“Agentic AI” is the concept of the moment. Developers big and small are rushing to build apps to leapfrog the heavy lifting needed to employ generative AI in specific contexts… and investors are rushing to fund the most interesting of these. In one of the latest examples, a startup out of Israel called Perfect — […]
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Bosses are running low on empathy. Some want their workers back in the office more often and are becoming less interested in the demands of mental-health-conscious Gen Zers wanting work-life balance.
They have a good enough reason: An era of revenge quitting may be on the horizon, but right now it's an employer's market.
Meta, Microsoft, BP, and Boeing are just a few of the companies laying off staff in 2025.
Some employers are also getting more creative about how they're letting low-performing staff go, engaging in tactics such as "stealth firing," in which they implement strict return-to-office mandates to make employees' roles increasingly uncomfortable and less appealing.
Others are cracking down on "little sins," terminating workers for small indiscretions. Meta fired some workers who used food vouchers improperly, while some EY staff met the same fate for watching multiple training videos simultaneously.
Joe Galvin, the chief research officer at the executive coaching platform Vistage, told Business Insider that bosses were under more pressure to ensure their employees are top performers.
Workers, on the other hand, are wrestling with what pandemic-era flexibility they're prepared to give up.
"Maybe bosses are saying, 'I don't have to put up with this millennial or Gen Z stuff,'" Galvin said. "There's a common thread underneath it all, and that's the tension between the boss and the worker."
The power dynamic between employers and employees is a constant pendulum, and it can swing at any moment.
"When it's an employers' market, which it is right now, companies are much more picky than when it's an employees' market," Suzanne Lucas told BI. Lucas is a human-resources consultant and writer who became known for her blog, Evil HR Lady.
Many highly skilled and experienced people have lost their jobs recently. Google has offered buyouts to 25,000 employees, and at least 65,000 federal workers have opted into President Donald Trump's deferred resignation program.
The volume of talent entering the job-seeking pool means "companies can be really choosy right now," Lucas said. "If you're a slacker, I can find someone to replace you. In other words, employees better be working hard."
Suzanne Lucas
Meta fired about two dozen staff last year for using their $25 meal credits to buy things other than food, but Lucas said it was never really about the actual purchases.
"Once somebody breaks that barrier, then everybody else starts breaking that barrier," she said. "It's really not a matter of punishing someone for buying toothpaste — it's a matter of making sure everybody knows that there is a line that you don't cross."
Mona Mourshed, the CEO of the employment nonprofit Generation, told BI workers could protect themselves in a turbulent environment by investing their time in new skills, particularly in learning about AI tools.
"What's very clear is that within every company, there are some people who are power users, and everyone else is dabbling or not really using it," she said. "We all need to figure out how to make the most of it."
Mourshed also recommended getting exposure to different parts of the business with projects or teamwork.
"Do that because, essentially, it enables you to have cross-functional skills," she said. "In your team, there might be some disruption, but maybe that creates an opportunity for you in a different team of the same organization, or potentially another one."
What's very clear, Mourshed said, is that "doing the same thing for a decade is a pattern of the past."
Lucas said not all companies would fire workers for small indiscretions, but if an employer is looking to let people go, those making minor missteps could be first on the list.
"My advice to the employees is to realize that you need to be a good worker — it's called work for a reason," Lucas said. "Maybe work harder. Maybe now isn't the time to be asking for extra benefits and extra flexibility."
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Russian battlefield casualties — dead and injured — have risen to more than 1,500 a day over the last three months, posing serious problems when it comes to replacing their numbers, military analysts said.
UK Ministry of Defence reports suggest that Russia lost an average of 1,523 soldiers a day in November, 1,570 in December, and 1,556 in January, citing figures from Ukraine's General Staff. (Russia doesn't regularly release its own casualty figures.)
It's a significant jump that matches the pace and intensity of Russian assaults along the front line in Ukraine and in Ukrainian-occupied Kursk throughout 2024.
In January 2024, Russia was losing far fewer troops — an average of 846 a day, according to the UK MOD.
