Anonymous member


Career development 46m
My CEO complains about upward delegation, yet she wants to be consulted on any matter, including being copied on any email I write. If you dont consult her and act within your profession, she feels that you have bypassed. If you escalate the matter to her, she feels upward delegation. This is draining me...how do i handle such,i have sat with her before and explained that close supervision... affects my work yet it hasnt stopped. Help please. more

  • Fatimah Adepoju-Olajuwon

    9m

    I am facing same issue currently. The worst part is, he doesn't listen yet he clamor to be listened to. Its tiring how he rubbishes my effort and... passion blame when it was really him thats not available for guidance. If you take initiative he complains, if you don't he still complains. And to top it, my team members action is also buttressing his impression that I'm inefficient  more

Ronan Lenoble


Career development 1d
Can you give me some advice? My boss comes to me many times a day and keeps asking if I’ll finish my tasks on time. I always say yes as I’ve never missed a deadline. But his questions distract me and make me stressed.
I tried telling him he doesn’t need to check on me so much, but it didn’t help. How can I politely ask him to stop?

  • Marvin Reid

    1h

    Don't every time he comes close to you blurt out "I AM DONE EVERYTHING IS SMOOTH SAILING " I MEAN EVERY TIME at the store, lunchroom, sidewalk, etc.... Make it a running joke til he ask you to stop. Or stop for awhile and if he ask you again......start back up. more

  • C Trusclair, PhD., CISSP CCNP

    2h

    A lot of the time, repeated checking is not really about your performance. It is about: their pressure, their insecurity, their lack of control... somewhere else, you being the easiest person to walk over to
    So the mistake is taking their behavior personally. Do not absorb their tension. Let them keep it.
    Your mindset is better: do the opposite of stressing.
    Stay calm, Stay matter-of-fact, Stay productive.     more

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Career development

 4h

‎Kenyan students gain skills through mentorship program - Business Now


About 200 Kenyan students have completed an intensive mentorship program focused on leadership, innovation, and career development.

The week-long program, held at Pangani Girls High School under the theme "Ubunifu bila upeo" (Innovation without limits), brought together secondary school and university students from across the country.

Participants engaged in sessions on personal development,... career pathways, and practical life skills led by professionals and expert facilitators.

This was through the KenGen Mentorship Program that included interactive discussions, regional breakaway sessions, and a talent showcase to build confidence and foster peer learning.

Speaking at the closing ceremony, KenGen Managing Director Eng. Peter Njenga highlighted the importance of nurturing young talent to drive innovation and national development.

Students received scholarship certificates and mentorship guidance to support their future careers.

Since its inception, the KenGen Mentorship Program has supported hundreds of ‎students, many of whom have progressed to higher educational institutions and professional careers ‎at different organizations. more

Career development

 5h

Company Mid-Level Resume Overhaul


Our organisation is standardising the résumés of all mid-level staff and I'd like a detail-oriented writer-designer to take this on. You'll work inside our existing Microsoft Word template and ensure each document contains three core sections -- Work Experience, Education, and Skills -- presented with consistent tone, layout, and formatting. Here's the flow I have in mind: I'll supply the template... plus raw data sheets or legacy CVs for each employee. Your task is to transform that input into clean, achievement-focused documents that read naturally, respect the brand style, and are ready for immediate client or internal use. Accuracy in dates, job titles, and quantitative results is essential, as is a light editorial touch that keeps the voice professional yet approachable. Deliverables (per employee) * One fully formatted résumé in our template (Word + PDF) * A brief change log highlighting any clarifying questions or data gaps you encountered I plan to roll these out in batches, so reliability and quick turnaround will lead to ongoing work. If you have experience creating cohesive résumé sets for corporate teams, I'd love to see a sample. more

Jamie Bowen


Career development 2d
I hired a new team member, he’s about 40. At the interview he seemed polite and easy to talk to, and for the first two weeks he worked well with clients. But lately he’s been getting more and more irritable, and even started snapping at customers. I understand he might be tired from a new job, but I’m not sure, will he settle down soon? Or will it get worse, and should I start looking for someone... who handles people better?
What do you think?

 more
1   

  • Victoria Radford

    5h

    Talk to them directly about the changes you've seen. Something could be going on in their personal life!

  • Namuumbwa Mazovu Mantina

    9h

    Did you contact any of the referees that he listed before employing him? It might be his behaviour, but best to have a chat with him and let him know... that his attitude is causing concern since he has snapped at customers  more

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Career development

 6h

3 Signs your dream job offer is actually a scam


Fraudsters are running sophisticated job scams, posing as legitimate recruiters and preying on desperate job seekers at their most vulnerable.

A recently laid-off tech worker thought he had caught a lucky break. Days after publicly announcing his job loss on LinkedIn, a message arrived offering him a senior position at a major game development studio -- a prestigious role that matched his... background almost perfectly. The job was real. The recruiter, it turned out, was part of a scam.

His story is far from isolated. As the U.S. job market tightens and white-collar workers face longer and more competitive searches, a parallel epidemic has taken hold: sophisticated scammers impersonating legitimate recruiters, weaponizing the very desperation that unemployment creates. The playbook is disturbingly polished -- stolen résumés, cloned profiles, real job listings, and fictitious contacts that can fool even experienced professionals.

The Scammers' Sophisticated Playbook

What distinguishes today's recruiter scams from earlier, cruder fraud is the level of institutional mimicry involved. These are not obvious phishing emails riddled with typos. Scammers now harvest personal data from publicly available sources -- résumés, social media bios, professional databases -- and construct credible personas complete with fake employment histories and headshots.

The tech worker only uncovered the deception by scrutinizing the recruiter's email address, which contained a subtle domain discrepancy invisible at first glance. It was a close call that underscores a chilling reality: in an era when so much of professional networking happens online, the signals we rely on to verify identity are increasingly easy to forge.

A Job Market That Makes Victims More Vulnerable

The economic conditions feeding this trend are significant. With fewer than one job opening per unemployed worker nationally -- estimates hover between 0.87 and 0.99 openings per person -- hiring demand has cooled sharply from the post-pandemic highs. Job seekers are flooding fewer positions, stretching out searches and amplifying anxiety. Scammers, attuned to this desperation, have stepped into the gap.

A recruiter based in Houston has reported being impersonated multiple times by fraudsters who borrowed her name and professional likeness to target job seekers. She cautions that the very tools unemployed workers use to increase their visibility -- layoff announcements and the widely used #OpenToWork frame on LinkedIn -- can also function as a signal to bad actors scanning for targets.

3 Signs That Recruiter Messaging You Is Actually a Scammer

Experts and affected workers alike have identified several warning signs that a recruiter interaction may be fraudulent:

* Mismatched email domains. Any recruiter contact should come from an address that exactly matches the company's official domain. Variations -- even minor ones -- are a red flag worth investigating before engaging further.

* Requests for upfront payment. Legitimate recruiters do not charge candidates for placement, résumé review, or training. Any request for money, even framed as a reimbursable fee, is a reliable indicator of fraud.

* Overly rehearsed explanations. When a recruiter is unusually articulate about why a process deviates from industry norms, that fluency can itself be a signal -- a scripted response designed to preempt skepticism.

Staying Safe Without Going Silent

For the tech worker at the center of this story, the response to discovering the fraud was not to disengage from online networking -- quite the opposite. He has continued responding to cold outreach, taking extra time to vet each contact before sharing any personal information. His reasoning is straightforward: withdrawing from digital platforms cedes the space entirely to those abusing it.

