Billy Whitcomb


Career development 19h
Hey! I had two interviews at the same company and both seemed to go fine. But then their HR person called and said they’re not moving forward with me because of a couple of my social media posts. Apparently they think I look “inappropriate” in them (even though there’s honestly nothing like that).
So I’m wondering, is this even normal? Photos from a party are my own business. Why does a company... think it gets a say in my personal life?

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  • Tantaswa Ndlelana

    1h

    What we post in social media says a lot about us. This might be a wakeup call, so please change your living style

  • Sibonginkosi Mpofu

    4h

    These days it matters, sometimes what we post says something about us

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Career development

 2h

Why you shouldn't count on humans to prevent AI hiring bias


At a time when artificial intelligence is playing a growing role in hiring decisions, new research suggests that humans working with these systems are more likely to go along with their biases than to counter them.

The University of Washington study is among the first to explore how AI influences human decision-making in the hiring process. Participants were asked to review résumés that had been... scanned by large language models with varying degrees of bias built in. When asked to identify their preferred candidates, researchers said they "mirrored" the inequitable choices of the AI. In contrast, participants acting alone or in collaboration with an LLM that "exhibits no race-based preferences" assigned candidates of different races to roles at relatively equal rates.

The research raises important questions as companies increasingly integrate AI into their recruiting and hiring processes, with some simultaneously making deep cuts to human resources teams typically tasked with carrying out these screenings.

"A lot of regulations and recommendations for how to use AI systems in high-risk tasks like hiring say that you should be using human collaboration, that it's one of the most important ways to mitigate harms," said Kyra Wilson, a doctoral student at UW and the lead researcher. The findings show, "that's not really effective."

Such findings have troubling implications at a time when companies are "trying absolutely everything" when it comes to AI, "and in many cases they're making a lot of mistakes," said Herman Aguinis, professor of management at George Washington University School of Business.

Many brands -- including IBM, Workday and Recruit Holdings, parent company of the jobsites Indeed and Glassdoor -- are deploying AI while making deep cuts to human resources teams, he noted.

Workday declined to comment. IBM and Recruit did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

That approach is especially risky considering that AI is like "a power tool," which is used most effectively by more experienced employees but also is "capable of causing lots of damage," said Aguinis, who also is a scholar with the Academy of Management.

"While an expert carpenter uses a power tool in a fabulous way that's much faster and more accurate, if you give that to a beginner, they make mistakes and maybe cut a finger off," he said. "The same thing happens in talent management."

Lisa Simon, chief economist at Revelio Labs, said the study highlights the risk of AI reinforcing human bias in employment decisions instead of making recruiting and hiring processes more equitable. Recruiting "remains an intensely human set of tasks," she noted, for which reducing bias has always been a significant challenge.

"It's so easy for people to become biased, if there's reinforcement to go with gut instinct, it's sort of a snowball effect where it's easier to go with a biased decision if someone else supports it," Simon said.

The study builds on work the researchers published last year, which found that large language models powering résumé-scanning programs overwhelmingly favored "white-associated names" over others. Wilson wanted to extend the inquiry because she knew that in the real world "people are interacting with the system and making those decisions in collaboration with the AI" rather than outsourcing the decision-making completely.

In the latest study, which the researchers presented last month at the AAAI/ACM Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Society in Madrid, more than 520 participants worked with LLMs that researchers seeded with varying degrees of racial bias. They evaluated résumés from equally qualified candidates across 16 job categories, ranging from housekeeper to nurse to computer systems analyst.

Participants were given a job description and the names and AI-generated résumés of five candidates, which would include two white men and two who were either Asian, Black or Hispanic. A candidate's race could be ascertained by their names and certain résumé entries, such as involvement in identity-based employee affinity groups. A fifth "distractor" candidate of a randomly selected race (but different from the others) and lacking qualifications was included in each set to "obscure the purpose of the study."

Participants had four minutes to review the application materials and AI recommendations before selecting the three candidates they thought were most suitable for the given occupation, according to the study.

When picking candidates without input from AI, or when working with AI trained to be "neutral," participants chose white and nonwhite applicants at relatively equal rates, the study found. But when they teamed up with "moderately biased AI" participants, their choices tended to mirror the program's: if the model leaned toward nonwhite candidates, so did they. If the system preferred white applicants, humans followed suit.

The findings point to potential real-world consequences of AI-assisted hiring decisions, which many companies are exploring, Wilson warned.

"Bias can sometimes be hard to see in these systems," she said. "Especially when you're just making a single decision, you don't necessarily see how that will have broader effects when more decisions are stacked together."

When interacting with the most biased programs, the human participants made slightly less-biased decisions than the AI, the researchers found. Humans went along with AI's picks roughly 90% of the time in these cases, which suggests that even when users do register bias in the systems, they don't do much to mitigate it.

Sara Gutierrez, chief science officer at SHL, which offers human resources solutions and psychometric assessments to businesses, said the study is "a valuable illustration of how bias can spread when people are exposed to flawed AI recommendations."

Whenever "any kind of human subjective choices are made," there tends to be some bias at play, Gutierrez explained. While in some cases this is motivating companies to explore AI with the hope it can help "empirically move towards objectivity and fairness," along with speeding up their processes, the study illustrates that the opposite is also possible, she added.

"Efficiency gains you get from an AI tool or process mean nothing if that tool isn't reliable or fair," Gutierrez said. "Speed without accuracy is just going to get you to the wrong outcome faster." more

Career development

 4h

Kentucky football's staff build is almost done and the hidden hires matter


Coordinator names. Position coaches with résumés. "This guy can recruit Texas" energy. That stuff matters, sure.

But a program doesn't run on splash. It runs on infrastructure. And Kentucky football's staff build is reaching the point where the less glamorous names are going to matter just as much as the headline hires.

The GM layer isn't optional anymore. It's how big programs keep up with... roster churn, NIL realities, and the fact you're basically running a pro team with college branding.

That's why Pat Biondo as general manager and Pete Nochta as assistant GM aren't just admin notes. Those roles can determine whether Kentucky's portal process feels organized or frantic.

Kentucky has continuity pieces worth protecting, and Mark Perry is one of them.

He's been with the program since 2019, and he's done the kind of work fans don't see until it's gone: high school relationships, internal organization, and now even more responsibility after staff turnover.

Keeping people who already understand your footprint and your contacts is how you avoid rebuilding from scratch while trying to win games.

If the reporting holds, James Gibson is expected to follow Jay Bateman to Lexington and take over the nickel role.

That's not a throwaway position in modern college football. Nickel is where offenses try to stress you. It's where you either survive space... or give up 11-yard completions that feel like paper cuts until you're bleeding out.

If Kentucky wants a defense that holds up against tempo and spread concepts, the nickel spot has to be coached like it matters. Because it does.

Even once the final pieces fall into place, Kentucky's real sprint begins when the full staff can put hands on the roster.

That's the truth of a coaching transition: the announcement phase is the easy part. The evaluation, retention, portal work, and development phase is where you either build something real or end up patching leaks forever.

Kentucky is close to having the full team in the building.

Now they have to make the team on the field look like it belongs. more

Career development

 7h

How to Price Your Services as a New Consultant in 2026


Use early clients to build evidence (testimonials + metrics), then raise prices when traction proves the offer is stronger -- aiming for a healthy close rate, not instant yeses.

I've mentored over 550 consultants, and the ones who struggle most aren't the ones with weak or no sales skills. They're the ones who price for safety instead of pricing to grow.

When you're starting your consulting... business with no case studies or client testimonials, pricing feels like guessing. You look at what others charge and wonder if you're allowed to ask for the same. So you lower your hourly rate, trim your project fee, and hope someone will take a chance on you.

That's the wrong way to go about it.

Your lack of a track record isn't the problem. Your lack of a clear pricing strategy is.

I've been building businesses since 2005 and scaled multiple seven-figure operations. The consultants who win aren't the ones with the longest résumés. They're the ones who know how to position their value from day one.

You don't need three years of client work to justify your consulting rates. You need clarity on what you're solving and a pricing model that aligns value with the scope of work.

In this guide, I'll show you how to price consulting services whether you feel you have "no experience" or have been an entrepreneur for years, in just 7 steps.

1. Clarify what you're actually selling

You can't rely on proof when you have no portfolio or case studies. You can depend on clarity.

New consultants talk about themselves -- their process, methodology, and approach. Clients don't care about that until they understand what they're getting.

Lead with the outcome.

If you're a marketing consultant, you're not selling "strategic marketing advice." You're selling more qualified leads. If you're a fractional COO, you're not selling "operational support." You're selling smoother workflows that save 10 hours a week.

Strip your offer down until it's obvious:

* What problem you solve

* What result the client gets

* What they walk away with

Your pricing strategy starts there, not with hourly rates or fixed fees, but with a clear understanding of the transformation you're creating. Once you know what you're selling, pricing reflects that outcome -- not a guess based on what you think you're worth.

Clients don't buy hours. They buy results.

2. Choose a simple, low-friction pricing model

New consultants overcomplicate pricing. You don't need retainer fees or performance-based structures on day one.

You need momentum.

Although it's not what I ultimately recommend, start with project-based pricing or hourly pricing. Both give you flexibility while learning what your market will pay and how long work takes.

Project-based pricing works when you have a defined scope of work and clear deliverables. You name the project fee upfront, the client knows what they're getting, and you're not nickel-and-diming them with hourly billing. Write a solid statement of work to protect against scope creep.

