• Goutam Nair is a software engineer at Google working on AI applications.
• He credits networking and a focused résumé with landing him the job.
• He shared with BI the résumé he submitted and the message template he used for cold reachouts to recruiters.

Landing a job, as the saying goes, can often come down to not just what you know, but also who you know.

Software engineer Goutam Nair told Business Insider that submitting a good résumé and having a solid networking connection were both key to landing his current job at Google.

He shared with BI the exact résumé he submitted in his job application and the networking template he used in LinkedIn cold reach-outs to recruiters and other software engineers already working where he wanted to be.

Here are Nair's pointers.

Getting the résumé right

Highlight relevant publications or projects

If you don't have much professional or research experience yet, it helps to emphasize your contributions to the field via any open source projects on Github, for example, Nair said.

As with any other job, the basic guidance still applies: Show employers what you've done that's applicable to the role you're applying for.

"I mostly just outlined the engineering projects that I'd done and then explained that in a concise way," Nair said.

Convey your impact in results and numbers

Nair says he wishes he'd more clearly done this in his Google résumé and has since made adjustments to better quantify the impact of his work.

"Highlighting any impact in your previous projects, especially in a result-driven way, is effective," he said. "It's even better if these results can be quantified into a number."

Instead of writing "Worked on building a novel recommendation model for page feeds," try instead: "Developed a novel recommendation model for page feeds that increased user engagement by 5%."

Impact can be quantified in a number of ways, including business you've generated for the company, resources you've saved, features you've built, or how your work has improved customer engagement or satisfaction, for example.

Stay brief

For many job applicants, it's good practice to keep a résumé to one page, with a bulleted listing of skills and experience tailored to the target role.

Nair was also careful to focus on action verbs in his resume, starting bullets with words like "developed," "built," and "designed."

Draw attention to your skills, but don't go overboard

Nair listed some programming languages and frameworks with which he has experience. He cautions against throwing in extra skills just for the sake of it, especially if you're not confident in them.

"Adding a lot of skills in this section, especially ones that you are not very proficient in, could backfire since you could also be judged on your knowledge of them in the technical interviews," he said.

Networking

A recruiter reached out to Nair for his current role at Google, but he'd laid the groundwork by previously reaching out to the recruiter in his prior job search.

When Nair was searching for his prior roles, he blasted cold reach-outs to hiring managers, recruiters, software engineers, and others at his target companies to get a sense of who might be hiring for their teams or who might be able to refer him for a position.

"I was reaching out cold to everyone who had a title in their LinkedIn which said that they're hiring for the teams or that they're a manager for a team," he said. "You just have to send out as many cold emails as you can, and you might just get lucky."

In his initial messages, Nair gave a quick overview of his experience and attached his résumé, but largely focused on keeping his requests "brief and to the point."

He used this template for his asks:

"Hi <name>,

I'm a <role> working on <brief description of what you're working on>. I'm interested in <target role> at <company> and would love to connect to learn more about opportunities.

I have also attached my résumé here. Let me know if we can chat!

Thanks,

<your name>"

It was very much a numbers game, but it worked for Nair in the end.

"A lot of people might not respond, but that's basically the worst that can happen," he said. "You just need one person to respond, and that's kind of what happened to me."

Preparing for the interviews

Nair's interview process for his current role included several rounds of technical interviews focused on coding and problem-solving skills, he said, as well as a team match.

He prepared for the interviews by scouring online forums to see what he could expect based on other candidates' previous experiences, brushing up on his technical skills, enlisting his friends for mock interview run-throughs, and learning from other interviews he was doing with different companies.

"Compared to the other companies that I did interview with, Google is a lot more focused on if you do understand the problem and are able to solve it from first principles as opposed to just needing to give a perfect solution," he said. "They care if you can solve the problem, if you're able to think through it, rather than having just memorized something that you've seen before."

• Bosses are running low on empathy, and some companies are cutting roles.
• It's an employers' market, and some are using tactics to get rid of low performers.
• It may be time to work harder and not seek extra flexibility, said Suzanne Lucas, an HR consultant.

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."

Employers' market

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."

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."

Protecting yourself

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."

• CEO Brendan Ripp's LinkedIn post helped his cousin secure job interviews quickly.
• Willingness to advocate for a relative on the platform is a signal it's becoming less formal.
• It can be a good thing to share with your network that a relative needs a job, experts said.

