What Employers Really Want in an AI Economy with the President of College of DuPage Dr. Siddiqi

In today’s episode, hosts Rebecca Harrington and Pierre Michiels interview Dr. Siddiqi, President of College of DuPage. Dr. Siddiqi shares his career journey and discusses the future of work, AI’s impact on jobs, lifelong learning, and the importance of durable skills like communication and critical thinking. After listening, we hope you better understand how to stay career ready in a changing workforce. 

Full episode transcript can be found on the episode page. Below is a general timestamp summary.  

00:00–04:00 | Welcome and Guest Introduction 

Hosts Rebecca Harrington and Pierre Michiels introduce the Career Ready Podcast and welcome Dr. Siddiqi, President of College of DuPage. Dr. Siddiqi shares his professional background, including global industry experience, workforce development, and his personal connection to community colleges. 

04:00–09:00 | Lifelong Learning and Community Colleges 

Dr. Siddiqi discusses how community colleges support reskilling and upskilling at every career stage. He emphasizes lifelong learning and explains how education must continue well beyond a first degree. 

09:00–14:00 | The Future of Work and AI Disruption 

The conversation explores major workforce trends, including artificial intelligence, automation, and emerging technologies. Dr. Siddiqi highlights how these tools are reshaping both work and daily life. 

14:00–18:00 | Employability vs. Employment 

Dr. Siddiqi explains the difference between getting a first job and remaining employable over time. Adaptability, reinvention, and continuous skill development are positioned as essential for long-term success. 

18:00–23:00 | Human Skills in an AI Economy 

The episode focuses on the lasting value of communication, teamwork, ethics, and critical thinking. Dr. Siddiqi introduces the concept of T‑shaped professionals who combine technical skills with liberal arts foundations. 

23:00–28:00 | Preparing Students for Career Readiness 

Discussion turns to visible skills, certifications, extracurricular involvement, and civic engagement. Dr. Siddiqi stresses that a degree is the floor, not the ceiling, for career opportunities. 

28:00–33:00 | What Employers Are Really Looking For 

Drawing on employer feedback, Dr. Siddiqi explains that companies prioritize problem-solving, collaboration, and growth mindset over narrow technical expertise. 

33:00–36:00 | Final Advice and Campus Resources 

Dr. Siddiqi closes with advice for students to complete their programs, use campus resources, and stay engaged as lifelong learners to remain career ready in a changing economy.

Listeners in the College of DuPage community can visit our website. All other listeners are encouraged to view the resources of their local community college, WIOA training programs, or other local support centers.

Send us YOUR Listener Questions at careerpodcast@cod.edu

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn @codcareercenter

Transcript

Welcome to the Career Ready podcast.

Learn about resumes, cover
letters, LinkedIn, interviewing,

and all the things you need to be career
ready with the career Services

Center, a College of DuPage,
and one of your host, Rebecca Harrington.

And I'm your other host
for the episode, Pierre Michiels.

For this episode,
we are excited to be joined

by the President of College, DuPage,
Doctor Siddiqi.

While this is where he is at now,
there's much more to his story

that I'll let him tell.

Doctor Siddiqi,
thank you for joining us on the podcast.

Hey, thanks for having me here.

I'm so excited to start my day
with, great people like you.

And, I can start from anywhere.

Yeah. Yeah.

Well, let's just go ahead and start off
with you, right?

So, as I said, just tell,
we'd like to hear a little bit about you.

So could you provide

a quick introduction or,
as we like to say, that elevator pitch.

You know, I would say that,
it's really difficult to,

provide a, you know, a brief introduction.

Sometime it's a challenge,
but let me try.

Okay.

let me start from my recent,
role at college.

DuPage.

You know, I've been president since, July

1st, 2025, almost eight, nine months.

And before that, I was, president

and vice chancellor in the Houston system.

And before that, I serve, as a president

and provost at, another community college
in the state of Illinois.

