"I Got Paid $22 for Weeks of AI Work" - The Hidden Cost of Training Your AI | Julianne Hickey

You can carry your career around as a kind of blur. A sense of having done a lot, but without ever seeing what it actually adds up to. That's what Emma Buckland realised when she finally sat down and looked at her career cumulatively. Years of work. Thousands of people helped. Millions of dollars in impact. But she'd never properly counted it before. And that's the thing about visibility. It doesn't start with LinkedIn. It doesn't start with speaking at conferences. It starts with becoming visible to yourself first. In this episode of the Career Confidence Podcast, Georgie sits down with Emma Buckland, a mobile UX designer with 17 years of experience across financial services, public sector, and corporate design. Emma's career has taken her from acting to designing mobile experiences that have reached millions of people across Australia and the world. But for years, she carried that work around without ever really seeing what it amounted to. Until she did the work of looking back, connecting the dots, and recognising the evidence that was already there. This conversation is about what happens when you stop waiting for someone else to recognise your value and start seeing it for yourself. It's about why self-trust isn't just a mindset; it's grounded in evidence. It's about how Emma went from applying to speak at UX Australia thinking they'd say no, to delivering a talk that challenged the entire design industry on how we think about mobile and interrupted attention. Emma also shares how she's thinking about AI, why she believes designers need to refuse to let it distract us from the things that are still broken, and why the real differentiator in an AI-driven world will be the quality of thinking behind the work, not just the speed at which we can produce it. In this episode: How Emma went from acting to mobile UX design, and why both come from the same impulse Why she became fascinated by financial services and the complexity of designing within constraints What's changed in 17 years of working in UX and mobile design Why Emma believes we need to stay ahead of AI without letting it distract us from what's still broken in design The blind spot in the design industry that Emma challenged at UX Australia: we're not designing for interrupted attention Why the real differentiator in an AI world will be quality of thinking, judgment, curiosity, and adaptability How Emma prepared for and delivered her talk at UX Australia, and why public speaking terrified her Why visibility starts with becoming visible to yourself first How Emma looked at her career cumulatively for the first time and realised the enormous contribution she'd never properly counted Why self-trust is grounded in evidence, not just mindset What happens when you carry your career around as a blur versus seeing what it actually adds up to Why staying connected to the work and the people you've helped matters more than the numbers How AI is changing Emma's work, from two weeks of research down to two hours, and the brain fry that comes with it Why Emma believes AI needs governance and why designers shouldn't lose sight of the problems AI can't solve What the boldest version of Emma looks like: not a bigger title, but using her experience more fully in ways that have wider effect One of the biggest takeaways from this conversation? Visibility begins with being able to see and articulate your own value before expecting anyone else to see it. You can't position yourself for what's next if you've never properly counted what you've already done. Behind those numbers are real people. People who received money they were owed, or managed something they'd been avoiding, or were protected from losing something because the experience finally worked. That's not just a job. That's a contribution. And it's time you started seeing it that way. — ✨ 60 Day Bold Move Career Accelerator Learn more here 👉 https://www.georgiehubbard.com/bold-moves — 📚 The Bold Move https://www.theboldmovebook

If you read the headline that AI is going to take your job, well, it might. But only if you don't learn how to work with it, you don't become more visible, and you don't know your worth. The headlines are everywhere right now. AI will take your job. Agents are out of control. We're on the cusp of superintelligence. Or even worse, AI is going to destroy us all. And underneath all of that noise, there's a quieter, more insidious message: you're falling behind. You're not technical enough. You don't know enough. You're not doing enough. In this episode of the Career Confidence Podcast, Georgie and Lou sit down to talk about the language being used around AI right now, and what it's actually doing to us. They call it FOE and FOMO. Fear of extinction and fear of missing out. Two narratives that sound like opposites but actually work the same way, creating urgency, panic and paralysis, and stopping us from asking the most important question of all: is this even a future we want? Because here's the thing. The women who are thriving in this moment aren't the ones spiraling over every headline. They're the ones asking better questions. They're the ones staying calm, staying curious, and staying visible. They're the ones adding AI to what they already know, rather than trying to become someone else entirely. This conversation is about how to move from AI fearful to AI ready. It's about protecting your headspace in a world designed to hijack your attention. It's about understanding who benefits when you believe the narrative. And it's about recognising that your years of experience, your wisdom, your leadership, none of that is obsolete. It just needs to be positioned correctly. Georgie and Lou also unpack the real opportunities that exist right now for women who are willing to lead, not just keep up. From building agents to running Lunch and Learns. From asking where you want to lead, not just how to keep up. From using fear as fuel to innovate, not as a reason to hide. In this episode: The two narratives shaping AI right now: FOE (fear of extinction) and FOMO (fear of missing out) Why the language of inevitability is stopping us from asking if this is even the future we want How to protect your headspace when the headlines are designed to hijack your attention Why coming from a place of calm, not chaos, is the most important thing you can do right now The difference between being AI ready and being AI panicked Why you need to ask: who's saying this, what do they gain if I believe it, and what choice does this story take off the table for me? Why your subconscious is always listening, and why what you consume every day matters more than you think How to use fear as fuel to innovate, not as a reason to hide Why the question isn't how can I keep up, it's where do I want to lead How one woman is using AI to build agents, run Lunch and Learns, and position herself as a leader in her organisation Why your years of experience aren't obsolete, they just need to be positioned correctly Why visibility, curiosity and critical thinking are the skills that will set you apart How to add AI to what you already know, rather than trying to become someone else entirely One of the biggest takeaways from this conversation? Don't ask how you can keep up. Ask where you want to lead. Because the women who are thriving right now aren't the most technical. They're the most visible, the most curious, and the most strategic. They're the ones who understand that AI is a people problem, not just a technology problem. And they're the ones who are staying AI ready, not AI fearful. — ✨ 60 Day Bold Move Career Accelerator Learn more here 👉 https://www.georgiehubbard.com/bold-moves — 📚 The Bold Move https://www.theboldmovebook.com — Connect with Georgie: 🔵 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgiehubbard/ 🟪 Instagram: http://instagram.com/georgielhubbard ♦️ Website: https://www.georgiehubbard.com — Connect with Lou Compagnone: 🔵 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/i