His approach reflects a broader consensus among job seekers and career coaches: the antidote to recruiter fraud is not retreat but literacy. Verifying credentials through official company directories, cross-checking profiles against corporate websites, and insisting on video calls before progressing in any hiring process are now considered baseline due diligence -- not paranoia.

As hiring fraud grows more elaborate, the burden of verification has shifted uncomfortably onto those who can least afford the distraction: the unemployed. Until platforms and employers build more robust authentication into their systems, job seekers will need to treat every unexpected opportunity with a measured mix of optimism and skepticism -- a difficult balance in moments when hope feels scarce. more

Career development

 6h

30 Not-So-Obvious Red Flags Employers Show That Workers Should Watch For


As much as businesses use it to screen candidates, a job interview can tell applicants a lot about their potential employer too. It's a two-party game. However, most of us aren't as good at it as professional recruiters -- they do it for a living and get to practice a whole lot more. So in order to successfully "compete" with them, we have to do our homework.

A recent Reddit thread, created by... user u/BackgroundChapter970, can be a good place to start. It asked everyone on the platform "What is a red flag from an employer that people might not immediately recognize as a red flag?" Now, there are over 2,000 comments, many of which detail the warning signs jobseekers need to pay attention to. more

Career development

 9h

Recruiter lists 4 things candidates should stop being honest about in interviews


A recruiter shared four things that candidates should "stop being honest" about in job interviews, sparking debate over how far applicants should go when presenting themselves.

The post, shared on r/Jobhunting, was titled, "Stop being honest in job interviews (I say this as a recruiter)." In it, the user argued that interviews were less about truth-telling and more about positioning.

"An... interview isn't an exam, it's a negotiation. The company wants to buy your skills," the recruiter wrote, adding that candidates should stop treating the process like they owe employers something and instead approach it as a transaction.

Their post went on to outline areas where candidates should "bend the truth," not outright lie, but frame answers strategically.

One key point was around job search duration. The recruiter advised against admitting to being unemployed for months, claiming it often triggered bias. Instead, candidates should present themselves as selective and in demand.

Similarly, applicants were told not to reveal if they are applying everywhere, but rather say they are targeting roles that align closely with their skills.

On company knowledge, the recruiter stressed that even minimal preparation like spending a few minutes researching could prevent candidates from appearing disengaged. But the strongest emphasis was on how candidates described their past work.

"People list what they did instead of what they achieved," the post noted, urging applicants to quantify results rather than simply describe responsibilities. For example, instead of saying they managed social media, candidates should highlight measurable impact, such as audience growth.

The post concluded with a shift in mindset, encouraging candidates to see themselves as equally valuable in the process. "You're not there to beg, you're there to decide if they're worth your time too," the recruiter wrote.

The advice, shared in good spirits, quickly received mixed reactions from users.

Some commenters agreed with the sentiment, suggesting that interviews are as much about reading the room as they are about answering questions, and that candidates who fail to present themselves strategically may struggle in professional environments.

Others offered insight from a hiring perspective, explaining that certain questions, like how many roles a candidate has applied for, are sometimes used later in the process to gauge how competitive an offer needs to be.

At the same time, the post also raised concerns about authenticity, with discussions emerging around the fine line between smart positioning and dishonesty.

Some users also discussed the idea that interviews were not just about proving competence, but about understanding how to present it in a way that aligned with what employers were looking for. more

Career development

 9h

Here's Battleground for Top Jobs The Company CEO's Smart Office - The Boca Raton Tribune


You better come into these arenas prepared for an adroit battle and looking your best as an astute gentleman wearing a perfectly pressed suit with matching handkerchief and tie or if you're a woman, cheekily dressed business casual in blazer with tailored trousers or pencil skirt with a collared shirt, or maybe a refined knit top.

Yet, much more important than the apparel you wear and colors you... choose are the weapons you carry, the words you load into your vocabulary, as your job interview today likely will take place in that modern colosseum, the plush executive office of the director of employment or maybe of the sultan himself, the CEO.

Today, the main attraction is not just how smartly you dress, but the words you neatly pack into the complete sentences you speak that's going make the right impression, ending in whether you're welcomed aboard or figuratively carried out on a stretcher.

The main problem today is too many Americans speak a form of English that's become a bit too phonetically relaxed than from what you would most likely hear from someone with an upscale background or a graduate from an Ivy league university, now skillfully competing for a job. I went to Penn, btw. Master's degree!

Dat's a right, for some English keeps a gettin' kinda tired and lazy. So, exercise it. Give it workouts. Lots of drills and practice!

These days around my condo in Florida you hear conversations taking shortcuts like "Yo Ted, ain't seenya round. Whereubin? Ubinaway? Idonno. Uza reeel snowbird! Instead of "I haven't seen you around lately. Where have you been? On vacation?"

You would more likely hear today a casual abbreviated version of modern-day American English such as this: "How ya been? Where ya goin? Whatsha been up to? Instead of . . . "How have you been? Where are you going? What have you been doing lately?

Call it more relaxed and informal speech, maybe even friendlier sounding lingo than the full grammatical layout of words in proper order, in whole or complete sentences, but it does tend to also grade the speaker on his or her background, education and some would say, even reflect upon how far left or right they're leaning politically.

Best to keep that in mind when you're out on that frontline, a job interview, unless it's for digging ditches or laying pipelines, it's best that you not just look but sound the part, educated to the hilt, and this you can show by choosing the right phrases, correct pronunciation and speaking in complete, grammatically correct sentences.

That will help to set the tone, steer the right course for the position for which you're aiming during that illuminating litmus test, the job interview.

Keep in mind also that the interview is an Xray of not just the highest grade you reached in school, but how skillfully you express yourself which in turn shows how well you'll communicate with others at the workplace.

Know that in most businesses there are few things as important as how well and effectively executives communicate. So, good luck presenting yourself!

Tom Madden is an interview champion who has been screened, interviewed and hired numerous times in his eclectic business career, starting out as a journalist, then a publicist, next a network television executive, now anauthor and owner of his own PR firm TransMedia Group, which he runs together with his daughter Adrinne Mazzone, its president. Just before that, he was vice president, assistant to the president, at NBC and before that, he was the head of PR planning at ABC. Before ascending to those high offices, he was out working on busy city streets as a newspaper reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer. more

Career development

 11h

How Are CV's Transforming In The Digital Age?


CV's have been a crucial part of the employment process since the 1950's, when they became a formal expectation at job interviews. In the decades since then, the CV has evolved, and now digital elements have been incorporated.

Job seekers need to know various tips and tricks to ensure their CV can compete in the digital age, and HR employees need to be trained in new techniques for sifting... through applications.

Until recently, job seekers would simply write up their CV onto a piece of paper and post it to employers. There has been a recent transition from paper to digital, though, which has brought about various changes in approach. Not only do candidates have to reconsider the way they structure CVs, but HR departments need to change their approaches to dealing with them.

The shift to a digital CV format means that it's possible to include elements that never existed on pre-internet versions. For instance, candidates can now incorporate visual and interactive elements, such as infographics and hyperlinks. Employers could click these links to find out more information about a candidate, such as their past work or websites that they have created.

Indeed, many candidates are now offering dynamic content alongside their CV applications. This can include personal websites that reveal online portfolios of past work and experience, offering an attractive extension to the CV for HR departments that want to delve further into the details of a potential new employee.