Hourly pricing makes sense when the scope isn't clear or clients want ongoing support without a full retainer. The downside is that hourly billing ties income directly to time, limiting your ability to scale. Use it as a stepping stone, not forever.

Avoid complex models early on. Cost-plus pricing, dynamic pricing, penetration pricing -- these are distractions. You don't have enough data yet.

Once you've completed a handful of consulting projects, evolve toward retainer or offer-based pricing and keep steering clear of value based pricing. Those models reward simplicity and outcomes instead of hours worked or pricing complexity.

For now, pick the model that gets you moving fastest.

3. Anchor your price in value, not credentials

Nobody pays for your time. They pay for the outcome.

When you feel inexperienced, your instinct is to undercharge. Don't. Instead, build a clear bridge between your price and the result you help deliver.

You're not pricing yourself. You're pricing the problem you solve.

If you help a client increase revenue by $50,000, your consulting rates shouldn't be based on how many years you've been consulting. They should be based on a fraction of that $50,000 gain. If you help them avoid a $20,000 mistake, that's your anchor point.

Here's how to think about it:

* Identify the financial impact of the problem you're solving

* Price at 10-20% of that value as a starting point

* Communicate this clearly in your proposal

Client expectations shift when you tie your price to the client's outcome instead of your résumé. They're no longer evaluating your credentials. They're considering whether the result is worth the investment.

This approach works even without case studies because you focus the conversation on their situation, not your history.

Value-based pricing isn't just for experienced consultants. It's for consultants who understand what they're solving.

4. Design an offer that's easy to say yes to

When you don't have a track record, your best play is to reduce friction.

Package your services into something that feels low-risk but high-reward. Clarity plus specificity plus trust-building equals conversion.

Make your first offer an obvious yes:

* Define the scope tightly. Don't promise to "fix everything." Focus on one specific outcome. A 30-day LinkedIn visibility audit. A pricing model overhaul with three tested options. One sales process documented from lead to close.

* Include a clear deliverable. Clients need to know exactly what they're getting. A strategy document. A system blueprint. A prioritized action plan with next steps.

* Add a risk-reducer. This could be a money-back guarantee, a pilot phase at a reduced rate, or a "pay for results" structure where part of your fee is contingent on hitting agreed metrics.

* Cap the timeline. Fixed timelines reduce perceived risk. A two-week engagement feels manageable. A six-month commitment feels like a marriage.

The goal is to make the decision easy. When clients can clearly see what they're buying, what it costs, and what happens next, hesitation drops.

Your offer becomes a no-brainer -- not because it's cheap, but because it's clear.

5. Study the market, but don't copy it

You should know what others in your niche charge. But don't let it dictate your price.

Use competitive research to inform your strategy, not to fuel imposter syndrome.

Look at industry averages to understand the range.

Are fractional CMOs in your target market charging $150/hour or $300/hour? Are consulting projects typically $5,000 or $25,000? This gives you a baseline, but it's not your ceiling.

Market research shows you what's usual. Market positioning shows you how to charge more than normal.

Here's what matters more than industry benchmarks:

* The urgency of the problem you're solving

* The confidence you can deliver something meaningful

* The clarity of your offer

I've seen new consultants charge premium pricing from day one because their positioning was tight. They weren't competing on credentials. They were competing on specificity.

If every other consultant in your space offers "general business strategy," and you offer "a scalable pricing model for SaaS companies under $2M ARR," you can charge more. Specificity creates perceived value.

Don't anchor yourself to what others charge just because you're new. Anchor yourself to the outcome you deliver and the client's alternative options.

6. Use early clients to build proof, not just cash

The first few clients aren't just revenue. They're data.

Treat early projects as leverage-building tools. Capture testimonials, distill wins, and use those results to justify raising your price.

After every engagement, ask for:

* A written testimonial (specific results, not generic praise)

* Permission to use their name and company (if possible)

* Metrics that show impact (even small wins count)

These become your proof. When you can say "I helped a client increase their close rate by 15% in 30 days," you're no longer selling without a track record. You're selling with evidence.

Document everything. The problems you solved, the systems you built, and the objections you overcame. This becomes your case study library -- even if you only have three clients.

Early consulting work is your testing ground. You're learning what resonates, delivers results, and what clients are willing to pay. Each project should make the next one easier to sell and more expensive to buy.

Don't stay in "building proof" mode forever. After 3-5 clients, you have enough evidence to raise consulting rates and shift your positioning.

Think of these first engagements as your market research budget. You're getting paid to learn what works.

7. Raise your price when the offer deserves it

Don't raise prices just because you "want to." Raise them because the offer has evolved.

As your positioning sharpens and results accumulate, your pricing power grows. The real signal isn't time. It's traction.

Here's when to increase consulting rates:

* You're closing deals consistently (low resistance means you're underpriced)

* You have testimonials and measurable outcomes

* Your offer is more defined than when you started

* You're turning away work because you're at capacity

If prospects say yes immediately without pushback, you leave money on the table. A healthy close rate for premium consulting is around 30-50%. If you're closing 80% of deals, raise your price.

Market conditions matter too. If demand in your niche is rising or if you're getting referrals without effort, that's a signal to adjust pricing upward.

Don't apologize for raising rates. Position it as a reflection of the value you've now proven to deliver. Clients who've worked with you understand. New clients only see the current offer and current pricing.

Increase project rates by 20-30% after every 5-10 clients until you hit resistance. Then you've found your market ceiling -- for now.

Your revenue goals should guide this, too. If you want to hit $100K annually and can realistically handle 20 consulting projects, your average project fee is $5,000. Work backward from the goal.

Confidence isn't a luxury -- it's a strategy

Pricing isn't just a numbers game. It's a clarity game.

You don't need years of experience to price confidently. You need a clear offer, a simple pricing model, and the ability to articulate the outcome you deliver.

The consultants who struggle with pricing are the ones still guessing. The ones who win stopped treating their rates like a personal worth statement and started treating them like a business decision.

You're not "charging as a beginner." You're solving problems with precision.

Start with clarity, pick a low-friction pricing model, and anchor your price in the value you create. Your first few clients will give you the proof you need to raise consulting rates and refine your positioning.

Confidence doesn't come from experience. It comes from knowing exactly what you're selling and why it's worth the price. more

Career development

 1d

The interview's on Zoom. Here's how to actually stand out.


Virtual meetings and job interviews are no longer the exception, but we're not all spiff and polished when presenting ourselves online.

This requires a skill set not naturally in many people's wheelhouse.

Nancy Ancowitz, a career strategist and author of the new book "Zoom to Success," has some coaching tips.

Here are edited excerpts of our recent conversation:

Kerry Hannon: Why did you write... this book right now?

Ancowitz: This is the book I wish I had to help me navigate the virtual world. There is so much that goes into all of this before we even open our mouths -- the lighting (two light sources from the front or sides for balanced, flattering light), the hair, the makeup, the camera, your background, what you are wearing, the tech checks. I show people ways to make it simpler and more accessible to bring your best face forward online.

What are the biggest challenges of virtual presentations?

Speaking to somebody 12 inches from their face, and where their face and your face are so big and filling up the whole space, is really tough for many people. And if you are presenting, looking at 20 or more of those faces in little boxes is truly abnormal.

Another big one is that you can't make real eye contact with anyone since you're looking into your tiny camera. Nobody knows where to look when they are speaking. Maybe you look at yourself. You get distracted by your hair out of place. Also, not everybody's blessed with a great voice, and your voice matters even more on Zoom and other virtual platforms because there's not as much of you to see and to experience. Finally, one of the hardest things, of course, is that you have to be your own tech person and when things go wrong, be calm and cool.

You need to carve out an hour ahead of time to get mentally grounded and ready.

A virtual presentation can create more jitters than in-person for many folks. What are some of the good techniques you can do?

My favorite technique is self-talk, or speaking to yourself in the second or third person. Instead of saying, 'I've got this,' say 'you've got this.' Reframe nerves as excitement. Think 'I feel most alive when I'm tackling things that are a little bit challenging.'

I remind myself to slow down and breathe deeply, which sharpens my focus and clears my head when things get bumpy. Start with a two-minute reset: Inhale for four counts, hold for four, and exhale for eight.

It's a mindset matter. Remember that you're not there to impress people. You're there to share something, to share information, to inspire, to educate, to persuade. But you're not there for their judgment. That's a super important way to manage jitters. more
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Career development

 8h

Best of 2025: Mass hallucinations - how I caught an AI reporter


As we tick off the final days of 2025, we're rounding up some of our favourite features of the year. Here we present City AM Life&Style Editor Steve Dinneen's award-nominated tale about the threat AI poses to journalism.

The 'customer' in the fried chicken shop didn't touch his meal. Instead, he photographed the kitchen door's keypad and left. 'Corporate spy,' muttered the cashier before showing... me three identical incidents caught on his security cameras.

This is the opening line of a pitch I received from a writer called Joseph Wales, entitled "London's Fried Chicken Wars: Espionage, Betrayal and Social Media Sabotage."

Wales promised that after "six weeks of undercover investigation" he could shine a light on the murky, sometimes violent world in which temporary staff turn out to be spies from rival chains, social media feeds are regularly flamed by troll armies and fake mystery shoppers plant dead flies in rival stores.

