What I Told My Daughter Before Her First Day at Work

My daughter started her first day as a paralegal at a law firm last month.

When I dropped her at the ferry that morning, it felt like another one of those parenting moments you know you’ll remember. A mix of great pride and excitement, as well as a quiet awareness that she’s stepping into a business world that is already changing.

You don’t have to look far at the moment to see headlines about AI and the legal profession. AI can already handle large parts of legal research, document review, and drafting. There are serious people asking whether law firms will even need junior lawyers in the same way in five years.

So as she’s walking into her first role, there’s an underlying question that is a little unsettling.

What does a career in this world actually look like now?

I hadn't really thought about what to say to her before she started, but the words just came out after decades of parenting and managing staff.

They had nothing to do with a career in law or what corporate life might be like.

Instead, what I said were 3 things that were more important.

Be an amazing human. Someone who's caring, polite, kind, happy, trustworthy. Someone who your work colleagues, bosses and clients enjoy working with.

Be adaptable. Be resilient and open to uncertainty as the rate of change in business is increasing rapidly. Always be thinking how things can be improved.

And be the person people trust to always get things done. Ask questions if you aren't sure what's required but then go and figure it out. Be the person that people want to give work to because they know it will get done and it will be done well.

The impact for businesses

When I looked back on what I'd said, none of this advice was about qualifications, knowledge, or technical skill. It was all about character.

The best employees have always had both. But for decades, many businesses have hired the predominantly for knowledge and technical skills as these were the scarce assets.

You went to university to acquire them and spent years developing them. They were difficult to learn and highly valuable. So businesses hired for them.

But that’s starting to change.

AI is making knowledge far more accessible. What used to take years to learn can now be accessed, summarised, and applied in seconds.

The advantage that came from “knowing more” is compressing.

But the traits I found myself talking to my daughter about haven’t become less valuable. They’ve become more so.

Adaptability. Reliability. Ownership. Trustworthiness. The ability to figure things out when there isn’t a clear answer.

These are becoming the real differentiators.

For years, we’ve hired and rewarded people based on the things that are now becoming easier to access. And I believe a shift is coming.

The most valuable people in your business are not always going to be the ones with the highest qualifications.

They're the ones who have very strong interpersonal skills to focus on the human interactions with the business.

They're the ones who can see patterns, make connections and develop strong judgement.

They’re the ones you trust to just figure things out.

The part no one is talking about

There’s another layer to this that I think is even more important, and it's not getting enough attention yet.

Historically, people developed judgement and capability by doing the foundational work. It came from reviewing documents, developing first drafts, running processes repeatedly and incorporating revisions.

That “grunt work” wasn’t just about getting tasks done.

It was how people learned to spot what mattered. It was how they built pattern recognition and developed judgement.

AI is starting to take over that layer, which means businesses aren’t just removing tasks.

They may be removing the pathway that created experienced, capable people in the first place.

So my daughter’s generation may be expected to operate at a higher level, earlier in their careers, with fewer of the traditional stepping stones.

And if that’s true more broadly, it raises a bigger question for business owners.

Where do experienced, capable people come from in five or ten years if the pathway that created them is disappearing?

I don’t have the full answer to that, but I think it’s a question worth considering deeply.

It is often the second order consequences of our decisions that create the hidden risk. If businesses are only focused on short term profitability, then AI can certainly provide a significant boost to the numbers.

But what is the cost in the longer term?

So I feel confident about is the advice I gave her on her first day.

Because I believe whatever changes, the person who can be trusted to figure things out, take ownership, and show up as a genuine human will always have a place.

But as business owners, there's some big questions we need to be working through.

With the last few people we hired, were we selecting primarily for knowledge and credentials? Or do we need to put more emphasis on the ability to adapt, take ownership and figure things out?

And where do we need to be investing for the long term in our junior staff so we develop the strong, experienced leaders we will want in the future?

Until next week,

Kylie.