Across Wall Street, financial firms are competing to keep talent by raising pay. Some banks are also going on big recruiting pushes— though recruiters say the hiring pool is nearly tapped out for junior talent. 

The going rate for base pay for first-year analysts, the most junior full-time rank on Wall Street, is now at least $100,000 across many banks. And other levels have also seen recent pay bumps. 

Trying to keep up with the latest on pay for junior bankers on Wall Street? Here's a bank-by-bank breakdown at firms like Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and more. You can also see our full running list here. 

Bank of America

Bank of America raised salaries for analysts, associates,  and vice presidents in its US investment-banking division, two sources familiar with the new measures told Insider in early April. 

See all the pay details here.

Citigroup

Analysts, associates, and vice presidents in Citigroup's banking, capital markets, and advisory division will receive base salary increases.

The raises will be reflected in payments starting in August, according to an internal announcement first reported by Insider on July 2. Tyler Dickson and Manuel Falcó, co-heads of Citi's BCMA group, sent the memo, which was reviewed by Insider.

Keep reading here.

Credit Suisse

The firm raised salaries for people in the global capital-markets and advisory group at the director level and below, which includes vice presidents, associates, and analysts. Salary raises took effect for directors, vice presidents, and associates as early as April.

See the full story here.

Evercore

Evercore just sent out offer letters for next year's class of entry-level bankers, Insider has learned. In May, Insider reported Evercore had previously planned to pay summer 2022 investment-banking interns on a pro rated basis of $95,000 per annum.   

More on the latest pay here.

Goldman Sachs 

Goldman Sachs is bumping pay for investment banking analysts and associates, Insider first reported on August 1. The move came months after the firm's culture regarding junior bankers first came under scrutiny this spring.

Read the full story here. 

JPMorgan

Wall Street's biggest bank is rolling out pay bumps for junior workers in its investment bank, sources familiar with the situation told Insider on June 28. 

More on JPMorgan raises here.

Lazard

Lazard is raising base comp for junior investment bankers in the US, a person familiar with the matter told Insider on August 3.  Salaries will go into effect as of the August 13 payroll and be retroactive as of July 1.

The memo added that bonuses for the year ending June 30 will be awarded to investment-banking analysts during the week of August 9.

Keep reading here.

Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley has raised pay for first-year and second-year analysts in the investment-banking and GCM divisions, a person familiar with the matter told Insider on July 28. The changes went into effect on August 1 for analysts in both of the divisions globally.

More on Morgan Stanley pay here. 

RBC Capital Markets

RBC raised analyst and associate base pay. The raises impacted US employees and went into effect in June, according to the post.

See the full story here.

Raymond James

The firm is increasing base compensation for first-, second-, and third-year investment-bank analysts, according to an email sent by James Bunn, Raymond James' president of global equities and investment banking. The raises will take effect on October 1. 

While Bunn said in his email that the pay bumps should put Raymond James at the "high end of analyst salaries on the Street," junior bankers may not end up taking home more total pay than before.

"Importantly, our primary focus is on total compensation (salary + bonus) and these salary increases are not intended to represent an increase in total comp," said the email.

See all the details here. 

UBS

The bank is raising salaries for analysts, associates, and directors within its investment bank, two people familiar with the matter told Insider on July 21. 

The raises were effective August 1. And analysts, associates, and directors across all regions are eligible for the raise.

Read the full story here. 

Wells Fargo 

Wells Fargo is raising base comp for analysts and associates in its corporate and investment bank, a Wells Fargo spokesperson confirmed to Insider. These raises are retroactive to July 1. 

"We can confirm the adjustment of base pay in certain client-facing positions across the Corporate and Investment Bank, which ensures we remain competitive and aligned with market practices," the spokesperson said. "We are committed to offering compensation that attracts, motivates, and retains talent."

See more here.

William Blair

William Blair is raising base salaries for bankers from first-year analysts to managing directors. The raises will go into effect in the Aug. 15 payroll cycle. A person familiar with the matter told Insider that the raises apply to the firm's investment bankers globally.

William Blair executives earlier this year told its investment-banking analysts, associates, and vice presidents who joined the firm before Jan. 31 they would receive "a special, one-time spot bonus" in the amount of $20,000.  More recent hires got smaller bonuses. The special bonuses hit accounts in the April 15 payroll cycle.

Keep reading here. 

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Across Wall Street, financial firms are competing to keep talent by raising pay. Some banks are also going on big recruiting pushes— though recruiters say the hiring pool is nearly tapped out for junior talent. 

Trying to keep track of which Wall Street firms are raising pay?

Here's our running list of which investment banks have given raises and what different levels like analysts, associates, and vice presidents are getting paid now:

Bank of America

Bank of America announced a second round of pay increases for junior investment bankers that will go into effect in the coming months.

The firm is bumping salaries for analysts in global corporate and investment banking, global markets, and global research divisions, according to an internal memo sent by the bank's global banking and markets leadership team and reviewed by Insider.