Before that, I work in, city of Chicago
for the workforce programs.

And actually, my, higher education,

journey spanned over
almost 28, 22 years now.

Before that, I work in corporate sector.

Had an excellent opportunity
to work, for global companies,

you know, working in five,
six different countries.

Before I came to the United States
as an immigrant.

So, the, pretty, diverse experience

and, 
working experience, cultural experience.

that, prepared me for,

taking this,
this role as the president of,

the largest college in the state
of Illinois, which is called Yellow Page.

And I'm very proud of that.

In addition to my introduction, my
another introduction is, I was a student

at called YouTube page, and actually
called YouTube page, rescued me.

To, secure a job, because the job was,

based on certain skills
that I did not have.

So I came C.O.D.

Is a perfect example
of a community college role in preparing,

people, who need reskilling,
retooling, and,

prepare them for skills
that they may not have.

But the job, requirements
call for, call for those skills.

Finally, I would say that out of three
children, two attended College of DuPage.

And they are very successful
in their career,

and they attribute their success
to college to page.

So a lot of, personal ties
with, college, the page,

a lot of, emotionality involved.

And I am so excited to be here,

and feel proud that I am part of this
great community.

Awesome.

Thank you.

It's,
it's really great to hear your story

and your background with Cod, but also,
of course, your background with business

as well as working for all these
different colleges all over the country.

Yeah.

And just, share a

that bit of how Cod helped you

kind of get on your career
path and move forward,

because I think that's a lot

of what we're going to be talking about
today is using that education

and how we can understand
where education is now

and the future of the workforce
to help our current students move forward.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And, you know,
this is also, pertinent discussion

to the whole notion of,
lifelong learning, right?

Learning does not stop
when you complete your associate

degree or bachelor's degree or master
or even PhD, right.

It's a continuous process.

so this is another example.

I shared my experience under the example
of the significance

of lifelong learning,
in one's, career progression.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I think, that people don't often
think of community college,

and they think of communications
as all kind of, you know, 18 years old,

you know, with the background,
which we do have that.

But obviously,
we know all of our students out

there can be kind of all different ages
and different places.

But I think all of them share, 
some questions and concerns

about the future of the world of work,
right, that everyone has read about

AI and, you know, kind of all of the
or the changes that are happening.

And we actually just had, Stem connect
to happening on campus yesterday

where we learned about quantum computing
and all of these amazing changes coming.

So, we were so happy to have you here
to talk about your perspective.

So here's our kind of our first question

for you from your perspective
as a college president,

how do you see the world of work
changing in the next decade?

Just kind of a general ideas of,
of, trends.

So, you know,
I think we are in the middle of,

tremendous, disruption, in our economy

caused by, redistribution of,

workflow in the organizations,
who hired our students and.

Right, the, integration of technology,

especially artificial intelligence,
robotics, two dimension.

Virtual environment,
we call meta virtual augmented reality.

And also, there are several technologies.

These are some prominent,
top of my hat, and also,

they are not changing only,
how we work in organizations.

They also change our habits of life.
Right.

You can imagine you wake up in the morning
and first thing you,

many of us, look into is our cell phone.

You know, like,

if there's any message from the office,
from the friend, from the family,

so cell phone start tracking you
at the very beginning of your day, right?

And then you stop by Starbucks
and you place your order through,

you know, Starbucks, app.

You pay through credit card,
sometimes you scan your cell phone,

you can then use it constantly
using Google Map to get to your place.

You can see the, intrusion.

I would say, calling code of technology
in phones, life in our living.

Right. So it's prevalent, of course.

This is not limited to our personal life.

You know, the organizations are using

these kind of technologies
to improve their bottom line efficiency,

productivity, shorten, 
product development time.

And in a cutthroat competition,
how can we satisfy our customers

in a more, faster,
better service delivery?

technology is one of the ways to do that.

I think from the perspective
of students and,

perspective of,
you know, preparing for the future,

that part of your question was, yeah,
we need to distinguish between employment,

which is like learning your first job
and employability and.

