Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to the Blueprint brought to you by Brilliant Pathways. I'm your host, Manny Tejeda. In this forward thinking podcast, we explore the evolving challenges and opportunities in preparing students for college and career success.
Offering expert insights, actionable strategies and real life stories to help listeners better support young people as they draw their future.
Welcome, everyone.
Today's topic is more relevant than ever, especially as the job market is shifting at lightning speed. It's about the skills that don't just get you the job, but also help you keep it and climb the corporate ladder for years to come. At Burling Pathways, we call those the essential skills. Today you're going to hear us talk about them as soft skills, as durable skills. But make no mistake, at Brilliant Pathways, they're the essential skills. So why do they matter so much, even as technology and artificial intelligence take over more technical tasks? Well, there's one thing that artificial intelligence can do, and it's that that human piece and those emotions. What are employers really looking at when we say they want to see folks with communication skills? They want them to be adaptable. That's what we're going to dig in today. And what's driving the growing demand for these skills? And what practical steps can students take to stand out and future proof their careers, even for jobs that haven't been invented yet? So our guest, and I'm really excited to have our guest today, Greg Buccio, who's the managing director of Talent Acquisition at Southwest Airlines. Greg has built and led a team of nearly 300 professionals for hiring across every part of the airline industry at Southwest. So from corporate offices to maintenance roles to pilots and operations team, he's also a longtime friend of Berlin Pathways. He has served on our board. He has deployed his team all over the country to help us with Berlin Pathways events at our schools. So we are very excited to welcome you, Greg, to the Blueprint. And it's an honor to have you here.
[00:02:09] Speaker B: Hey, Manny, thanks for having me. I'm really excited about this. Been looking forward to it.
[00:02:13] Speaker A: So I know that the essential skills is something that you're a natural at. So let's start with the big picture. From your perspective, what do you think is the biggest challenge for students trying to plan their futures around developing such skills?
[00:02:27] Speaker B: We can get rid of the soft piece of it. They're definitely either essential and then, you know, I know, you said it, I'm hearing the word durable. And what that means to me is long lasting and ones that you can take to multiple places because they are such, I think a Lot of people just say, you either have that or you don't, or you're a natural or whatever. I think we have, like anything, we've got stuff that we are better at than others, but it is still something that you can learn, that you can practice, that you can understand. And I think that's where probably most students get hung up on, right. Is that particular piece. And then, you know, not to rock parts of your audience or whatever, but I don't think that that's something in, in any levels of the education system that is as big of a focus. You get into STEM or these kind of other things that people are always wanting to talk about. And we tend to bypass some of these that are equally, if not more important.
[00:03:27] Speaker A: You know, I think we've seen it in. And it's unrelated to whether you want to go just the corporate side of things, nonprofit even for very blue collar jobs. They're looking at, what are these skills that we can teach you, the technical skills once you come here, you just have to have the right attitude. Right. But they don't tell you what are those things that you have to, to have in terms of skills? Oh, you got to be able to communicate well, what does that entail? Right. So I'm excited that we'll dive in deeper into what that might be. But before we do that, Greg, can you share with the audience a little bit about your own pathway?
[00:04:08] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. And I remember the first time I got introduced to brilliant pathways and I remember being kind of in front of the audience in one of those sessions, you know, who is this guy? Or whatever? And I just said, I'm just going to be real honest with you. I have both sides of the coin. At that time, I was like, I've got a daughter that's going through the school system. She just graduated high school last year and as a freshman in college. But I go, I hire 8 to 10 to 12,000 people every year, and the majority of them honestly don't even have a college education. So that's the lens when I'm looking at all this. You know, for, for Southwest. We need to hire abroad across all types of roles. And my team is responsible for the most entry level roles that we might have at the airport, all the way up to executives, pilots, everything in between. But I'm one of those great examples of somebody that went to college, studied something, got a degree in it, and isn't doing anything remotely related to that degree. I was a marketing major. However, I can also look at it now and I think there is actually a tremendous amount of correlation between marketing and talent acquisition. It's not all lost. I think, you know, eventually, at some point in time, my parents could be proud that their money was well spent. And it's in my degrees being used. But, yeah, I did that, you know, and like a lot of people, my early career was really rough. I pursued a lot of sales jobs, partially because that's what my dad had done, that's what my brothers did, that's what I knew. And so I thought, okay, well, that just makes sense for me. And then I got into it and I'm like, hey, you're not very good at it, and you really don't like it, so let's make a shift. And luckily, when that happened, I was actually at a staffing company and so was able to kind of morph into the recruiting role. And then as I look back at it, I was like, wow. All some of these things that I was really good at, especially in that essential skill area through high school and through college and through organizations, and those kind of things really are very durable when it comes to TA and what you do. Wisdom comes with age and experience, and so you kind of look back at it. But I will tell you, and I know we're going to talk about, you'll realize, like, why one of these is my favorite, is one of my top skills for kids to have. But outside of a job that I had during college, the next four roles, that includes me up to here. So 35ish years of my life, every single one of those jobs I got due to networking, they weren't something that I applied to, you know, dating myself back in the papers or, you know, now online or, you know, scanning a QR code or whatever is however it happens today. Right. They were from networking. I knew somebody and worked that angle and got inside. And so you'll understand, I think, why I have probably a particular passion towards that one. But that's it. I started. I've been at Southwest. I'm in my 25th year, just celebrated 24 in August and started as a recruiter and just worked my way up to where I'm in. I'm in the role that I am now.
