No. 124: Resilient Cities

This might be the most I've packed into a newsletter since I started writing it. It's a new year, a new Presidency, and a new opportunity to reflect on what the future holds – not just for ourselves, but for our country, our global community, and our planet. Let's wax philosophical this week, shall we?

First off, we'll talk about an emerging trend to build climate-resilient cities. You've seen cities build bulwarks, rework infrastructure, and invest in clean energy. What we're talking about this week are entirely new cities built from scratch, almost like an ark to which to retreat if we can no longer live in the population centers we call home.

I also have a few tips on how to use AI to set up your job search for success, like analyzing job postings for keywords and making sure your resume supports the automated matching systems employers use to screen candidates. I'm excited to hear what you think!

~ Greg

What we're reading

After last week's discussion about the wildfires in Los Angeles, this story about building a climate-resilient city in the Philippines – and not just as an experiment – stood out to me as a sign of things to come. (Fast Company)

• The Philippines is building a climate-resilient city called New Clark City that it expects to complete in 2065. It is being billed as a backup capital if Manila becomes unsuitable due to climate impacts.
  • Manila sits on a floodplain that could become untenable if sea levels rise, and typhoons bring their own flooding.
  • New Clark City sits at a higher elevation between mountain ranges just to the north of Manila, providing some sense of shelter.
• One of the downstream impacts of climate change is mass migration. What happens when the places we live can no longer support us? This project is already highlighting the power disparities between stakeholders.
  • For example, Fast Company says the land on which New Clark City was built was taken from the Indigenous Ayta people without consent or compensation.
  • There are also concerns that not enough affordable housing is being built, such that the city will benefit affluent residents, not a representative population.
• The Philippines isn't the only country pursuing this type of climate resilience solution. One could argue they start to resemble doomsday bunkers, at least in intent.
• If I take a step back and sum up the various climate-related issues – extreme weather, dwindling water supplies, biodiversity impacts, urbanization, and so forth – I see a future where parts of Earth become uninhabitable, like we're starting to resemble the image of a polar bear floating on a raft of ice.
  • If anything, this reinforces the importance of climate action. I don't know the next steps yet, but I do know a lot of really smart, thoughtful people are working on the problem. If you'd like to further that mission, I'd point you to Terra for a job board of related careers.

Job of the week

Acumen is one of the most prominent impact investment firms fighting poverty around the world, and they are hiring a President who will have their hands on everything from strategic planning to financial guidance to governance.

You'd be based out of New York City, and travel would be a key component of the role, especially at first. The Acumen team is distributed around the world, and you will have the chance to visit them and learn more about their programs over the first 12 months on the job.

I've known about Acumen for a long time, and this is the best job opportunity I've seen from them: it's not often you find a role where you can multiply your impact and do so on a global scale, but that's what this is. If you have broad, senior-level experience and a mind to extend your impact beyond our borders, don't miss out on this one.

Community roundup

We were expecting a flurry of executive actions as the Trump Administration got underway targeting many of the issues we care about. It's hard to keep track of them all, but here are a few that stood out to me this week:

• Revoked the target to have 50% of all vehicles sold in the U.S. be electric vehicles by 2030. Froze additional funding for charging stations. (Reuters)
  • I suspect the vehicle side of this executive action won't have a major impact. Automakers have been investing in new models and the supply chain to support it, and they can't turn on a dime.
  • The interesting part is the charging station infrastructure. One of the main detractors for electric vehicles is range anxiety, which simply comes down to the confidence that when you hit the road, you'll find a place to recharge on the way. This executive action will slow the rollout of reliable infrastructure.
• Withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization and the Paris Agreement. (NYT)
  • I figured he'd withdraw from the Paris Agreement – he did the last time – but the WHO was a surprise to me. It does follow the theme of pulling back from global collaboration, and I would not be surprised to see more like this.
  • Case in point: proposing new tariffs on Canada and Mexico despite an existing agreement, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), negotiated during his last administration.
• Rescinded executive action establishing safety guidelines for generative AI. (The Verge)
  • At a White House press conference, OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank announced a $100 billion initial investment in a joint venture to build new data centers to support AI development. They are targeting $500 billion over the next four years, and Texas will be the site of the first data center. (TechCrunch)
  • I'm not one for hyperbole, but this is a big deal; I've talked in the past about how existing data centers are major consumers of water and electricity, and AI is already replacing jobs.
• Ended diversity, equity, and inclusion programs within federal agencies and updated language about sex and gender. (NBC News)
  • We're already seeing a series of downstream effects, like putting all DEI employees on paid leave and firing the leader of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Hot job opportunities

• B2B Growth Marketing Manager – Opus – New York, NY (hybrid) or California (Remote)
• Global Associate Brand Manager – OLLY – Remote
• Copywriter – B Lab – Denver, CO
• Trade Marketing Specialist – OluKai – Irvine, CA
• Senior Product Manager, Academic – Guild – Remote
• Senior Full-Stack Software Engineer – Techstars – Denver, CO
• Business Development Representative – Bonterra – Remote
• Technical Support Specialist – Help Scout – Remote
• Associate Product Marketing Manager – PointClickCare – Remote
• Project Manager – Ad Victoriam Solutions – Alpharetta, GA

Resource of the week

The first few months of the year can be a great time to look for a new job. Company budgets have been refreshed and annual goals have been set, which means HR teams have more clarity on the positions they have to fill. Bring on the job postings!

Unfortunately, getting through the initial resume screen can often feel futile. Have you ever been auto-rejected? It's not fun.

Employers get a lot of resumes and have outsourced much of that screening to automation that compares the content in your resume to the content in the job posting. Improving those matches – while staying true to your job experience and skills – is essential if you want to move to the interview stage. I'm here to offer that you, too, can use automation to improve your chances.

Specifically, here are a few prompt suggestions you can use with AI tools like Claude to review your resume:

• Upload your resume and ask Claude to rewrite it in an ATS-friendly format: "Could you rewrite this resume in an ATS-friendly format?"
  • An "ATS" is an applicant tracking system, and with this prompt you are making your resume easier for the computer to read it. Be sure to read it afterwards to make sure it reflects what you initially provided.
• Find a job opportunity you are interested in and copy the text. Ask Claude to summarize keywords and important skills: "Given the job description provided below, summarize keywords and important skills that should be referenced in a resume or cover letter."
  • You shouldn't blindly include keywords or skills that you don't have. If you do have them, however, this analysis can give you clues about what the ATS is looking for.

My two cents: Don't use AI to write your resumes and cover letters from scratch. They're great for reviewing what you wrote, but it should still be a reflection of you. After all, that's the source material for the interview!

Test your knowledge

We reintroduced the concept of conscious capitalism last week, which is all about considering a company's stakeholders, not just profits. It was popularized in a book called Conscious Capitalism – no surprise there – by John Mackey and Raj Sisodia. You might recognize Mackey as one of the cofounders of Whole Foods Market. Sisodia is a public speaker and author of multiple books in the social impact space.

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day this week, we turn our attention towards civil rights history:

Martin Luther King Jr. rose to prominence partly due to his leadership of a bus boycott. In what city did the boycott take place?

Email me your guess, and I'll send one lucky winner a couple of One Work stickers!

I saw Exquisite Creatures at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry this week, and I was absolutely blown away. Highly recommend going if you happen to live in the area; it's showing for the next few weeks. You can find me on LinkedIn and Threads.