A few weeks ago, during one of my many GenAI workshops, I met Thomas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Smart kid. Student. Internship at a well-known midsize company. Not the flashy kind of company. The kind with PowerPoint templates from 2016 and an IT department still called \u201cICT.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thomas stood out in the workshop. While others played with prompts and built simple assistants, he asked questions like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cHow do I convince my manager that this isn\u2019t just a tool, but a way of working?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cWhat if I\u2019m the only one here who sees the potential?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
He wasn\u2019t just learning GenAI. He was living<\/em> it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The struggle after the workshop<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Two weeks later, I got a call from him. Hi Wiemer. And then straight to the point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cI\u2019m stuck. I\u2019ve built all these internal GPTs. Automating FAQs, supporting marketing, even prototyping a small assistant for sales data. People love it. But nothing happens. No strategy. No attention. No leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
He went bottom-up. Took initiative. Delivered value. Got some applause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But no change. No leadership stepping in. No roadmap. No funding. No vision. Just a lonely intern with good ideas and bad timing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cI realized I care more about this than my company does.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The real lesson<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
This isn\u2019t a GenAI story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a story about alignment<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can be as talented, driven and future-ready as you want, but if you\u2019re stuck in an environment that doesn\u2019t get it, it can drain your energy instead of amplifying it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s what happened to Thomas. Not because he failed. But because leadership didn\u2019t show up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No signal from the top = no system to grow in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So he made a choice. He thanked them for the opportunity. Wrapped up his internship. And decided to find a new job. At a company where AI isn\u2019t a gimmick, but a given. Where being proactive isn\u2019t something to \u201ctone down,\u201d but something that gets you hired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The power of leaving<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes, leaving isn\u2019t failure. It\u2019s clarity. It\u2019s knowing what you want to build, and finding the people who want to build it with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So here\u2019s to Thomas. And all my other students and interns who don\u2019t wait for the future to arrive, but go and find it themselves. I salute you. I support you. Here to help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re one of them: don\u2019t just look for a job. Look for alignment<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because in the age of AI, strategy isn\u2019t just a PowerPoint. It\u2019s culture.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
And culture eats prompts for breakfast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A few weeks ago, during one of my many GenAI workshops, I met Thomas. Smart kid. Student. Internship at a well-known midsize company. Not the flashy kind of company. The kind with PowerPoint templates from 2016 and an IT department still called \u201cICT.\u201d Thomas stood out in the workshop. While others played with prompts and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.aiproeflokaal.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.aiproeflokaal.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.aiproeflokaal.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.aiproeflokaal.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.aiproeflokaal.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cms.aiproeflokaal.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.aiproeflokaal.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.aiproeflokaal.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.aiproeflokaal.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.aiproeflokaal.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}