These claims could be backed up, he said, by FOI requests to local councils, screenshots from private Whatsapp groups and police reports linking chicken shops from Brixton to Tottenham with organised crime. He even claimed that, during his investigation, a restaurant manager handed him a napkin with a scrawled warning: "Be careful who you eat with."

It's the kind of pitch that grabs you by the shirt collar. It has it all: colour, characters, a sense of place. It examines something niche but speaks to something wider. The only problem? It was completely made up.

It's the kind of pitch that grabs you by the shirt collar. The only problem? It was completely made up

It didn't take long for alarm bells to start ringing. Why would a restaurant manager write his sinister message on a napkin, where it could be used as evidence, rather than simply growling it in a menacing fashion? Wales claimed he was sitting in a branch of Chicken Cottage in Stratford - but there is no Chicken Cottage in Stratford. The more I looked into the story, the more absurd it all seemed.

I went back through the pitch and immediately spotted the tell-tale signs: numbered headers divided into bullet points. Pertinent words bolded up. Em dashes scattered liberally throughout. This was the work of AI. When I called him out on this, Wales admitted using AI in his pitch but assured me he would never use it to write or research his stories. I asked him to jump on a call: radio silence.

Usually at this point I would delete the pitch and move on. But there was something about Joseph Wales that niggled at me, a feeling that there was more to this story. So I started to dig. And soon this bogus pitch about warring London chicken shops had led me on a trail across the globe, from East Africa to Chicago, revealing a bigger, sadder story about the lives we lead on the internet. It's a story about how AI is coming for people's jobs - and how those people are using AI to fight back. But most of all it's about how AI isn't only changing the world: it's also making it the same, but more.

At first I thought Joseph Wales was the villain of this story but the more I learned, the more he began to seem like its anti-hero, a man hustling and flailing in the face of generational change. And, like all good thrillers, the real villain wouldn't reveal himself until the final act.

Who is Joseph Wales?

So what was the deal with the pitch? My first hypothesis is what I've come to think of as the 'Oobah Butler theory': that the AI chicken shop story was deliberately placed for the purposes of making me look silly, for journalism! I can imagine moon-faced gonzo journalist Butler, most famous for taking a made-up restaurant called The Shed (actually his parents' shed) to the top of Tripadvisor's list of the best London restaurants, struggling to stifle a grin as he explains to camera how he tricked some foolish editor into publishing his concocted story.

But if it was a prank, the prankster was playing the long game: Wales has a modest online presence dating back years, including a portfolio and a website. His cuttings are made up of copywriting gigs covering financial advice ("Best Way to Invest 20k in 2025") and pest control ("What does a bat bite look like?"). Some of his posts are, according to fairly rudimentary detection tools, at least partly written by AI. His WordPress site contains a handful of unremarkable blog posts about SEO writing: "Imagine you could get your search traffic to hang on your every word..."

The resumé he sent me says he is currently based in Los Angeles and studied business administration at Oxford Brookes University. A reverse image search of the headshot from his portfolio comes up with just one match: a profile on Cambly, a website that links language students with tutors. He is listed as "Teacher Joseph" and there is an accompanying video of a cheerful looking, bearded white man with an American accent saying he is "from Chicago in America". Teacher Joseph apparently studied at Cairo Modern School from 2011-2014, which clashes with the dates my Joseph says he studied in Oxford.

Joseph Wales' email sign-off and CV list two different American phone numbers: one is disconnected, the other just rings out. The first originates from east Michigan and the second is from 1,000 miles away in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Links to his profiles on Discord and LinkedIn are dead.

I keep digging and find a different Joseph Wales on Facebook who works in SEO and did go to Oxford Brookes but this one says he lives in Palisade, Colorado. A reverse image search for this Joseph points to a stock image used commonly across the internet. Promisingly, this Joseph follows several freelance writing networks of the kind that occasionally repost my callouts for writers.

Next I follow up the references from his CV. These mostly consist of big international copywriting agencies, who I email with little hope of getting a response. One stands out, though: the WayneGlance Writing Agency, which does not appear to have an online footprint.

I am about to call it a day when I notice Joseph's email address: "miminiwriter". I search for "mimini" and not much comes up. I try various permutations of those letters and "mimi ni" (with a space) gives me a clue: it means "I am" in Swahili. "I am writer". This matches another tantalising nugget from his resumé: a "professional affiliation" with the NCCK - the National Council of Churches of Kenya.

A search for "WayneGlance Kenya" points me towards a Kenyan jobs website featuring a CV with identical wording to the resumé of my Joseph Wales. It belongs to someone based in Nairobi: I have found my man.

The Margaux Blanchard incident

I email my findings to Wales, not to berate him but because I'm not sure who else would be interested. I've spent so many hours trying to work out who he is that I'm starting to quite like the guy. He is a grifter, sure, but he knows a good pitch, and he could tell you what to do if you discover a snake's nest on your property, which sounds like a useful life skill. He doesn't reply.

As an experiment, I feed ChatGPT the last few issues of this magazine and ask it to come up with some features: it immediately spews out two ideas that are worryingly close to stories I've been thinking about writing. I wonder how many pitches I've accepted originated in the digital mind of a large language model (LLM).

I reach out to a few fellow editors and discover that I am not alone in receiving AI-generated pitches. One desk head at a major British tabloid says "a blizzard" of AI pitches "arrive with depressing inevitability." She forwards me a press release so anodyne it couldn't possibly have been written by a human. Nobody I speak to has received anything quite as audacious as Joseph's chicken shop pitch.

Then the journalist and broadcaster Sonya Barlow, who I'd spoken to for this story, sent me an email with the words "Might be of interest..." with a link to a story in the Press Gazette: the now infamous Margaux Blanchard scandal in which AI pitches became AI articles that were published in respected outlets including Wired and Business Insider.

This was a bombshell moment for British journalism. Dispatch Media journalist Jacob Furedi, who broke the story, had himself received a macabre pitch from Blanchard about a decommissioned mining town in Colorado called Gravemont that she said was being used as an underground training facility for forensics teams and first responders.

"The bodies arrive by night," went the pitch. "They're rolled in on stretchers, unzipped, and placed in the mock apartments, classrooms, and bus stations."

Like my chicken shop story, it was an irresistible pitch. And like my chicken shop story, it was entirely fabricated by AI. Gravemont, Colorado doesn't even exist. But unlike Joseph Wales, Blanchard appeared to be a respectable journalist. She had written a charming story for Wired about couples getting married inside the world of Minecraft (Wired had already removed the piece after getting suspicious over the unorthodox way Blanchard had asked for payment). Business Insider, meanwhile, had run a pair of essays by Blanchard entitled "Remote work has been the best thing for me as a parent but the worst as a person" and "I had my first kid at 45. I'm financially stable and have years of life experience to guide me." Other publications carrying her articles include SF Gate and Index on Censorship magazine.

I search my emails for "Margaux Blanchard" and get a little hit of dopamine when I find a result. A pitch from 21 July entitled London's Silent Raves Are the New Status Gyms. "This feature would look at the rise of silent dance parties doubling as fitness classes -- happening in parks, rooftops, even under train arches -- where participants wear wireless headphones and vibe out together to curated DJ-led workouts. It's sweaty, spiritual, and extremely Instagrammable. But here's the twist: I'd position it as the new status symbol for the wellness-obsessed and burnout-weary."

This is the first time I've received a story that's just blatantly what you might call an AI hallucination.

She offered to write 1,200 words "with that slightly cheeky City AM voice". It's a terrible pitch - I'm slightly jealous she saved her best ideas for other publications - and if I ever opened the email, I immediately forgot about it. I reply telling her I love it. She never responds.

I do some more digging. The headshot associated with Blanchard's Gmail account - margauxblanchard414 - is a lady in her fifties with a neat bob. I'm almost certain it's a picture of the French-American author Mireille Guiliano, who wrote the 2004 book French Women Don't Get Fat (as far as I know the author has absolutely nothing to do with this story).

"This is the first time I've received a story that's just blatantly what you might call an AI hallucination," Furedi would later tell me. The thing neither of us can work out is the why of it all. "I would love to know what's the motivation," he says. "Business Insider don't pay very much for that sort of lifestyle op-ed slop. There must be an easier way to make money."

I'm mulling over what all this means for my AI story when - record scratch - I get a reply from Joseph. "I was just going through your emails and I can't help myself from smiling," he says. I tell him I want to talk to him and he asks why. I say I want to find out who he really is. "Alright, brace yourself for the truth!" he says. "It's about time I shared this... You'll definitely have a field day... Of course, there's a story behind everyone." He signs off with a winky face.

A beautiful afternoon in Nairobi

It is a glorious afternoon in Nairobi. The sun is dazzling blue against the green of the garden where the man I have known as Joseph Wales is sitting with three of his dogs - "I have so many dogs, bro" - all sturdy mongrels who occasionally jump up at him for strokes. In the background I can see squat brick houses and tropical vegetation. This is the village where he lives with his wife and the two young girls he has just dropped off at school. "They are very pretty," he says with pride. "And they have my brains."

After several false starts and some fraught negotiations (I ended up wiring him £20 out of my own bank account as a "token"), we connected over Google Meet. Wales, it is immediately clear, is not the jovial white bloke "from Chicago in America" but a slim black guy "born and bred" in Nairobi to a Kenyan mother and a British father, who he says works for the Kenyan air force. He speaks good English with a thick, friendly accent. He's wearing a tracksuit top and a black Covid mask, which he says is to cover a fat lip he suffered during a recent car accident.