But it was attracting between 1,000-1,100 new recruits a day, according to an estimate from Vadym Skibitskyi, deputy chief major general of Ukraine's main military intelligence arm, more than enough to replace those lost.
Some estimates of Russia's current military recruitment, alongside soaring casualty figures, suggest that this may no longer be the case.
"The Russian military may be struggling to recruit enough new military personnel," analysts at the Institute for the Study of War said in an assessment this week.
They added that they had observed reports in recent months that parts of Russia were failing to meet their monthly recruitment quotas, with people less willing to sign up to fight.
Russia announced a large military recruitment drive last year, but calling up reservists is both politically unpopular and removes workers from its already stretched labor force.
The Kremlin has tried to tempt recruits by more than doubling its one-time signup payout to about $4,640 per soldier.
And on February 3, Russia's defense ministry proposed reclassifying illnesses like syphilis and schizophrenia as less serious medical conditions, loosening restrictions on military service, Russian state-run news agency TASS reported.
Estimates of current Russian recruitment rates vary.
In December, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that 430,000 recruits — or an average of 35,833 a month — signed up in 2024.
But Pavel Luzin, a defense expert for the Center for European Policy Analysis, wrote in January that Putin "appears to have been exaggerating again."
Luzin's own analysis of Russian budget figures gave a "probable assessment" of no more than 60-70,000 new troops in the last quarter of the year, or 23,300 new troops a month at most.
That's less than an estimate by one NATO official, who said that Russia was likely recruiting around 25-30,000 a month over that period.
Ukraine has also struggled to recruit additional troops, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy so far resisting US calls to lower the military draft age from 25 to 18.
Russia's recent losses are a marker of the pace and ferocity of its assaults along the front line in Ukraine. The UK MOD said that 48,240 Russian troops were killed or wounded in January alone.
If you’ve ever applied or thought of applying for a job via LinkedIn, you’ll know that the experience can be immediately disheartening: Openings that look interesting typically can see hundreds or thousands of applications in a matter of hours — data that LinkedIn, a social network for the world of work, proudly exposes in its […]
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Job ads need an overhaul. They're often too lengthy, too demanding, and may prompt candidates to lean more on their networks to avoid a relentless application-rejection cycle.
With an era of "revenge quitting" on the horizon, companies that want to attract top talent may want to rethink what they post on job boards, use AI sparingly but smartly, and remember that hiring is an inherently human process.
Research from the HR and recruitment software company iCIMS, shared with Business Insider, found that job openings were up only 3% between December 2023 and December 2024, but applications rose by 13%.
Rhea Moss of iCIMS told BI that this underlines a "self-fulfilling prophecy" in the job market: candidates can't help but contribute to the vicious cycle by applying for more jobs.
"There's an interesting confluence that's happening right now, of candidates feeling like their résumé isn't being looked at, and recruiters feeling like they have too many résumés to look at," Moss said. "Something has got to change here."
Job hunting can be frustrating. Susan Levine, the founder and CEO of the recruitment and advisory firm Career Group Companies, told BI that job ads "frequently paint an unrealistic picture of the roles they represent."
Using buzzwords to draw attention rather than accurate descriptions can contribute to the culture of love-bombing and ghosting in the jobseeking world, where candidates believe they are perfect for a role — only to hear nothing after an interview.
"This practice can mislead candidates, leading them to believe they are a strong match when their qualifications may not align with what the company truly needs," Levine said.
Ads can also be too long and demanding. Data from the recruitment software and hiring platform Applied, shared with BI, found more than a third of "entry-level" job ads sought an average of 2.5 years of experience.
Michael Horn, a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and coauthor of "JOB MOVES: 9 Steps for Making Progress in Your Career," said: "Job descriptions are really, really broken at this point."
"They have gotten ridiculous in terms of the number of listed and credentials and qualifications," he told BI. "They read much more like legal documents."
Ashley Ward, the founder and CEO of the recruitment agency W Talent Solutions, said poorly constructed job ads contribute to a frustrating cycle for all involved.
"A job ad should serve as a compelling invitation, not a laundry list of unattainable qualifications," Ward told BI. "Yet, too many ads are designed more as exclusionary gatekeepers than as tools for engagement."