In all three divisions, first- and second-year analysts will make $100,000 and $105,000, respectively. Third-year analysts in global markets and global research will see their base pay bumped to $110,000.

The raises will take effect on February 1, 2022, and their goal, in part, is "fostering an environment where you can build a long-tenured career" the memo said. 

Bloomberg first reported the news of the second pay bump. 

Insider was first to report Bank of America's initial salary raise in early April for associates and vice presidents in its US investment-banking division by $25,000, and analysts by $10,000.

Guggenheim Securities

Guggenheim Securities, a division of the financial-services firm Guggenheim Partners, has raised base compensation for investment-bank analysts for a second time in a matter of months, Insider has learned.

The firm has increased base comp to $110,000 for first-year investment-banking analysts, $120,000 for second-year analysts, and $130,000 for third-year analysts, a person familiar with the situation told Insider. The person requested not to be identified discussing private matters.

The announcement was relayed on an internal Zoom call on August 12, the person said. Derek Ahmann, senior managing director at Guggenheim Securities' investment-banking division, made the announcement to a group of nearly 150 analysts, the person added. 

Insider previously reported that first-year IB analysts at Guggenheim Securities were told in May that, effective July 1, they would earn $100,000 at the first-year analyst level, $110,000 at the second-year analyst level, and $125,000 at the third-year analyst level.

Evercore 

Evercore just bumped its base compensation for junior bankers to make it one of the top-paying investment banks for first- and second-year analysts. 

Current first- and second-year investment-banking analysts were told internally on August 10 that their base salaries would rise to $120,000 and $130,000, respectively, three people familiar with the situation told Insider. It was not clear when the raises would take effect or whether they would be backdated.

Wells Fargo 

Wells Fargo is raising base comp for analysts and associates in its corporate and investment bank, a bank spokesperson confirmed to Insider. 

"We can confirm the adjustment of base pay in certain client-facing positions across the Corporate and Investment Bank, which ensures we remain competitive and aligned with market practices. We are committed to offering compensation that attracts, motivates, and retains talent," the spokesperson said. 

First-year analysts in Wells Fargo's CIB division will see base comp bumped to $100,000. Second-year analysts will earn $105,000, and third-years will earn $110,000 pre-bonus.

Wells Fargo associates are also getting pay bumps. First, second, and third-year associate base pay will be bumped to $175,000, $200,000, and $225,000, respectively. 

These raises are retroactive to July 1st. 

Wells Fargo offered analysts and associates special bonuses up to $20,000 in April, Insider reported. 

Raymond James

The firm is increasing base compensation for first-, second-, and third-year investment-bank analysts to $105,000, $110,000, and $125,000, respectively, according to an email sent by James Bunn, Raymond James' president of global equities and investment banking. The raises will take effect on October 1. 

While Bunn said in his email that the pay bumps should put Raymond James at the "high end of analyst salaries on the Street," junior bankers may not end up taking home more total pay than before.

"Importantly, our primary focus is on total compensation (salary + bonus) and these salary increases are not intended to represent an increase in total comp," said the email.

HSBC

HSBC is bumping pay for first-year base pay for analysts to $100,000, up from $85,000, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to Insider.

The raises, which were first reported by Reuters, were finalized several weeks ago but announced internally to line managers on August 3.

All first-year investment-banking analysts starting at the firm this year through the bank's graduate recruitment program are eligible, the person said. This increase brings HSBC's first-year analyst pay in line with JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and Citi, which all recently bumped base pay for its most junior employees by $15,000.

Summer interns in the firm's investment bank will get full-time offers this month, and start working on a desk in September. Promotions to second-year analyst happen during a March pay review. The overall analyst program is 2-1/2 years long. 

Lazard

Lazard is raising base comp for junior investment bankers in the US, a person familiar with the matter told Insider on August 3. 

The firm is raising first-year analyst salary to $100,000; second-year salary to $110,000, and third-year salary to $110,000 as well.

Salaries will go into effect as of the August 13 payroll and be retroactive as of July 1.

The memo added that bonuses for the year ending June 30 will be awarded to investment-banking analysts during the week of August 9.

Goldman Sachs 

Goldman Sachs is bumping pay for investment banking analysts and associates, Insider first reported on August 1.

Second-year analysts will now make $125,000 in base compensation, while base comp for first-year associates is bumping to $150,000, two people familiar with the matter told Insider. 

There hasn't been a formal announcement or memo yet about the raises, the sources said; the new salaries were posted in Goldman's internal human resources portal.

Pay for first-year analysts will rise to at least $110,000, according to a report by Bloomberg. 

The move came months after the firm's culture regarding junior bankers first came under scrutiny this spring.

William Blair

William Blair, a boutique investment bank based in Chicago, is raising salaries for bankers from junior to senior ranks.

