The Cambodian community in America was not unlike so many other immigrant groups. We lived by word of mouth, by stories exchanged over meals, by the quiet trust built around dinner tables and bowls of rice. Success was rarely discovered alone; it was passed hand to hand, one family whispering to another, one kitchen conversation becoming a business plan. That is how donut shops spread through Cambodian families across the country. Someone would discover a formula that worked, and before long, cousins, in-laws, and friends of friends would be learning to fry dough, glaze it, and sell it to sleepy Americans on their way to work.

Janitorial services followed a similar path. It was steady work. It was work that did not require perfect English. It was work that required determination, late nights, and a willingness to be invisible. My parents must have shared a meal with other Cambodian families who were doing it well, because by the mid-1990s they had decided to start their own janitorial business.

Every job search carries a story. Behind every resume, application, or unanswered email is a person navigating hope, uncertainty, and the daily challenge of staying resilient. Too often those stories remain invisible, reduced to statistics about unemployment or the labor market.

I know this because I am in the middle of that process myself. I am searching for the right next role, sending applications, having conversations, and managing the long stretches of waiting in between. Along the way I have spoken with so many people who feel voiceless, people who feel like their experiences and struggles are not being seen or heard.

Artificial intelligence has transformed how organizations recruit, measure, and manage talent. Algorithms can scan résumés in seconds, predict technical proficiency, and even evaluate communication patterns. But as someone who has worked at the intersection of defense, technology, and customer experience, I have seen firsthand the skills that machines cannot capture. And often, those are the very qualities that determine success as you advance in your career.

AI thrives on structured data. It can evaluate whether someone meets baseline qualifications, how clearly they write, or whether they can code in a specific language. What it cannot reliably assess are the soft skills that come alive in ambiguous, human-driven situations. Machines can detect sentiment in text or tone, but they cannot fully grasp how a leader builds trust during moments of crisis. When I served as the first Customer Experience Officer for the Department of Defense, what mattered was not just launching digital tools but creating confidence among service members and civilians. That required empathy, presence, and listening, none of which could be measured in a dataset.