The first revelation is that his name is not Joseph Wales, it's Wilson Kaharua. "I told you, I have a long story to tell!" he laughs. I ask him to start at the start. He tells me he's always been interested in technology. As a boy he would read about the phishing scams that originated in Nigeria, which was years ahead of Kenya when it came to online culture, although he says he's never tried anything like that himself.

He studied economics and finance at Kenyatta University, "one of the best in my country". After graduating in 2011 - which would put him in his mid thirties - he worked as a tutor helping language students write essays and also "worked at a few banks". But he says "the money they were paying me was not enough" so he began applying for international copywriting assignments. Among the first was for a British company that sold industrial lighting. The owner's name was Joseph. "He taught me the ropes. He was the one who taught me who I am... before I started teaching myself. I have a lot of gratitude for him."

When Joseph died of a brain tumour, Wilson took his name, reasoning that English language publications would be more comfortable with an English-sounding name. Why "Wales"? He just liked the sound of it. The picture he uses on his website was just something he found online: "It was someone who looks almost like me," he says (in fact, it would be hard to imagine two people who look less alike).

By 2015, Wilson was working for a number of big copywriting agencies. The pay wasn't great by British standards but it went pretty far in Nairobi. "I was making good money," he says. Much of his work appeared without a byline but some - like the pest control articles - appeared under "Joseph Wales".

I ask how he managed to get paid when his byline didn't match his bank account. "That's very easy," he laughs. He says some of the companies paid him in crypto but for the rest he simply bought a fake drivers' licence off the dark web and registered a Paypal account under Joseph Wales. I ask about the American phone number on his CV: he says he pays $3.99 a month for it and it reroutes to his phone in Kenya.

Things were going well for Wilson Kaharua. Money was rolling in and his alter-ego Joseph Wales seemed to have everyone fooled. But then, in 2023, the bottom dropped out of this carefully constructed world: "AI replaced us."

Suddenly there was no need to pay people like Wilson to write about bat bites and snake nests - AI can do that for free in a few seconds. So what's a guy to do? "I'm not liking AI but I started to study it every day," he says. "You have to work with it because it's not going anywhere and we can't do anything about it."

Wilson paid to subscribe to a service that would alert him to callouts for pitches: callouts like the one I made on X asking for "big, bold, fun, weird" ideas. Using DeepSeek, Wilson generated a pitch that would be perfect for this magazine. "If you were not smart enough, it would have gone through," he says pragmatically. "I have to try. I'm not a scammer, I'm just doing what I have to to survive."

I wonder if he ever worries about the legal implications of this set-up but he deflects. It's the magazine that would end up being sued, after all, not him. He's coy about how many publications he's sent AI pitches to but he's adamant that what he's doing isn't nefarious. He says that, had I commissioned the chicken shop article, he would have researched it online and written it as best he could. He claims to have relatives in London who could have visited the chicken shops. But the places he spoke about weren't real, I say. The story wasn't real. Wilson seems unperturbed. "I'm not a bad person," he shrugs.

This sentiment is rather undercut by a link he sends me to a story that went live the day we spoke, which is, by his own admission, "pure fiction". It's an essay called The Skip That Built a Family: How a Broken Led Zeppelin LP Taught Me to Love Imperfections, published on a website called I Have That On Vinyl based in Long Island, New York. Byline: Joseph Wales. It's an elegiac story about listening with his dad to a Led Zeppelin record that jumped at a certain point in the song, and how that jump became an integral part of the music for his family, leading to a lifelong obsession with damaged vinyl.

The story (which has since been taken down by the website's owner Michele Catalano, although you can read it on the Way Back Machine archive here) has some of the tell-tale signs of AI - em dashes, bullet pointed lists, words bolded up - but it also contains some quite beautiful turns of phrase. It describes a water-damaged copy of Pet Sounds where the warp slows Wouldn't It Be Nice "just enough to make the teenage romance sound like a middle-aged memory".

It describes how his "friend's" Nashville basement studio "smelled of old electronics and cheap bourbon" and recalls the author dropping $200 on a pristine Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab reissue. In no possible world is this the work of a man with a solid but imperfect grasp of English who lives in the outskirts of Nairobi.

Domo arigato Mr. Roboto

Wilson and I end our call on good terms. He shares with me some Youtube videos he made eight years ago showing drone footage of his village, set to a hiphop soundtrack, and invites me to stay with him should I ever visit Nairobi. Still, I'm still not sure if anything he told me is true or if all of this has been a colossal waste of time.

But there is one more character in this story. When I was checking Joseph Wales' references, I did get a reply, from Loud Interactive, an SEO agency in Chicago. "Hi, possibly a strange email but I'm a journalist in the UK and a guy called Joseph Wales has listed you on his resumé as an employer," I wrote. "I don't think he's based in the US and I'm pretty sure the story he pitched to me was generated by AI - I wanted to check if he was indeed employed by you as an SEO copywriter... Hope you can help!" Within an hour I received a response - from the founder, no less.

Allow me to introduce you to Brent D Payne, a bull-headed gentleman who is not afraid to blow his own trumpet. His rather dizzying website is divided into subheaders that say things like "Brent D Payne is an SEO visionary". There is a section dedicated to his "journey" from Oregon to California to Chicago. Even back in the days of web 1.0, Brent reckons he "had a vision for the future with the internet as he does now have vision of the future with AI".

I enjoyed researching Brent. He likes to @ people like Elon Musk on X. His followers include Barack Obama as well as a couple of mutuals of mine. He was once mentioned in a New York Times story regarding a spat he was having with Google. He's the kind of guy who is probably quite a big deal but thinks he's a much, much bigger deal. The first line of his email to me - no "hello" - reads: "We had over 600 stay at home moms and dads working for us then. I fired them all and replaced them with [a] homegrown AI tool I built over the past two years. Managing AIs is much easier and more predicatable [sic] than humans."

He then shared a link to a blog post from December 2024 about firing all those moms and dads, which he says was also written by AI. He signs off with: "I am not surprised someone we had employed may be trying to pass something off as original when it was AI generated. Lots of slimy writers out there. Not saying he is or isn't one of them, but..."

I am a bit taken aback. Most founders are cautious when talking to journalists and very, very few respond when someone in another country contacts the generic email address at the bottom of their website.

I read his blog post and it is... quite something. "Yesterday morning, while making 'roll-ups' for my family, Mr. Roboto by Styx came on through our HomePods," it begins. "You know that feeling when a song hits the right note emotionally and intellectually at just the right moment in life? There I was, with a crepe being served in one hand and a spatula in the other, singing 'Domo arigato ["thanks a lot" in Japanese], Mr. Roboto...' when a thought struck me: how fitting this song was for what we at Loud Interactive had just accomplished."

Mr. Roboto, for those unversed in 1980s synth rock, is a song on Styx's eleventh studio album, Kilroy Was Here. It tells the story of a cyborg - neither man nor machine - finding his place in a world of humans, exploring themes of alienation and the need for connection. I do not think it is quite as pro-robot as Brent assumes. It goes:

You're wondering who I am /

Machine or mannequin? /

With parts made in Japan /

I am the modern man /

...

The problem's plain to see /

Too much technology /

Machines to save our lives /

Machines dehumanize

"The decision wasn't simple," Brent continues, "after all, we replaced 600 part-time, stay-at-home parents who had been with us for over a decade. But as I think about it in light of that Styx song, it feels like a necessary progression. It's a moment where technology takes the baton from human hands... Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto echoed in my head as I worked on breakfast, handing out crepes and singing along."

It's quite an image: the tech founder in his fancy kitchen singing along to existential 80s dance-rock as a small army of moms and dads start glumly updating their CVs. It is also, if I may be so bold, a horribly written blog post. Perhaps he should have kept one or two of the moms and dads around.

"Thanks for the reply," I send back, "and fair enough - this isn't an anti-AI story, more a story of how AI is changing the way people - and traditional media - works. As an editor these are questions I'm currently battling with, although I don't like the idea of being entirely replaced by a consortium of LLMs! Did you ever regret casting off the 600 humans? Also is there any way of checking if Joseph Wales was among them?"

Brent, clearly having a quiet afternoon, replies immediately. "Zero regrets. Much better outputs from our tool." He goes on to list all the things his proprietary AI can do before reassuring me that "Journalism is safe. Stay at home mom and dad's [sic] that do spec writing... they're obsolete. Joseph Wales fits in that category. Joseph worked for us. He wasn't in our top 10% for output quantity or output quality. So, I never directly interfaced. But he did do a lot of spec writing for us and for a number of years. No clue if it was any good."

So Joseph - or, more accurately, Wilson - did work for Brent. His resumé isn't entirely fabricated. I'm inclined to believe he's telling the truth about most of the other stuff he told me, too, although there's no way to be sure.

A fatberg of hallucinated slop

As an editor, I clearly can't condone using AI to generate made-up pitches, especially if you plan on sending them to me. The last thing we need is more people adding to the growing fatberg of hallucinated slop that, day-by-day, makes up a larger and larger proportion of the internet (some reports suggest up to 90 per cent of new online content could be AI-generated by 2026, although this statistic could itself be AI-generated for all I know).

But I do enjoy the irony that people put out of work by AI are turning to those same tools to re-enter the market through the back door, threatening to form a surreal feedback loop of garbled content, fragments of real life jumbled up and reassembled, a limitless supply of cut-and-shut cars rolling off the forecourt of an infinite number of dodgy garages.