Brendan Ripp is a CEO. He's also a proud relative.

In December, Ripp shared with his LinkedIn network that a cousin who'd recently graduated magna cum laude was looking for a job.

"Anyone in my advertising & marketing networks hiring smart kids out of college?" Ripp, head of the audience-development platform Pushly, wrote before linking to his cousin's post about earning her degree.

It was the first time Ripp, who's often pressed for time running a young company, had shared with his more than 8,500 LinkedIn followers that someone he knew well was seeking work, he told Business Insider.

"This felt like the best and fastest way that I could provide assistance and yield a result," Ripp, who lives outside New York City, said.

Within two days of the post, his cousin had three interviews lined up, Ripp, 48, said.

Networking on LinkedIn has been central to the platform from the start. Yet anecdotal evidence suggests that the pandemic-tinged informality that's taken hold in so many workplaces — think athleisure at the office — has also seeped into how we network on LinkedIn.

While several posts on the platform about users' personal lives have gone viral — finding B2B sales lessons in a marriage proposal might be asking too much — when it comes to the friends and family posts, workplace observers told BI it's broadly a good thing.

"That's old-school Rolodex networking. We're just bringing it to the internet," Maria Ross, an empathy researcher and the author of the book "The Empathy Dilemma," said.

Ross told BI that some LinkedIn users' willingness to get a bit more personal stems, in part, from a collective experience over the past five years.

"What we've learned in the pandemic was that we can't park our humanity at the door," she said.

'She's dope. She's amazing.'

If you have someone you feel called to help find a job by posting on LinkedIn, do it, Jasmine Escalera, a career expert with MyPerfectResume, told BI, adding that it's time to throw out "old-school narratives."

She said that as long as people are truthful in what they write, there shouldn't be an issue announcing that your niece has graduated from college and saying, "She's dope. She's amazing. You should hire her."

Josh Bersin, CEO of the Josh Bersin Company, a human resources advisory firm, told BI that because LinkedIn users don't operate anonymously, they should mean what they say if they make a laudatory pronouncement on someone's behalf.

"The reason LinkedIn has survived so well is because it's honest. You can't put a fake name on there. Your reputation goes with you," he said.

A LinkedIn spokesperson told BI that the platform doesn't have data on how often people help out relatives with networking appeals and endorsements.

'Work-adjacent' posts

Bob Gruters, a father of four, is a fan of the friends and family post. The 56-year-old executive turned to LinkedIn to share when his oldest son graduated, got a job, and was promoted. Gruters also issued professional huzzahs on the platform when his other sons nabbed internships.

Gruters, who's president at ReachTV in St. Petersberg, Florida, recently reposted his daughter's announcement that she'd earned her undergraduate degree and would begin a program to become a physician assistant.

"This human of ours dreams big and then makes them come true," he wrote.

Gruters, a former Facebook exec, told BI that the accomplishments he posts about on behalf of his family are "work-adjacent."

Gruters's posts about family members have often elicited friendly responses, he said. People have offered to introduce Gruters's sons or daughter to those already at a school or workplace.

"That's what we all used to do. We used to network," Gruters said. "LinkedIn, in its best form, is a way for us to professionally connect and link and network."

Gruters said that posting about these "big moments" in his family life is a window into what drives him as a businessperson. Letting connections know about these milestones also makes sense because many colleagues have, in some way, played a role, he said.

"Every boss I've had has contributed to my life," Gruters said.

However, he said the LinkedIn announcements he sometimes sees about birthdays and the like are better suited to other platforms.

Craving connection

Christie Smith, who's held leadership roles at Deloitte, Apple, and Accenture and is coauthor of the book "Essential," told BI that before they post on behalf of someone, LinkedIn users should consider their employers' norms regarding advocating for relatives. Yet, generally, she thinks it's a good thing to see people lifting up others on LinkedIn.

"People are craving connection and community, and that's part of why we're seeing more transparency," she said.

Ross, the empathy researcher, said a willingness to help others, even those in their family, is part of a broader shift toward being more open about once-taboo subjects like mental health, even on a professional platform like LinkedIn.

"The authenticity is good," she said. "You're not just some faceless EVP from a company, but I get to know you."