The raises will go into effect in the Aug. 15 payroll cycle. A person familiar with the matter told Insider that the raises apply to the firm's investment bankers globally. While it could not be determined by precisely how much the bank was raising salaries, here is their new base compensation structure:

• First-year analyst: $110,000
• Second-year analyst: $115,000
• Third-year analyst: $125,000
• First-year associate: $175,000
• Second-year associate: $175,000
• Third-year associate: $200,000
• Fourth-year associate: $225,000
• Vice President: $275,000
• Director: $300,000
• Managing director: $350,000

William Blair executives earlier this year told its investment-banking analysts, associates, and vice presidents who joined the firm before Jan. 31 they would receive "a special, one-time spot bonus" in the amount of $20,000. 

More recent hires got smaller bonuses. Analysts, associates, and vice presidents who had joined the firm as of February received $13,000 bonuses. And those who signed on in March received $6,500 bonuses.

The special bonuses hit accounts in the April 15 payroll cycle.

Morgan Stanley 

First-year analysts in the investment-banking and GCM divisions will now earn a starting salary of $100,000 before bonus, a person familiar with the matter told Insider. Second-years in both divisions will earn $105,000.

The raises are $15,000 for each level and were announced internally on July 28. Previously, first-year analysts earned $85,000, and second-years earned $90,000.  The changes will go into effect on August 1 for analysts in both of the divisions globally.

UBS

The bank is raising salaries for analysts, associates, and directors within its investment bank, two people familiar with the matter told Insider on July 21. 

The raises are effective August 1. And analysts, associates, and directors across all regions are eligible for the raise.

• First-year analyst base salary to $100,000.
• Second-year analyst base salary to $105,000.
• Third-year analyst base salary to $110,000.
• First-year associate base salary to $175,000.
• Second-year associate base salary to $200,000.
• Third-year associate base salary to $225,000.
• Directors base salary to $275,000.

Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank is raising analyst pay by $15,000, a person familiar with the company's plans told Insider. 

The firm will pay its US-based first-year investment banking analysts $100,000 and second-year analysts $105,000 in annual base compensation. The news was first reported by Bloomberg.

US-based IB analysts who are promoted to the associate level midyear will receive a $25,000 increase, bringing them to $150,000 before bonus, the person said. Globally, the raises will be implemented by similar percentages for analysts and newly-promoted associates overseas.

PJ Solomon

PJ Solomon is raising pay for analysts and associates retroactive to July 1. The changes will appear in July 21 paychecks, according to a memo reviewed by Insider.

Here's a breakdown of new base pay at the boutique bank: 

• First-year analyst: $100,000
• Second-year analyst: $105,000
• Third-year analyst: $110,000
• Stub associate and first-year associate: $175,000
• Second-year associate: $200,000
• Third-year associate: $225,000

CEO Marc Cooper signed the memo, telling employees that the new rates are reflective of "competitive market rates for base salaries by level." 

"It's because of your commitment to excellence that we continue to grow as a firm, launch new industry verticals, recruit the best talent, and invest in professional development," Cooper added. PJ Solomon's raises were first reported by Bloomberg News.

Nomura

Japanese lender Nomura is raising entry-level analysts' salaries to $100,000, according to a report from Financial News which was followed by a separate report from Bloomberg News. Both reports cited persons familiar with the matter.

The pay raises will go into effect this month, the outlets said. Nomura did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

Citigroup

Analysts, associates, and vice presidents in Citigroup's banking, capital markets, and advisory division will receive base salary increases.

The raises will be reflected in payments starting in August, according to an internal announcement first reported by Insider on July 2. Tyler Dickson and Manuel Falcó, co-heads of Citi's BCMA group, sent the memo, which was reviewed by Insider.

Raises will range from $15,000 to $25,000 depending on the employee's level, a person familiar with the matter said.

The decision to raise base comp was a reaction to the "extraordinary set of demands" that bankers have faced over the past year, Dickson told Insider in an interview.

Barclays

Barclays is raising base pay for US investment-banking analysts by $15,000, and for associates and vice presidents by $25,000.

Salary raises go into effect on July 1, a person familiar with the matter told Insider. Employees outside of the US will receive equivalent percentage raises in their local currencies. The news was first reported by Bloomberg, which said that analysts will now get paid $100,000 before bonus.

JPMorgan

Wall Street's biggest bank is rolling out pay bumps for junior workers in its investment bank and first-year analysts will now make $100,000 before bonus, sources familiar with the situation told Insider on June 28. 

But JPMorgan's investment banking co-heads had told Bloomberg in April that they were focused on hiring as well as time away from the computer to ease young bankers' workloads. The firm this spring hired 65 analysts and 22 associates, co-head Jim Casey said, and there were plans to hire 100 more bankers and support staff. 

"It's not a money problem," he told Bloomberg at the time.

Centerview Partners

Boutique advisory firm Centerview partners is offering a $200,000 retention bonus to its junior bankers, according to a Bloomberg report on June 3. The firm is offering the cash to analysts who will be promoted to associates this summer, but there's a catch: young talent will have to commit to sticking around for at least two years in order to be eligible. 

The firm is also working on a policy that bans juniors from working during their four weeks of yearly vacation, the Bloomberg report said. 