With all these digital elements and additional tools at everyone's disposal, it's more important than ever for hopefuls to optimise their CVs as much as possible. The most sought after jobs will receive hundreds of applications, so prospective employees need to tailor their submissions to suit the job description and the digital screening process.

It's crucial for candidates to start by looking at some CV examples in the industry that they're hoping to get employed in. There are major differences between engineering and accounting CVs, for example, so knowing what HR departments are seeking in these fields is beneficial. Researching keywords and phrases from the industry is also a winning approach, as these will be targeted by HR when they use digital tools to sort through applications.

HR Can Use Applicant Tracking Systems To Filter Candidates

The introduction of applicant tracking systems has been a huge development for HR departments in the recruitment process. The systems can analyse hundreds of CV's in a short space of time, identifying the best candidates based on keywords and other predefined parameters.

This means there's much more efficiently in recruitment, as HR departments don't need to spend as much time manually screening CV's. They can use the ATS to find the best options, and then explore these further. The customisation of filters means that HR departments can constantly refine their approach as well, zoning in on the perfect candidates for the job.

CVs have already transformed massively in the digital age, and there could be other developments to come in the future. Therefore, it's imperative that job seekers and HR departments keep up to date with modern trends.

Our team of experts at CSS Recruitment can offer help and support on how to construct the perfect CV for your desired role. We have a wealth of experience across a range of different industries and are on hand to offer advice and career guidance from creating the perfect CV to securing your ideal job.

So, if you're a candidate looking for a new role or a business looking to hire permanent staff members or need to recruit flexibly to meet demand, give us a call to discuss your plans for the future. Our team are hand to give expert advice and can look at sourcing top talent, ahead of your competitors, for when you're ready to hire. more

Career development

 11h

15+ Best AI Tools for Job Seekers in 2026


15+ Best AI Tools for Job Seekers in 2026

Written by Andrei Kurtuy

Job hunting can be overwhelming, but in 2026, technology is making it easier than ever.

With the rise of AI tools for job seekers, you can now craft tailored resumes, prepare for interviews, and find job matches faster and more effectively. These tools aren't just about automation - they're designed to save time, enhance... personalization, and give you a competitive edge in an ever-changing job market.

From AI resume builders to interview preparation platforms, the best AI tools for job seekers cover every stage of the hiring process.

But with so many tools out there, how do you pick the most effective ones?

In this article, we'll explore 16 of the best AI tools available in 2026, along with tips on how to use them effectively to land your dream job.

What Are AI Tools for Job Seekers?

AI (Artificial Intelligence) tools are technologies designed to help you streamline and enhance your job search experience. From creating optimized resumes to helping you find the perfect job match and do mock-up interviews, these tools use artificial intelligence to make the process faster, smarter, and more efficient.

At their core, AI tools can help with tasks like resume writing, job matching, application tracking, interview preparation, and even salary negotiations.

For example, Novorésumé's AI-powered resume builder can ensure your resume is tailored to a specific job. Alternatively, some job-matching platforms use AI algorithms to connect you with positions that best align with your skills and preferences. Finally, some AI tools offer interview coaching, providing real-time feedback to help you nail your pitch.

In short, AI tools can help you work smarter, not harder, in a competitive hiring market.

Should You Use AI Tools?

Yes, you should use AI tools to save time, improve efficiency, and boost your chances in a competitive job market. These tools can help you tailor your resume, identify job opportunities that match your skills, and prepare for interviews with data-driven insights. Not to mention, 39% of job seekers are already using them, according to LinkedIn.

That said, it's important to use AI tools wisely.

While AI tools are great for streamlining tasks like resume optimization or job matching, they're not a substitute for your judgment or effort. So, always review AI-generated content to ensure it reflects your voice and unique experiences.

Pros and Cons of Using AI Tools

AI tools are transforming how you approach your job search, offering plenty of advantages but also a few drawbacks.

Here's a quick look at the pros and cons to help you decide if these can help your job hunt:

* Pros of Using AI Tools

* Cons of Using AI Tools

16 Best AI Tools to Help You Land a Job

Let's get right to it. Here are the best AI tools at your disposal as a job seeker in 2026:

#1. Novorésumé

Novorésumé is a sleek AI-powered resume builder designed to help you quickly create professional, ATS-friendly resumes.

The platform provides customizable templates tailored to various industries, ensuring your resume stands out visually and passes ATS screenings.

Here are three standout Novorésumé:

* Offers tailored feedback on your resume while you're creating it

* Provides job-specific advice, based on the role you're applying for

* Gives real-time assistance to different aspects of resume creation, such as layout and phrasing

* Helps you create a cover letter that's up to par with your resume

Novorésumé runs on OpenAI's GPT-4 model, which means it can highlight your strengths, target the right keywords, and ensure each section captures the hiring manager's attention.

Here's an AI resume created entirely using Novorésumé: more

Career development

 11h

Malaga province's skilled future workforce meets prospective employers at TalentLab | Sur in English


New companies join SUR's training project this year, which serves as a tool for young people to land their first job in their field

What are 'soft skills'? Everyone wants them, but few really know what they are: key qualifications, without which a candidate would not be able to land a job or at least that's what many employers believe.

They are only part of the deal, however. In many cases, only... applicants who have successfully completed their studies or internships and spent time abroad receive that longed-for job interview. A combination of a strong resume and the right attitude is therefore clearly key to being a good candidate and landing the desired job.

The second phase (training) of the SUR's sixth TalentLab Málaga, which started early in the morning on 22 April, focused exactly on introducing young people who have proven their skills and talents to prospective employers.

The sky was clear and buses and trains were running on time. However, not everyone at the Palacio de Ferias on Wednesday looked relaxed. Many of the participants are either fresh out of university or about to finish their deegree.

Some are science graduates, others come from the humanities. What they all have in common is the desire to take one of life's most important leaps: find their first job that meets their expectations and is related to their studies.

The number of participating companies has grown this year to include eleven employers, but the essence remains the same: "A project to identify, train and connect young talent in Malaga."

It's not surprising that the participants seemed nervous on Wednesday. Facing the young people over the next couple days are executives and human resources managers from some of the leading companies in the province: EY GDS Spain, Montosa, Leroy Merlin, Synergym, Airzone, Navarro Hermanos, Ebury, EMT, Verdecora, Indra Group and Cemosa.

New training centres are also joining the programme: the European University of Andalucía, the Atlantic-Mediterranean Technological University (Utamed), ESIC-EIG and the International University of Andalucía (Unia). Malaga city council and the provincial authority have also extended their support this year.

TalentLab Málaga combines talks and group activities designed to develop skills such as public speaking, personal branding, resilience and problem-solving. Another key component are the meetings with the executives of the aforementioned companies.

Young people will be able to directly approach them and ask them anything that comes to mind: what training and qualities they value most in a candidate, how to improve employability or what hiring prospects each company has. Professionals who are difficult to access become direct interlocutors for the best talent in Malaga.

The opening activities on Wednesday were dedicated to speeches and presentations by representatives from participating companies and public institutions. "If there's one thing fundamental to a society's progress, it's the fostering of talent," General Manager of Prensa Malagueña Antonio González said.

Mayor of Malaga Francisco de la Torre also visited the event, where he talked about the need to balance personal ambition with the pursuit of the common good. "We must strive to be good people," he said.