Shannon Talbot, a former banking director and VP at an advertising agency turned career coach, told BI that hiring managers often "copy and paste old, potentially irrelevant job descriptions because they're in a rush to fill the role."
"These descriptions turn into wish lists of requirements rather than focusing on what's truly needed. Add to that the lack of transparency around salary and job levels, and it's no wonder candidates feel frustrated."
The language of job ads can be off-putting. The Applied report, which analyzed just over 7,500 ads, found that using masculine wording (including "individual," "challenging," and "driven") reduced the number of women applying by 10%.
There's also no guarantee the jobs being advertised actually exist.
A recent analysis from Greenhouse found that as many as one in five jobs advertised online may be "ghost jobs" — roles that are never filled, and companies may never have any intention of filling in the first place.
"The job market has become more soul-crushing than ever," said Jon Stross, president and cofounder of Greenhouse.
AI was supposed to make everything better, with job hunting becoming easier and more efficient than ever on both sides of the process.
But for all its benefits, using AI the wrong way could make everything worse.
Horn said hiring managers may receive thousands of applications, mostly from people wholly unsuitable for the job.
"Individuals applying to things are struggling to figure out, thinking, I don't even know what this means. Am I a good fit for this? I have no idea," Horn said. "Might as well let the AI apply, and then we'll figure it out later."
Meanwhile, good candidates may be automatically rejected by an algorithm.
When met with an unfulfilling market, people may instead turn to their networks for their next career move, said Horn.
This could have consequences for DEI. Managers have a tendency to want to hire candidates like themselves, whether they mean to or not. Networks becoming more important could have a disparate impact on underrepresented groups, Horn warned.
Hiring managers can help make the application process more transparent by maximizing automation while maintaining the human touch.
Lisa Frank, the founder and CEO of the recruitment and coaching firm LBF Strategies, said hiring managers should embrace AI but remember that it can't be fully relied on to make decisions.
"You're still dealing with humans, hiring other humans, humans working with other humans, or working for or managing them. We can't turn our backs on that," she told BI.
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Everyone has a story about a role they thought they were perfect for, only to hear nothing back or be ghosted later on.
You may have even been love-bombed during an interview and told you were the ideal candidate, only for it to be crickets afterward.
Greenhouse may have an explanation. It found that between 18% and 22% of jobs listed with it in 2024 were appeals for new workers that never actually got filled.
The hiring platform surveyed 2,500 workers across the US, UK, and Germany, finding that three in five candidates suspected they had encountered a "ghost job."
In analyzing the data, Greenhouse found that about a fifth of the jobs posted on its platform could be classified this way — jobs that go up on boards but don't actually exist.
"The data highlights a troubling reality — the job market has become more soul-crushing than ever," Jon Stross, Greenhouse's president and cofounder, said in a statement.
Ghost jobs are not a new phenomenon. Business Insider reported in 2022 on a survey of 1,000 hiring managers conducted by the lending firm Clarify Capital. Half of managers said they kept job postings live even when they weren't actively recruiting because they were "always open to new people."
A Resume Builder survey last May found that seven in 10 hiring managers also think it's "morally acceptable" to post ghost jobs, while three in 10 companies have posted fake listings.
Other reasons for putting up these ads include giving the impression of company growth, placating frustrated staff members, or holding out hope for the perfect "unicorn" candidate.
While hiring managers may see the benefit, in reality, ghost jobs frustrate candidates and erode trust in the process, BI's Tim Paradis reported last year.
The Wall Street Journal reported that in response to persisting ghost jobs, Greenhouse and LinkedIn now have a verification feature to help candidates weed out ads that may be a waste of time.
Some ways to identify a ghost job, BI previously reported, include it being up for 30 days or more, can no longer be found on the company's website, or a vague description of the role and its requirements.
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AI is transforming job searches for both candidates and recruiters.
But with all the tools that make the application process easier and faster than ever, there are traps you can fall into.
Andrea Miller, the founder of LeadWell Company, a global leadership consultancy that helps organizations navigate the future of work, told Business Insider that while AI can save time and effort by streamlining applications, optimizing resumes, and improving interview preparation, it also comes with some challenges.
