if you are working three jobs doing that, creds to you. Credits to you, that is amazing. Credits to keep it. Seriously, that's really good. So the fire movement, financial independence, retire early. Creds to you if you're doing that or you're working towards that, because I think it's amazing if you're able to achieve that. Yeah. But I think that what people initially thought is that when you retire, obviously you're not working, so you can start to enjoy your life, as if you can't do that whilst you're working. But actually, I don't think the two are mutually exclusive the way people think they are, and you can enjoy your life while you're working. Like we said before, it's about making sure that you're building a life for yourself outside of work and actually using your nine to five to fuel and maybe fund those other projects and passions, and that's the way that you can enjoy your life what rather than just looking forward to or waiting for a certain point in time.

SPEAKER_01:

It's quite sad to think about it like that because I want to be able to enjoy my 20s, enjoy my life, obviously, work really hard for what I want in the future, but also not not think about it as if this is all hell now and all work without any sort of downtime in order to just eventually one day just switch it all off. Like I think that there's a lack of balance there, which I think is going to take a massive toll on you. Otherwise, you're amazing, you're a machine, and that you can work three jobs. But I think that like you can have that freedom, you don't have to retire at 30, like you can have the freedom of of that mixed into a nine to five and have a good life.

SPEAKER_00:

And I think whichever one you choose is completely fine. It's yeah, you know, individual preferences, but if you're not aiming for fire, but if you're not aiming to retire early, I think it's really important that you build enjoyment into your life. And another thing is these days also people there's this constant narrative that you have to monetize every hobby you have. Yeah, and I think it's actually so important to just do hobbies purely for the sake of enjoyment or pleasure, you know, just playing a game of tennis because you enjoy tennis, not because you want to become the next Raphael and Adal.

SPEAKER_01:

No, literally, I so agree.

SPEAKER_00:

You look at your life in this big picture, you've got all different areas of your life, and your job and the income that provides is one part of it, and that should be a tool to fund other things you enjoy, whether that's playing tennis or going travelling or eating at a new bakery this weekend. That's such a good point.

SPEAKER_01:

I think when it comes to funding all of these things that we love, it's a good point to talk about salaries. How do you ask for the right salary when you just start out on your career? It's hard to maybe feel confident to go to your manager and ask for what you deserve or feel like you own you are able to be in that room, but it's also just hard to have the confidence to do that. It's hard to have the conversation. And I think for my listeners, it would be really useful to hear if you had any non-negotiables, like three things that just are absolute no's, or you're just top three no's when it comes to negotiating for a salary, like what not to do, whether it's specific words or body language or phrasing it in a certain way, what are three definitely don't do's when it comes to negotiating your salary, you would say?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, don't go barge the door down first, you know. Yeah, let's okay. So, three things. First thing I would definitely say is it's better to go asking for a range rather than asking for a number. So, what I mean by this is rather than going in saying I would like to be paid 50,000 for this job rather than the 40,000 you're offering, instead it's so much better to go in and say, What is the range for the budget that you have for this role? Because let's say they say to you 40 to 60,000, but you go in only asking for 50, you might have been you might have been able to get more than 50 because that's in their budget, but you're but you're selling yourself lower by only asking for a certain figure. So that's why I think it's important to ask for a range and put the ball in their court rather than you giving them a number.

SPEAKER_01:

That's so powerful when you do that because you could be costing yourself potentially an extra couple grand.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, more even.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, exactly. That's a really good point.

SPEAKER_00:

The second thing I would say is it's all about your language. So you mentioned language, it's a really important one. So actually, how do you so actually how do you construct this conversation, whether it's in person or via email, but making sure it's really collaborative. So not just I want this because I can do XYZ, but actually, you know, but actually working together to find what we call a mutually beneficial solution. So the sort of thing you could say is how can we work together to find something that works for both of us, or you know, I'm really looking forward to working in this role and providing this for you. So it's about both of you, it's not just I want this, I want that, and being selfish, but you really have to show that you're working together with the company. And the final thing I would say is actually viewing your compensation as just part of the whole package. So your salary is one thing, but you've also got annual leave, bonuses, equity. So if the company isn't willing to bump up your salary, you could ask them for a sign-on bonus, potentially equity if it's a startup or even a few more days of pay time off.

