The Career Conversation I Wish Someone Had With Me at 22.

My daughter Mythili and I were talking over the weekend, the way we do when life slows down just enough to have a real conversation, and somewhere between chai and catching up, she said: ” I don’t know what’s the use of a degree in the AI era!“

She is studying media and digital marketing. She is sharp, she works hard, and she is watching the industry shift under her feet in real time. I did not dismiss her worry. It is a fair one. But I also did not let her stay in it too long, because there are things I have learned about building a career that I wish someone had told me when I was starting out.

So I told her. And now I am telling you.

“Mum, I am tired of working on unpaid internships. I want to make money”

This was the first thing she said when we talked about an opportunity she was weighing up. Interesting work, high-profile people involved, but the money was not much. And many of the internships /portfolios she did were unpaid.

I said to her: in the early years, you are not only being paid in money. You are being paid in proximity.

Think about it honestly. Access to genuinely experienced, well-connected, high-profile people is not something most people get in their first few years. If that access comes your way, the question is not “does the hourly rate add up?” The question is “what does being in this room, on this project, in front of these people, do for where I am trying to go?”

Calculate hours in your income jobs. Retail, hospitality, shifts that pay your rent, count every hour there, that is a completely fair exchange. But when you are building your network and your reputation, the currency works differently. Count the connections. Count the conversations. Count the person who remembers your name six months later and opens a door you did not even know existed.

Be patient. And do genuinely good work while you are waiting.

“So what do I actually do with my degree?”

Here is the reframe I gave Mythili, and it is honestly the most important thing in this piece.

Skills will get you a job. Providing solutions will bring you money.

Everything in your portfolio right now, the campaigns, the content, the analytics, the writing, whatever your field, that is evidence of what you have learned. It is your foundation. But the foundation is not the building.

The building starts when you look at what you know and ask: whose problem can I solve with this?

A decade ago, I built Prayaana because women in India were trying to re-enter the workforce and hitting walls everywhere. In 2020, I built SheSight because talented women were doing extraordinary things in near silence. I used my skills in training, facilitation, and digital marketing as the tools. But what made those ventures financially meaningful was that they were solving something real for real people.

This applies well beyond media. Engineering, psychology, finance, design, law, business. The graduates who build careers are the ones who stop saying “here is what I can do” and start saying “here is what I can fix for you.” That one shift changes everything.

“But Mum, AI is taking all the jobs.”

Yes. I said it to her plainly and I will say it to you the same way. You are not just competing with other graduates anymore. You are competing with tools that can produce in minutes what used to take hours.

So start using AI. Not because it is trendy. Because it is the only way to stay competitive and relevant in the kind of market you are entering.

But here is what I also told her. AI can generate. It cannot contextualise. It cannot build trust, read a room, or bring the kind of human judgement and warmth that makes the difference between output and actual impact. That part is still yours. Keep sharpening it, not instead of AI, but right alongside it.

The graduates who will thrive are the ones who use AI to think bigger and move faster, while bringing something genuinely human to the table that no tool can replicate.

What I really want Mythili, and you, to hear.

Where you are right now is not where you are going. The anxiety you are feeling is not a sign that you chose wrong. It is just what the beginning feels like.

Your skills are real. Your network is waiting to be built. Your solutions are still being figured out, and that is completely fine. But do not calculate hours when you should be counting connections. Do not mistake your portfolio for your career. And do not wait for the perfect opportunity when the imperfect one in front of you might be the one that quietly changes everything.

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So, practically, where do you start?

A few things I would tell any graduate stepping into this right now:

1. One. Reframe what you are selling. Do not lead with your degree or your list of skills. Lead with the problem you can solve. “I help small businesses grow their online presence” lands differently than “I have a marketing degree and know Canva and Instagram.”
2. Two. Say yes to access, even when the money is small. If an opportunity puts you near interesting, experienced, well-connected people, take it seriously. The network you build in your first two years will outlast any entry-level salary.
3. Three. Pick one problem in the world around you and start solving it. It does not have to be big. It just has to be real. That is how you move from having a portfolio to building a body of work.
4. Four. Learn AI tools properly, not just the surface level. Spend time understanding what they can and cannot do. Your competitive advantage is not in doing what AI does. It is in doing what AI cannot, and using AI to do everything else faster.
5. Five. Be patient with results but impatient with stagnation. Careers are slow to build and fast to accelerate once momentum kicks in. Keep showing up, keep doing good work, and trust that the connections you are making now are doing something even when you cannot see it yet.

The beginning is uncomfortable by design. It is also where everything starts.

Universal Love & Abundance,

Dr. CeeVee

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