The regional government's delegate in Malaga, Patricia Navarro, reiterated the regional government's commitment to vocational training and stated that TalentLab Málaga fulfills "the objective of connecting the talent emerging from schools with the business sector".

The provincial authority's employment representative, Carmen Márquez highlighted the project's capacity to "transform lives". "You're going to connect with the opportunities that companies offer," she told the young participants.

Isabel Hernández and Carolina Suárez (both from the European University) also gave a speech, during which they stated that the path to a first job is smoother if the basics are met. Some candidates have excellent academic records but fall short in fundamental areas such as punctuality and courtesy or demonstrate a narrow view of society.

After a lunch that brought together managers and young people at the same table, fostering a relaxed atmosphere, a sense of calm was finally evident on the faces of the participants. UNIA collaborating professor Miguel Ángel Serralvo led the main activity of the afternoon: 'What Makes the Difference: Real Skills to Stand Out in Your First Job'.

Cover letter, resume, certificates: these are usually the tickets to a job interview. How can one best prepare and demonstrate that they are the ideal candidate? Do they need a suit or new shoes? Should they use the employer's first name or a formal title? Should they ask about the salary immediately? The event answers these and more questions.

TalentLab Málaga continues on Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, psychologist and professor at ESIC-EIG Ángel Macías will ask: "What would a person be without their values?" Antonio Rodríguez, director of the business, communication and marketing area at Utamed, will give a presentation on 'The Importance of Communication in Entrepreneurship'.

In the afternoon, the young people will once again have one-on-one meetings with representatives from the participating companies. more

Anonymous member


Career development 3d
Please how do you cope with non-chalant staffs as a senior colleague. Staffs that are so complacent when you give them task to do and are always full of excuses but they are good at their skills, i mean they are very good at what they do.
2   

  • Edward Sackey

    12h

    Remember that these actions will cost you money.

  • Edward Sackey

    12h

    Assign external auditor on them half annually.
    This is not necessarily to check them for any flaws but just to keep them to the heat.

    Also, you may... engage the services of intelligents graduate interns and or attachments. Assign them to these nonchalant employees to account or report on them weekly.

    Trust me, some of these interns can introduce stiff competition within the staff. Intentionally, religate some of their duties to these intelligent graduate interns .
    On the days when they are unable to report to work for whatever reason, ask them to hand over to their keys to their interns.

    They would sit up!      more

    1
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Career development

 1d

Is your teen struggling to find a job? Here's how you can help


It's a question I've heard from my kids more than once after they've experienced the disappointment of unsuccessful job applications: "Dad, can you help me with my résumé?"

Rejection is tough, especially when you're doing all the right things and employment prospects don't turn out despite repeated attempts. It happens in the publishing industry I work in, too: A writer can send a publisher a... great query letter that checks all the boxes - great hook, it's personalized, articulates the genre and word count, lists comparable titles - and not get published; often, they never even hear back. That's the reality many youth face, with summer fast approaching and employment scarce. It's tough to explain why they're not getting hired when they have done everything well - written a cover letter, tailored the résumé to the job, and followed up with the right person.

I know this is not an isolated concern. It's a struggle that's showing up in many households. In March, the unemployment rate among youth aged 15-24 was 13.8 per cent, about double the national average (across all age groups) of 6.7 per cent, according to Statistics Canada.

There are several contributing factors, from labour shifts following the COVID-19 pandemic to higher employer expectations and fewer entry-level openings. I remember my first job at a community centre canteen in Winnipeg. It was a straightforward role, and it gave me a little extra spending money. Now, those kinds of starter positions often require prior experience. But how can a teen who has not previously had a job have experience? The first step into work is no longer built for beginners.

What should you say to teens feeling pressured to fit in?

I don't think it's an issue of motivation. From what I see, for the most part, teenagers are trying. And just like for new writers trying to break into publishing, it's hard for young job seekers not to take silence or rejection personally. Of course, as parents, we have to temper expectations, and rejection is a reality of life. But rejection hits different when there hasn't been a first yes, and repeated failure without feedback can erode confidence.

What can you do when your child is doing everything they can to land some kind of entry-level job, but keeps running into a brick wall? Maybe the answer is to simply encourage persistence while having empathy as they navigate rejection.

You can also step in and offer practical support where appropriate. When your kid asks for help with a résumé, it's easy to look it over and do some editing. You could suggest places that might be hiring or put them in touch with people in your own network willing to share career advice.

In a tight job market where the rules have changed, how we support youth on the path to employment may have to change, too. Here are a few other ways to do that.

Have a conversation with your teen about how there is more competition and are fewer roles available. In that chat, try to separate the effort they are putting into their job search from the outcome of rejection or silence. In this way, they can maintain realistic expectations while reducing difficult emotions such as self-blame.

Make the process visible

Get involved with the job search without taking away a teen's agency or independence. Look through postings of potential jobs together, and in so doing, see if you can help them identify requirements they might be missing and need to work on. This is also an opportunity to point out that if they are not successful, it's more about fit or timing than anything to do with them as a person. This turns discouragement into encouragement, and they're more likely to keep searching.

Adjust the strategy, not the effort

With publishing, it never really works to send a query and sample writing to a bunch of different publishers, hoping that something will hit. The same is true for a job search. Encourage your teen to target applications to job postings that are a good match for their education, experience and interests; it's not about volume. You can also suggest little shifts in approach, such as how and when to follow up, or how to prepare for an interview.

Protect confidence during silence

As an overthinker myself, I read into almost everything. I'm hardwired to do it, even though I've learned to manage the tendency. For young applicants, not getting a response can be difficult, and acknowledging that difficulty is important so they can avoid over-interpreting rejection. It's very likely not about them, and you can help by focusing feedback on controllable factors: tweaking the résumé, finding more suitable targets for searches, or working on a cover letter.

Acknowledge small wins

Any sort of progress is a step in the right direction, and sometimes the small things are what you can build on. Nurture a sense of accomplishment in your teen for applying to a job or getting a response (even if it's not the kind they were looking for), or celebrate the fact they got an interview, whether it led to them getting a job offer or not. Spend time breaking down what went well in the interview and what they might do differently next time. Emphasizing exposure instead of immediate success can go a long way.

Searching for a job, for a teen, may not look the way it used to. The path isn't as clear, the barriers are a little higher, and the first step isn't as simple. But they're still trying to take it. So, maybe our role isn't only to help them get there, but to make sure they keep going when the road gets rocky. more

Career development

 12h

Meet the first graduating class of CollegeGPT


Earlier this year, Advait Paliwal built an AI tool that he said could act as a student. Given an email and a password, Einstein could log in to Canvas, a portal where professors at colleges across the country upload presentations and list assignments. The bot could attend lectures, write essays, and do homework. Paliwal, 22, says he built it as a joke for a friend who said he was bogged down with... coursework, and didn't plan to code the ultimate cheating tool. It ended up becoming the latest flashpoint in a debate over AI and cheating at colleges.

Einstein had a typical, fleeting online outrage cycle after Paliwal posted it to X. He says 100,000 people used Einstein at its peak. People got mad: "What's the point of being alive?" one Bluesky user wrote. Paliwal says cease and desist letters came, including one from Canvas's parent company (which did not respond to a request for comment). Under pressure, he shut the bot down. But the experience changed how Paliwal, who graduated two years ago with a computer science degree, views higher education. "That's when I started thinking about, 'OK, what is the value of education if you're literally able to do all the work autonomously?'"

