Five women shared advice for navigating career uncertainty on the "Electric Ladies Podcast" recently. Page Motes, chief compliance and sustainability officer at Hertz, advises "opening the aperture," or broadening one's perspective on consequential roles, and Mandi McReynolds, chief sustainability officer at Workiva, encourages women to ask questions and take on roles that are a stretch.

The Graduate Career Consortium's Professional Development Committee introduced an Individual Development Plan tool to support ongoing professional reflection and growth. The IDP tool encourages users to periodically assess their skills, set actionable goals and leverage mentorship networks, making it a practical resource for individuals at any career stage.

As AI takes over creative tasks such as preparing presentations and reports or drafting emails, you may feel a loss of ownership and pride in your work, writes author and management expert Faisal Hoque, who suggests adopting a new mindset as an orchestrator with a new kind of authority to manage resources and be responsible for the outcomes. "Instead of asking, 'What tasks did I complete today?', we must shift to asking: 'What changed because of my work today?' Who did I help? What problem did I solve? What became possible?"

Pathfindr, an app developed by Penn State student John Hughes, uses a model similar to dating apps to help students explore career options, allowing users to swipe through a database of 600 careers. The startup app provides information on salaries, education requirements and daily activities.

Using hand gestures that give a visual representation of spoken ideas significantly enhance a speaker's clarity, competence and persuasiveness, a recent study found. The study, which analyzed 2,000 TED Talks and conducted controlled experiments, found that illustrative gestures help listeners process information more easily. However, irrelevant hand movements can be distracting, the study found.

US companies have announced 1.17 million layoffs this year, the highest since 2020, driven by frequent, smaller layoffs rather than large-scale reductions, according to Glassdoor and Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The technology sector has been hit hardest, with more than 150,000 job cuts.

Apple has expanded the Apple Manufacturing Academy, which it operates in collaboration with Michigan State University, by introducing online courses for small- and mid-sized businesses across the US. The courses cover advanced manufacturing topics, including automation, predictive maintenance, quality control optimization and machine learning. The academy is part of Apple's $600 billion investment plan aimed at increasing domestic manufacturing.

From sister publication Kiplinger: With continued uncertainty over the Federal Reserve's interest rate policy, now is a critical time for individuals to review and update their retirement plans. Maximizing IRA contributions can accelerate your savings and provide tax benefits, supporting a well-rounded retirement strategy that remains resilient to market or rate fluctuations.