Centerview did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

RBC Capital Markets

RBC Capital Markets is bumping analyst pay by $10,000 and associate pay by $20,000, according to a social media post on @Litquidity, a popular Instagram account in the financial-services community. A spokesperson for RBC Capital Markets declined to comment to Insider on salary matters. The raises impact US employees and would go into effect in June, according to the post.

The spokesperson for the firm told Insider that RBC Capital Markets would implement some other benefits for employees, including:

• No internal video calls to be held before 9:30 a.m. or after 7 p.m.
• Fridays will be entirely video call-free
• Three-day long weekends at least once per quarter, which are designed to give bankers a chance to unplug from business
• Mandatory vacation time for vice presidents, associates, and analysts, including two five-day weeks per year where they take off and do not have VPN access
• The firm is also implementing "technology solutions to reduce the manual execution of repetitive tasks"

UBS

UBS is paying a new, one-time bonus of $40,000 to investment bank analysts promoted to associate, Bloomberg reported.

The Swiss bank first announced plans for both the promotion bonus and salary increases in an internal memo reviewed by Insider and first reported by Financial News.

According to the memo sent on April 21 by global banking co-heads Ros Lesperance and Javier Oficialdegui, the new bonus will be paid by June for people promoted in March 2021.  And going forward, all newly promoted associates will get this new bonus at year end. 

The firm is also moving up its timeline for year-end reviews for analysts to July and salary increases to August, bringing UBS in line with competitors. Since 2021 will be a transition year given the new "year end" is being introduced this summer, analysts will get a stub bonus payment in August reflecting the January-June period. 

The memo said that UBS was "actively recruiting" to alleviate junior bankers' workloads and encouraged staff to connect people in their networks with the bank to earn referral awards. Insider previously reported the bank has posted jobs for SPAC-focused junior bankers. 

Houlihan Lokey

The boutique investment bank, which is known for its industry-leading restructuring business and its banking services largely oriented toward the middle-market, has announced internally that it is offering first-year analysts in the US who sit in the firm's corporate finance division a $5,000 base compensation increase, a $10,000 spot bonus, and an all-expenses paid vacation to a destination based on a list of options the firm has compiled. 

A person familiar with the company's plans said that other analysts at other levels or business lines could receive similar perks, but it could not be determined how large their bonuses or salary bumps would be, nor could Insider verify the locations where analysts would be able to travel to.

The person familiar also said that everyone in the corporate finance division, from analyst up through managing director, would be eligible to receive the all-expenses paid trip.

Credit Suisse

Credit Suisse told some junior to midlevel workers in its global capital-markets and advisory group to expect to receive salary raises and bonuses. The Swiss bank plans to disperse $20,000 bonuses to analysts, associates, and vice presidents, with bonuses hitting accounts as soon as the second quarter of 2021.

The firm will also increase salaries for people in the global capital-markets and advisory group at the director level and below, which includes vice presidents, associates, and analysts. Salary raises took effect for directors, vice presidents, and associates as early as April.

The firm is also implementing a relaxed dress code for those back in the office, but traditional dress-code requirements will continue to be in place for client meetings.

Moelis & Co

The boutique investment bank Moelis & Co. is offering junior investment bankers a $10,000 "allowance" to spend this year on services suggested to pertain to mental health, Bloomberg reported in late March. 

Recipients of the payments, which will come in three parts — first, a $5,000 payment, followed by two $2,500 payments — will be executive directors, vice presidents, associates, and analysts, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

In its report, Bloomberg also noted that Moelis is "encouraging bankers to take one Saturday a month away from work for dealmakers, except during active deals or clients requests."

Jefferies

Jefferies Financial Group CEO Rich Handler and President Brian Friedman, the top executives at the investment bank, sent a memo to their 1,124 analysts and associates worldwide on March 18 offering them their choice of gifts to thank them for a year of grinding and producing strong results for the firm.

On offer are a Peloton at-home workout bike with a one-year subscription, a Mirror Home Workout system with a one-year subscription, and a suite of Apple products including the Apple Watch, iPad, AirPods Pro, and AppleCare Plus coverage. 

Other pay raises and special bonuses across Wall Street: 

BlackRock

BlackRock told employees on July 14 that it would raise base pay for staffers at the director level and below by 8% as a way to reward its workforce, a person familiar with the matter told Insider. 

The pay rise will go into effect on September 1, the New York-based asset management firm said in a memo to employees. 

Warburg Pincus

Warburg Pincus is bumping pay by up to 30% for analysts and associates at the private-equity firm, Insider reported. The move will increase total compensation for investing-focused junior workers, meaning base plus bonus.

Employees learned of the increases on an internal call this spring, according to a source directly familiar with the situation. Warburg explained the raises as a move to bring comp in line with market rates, the source said.

First-year associates at Warburg receive total compensation north of $330,000, according to user-submitted data from Wall Street Oasis.

Apollo

Apollo is offering six-figure retention bonuses to some of its private-equity associates after several young executives quit the firm, Insider reported in March. In an effort to stem the exits, Apollo has extended $100,000, $150,000, and $200,000 bonuses for first-year, second-year, and third-year associates, respectively, to be paid in April, according to two people familiar with the matter. The bonuses come with the stipulation that associates stay with Apollo at least until September 2022.