Next month, the Class of 2026 will leave their college campuses and enter the working world. They are also the Class of ChatGPT: Since OpenAI's flagship chatbot debuted in the fall of their freshman year, this cohort has been the testing ground for a technology that upended higher education. Now, AI is now reshaping the workforce, posing the largest threat to the entry-level jobs that college graduates have generally undertaken.

These new aspiring workers could be the AI native employees companies are eager to hire. "The tide is turning in their favor," Michelle Volberg, founder and CEO of Twill, a recruiting software company, says of new grads. Hiring managers are looking beyond GPA and résumés to pluck the right workers for a changing job landscape. With fresh graduates who have spent their undergraduate careers learning how to optimize AI, "there's assumptions that hiring managers make that you're gonna work differently, that you work with AI differently, that you have different traits that they're looking for."

What's the value of a diploma that you cheated your way to?

On the other hand, college students who outsourced years of homework to AI may have deigned to sharpen their reasoning and creativity. "Anyone who is using AI in that way is making themselves both vulnerable to a very dynamic labor market today where AI is already very capable, its capabilities are rapidly improving," Zack Mabel, the director of research at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. "What is going to give people the best prospects of being competitive in that type of labor market is to have skills that are going to be a complement to the technology," he says. "They're critical thinking skills."

For all the debate that college is dying, many white-collar employers still want to hire college graduates. But what's the value of a diploma that you cheated your way to?

Cheaters have been around for as long as there have been tests. A survey conducted in the early 1960s found that about half of all US college students were cheating -- they were relying on others who had already taken the tests to give them answers or questions, copying off others, plagiarizing, and even sitting in for another student during exams. Cheating evolved with technology, as the widespread adoption of the internet on campuses in the 1990s and 2000s gave rise to an easier route to plagiarism.

"Most of us are willing to cheat in the right circumstances," says James Lang, a professor at the University of Notre Dame and expert in academic integrity. Many students cheat under intense pressure or when the task looks discordant with the real world knowledge they need. AI doubles down on the problem: the tech makes it easier to cheat in class, while also disrupting the tasks young white-collar workers would perform in the real world they're graduating into. "People are questioning: Is my hard work and effort worth it to create these skills which AI can reproduce or mimic?"

More than half of college students said their schools discourage or prohibit using AI, according to a Gallup poll conducted last fall. And yet, more than half said they use AI for coursework weekly, and about 20% said they use it daily. Among those who use it at least monthly, 65% said they found it very or extremely important for preparing for a career, and 70% said they felt that strongly about using AI to get better grades. According to academic integrity software Turnitin, 15% of papers that are run through its AI detection software are deemed likely to be 80% or more AI-generated. That's a fivefold increase from three years ago, when 3% of papers triggered that high of an alert.

Seniors who scraped by with sloppy AI use could face the consequences of offloading their work to AI when they show up at the office.

ChatGPT's essay takeover was just the beginning. Next came the text humanizers and word spinners meant to obfuscate the traces of AI in the text. Columbia University dropout Roy Chungin Lee, who went viral in 2025 after creating a tool to help software engineers "cheat" on technical interviews, raised $15 million in a fundraising round led by Andreessen Horowitz last summer for Cluely, a desktop app that listens in on meetings and provides real-time assistance and responses. The company says it has more than 500,000 professional users. "We built Cluely so you never have to think alone again," the app's website says. "While others guess -- you're already right. And yes, the world will call it cheating. But so was the calculator. So was spellcheck. So was Google." Last summer, Grammarly unveiled eight agents that can evaluate essay drafts against an assignment rubric and suggest improvements.

On Reddit, students debate the point of writing an essay. Some say they've become too reliant on ChatGPT and seek advice to wean themselves off. Some describe feeling overwhelmed and unable to do their work without AI. There are tips about generating essays with AI, then typing them painstakingly into a Google doc, so that professors can track their activity to beat the cheating allegation. Some of it sounds more tedious than writing the actual paper. In a comment clearly typed by an actual human, one user opines that it doesn't really matter how you get there: "A degree is a degree tho that's the whole issue."

Annie Chechitelli, chief product officer at Turnitin, sees higher education and liberal arts degrees as maintaining their value. But, she tells me, graduating seniors who scraped by with sloppy and thoughtless AI use could face the consequences of offloading their work to AI when they show up at the office. "I think they'll be surprised at AI not being acceptable in terms of their everyday communications and writing and problem solving at their jobs," she says. "They're going to be asked hard questions. But I do think it might help for your first job in a good way," particularly when it comes to fielding those "dumb" questions young workers have as they arrive at their first jobs -- like how to fill out a W2 or format an email.

Some students have built firewalls around what they use AI for, attempting to guard their learning process. Matthew Xu, a senior at Duke University studying history, tells me, "There's definitely a line where, if AI is doing the entire assignment and doing everything, obviously that's cheating." Xu is also working on the product side of Turbo AI, an app that turns class notes into podcasts, notecards, quizzes, and other study formats, and plans to continue doing so when he graduates. As a student, Xu will use it to break down concepts in one of his history classes, or make flashcards for his Chinese class, which makes studying much easier and is far from generating answers to an assignment. "It's very different when AI is helping you think."

Sharif Abrar Labib, a senior studying information technology at the University of Texas at Dallas, says he started using AI freshman year to check his grammar. Then he used it to make concise notes for open book exams. He's come up with other uses, like creating a chatbot to break down a course syllabus. But Labib is precious about his own writing, in part because he's always enjoyed it. He tells me he's seen classmates generate and copy and paste an essay for class. "It's not that very effective what they're doing because at the end of the day, they're not learning anything."

Colleges hold the societal weight of preserving original thought while also preparing students for the workforce, a responsibility that's disrupted by a mounting pressure from employers expecting work-ready college grads who know how to use AI. College coursework often takes time to catch up to the latest innovation, and without established AI best practices, teaching with the tech has been uneven. There's also the question of balancing exposure to AI with friction that works the muscles for critical thinking. Research released last year by MIT suggested that using ChatGPT to write essays could make them lazier and more dependent on AI. In a controlled study, participants instructed to use ChatGPT "consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels" compared those who wrote essays with the help of Google, or those who had no assistance.

AI is as much a crutch as it is a lifeline. It has democratized individualized tutoring of a sort, says Lynn Pasquerella, the president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. "If you can get instant explanations, instant feedback, and help with complex tasks, that can accelerate learning, and it makes students feel more comfortable experimenting and adapting, which are valuable skills in a rapidly changing workforce," she says.

The employment rate for recent college graduates hovered just below 6% as of December -- its highest point since 2021. AI has refigured junior roles -- with much of the tedious white collar labor offloaded to AI, companies want workers who come in ready to deliver, rather than be trained. And that changes the classroom, too. Because students have had access to AI since their freshman year, "that's shaping how they approach learning," Pasquerella says. "They rely less on memorization, and more on knowing how to ask the right questions and use the tools effectively." But there's a "real risk that students are offloading too much of the thinking process."

Lang agrees, noting the precious rarity about a college campus and the access to academics and peers that doesn't often replicate itself throughout other times in our lives. "We have to claim the value of higher education, to learn in community with teachers and students," he says. more

Career development

 13h

Why career development doesn't stop at 40 - and why tech needs to get over its age problem


In this piece, Lucy Standing explores the realities of career development in today's evolving workplace. From navigating change to building confidence and making intentional moves, she shares practical insights and advice to help professionals take ownership of their growth and create more fulfilling, future-ready careers.