[00:07:27] Speaker A: Well, that's. That's awesome. And I think a lot of people can relate to the fact that you start a job that you clearly don't like, which, you know, it's. It's a natural thing. And then what are the things that you can take from there and then pivot? I think the piece There, obviously you didn't give up. You didn't say, you know what, I'm just gonna quit this job thing and just not work.
Many of us don't have that luxury. Right, Right. I know you talked a lot about the number of jobs that you recruit for in a given year and, you know, quite impressive. You know, I want you to be thinking about from a broader perspective. I know you, you look at trends quite a lot. So what does the data say about skills on a national landscape?
[00:08:14] Speaker B: It's growing. It is the thing I think the challenge is, I agree with the end game of we're trying to get where we focus a lot more on all kinds of skills for the role and a little bit less of experience. That's why you're seeing a lot of job descriptions these days, you know, reduced to where a college degree is not required anymore. And maybe the years of experience are shrinking and they're looking for more of various skills, both the essential ones that we're talking about, but the hard ones as well, the technical ones, as things to do and be better barometer of success. But when it comes to the essential durable skills, they still lead the game. Pretty reliable source of statistics. I saw the other day, you know, over 75% of the job postings in the United States require at least two durable essential skills in them, if you will, which is a lot. And 80% of the most requested skills kind of fit into this category. And I think it just don't care how smart you are. Like, if you can't do these things, like, you won't be successful. And I, you know, and that's, I say that at Southwest all the time. I say it when I get an opportunity to, to speak with new hires, you know, beyond my team or whatever, and just talk about like, hey, hey, here. It's. Your success will be more based on relationships and those and how you do those essential skills than the other stuff. The other stuff is certainly important, but like, if that's all you're good at, you, you, you will ultimately fail here. Or I like to point at myself and go, but if you're really good at those, you don't. You can be dumb and last for a really long time. Right. And hang in there. If you've got some of these other things that you can work into the equation.
[00:10:07] Speaker A: That's absolutely true. I think one of the things, one of the questions that, that we usually hear from, you know, parents and educators is how do I help students build and showcase the essential skills? And what would you Say to them,
[00:10:20] Speaker B: think of the skills as like muscles, right, that you're trying to work out, you know, and so if you want to get bigger, faster, whatever it is, and you're. You're doing things to build, you know, your physical muscles, you have to do the same thing with these muscles that we call the skills, right? So whether you're natural at it or not, or whatever it takes that. And a lot of it is, you know, it gets into, well, how often are you practicing it and what's the rep, you know, repetition of that or whatever. Just like the particular piece, you know, just. Just like all of that, like you would do if you were going to the gym. And so that's a big.
That's a big element of it. And so I think it's, you know, identifying those. Those key durable skills, those key essential skills, and then kind of create, you know, a plan for it. And I will tell you one, one big one that super important. And it works really well because it worked with our kid. And when I've seen others, you know, of her friends, that either it's being done the same way or not, but you gotta let them do stuff, right? It is. The more you hover around, the more you do things for them, frankly, the more you cripple them in the future to be able to do stuff. And it's okay if they scrape their knee or whatever it is, but there's just so many things along those kind of lines that I think. And it's natural as parents, you, we want to protect them, we want to do this or whatever, but you're not. I think that it's real easy to go, okay, I can't help my kid with math because I don't understand it myself, and best of luck or whatever. But it's like, oh, you gotta go talk to a teacher or, you know, in a group. In, you know, group project. And I'm gonna go reach out to the parents or I'm doing all those things. No, let them do that themselves so that they can learn. You don't have to not be involved. It's just, you brief em on the back end or you brief them on the front end and go, hey, you need to do this. Let's talk through how you might go about doing it. But most important is allow them to do it for themselves.