"Generic, AI-generated applications can fail to stand out," Miller said, "And relying on AI without reviewing its output can lead to mistakes or misrepresentations."
Recruitment and AI pros explained to BI the dos and don'ts of using these tools and how candidates can make the most of the technology available when job hunting.
James Uffindell, the founder and CEO of the graduate recruitment platform Bright Network, told BI that AI can be very advantageous in the job hunt, especially for underrepresented and neurodiverse candidates.
"It helps level the playing field by offering better preparation opportunities, such as practice assessments and mock interviews, that may not have been otherwise available," he said.
Candidates can take advantage of many tools, such as CV builders like Kickresume and mock interview platforms like Interview Warmup by Google. Indeed's Pathfinder also helps people discover career paths that fit their skills.
Jason Heilman, the senior VP of product, automation, and AI at the staffing industry software company Bullhorn, told BI the company has a screening agent where candidates can conduct their first interview with an AI — something that could one day replace resumes entirely.
"You really get to see so much more," Heilman said of the technology. "It unlocks so much more of the person's potential beyond what a résumé could ever capture."
Heilman said it benefits candidates to be responsive and open to changes, even if it feels a bit strange at first.
"Be willing to try out these screeners," he said. "Lean into the opportunities to respond, and lean in when you are faced with new AI tools like this."
Cori Lunnen, the VP of recruitment marketing operations at HireClix, told BI that candidates should not hesitate to use AI tools to create a résumé, cover letter, or portfolio.
"The future is undeniably AI-driven," she said. "So some recruiters will want to see examples of how a candidate can successfully integrate AI-generated content with their own creativity."
The goal should be to use AI as a starting place, Lunnen said, "but then ultimately create something more unique or tailored to the opportunity it's designed to engage."
According to Jennifer Burns, director of career development of Cornell University's executive MBA program, learning to put in the right prompts is crucial.
She advises candidates to put their resumes into ChatGPT along with the job description and ask a question like: "What are the 10 most important skills and keywords a hiring manager will look for to fill this role?"
"For the most useful output, you want to begin with input. For example, you can provide details such as your degree, your major, and your past experience," Burns told The Wall Street Journal.
"You can also input information about your major accomplishments, some of your highlights, and what motivates you, thinking about what you're good at and what you like doing. Then, after you share that information, you can ask specific questions."
Burns said AI tools can also help you determine good questions to ask at the end of the interview.
But she warned that candidates must ensure that everything makes sense and that they have a thorough understanding of the role. "Just putting in keywords for the sake of putting them in to match a job description isn't going to serve you well," she told the publication.
On the recruiter's side, implementing AI can free up mental bandwidth, previously dominated by administrative tasks like scheduling, so recruiters can focus on providing a better experience for the candidates who move to the next stages.
But this has its downsides too. Uffindell said some recruiters are seeing a 500% increase in the number of applications, which makes it important to still stand out.
"It's important to view AI as a tool to support, not replace, your own words," Uffindell said. "While AI can help streamline the process, relying on it too heavily can lead to generic applications that fail to showcase a candidate's unique qualities."
Vrijen Attawar, a former career coach and now the founder and CEO of the AI-powered career guidance platform Careerspan, told BI that in this current environment, candidates should apply to fewer jobs so as to "not contribute to the application spam pile."
"Avoid the temptation to use easy apply or other similar tools to apply for jobs," he said. "Instead, save your time and sanity for the opportunities you can verify are real and excite you."
All AI tools have limitations. Some make things up or exaggerate information, so it is a candidate's responsibility to proofread everything and ensure it is accurate before submitting an application.
"ChatGPT 4's knowledge cut-off is April 2023, for example," Uffindell said. "So any major industry updates or company changes since then won't be included in ChatGPT outputs, so you'll need to do your own research, too."
Uffindell said personalizing each application to the specific role is still crucial because employers are looking for candidates who can communicate their strengths well and who have good soft skills.
"The strongest applications will combine AI's efficiency with the candidate's own knowledge," he said. "Showcasing not only the right skills but also the ability to navigate AI's limitations."