There can be risks

When someone on LinkedIn endorses a relative, it risks coming across as "cheesy," Randall Peterson, a professor of organizational behavior at London Business School, told BI. Yet, he said, it's not unethical the way lying on a résumé would be.

Plus, there's the conundrum that often faces people at the start of their careers: It's hard to get a great job without experience. That's where an online boost, even from a relative, might help, Peterson said.

"If it's no endorsements or one from somebody who is related to you, maybe you want that one because that's all you've got," he said.

Ripp, the CEO who went to LinkedIn to help his cousin, said she's had interviews with a half dozen employers she connected with.

That's proof, he said, that his 38-word post, which drew nearly 5,000 impressions and more than 60 "likes," was more effective than sending a handful of emails to connections who might be hiring.

"I was incredibly overwhelmed and surprised by the response," Ripp said.

• Many older Americans continue working into their retirement years, even though they're millionaires.
• Americans are working later in their lives than ever, many for financial reasons.
• Older Americans told BI they could retire but want to keep their minds fresh and social lives full.

Jack Bishop, 81, can comfortably retire after five decades in the restaurant industry. However, he has no plans to.

The Air Force veteran opened restaurants in Panama City Beach over the course of over 50 years, weathering hurricanes and a fire. He still operates two locations of a seafood buffet.

Bishop, a father of two, said he often sacrificed vacations for his business, though he's taken joy in training student workers, many of whom he's paid tuition for. He's paid his managers and core staff for the months the business closes for the season, which he said reduced his turnover rate.

Bishop could retire — he's worth a few million dollars — but he said his connections to many restaurant providers and community members hold him back from retiring.

"My plan was to be retired at 55, but I felt like I was in my prime, and we were doing great," Bishop said, adding he waited until 70 to take his $4,000 monthly Social Security checks. "I wanted to keep my mind alive."

Are you an older American working past the US retirement age of 67? Email this reporter at [email protected].

Bishop is one of about two dozen older Americans who responded to Business Insider reader surveys on work and aging and said that even though they can retire, they have no desire to stop. For this story, BI spoke with six of them.

Some said work gives them purpose and a social life, while others said they have peace of mind that they can afford large emergency costs or long-term care. Though many older Americans told BI they retired early and relish not being in an office, some who chose not to retire have millions in the bank but said they wouldn't know how to enjoy retirement.

Deb Whitman, AARP's chief public policy officer, said the number of people 55 and older who work or seek work is twice as high as in the 1990s, with Americans overall working longer.

"One thing you're seeing about people working longer is this fear of holding onto the job that they have because they might have lost one before or fear that they'll be pushed out any day," Whitman said, adding that many older Americans experience age discrimination.

Working with seven figures in the bank

Michael Mosher, 74, worked as a lawyer, but his income was inconsistent over the years — he made $850,000 one year and lost $10,000 the next. He said much of his low seven-figure net worth came from real estate deals.

When the pandemic hit, Mosher lowered his caseload but didn't retire. He said he sometimes takes a month or two off work to travel, and he owns about 300 acres of pasture land with three dozen cows. He still lives frugally: He pays $500 monthly rent for his office, and his other expenses are about $1,000 monthly.

Mosher said if he were to retire, he would live comfortably on about $50,000 a year from Social Security and $50,000 to $75,000 from investments. He's considered downsizing his ranch, which would sell for between $2 million and $3 million. Still, he said he would only quit law once his brain starts going, adding he wants to preserve his reason for getting up every morning.

"You need to do something productive that engages your mind and body," Mosher said. "As long as my brain holds up and my back and knees don't go away, I'll be a lawyer or rancher. I have the ability now to control my docket with the lawyer part so that I can run the ranch and not vegetate."

Retiring, then unretiring

Anne Sallee, 68, thought she would enjoy her retirement. But after two years, she decided to go back to work.

"I consulted for free and volunteered in my community, but I can vividly remember the first time the doctor's office asked me if I was retired, and I said yes. It was a painful moment," Sallee said.

Sallee, who lives in Winter Park, Florida, worked as a jeweler and paralegal while raising her three children. She said she hadn't planned for retirement until the mid-1990s, but by the decade's end, she could support her children, pay rent, and save. After a divorce, she married a financial advisor and joined a women's investment club that taught her the basics.