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Will your job be done by a robot 10 years from now? If so, what will you end up doing?

Over and over, experts have assured us that robots are not going to take over the world in the foreseeable future, but for some industries, the impact of robots will still be felt.

"The angst that many people are feeling in a world where machines can do everything can only be calmed by creating new, better work for people to do,"said Ben Pring, vice president and director of Cognizant's Centre for the Future of Work.

IT services company Cognizant 21 More Jobs of the Future suggests "the human touch is critical" for many roles, and that the world of technology will create new job opportunities for the human race.

Here are the 21 other roles Cognizant says you can expect to be working by 2029.

SEE ALSO: Scientists may be on their way to growing human brains

1. Data Trash Engineer

The theory behind "junk data" is rather flawed — even if data hasn't been used in the past 12 months, it still has the potential to be transformed into insights.

Just like food waste can be put to use to produce green energy, data waste is still useful if cleaned.

Data trash engineers will identify unused data in organisations, "clean it", and feed it into machine-learning algorithms to find hidden insights. In the end, the goal of the data trash engineer is to transform data from trash to treasure.

2. Cyber Attack Agent

One day in the near future, wars will increasingly be fought through virtual platforms rather than out on the physical battlefield.

Digital brawls similar to Ukraine's 2015 power outage and the 2016 US Presidential election will become quite commonplace.

Cyber agents will be tasked with defending not just their nation's infrastructure, but sometimes going on the offensive against their country's adversaries.

3. Juvenile Cybercrime Rehabilitation Counsellor

While cigarettes and booze have by no means disappeared, the temptations experienced by today's youth differ greatly from those of previous generations.

Nowadays, the easy money and the seemingly victimless nature of cybercrime tempts a growing number of young people into cyber crime.

Juvenile cybercrime rehabilitation counsellors will work closely with young cyber offenders to rehabilitate them, helping them to understand their talents and enabling them to make the most of their skills rather than exploiting others.

4. Voice UX Designer

Given the seven billion people on the planet, there's a lot more potential for improving AI voice platforms yet. Studies show that voice interfaces that reflect a person's dialect and individual speech traits tend to be more effective — and that's where voice UX designers will come in.

This role will entail transposing AI voice platforms to every individual, tailoring an "optimal" dialect and sound that's most pleasing to each of us.

5. Joy Adjutant

Whether it's minimalist design or the Tiny Homes movement, the less-is-more approach seems to be gaining popularity.

The mission of joy adjutants will be to help individuals make good decisions about objects that bring happiness to their lives.

They will also assist customers in decluttering, by figuring out where to begin when sorting clothes, papers, miscellany, and sentimental items, for example.

6. Head of Business Behaviour

While making sense of employee behaviour may be challenging, the task will be somewhat easier with the widespread adoption of sensors and biometric technology in the workplace.

Using performance data, emotional data, and interaction data through cutting-edge biometric technology, personal, environmental and spatial sensors, the role will entail analysing employee behavioral data.

They will also be in charge of driving strategies to improve employee engagement, productivity and well-being.

7. Smart Home Design Manager

With the rise of smart home technology, smart home design managers will work with architects, engineers and clients to design aesthetically and environmentally friendly homes.

The role will entail staying on top of the latest technological trends and finding original ways to integrate technology with both traditional and contemporary styles.

8. Algorithm Bias Auditor

Given the increasing prominence of artificial intelligence in businesses, it's essential to ensure the algorithms at the heart of AI are fair, legal, ethical, and representative of the values of organisations.

Algorithm Bias Auditors will review new and existing apps and systems, logging and tracking each significant algorithm, its objectives, its input and output, related human value judgments and consequences.

They will also be responsible for establishing guidelines and compliance methodologies that employees across the organisation can easily understand and follow.

9. Uni4Life Coordinator

This role will be involve using a tool to collect data on lifelong learners (for example, from LinkedIn) to build an up-to-date learning profile, as well as to use predictive algorithms to make recommendations based on employment and skills data.

Coordinators will be in charge of guiding learners toward the best, most relevant programs for their individual needs and helping learners choose how to learn, offering personal advice and ensuring their learning plans are the perfect fit for them as individuals.

10. Cyber Calamity Forecaster

It's becoming increasingly important to understand and predict cyber conditions of the near-to-distant future. Governments, industries, societies and individuals will need to protect themselves and become more resilient.

A cyber calamity forecaster will be responsible for monitoring, detecting, and forecasting cyber threats, and predicting their impact, as well as accurately mapping "cyber uncertainties" and making predictions to prepare for them and mitigate their effects.

11. E-sports Arena Builder

Just like traditional sports fans, e-sports fans want to share an experience.

Design-and-build construction managers will define all tasks needed for the build-out of esports arenas.

They'll need to be able to scope and manage more specialised operational roles, such as installing miles of specialty cables, installing lighting and cutting-edge electrical systems, or designing high-definition screens that can adapt to different audience sizes.