Lucy Standing is the founder of pioneering CIC Brave Starts, which... provides career development for people between the ages of 45-65.

She has spoken in UK Parliament about older workers, and contributed research and insights to global organisations like the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, helping shape policy discussions on ageing and work. She was the Vice Chair of the Association for Business Psychology 2011-2021. Lucy also writes a regular careers advice column for The Daily Telegraph.

The tech industry prides itself on disruption.

It challenges outdated business models and reinvents sectors - yet when it comes to age, it remains stubbornly old-fashioned. Somewhere along the way, tech absorbed a powerful assumption: that careers peak early and after 40, you are somehow past it.

At a time when businesses are grappling with skills shortages, AI transformation, and increasingly complex operating environments, sidelining experienced women is not just unfair: it's a strategic failure of unimaginable scale.

In Age Against the Machine, I argue that the problem isn't that individuals over 40 are running out of relevance - it's that our systems, hiring practices, and narratives haven't caught up with the reality of our ageing demographic.

The Lie of Early Peak Performance

The idea that capability declines at 40 is rooted in stereotype -not evidence. By midlife, most professionals have developed a level of judgment that cannot be fast-tracked. Often referred to as emotional intelligence, this peaks closer to 50. Women at this stage in life know how to make decisions with incomplete information. They understand trade-offs. They've seen what works, what fails, and why.

In tech, where the stakes are high and the pace relentless, this kind of thinking is invaluable - yet, instead of leveraging it, organisations often default to hiring "potential" over proven capability.

Women Pay the Price.

Women over 40 in tech frequently describe becoming less visible, less considered, and less invested in, not because their performance has declined, but because they no longer fit the industry's implicit image of "high potential." According to the UK government report into UK diversity in Tech: "Attrition rates are high, with one in three women planning to leave their roles due to a lack of career progression, poor work-life balance, and an unsupportive culture."

The result is missed opportunities and unnecessary exits.

Value is more important than chasing relevance.

Women can feel the pressure to constantly "prove" they are still relevant.

The value of wisdom isn't chasing every new tool or trend to keep up. The answer is the courage to not know everything, but to be able to pick up, learn and adapt when needed.

Know you are not the myth

The most damaging myth is that older workers can't retrain and aren't worth investing in. The evidence says the opposite.

According to OECD research on midcareer workers, employers consistently believe that people over 45 are less able to learn new technologies, yet when they are actually hired, nearly nine in ten perform as well as (or better than) younger colleagues. Midcareer workers learn just as quickly, and stay longer.

More telling still, older workers who do retrain and switch careers report significantly higher job satisfaction (often 20-30% higher than those who remain stuck). This shows the issue isn't capability. It is failure to adapt to a changing workforce. You are as good - if not better now than you've ever been.

Invest in experimentation.

Midlife is a pivot point. As people age, purpose becomes more important. This might mean stepping into leadership, shaping strategy, advising founders, or building a portfolio career. It might mean creating something entirely new.

In Age Against the Machine, I talk about the importance of experimentation, not as a luxury, but as a necessity. You don't think your way into your next chapter. You test, you explore, you try things in the real world.

Take control and design a career that lasts

For women who want a sustainable, flexible, and meaningful longer term career, a more intentional approach is needed. Focus on what you can control: who you talk to, what you learn, the questions you ask, and the experiments you run. You have always been in the driving seat - now more than ever.

A Call to Action -- for Individuals and Industry

This is not just an individual issue to solve. It is an industry problem to fix.

Tech cannot afford to ignore experienced women. The future of work is ageing. The workforce is ageing and so are our customers. For women reading this, the message is simple: you are not done. You are not behind and you are certainly not irrelevant. If anything, you are entering one of the most powerful phases of your career - but you need to choose to see it that way.

Age Against the Machine by Lucy Standing, Martin Hyde and Maggi Evans is out on 16 April 2026 more

Career development

 13h

Graduating college seniors AI cheating abilities could land them jobs


Business Insider tells the global tech, finance, stock market, media, economy, lifestyle, real estate, AI and innovative stories you want to know.

Earlier this year, Advait Paliwal built an AI tool that he said could act as a student. Given an email and a password, Einstein could log in to Canvas, a portal where professors at colleges across the country upload presentations and... list assignments.

The bot could attend lectures, write essays, and do homework. Paliwal, 22, says he built it as a joke for a friend who said he was bogged down with coursework, and didn't plan to code the ultimate cheating tool. It ended up becoming the latest flashpoint in a debate over AI and cheating at colleges. Einstein had a typical, fleeting online outrage cycle after Paliwal posted it to X. He says 100,000 people used Einstein at its peak.

People got mad: "What's the point of being alive?

" one Bluesky user wrote. Paliwal says cease and desist letters came, including one from Canvas's parent company . Under pressure, he shut the bot down. But the experience changed how Paliwal, who graduated two years ago with a computer science degree, views higher education.

"That's when I started thinking about, 'OK, what is the value of education if you're literally able to do all the work autonomously? '"Next month, the Class of 2026 will leave their college campuses and enter the working world. They are also the Class of ChatGPT: Since OpenAI's flagship chatbot debuted in the fall of their freshman year, this cohort has been the testing ground for a technology that upended higher education.

Now, AI is now reshaping the workforce, posing the largest threat to the entry-level jobs that college graduates have generally undertaken. These new aspiring workers could be the AI native employees companies are eager to hire.

"The tide is turning in their favor," Michelle Volberg, founder and CEO of Twill, a recruiting software company, says of new grads. Hiring managers are looking beyond GPA and résumés to pluck the right workers for a changing job landscape. With fresh graduates who have spent their undergraduate careers learning how to optimize AI, "there's assumptions that hiring managers make that you're gonna work differently, that you work with AI differently, that you have different traits that they're looking for.

"On the other hand, college students who outsourced years of homework to AI may have deigned to sharpen their reasoning and creativity. "Anyone who is using AI in that way is making themselves both vulnerable to a very dynamic labor market today where AI is already very capable, its capabilities are rapidly improving," Zack Mabel, the director of research at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.

"What is going to give people the best prospects of being competitive in that type of labor market is to have skills that are going to be a complement to the technology," he says. "They're critical thinking skills. "For all the debate that college is dying, many white-collar employers still want to hire college graduates. But what's the value of a diploma that you cheated your way to?

Cheaters have been around for as long as there have been tests. A survey conducted in the early 1960s found that about half of all US college students were cheating -- they were relying on others who had already taken the tests to give them answers or questions, copying off others, plagiarizing, and even sitting in for another student during exams.

Cheating evolved with technology, as the widespread adoption of the internet on campuses in the 1990s and 2000s gave rise to an easier route to plagiarism.

"Most of us are willing to cheat in the right circumstances," says James Lang, a professor at the University of Notre Dame and expert in academic integrity. Many students cheat under intense pressure or when the task looks discordant with the real world knowledge they need. AI doubles down on the problem: the tech makes it easier to cheat in class, while also disrupting the tasks young white-collar workers would perform in the real world they're graduating into.

"People are questioning: Is my hard work and effort worth it to create these skills which AI can reproduce or mimic? "More than half of college students said their schools discourage or prohibit using AI, according to a Gallup poll conducted last fall. And yet, more than half said they use AI for coursework weekly, and about 20% said they use it daily.