After working up to a six-figure salary, she spent four years in local government roles in Oakland Park, Florida. After holding various other hospitality management roles, she retired at 65.

"I decided this was it. I was going to retire. But I quickly found myself bored," Sallee said, adding she had enough in savings to live comfortably for years. "I started doing a lot of volunteer work in my immediate community, helping people with whatever problems I thought I might have a solution for."

Sallee said she wanted to "see in people's eyes" how her work has helped them, prompting her to return to work. She had accepted the city's economic development coordinator position, which paid half of her last one. She said she didn't need the money, as she has over a million dollars in retirement savings. Sallee said she might retire in a few years if her job stops giving her excitement, but she suspects she will always be involved in something.

"I had to be up and dressed at a desk at 8 every morning, which was a shock to my system," Sallee said. "I was used to a little more flexibility in my day, but I've been here now two years, and I absolutely love it."

Reaching retirement age but in it for the long run

James Sullivan, 61, an infectious disease doctor in Chicago, said he has "every reason in the world to be carried out of the office dead."

Sullivan, who went into private practice in 1996 working with HIV patients, said he has about 500 patients, many of whom he's treated for decades. He said at one point, he worked 12 to 16 hours every day.

Sullivan lived very frugally throughout his career. In medical school, he lived with six roommates, paid off his student loans within six months, and bought cheaper primary homes in up-and-coming areas. He prioritized dividend stocks and index funds. He also never had children.

"I did well financially because I liked what I was doing," Sullivan said. "I enjoyed every minute of what I did, no matter how sad or how hard it was."

Despite some frustrations with how corporatized medicine has become, Sullivan said he cherishes spending an hour with each patient. He spends time with family at dinners, but he frequently works holidays and rarely takes vacations. Sullivan has about $10 million in assets, including a house and an investment property, and he invests in his partner's medical education and training and his siblings' families.

Sullivan said as someone who frequently interacts with lower-income patients, he wishes lower-income people could retire comfortably with good Social Security. Still, he plans to work until 75, if not later.

"When I get asked to see somebody in the hospital, and it's an interesting case, I get to deal with other smart people. We get to talk about it. We get to look things up constantly and learn," Sullivan said. "I'm not looking for weeks of quiet time. I'm not even sure I'd know what to do with that."

Mastodon, the decentralized alternative to X, is going to adopt a controversial feature from the platform formerly known as Twitter: quote posts. The company on Friday shared the progress it’s making on the implementation of the feature, which has divided users over its potential to be used for online abuse and bullying. Critics have long […]

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• Michael W. Sonnenfeldt started TIGER 21 so he could learn about wealth preservation from peers.
• The network now has nearly 1,600 members who all have a minimum net worth of $20 million.
• The biggest concern members have is probably how to not screw up their kids, Sonnenfeldt said.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with 69-year-old Michael W. Sonnenfeldt, the founder of TIGER 21, a membership organization for high-net-worth individuals. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I'd sort of made it in life by the time I was 31 years old.

I achieved significant success in the real estate development world by developing the Harborside Financial Center — my partner and I bought an industrial warehouse when I was 25, with a vision to turn it into a modern computer center, and we sold it a few years later.

My next venture wasn't successful, and I lost money. I then went on to build a real-estate merchant bank called Emmes, which I sold in 1998.

When I sold Harborside, I didn't know the term "wealth preservation." At 30 years old, you're more focused on your next deal than preserving wealth, but losing money on my next venture was a wake-up call for me, and I wanted to avoid losing the capital I'd created after selling Emmes.

In 1999, I started TIGER 21, an organization for high-net-worth individuals to connect and discuss their finances and lives. I wanted to learn from other smart people about how they were grappling with wealth preservation.

Within the organization, ultrawealthy members are able to confidentially share and receive feedback on their investment portfolios, as well as discuss how not to screw up their children. It's produced some magnificent learnings.

I started TIGER 21 to support entrepreneurs who'd sold businesses

Although I'm the founder and chairman of TIGER 21, my first role is "member No. 1."

I started the group with six people who I'd connected with through Vistage, a coaching organization for business executives. These people, like me, had sold their businesses at a similar time and were no longer CEOs.