Right.

So employability is the ability
to reinvent yourself.

So, so we need to make a difference.

This difference is more stark
now than it used to be

20, 25, 5000 years ago.

Right.

Because of all the technologies
I just mentioned,

I think that we are, entering

in an era of synchronous technology

change, and where technology

skills and academic principles,
they must evolve together.

They are not separate thing.

Right. Yeah. You see the difference.

we in college
you know for example in DuPage County

we as a hub for healthcare sector,
you know healthcare

is a big sector in DuPage
County logistics supply chain.

We, we will see in the future

potentially, high tech, high tech roles

in these occupations,
because employers, employers

are prioritizing, critical
thinking and teamwork, skills.

And, with technology implementation,

and, you know, many,
many employers are still complaining

that students are not prepared
for teamwork, conflict resolution,

which are pretty much grounded
in liberal arts.

So, so that's why
I think our students should be,

should be prepared
for more of a balance,

between liberal arts and technology
interruption or disruption.

Error. Both are very critical.

You know, I, an AI driven

economy, may not only need programmers
or coders or developers,

they also need people who, utilize this

technology for the for the greater good,
I would say.

Right.

In policy decisions, in ethics,

you know, yesterday,
I'm not sure you were there

in the stem, connect, event,
which was a very successful event.

This was the first event
we hosted at college.

Out of three major main

speakers,
two had, liberal arts background,

and one is

leading a kind of, project in Chicago.

You know, he's, 
she's a head of, kind of a project

which means she

has been working with scientists from,
you know, city of Chicago, northwestern,

Argonne lab, Fermilab, 
and she has been very successful.

She's a national speaker.

And the other person, is,
is the head of market development

for Sy Khanum, 
prominent company in Chicago South. So.

So you can see that.

Yeah.

It doesn't have to be, you know,

you have to be expert in only technology,
and you can be successful in the future.

You need to bring a blended exposure,
preparation

and training to be successful
in 21st century jobs.

Yeah.

Well, any listeners to this podcast,
I know that is a big part

of what we talk about
as far as the Nace competencies

and the kind of the,
the benefits of having critical

thinking skills and communication
and teamwork and all of those.

So yes, it's it's good to it's
good to think about that.

The world of work in the next, you know,
even I'm sure beyond the next decade.

But, that that idea of,

kind of balancing that

technical agility with humanity
and of course, you know,

that kind of basic, the basic skills
that, all, all like we always say,

every employer is looking for doesn't
matter what industry, that they're in.

So, yeah.

And then,
I guess just to ask a little bit too,

is there anything specific
that you can say about AI reshaping

the workforce in the next five years?

You know,

there's still

debate on, the pros and cons of AI,
amiright?

The the advantages and disadvantages.

I and I think, AI

is, is a huge change is a huge shift.

In, in in our society, I would say that.

Right.

Which is not limited to only because,
remember, the other technologies,

directly impacted, how we work,

how we deliver products and services,
how we design product and services

in the past, like steam engine and,
you know,

electricity and other things.

I has a very broad, scope,
it will definitely.

And it has been changing, 
organization, workflows.

And you know, how
they deliver product to the customers,

how they serve their customers.
And. Right.

the major role of AI, in the organization,

in companies and organizations,
and I think that has already been started

is, eliminating, routine,

repeated work or repeated tasks.

That machine can do better than human
being.

And. Right.

If, for example, you are you work in legal
industry, for example, and.

Right, you working on a specific case
and you are

interested
in finding examples from archive.

What happened in the past?

The court rulings and court orders,

you know, on a similar, case, 
instead of going through all the documents

and everything, you can use
AI to find out relevant topics.

You know, for your search,
however, you need to be very,

very careful because there's no guarantee

what you seeing is, is correct.

There's an element of hallucination,
you know,

and the reason is AI does

not have, contextual memory.

It does not understand your context.