The simple fact is, AI exists. It will change the face of almost every industry, upend and uproot us all, shake the system by its ankles with little regard for what might fall out of its pockets. And, as is the way of things, it will start at the bottom and work its way up. I don't even think what Brent did is wrong, necessarily, although I could do without the triumphant tone and all the 'Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto' nonsense.

In light of all this, I can see why someone like Wilson might decide to finally take a leaf out of the book of those Nigerians he read about all those years ago. He's smart, resourceful, charismatic and in danger of being utterly left behind, his livelihood swept away by a tsunami within which he couldn't possibly stay afloat. There but for the grace of God go I, and you, and all of us. more

Career development

 11h

Westlake On Track For Spring Hiring Of A New City Manager - Town-Crier Newspaper


With the calendar about to roll over to 2026, City of Westlake officials say their search for a permanent manager is tracking for an on-time landing around April 1.

"We're in line for the schedule we set for getting someone in," Councilman Gary Werner said.

"It's going well," Mayor JohnPaul O'Connor agreed. "I'd like to make a hire as soon as possible, but I don't want to rush it."

At a... Wednesday, Dec. 10 video meeting, representatives from the Florida City & County Management Association (FCCMA) who reviewed the applications shared the names and résumés of the 19 individuals who'd applied.

"We have 10 qualified applicants," O'Connor said. "The number of quality candidates we got reaffirms the idea that Westlake is a very, very desirable city."

The request for applications called for the candidate be an "experienced municipal city manager in Florida, or [have] significant progressive executive-level management experience within a single municipal organization."

The applicants include multiple city, town and village managers, mostly from Florida, plus a police captain, an assistant fire chief, a multi-media sales manager, a cyber security professor, a city attorney, a mortgage originator, and Ramsay Buckeley, director of the Palm Beach County Planning, Zoning & Building Department from 2018 to 2023.

"I think we have three or four really strong candidates," said O'Connor, while adding that a dark horse could emerge "who doesn't meet all of the qualifications technically but is well qualified."

Depending on experience, the contract position will pay $155,000 to $190,000 a year, plus a benefits package.

O'Connor said he expects the council to take up applicant-related issues at its Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, meeting.

Werner said the number of qualified candidates likely will be narrowed to a handful.

At that point, each council member likely will have the chance to meet one-on-one with the remaining candidates in a round-robin format, Vice Mayor Greg Langowski said.

"We have a good number of applicants," Langowski said. "A lot of it will come down to face to face... and how their personalities connect with each of the council members."

The position came open when Kenneth Cassel left the position in September after some 10 years as Westlake's first and only municipal manager. Cassel also served as manager of the Seminole Improvement District, which supplies most of the community's infrastructure -- a situation that in recent years created friction with council members and residents.

City Clerk Zoie Burgess was appointed acting city manager but has said she is not interested in the job permanently.

Burgess, like Cassel before her, is an employee of Texas-based Inframark, a government staffing agency that supplies personnel to many municipalities across the country. While continuing to use the staffing agency for most positions, as required by Westlake's charter, when Cassel resigned in August, the council made clear that they wanted a manager answerable directly to them.

Early estimates suggested that the candidate search might cost as much $30,000 to $50,000, but the FCCMA agreed to conduct the search and review at no charge, as it has successfully done for a number of small municipalities.

Beyond meeting basic qualifications, Werner, a municipal planner by profession, said he will be looking for a manager who is open to major changes in the way the city does business, including charter changes that would allow the municipality to directly hire more employees rather than outsourcing the jobs to an agency. more

Berta Harkness


Career development 1w
I work from home and take my 2.5-year-old to my mother-in-law for half the day (she lives just down the street). That was the plan from the beginning and both she and my husband agreed to it.
Now my mother-in-law doesn’t want to watch her grandson anymore. She says I can just work and take care of the child at the same time.
My husband agrees with her. I even offered to pay my mother-in-law like... a babysitter, because I really don’t want to lose my job or get stuck doing only house stuff.
What should I do? I’d appreciate any advice.

 more
4   

  • biny

    16h

    i'm dealing whit something very challenging. my husband job now is basically working whit mental health problems people. but at the moment we don't... have that much, INCOME he decided to take in a normal buy whit ADHD problems!! he sleeps in seperate entrance but weekends he is whit us.
    and im moved from Europe 2 years ago did not yet went back to visit my hometown.
    you guys thing its normal to live like that?
     more

  • Grace Lorian Olsen

    19h

    Maybe consider putting him in a daycare for a couple of hours when he is 3 and potty trained? We have two kids and we pretty much did the same thing... when I was working from home. more

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Career development

 18h

I got a product manager job at Microsoft; moved from India; my advice


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

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rishab Jolly, a 37-year-old senior product manager at Microsoft , based in Redmond, Washington. Business Insider has verified Jolly's employment history with documentation.

The... following has been edited for length and clarity.Before moving to the US in 2015, I studied engineering and computer science in India, where I worked as both a software quality tester and an engineer.I was always interested in the business side of technology, so I left my job in India to pursue an MBA at the University of Arizona. My goal was to gain business acumen to complement my engineering background. I saw firsthand how much innovation takes place in the US and how many opportunities exist to work on cutting-edge products, which inspired me to build my career here.One of the most valuable parts of the MBA program was its partnerships with Big Tech companies. As part of the curriculum, representatives from Microsoft, Amazon, and Google brought projects to campus.Students formed teams, worked on deliverables, and were graded by company representatives. In 2016, I was team lead on a Microsoft project, and we did an excellent job. That gave me a chance to network and to demonstrate my skills to an actual Microsoft product manager.I applied to about 200 jobs, sending the same generic résumé without referrals. I received only three calls back and passed two interviews, but both offers were subsequently rescinded: one company considered my visa too risky without a STEM extension, and another cited budgetary reasons.I needed to secure a job within 60-90 days after graduation, or I would be forced to return to India. I ran out of money, asked a friend if I could crash on their couch, and felt a constant sense of anxiety.During that time, I stayed in touch with the Microsoft contact I'd met through my MBA project. When an opening came up, I asked if he would refer me.He agreed, and I rewrote my résumé to match the specific role. The hiring manager liked my application, called me in, and I got a shot. That referral and tailoring my résumé made all the difference.I was hired by Microsoft in July 2017 and started as a product manager. I became a senior product manager in 2021.First, you have to get the interview, and second, you have to pass it. For the first step, referrals are critical. Big Tech companies receive tens of thousands of résumés every month. A referral can push yours to the top of the stack.To prepare for interviews, I relied heavily on mock interviews. I reached out to peers who had been in the same boat and asked them to test me. They helped me refine my storytelling, practice answering metrics-driven questions, and pinpoint areas for improvement.When I finally interviewed at Microsoft, the feedback I received was that my stories were authentic and clearly based on real experiences. That authenticity resonated far more than rehearsed answers pulled from the internet.In today's tech world, showcasing your skills outside work or school, whether on LinkedIn, GitHub, or through personal projects, demonstrates passion and initiative.I started posting more consistently on LinkedIn during the pandemic. I shared lessons from my career, thoughts on product management, and observations about the industry. I wasn't trying to "build a following," I just focused on topics that genuinely resonated with me.Over time, those posts resonated with others, and a community naturally formed around them. The growth happened gradually and organically, simply because people connected with the ideas and conversations.Recruiters notice when you go beyond the curriculum to learn new tools or contribute to open-source projects. In a fast-changing industry where AI and new technologies emerge every six months, demonstrating your ability to adapt and self-learn is as important as the content of your résumé.While a small percentage of jobs may prefer an MBA, I know successful product managers who came from accounting, English literature, or completely different areas. Microsoft values diverse backgrounds because innovation thrives when teams bring fresh perspectives.Even with this knowledge, I would still pursue an MBA because it was not just about academics; it was also about gaining practical experience. It provided me with exposure to new perspectives, helped me transition into product management, and connected me with mentors and peers who have shaped my career in meaningful ways.I don't think an MBA is mandatory for everyone. It depends on your goals and whether you're looking for a career pivot, a network, or structured learning.Visa restrictions, financial pressure, and cultural adjustments can make the experience stressful. I had moments when I felt defeated, but staying focused and working smart eventually brought everything together.After over eight years at Microsoft, I plan to continue contributing to the technology and innovation ecosystem. I'm exploring the appropriate pathways that align with my career goals, but nothing is finalized at this time. My focus is on the work itself and continuing to grow professionally.My advice to anyone following a similar path is straightforward: network strategically, prepare thoroughly, stay authentic, and continually build your skills and presence. Things may look uncertain now, but persistence and the right relationships can open doors you didn't think were possible.

Microsoft Big Tech

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Career development

 2d

Yesterday, I Got the Job Offer ,After 8 Months of Doubt


This is a personal update reflecting on my job-hunting journey, self-doubt, and resilience over the past eight months. I'm sharing this for anyone navigating rejection, waiting, or imposter syndrome.

Yesterday, I got the job offer.

Before the excitement kicked in, there was silence. Relief. A moment to breathe. It felt like the end of a season I wasn't sure I would survive, let alone learn... from.

For over eight months, I was unemployed.

Eight months of applications. Waiting. Refreshing my inbox. Wondering what more I needed to fix.

This wasn't just a job hunt. It was a confrontation with my confidence.

The Part No One Prepares You For

I redid my CV more times than I can count. Each rejection convinced me there was something missing.

Maybe my experience wasn't strong enough.