I invited these members to form a new group focused on the transition from entrepreneurship to investing and wealth preservation.

The group was born out of the realization that once you sell your business, you need a new body of knowledge about the next stages of your life. It's not just about finances but also legacy, children, health, and community.

Our members are primarily first-generation wealth creators, such as executives or entrepreneurs who've sold a business. They didn't grow up with that wealth, so managing it is new to them.

Some members have inherited wealth and have to manage it. The mix of wealth creators and inheritors helps wealth creators get insight into how their children might react to their wealth, and inheritors can connect with the entrepreneurial spirit of their ancestors who created that wealth.

Members share issues they're facing and talk about their investment portfolios

In 1999, the original threshold to be a TIGER 21 member was a minimum of $10 million of investable assets. Now, our community is for members with a minimum net worth of $20 million. We have nearly 1,600 members.

Net worth is just one factor in our rigorous application process. We look for individuals who meet the "five Cs" of membership: character, contribution, capacity, conditions, and capital.

A TIGER 21 membership costs roughly $33,000 a year, plus an initiation fee of $5,000.

At the core of the community experience is a full-day monthly meeting in small groups. We start with a world update or "personal board of directors" segment. Everyone in the group shares how the news in the last 30 days has impacted their views on investing and life.

Then, groups will discuss a few key issues that members have mentioned they're grappling with, like a family issue or investment consideration.

We tend to have a speaker at every meeting sharing on a topic, like biodiversity or China. Lastly, there's a portfolio defense. One group member will present their investment portfolio to the others for about an hour and a half. Everyone is bound by confidentiality.

Members also discuss parenting and passing wealth onto children

If you plan on leaving money to your children, you have to think about the estate tax impact, but there are also non-financial issues about how you treat each child. Do you treat them equally, how do you set up an estate plan?

These issues are talked about in every group, but we've also set up a family office division to address this. It's for principal leaders of single-family offices — private businesses established by families for financial management — who meet separately from our core groups to discuss themes like estate planning, family governance, and succession planning. It costs $50,000 a year with a one-time $5,000 initiation fee to be part of this division.

Throughout all of TIGER, the No. 1 concern probably isn't how to preserve wealth, but how to not screw up your kids. I'd say that some part of every meeting always touches on a situation happening with a member's children and how to address it productively.

I was in a family office group recently where two members shared their parenting approaches. One member talked about making their kids rake leaves or do odd jobs and telling them they'd have to pay for their first car because they wanted their kids to appreciate the meaning of labor and wealth. Another member shared their family "charter," outlining the family's values.

We discuss best practices all the way around.

It doesn't matter how much money you have, if you do something smart, it'll pay off. And if you do something stupid, it'll kick you in the butt.

Do you have a story about networking you'd like to share with Business Insider? Email the reporter at [email protected]

Since 2022, blogging site Tumblr has been teasing its plans to integrate with the fediverse — the open social web powered by the protocol ActivityPub also used by Mastodon, Threads, Flipboard, and others. Now, the Automattic-owned blogging platform is sharing more information about when and how that integration could actually happen. As it turns out, […]

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Bluesky users on Android now have access to a new app that works more like Instagram than X. On Tuesday, an app called Pinksky launched an Android version of its photo-centric social networking experience built on top of Bluesky. The app is now one of many attempting to court former Instagram users by offering a […]

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• Some employers require time in the office based on how far away a worker lives.
• One company in San Francisco paid remote workers to move closer so they could report to the office.
• Some employers are sticking to hybrid setups even as some big names mandate a return to the office.

Oliver Shaw's commute to the office is 190 miles and takes more than 2 hours.

And "I am absolutely fine with it," he told Business Insider.

The CEO of the software company Orgvue travels by train from his home near Manchester, England, to London, generally on Tuesdays.

Shaw often then stays overnight near the office, takes a return train after work the next day, and gets back home at about 10 p.m.

What's not fine, however, in Shaw's view, is to say that those who live far from the office — like he does — get out of having to commute at least some of the time.

Yet, at many employers, that's what happens: Live close to the office, show up. Live far away, stay remote. Where the boundary lies, however, is often unclear.

Late last month, Dell CEO Michael Dell said that starting in March, the company would expect workers living within roughly an hour of an office to show up five days a week. A spokesperson told BI that guidance remains in effect.