And that's,
that's is the role of human being and.

Right.

And that's why we call
we use the term code generation

and. Right.

Yeah. Go intelligence.

Co intelligence is key in the future

where human
plus machine work together, amiright.

As a partner to create value
for their organization

and right for example, it could

how we create value
by providing prompt registration

services to our students,
How I can be used to do that.

It does not mean that I,
will talk to students,

understand their background,
the dynamics and everything.

It means it would help our team members
in in registration and admission

to expedite service delivery.

You know yeah. That's the whole notion.

So I would say that the

the future is co intelligence

future is co cogeneration.

I cannot do you know all this kind of work
without human interaction.

It will lead to many many many problems
if we leave these kind of things,

especially human
touching on machines only.

So that's, that's a, that's a major
concern for many, many people like me.

Yeah I know I,
I was recently read something about

you know some companies

that have maybe gone a little too quickly
to just AI and you know

not having staff that they've,
they've had some issues with that.

And I know for myself
I mean I just used AI

to help me create presentation.

Now obviously I still need to look at it
and verify it, but it saves so much time.

So, I, I, I love hearing that idea

of, co-working, with technology.

Yeah, yeah.

And, you may have just, hit on this,

as you were talking about
where you see AI going.

But we still know
there's a lot of students

that are just anxious about automation
and job replacement,

and I think it's healthy to approach it
from that perspective of

we won't be replaced
if we know how to utilize it.

So with that

in mind, what advice would you give
to students as they think of the future

and that fear of automation taking away

opportunities,
you know, like other technologies?

you, pull the number, the,
the job number for,

that information technology
brought in in last decades,

because when internet was,

was entering into the market,

there were some concerns
that it would take away a lot of jobs.

And, you know, everything.

It did not happen.

It did not happen. Right.

There's always our economy
is very, resilient, very vibrant.

We are we are, we are blessed.

Is a big economy.

It knows how to redistribute,

different resources, roles,
responsibilities in the organization.

I think, some of the fear about

AI, is, is ungrounded.

It's hard to validate those fears, and.

Right,
you can see that with the investment,

billions of dollars of investment
in AI by companies,

we are still not seeing,
the productivity gain.

You know, as anticipated, it may occur.

I do not know. In two,
three, 4 or 5 years.

I do not know.

I'm talking about today in April 2026.

So I think for students, the,
the the most important thing is,

consider 
or set up the mindset that the education,

at college
DuPage is not a terminal education.

And right. It's a lifelong journey.

This is the demand of 21st century
economy, a labor market.

Right.

Make sure they are well versed with,
these technologies.

I'm not saying
that they need to have expertise.

But,
you know, a good sense of what's going on,

in, in this, in this area
is, is is beneficial.

So they may not be left out,

when the time comes for applying for jobs
and stuff like that.

There are huge demand for, skills.

Like, as I said before,
during the early part of this podcast,

conflict resolution, teamwork,

problem
solving, literacy, numeric literacy.

Right.

And there are opportunities
for all students from all disciplines.

And right is just a matter of,
your interest,

in developing multidisciplinary,
perspective in your career.

No, I think that helps.

And, you know, earlier
Rebecca mentioned the niece competencies.

Our regular listeners
know we like to talk about this a lot,

but the idea of AI

and you know that
the term that we use is technology.

Agile, right.

You don't need

to know how to use everything,
but being able to understand what you can

and then adjust to
what is being presented to you.

Yeah. Really helps

take advantage of

those opportunities
and those technologies.

So then it could be more
of a collaborative

co-working thing with that technology.

So then you're not replaced by the
automation, you're really working with it.

That's very correct.

You know, I think that's a
that's a very accurate description.

you know, don't think about
is going to replace you, think about

how can we use it,
to enhance our own value.

How we work, how we create products,
how we deliver services,

how we solve a problem.

Right.

So, I do not think that,

we should worry about
what our students should worry about.

This movement, movement means AI,

disruption and integration, in workflows.