Maybe my portfolio didn't meet the standard.

Maybe I wasn't telling my story well.

Or maybe quietly, painfully,I just wasn't good enough.

Imposter syndrome didn't whisper. It took over.

I compared myself constantly. I questioned my growth. I looked at other designers and wondered how they seemed so sure while I felt like I was barely holding myself together.

Still, I showed up.

Not confidently.

Not consistently motivated.

But honestly, and that mattered.

Waiting Changes You

Being without work does something to your identity, especially when your craft is tied to how you see yourself.

I questioned my path. I considered shrinking my ambitions. Some days, I wondered if choosing this career had been a mistake.

Yet, even in doubt, I kept refining my portfolio. Rewriting case studies. Applying again. Believing, sometimes reluctantly,that this season wasn't a verdict on my ability.

Sometimes growth looks like survival.

When It Finally Happened

When the offer came yesterday, it wasn't loud.

It was grounding.

Relief before celebration.

Validation before excitement.

Not because the job suddenly made me worthy, but because it reminded me that the version of me who kept going, even when exhausted and unsure, was never wrong to try.

I didn't become capable yesterday.

I was always capable,I just lost sight of it while waiting.

If You're Still There

If you're in the middle of a long job search, feeling behind, discouraged, or invisibleplease hear this:

Your struggle is not a reflection of your worth.

Your doubt does not cancel your skill.

Your timeline is not broken.

This chapter humbled me. It stretched me. It taught me patience, self-trust, and compassion,for myself and for others fighting quiet battles.

Yesterday, I got the job offer.

But long before that, I proved something even more important to myself:

Even when I doubted myself, I still showed up.

If this resonated with you, feel free to leave a comment or share it with someone who might need it today. more
9   

  • Nnenna Agbai Kalu

    20h

    Congratulations

  • benson bagonza

    1d

    Congratulations..thanks for the inspiration. Work hard and protect it. Don't forget the huddles passed through to get it...save invest small small as... salary come in...Merry Christmas and holidays  more

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Career development

 20h

Forget Applications -- Visibility is the New Key to Getting Hired in 2026 - Travel And Tour World


In 2026, the job market has radically shifted. Traditional job applications are no longer the path to success. Instead, the key to securing employment is visibility. With layoffs hitting tech, media, retail, and professional services, millions of job seekers are vying for fewer jobs. But experts say the biggest mistake job seekers are making is clinging to outdated job application methods.... Recruiters now search for candidates based on visibility, not just résumés. It's time to think like a creator. Learn how to get noticed in a market where discoverability, not just skills, gets you hired.

As mass layoffs sweep across industries like tech, media, and retail, job seekers in 2026 face an increasingly competitive job market. But traditional job applications just won't cut it anymore. Employers are shifting their hiring strategies and focusing on visibility. Hiring managers and recruiters now search for candidates through platforms like LinkedIn, where activity, engagement, and expertise are the key to standing out. In a world dominated by algorithms, it's no longer enough to submit a résumé and hope for the best. Instead, those who are visible are the ones who get noticed and hired.

The rise of the "creator mindset" is transforming the way job seekers approach the hiring process. Experts like Brian Futral, Head of Content Marketing at The Marketing Heaven, argue that treating LinkedIn like a static résumé database is a massive mistake. Recruiters are now finding talent the same way audiences discover creators: through consistent posting, engagement, and profile optimization. If you want to get hired in 2026, you need to adopt the creator mentality. Regularly posting industry insights, engaging with peers, and optimizing your profile are no longer optional -- they're crucial to landing your next job.

LinkedIn has evolved from a basic résumé database to a dynamic platform where job seekers must demonstrate their value in real-time. According to Futral, profiles that remain static or feature outdated headlines are overlooked by recruiters who rely on algorithms to find talent. Instead, the focus is on candidates who show up consistently in searches, offer relevant insights, and engage meaningfully with their network. By optimizing your LinkedIn profile with role-specific keywords and posting regularly about industry trends, you'll ensure that recruiters come to you instead of waiting for the next job posting.

In 2026, silence is no longer neutral -- it's a disadvantage. As hiring slows and competition intensifies, being invisible online means being overlooked entirely. Recruiters now use LinkedIn's search filters, activity signals, and engagement patterns to identify top candidates. If your profile is stagnant, you're effectively invisible. The smartest job seekers are focusing on how to be visible and how to show their expertise. This new approach shifts the power dynamic: it's not about applying for hundreds of jobs anymore, but about positioning yourself so recruiters come to you.

Job seekers in 2026 are finding success by positioning themselves to attract inbound recruiter interest. Instead of sending out countless job applications, the smartest candidates are optimizing their profiles to ensure they stand out in searches. According to The Marketing Heaven, job seekers who post regularly, engage with industry trends, and optimize their profiles with relevant keywords are seeing the strongest recruiter interest. This shift means job seekers must think strategically about their online presence. By making sure their profiles act like landing pages rather than timelines, they can ensure that recruiters come directly to them.

A major change in the job market is the rise of direct sourcing by recruiters. Many roles are now being filled before they're even posted publicly. This shift is largely due to the ease and efficiency of sourcing candidates through platforms like LinkedIn. For employers, this means lower hiring costs, faster decision-making, and a reduced risk of poor cultural fits. Job seekers can take advantage of this trend by ensuring they are visible and active on platforms like LinkedIn. By engaging in consistent activity and posting valuable insights, job seekers are making themselves visible to recruiters who are actively seeking talent.

The traditional approach of submitting hundreds of job applications is no longer effective. Instead, job seekers in 2026 must focus on engagement and visibility. Recruiters are looking for candidates who demonstrate expertise and knowledge through their online presence. Whether it's posting regularly on LinkedIn or engaging with others in your industry, consistency is key. Recruiters are now assessing a candidate's ability to communicate, engage with peers, and demonstrate value through content. A well-optimized LinkedIn profile that showcases your skills and expertise is far more valuable than a static résumé ever will be.

In a job market where competition is fierce, those who adapt to the new rules of visibility are the ones who will thrive. The most successful candidates are using LinkedIn like a platform for thought leadership rather than just a job application portal. They are posting valuable insights, engaging with others, and optimizing their profiles to ensure they show up in relevant searches. By thinking like a creator and positioning themselves as experts in their field, job seekers are finding success without ever needing to send out a single application. In 2026, the job market is more about visibility and relevance than ever before.

As the job market evolves, job seekers must think differently to stay ahead. The traditional methods of job searching, like sending endless applications, are no longer effective. Instead, those who succeed in 2026 will be the ones who embrace visibility as the key to employment. By adopting a creator mindset -- optimizing your profile, posting regularly, engaging with industry trends, and positioning yourself as an expert -- you'll ensure that recruiters come to you. The job market has changed, and the ability to be visible online has become the most powerful tool in securing your next job. more

Anonymous member


Career development 4d
Every Christmas, our office does Secret Santa. This year, I got a bouquet of little roses… but the red ones were made out of lingerie. I’m honestly shocked. Is this some kind of joke from my coworkers or are they trying to send me a message? I’m not sure how to feel about it. And I still have no idea who gave it to me. What should I do?

1   

  • James Osewe

    1d

    A gift is always from a loving heart, accept it,, it's Christmas 🎁

  • Rick Garside

    2d

    Before jumping to conclusions, are you SURE they were made out of lingerie? After all, you said they were little roses, which means they are simply... small pieces of fabric. Lingerie and sheer/and or flowery-type fabrics look the same. It doesn't automatically mean your roses were made OUT of lingerie. It could simply be a fabric that looks like it could be lingerie. It's possible the giver would be equally shocked to realize you concluded they gave you 'lingerie' as a gift. more

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Jane Tilden


Career development 1w
Hi everyone! I’m a college student and I’m thinking about getting a job as a waiter in a cafe. But my parents are against it, my dad says that kind of job will ruin my resume, like no decent company will ever hire me afterward.
I’m tired of always asking my parents for money and I want to earn my own. How can I convince them?
Thanks

9   

  • Andrew Moseti

    1d

    Is that the only job you can find? What other ideas do your parents have for you? Perhaps having a discussion with them about the current... opportunities and economic situation could help. They have their reasons, you have yours. Conversation around the issues you have shared with the very people that care for you is very important.  more

    -1

  • Cliff Macleod

    2d

    I think in this economy with this president future employers will understand and will give you credit for wanting
    To earn your own way. I have a good... friend whose some worked at a Carivou for two years out of college and finally landed a great job just a few months ago. Just keep looking while you wait tables and don’t be afraid to tell people what you are doing. You never know when a conversation could lead to something! more

    -1
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Career development

 1d

I moved to the US from India. Here's how I landed a job at Microsoft after first misunderstanding the Big Tech hiring process.


He suggests tech hopefuls build a public presence and continually develop skills to stand out.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rishab Jolly, a 37-year-old senior product manager at Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington. Business Insider has verified Jolly's employment history with documentation. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Before moving to the US... in 2015, I studied engineering and computer science in India, where I worked as both a software quality tester and an engineer.

I was always interested in the business side of technology, so I left my job in India to pursue an MBA at the University of Arizona. My goal was to gain business acumen to complement my engineering background. I saw firsthand how much innovation takes place in the US and how many opportunities exist to work on cutting-edge products, which inspired me to build my career here.

One of the most valuable parts of the MBA program was its partnerships with Big Tech companies. As part of the curriculum, representatives from Microsoft, Amazon, and Google brought projects to campus.

