Author: Editor

I recently quit my full time role to take an unpaid internship that eventually earned me my dream job.I learned so much from the opportunity to start from scratch, yet my most useful lessons came not from management, but from my fellow interns — some of whom were a decade younger than me.Headlines often paint Gen Z as being the most challenging generation to work with. But that wasn’t my experience at all. In fact, I found them to be perfectly practical and rather inspirational.Working alongside them as a 31-year-old with nearly a decade of experience made me wonder whether…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Emily Worden, a career coach in Boston. It’s been edited for length and clarity.I meet with maybe 10 new job seekers a week, and I’d say at least four or five of them cry during our first meeting.Not only are they burned out, but they’ve been ghosted and rejected to the point that they start thinking, “It’s me. I’m not good enough, and I’m never going to find a job again.”A year ago, I said we were in the worst job market I’d seen in my 10 years as a career…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Yousuf Imran, a 41-year-old former account executive at Google based in the Bay Area. It’s been edited for length and clarity.I earned nearly $1 million last year as an account executive at Google, but I felt some “FOMO” around the AI boom.I think most people at Google would tell you the same if they were being candid.Google pays very well, but the equity packages at OpenAI and Anthropic are in a different universe. A three- or four-year stock grant at one of these companies can be life-changing money.That math was part…

Ten years ago, a record 17.6 million cars, trucks and SUVs were sold in the U.S. Some forecasts say the country might not come close to that number again. Analysts at consulting firm Bain & Company said several signs indicate the market is about to shrink even more. Falling birth rates, behavioral changes, high car prices and a growing array of alternatives could drive sales down by more than 2 million units by 2040, according to their analysis.These indications point to a future where automakers fiercely compete for a shrinking number of customers, said Mark Gottfredson, a partner at Bain…

In my early 20s, I moved my life from the bustling metropolis of London to a quiet, scenic town in the mountains of Japan. I had been offered a job as an English teacher in a high school, and I was eager to take advantage of what I imagined would be a quieter life, daydreaming about slow afternoons meandering through rice paddies.I knew things wouldn’t be easy. I expected to be tripped up by unfamiliar food and a complex language. What I hadn’t expected, however, was just how different — and difficult — a new working culture Gift-giving as a…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nitya Kumar, 25, an Adobe employee who lives in India. The following has been edited for length and clarity.I landed a product design role at Meta straight out of college in 2022. By 2024, I saw the industry pivoting toward AI and wanted to learn new AI design skills.During this process, I stopped seeing my career as a ladder with a focus on moving upward. In my view, all work and no play keeps the Big Tech offers away, so I started treating my career like a science lab, giving myself…

Zohran Mamdani is feeling generous.The mayor took office with sweeping promises to New Yorkers: Fast and free buses, universal 2-K childcare, investment in public libraries, bathrooms, and schools. The plans center on cutting the price of city services and making it easier to afford living in some of America’s most expensive zip codes.In my reporting for Business Insider’s “Cost of the City” series, I’ve heard from single parents, halal cart operators, small business owners, economists, and riders on one of the many buses Mamdani plans to make free. After the transit story was published, I heard from over 100 readers…

Luxury-home sellers are finding a new way to stand out in a sluggish market: telling buyers they’ll accept startup stock.Listings from Brooklyn to the Bay Area have begun advertising that sellers are willing to consider accepting shares in companies such as Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX in exchange for multimillion-dollar properties.While few expect many homes to ultimately trade hands this way, some real estate marketers say the strategy can be an effective way to capture the attention of newly wealthy tech workers and investors sitting on hard-to-access private-company equity.Andrew Rohm, founder of the luxury real estate marketing firm DMR Media, said…

Recently, I paid off my student loans ahead of schedule. Along with the joy of saying goodbye to 10 more years of payments, I unexpectedly felt open to doing something completely different.I stepped away from my marketing career in 2023 to focus on something I was more passionate about, writing. I will continue to write, but I’ve realized that I crave more regular interaction with people in my day-to-day life.I spotted a listing at a local high school for advanced placement (AP) test proctors — a job I hadn’t known existed. That’s how I found myself applying for a job…

The email arrived on a Monday morning. I was at the study desk, the one my husband built before I moved here, in a house that still feels more his than mine.As soon as I saw the email’s subject line, I knew what was inside: a warm message letting me know that the team would be moving forward with another candidate.When I pressed for feedback, the recruiter explained that they had found someone with stronger experience in the Australian market. The rejection felt entirely logical, but also hard to absorb.The role was entry-level; meanwhile, I have 10 years of professional…