Career Glow-Up: The 2025 Skills Set Every Young Professional Needs

1. AI Literacy (a.k.a. Knowing More Than Just ChatGPT Prompts)

In 2025, AI isn’t replacing you — but the person who knows how to use it just might. Start learning how to integrate AI tools into your workflow, from automating boring tasks to making your presentations 10x sharper. AI literacy means you don’t just know how to type a prompt into ChatGPT or any AI tool — you understand enough about how AI works, what it can and can’t do, and how to use it wisely and responsibly. Use AI responsibly by respecting privacy and intellectual property, and avoiding using it for harmful, misleading, or discriminatory purpose. Also remember that AI isn’t some kind of magic, but rather a pattern recognition trained on vast data — you still have to be the person who fact-checks, cross-verifies, and spots when AI is wrong or biased. Learn AI but do not lose that human touch.

2. Digital Presence That’s Not Cringe

Building a digital presence is about balancing personality with professionalism and avoiding the traps that make your online presence feel inauthentic. Avoid overusing buzzwords or slang you wouldn’t say in real life (“synergy,” “lit,” or “game-changer” in every other sentence). Don’t chase every viral trend just because it’s popular (remember: if it doesn’t fit your brand, it feels forced), and refrain from overhyping yourself (“#1 at everything!”) without substance or facts to back it up. Rule of thumb: if you’d feel embarrassed reading a statement out loud to a friend, that would probably be cringe if posted online too. Your LinkedIn posts, online portfolio, or even your Instagram story, can be a make-or-break for you — keep in mind that your online presence is like your 24/7 elevator pitch.

3. Data Fluency

Data fluency is that special skill of turning numbers into narratives and insights into action — without it, data is just noise; with it, data becomes a superpower. You don’t need to be a statistician, but you do need to know how to interpret data, spot patterns, and turn numbers into decisions. When you can quickly interpret data, you spot issues and opportunities earlier. Let’s say you work in HR and you noticed that employees leaving your company increased from 12% to 18% in the last six months. Rather than treating it as just a number, you cross-reference exit interviews, performance data, and hiring timelines. You find out that resignation is highest among new hires in one department, so you suggest to review their onboarding and team management practices. Isn’t that both a showcase of your initiative and your willingness to add value for your company? Bonus: bosses love someone who can explain a chart without putting the room to sleep.

4. Resilience as a Soft Skill

Manila traffic? Floods? Inflation? Industry shakeups? Resilience isn’t just “staying strong” — it’s adapting, bouncing back, and knowing when to pivot. Resilient people maintain focus and effectiveness even in stressful or uncertain situations. Instead of being paralyzed by obstacles, their resilience encourages them to find creative ways forward — for them, every challenge becomes an opportunity for learning, not just a hurdle to survive. What are the signs that you are or you’ve become resilient? Take for example in the workplace, you see yourself quickly adapting to new roles, tools, or processes without losing momentum, you’re capable of maintaining professionalism and optimism during organizational changes, you find yourself handling criticism constructively and using it to improve your performance, or your will to stay committed to goals despite temporary failures or resource constraints. Whether in your personal life, career, or relationships, challenges are inevitable — it is resilience that helps you get through them without breaking.

5. Cross-Cultural Competence

Business in Manila isn’t just local anymore. Whether it’s clients in Singapore or teammates in Australia, being able to communicate and collaborate across cultures is an underrated power move. This competence goes beyond just “tolerance” or “awareness” — it’s about actively developing the skills, attitudes, and knowledge needed to build meaningful and respectful interactions across cultures. Some ways to develop this skill are by seeking exposure to another culture (travel, work with diverse groups, engage in multicultural communities), by practicing empathy and curiosity (ask “why” before judging), by improving communication (words, gestures, and even silence can mean different things across cultures), and by committing to lifelong learning because cultures evolve and so should your understanding. Learning this skill is an opportunity to widen your perspective, to challenge stereotypes, and to enable yourself to be more flexible in new environments — these will all be valuable when you decide to travel, study, or work abroad in the future.