But they should be prepared for it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I like to the, you've mentioned it
a few times of lifelong learning

that we're at a place where you shouldn't
assume when you finish a program

that that's it for you, you know that the,
the technology agile means you know,

just know you're going
to have to keep taking classes

and you're going to need to, you know,
whether that's at a community college or,

you know, through your employer
or whatever it is,

but that there is going to always be,
more education.

And if you're the person
who keeps up with that education,

that's, for the for the best.

So, okay, so I'm going to move on.

Just kind of going back a little bit
with, something that you touched

on earlier, but let's go back to,
the humanities a little bit.

So as I becomes
more integrated into the workplace,

how can a foundation of humanities,

ethics, communication, problem
solving, help job seekers

maximize the benefits of
AI rather than be replaced by it?

And maybe adding to that
to just kind of the the importance of

that care,
you know, that element of humanity

that we're putting

into using these technologies
and why that's important

for our students and how it's going
to help them be more resilient.

So, you know, when.

We hear about the term AI,

it comes to our mind
that AI is all about programing.

And you are on computer
and you are coding you designing

systems, architecture, stuff like that.

You know, it's
a general purpose technology.

It's like internet is
it would be internet of the future. And.

Right.

I would say that,

I would like to say that,
I really want our students to be

you know,
there's a famous, skill structure in the,

in the literature of higher education,
which is gaining popularity,

you know, at a different conversation
and dialog at, National Research

Center and, Harvard and MIT conversation

on, workforce displacement
and which is, T-shaped professional.

So teacher professional is,
you know, like the letter T.

So the vertical bar in T,
the vertical bar, is your,

technical, mastery, you know, the skills,
your technical skills.

And the horizontal bar is
your liberal arts

and, arts driven that,
you know what I'm saying?

Yeah. So.

So think about a T-shaped,
sort of structure.

Actually,
we are moving away from either or stigma

of vocational versus, academic.

So by intentionally embedding,

strong engagement, on the both sides,
through multidisciplinary conversation,

we can achieve the goal of T-shaped
professionals, liberal arts

provide durable skills And durable skill.

Stay with you forever.

Your technical education provides you,

opportunities to solve immediate problem.

So there's a difference between the two.

But if you blend two,
That would be, meaningful.

Purposeful, education.

big companies, medium sized companies.

They're hiring people who are,
who have background in ethics,

for example, because I brings tremendous,
challenge ethical challenges, right?

Such as bias discrimination.

Hallucination, and,
and other kind of issues,

the challenges of our, ethical principles,
you know, of our society.

Right? They are hiring ethical.

People with ethical background is,

they are specialist actors, you know.

one of the key
elements for, for businesses right now

or companies is to ensure

a user or customer, centeredness and.

Right, like user interface.

Yeah.

Technical term. Sure.

And it is not technical.

You know what I'm saying?

It is not technical.

I know people in tech companies
who have no engineering background,

have a liberal arts background,
and they are engaged in consumer

centric, design of the product.

So I think everybody has opportunities
to grow in this economy.

I'm not worry about students
with technical

or vocational or,
you know, liberal arts background.

It's just a matter of how you
prepare yourself, for this kind of change.

And, this kind of change
also bring tremendous

rewards and opportunities,
for our students, you know?

Yeah. I mean, that makes sense.

I think, you know,
when a customer interacts with a website

or with a company, they,
they want to feel heard and seen

and they want it to be easy to use.

So, yeah, it makes sense
that you would have to have.

Yeah. Yeah.

So so it's not only like
I said, dispel the impression

that AI means,
programmers or computers, you know.

Yep. So, really just building off of that

because you talked a lot
about the combination of the liberal arts

and those technical fields,
how that plays out on the job

and the value of that,
you know, in the workforce.

But when we're talking about developing
these durable skills

through the liberal arts or,
I like to call it the CSAs,

the liberal arts are the knowledge
for all opportunities.

