The Yasar Ahmad Podcast

10 things HR knows but won't tell you, answered properly from a hammock in my garden. No corporate script, just straight answers from someone who sat on that side of the table for two decades.I'm Yasar Ahmad, a former global VP of HR, and this is the kind of blunt career advice most people never get. We cover the questions that actually decide your next move. Is a PIP survivable (and how to tell if it's genuine or a setup)? Is the anonymous engagement survey actually anonymous? Do exit interviews matter? Should you take the counter offer, and why 70% who do leave within six months anyway? Are networking events worth it, and the one plan that makes them work? Is being liked at work a weakness? Can introverts actually get to the top? Should you tell colleagues what you earn? Should you ever quit without a job lined up? And the big one: 90 days, no budget, what do you actually do to get promoted?This is office politics, workplace visibility, salary transparency, and promotion strategy without the HR-approved non-answers. If you're good at your job and tired of guessing how the system really works, this is the one for you. Drop your own question in the comments and I'll answer it in the next one.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works.Chapters:0:00 10 things HR won't tell you0:11 Is a PIP survivable?1:09 Is the "anonymous" survey actually anonymous?2:11 Do exit interviews matter?3:17 Should you take the counter offer?4:28 Are networking events worth going to?5:37 Is being liked at work a weakness?6:52 Can introverts get to the top?8:12 Should you tell colleagues what you earn?9:47 Should you quit without a job lined up?11:38 90 days, no budget: what you actually do━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: [email protected]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#HRSecrets #CareerQuestions #OfficePolitics #CareerAdvice #WinAtWork

Get the Executive Interview System Here: https://ovdlab.com/shop/the-executive-interview-system____Your job gets your effort. But there are five things you should never give people at work, even when saying yes feels easier. This is where to draw the line, and the exact words to use.I'm Yasar Ahmad, and I've spent over two decades in HR. This is practical career advice on setting boundaries at work without torching relationships, built on a Stoic backbone. Most boundary advice tells you to "just say no," which gets you a reputation, not respect. Instead I give you the sentences that make the trade-off visible, so your manager or colleague has to respond to it. First, your self-respect: when another urgent task lands on a full week, "I can take this on, which existing priority should we move?" Then your peace of mind, how to stop office drama and workplace anxiety from eating your evening by separating what you know from what you're guessing.Then your time (how to shut down endless explanations once you've made your case), your trust (why an apology isn't the same as changed behaviour, and how to credit your work), and your loyalty (how to pin down a vague promotion promise instead of waiting on "you're essential" forever). If you're the reliable one who always says yes and keeps getting taken for granted, this is the one for you. Pick the one conversation you need this week and write your version of the sentence before you walk in.If you're preparing to look elsewhere, my Executive Interview System walks you through it: 36+ video lessons, a 72-hour prep plan, frameworks for 55+ interview questions, and salary negotiation. Check it out at https://www.ovdlab.com/shopSubscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works.Chapters:0:00 Five things to never give at work0:11 1: Your self-respect (the trade-off sentence)1:38 2: Your peace of mind (office drama)2:43 3: Your time (endless explanations)3:44 4: Your trust (apology vs changed behaviour)5:03 5: Your loyalty (the vague promotion promise)6:01 Recap: pick one conversation this week━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: [email protected]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#Boundaries #CareerAdvice #OfficePolitics #Stoicism #WinAtWork

Isra Chaker got asked one question by the Gates Foundation: how do you get people to care about something they've never been taught to care about? She had no health degree, wasn't a doctor, and had built her career running campaigns. She answered with a movement that has mobilised over $135 million for mothers and babies in more than 20 countries.I'm Yasar Ahmad, a former global VP of HR, and this is the kind of career conversation I wish I'd had at 25. Isra is the founder and CEO of Every Pregnancy, and her path is a masterclass in visibility, confidence, and how to build something from nothing. We cover the practical career advice underneath the story: how she handled 423 job rejections and zero interviews before her first internship, how she went from employee to CEO, why she never suffers from imposter syndrome, and how she pitches funders (warm them up, one slide, leave time for questions) to raise millions. She also breaks down public speaking, reset time after rejection, and how to answer patronising "you should be doing this" feedback without folding.We get into the honest stuff too: chasing purpose over money, why your work should connect to your purpose, the misconceptions she faces walking into a room as a young Muslim woman, and the most toxic thing a boss ever said to her (she sued them). If you want real talk on leadership, entrepreneurship, and backing yourself, this one's for you.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━CONNECT WITH ISRAInstagram: @IsraSpeaksWebsite: https://www.isachaker.comEvery Pregnancy: search Every Pregnancy on all platforms━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works.Chapters:0:00 The question that started a $135M movement1:11 From bullied kid to "social architect"3:30 Moving to DC and 423 job rejections5:03 Jumping into Syria advocacy on Capitol Hill5:58 What Every Pregnancy actually does7:47 Designing a campaign: the landscape analysis9:58 The Gates Foundation call11:19 Why she never gets imposter syndrome12:57 Going from employee to CEO14:58 How she raises money: the pooled fund model20:52 Being a CEO and a present mother22:42 Rejection and the power of fast reset time25:58 Her pitch technique (and never calling it a pitch)29:31 The misconceptions she faces in the room32:51 Public speaking and recovering when you waffle34:33 The community she's building next37:52 Toxic bosses and best career advice39:46 Purpose over money: the real debate44:36 One message for you━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: [email protected]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#IsraChaker #EveryPregnancy #CareerAdvice #Entrepreneurship #WinAtWork

