TUNGKOL SA EPISODE NA ITO
What happens when you learn that your job is ending before you know what comes next?
After nine years as Program Director for Research at MIT Sloan Management Review, Allison Ryder learned that the publication would be winding down—even though its work remains respected, valuable, and successful. With seven months of notice, Allison is navigating an unusual in-between: continuing to do meaningful work, helping her colleagues close an important chapter and searching for her next opportunity at the same time.
In this episode, Allison and Jess discuss the illusion of institutional stability, the emotional reality of an unforeseen layoff, and the pressure to project confidence while still processing a loss. They also examine how applicant-tracking systems and AI reward exact titles and keywords, often overlooking multidisciplinary experience and transferable skills.
Their conversation explores why professional relationships matter, how networking can help us evaluate opportunities rather than simply pursue referrals, and what it means to separate our identity from the organization that employs us.
An unknown future is not necessarily a dangerous future. It is simply a future that has not taken shape yet.
Podcast Guest: Allison Ryder
Allison connects people, ideas, and organizations and builds the programs that turn those connections into something real. She’s led AI research programs at MIT Sloan Management Review and produces the popular artificial intelligence podcast Me, Myself, and AI.
She’s now figuring out her next chapter: what kind of work she wants to do, where she can have the most impact, and how to translate a career that has never fit neatly into one box into the next opportunity.
Connect with Allison: Allison Ryder on LinkedIn
Website: https://www.unmarketedproducts.com/about
Podcast Host: Jess Lowry
Jessica Lowry is the Founder and Socio-technical Systems Designer at ENID Studio, a collective of practitioners that enable organizations to redesign work, services, and governance for an AI-enabled future through participatory design and human-centered digital transformation.
She is also a member of Effective Immediately, a community for people leaving, or thinking about leaving, corporate life to build something of their own. Members get honest feedback, business fundamentals, and access to people a few steps ahead while they validate their idea, land first customers, and build the foundation.
Connect with Jess: Jess Lowry LinkedIn
Join Jess at Effective Immediately
Continue the Investigation
Become a member at DeprecatedHumanPodcast.com
Deprecated Human investigates how layoffs, AI, hiring technology, and changing workplace systems are redefining expertise, security, and human value.
Membership takes the conversation beyond the podcast. Connect with listeners navigating similar changes, access practical resources, and participate in a community built around mutual support—not professional performance. Your membership also helps keep the podcast independent and the broader investigation going.
Subscribe to the Deprecated Human Newsletter on LinkedIn
Each edition connects the personal stories shared on the podcast with the larger forces changing how we work.
Subscribers receive:
- Research summaries and links to original sources
- Key insights from podcast conversations
- Emerging signals affecting work and employment
- Practical recommendations for individuals and organizations
- Monthly reports connecting findings from across the investigation
This isn’t another hustle-culture newsletter about optimizing yourself for a broken system. It is an ongoing research project examining how work, expertise, and human value are changing—and what we can do about it.
