the future of ai in your career

All right, listen. I am pumped to be

here. Um, this is this is a pinch me

moment for me. Um, uh, I'm going to pick

on Todd real quick. Um, we're dear

friends now, but I'm going to. But I I

want to start this out by basically

saying that like to not give up. To not

give up, right? So, I have submitted to

all things open for for the last five

years.

I have got rejected after rejected after

rejected after rejected after reject.

That's five. If y'all can't keep count,

I went South Carolina where, you know,

math did great. And finally,

finally, thank you. It's basically you

and my wife laughing at my jokes.

Basically, the six I for last year, I

almost did not submit.

That's not funny, but I appreciate your

support. I almost didn't submit. I was

like, you know what? Let's do it. Why

not? So, I submitted. I got accepted to

talk, right? That's cool. Talk last

year. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

Appreciate it. Appreciate it. It's not

We're not punchline quite yet. Not punch

line quite yet, but I appreciate that.

Then

I kind of stayed in touch with Todd.

Then basically, this is not part of my

talk, so I'm gonna have to fly through

this thing. But basically, Todd then

asked me to come speak uh a few months

ago at Fidelity. Anybody at that meetup?

Cool. That's that same talk. So, you can

zone out for the next 15 minutes, right?

I texted my wife on the way there. And I

was like, I think Todd is auditioning me

for to keynote at his event. Three weeks

later, Todd texted me and said, hey,

would love for you to keynote day two of

the conference. I said, absolutely.

Listen, I will tell you this. I know

this is a small microcosm of things, but

listen, do not give up. You are one

email away. You are one DM away. You are

just one action away

from changing the trajectory of your

career. Again, my name is Taylor Destin.

I'm VP of global community at

torque.dev. And listen, I'm not going to

talk about MCPs. I'm not going to talk

about Goose. Angie, I love you. Also,

it's terrifying to go after Angie, by

the way. I love Angie to death. Have the

utmost respect for her. I tweet I was

like, "Oh god, I'm going after Angie."

What I'm going to talk about for you

today is I'm going to go over some

pretty useless statistics that but I put

in there to like, you know, gain

credibility on my slides for y'all to

pay attention to me. But basically, I'm

going to talk to you about the rest of

of really your career and how you should

position it with AI. So, who am I? I'm a

father. I'm a husband. I have a

beautiful 5-year-old daughter named Ari.

I have a 14-month-old really handsome

son that takes after me. And surprise, I

have a third on the way. Uh, thank you.

Appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah. YEAH. WAS NOT

PLANNED. WAS NOT PLANNED. UM, I I uh I

I'm a mediocre golfer. I'm about as good

as a golfer as like it looks in that

picture with the captions cutting it

off. Uh, I'm an ice hockey player. I

play in the A division in Nashville. We

are backto back league champions. I have

a miniature dog and a miniature donkey

and four horses and live on 15 acres and

I love my family dearly. And shout out

to my wife Jackie for allow me to be

here and supporting me and the kids uh

to speak. Yeah. Yeah. Give it up.

All right. I want to talk about Torque.

What is Torque? We are a community first

talent marketplace. Listen, we are so

passionate about community. We are the

next evolution I would say of staffing

companies, right? What's the biggest

gripe about staffing companies today? I

talked to a recruiter and they never got

back to me. How many of y'all have had

that experience? Raise your hand. Look

around. It's common. You know what we're

trying to do at Torque? We're trying to

single-handedly change that for the

entire industry through Ronstad Digital.

Ronstad Digital bought Torque as the

marketplace, as the platform. And my

entire job is to make sure you feel

loved on. My community team is here,

Briana and Jason. Uh uh please stop by

our booth. We run four to seven uh

virtual events a week on resumeé

reviews, career help. Anybody in our

resume review session yesterday? Yeah.

Absolutely unhinged, right? Absolutely

unhinged. Um we booked out 4 hours of

resume reviews at our booth today.

Somebody sent me cold brew. If you want

to at least see people get their resume

reviewed, we would love to have you

there. Um but again, I would love for

you to sign up on our jobs platform. But

if you want to pull out your phones real

quick, scan this. Uh my entire job

depends on how many people uh sign into

our platform. So please do that for the

love of Jesus. Do that for me.