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Job seekers who are attractive, who went to the right school, or who worked at the right company can enjoy a so-called "halo effect" that outweighs other factors that often are better predictors of how well someone will perform in a role.
While they look good on paper, that's a problem for employers and many job seekers, executives told Business Insider.
Shiran Danoch saw firsthand how bias can affect hiring. Early in her career, she thought she'd found the perfect candidate for a role she was trying to fill.
Yet after Danoch's boss interviewed the woman, he called Danoch into his office.
"He said, 'Why did you bring her here? She isn't one of us,'" Danoch told BI.
It slowly occurred to Danoch that her boss's problem was with the candidate's ethnicity despite what Danoch saw as her obvious fit for the role.
There's a lot of work to do to reduce bias that unfairly hurts — and helps — candidates, said Danoch, an organizational psychologist who's the CEO and founder of Informed Decisions, an artificial intelligence startup that aims to help organizations reduce bias and improve their interviewing processes.
Danoch estimates that perhaps as many as nine in 10 hires either suffer or benefit from a bias that shapes the interviewer's perceptions of the candidate's aptitude for the role.
She said this means people who aren't a great fit could end up landing the role, and candidates who would do the job better might be sidelined.
Danoch said analysis of thousands of interviews on the Informed Decisions interview platform, combined with findings from broader academic research, highlights that "dominant-skill" bias is a prominent risk.
"When you're interviewing a candidate, there might be one specific skill that paints your overall impression," she said. Often, Danoch said, that is "effective communication." That can mean job seekers who are strong communicators can talk their way past their weaknesses.
Another risk is being wowed by grads from top schools or those who worked at high-profile companies. Substantial bodies of research have shown that education and experience aren't good predictors of how successful someone will be in a job, she said.
Meantime, it's easy to see why a hiring manager might assume someone who'd worked at one big-name tech firm might be a good fit for another. That's not always the case, according to Alan Price, the global head of talent acquisition at Deel, a global HR company that helps employers hire abroad.
He told BI that in past roles at other companies, there was often a push to focus on Ivy League grads or people who'd worked at certain tech firms. That made it hard for candidates coming from small startups, for example, to get hired, he said.
"You'd work at Facebook. You'd work at Google. You'd go to LinkedIn. There's a merry-go-round," Price said.
Yet he said those in sales, for example, who had halo résumés by virtue of having been at top companies, weren't always the strongest contributors when it came to basic metrics like how much revenue they brought in.
"The top people weren't only coming from the big, established organizations," Price said.
To improve the quality of its hires, Price said, Deel reformatted its interviewing process to focus on behaviors and less on factors like education and experience. That's led managers to report being more satisfied with the work they were getting from new hires, he said.
Price said it's not that experience doesn't count. Instead, it's evaluated alongside factors like functional skills for doing the job, behaviors, and motivation. To gain insight into skills, Deel will often have job seekers complete assessments.
That can help root out candidates who might toss around industry buzzwords, though they might lack some abilities.
"Because you've worked here and you've worked on this problem type, my assumption is, from a halo CV perspective, you're going to be really good," he said.
Price said that because some job seekers might stay at an organization for two to three years, hiring managers could take that to mean the candidates are good at what they do.
Yet "that is a big assumption," he said.
Some employers have announced efforts to look more at abilities rather than pedigree. In some cases, this can mean waiving degree requirements.
However, David Deming, a professor of political economy at Harvard's Kennedy School, previously told BI that even as some employers do away with prerequisites that candidates for some roles have a bachelor's degree, those doing the hiring might still consider whether a candidate has one.
"Firms are wanting credit for removing a requirement, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're changing their hiring at the end of the day," he said.
Danoch, from Informed Decisions, said one reason strong communicators can benefit from a halo effect in interviews relates to those doing the hiring.
"Because a lot of interviewers are inexperienced in interviewing, that's what grabs them," she said, referring to a candidate's communication chops.
While such abilities are often among the soft skills many employers say they value, Danoch said being able to communicate well isn't likely to be the only attribute needed for a role. Even if communication is important, she said, it shouldn't be the sole factor for hiring.