Meantime, the federal government is giving different consideration, at least initially, to workers living more 50 miles from an office. The real estate company Redfin has drawn the mark at 20 miles. Last year, IBM moved to require managers in the US to live within 50 miles of an office or a client site.

Stay inside the line

In 2024, Density, a Bay Area company that makes radar sensors for anonymously monitoring office space use, offered relocation assistance to most of its remote workers so they could regularly report to its main office in San Francisco.

"By and large, if you didn't relocate, then you found another job," cofounder and CEO Andrew Farah said. "We take a reasonably hard policy on it."

Since January, Density has required workers who live within 30 miles of its San Francisco office to be in four days a week — Wednesdays are a work-from-anywhere day — from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. That's an extra in-office day from 2024.

Workers who live beyond 30 miles now have to show up two days a week, up from one last year, he said. New hires, regardless of where they live, must travel to the office four times a week.

Farah said it made sense for the company to revise its pandemic-era policy of allowing remote work. He credited Density's employees for dealing with the changes even if they didn't always like them, as indicated in a survey of the firm's some 100 workers.

Yet the same survey also found a 48% increase in workers who agreed with the statement, "I feel more aligned with the company," Farah said.

Farah said the move to require workers to show up more was also designed to boost key metrics like sales and the speed at which Density develops products.

"When we went from fully distributed to in-person, they all got better," he said.

Many employers still allow flexibility

Big-name companies, from Amazon to JPMorgan, have required many desk workers to be back in the office five days a week.

Yet many others have maintained flexible policies or offer RTO guidance but don't draw a circle around the office to determine who has to come in, Brian Elliott, a former executive at Slack who is CEO of Work Forward, an advisory firm on future-of-work issues, told BI.

Such employers will say, "We want you all to be together, but I'm not going to enforce it through monitoring," he said.

In some cases, Elliott said, employers are using "questionable logic" when implementing RTO policies. He said that before they settle on a line of demarcation, employers would be wise to determine which teams are located in the same areas so that people who work closely together might meet in person regularly.

Most workers would understand the need for that, he said. Yet, Elliott said, asking those who might do half of their work or more with people in other locations to show up often strikes employees as illogical.

"You're basically commuting to the same thing you would have been doing at home," Elliott said.

Opening an office but going hybrid

Prodoscore, which makes software for monitoring employee productivity, has operated as a remote company though it plans to open an office in Boston for some functions, CEO Sam Naficy told BI.

Yet even when there's an office to go to, he said, the company will rely on a hybrid setup. That's already what it does by gathering teams each month to help build culture.

Naficy said he believes many companies are too quick to call workers back to the office based on "gut feelings" and insufficient data.

"It's a Band-Aid solution," he said.

Instead, Naficy said, employers should consider setups that allow for worker flexibility, provided they're held accountable for their accomplishments.

Otherwise, he said, there will likely be a group of workers who think, "Hey, I am equally productive. Why are you forcing me to drive an hour a day?"

For Shaw, the head of Orgvue, being in the office a couple of days a week when he's not otherwise traveling gives him a chance to collaborate with his executive committee and the wider team, he said.

Plus, Shaw said, time in the office affords workers a chance to be productive together.

"I'm not managing staff in a Victorian way of being in this place for this many hours. I'm managing a set of outcomes," he said.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg teased a “return to OG Facebook” as part of his key goals for 2025 in Wednesday’s Q4 earnings call with investors. While the company was short on details as to what specific changes lay in store, it’s clear that Meta is in desperate need of younger Facebook users to sustain itself […]

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Threads, Meta’s microblogging service, is growing at a fast pace as users gravitate to the app over rivals like X. During the company’s fourth-quarter earnings presentation on Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Threads now has 320 million monthly active users (MAUs), up from 300 million last month. The app had 275 million monthly active […]

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• New Zealand is easing visitor visa rules to allow tourists to work remotely while there.
• The country has faced economic headwinds, with a recession and rising unemployment in 2024.
• The digital nomad initiative aims to boost tourism, a vital industry for New Zealand's economy.

New Zealand's government is relaxing visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while in the country, in a bid to boost its struggling economy.

Starting Monday, tourists will be allowed to work remotely for a foreign employer while vacationing there, as part of a new "digital nomad" initiative.