12. Tidewater Architect

Global warming threatens the world we live in, so experts are required to help mitigate the impact of rising sea levels in cities around the globe.

A tidewater architect's primary responsibility will be the overall planning and execution of projects that work with nature.

13. Virtual Identity Defender

New technologies are increasingly being used to make deep fake videos and content on the web, and we've already seen how they can literally put words into somebody's mouth.

While the outcomes of some of these deep fakes may seem benign or even amusing, others could prove apocalyptic.

There is currently a need for defensive roles, capable of creating digital watermarks that can be autheticated, and can prove the veracity of someone or something — this will be the responsibility of virtual identity defenders in the future.

14. Head of Machine Personality Design

These designers will "inject the voice of the customer" into the machine personality brief, by capturing a customer's preferences and aversions.

The role will also entail ensuring a consistent brand experience across all automated touchpoints and using an automated interface that spans voice, agreeableness, and humor.

15. Virtual reality arcade manager

In future, VR arcades will provide immersive, high-definition, multi-player experiences.

In addition to other responsibilities, a VR arcade manager will manage the physical arcade and will liaise with central VR software developers to ensure the latest and greatest VR experiences are available and operational at all times within an arcade.

16. Vertical Farm Consultant

These experts will tend vertical farms and advise communities on best practices so people can eat healthier and source food locally.

Consultants will work with local governments and community leaders to identify optimal locations for farming sites within neighborhoods, and will train residents on best practices for opening and operating the facility.

Other responsibilities will include creating educational plans that advise people on the health benefits of plant-based diets and how best to prepare meals that meet their needs.

17. Machine risk officer

AI presents a host of unknown challenges, which machine risk officers will be in charge of handling.

This role will involve managing the potential risks that may occur if intelligent machines fail, as well as establishing human-machine trust and protecting a company's brand, reputation and finances, through addressing ethics issues.

18. Subscription management specialist

A subscription management specialist will help create frameworks of linked subscriptions to establish and advance customer familiarity, loyalty and a direct sales channel.

The role will require the specialist to analyse every situation where customers have contact with a brand or business, qualify the emotions involved and then suggest a micro-subscription strategy to the company in question.

19. Flying Car Developer

As the title suggests, aerospace engineers and car engineers alike will work to make flying cars a reality for the masses.

Those with expertise in engineering, software development, aeronautics, battery technologies, materials development, will assist in taking prototypes to commercial development.

20. Haptic Interface Designer

This role will involve using new materials and the ability to program responsive textures to maximise the impact of outreach campaigns.

Haptic interface designers will identify which wearable and touch-surface platforms work best to combine and advertise a brand or product.

21. Chief Purpose Planner

Professionals in this field will conceive, shape and launch dedicated purpose journeys for companies that wish to differentiate themselves from other organisations through their contribution to society, customers and prospective employees.

The role will entail helping clients to define and articulate their contribution to society and their purpose for both customers and prospective employees.

There are countless books, articles, and videos about leadership styles that hold human behavior up against different hierarchical structures in other societies. But Dutch biologist Patrick van Veen has a slightly different approach: he looks at animal behavior.

Through his consulting firm "Apemanagement," he shows managers what they can learn from apes. The consultant analyses the hierarchies and behavior patterns of different ape species and compares them with those of humans.

The aim is not to encourage a specific management style, but to help companies and their managers reflect on their strategies and to improve them.

60 managers and an ape orgy

Bearing this in mind, he conducted a leadership seminar at the zoo with 60 high-ranking managers from McKinsey, a global management consulting company, when a small incident occurred, according to Welt.

The managers were given the opportunity to observe the behavior of two Bonobo troops who weren't familiar with one another.

One might expect territorial or aggressive behavior but what did the bonobos do? Well, they had an orgy.

Orgies aren't considered unusual in the bonobo realm but it was apparently too much for the managers.

Two weeks after the appointment, van Veen received a letter expressing that he should have warned McKinsey there would be "offensive" scenes.

He argued that it should have been thought-provoking and exciting for the managers to observe bonobo behavior: they resolve conflict in a unique and effective way.

One of the things that particularly stands out is not just that bonobos have orgies, but that they are initiated and led by females.

Aside from the female leadership element, the bonobos' orgy method probably doesn't constitute a viable strategy for the boardroom.

However, we can use their behavior to deduce that there are ways for leaders to create a good atmosphere in the office and that there more than a few of them.

Bonobo behavior means there are fewer conflicts and more integration, personal appreciation, experience, competence, and respect.

Other ape species have different leadership styles

In contrast, gorillas have a patriarch as their leader, whose leadership style is one of unrestricted authority.

One positive effect of this is that gorillas often take care of lower-ranking peers and there is more trust, van Veen said, according to Welt. This is the most common style of leadership among people too, he said. 

Apes are born politicians and are much more democratically organized than gorillas, bonobos have a very "flat" hierarchy without clear leadership, while orangutans are loners, van Veen told Welt.

"As soon as their environment changes, they stop working," said van Veen. 

