Career success requires more than just skills. Luther Jackson, workforce development expert and Non-Resident Fellow at Brookings Metro, and Julia Freeland Fisher, Director of Education Research at the Clayton Christensen Institute and author of Who You Know, join Work Forces to unpack the critical role of social capital in navigating today's turbulent labor market. They discuss the "network gap" and how intentional relationship-building can open doors to opportunity, especially for those from underserved communities. Tune in to learn practical strategies and discover how institutions can become catalysts for connection. Transcript Julian Alssid: Welcome to Work Forces. I'm Julian Alssid. Kaitlin LeMoine: And I'm Kaitlin LeMoine, and we speak with the innovators who shape the future of work and learning. Julian Alssid: Together, we unpack the complex elements of workforce and career preparation and offer practical solutions that can be scaled and sustained. Kaitlin LeMoine: Work Forces is supported by Lumina Foundation. Lumina is an independent, private foundation in Indianapolis that is committed to making opportunities for learning beyond high school available to all. Let's dive in. Julian Alssid: Many of our conversations are about skills and different models of skill development and how we all need to carry our skills from one job to another along our career journeys. Kaitlin LeMoine: But we also recognize that career success is not driven by skill attainment alone. One area that we're excited to dive into today is the importance of social capital along an individual's career journey, and we're excited to have our guests on today to explore this topic further. Luther Jackson is a workforce development expert based in Silicon Valley with a focus on preparing individuals from underserved communities for careers in high growth sectors. With extensive experience at the NOVA Workforce Development Board, he has led initiatives preparing individuals from historically excluded communities for well being careers in high growth industry sectors including software development and zero emission transportation. His work also emphasizes the importance of lifelong learning, professional networks and broad access to career opportunities. A non resident Fellow at Brookings Metro. Jackson also serves on several boards, including Hack the Hood and the Everett Program. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and a former labor union leader and journalist. And Julia Freeland Fisher is the Director of Education Research at the Clayton Christensen Institute. The Institute's research educates policy makers and community leaders on the power of disruptive innovation in the K-12 and higher education spheres. Julia is the author of who you know, unlocking innovations that expand students networks. Her work focuses on innovations that deepen and diversify students stock of social capital by enhancing their access to and ability to navigate peer mentor and professional networks. Julia started her career at New Schools Venture Fund. She holds a BA from Princeton University and a JD from Yale Law School. Welcome to you both. We're so excited to have you on the workforces podcast today. Julia Freeland Fisher: Thank you. So excited to be here with Luther. Luther Jackson: Great to be here. Thank you. Julian Alssid: We get a twofer today, two experts for the price of one. Oh no, we don't charge for this podcast. I forgot. So to kick us off, would love to hear you talk a bit about your respective backgrounds and how you've connected in this work. And Luther, why don't you go first? Luther Jackson: Sure. Well, again, I'm delighted to be here, particularly because I'm such a big fan of the podcast. My interest in social capital started early on in my tenure at NOVA workforce development in Silicon Valley. Our director at the time, Khris Stadelman, asked me to focus on workforce trends in tech, which, of course, is Silicon Valley's hometown industry, I came to learn of job seekers who, in my mind, checked all of the boxes for career success. They had graduated with advanced degrees from prestigious universities, and they had many years of experience in software development and related tech disciplines, and yet some had been unemployed for many months. So clearly something was missing. So this started me on a quest to understand what I call the career success equation. In 2014 we at NOVA surveyed and interviewed 120 tech professionals to help inform this equation, and we basically wanted to know, how are they able to thrive in a chaotic economy when a given day, some tech companies are laying off and hiring. Based on our findings, we wrote a report called Bridge to Career Success, and subsequently identified what we call the Five Truths of Career Success, what it takes to remain relevant in a disruptive economy. And those truths are self awareness, networking, relationship management, organizational reading, ...