"The change is part of the Government's plan to unlock New Zealand's potential by shifting the country onto a faster growth track," the country's economic growth minister, Nicola Willis, said in a joint statement.

Last year, New Zealand's economy faced significant challenges, with the OECD describing its economic momentum as "weak."

In the third quarter, New Zealand sank into a technical recession, and in November unemployment rose to a nearly four-year high.

New Zealand experienced the largest GDP contraction among developed nations in 2024, Paul Bloxham, HSBC's chief economist for New Zealand and Australia, told RNZ.

The relaxation in rules aims to bring in digital nomads, who have already flocked to countries such as Spain, Portugal, and Malta.

Many countries are targeting this market of often affluent young people. Twenty-nine other countries offer residence visas for remote workers, or "digital nomad visas," Business Insider reported last year.

"Making the country more attractive to 'digital nomads' — people who work remotely while traveling — will boost New Zealand's attractiveness as a destination," Willis said in the statement.

Tourism, once New Zealand's largest export earner before the COVID-19 pandemic, remains a vital industry for the country. Now the second-largest earner, it generates billions of dollars annually and supports nearly 200,000 jobs, Willis said.

Louise Upston, New Zealand's Minister for Tourism, said in the statement that digital nomads are a "brand-new market of tourist" that New Zealand can tap into.

She said they have the potential to spend more time and money in the country, including during the "shoulder season," when fewer tourists traditionally visit.

"Many countries offer digital nomad visas and the list is growing, so we need to keep pace to ensure New Zealand is an attractive destination for people who want to 'workcation' abroad," Upston said.

The rules have been relaxed for all visitor visas, including those for tourists, family visits, and partners or guardians on longer-term stays.

"This Government is committed to supporting a smarter, efficient and predictable immigration system to grow our economy," Erica Stanford, New Zealand's immigration minister, said.

However, New Zealand's Immigration Department urged digital nomads who intend to work remotely in the country for more than 92 days in a 12-month period to be aware of the tax implications.

Streaming service Plex has long since grown beyond its original focus of being a home for personal media to offer a more comprehensive solution for discovering, streaming, and sharing content across services, including Plex’s own ad-supported free TV and movies. More recently, the company added social networking features, which it’s today expanding with its rollout […]

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After the TikTok ban went into effect on Sunday, social network Bluesky launched a custom feed for videos on its platform. Now, Flipboard’s newest app, Surf, which is dedicated to browsing the open social web and decentralized services like Mastodon and Bluesky, is taking advantage of that move to introduce a video feed of its […]

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Entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban is ready to fund a TikTok alternative built on Bluesky’s AT Protocol, he shared in a TikTok video posted on Wednesday. In anticipation of the coming U.S. TikTok ban, which will go through on Sunday unless paused by the Supreme Court, users have been fleeing to other video platforms, including […]

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Will Instagram Threads truly integrate with the fediverse, also known as the open social web, to allow its users to interact with people on other services like Mastodon and to move their account elsewhere if they decide that Meta’s policies are no longer to their liking? Today that answer remains murky. Meta cannot yet confirm […]

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• Job ads have been getting too lengthy and have long lacked salary details.
• Hiring managers are being inundated with applications thanks to AI.
• The situation is untenable and something needs to change, hiring experts say.

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."

Too wordy and demanding

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."

'Soul-crushing' process

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.

The human touch is missing

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.

Rise of the networks

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.

American TikTok users have been thumbing their collective noses at the U.S. government’s decision to ban TikTok by spitefully joining another Chinese social media app, RedNote (aka Xiaohongshu), sending it to the top of the U.S. App Store on Monday. Unfortunately, many of those who already made the transition have faced problems with having their […]

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On Friday, the nation’s highest court heard arguments on whether to uphold or block a law that could effectively ban TikTok​ in the U.S. The bill, signed into law by President Biden in April 2024, gives TikTok’s parent company ByteDance until January 19 to divest its U.S. operations or face a ban in the country. […]

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Social network and X competitor Bluesky’s massive growth slowed in December in the U.S., after having surged from 9+ million in September to north of 20 million users in November. The slowdown is based on an analysis of web traffic and mobile app daily active users by analytics firm Similarweb, which found that Bluesky grew […]

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