Also, if you want to email me after

this, I'll send you the sides. Taylor

torque.dev.

Um and we'll move on. Also, I should

have brought up that QR code up. That's

my QR code to get access to everything I

have going on. All right. So, what I

want to get across say hiring in tech is

not dead.

It's not Deb. No matter what the

headlines are saying, do not sleep on

the startup ecosystem for your next

opportunity.

I was brought up in kind of just this

like, hey, big tech controls all, you

know, big, you know, you got to work for

a SAS company, you got to work for a

tech company. Listen, I know people work

in software in the A space that are

making way more money than some people

in big tech, right? There are other

industries out there. the big, like I

said, big tech gets the headlines, but

the hiring is happening. And I truly

believe, we are entering in to the new

age of the internet, right? So, let's

talk tech hiring real quick. Listen,

it's going up, y'all. Also, by the way,

I didn't read Todd's directions.

Shocker, a man not reading directions.

Um, and I had to put all of my slides

from Keynote into Google Slides this

morning, so that was cool. All right, so

let's talk about some hiring stats.

Again, you can Google all this stuff. To

me, all I want to show is this. AI job

postings are up 7x since 2024. I also

want to tell you that I have friends

landing jobs right now. Is Lawrence

Lockhart in here? Lawrence? Lawrence,

where you at? I don't see you. Oh, well.

Anyways, uh I interviewed him on my

podcast. He found a job in 89 days.

Okay. People are still getting jobs,

but you actually have to do the damn

thing. Excuse my cursing. All right,

let's move on. However, you're probably

like, "Well, Taylor, listen. At the end

of the day,

I do know it's not perfect." You're

right. It's not perfect. Let's talk

about what's chipping away at hiring

right now. First off, the great

hesitation. Anybody heard that term?

Anybody heard that term? Okay, great

hesitation. Basically what that is, how

many of y'all have gone through and uh

gone through five rounds of an interview

lately um and uh never heard back. Raise

your hand and say I.

>> I.

>> There you go. Few of y'all, right? I'm

learning some things. I'm learning some

things here. Right. That's the great

hesitation. Even it's happened to me. My

team, we specked out a program manager

role last year. I was like, "Oh, we're

ready to rip and roll." My finance guy

goes, "Nope." I'm like, "Damn." All

right. So again more emphasis on ladam

near shoring listen it's happening right

I I think a lot of companies are

understanding there's a lot of amazing

talent we do a lot in ladam we love our

ladam community we do a lot in that area

um but that is that's absolutely

chipping away at hiring the US listen I

still think we're dealing with the

overhiring in 2022 and I truly believe

AI has a marketing problem the reason

why people are getting laid off is not

because of AI I we as human beings like

to blame things.

Just call it what it is. We like to put

blame on things. And at the end of the

day, the blame should be the overhiring

that happened in 2022. It's not AI.

Okay. Now, I could get into micro

arguments with you or probably some

people have thoughts on, but find me

afterwards and we could talk because I'm

gonna be honest with you. I'm already

running out of time. All right. Let's

talk about AI real quick. Yep. That AI.

So, listen. Again, a bunch of data that

you can probably argue or disagree with

or find elsewhere. But the the big thing

I want to uh focus on is AI related job

titles have surged 7x from last year.

So, job postings, job titles are through

the roof. Anybody in here raise your

hand and say I that grew up SAILING

one guy. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. All

right. Two. Right. So, so three. So, so

if uh I got four um so basically when

you sail when you sail the wind's coming

at you and you can't go into the wind.

Everybody understand that concept? All

right. So, what my talk is, and we still

got a lot to get through, is navigating

and where the wind's going, right? My

thing is here is you got to you got to

see where the wind's going. And it's

absolutely racing and signaling that AI

is here to stay. Here's just another

stat that really doesn't matter because

of time. Uh let's talk big tech again at

the end of the day. I want to read

there's a lot again. We're talking about

we're talking about wind air, right?