SPEAKER_01:

That's a good point. Never be afraid, like you never know what they could say, it could be way better than you think, and you'll never know unless you ask.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. But it's about using all those three things to construct a really strong argument for yourself, and that will help you feel more confident.

SPEAKER_01:

If you would advise someone who is early in their 20s and back to the salary stuff, would you say to someone who's in a position of they're about to take a job, would you tell them to sacrifice the salary if it's not as good as they want just to get their foot in the door, or would you say the salary overchumps that?

SPEAKER_00:

Such a good question. I think also because of today's job market, it's not as easy as saying don't take an offer if they're not paying you as much as you want. I think this is what it comes down to. And you've probably heard the saying, you should be earning or learning, ideally both. And if it's neither, then don't work that job or leave. But in reality, it's not as black and white as that. So I think if you're not being paid as well, but you're learning a lot, maybe the company are funding a lot of your education or a qualification, then that's amazing because that's really going to propel you in the future. And sometimes it's worth taking a slight salary cut, like you say, to get your foot in the door. I think the most important thing is actually thinking one step ahead. And this is something that a really senior mentor once taught me. You should always think one job ahead of your current job. So when you're starting your new job, think one job ahead of that. Where do you want to be next? And if the job you're going for is going to help you get there, because that allows you to see the bigger picture of your career and actually see is this going to help me get to where I want. And if so, then great, even if it's not as well paid, it's a stepping stone in your journey, which is just as important. So you kind of need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. It's not so much, oh, I'm earning 40k and I want to earn 50. Okay, great, but it might really help you get to where you want to be.

SPEAKER_01:

You also can look at your manager and be like, if that's where or your seen person that's just a bit more seen senior than you, and see them if that is somewhere you want to be, if that's somewhere that looks attractive to you, then work towards that being go and take the job, like especially if you're in a place where you can take the lowest salary if you're at home, let's say, but especially at the job market as well. I think take the experience if it's not a crappy job that's you're not gonna learn anything. But of course, you always have to start at the bottom, and some people have a better attitude about that than others. But I think I'd agree with you on that point.

SPEAKER_00:

It's true, and I think in you know, today's job market you need experience to get experience, unfortunately. Yeah, and I think when you're starting out in your career, you know, you might not be earning the salary you want, but it's about how you use your experience to propel yourself because that's ultimately what will get you the bigger salaries.

SPEAKER_01:

What would your advice be to people who need to get the confidence to be able to ask for what they deserve early on in their career? Okay. So it really just goes back to what we were talking about earlier. You need the confidence to walk in the door and be able to ask for what you want, if that's salary, if that's you know, annual leave. But how do you actually do that?

SPEAKER_00:

So it comes down to three main things. The first one, everyone has a market value, not to objectify ourselves, but you have to think of this as kind of like a career capital. So everyone has a market value depending on your skills, your experiences, and you can research this, like we said on Glassdoor as a starting point, and obviously, the more experience you get, the more your career capital will increase. So that's a good starting point you can use as confidence in order to know if you're being paid what you deserve. The second thing, especially if you're quite early on in your career, is actually reframing your skills and experiences as potential value. So, yes, you may have not worked in banking before, but you may have got similar skills and experiences from university, from extracurriculars, volunteering. So it's all about how you frame it, and this is what I tell people all the time is it's all transferable skills. So if you can frame it in a way that suggests potential value to your employer, it will increase your confidence and your career capital a lot more because you know you can perform the role, you just need a bit of time to learn on the job.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, exactly. And you also need an employer who's going to see that and give you the time to learn on the job, rather than so many people in the job market, I feel like, who will look at someone who maybe is starting out and they don't have the experience, but they can get it if if they are entering their first job. I just think the job market is so tough because when you are trying to get an entry-level role, people expect like two years of experience, and I've seen this on LinkedIn recently. People are saying, Oh, graduate role, but you need to have two years of experience in X or one year of experience in sales already or something like that, and it's really tough to be able to think, how is this a grad role? But if you had to say what the biggest obstacles you think are at the moment for people in their 20s who are going and trying to enter the job market, who are applying for jobs at the moment, what do you think the main ones are, considering we're in an absolute disgusting state of the job market?