Among those who use it at least monthly, 65% said they found it very or extremely important for preparing for a career, and 70% said they felt that strongly about using AI to get better grades. According to academic integrity software Turnitin, 15% of papers that are run through its AI detection software are deemed likely to be 80% or more AI-generated. That's a fivefold increase from three years ago, when 3% of papers triggered that high of an alert.

ChatGPT's essay takeover was just the beginning. Next came the text humanizers and word spinners meant to obfuscate the traces of AI in the text. Columbia University dropout Roy Chungin Lee, who went viral in 2025 after creating a tool to help software engineers "cheat" on technical interviews, raised $15 million in a fundraising round led by Andreessen Horowitz last summer for Cluely, a desktop app that listens in on meetings and provides real-time assistance and responses.

The company says it has more than 500,000 professional users.

"We built Cluely so you never have to think alone again," the app's website says. "While others guess -- you're already right. And yes, the world will call it cheating. But so was the calculator.

So was spellcheck. So was Google.

" Last summer, Grammarly unveiled eight agents that can evaluate essay drafts against an assignment rubric and suggest improvements. On Reddit, students debate the point of writing an essay. Some say they've become too reliant on ChatGPT and seek advice to wean themselves off. Some describe feeling overwhelmed and unable to do their work without AI.

There are tips about generating essays with AI, then typing them painstakingly into a Google doc, so that professors can track their activity to beat the cheating allegation. Some of it sounds more tedious than writing the actual paper. In a comment clearly typed by an actual human, one user opines that it doesn't really matter how you get there: "A degree is a degree tho that's the whole issue.

"Annie Chechitelli, chief product officer at Turnitin, sees higher education and liberal arts degrees as maintaining their value. But, she tells me, graduating seniors who scraped by with sloppy and thoughtless AI use could face the consequences of offloading their work to AI when they show up at the office.

"I think they'll be surprised at AI not being acceptable in terms of their everyday communications and writing and problem solving at their jobs," she says. "They're going to be asked hard questions. But I do think it might help for your first job in a good way," particularly when it comes to fielding those "dumb" questions young workers have as they arrive at their first jobs -- like how to fill out a W2 or format an email.

Some students have built firewalls around what they use AI for, attempting to guard their learning process. Matthew Xu, a senior at Duke University studying history, tells me, "There's definitely a line where, if AI is doing the entire assignment and doing everything, obviously that's cheating.

" Xu is also working on the product side of Turbo AI, an app that turns class notes into podcasts, notecards, quizzes, and other study formats, and plans to continue doing so when he graduates. As a student, Xu will use it to break down concepts in one of his history classes, or make flashcards for his Chinese class, which makes studying much easier and is far from generating answers to an assignment.

"It's very different when AI is helping you think. "Sharif Abrar Labib, a senior studying information technology at the University of Texas at Dallas, says he started using AI freshman year to check his grammar.

Then he used it to make concise notes for open book exams. He's come up with other uses, like creating a chatbot to break down a course syllabus. But Labib is precious about his own writing, in part because he's always enjoyed it. He tells me he's seen classmates generate and copy and paste an essay for class.

"It's not that very effective what they're doing because at the end of the day, they're not learning anything. "Colleges hold the societal weight of preserving original thought while also preparing students for the workforce, a responsibility that's disrupted by a mounting pressure from employers expecting work-ready college grads who know how to use AI. College coursework often takes time to catch up to the latest innovation, and without established AI best practices, teaching with the tech has been uneven.

There's also the question of balancing exposure to AI with friction that works the muscles for critical thinking. Research released last year by MIT suggested that using ChatGPT to write essays could make them lazier and more dependent on AI. In a controlled study, participants instructed to use ChatGPT "consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels" compared those who wrote essays with the help of Google, or those who had no assistance.

AI is as much a crutch as it is a lifeline. It has democratized individualized tutoring of a sort, says Lynn Pasquerella, the president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

"If you can get instant explanations, instant feedback, and help with complex tasks, that can accelerate learning, and it makes students feel more comfortable experimenting and adapting, which are valuable skills in a rapidly changing workforce," she says. The employment rate for recent college graduates hovered just below 6% as of December -- its highest point since 2021.

AI has refigured junior roles -- with much of the tedious white collar labor offloaded to AI, companies want workers who come in ready to deliver, rather than be trained. And that changes the classroom, too. Because students have had access to AI since their freshman year, "that's shaping how they approach learning," Pasquerella says.

"They rely less on memorization, and more on knowing how to ask the right questions and use the tools effectively. " But there's a "real risk that students are offloading too much of the thinking process. "Lang agrees, noting the precious rarity about a college campus and the access to academics and peers that doesn't often replicate itself throughout other times in our lives.

"We have to claim the value of higher education, to learn in community with teachers and students," he says. Amanda Hoover is a senior correspondent at Business Insider covering the tech industry. She writes about the biggest tech companies and trends.

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Career development

 13h

The Class of 2026 got a 4.0 in cheating. That savvy will help them succeed in their first job.


This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in.

Earlier this year, Advait Paliwal built an AI tool that he said could act as a student. Given an email and a password, Einstein could log in to Canvas, a portal where professors at colleges across the country upload presentations and list assignments. The bot... could attend lectures, write essays, and do homework. Paliwal, 22, says he built it as a joke for a friend who said he was bogged down with coursework, and didn't plan to code the ultimate cheating tool. It ended up becoming the latest flashpoint in a debate over AI and cheating at colleges.

Einstein had a typical, fleeting online outrage cycle after Paliwal posted it to X. He says 100,000 people used Einstein at its peak. People got mad: "What's the point of being alive?" one Bluesky user wrote. Paliwal says cease and desist letters came, including one from Canvas's parent company (which did not respond to a request for comment). Under pressure, he shut the bot down. But the experience changed how Paliwal, who graduated two years ago with a computer science degree, views higher education. "That's when I started thinking about, 'OK, what is the value of education if you're literally able to do all the work autonomously?'"

Next month, the Class of 2026 will leave their college campuses and enter the working world. They are also the Class of ChatGPT: Since OpenAI's flagship chatbot debuted in the fall of their freshman year, this cohort has been the testing ground for a technology that upended higher education. Now, AI is now reshaping the workforce, posing the largest threat to the entry-level jobs that college graduates have generally undertaken.

These new aspiring workers could be the AI native employees companies are eager to hire. "The tide is turning in their favor," Michelle Volberg, founder and CEO of Twill, a recruiting software company, says of new grads. Hiring managers are looking beyond GPA and résumés to pluck the right workers for a changing job landscape. With fresh graduates who have spent their undergraduate careers learning how to optimize AI, "there's assumptions that hiring managers make that you're gonna work differently, that you work with AI differently, that you have different traits that they're looking for."

On the other hand, college students who outsourced years of homework to AI may have deigned to sharpen their reasoning and creativity. "Anyone who is using AI in that way is making themselves both vulnerable to a very dynamic labor market today where AI is already very capable, its capabilities are rapidly improving," Zack Mabel, the director of research at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. "What is going to give people the best prospects of being competitive in that type of labor market is to have skills that are going to be a complement to the technology," he says. "They're critical thinking skills."

For all the debate that college is dying, many white-collar employers still want to hire college graduates. But what's the value of a diploma that you cheated your way to?

