📰 In this issue

🔹 Insider: Exclusive for our community

🔹 Opportunity: Get Rich(er) or Dye Tryin': Cash In On the Green Career Boom

🔹 Trends: Want a Raise? Add "#AI" to Your LinkedIn

🔹 Tools: Balancing Achievement Gloating with Humility: A Guide

🔹 Sparks: Taking down Macbook, quit paying for ChatGPT & The Pro Sleeper

🗃Insider

The Candle AI Disruption Score

This month, in our new insider section, meet the Candle AI Disruption score.

This new tool allows you to upload your resume and receive FREE insights and a personalized analysis that help you remain competitive in today's changing workplace. Try it today!

ResumeResponseGPT

While you’re at it, if you’re actively looking for a new job, you’ll find the ResumeResponseGPT Chrome Plugin an indispensable tool. With over 10,000 job listings analyzed, 800+ users, and a 5.0 Rating, this is a keeper.

🚀 Opportunity

Get Rich(er) or Dye Tryin': Cash In On the Green Career Boom

The path to a sustainable future is being paved with incredible career opportunities for those with an environmental mindset and green skills. As companies across all sectors double down on sustainability initiatives, the demand for sustainability professionals has skyrocketed.

Let’s start with the fact that this covers a wide spectrum of jobs. For those passionate about protecting the planet, a career in sustainability offers the rare chance to turn your ideals into impact. You'll play a pivotal role in helping organizations reduce their carbon footprints, conserve resources, develop sustainable products and processes, and drive meaningful change.

But being a sustainability champion isn't just about saving the world - it's also an incredibly smart career move. Green skills like carbon accounting, emissions trading, sustainability reporting, and environmental modeling are in extremely high demand but low supply. Workers with these talents can increase their chances of landing a job by 29% compared to the general workforce. Great research by a division within the German government.

The skills gap is particularly glaring in finance, construction, energy, and waste management - industries that must transform through new green technologies and processes. Professionals who can lead this charge will be indispensable.

Key green skills employers are hungry for include:

♻️ literacy and environmental awareness

♻️ thinking and problem-solving abilities

♻️ energy/carbon modeling

♻️ renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and green construction

♻️ water conservation and waste management best practices

♻️ climate policies and regulations

In addition to being highly employable, sustainability professionals get to be at the vanguard of the world's transition to clean energy, sustainable practices, and a circular economy. It's a future-proof career path that is both financially rewarding and purposeful.

Don't miss this chance to merge your passion for the environment with outstanding career prospects. Start developing in-demand green skills today to become a driving force in creating a sustainable world.

🔥 Why You Should Care - Undeniable job sustainability, career stability
 
🔑 Key Point -Diverse shortages - outstanding career prospects

📎 Related Resource

• Every company wants ‘green-skilled’ workers

• Talent pipeline puts green energy in the red

• The Future of Green Jobs and Skills Needed

📉 Trends

Want a Raise? 😀 Add "#AI" to Your LinkedIn

When you’re worth over $200 billion more than any other company on the planet and heavily invested in AI, you have a good handle on the GenAI and ML space. Microsoft just released new data showing AI usage among knowledge workers has nearly doubled to 75% in the last six months. Their annual "Work Trend Index" survey hit up 31,000 people across 31 countries, plus analyzed Microsoft 365 and LinkedIn data.

Surprise, surprise - Microsoft is painting AI as a huge productivity booster, promising it will reduce daily drudgery by 30 minutes. As if they aren't completely vested in pushing AI adoption, like maybe close to $50 billion‽‽

The crazy part? Around 78% of people are just bringing their own unauthorized AI tools to work in a "BYOAI" trend. Companies are basically letting employees run wild with random AI software and put corporate data at risk.

Meanwhile, AI skills are a hot commodity on LinkedIn - job posts mentioning AI get 17% more applications and that was in October of 2023. That number is expected to be greater than double that today.

So get ready for a workplace powered by AI, filled with workers who either know AI skills or are looking to bail. The future is now, whether companies are prepared or not.

🔥 Why You Should Care - More money? No brainer.
 
🔑 Key Point - AI skills are a hot commodity, IKR?

📎 Related Resource

• The complete guide to managing unauthorized AI tool usage

• The AI Perils Buried in the Fine Print - The Hollywood Reporter

• More than ½ of Generative AI Adopters Use Unapproved Tools at Work

🚀 Tools

Balancing Achievement Gloating with Humility: A Guide

Let's talk about how to capitalize on major workplace wins and keep jacking up your career. 💯

So let’s say you just crushed that complex data analysis project, and your insights had the whole team mind blown. 🤯 Like, where did this guy come from? Delivering those game-changing recommendations? That's a massive slam dunk.

Capitalize on it - don’t drop the ball after scoring big wins like that. One home run is one home run, it’s a long season so don’t rest on your laurels and start slacking, or just say “part of the job” and move on to the next grind. Each challenge is different, so don’t stress out about having to replicate that level of excellence, every time you step into the batter’s box.

With opportunities getting more competitive, timing is everything. So, let's break it down:

Keep Receipts

Wins are easy to forget when you need 'em most, so maybe journal this stuff and document all the key details - project scope, measurable impact, etc. You’ll have it available to refer to it during performance reviews, interviews, or even for networking. Keep your own personal hype file to keep you motivated.

Share the Glory

No one crushes it alone, so don't be a credit hog. Give props to the real MVPs who helped make it happen - your manager, cross-functional team members, whoever. And even if it was primarily your work, share what you learned with others so they can level up too.

Brag a Little

There's nothing wrong with a little humble brag on LinkedIn or your network to celebrate big wins. It's all about generating visibility and letting people know you're a knowledgeable force. Just make sure to strike that balance between self-promotion, humility, and gratitude. Forget the narcissism or grandiosity though.

Keep That Momentum

Don't just stop at the win - use that momentum to keep pushing forward. Now that you've got leadership's attention, leverage it to pursue new challenges, upskilling, or stretch assignments. That's how you build long-term credibility.

Stay Consistent

You can't revolutionize the game every single time. Setbacks are part of it. But you gotta keep putting in the work and taking calculated risks. Consistency in effort and continuously raising your skills is what'll really take you to the next level.

So, there you have it, no B.S. Follow these tips, and you'll be maximizing those hard-earned wins and skyrocketing your career trajectory. Let's get it!

🔥 Why You Should Care - It’s a branding campaign based on current results.
 
🔑 Key Point - There’s nothing wrong with a little humble brag on LinkedIn.

📎 Related Resource

• The Employee Promotion Guide

• How to Self-Promote (When You Don’t Like to Self-Promote)

• Bragging Better: The Fine Art of Self-Promotion at Work

🚀 Sparks

• Inside Microsoft’s mission to take down the MacBook Air

• You Probably Don't Need to Pay for ChatGPT Anymore

• Top 10 weirdest jobs

This is the FREE career newsletter that could
end up costing you a lot more not to subscribe to.

Opportunity Overdrive is brought to you by Candle. At Candle, we empower the modern worker and put them at the center of opportunity.

For more information about our project, visit: https://www.projectcandle.ai/