You paid tens of thousands for a degree that taught you nothing about how corporate decisions actually get made. From day one, executives are forming opinions about your future based on rules nobody ever wrote down, and if you're working hard in silence, you're already losing.I'm Yasar Ahmad, a former global VP of HR. This is the career advice on office politics and workplace visibility that no induction ever gives you: the seven unwritten rules that decide whether you're the person they promote or the person they forget. I've sat in the calibration rooms where these decisions happen, watched 74 names go by in three minutes, and seen a promotion come down to "remind me which one she is." This video hands you those seven rules and the exact frameworks to start using them on day one.You'll learn why merit is only about 10% of the equation and strategic exposure is 60%, why executives decide your future from memory not output, why work done in silence never happened, and why your manager is a filter, not your promoter. Then the practical system: building three communication channels so your work travels upward, reading your manager's visibility tax, and the digital paper trail that turns "she handled something" into "she owns the migration." If you're smart, hard-working, and keep getting passed over, this is the one for you.Start with the free career diagnostic. It takes 5 minutes and scores you on the six things that actually move your career: visibility, communication, influence, political navigation, positioning, and compensation. Most people come out under 60, and almost nobody's weakest score is the one they guessed. Head to https://www.ovdlab.com and click Assessment.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works. And tell me in the comments: which rule hit hardest?Chapters:0:00 The rules nobody wrote down0:29 Inside the room where futures get decided1:00 The seven unwritten rules1:33 Rule 1: merit is only 10%2:20 Rule 2: executives decide from memory2:43 Rule 3: silent work never happened3:16 Rule 4: visibility is mandatory, not bragging3:37 Rule 5: your manager is a filter, not a promoter4:06 Rule 6: public problem-solving is positioning4:19 Rule 7: day one sets everything5:10 Move 1: build three communication channels6:24 Move 2: learn your manager's visibility tax7:19 Move 3: the digital paper trail7:57 Why it all starts on day one8:35 Two people, same start, different outcomes━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: [email protected]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#UnwrittenRules #OfficePolitics #GetPromoted #CareerAdvice #WinAtWork

I stood alongside Simon Squibb, the entrepreneur and investor behind HelpBnk and author of the Sunday Times bestseller "What's Your Dream?", for an unscripted conversation about where careers are actually heading, and why the word "career" might not survive the next 20 years.I'm Yasar Ahmad, a former global VP of HR. Simon went from homeless at 15 to selling his agency to PwC, and now backs people's dreams for a living; I spent two decades inside the corporate machine. Our missions overlap, so this is a raw chat about the future of work, AI, and honest career advice for a generation walking into a job market that's disappearing under them. 716,000 students leave university every year chasing a good career, and there aren't enough jobs for them.So we get into the real questions. If AI takes the graduate jobs and the high-end ones (lawyers, maybe even doctors) what do you teach a 16-year-old? Why "go to uni to get a job" is broken, and why Simon and I both think the answer is agency, personal development, and learning to build something yourself. We also hit the stuff I care about most: the fake meritocracy where good work goes unseen, why hard work is only one part of the formula (Harvey Coleman's research puts performance at 10%, perception at 30%, and exposure at 60%), why your judgement is the one thing AI can't replace, and the human cost of being treated as a number when the redundancy call lands. If you're thinking about your kids, your own next move, or what work even means now, this one's for you.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works.Chapters:0:00 Two missions that overlap0:15 Helping a billion people through their careers0:50 What I'd tell my 16-year-old about university1:30 Why "career" and "entrepreneurship" are dying words1:46 Chase the problem you want to solve, not a job title2:21 The one thing AI can't take: your judgement3:24 This is going to get serious, and we can't do it in silos4:32 The fake meritocracy nobody warns you about4:57 The 10-30-60 rule5:45 The shortest route vs the fastest route6:08 The human cost of being just a number6:52 Rebuilding the school system around agency7:19 Which jobs AI takes next7:46 Teaching people to build their own support system━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: [email protected]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#SimonSquibb #FutureOfWork #AIandCareers #WhatsYourDream #WinAtWork