Yep yep, yep.

So we have those CSAs

and then we have the seats,
the career, technical education.

Yeah. All right.

So really trying to find a balance
for that as we're moving forward.

So what advice or thoughts
would you have for our students

for job seekers to potentially combine
these as they move forward?

How can they actually be doing it.

So they're preparing for this job market
that you've been talking about.

So, you know, one of the things
that we are hearing, we are learning,

from research, you know, from practices,

in higher education is any,

also tremendous number of,
employers service

where they are looking for
a, you know, a new graduates.

I think one of the thing is,
they are looking for is, graduate,

or candidates
should have a learning mindset

willing to learn,

you know, which is a growth mindset,
I would say.

Right.

And it's like perpetual learner notion.

they're also looking for employers
are looking for skills, capabilities.

So of course your degree is very important
that you bring in,

but but demonstrate what skills.

And again, when I use the word skill
it is not limited to technical skill.

Right. Absolutely. Explain that. Yeah.

But what skill you bring to the table
that they're looking for, and.

Right.

So your degree is, is a is a floor.

It's not the ceiling.

Oh, I like that. Yeah.

So make sure you have,
visible capabilities and skills

that you can demonstrate
to your future employers.

When you apply for a job and,

I always, encourage my students

that there are so many, certification

credentials for all disciplines, right?

It's not limited to Microsoft
or, you know, others.

Even as a user,
Continue to explore those certifications,

because sometimes those certifications
reflect, your skills,

of visible skills
that employers are looking for today.

Right?

Like, for example, if I'm a student in,

let's say computer science,
I'm just taking a convenient example.

Yeah,
but it can be applied to any discipline,

And if I take AWS, which is Amazon
sponsored,

cloud practitioner
or whatever certificate, right.

When I apply for job,
this certificate or certification,

or badge, digital badge, shows employers

that I have read
the body of knowledge of this exam.

I passed and I have the minimum

qualification to start this role, and.

Right. Yeah.

Of course, your
your degree is very important.

But they have to go through the course
list and everything, right?

Sometimes they are looking for,
solving a given problem.

Immediate problem.

You know, remember, businesses
are different than higher education. Sure.

Right. In terms of their intent.

Yeah.

You know,
we work for mission label for profit.

So, It increase your visibility
of your skills and capabilities

in multiple ways.

Engage yourself
in extracurricular activities,

in, you know, civic engagement.

I would say that.

And, you know,
we are working on a big project.

It's called the
the page is forthcoming in fall semester.

We are building,

center of,

civic engagement, providing students
opportunities

to engage in dialog, 
discussing societal issues.

Global issues and stuff
like that, and broader their horizon

about, their role in the society.

I would say
that my advice would be to keep an eye

on, on your skill sets, your capability,

competency sets,
because these are certain

things that employers
are desperately looking for

and they have been expressing
through surveys and research,

across the board.

I mean, when I talk to employers about,
you know, what are you looking for

when you're hiring an intern,
they always will tell me.

Students that are involved,
they don't necessarily.

You don't expect that you have all of the
technical education yet, but they want

they don't even care if it's a social club
or anything like that.

They just want students
that are doing more than the minimum.

Yeah, right.

That, you know,

and that that's what tells them
that you're have that growth mindset.

I think. Yeah.

You know, in Houston, we,

hosted a large scale employer,
seminar sort of thing.

and, we brought people from manufacturing
and, you know, supply

chain, it, transportation, logistics,
all kind of industry

in, in the, in the Houston area, 
which is, you know, any big area.

And we asked them, you know, what kind of,

skills you are looking for in your,
you know, graduates,

desirable skills.

Some of us had an impression
that they would say, oh,

they need to have,
programing skills, right?

Oh, they can,
They can fabricate a metal part

with precision of .002 tolerance,
something like that.

Right, right.

Do you ever surprise
they categorically express

that, that they would prefer students
with problem solving skills.