Students formed teams, worked on deliverables, and were graded by company representatives. In 2016, I was team lead on a Microsoft project, and we did an excellent job. That gave me a chance to network and to demonstrate my skills to an actual Microsoft product manager.

I applied to about 200 jobs, sending the same generic résumé without referrals. I received only three calls back and passed two interviews, but both offers were subsequently rescinded: one company considered my visa too risky without a STEM extension, and another cited budgetary reasons.

I needed to secure a job within 60-90 days after graduation, or I would be forced to return to India. I ran out of money, asked a friend if I could crash on their couch, and felt a constant sense of anxiety.

During that time, I stayed in touch with the Microsoft contact I'd met through my MBA project. When an opening came up, I asked if he would refer me.

He agreed, and I rewrote my résumé to match the specific role. The hiring manager liked my application, called me in, and I got a shot. That referral and tailoring my résumé made all the difference.

I was hired by Microsoft in July 2017 and started as a product manager. I became a senior product manager in 2021.

First, you have to get the interview, and second, you have to pass it. For the first step, referrals are critical. Big Tech companies receive tens of thousands of résumés every month. A referral can push yours to the top of the stack.

To prepare for interviews, I relied heavily on mock interviews. I reached out to peers who had been in the same boat and asked them to test me. They helped me refine my storytelling, practice answering metrics-driven questions, and pinpoint areas for improvement.

When I finally interviewed at Microsoft, the feedback I received was that my stories were authentic and clearly based on real experiences. That authenticity resonated far more than rehearsed answers pulled from the internet.

In today's tech world, showcasing your skills outside work or school, whether on LinkedIn, GitHub, or through personal projects, demonstrates passion and initiative.

I started posting more consistently on LinkedIn during the pandemic. I shared lessons from my career, thoughts on product management, and observations about the industry. I wasn't trying to "build a following," I just focused on topics that genuinely resonated with me.

Over time, those posts resonated with others, and a community naturally formed around them. The growth happened gradually and organically, simply because people connected with the ideas and conversations.

Recruiters notice when you go beyond the curriculum to learn new tools or contribute to open-source projects. In a fast-changing industry where AI and new technologies emerge every six months, demonstrating your ability to adapt and self-learn is as important as the content of your résumé.

While a small percentage of jobs may prefer an MBA, I know successful product managers who came from accounting, English literature, or completely different areas. Microsoft values diverse backgrounds because innovation thrives when teams bring fresh perspectives.

Even with this knowledge, I would still pursue an MBA because it was not just about academics; it was also about gaining practical experience. It provided me with exposure to new perspectives, helped me transition into product management, and connected me with mentors and peers who have shaped my career in meaningful ways.

I don't think an MBA is mandatory for everyone. It depends on your goals and whether you're looking for a career pivot, a network, or structured learning.

Visa restrictions, financial pressure, and cultural adjustments can make the experience stressful. I had moments when I felt defeated, but staying focused and working smart eventually brought everything together.

After over eight years at Microsoft, I plan to continue contributing to the technology and innovation ecosystem. I'm exploring the appropriate pathways that align with my career goals, but nothing is finalized at this time. My focus is on the work itself and continuing to grow professionally.

My advice to anyone following a similar path is straightforward: network strategically, prepare thoroughly, stay authentic, and continually build your skills and presence. Things may look uncertain now, but persistence and the right relationships can open doors you didn't think were possible. more

Anonymous member


Career development 2d
hello! im currently collecting unemployment insurnace but it will be coming to an end soon. I have been looking for a full time job but no luck. I take public transportation so its very difficult for me to find a job that doesnt require you to travel to multiple offices etc. I would also perfer a full time job rather than part time. Im a 21yr female, I only have myself and I need help finding a... full time job.

I have a diploma of comleption for medical assisting. currently I am taking an online course for medical billing and coding to expand my skills on my resume. please reach out if you think you think you may be able to help.  more

Jina Langley


Career development 6d
Hello! I worked as an economist in a small bank for 3.5 years. Now I’m moving to the same job in a big bank, and I’ll earn $50 more per month. I think it’s a better and more promising option. But my family says there’s no point in changing jobs. I’m really tired of staying in the same place and want something new. Honestly, I also hope for raises and career growth.

How can I convince my family?... They keep trying to talk me out of it, and it’s really stressful.(

 more
3   

  • Rhonda Miller

    1d

    If there is room for job growth and raises in pay, then you are right. It would be an improvement. You can still keep looking in the first couple of... weeks or month at the new job too. more

  • Uma Aggarwal

    2d

    I do not fully agree with all the advice. A bright young person still needs the counsel of a seasoned mentor. Youth may not consider the downside of... an action fully and can get hurt. To me, the saying " your health, your family, your job..in that order" makes a lot of sense. Most families are looking out for you when they advise and I would not totally ignore them unless they do not understand or are obstructionist. I would try to tap their wisdom. more

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Evelyn Aldridge


Career development 3d
Hey! I was seeing a guy from work and we even lived together for a year. But we broke up. Honestly, I’m fine, we work on different floors. So the only time we might run into each other is in the kitchen. No big deal.

The problem is, everyone at work keeps acting all worried for me, giving me sweets, trying to “comfort” me. I keep saying I’m fine, but they don’t get it. It’s starting to feel... really awkward. How do I make them stop?

 more

  • Rhonda Miller

    1d

    Check in with the old boyfriend to make sure it he isn't adding fuel to the fire. Ask him "are people in the office interested in your past with me?... because I am getting inquiries. what do you say to them?" more

  • Djadji Sylla-Samassa

    2d

    It might be genuine concern, or it might just be people being curious and loving a bit of drama. Either way, acting unbothered and positive usually... makes people back off pretty quickly. more

    3
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Career development

 1d

6 charts to show your family when they ask why you don't have a new job


Unemployment rates for 20-somethings hit their highest level in years.

Kanika Mohan lost count of her job applications.

With a new bachelor's degree, a slate of summer tech internships, and years of networking at campus career fairs, she hadn't expected getting a job to be this hard.

"I remember waking up every single day to at least a few rejection emails, and these emails have... absolutely no personalization to them," Mohan, 22, told Business Insider over the summer. "You can do three rounds of interviews, yet you'll still get a very generic, 'Sorry. You're not a good fit."'

She eventually landed a role at a top tech company, but months of editing cover letters, prepping for interviews, and getting ghosted had been exhausting. And brutal job search experiences like hers aren't an outlier -- they've become the norm.

The job market in the US hit some major milestones this year. Unfortunately for the dozens of job seekers Business Insider has heard from, they weren't the good kind. AI, economic uncertainty, and a shift toward employer power have been felt across the workforce.

Tyler Sorenson knows this all too well. The Gen Zer was so frustrated by limited job vacancies and slow replies to his online applications that he began leaving paper résumés at local businesses.

"I literally just had to walk into that store and hand them an actual résumé for them to even take a look at me," he said in the summer. For him, that actually ended up yielding results: He was able to bypass the onslaught of AI applications and get directly to a human. It's part of just how topsy-turvy the job hunt has become.

The economic situation has everyone feeling stuck: Companies are pulling back on hiring, while people with a steady paycheck are feeling too cautious to make a move. It's culminating in a frozen job market -- and Americans are feeling the chill.

The number of job openings for each unemployed person has tightened

Millions of people are struggling to get a job -- the unemployment rate as of November is the highest since 2021. Meanwhile, job openings have cooled off 37% from their high point in 2022.

"This job market is terrifying," Hilary Nordland, a Gen X job seeker told Business Insider over the summer. "It's a black hole that makes you question everything -- and I don't see a clear path through."

The number of job openings for each unemployed person has come way down over the past few years -- from two openings per unemployed person in 2022 to one this past September. The number of people unemployed briefly surpassed job opportunities in July and August, which hasn't happened since the economic disruptions caused by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

"Job growth has been very slow over the course of 2025, and it doesn't seem like we've turned around quite yet to translate the pent-up demand for hiring and the recent increase in job openings into actual hires," Nicole Bachaud, an economist at ZipRecruiter, said.

The 'Big Stay' intensified

In 2023, Business Insider wrote about how the Great Resignation, where many workers were switching into new roles amid robust options, was pivoting into the Big Stay, where more workers would keep their jobs, whether they wanted to or not.

That shift became clearer in 2024 and persisted in 2025. The quits rate fell to 1.8% this past October, the lowest since May 2020.

The quits rate provides a good indicator of how confident workers feel about being able to transition to a new employer. The low rate means workers likely don't see many new opportunities.

"When we look at the fact that inflation is still strong, wage growth is cooling in respect to inflation, a lot of workers are maybe thinking a steady paycheck, whether it's my ideal job or not, is better than the risk of me going for something else because there's not a lot of something else out there," Bachaud said.

The job switcher wage premium evaporated from Great Resignation highs

Over the past few years, wage growth for job switchers had far outpaced that of their colleagues holding tight; at the peak of the Great Resignation, job switchers' paychecks were benefiting from major premiums.

But in 2025, the job switcher wage growth came down to earth, and then some. In the back half of the year, job stayers and job switchers have duked it out for who's seeing larger wage growth -- a marked contrast to the larger paychecks companies dangled over potential job hoppers just a few years ago.

That's not necessarily great news for job stayers, though. On the whole, wage growth tempered for both groups, meaning less ample raises. And it's another indicator that job market power has slipped back into the hands of employers.

