Hardware Podcasts

The Robots Aren’t Coming For Your Jobs | Venture For America, Pittsburgh Robotics Network | Jenny Sharpe

TRADEOFFS · 16 Sept 2026 · 1h 01m · Episode 16

What this episode covers

Jenny Sharpe, Director of Workforce Development for the Pittsburgh Robotics Network, discusses the hiring challenges in the robotics industry, arguing that the problem is a mismatch of talent rather than a shortage. She shares her background founding Serving Earth and working at ActiveVR, highlighting how timing and product-market fit are critical for hardware startups. Sharpe explains how outdated government occupational codes (ONET) fail to capture deep tech roles, creating barriers for workforce development, and offers advice for early-career engineers to stand out in an AI-saturated job market.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies and companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Pittsburgh Robotics Network, Venture for America, Metracycle, ActiveVR, Aison, Rivers Agile, OpenAI, Zoox, Carnegie Mellon, NVIDIA, Aramark, Cisco, Mad Works
Products
Serving Earth
Also
Halt Prize

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