Where where's it going? Listen, let's

read between the lines here. Microsoft

plans 80 billion in AI spend while

laying off 9,000. Amazon plans hundred

billion dollar in data centers in AI

development while laying off 22. Meta

you can you can read. Okay. Right. So

again, where's the wind going? Right.

It's obvious AI is here to stay, but I

do think I I do think that uh the the

internet is changing. You need to get

with let's talk startups. So again, I

was not really accustomed to the startup

ecosystem and and and for me, one thing

I've realized is that investments are

through the roof right now. Here's some

other stats, right? US startup funding

for the first half of 2025 is up 75.6

year-over-year. M&A activity for the

first half of the year for 2025 is over

a hundred billion. Right? There is a lot

of activity going on in the startup side

of things, right? So, you're like,

Taylor, this is a lot of information.

Give me some good news. Say less, fam. I

got you. You're not behind. Everybody

look to your neighbor to the left or

right of you and say, "OH, LORD, YOU NOT

BEHIND." Say it to the neighbors to the

left or right of you. Oh, Lord, you're

not behind.

All right. However, this does remind me

of a trend. Uh, I'm not technical, but

I've been staffing the internet since

2011.

I was staffing whennet

MVC came out. That was wild, right? We

went from like VB.NET to C. We went from

Net Web Forms. We have time. You can go

a little Sweet. Awesome. Sick. How much

time do I have

>> left?

>> Okay. Sweet. Awesome. Awesome. All

right. Well, hopefully I'm not boring

people yet. I don't see too many people

on their phones. If you are, come back

to me, please. We're almost done.

However, this does remind me of a trend.

Anybody uh anybody uh raise your hand

and heard of a technology and say I with

React.

>> That's cool, right? That's where we're

at. I th this reminds me

of when React dropped.

People lost their damn minds, right? We

had people jumping on React, creating

content around React. They were React

afficionados,

right?

And then there was others.

React's a fad. It's not here to stay.

Stupid. I'm going to stick doing jQuery,

right? I don't know if that's real. I'm

not technical, but I can just say things

and get away with it. So, uh, so again,

like listen, but the individuals who

learn React, who pivoted quickly,

they're the ones that have continued to

find success when that transition

happened. Right. I truly believe that's

where we're at. All right, so Taylor,

you're like, "WHAT DO WE DO NEXT? THIS

IS GREAT. I LOVE YOUR ENERGY. Why are

you yelling? I've had two cold brews

this morning off no food. It's great."

Uh, this drugs, basically. All right, so

let's talk what we do next. Is it time

to pivot?

Listen, Angie Jones,

Ken C. Dods, anybody heard of him?

Probably. Ken Cy Dods, Remix, React.

What is he now? MCP This MCP That, Angie

Jones, Java Queen. What are we now?

Goose

MCP. I don't know what these words mean,

but it's wild, right? So, I just get to

say this stuff. All right. All right.

Next thing. So, IS IT TIME TO PIVOT? I

DON'T KNOW. YOU HAVE TO ASK YOURSELF

THAT.

I got in a conversation yesterday with

the Whiskey Web and whatnot, Robbie the

podcast. Check it out if you have not.

But one thing we talked about is is is

me and my business partner Jason Torres.

I don't know if you can go to a boot

camp as a mer stack developer and find a

job as easy anymore.

I just I just don't see it.

I will say this. Look where the wind's

going.

Talk to people in your fields.

What's Sally Sue doing? That's

interesting,

right? I think too many of us and listen

mind you I have talked

with probably close to hundreds of

thousands of engineers at this point in

my career. I'm not lying.

Some of y'all are too stubborn.

All right. Kind of get amen. All right.

Right. So again like be aware. Right.

Let's talk to people. Right. Let's not

be stubborn. Now's not the time to be

stubborn,

right? Find online communities. Listen,

I'm gonna plug torque.dev. Would love to

have you. We would love to have you. I

think we have probably one of the best

communities out there in terms of how to

help people find a job. Thank you for

the two followers we have.

Right. Find find individuals who have

communities. I'm a big fan of Ben Lang.

Anybody heard of Ben Lang? He's the head

of community for Kurser.

Right.