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, I think there's a few, definitely a few, but I think there's a few, but we could probably boil it down to about three. The first one, like you say, is what's otherwise known as the experience paradox. So essentially, you need experience to get experience, yeah, and you need experience to get a job, right? So it's this vicious cycle of how the hell do I even start my career? And that can make it very difficult because companies are expecting more and more of young people nowadays. So that's definitely the first one, like you say. I think the second one is competition or saturation in the job market, and what I mean by that, especially with AI, because it's so easy nowadays to mass apply to hundreds of jobs, you can use all these sorts of AI tools to send off a hundred applications in one day. So there are so many applications for each role, so many candidates, that it's making it very difficult for people now.

SPEAKER_01:

That's so true, because you can just slap in a cover letter to in ChatGPT and ask for it, which I feel like really takes out the personal side of it and also the thought, and then you wouldn't really apply to as many jobs if you didn't have that quick tool.

SPEAKER_00:

Even LinkedIn easy apply, you know, it's so easy to apply to, but it means that there's just mass applications, and obviously, a lot of people now so having a degree such as a bachelor's degree doesn't really set you apart the way it used to. So, actually, now in terms of really getting your name out there, it's actually harder to set yourself apart. And obviously, you have things like the cost of living, so people really need to get a job to afford to be able to survive, so it's becoming even harder to get experience because often the sort of work experience that you used to do, you know, it might be unpaid, and then it can be more difficult to prepare yourself forward in the future.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. What would you say the hardest industries are to break into now at the moment?

SPEAKER_00:

I think there's four main industries that come to mind. You're probably familiar with these, but you've obviously got things like big tech and startups, especially the non-engineering and non-technical roles. So product management, project management. Yeah. And there's also, and also it's quite known that there's been a lot of layoffs in these industries recently because they're quite volatile, so that obviously makes it a lot harder to break into. And then, secondly, you've got things like high finance, investment banking, just because the application process is so rigorous and demanding. You've also got law, big law, and then obviously consulting at your big firms like MBB. A lot of these industries have really rigorous and demanding application processes that are quite time consuming, and sometimes they also recruit from a very small or specific pool of universities or target schools. Yes, that's something you might have seen quite a lot. So I think it can be quite hard to break into these industries if you haven't got an internship or work experience there.

SPEAKER_01:

So hard to not feel like you're the problem when a lot of the time you just are not differentiated enough from like, yes, you could do that more, maybe, but your bachelor's degree degree you've worked hard for that, you worked hard to and you've sort of been told maybe that you're going to just have a like easy cruise to get a job straight after you finish your degree. And now I just don't think people predicted how difficult it could be. It's so true. It's becoming so difficult. So I think if you are struggling, if you are in a position where you're in a career change or you're struggling to get a job that you feel like fits the one that you want for your future, just don't be too hard on yourself to the point where you self-scrutinize and lose confidence because it is just a numbers game and it's gonna be so much rejection.

SPEAKER_00:

And another thing, if you know, if you were to get a really toxic manager or a toxic boss or you started really hating your job, let's say things changed or senior leadership changed, you don't want to feel stuck.