Danoch said the halo effect can be problematic if it leads employers to hire candidates who might not be the best fit. Conversely, she said, a "shadow effect" can result in capable job seekers being discounted.
"The candidate is either all good or either all bad," Danoch said.
Do you have something to share about what you're seeing in your job search? Business Insider would like to hear from you. Email our workplace team from a nonwork device at [email protected] with your story, or ask for one of our reporter's Signal numbers.
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If a hiring manager is excessively complimenting you and telling you you're the top candidate during an interview, you may be being "love-bombed."
The term originated as a way to describe the manipulative tactics some toxic people employ in romantic relationships to hook in their victims, showering them with affection, gifts, and promises for the future, only to later flip the script and show their real selves.
But the same pattern may apply to the workplace, too. Many job seekers complain of inconsistent behavior from hiring managers, CNBC reported, being flattered and praised one minute and ghosted the next.
"Love-bombing during job interviews happens all too often when recruiters or hiring managers want to keep you interested in them while they figure things out behind the scenes," Renee Barber, the global director of recruiting for TYR Talent Solutions who has over 20 years of experience in the recruitment industry, told Business Insider.
"They may overhype your chances to keep you interested," Barber said. "Especially if they're not ready to make a decision or they need to buy time without being direct about the actual situation."
Janine Chidlow, the managing director of EMEA at the global talent firm Wilson, told BI that love-bombing not only disrupts a candidate's career expectations "but also raises questions about organizational integrity and employer branding."
"This phenomenon isn't new," she said. "But its frequency and impact have surged."
It's looking like the job market may see a boost next year. But white-collar hiring is still in a slump, with tech jobs being hit the hardest.
Love-bombing may serve as a "morale-booster" for both candidates and interviewers, Chidlow said.
Amanda Fischer, an executive leadership and career coach who is the founder of AMF Coaching & Consulting, said that some recruiters and hiring managers want everyone they are interviewing to feel optimistic about the role so they don't lose out on the best candidates.
They may also want to create a strong connection so the candidate to make them less likely to negotiate further.
"In this particular instance, that is a highly manipulative move," Fischer said.
It may not always be a scheme, though, and some recruiters and hiring managers may be love-bombing without realizing it.
"They could genuinely be excited about a candidate and might not see how the excessive compliments could backfire," Barber said.
There are plenty of ways to recognize love-bombing during the interview stages.
According to Barber, some signs are excessive compliments, like being told you're exactly what the company is looking for, or that you're the best candidate being interviewed, or being given unrealistic promises, such as if they talk about you "being a great fit for the team" or "starting soon" before they've actually made a decision.
Fischer told BI that pressure for a quick decision is also "a huge red flag."
"From my perspective, there are very few circumstances where you should accept a role the moment it's offered," Fischer said.
Barber agreed, adding that if there is a long delay or no communication after the interview, "it's a sign that the praise might have just been a way to keep you interested before they made their decision."
Love-bombing during the interview process is symptomatic of deeper issues in recruitment, Chidlow said.
"While it may yield short-term gains in market perception, the long-term costs — disillusioned candidates, damaged reputations, and high turnover — far outweigh the benefits," she said.
"By prioritizing transparency and respect, organizations can foster genuine connections with candidates, ensuring a healthier, more productive recruitment process."
If you think the person on the other end of the interview desk is love-bombing you, it's good to set expectations early, Barber said.
"Before you wrap up the interview, feel free to ask when you can expect to hear back and what the next steps are," she said. "This can help you keep track of the process and avoid getting strung along."
Barber also recommended following up after the interview, sending a thank-you email, and asking for feedback.
"This allows you to gauge whether the praise was sincere and whether the company is genuinely interested," she said.
"If something feels off, trust your instincts," Barber added. "If it all felt too polished or disconnected from your experience, be cautious."
Keeping your options open is also a good move because being in a stronger position yourself makes you less likely to fall for manipulative tricks.
"Don't put all your eggs in one basket," Barber said. "Otherwise, you could be waiting around for a response that might never come."