They can work in the team,
they can work in different cultural,

environment, intellectual environment
because they have people from different

backgrounds and.

Right, they can work with those people.

They have a desire

or motivation to learn
And we will take care of rest.

That's what they said. Yeah.

So that is an eye opening phenomena

for many of us in the room

that, you know, I think we

we may not be on the right track

So that's why I always emphasize

and that student

when they leave college DuPage,

they are not only a technician,
they are a well-rounded person

Because we

prepare students for occupation,
but we also prepare for life.

Yeah.

No, that makes a lot of sense,
because when we think of those

technical abilities that we're learning
in the classroom, right.

Not to discount it. Right. Very valuable.

But when you go on the job, go back to
that idea of technology, agile.

You're probably applying it
in a different way on the job.

Yeah.

So they're prepared to teach and train
in those areas,

but they can't train someone how
to communicate, how to solve a problem.

Right.
You have to come in with that skill set.

So to be able to develop that as a
student, be involved in these activities,

to start showing that demonstration,
to create that visibility.

As you said, I think
is extremely important for any, person

entering the job search process to really
be set to demonstrate those abilities.

But I will return real quickly
to something you said.

That degree is the floor, right?

I think that is really profound,
because a lot of times we have people

come to us, either, you know, students

planning out their future
or like returnee, and they're like, oh,

I can't pursue that path
because I don't have that degree in that.

Right.

But the degree is the floor. Right.

That's just a potential entry point.

But there's so many other things
you can be

demonstrating
to where that degree is still valuable.

But that's not the end
all be all to determine

you being qualified for an opportunity
that that's that's very correct.

And that's
that's the notion of lifelong learning.

Right.

because of the change
in, in our external environment.

Right?

There's so many changes,
you cannot keep pace of

if you are not eager to learn
what's going on.

So I think that's, that's
a, that's a whole thing.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, thank you so much for being here.

I just have one last question,
which is any last or one piece of advice

that you would give to students today to
make sure that they remain career ready?

Over the next, decade?

You know, I would say that, you know, be
consistent, complete your program.

Right.
Do not leave without completing a program.

That's that's very important, right?

Yes. Complete your program.

on a, you know, timely basis.

I understand
many students are part time students.

They have multiple responsibilities.

And we could fully acknowledge,

that many students have some struggle
with, you know, multiple jobs and,

you know, taking care of their parents,
taking care of their children.

So sometimes it's it's very,
very difficult

to complete program
one time, but complete the program.

I would say that do not leave program
without completion,

because if you have

a credential in your hand from college,
you DuPage, the likelihood

of getting in, or placing into a better
job is pretty high.

If you, spend your year

and half here and, 
you know, finish your 15

hours, a 25 hours or 30 hours,
but have no credential.

And I'm not sure how it will help you.

So I would say that be consistent,

and utilize resources
that we offer at college.

DuPage.

This is the best college, in the state
and one of the best college in the nation,

I would say that.

We have all types of resources here.

We are trying our best to communicate
those resources to our students.

are not done yet with our struggle.

But, you know, in coming months
you will see more, more

and more better and clear message
about those resources.

We are building resources.

We have career
services like, you know, Rebecca and

Michiels, you are

you represent, those areas
we have, food security insecurity.

We have shelter services.

We have so many services here. Right?

Yeah. Take advantage of those services.

We want you to be successful.

Whatever it takes.

Yeah. Where?

Yes, we are here to help.

Just ask anyone.

And they. If you don't know where to go,

we will help you find
where you need to go.

Absolutely.

Well, thank you so much for being with.

Thanks for having me.

Thank you very much.

This has been great.

So thanks to all of our listeners.

And again, special thanks to Doctor
Siddiqi for joining us on the podcast.

We do not have a listener

question in today's episode,
but if you have a question for us

that you want to hear
answered in a future episode,

you can submit it to Career Podcast
at cod dot edu.

We hope you join us for our next episode.

For more information
to help you be career ready.