Did you know soft skills account for the majority of one's success in the workplace? In fact, it could cost you up to 25% of your income and any chances for advancement.

In this fascinating podcast, I interview my good friend Professor Reza Hasmath from the University of Alberta. We cover a span of important topics, ranging from the importance of soft skills, the most critical ages for a child's development, comparing the ethnic penalty with gender inequality, evaluating meritocracy as a myth, and identifying the skills of successful people. Below is the full list of the things we covered:

00:00 - Introducing Dr. Reza Hasmath

06:50 - Life as a 3-year-old in grade 1

10:40 - Socialization to be Complacent or Driven

18:40 - Confusing the boss for an intern

21:50 - Signal Theory in the Workplace

28:43 - Inequality in the Workplace

31:25 - How the sociologists corrected the economists on inequality

35:09 - Why ages 7 to 14 is the critical age for development

36:30 - The soft skills that will help you thrive at work

38:40 - The importance of failure

41:22 - The qualities to look for when hiring people

43:25 - Self-awareness and failure

45:11 - Soft Skills in the future world of AI

51:55 - Is it too late to develop soft skills in adulthood?

54:01 - Meritocracy is a myth

56:16 - The balancing act between the same and the different (social solidarity and creative destruction)

58:55 - Affirmative action and the lottery

1:05:36 - Choosing people: admissions and recruitment

1:08:09 - Our story

1:09:01 - A Balancing Act: Diversity and Trust

1:09:04 - Skills of successful people - experience, failure, pivot, resilience, relate to others, package information to different audiences

1:11:05 - The importance of soft skills training, especially for advanced students

Video version available on YouTube channel “Dr. Jon Tam”

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