Cheaters have been around for as long as there have been tests. A survey conducted in the early 1960s found that about half of all US college students were cheating -- they were relying on others who had already taken the tests to give them answers or questions, copying off others, plagiarizing, and even sitting in for another student during exams. Cheating evolved with technology, as the widespread adoption of the internet on campuses in the 1990s and 2000s gave rise to an easier route to plagiarism.

"Most of us are willing to cheat in the right circumstances," says James Lang, a professor at the University of Notre Dame and expert in academic integrity. Many students cheat under intense pressure or when the task looks discordant with the real world knowledge they need. AI doubles down on the problem: the tech makes it easier to cheat in class, while also disrupting the tasks young white-collar workers would perform in the real world they're graduating into. "People are questioning: Is my hard work and effort worth it to create these skills which AI can reproduce or mimic?"

More than half of college students said their schools discourage or prohibit using AI, according to a Gallup poll conducted last fall. And yet, more than half said they use AI for coursework weekly, and about 20% said they use it daily. Among those who use it at least monthly, 65% said they found it very or extremely important for preparing for a career, and 70% said they felt that strongly about using AI to get better grades. According to academic integrity software Turnitin, 15% of papers that are run through its AI detection software are deemed likely to be 80% or more AI-generated. That's a fivefold increase from three years ago, when 3% of papers triggered that high of an alert.

ChatGPT's essay takeover was just the beginning. Next came the text humanizers and word spinners meant to obfuscate the traces of AI in the text. Columbia University dropout Roy Chungin Lee, who went viral in 2025 after creating a tool to help software engineers "cheat" on technical interviews, raised $15 million in a fundraising round led by Andreessen Horowitz last summer for Cluely, a desktop app that listens in on meetings and provides real-time assistance and responses. The company says it has more than 500,000 professional users. "We built Cluely so you never have to think alone again," the app's website says. "While others guess -- you're already right. And yes, the world will call it cheating. But so was the calculator. So was spellcheck. So was Google." Last summer, Grammarly unveiled eight agents that can evaluate essay drafts against an assignment rubric and suggest improvements.

On Reddit, students debate the point of writing an essay. Some say they've become too reliant on ChatGPT and seek advice to wean themselves off. Some describe feeling overwhelmed and unable to do their work without AI. There are tips about generating essays with AI, then typing them painstakingly into a Google doc, so that professors can track their activity to beat the cheating allegation. Some of it sounds more tedious than writing the actual paper. In a comment clearly typed by an actual human, one user opines that it doesn't really matter how you get there: "A degree is a degree tho that's the whole issue."

Annie Chechitelli, chief product officer at Turnitin, sees higher education and liberal arts degrees as maintaining their value. But, she tells me, graduating seniors who scraped by with sloppy and thoughtless AI use could face the consequences of offloading their work to AI when they show up at the office. "I think they'll be surprised at AI not being acceptable in terms of their everyday communications and writing and problem solving at their jobs," she says. "They're going to be asked hard questions. But I do think it might help for your first job in a good way," particularly when it comes to fielding those "dumb" questions young workers have as they arrive at their first jobs -- like how to fill out a W2 or format an email.

Some students have built firewalls around what they use AI for, attempting to guard their learning process. Matthew Xu, a senior at Duke University studying history, tells me, "There's definitely a line where, if AI is doing the entire assignment and doing everything, obviously that's cheating." Xu is also working on the product side of Turbo AI, an app that turns class notes into podcasts, notecards, quizzes, and other study formats, and plans to continue doing so when he graduates. As a student, Xu will use it to break down concepts in one of his history classes, or make flashcards for his Chinese class, which makes studying much easier and is far from generating answers to an assignment. "It's very different when AI is helping you think."

Sharif Abrar Labib, a senior studying information technology at the University of Texas at Dallas, says he started using AI freshman year to check his grammar. Then he used it to make concise notes for open book exams. He's come up with other uses, like creating a chatbot to break down a course syllabus. But Labib is precious about his own writing, in part because he's always enjoyed it. He tells me he's seen classmates generate and copy and paste an essay for class. "It's not that very effective what they're doing because at the end of the day, they're not learning anything."

Colleges hold the societal weight of preserving original thought while also preparing students for the workforce, a responsibility that's disrupted by a mounting pressure from employers expecting work-ready college grads who know how to use AI. College coursework often takes time to catch up to the latest innovation, and without established AI best practices, teaching with the tech has been uneven. There's also the question of balancing exposure to AI with friction that works the muscles for critical thinking. Research released last year by MIT suggested that using ChatGPT to write essays could make them lazier and more dependent on AI. In a controlled study, participants instructed to use ChatGPT "consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels" compared those who wrote essays with the help of Google, or those who had no assistance.

AI is as much a crutch as it is a lifeline. It has democratized individualized tutoring of a sort, says Lynn Pasquerella, the president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. "If you can get instant explanations, instant feedback, and help with complex tasks, that can accelerate learning, and it makes students feel more comfortable experimenting and adapting, which are valuable skills in a rapidly changing workforce," she says.

The employment rate for recent college graduates hovered just below 6% as of December -- its highest point since 2021. AI has refigured junior roles -- with much of the tedious white collar labor offloaded to AI, companies want workers who come in ready to deliver, rather than be trained. And that changes the classroom, too. Because students have had access to AI since their freshman year, "that's shaping how they approach learning," Pasquerella says. "They rely less on memorization, and more on knowing how to ask the right questions and use the tools effectively." But there's a "real risk that students are offloading too much of the thinking process."

Lang agrees, noting the precious rarity about a college campus and the access to academics and peers that doesn't often replicate itself throughout other times in our lives. "We have to claim the value of higher education, to learn in community with teachers and students," he says. more

Career development

 14h

Creative CV Design Makeover


I want to transform my current résumé into a striking, creative CV that instantly captures attention without sacrificing clarity. Please take the raw information I provide and re-structure it into a well-written English résumé, then lay it out in a polished, visually engaging format. Key expectations * Write and edit all sections so the content flows smoothly and highlights my achievements. *... Propose a bold, original visual concept suited for a creative CV -- feel free to suggest colour palettes, typography, or subtle graphics that reinforce a modern, professional feel. * Deliver both an editable source file (Word, InDesign, or Illustrator -- whichever you prefer) and a ready-to-send PDF. I'm open to your ideas on layout, icons, or infographics as long as the document stays easy to read and ATS-friendly. Once I share my background details, I'd like one round of revisions to fine-tune wording and design elements. If you have samples of previous creative CVs, that will help me decide quickly. more

Anonymous member


Career development 1w
I had a job interview yesterday and most of the questions weren’t about my experience or skills, but about my personal life. They asked about my boyfriend, our plans and even our intimate relationship. I’m shocked. Is it normal to ask things like that?
I feel really uncomfortable and gross after they basically dug into my private life

3   

  • Abdul-Salaam Sulemana

    2d

    Next time just let the interviewer know his or her limits. Remind or inform him for this was a disrespect and unprofessional.

  • Kahutia Hernandez

    4d

    Hi there. How are you doing today. I just need a lil’ help connecting me to your school colleagues 🔴. I wanna assist them to crush their assignments... and get top grades ‘cause I’m solid in:

    Marketing
    Psychology
    Econometrics
    Social work
    Nursing/Health Sciences
    Engineering
    Business/Management
    English/Literature/Creative Writing

    You wanna hook me up with them so I can help ‘em soar with my assignment writing skills.

    Regards     more

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