He formed a startup community called

Nextplay. I pay 10 BUCKS A MONTH. I

DON'T EVEN USE IT, but I'm just in there

to see who's what's doing what.

Be a part of a community. If you're not,

you're falling behind. Listen, I will

tell you this. This is special.

This does not happen normally. You

understand that, right?

So, if you see Todd, if you see Danny,

if you see the team today, tell them

thank you.

This is where the magic happens. We had

somebody attend a Torque event Sunday

night. He came up to me. He goes, "Do I

think I got a job offer?"

Not surprising. This is where it

happens. Right? Anybody uh single, say,

"I."

>> I'm trying to help y'all out here. Say,

"I." Y'all look around. Like like like

like like what's the ongoing joke,

right? No one's going to jump through

your window to date you.

That's robbery.

You have to go out and find that person.

You're not going to change the

trajectory of your career sitting at

home flipping through Netflix.

Be more efficient. Take responsibility

of your career. Also, find a mentor.

Listen, this something I'm extremely

happy about. Yeah, we got another I like

you. What's your name?

>> Oh, there you go. That's awesome. She's

great. She's great. Uh, find a mentor.

Listen, this is what I'm super

passionate about at Torque. If you go to

torque.com community, that's our

community page, torque. Community. Uh,

if you need that again, torque.com

community, we haven't we we have opened

up our ambassador

signups. We have opened up our mentor

mentee signups. single most thing I am

passionate about for 2026 is making sure

we have a team that is passionate about

spreading the word of torque and a and a

and a badass mentor mentee program that

is fundamentally taking care of the next

generation of engineers. So, if you are

a mentor or if you're a senior engineer

and you've always wanted a place where

somebody can just give you structure,

Jason, again, uh my colleague Jason

Torres is over here. He's helping head

that up. Would love to have you part of

it. If you're if you're somebody who

wants a mentor, please go sign up

torque.com community. All right, job

boards. Listen, you can email me. You

could I also just freaking chat GPT

this, right? It's not hard. Just go find

I see I see some of y'all taking

pictures. Just chat GPT AI job boards.

Not hard. All right. Other steps used to

do use X. Use X for the love of the

Lord. Get on X.

Taylor, it's stupid. There's politics on

it. People are dumb. Yeah, it's social

media, man. You see Facebook lately,

right? Listen, I can't tell you. Even

Brian Brian Douglas, met him on Twitter,

slid into his DMs, he come my podcast.

Angie Jones came on my podcast. Slid in

her DMs on on on Twitter. Get on

Twitter. Follow industry experts. Follow

lists. Create your list. There's a

something called a list. We can talk

about it later. Right? Use X, right?

Build in public. Listen, you do

understand that you can just start

talking about the same day in,

sorry, day out and you can be known for

that.

Literally, you could be junior. There's

this girl in our Discord. Her name's

Naz. She's junior. SHE'S YAPPING ABOUT

PYTHON 247. Guess what? I know her as

now. Python queen, right? It's crazy.

TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE DOING. Be known

for that. Taylor, I don't know a skill

set. NEITHER DO I. I AM A TECHNICAL

recruiter keynoting,

but I have yapped about helping people

find a job in the development tech

industry for 14 years.

You have no excuse. Side note, my dad is

65 years old and is posted on LinkedIn

in the restaurant industry, so none of

y'all have an excuse. Also, look at job

descriptions. We're almost done. We're

almost done. Look at job descriptions

here. You're probably like, "Taylor, I'm

so lost. I don't know what skills to

learn." The answer to the test is on the

internet. Look at job descriptions. What

are people wanting? Right, Taylor? I

don't know what to learn to jump that to

an AI engineer.

Look, chat GPT it. It's amazing, right

y'all? I just want to say thank you.

This was an unbelievable experience. I

would love to connect with you. Again, I

don't know if my QR code even worked

with that down there, but again, taylor

torque.dev is my email. I'm Tesen on all

of my social media handles. My next

talk, there you go, if you want to scan

that. My next talk is at 11:30, room

206. It's going to be a more unhinged

version of this.

Thank you. I love you. Appreciate it.