Perhaps office orgies were not what Apemanagement was trying to highlight, but rather the idea that we're not as different from apes as we like to think. We could probably do with thinking a little more creatively when it comes to group harmony.

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This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Jyotsna Kaki, a 38-year-old accessibility-testing program manager at Google in Mountain View, California, about her daily routine. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I'm an accessibility-testing program manager at Google, where I work across a wide variety of products, including Google Workspace (formerly known as G Suite), Google Lens, the cloud-gaming service Stadia, Google's accessibility apps Lookout and Voice Access, and Google Shopping. 

About six months before I was set to complete my college degree, I lost my vision — but was determined to forge forward and graduated with honors a year later.

I joined Google in 2006 as one of the company's first software test accessibility engineers. It was my first job.

A few years later, along with other Google employees (also known as Googlers), I started Google's Accessibility Discovery Center, a space within our Mountain View, California, office that houses a variety of assistive technology that people are able to experience and test.

Now I lead our team of 15 engineers that test new products to make them more inclusive and accommodating to people with disabilities.

Accessibility is a much broader space than many people think

In addition to helping people with permanent disabilities, an emphasis on accessibility can also be helpful to people who might have a situational disability (for example, the sun is too bright to see your screen) or a temporary disability (for example, a broken leg or a concussion).

Aside from my day job, I'm also passionate about improving the overall Google experience and onboarding process for other Googlers with disabilities.

When I started at Google, I was hired and onboarded just like any other employee and had to work with various teams to set up the accommodations I needed to work after the fact.

Now, if a new employee discloses their disability, Google will provide and set up all the necessary accommodations ahead of the onboarding process so they can start their work without any difficulties on the first day. Additionally, they're paired up with another Googler with a similar or the same disability as their mentor to provide a smooth onboarding experience for the new hire.

My typical workday starts at 6 a.m.

I wake up with the help of my Google Home, which I'm heavily dependent on for alarms and looking up the weather, quick facts, and music.

After I take a shower and play games such as "Puzzle of the Day" or "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" I practice yoga and water my plants.

At 8 a.m., it's time to wake up my 6-year-old daughter and get her ready for school

We have chocolate crepes with a glass of milk for breakfast. I sign in to work at 9 a.m. from my daughter's bedroom, as my husband and I are both still working remotely. 

I start my day by catching up on emails and missed chats via Google Assistant on my phone. 

At 10 a.m., I spend an hour checking to see if there are any performance and quality issues I can address or escalate

When needed, I serve as a mediator, making sure that the accessibility-testing process runs smoothly and there's an open line of communication between the test engineers and product teams. 

I lead a biweekly meeting at 11 a.m. with other accessibility-testing leads. Recently, we talked about ways to introduce more automated testing tools that would make it easier and quicker for product teams to identify accessibility issues. 

I head off to my kitchen at noon to make lunch: dosas (a South Indian salty pancakelike dish) with roasted chickpea and peanut chutney. It's back to work at 1 p.m.

I test software using different screen readers, including ChromeVox, all of which can help people who are visually impaired navigate a computer by vocalizing what's being shown on their screen. I also use TalkBack to work on improving Lookout, which I personally use with different tasks like putting groceries in their proper place. 

My team of testers works to make our products more accessible based on our internal guidelines, which cover the more technical components of accessibility, like proper labeling, contrast, etc. But I also encourage them to consider whether the experience of using the product is a good one for someone using assistive technology. 

From 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., I'm in meetings

As a member of the Google Disability Alliance, I meet with another Googler who has a visual impairment for a mentoring session. 

The conversations are often open-ended, but today we talked about good career paths in tech for people with visual impairments.

I also often get asked about my experience at Google, accommodations, and equitable practices that Google offers to its employees with disabilities and how to achieve work-life balance.

I finish up my day by meeting with product teams and setting up accessibility-testing training sessions. 

After work, I unwind by taking a walk around the neighborhood with a friend

Then, I move onto my "motherly duties," such as giving my daughter a bath and feeding her dinner. I use Google Docs to access my saved recipes.

I love cooking but also enjoy baking with my daughter, as I know that I can do it safely. My daughter measures and adds the ingredients to the bowl and mixes everything together while I handle the rest. I'm looking forward to sharing my baked goods with my coworkers once we're back in the office.

At 8 p.m., I check emails and my calendar for the next day and address any last-minute needs at work

Afterward, you can likely find me watching old Indian movies while knitting scarves and blankets to give as gifts or donate.

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PayPal CEO Dan Schulman can boast at least one great business mentor, having spent eight years being personally mentored by Virgin founder Richard Branson.

But he credits his father with teaching him one of his most valuable leadership lessons. 

Schulman spoke to the Financial Times about his journey transitioning online payments giant PayPal into a broader payments platform and his views on cryptocurrencies.

He was also asked to share some leadership advice and asked to name his leadership hero. He chose his father, Mel Schulman, described as a World War Two veteran and chemical engineer. 

"He always said: 'You aren't what you say you are, you are what you do — be as authentic as you can," Schulman told the newspaper. "Things change on the ground: whatever we talk about today, tomorrow will be different. But you and I are the same person."