Within minutes, an interview was locked in. Within weeks, she was in the third stage interview. And she landed the job. That job was never advertised. It never hit a job board. And it's exactly the case in point of how powerful your network is. In this episode of the Career Confidence Podcast, Georgie sits down with Priscilla, a transformation and technology leader who's spent her career connecting people, process and technology in some of Australia's biggest retail and tech organisations. After years at David Jones leading digital trannew way sformation, Priscilla recently stepped into a brand new AI-focused role at a fast-growing scale-up. And here's the thing: the role was never advertised. An old boss reached out. They had a conversation. And within weeks, she was in. This conversation is about what it actually takes to break into AI roles when you're not the most technical person in the room. It's about why curiosity and problem solving matter more than coding. It's about the hidden cost of AI that no one's talking about yet, like token usage, data governance, and how one workflow change can break three other systems if you're not thinking holistically. Priscilla shares how she's upskilling herself on AI, from using Claude for personal budgeting to building agents, to learning how Copilot works across different Microsoft tools, and why it's changing almost every month. She also talks about what companies are getting wrong when they rush to implement AI without clarity on the problem they're actually trying to solve, and why the soft skills, the human connection, the ability to bring people together, are going to be the most valuable skills in an AI-driven world. In this episode: How Priscilla landed her AI role through her network, not a job board Why technology is no longer a specialised area but everyone's business Whether you actually need a tech degree to work in AI The skills companies are hiring for right now: orchestration, communication, and the human touch What Priscilla's doing day to day in her new AI-focused role Why data strategy and governance are foundational to AI success How AI is being used to automate credit processing and document intake How she's upskilling herself on AI, from Claude to Copilot to building agents Why Copilot in PowerPoint was terrible six months ago and is now amazing The hidden cost of AI that most people don't think about: token usage Why companies need to think about cost control, not just cost effectiveness The new questions you need to ask vendors: where is the metadata stored? Is it overseas? What's your AI governance? Why most companies are applying AI without clarity on the problem they're solving Why delivery is the easy part, and getting clarity is the hard part How Priscilla thinks about the future of work and why humans will always be needed Why soft skills, critical thinking, and the courage to ask questions will matter more than technical expertise Her advice for women who feel intimidated by AI: embrace it, give it a go, and remember no one is an expert right now One of the biggest takeaways from this conversation? You don't need to be the most technical person to break into AI. You need to be curious, ask good questions, and understand how to connect technology with people and business outcomes. As Priscilla puts it: if anyone says they're an expert in AI right now, you should probably ask why they think that. Because no one is. Everyone is learning. And that's exactly why now is the time to start. — ✨ 60 Day Bold Move Career Accelerator Learn more here 👉 https://www.georgiehubbard.com/bold-moves — 📚 The Bold Move https://www.theboldmovebook.com — Connect with Georgie: 🔵 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgiehubbard/ 🟪 Instagram: http://instagram.com/georgielhubbard ♦️ Website: https://www.georgiehubbard.com — Connect with Priscilla 🔵 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/priscillachanau/

AI is supposed to make us more productive.

What do you do when you know something needs to change in your career… but you have absolutely no idea what the next move should be?