[00:12:25] Speaker A: We might want to refresh, folks, on what are some of those durable skills that are deemed durable across any industry. So I think you got critical thinking, effective communication, interpersonal relationships, collaboration, decision making, problem solving, adaptability, and resilience and leadership. So can we talk a little bit about some of those? Obviously, the example you just gave alluded to some of those allowing students to kind of do it themselves, make the mistakes that they need to make, you know, kind of become a coach right at that point of your serving the actions that they're taking. But, you know, how do you do that in a classroom or how do you do that if you're, you know, a parent and, you know that I had a group of students last week that we were doing a mentor training with, and one of them mentioned the biggest thing that the biggest pressure that they put on is on making mistakes, and they feel like they can't make mistakes. And I think this ties into WOW with. With these essential skills, because there's a learning component in making mistakes, right? Like, I think you just gotta have that reflective piece. But there are things that you can't take the chance on making a mistake. So what do you do there?
[00:13:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, you know, one of the things that I coach my team here is we do obviously a lot of projects, a lot of things that, you know, involve how we're going to do our world better and those kind of things. And, you know, one of the things that I just love, you know, I always tell them is we're going to fail, which there's obviously a really good chance. Let's fail fast and small. Right. And so part of it is like that trail run or a beta, if you will, like, do things in a. Don't wait for like this big moment or whatever it is, or, you know, I have folks on my team that maybe they're working on a big presentation for me. And I'm like, hey, I'm really iterative with it. And so I would rather you send me early on one or two things that you're thinking through to see if we're on the right track. Then you spend, you know, a month come in and it's totally way off because it's wasted your time. Also know that that's can be demoralizing and all the things. So let's, let's make sure that you're on that right path. And so I think that that's huge. And one of the things that I've been working with, like my newer leaders on my team and I. And I have actually used this on my daughter as well. She's not as big of a fan of it. I allow her to put her spin on it. It's called the one three one. And it's Actually, I didn't create it. There's a lot of things that are out there, but the whole approach is that you take a problem, one problem, you think of three viable solutions for that problem that you've researched, and then you present your recommendation for that.
And what I have found and why I went through my team is because I am at a stage now, and I have other, you know, leaders that I do that all in my head very fast, right? Like, I am just, you know, that particular piece. I've gotten to that stage. But part of it is teaching them to think holistically all the way through it. And it's just. It's really good. But part of why I'm doing it is like. And I can't be the easy button for everything, right? Like, first of all, I don't want to tell you the answer because you don't learn when that happens. B. Secondly, my idea or answer may not be the best one. I'm not that arrogant to think that that happens. And so part of it is, it's really. It's not about whether their solution is right or wrong. It's really about their thought process. That's what you're really doing. And I just think there's an excellent opportunity. Parents at home can do this. You know, just a modified version of this when, you know, your kid comes to you with a situation and go, hey, I'm not gonna. I'm listing. I'm still all these things. But tell me, okay, what do you think you should do with it and. And help them kind of process? But I think there's a great opportunity for. In the education system to work through those, because that's. Because, frankly, that's the more important thing is that is them developing a really good thought process to attack problems, if you will. And then it has so much to it because they obviously, you know, they got to learn how to research. They've got to learn how to think broadly, right? That it's like, you know, so many times, you know, I tell people, I'm like, hey, that's a really great idea, but it's dependent on somebody else that you don't have oversight over agreeing to it. And so they may not. So what? You know, you've got to think through all those kind of things. And so I think that's. I think that's just a very teachable way to do some things, and especially in the world of AI, right? Because I think that really mirrors it. Well, right? When AI might be doing more of the research or some Things like that.
That's great. But there's still the context. There's still the great. All your data points are awesome. Now what, like, what do I do with that? What? You know, I had that conversation, you know, you know, yesterday, somebody. I mean, it was brilliant work that this person presented to me, and I had a few ideas, but I was like, if you were me, what would you do with this data? Like, how often would you look at it? How would you. What would you do to make kind of decisions? And so that's just so key. And so I just think that's just a great skill set to have, but it's a great approach, a simple and easy approach as well.
Yeah.
[00:18:02] Speaker A: And I mean, you giving that example, you know, obviously you're talking about helping also them develop leadership skills and communication, effective communication skills. 100% one activity, it's hitting multiple ones. And I think that, I think sometimes the simpler the ideas are, the better for execution. And then you can by other things. I think communication comes up a lot and especially, you know, in interviews. What are some of the, you know, one or two tips you would give that you often see when you're recruiting that people highlight really well their communication skills?