6. Strategic Networking

This is not about hoarding business cards — it’s about building genuine, mutually beneficial relationships that lead to unexpected opportunities (and better coffee recommendations). You’re not just meeting people for the sake of it, but intentionally building relationships that advance your goals while providing mutual value. You can start by mapping your network or listing your current contacts and see who can bridge you to your goals, then you leverage communities by joining associations, alumni groups, or online forums in your field. After that, you build visibility by posting insights on social media, sharing updates, and contributing to discussions, or by being intentional at events where you research attendees or speakers beforehand and plan who you want to meet. When all that’s been done, the most important task is to maintain these relationships — a quick check-in message, congratulations on milestones, or sharing a useful resource goes a long way. Strategic networking opens doors that hard work alone often can’t. It can lead to mentorship and guidance, collaborations and partnerships, job and client referrals, or access to insider knowledge and opportunities. It’s an exciting way to build a circle of allies who root for your growth — and whom you also empower in return.

2025 is no longer just about working harder — it’s about working smarter and sharper. Industries are shifting fast due to technology, globalization, and new ways of working, so if you don’t update your skills, you risk becoming outdated. Skill upgrades give you the confidence to take on new challenges and adapt to unexpected changes.

Take this a sign now for you to upgrade your skills and refine your presence, and remember: careers aren’t built in a day, but every day is a chance to build yours.

Let’s glow up together,

Kaye

Chief Editor, WLM

WARNING: SPOILER AHEAD

Celine Song’s latest film is showing in select Philippine theaters starting August 6. What pushed us into watching this film, well, aside from the gorgeous main cast? It’s the question it raised in one of its marketing promos — which will you choose, the life you want or the love you need?

Lucy (Dakota Johnson) is a matchmaker who navigates the world of New York dating and matchmaking as her day-to-day transactions, using resumes of personal traits (age, income, height, BMI) as criteria to match her clients, and this made Lucy treat relationships like strategic deals rather than emotional bonds. In the course of the story, Lucy becomes torn between two archetypes: Harry (Pedro Pascal), the wealthy “unicorn” gentleman she meets in a client’s wedding and she starts dating, who she describes as “perfect on paper”, and John (Chris Evans), her aspiring actor ex-boyfriend she loved deeply in the past, but he’s broke, works as a cater waiter, and still lives with roommates. The clash of material wealth vs. emotional authenticity underscores the class dynamics at play in this romance. Harry glides through life effortlessly, while John struggles visibly. Lucy sees dating as a performance, roles to be played, boxes to be checked, and Harry ticks all the boxes. Harry’s the perfect guy to date and he promises an incredible future, but Lucy knows love is not on the table for both of them, only practicality. John’s future is bleak in comparison, but he is the one that Lucy calls when she was emotionally struggling and the one that Lucy feels emotionally connected to. The film tells us, you can't perform love; it must be felt. Rather than judging on financial success, the film ultimately affirms that the core criterion in love should be emotional recognition and connection. Lucy rejects the material ideal in favor of a deeper, soulful bond with John.

As director Celine Song notes, people are increasingly internalizing metrics of worth and marketability when it comes to dating and love: “We’re being asked to treat ourselves as attractive merchandise,” and so the film challenges us to reclaim our humanity beyond such commodified definitions. This is why Materialists is less a typical rom-com and more a reflective mirror — prompting us to question how capitalism, dating apps, and societal expectations shape how we love and perceive ourselves. It invites a conversation about whether love can ever transcend the markets we’ve internalized.

The good news is Celine Song herself believes “love is still free” and it’s the only human sphere that “capitalism cannot fully colonize”. This is a theme she tries to convey in the film, and a good lens to try on if you plan to watch it (again) in theaters or in a movie streamer soon.

▶ Hit Up: Den by Nikkei (Burgos Park, Forbes Town, BGC)

▶ Listen Up: Tiger Sisters podcast (by Cherie Brooke Luo and Jean Luo)

▶ Read Up: Yellowface (by R.F. Kuang)

▶ Catch Up: The Sandman Season 2 (final season - Netflix)