Long-term unemployment reached levels unseen since 2022

The share of workers who are deemed "long-term unemployed" -- meaning they've been out of work for 27 weeks or more -- has come to encompass a quarter of all unemployed Americans. That's picked up in the back half of 2025, suggesting that many had spent a solid chunk of the year jobless.

For workers thrust out of their jobs, climbing back into the fold is an ever more daunting task.

Clair Todd, who was laid off two years ago, said constant job rejections can make you feel like you are not good enough.

"On top of that, you have to worry about paying the bills without money coming in," she said. "I don't want to say I've given up, but my search has been extremely discouraging."

She stopped actively looking for a new position a few months ago and instead prioritized building a website development business.

Young adults haven't been this unemployed since the early pandemic

The 2025 job market was brutal for every generation, but Gen Zers are in an especially tough spot. The unemployment rate for 20- to 24-year-olds reached 9.2% in August and September, the highest figure since the recovery from the pandemic recession.

"I was applying and I felt like, 'This is so stupid because I know I'm going to get rejected,' recent grad Bella Babbitt told Business Insider last spring.

For those with a college degree, the prospects have been especially grim. The educated 20-something unemployment rate has consistently surpassed the overall unemployment rate since 2021, and the gap has widened. It's not unusual for young people to be out of work at higher levels than the general population, but a degree has historically boosted young people's chances of landing a job. Young men were more unemployed than young women this year, in part because women tend to dominate one of the few growing sectors of the job market: healthcare.

Business Insider has heard from dozens of Gen Zers this year. Some are pivoting from white-collar fields to more seemingly secure blue-collar work, while others said they've submitted hundreds of applications without any luck. Most felt their traditional paths to success disappeared in 2025: The Trump administration's DOGE initiative slashed opportunities in the federal workforce, AI is snapping up entry-level tasks in fields like tech, and major companies aren't hiring due to economic headwinds.

Workers aren't confident about finding a job if they lost theirs

The US isn't in an official downturn, but workers and consumers had an especially bleak outlook this year.

The New York Fed asks people about how likely they think they could find a new job in the next three months if they lost their role today. The average probability fell to its lowest point in August since the survey began in 2013. It's only seen mild recovery since.

Weaker worker sentiment has been paired with fewer job opportunities than a few years ago, stubborn inflation, tariff chaos, and relatively high interest rates.

"I went through months of job searching -- about four to five months -- and it was really scary, it was really harsh, it was really painful," Mohan, the recent college grad, said. "It took a really huge emotional toll and a big toll on my mental health, too." more

Obitech Invents
Career development 19h
Honestly its really heart breaking 💔 😪

for over 12 months now i have been hunting for a Job as Full-stack Software Engineer still no luck 😑 . I really don't know what am doing wrong or where am getting it all wrong.

A few couple of months ago I was able to scure a good $10k/mo by AWS as a Software ll. But the offer withdrawn due to HB-1 Visa support.

Honestly, am so excited to... collab and work eh—but I have been at home for a while and i feel like am getting a little bit dusty 🙃 .

Although i haven't been idle, i have had a couple of cool project i have launched with one AI based Fitness App—although this was a Freelance gig 😅.

I can't wait to get back in the game 😩  more
1   

Career development

 2d

6 charts to show your family when they ask why you don't have a new job


Unemployment rates for 20-somethings hit their highest level in years.

With a new bachelor's degree, a slate of summer tech internships, and years of networking at campus career fairs, she hadn't expected getting a job to be this hard.

"I remember waking up every single day to at least a few rejection emails, and these emails have absolutely no personalization to them," Mohan, 22, told Business... Insider over the summer. "You can do three rounds of interviews, yet you'll still get a very generic, 'Sorry. You're not a good fit."'

She eventually landed a role at a top tech company, but months of editing cover letters, prepping for interviews, and getting ghosted had been exhausting. And brutal job search experiences like hers aren't an outlier -- they've become the norm.

The job market in the US hit some major milestones this year. Unfortunately for the dozens of job seekers Business Insider has heard from, they weren't the good kind. AI, economic uncertainty, and a shift toward employer power have been felt across the workforce.

Tyler Sorenson knows this all too well. The Gen Zer was so frustrated by limited job vacancies and slow replies to his online applications that he began leaving paper résumés at local businesses.

"I literally just had to walk into that store and hand them an actual résumé for them to even take a look at me," he said in the summer. For him, that actually ended up yielding results: He was able to bypass the onslaught of AI applications and get directly to a human. It's part of just how topsy-turvy the job hunt has become.

The economic situation has everyone feeling stuck: Companies are pulling back on hiring, while people with a steady paycheck are feeling too cautious to make a move. It's culminating in a frozen job market -- and Americans are feeling the chill.

The number of job openings for each unemployed person has tightenedwindow.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}});

Millions of people are struggling to get a job -- the unemployment rate as of November is the highest since 2021. Meanwhile, job openings have cooled off 37% from their high point in 2022.

"This job market is terrifying," Hilary Nordland, a Gen X job seeker told Business Insider over the summer. "It's a black hole that makes you question everything -- and I don't see a clear path through."

The number of job openings for each unemployed person has come way down over the past few years -- from two openings per unemployed person in 2022 to one this past September. The number of people unemployed briefly surpassed job opportunities in July and August, which hasn't happened since the economic disruptions caused by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

"Job growth has been very slow over the course of 2025, and it doesn't seem like we've turned around quite yet to translate the pent-up demand for hiring and the recent increase in job openings into actual hires," Nicole Bachaud, an economist at ZipRecruiter, said.

The 'Big Stay' intensifiedwindow.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}});

In 2023, Business Insider wrote about how the Great Resignation, where many workers were switching into new roles amid robust options, was pivoting into the Big Stay, where more workers would keep their jobs, whether they wanted to or not.

That shift became clearer in 2024 and persisted in 2025. The quits rate fell to 1.8% this past October, the lowest since May 2020.

The quits rate provides a good indicator of how confident workers feel about being able to transition to a new employer. The low rate means workers likely don't see many new opportunities.

"When we look at the fact that inflation is still strong, wage growth is cooling in respect to inflation, a lot of workers are maybe thinking a steady paycheck, whether it's my ideal job or not, is better than the risk of me going for something else because there's not a lot of something else out there," Bachaud said.

The job switcher wage premium evaporated from Great Resignation highs

Over the past few years, wage growth for job switchers had far outpaced that of their colleagues holding tight; at the peak of the Great Resignation, job switchers' paychecks were benefiting from major premiums.

But in 2025, the job switcher wage growth came down to earth, and then some. In the back half of the year, job stayers and job switchers have duked it out for who's seeing larger wage growth -- a marked contrast to the larger paychecks companies dangled over potential job hoppers just a few years ago.

That's not necessarily great news for job stayers, though. On the whole, wage growth tempered for both groups, meaning less ample raises. And it's another indicator that job market power has slipped back into the hands of employers.

Long-term unemployment reached levels unseen since 2022

The share of workers who are deemed "long-term unemployed" -- meaning they've been out of work for 27 weeks or more -- has come to encompass a quarter of all unemployed Americans. That's picked up in the back half of 2025, suggesting that many had spent a solid chunk of the year jobless.

For workers thrust out of their jobs, climbing back into the fold is an ever more daunting task.

Clair Todd, who was laid off two years ago, said constant job rejections can make you feel like you are not good enough.

"On top of that, you have to worry about paying the bills without money coming in," she said. "I don't want to say I've given up, but my search has been extremely discouraging."

She stopped actively looking for a new position a few months ago and instead prioritized building a website development business.

Young adults haven't been this unemployed since the early pandemicwindow.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}});

The 2025 job market was brutal for every generation, but Gen Zers are in an especially tough spot. The unemployment rate for 20- to 24-year-olds reached 9.2% in August and September, the highest figure since the recovery from the pandemic recession.

"I was applying and I felt like, 'This is so stupid because I know I'm going to get rejected,' recent grad Bella Babbitt told Business Insider last spring.

For those with a college degree, the prospects have been especially grim. The educated 20-something unemployment rate has consistently surpassed the overall unemployment rate since 2021, and the gap has widened. It's not unusual for young people to be out of work at higher levels than the general population, but a degree has historically boosted young people's chances of landing a job. Young men were more unemployed than young women this year, in part because women tend to dominate one of the few growing sectors of the job market: healthcare.

Business Insider has heard from dozens of Gen Zers this year. Some are pivoting from white-collar fields to more seemingly secure blue-collar work, while others said they've submitted hundreds of applications without any luck. Most felt their traditional paths to success disappeared in 2025: The Trump administration's DOGE initiative slashed opportunities in the federal workforce, AI is snapping up entry-level tasks in fields like tech, and major companies aren't hiring due to economic headwinds.

Workers aren't confident about finding a job if they lost theirs

The US isn't in an official downturn, but workers and consumers had an especially bleak outlook this year.

The New York Fed asks people about how likely they think they could find a new job in the next three months if they lost their role today. The average probability fell to its lowest point in August since the survey began in 2013. It's only seen mild recovery since.

Weaker worker sentiment has been paired with fewer job opportunities than a few years ago, stubborn inflation, tariff chaos, and relatively high interest rates.

"I went through months of job searching -- about four to five months -- and it was really scary, it was really harsh, it was really painful," Mohan, the recent college grad, said. "It took a really huge emotional toll and a big toll on my mental health, too." more