[00:18:41] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's. I think we might have talked about it in the prep meeting as well, but somewhere in the neighborhood of this year, like 40 million of the US job postings require communication as one of its skills. And I mean, you think through it like, okay, there's just, there's very few jobs that you can just sit isolated and even some of your more common entry level, hourly, you know, whether it's retail or anything along those kind of lines, I mean, I think of, you know, okay, our customer service and our operations agents or whatever. Right. That all. That all really happens. And so I think that that's really good. I think what's become a little bit of a lost art, especially in, on the corporate side of that, is the written communication. Right. That's just really.
And you know, not, not blaming the phone and the texting, but I know with our daughter there was times where it's just like, yeah, you just, you're. You're writing an email for a letter of reference or something like that or an internship or whatever it is. And it's like, yeah, that's not how you talk. Right. Like, that's how you're talking to like your 10 best friends or whatever, but that's not how you do that. And so I think that that's just so important to be able to Do. And I think, you know, in a lot of job interviews, it's hard and they do move fast. But, man, that thank you card where you can show just not only is it that a nice touch, but that you can show that you can put a couple sentences together in writing or whatever is really, really huge. And so I think that that's, I think that that's super big. Well, I think in interviews, right, when, when folks can, you know, really articulate, you know, their ideas or what they've done, I think in an interview, and part of it is practicing it a little bit, right? Which is I think people feel like, hey, I'm just going to sit down and be interviewed and talk about myself. And well, there's a big part of that that's true. You want to think about, well, what am I going to say, right? If someone's going to ask, you know, someone's going to ask me, hey, what's your biggest accomplishment so far? Well, you should already know what that is and why haven't you thought about what it is and enough of the details that you can do that. And what most interviewers, when communication is important or we're being looked at in an interview is either, you know, crisp, concise, right? And answer the question right. You know, we get folks that ramble a lot and so that can hurt them or don't really answer the question or answer it too short or. The one I always feel bad for, for folks is that, you know, man, if they could have a do over, they wouldn't have said that or whatever it is. It's, it's that always thought of like, hey, you know, you know, when you're walking out to the car and going, why didn't I say this? And I should have said, you know, all that. Well, yeah, the point is, is that you could have thought of that, right? And more of the communication that happens is, is a little more prescribed, you know, Manny, it's not, you know, I don't go into every single meeting where it's just like, hey, it's firing line. We're just gonna. Someone's just gonna ask. Greg, like, I'm, I'm there for a reason, right? And I'm there to present or get a point across or whatever. And so, you know, I've thought about it. I maybe have written a couple things down just so that, you know, there's data points. You know, I've rattled off like three or four data points in this. I'm not taking them from here. I can see them, right now as. As we're talking, right? And so it's just all of those things that I think is so, so important, but that's. It's such a huge difference, and I think that that's what they can do. I will tell you that I think a big piece that helps with that as well is the more your kids, as they grow, you allow them to speak to adults, their vocabulary, their confidence, they're just, hey, I've got to be able to carry on this kind of conversation, because certainly once they get out of high school, they're going to deal with more adults than. Than peers, frankly, Whether it's a professor, whether it's for some sort of job or internship or in an organization, whatever it may be, they need to know how to be able to do that. And the earlier you allow them to start doing that when it doesn't count as much so they can make a mistake once again in a small stage and go, okay, great. What did we learn from that? There's no harm done versus you needed to get clarity with your professor on a test or the schedule. And this is your fourth time to ask them. Well, why? Because the first time, you haven't been clear yet on what you're trying to get across. So I think that's a real big thing that parents can do for their kids.
[00:23:46] Speaker A: Yeah, Greg, this has been awesome. And I think this information certainly helps anybody working with students, whether you're, you know, an educator, a parent, or what have you, you can help them highlight the skills, allow them to practice, make mistakes.
And why we do this. Well, we know when students kind of learn how to adapt, lead, and dream big, they just don't follow a path, they create one. And I think for our audience, that's what it means to walk into a Berlin pathway, a pathway that makes sense for you as the student. So thank you all for joining us on the Blueprint, where every conversation brings us closer to preparing the next generation for not just success, but significance. I'm Manny Tejeda. See you next time.
Support for this podcast comes from Brilliant Pathways, an organization that had spent over 30 years helping students make opportunities happen.
Connect with us wherever you get your podcasts. And thank you for joining us on the Blueprint. I'm Manny Tejeda, your host, and I'll see you next time.