SPEAKER_01:

It was funny what you said earlier around um AI and how it's really increased the amount of people who are applying for jobs in general, and like I can imagine that it's the HR person who's looking through these and who has probably like a list of things that they are going to weed out. But another controversial topic that I hear a lot now is people also I've seen this on tube adverts, and there are these adverts that are saying, AI, do you is AI going to steal your job? And it's like these are the jobs that are gonna get stolen, or these are the jobs that you'll be safe in, and I think it's creating this like fear-mongering thing when you're starting out in your career. Like, do I do am I gonna be in a job that is going to be taken over in the next 20 years by AI? Am I gonna be made redundant and is AI gonna take over? Do we actually do you actually think AI is going to take over jobs, or are we just overreacting? This is a great question.

SPEAKER_00:

I need to know. We need to know. I think it comes down to a few things. So, firstly, you cannot replace human interaction or human emotion, okay? And some jobs, these skills are essential. So things like therapists, counsellors, nurses, teachers, you cannot replace those jobs because you have to have human interaction and emotion. I'm not saying they're safe 100%, yeah, but it's definitely something that is more protected. Whereas a job that is more administrative or perhaps routine, you know, things like data analysis, they're obviously a bit more vulnerable to AI. But it doesn't mean they'll be replaced because I think the thing people need to realise is that it's not that AI is going to replace your job, but that AI will transform your job. Yeah. And you have to learn how to use AI to complement your job. So AI might take over the easy, sort of automated or mundane parts of your job, like lots of data analysis or typing up notes, briefings, that sort of thing. But there are other areas of your job that then you can focus on more because you'll be spending less time on those tasks.

SPEAKER_01:

That's a good thing. We don't really want to be doing those mundane things that you will have to be doing in your entry, entry-level roles when you know AI is going to help rather than hinder the best companies promote using AI in work. I think it's like, how can you make your day-to-day tasks more efficient? Yeah. And how can you take time back? And I don't think it's something to be afraid of. I think in the grand scheme of things, I'd say, no, it's not taking over your jobs. But essentially, I wouldn't overthink that AI is taking over our jobs. We have been yapping for ages, and I actually loved talking to you. I think I've learned so much just in this session, and I hope you guys have too. But we're gonna finish up, and we always know that at the end of the podcast, it's a tradition that we ask the final question, which is what's one piece of advice that you could give to my listeners that you feel like is the best piece of advice you've received in your twenties, or just a piece of advice at the moment that you're really liking?

SPEAKER_00:

I think the most important skill you can learn, especially in your twenties, it's not learning how to code, how to be a software engineer, anything like that. It's learning how to negotiate and ask for what you want. And the reason is this has saved me so much money and got me to so many places in my life, all because I was willing and confident enough to ask. And I think half the battle with negotiating is actually just having the confidence and willingness to ask for what you want because so many people miss out because they don't even ask. I had a senior mentor once told me about this really great book. It's called Never Split the Difference. You can have a look at it. It was written by a former FBI agent who did a lot of negotiating, and it talks all about different strategies you can use, but thinking about the other person's point of view is a big one. But actually, you can negotiate so many things in your life. I'm not just talking about salaries, even your bills, gas, electricity, if you're asking for a service from someone, um, holiday packages, anything. It's all about having the courage to ask, and I think it can get you so far, often a lot more than what you expect. And I think it's something that we can all use in so many different parts of our life, just having the confidence to ask.

SPEAKER_01:

I love that, and also congrats to you for being able to ask those things. And it's so good that it's got you far. Yeah, and I think that's a testament to our listeners to just have reassurance that you can do it, you can have the confidence if you can get to the places you want to if you if you are skilled and sort of savvy about it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, definitely. I think that's a nice way to wrap it up.

SPEAKER_01:

It was such a pleasure to have you on Leah, and I'm going to link your socials in the episode description if you guys want to see more of her content, which you absolutely will because I've already learned so much and I've loved watching our content and seeing you grow. So that's all we have for today, guys. We have to have dinner at this point because it's quite late, guys. We've actually filmed really late and the clocks are in. I'm really hungry. The clocks have gone back. Yeah, they have gone back, and it's just, you know, it's getting dark. So we're wrapping the episode up. I hope you guys have a great rest of your Wednesday, and I shall see you next week. Bye. Bye.

Contributor

Emily Astley

Host

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