He went on to explain that his father taught him his first leadership lesson — one that has continued to serve him throughout his career. 

"My Dad said something to me early on in my life: 'Real respect, real leadership comes from softer things like humility, listening to people, respect — that's what inspires people,'" Schulman said.

There has been growing awareness over the last couple of decades as to the effectiveness of leaders who display traits like emotional intelligence, empathy, and kindness over those who are tough leaders or excel at driving profits.

Soft skills have become even more important since the beginning of the pandemic, as employees have struggled with the burnout, uncertainty, and loneliness of remote work.

Schulman has previously been CEO of Virgin Mobile between 2001 and 2009, an executive at American Express and Verizon, and joined PayPal in 2014 just after it had split from parent Ebay. 

His time at the helm has coincided with PayPal's transformation from a company that he describes as one a lot of people thought "had seen its best days" to a business with a market capitalization of more than $320 billion. 

He has a reputation for his empathetic leadership. 

Insider previously reported Schulman raised wages after learning that PayPal employees were struggling to cover their basic living expenses. In 2014, he spent 24 hours living on the streets in New York to experience what it felt like. 

Schulman credits Branson with teaching him that successful businesses put their employees first and has previously said that the Israeli martial art of Krav Maga had impacted his approach to business and leadership because it had taught him how to pick his battles.

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This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Shannon Lundgren, a matchmaker from San Francisco, California, about what her job is like. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I'm the CEO and founder of Shannon's Circle Matchmaking based in San Francisco, California.

During my 16-year tenure at Wells Fargo from 2005 to 2021, I was responsible for the WellsFargo.com digital experience.

The public site sees billions of visitors every year. As a product manager leader, my team and I managed the homepage, site navigation, site search experience, and financial education area for both the desktop and mobile app experiences.

I discovered my career pivot fortuitously at the peak of burnout in my corporate life

It all started in July 2012 with an issue of Harvard Business School's alumni magazine — my business school alma mater (I went to UC Berkeley for undergrad). A fellow alumna was featured in the magazine, telling the story of her matchmaking business and bootcamp to teach others how to become matchmakers.

As a super connector, I loved connecting people for business and pleasure. It also was great timing, after 10 years at a large company I was burned out from meeting mania, endless PowerPoint decks, and spinning my wheels with bureaucracy.

After the bootcamp, which cost $5,000 for three days in Denver, I knew this was something I wanted to pursue in the long run — but wanted to minimize the risks of starting a business from scratch — so I started my business on the side.

I received my first few leads from my matchmaking mentor, Rachel

One of these became a client and I introduced her to her future husband on the third introduction.

Over time, the word spread in my Harvard alumni community and I received a lot of interest in my services. Now, my clients come from the Harvard network, Google search, and word-of-mouth referrals.

After years of successfully matching clients and working out the business plan, I made the leap to run my matchmaking business full time in June 2021. In fact, I'd grown my business to the point that I'd be making less if I stayed on with my corporate role. This made it a no-brainer to make the leap.

My day is packed with interesting conversations with singles  

I connect regularly with my clients (they pay a flat fee for an engagement time period of six or 12 months), and meet with singles I'm vetting for their search — I speak to dozens of singles for the first time every week, which gives me a good pulse on trends.

I do consultations with prospective clients for matchmaking and date coaching. Additionally, I connect with other matchmakers and my own network for my searches to find the right matches for my clients.

I also work as The League's dating app matchmaker

The League is a great fit with my network, so I approached the founder to create a program to offer boutique matchmaking for its members. It's been a great success.

Currently, I'm writing a book proposal that'll be the foundation for my digital course "The Love MBA." Many times singles feel disenchanted with dating — my work here is to show them how to turn it around in their favor.

For example, part of my job is to help my clients ace the first date. I can't tell you how many times first dates go south when they're asked about their relationship status and delve into failed marriages, what went wrong, etc.

I remind my clients that a first date is like an interview: You want to put your best foot forward. You wouldn't tell a prospective employer that you hated your boss or got fired at your last job, so you want to have a brief talking point ready to share your history in a positive light.

I relish the opportunity my profession provides for endless innovation and creativity  

I've created a Love Funnel analysis that allows singles to identify where they're getting stuck in their dating life so they can course correct.

A top-of-funnel problem indicates you aren't meeting enough singles, whereas if you're stuck mid-funnel, you likely are going on a lot of first dates that aren't progressing. A lower funnel problem indicates you're getting into relationships for a short time yet either lack relationship skills or are selecting a person who isn't compatible for you.

It's always a challenge to find the right love match

It requires perseverance, hard work, belief — and a little magic.

I don't consider my clients "tough," yet I do take on tough searches. The key is to know what searches are in your wheelhouse and which ones you shouldn't take on.

I avoid searches that have religious-specific preferences as my circle doesn't skew religious, so I don't have the network to fulfill that search criteria.

My current business challenge is finding the right talent to bring on board to help me scale my business. My top need is a super-connector recruiter to help me expand my database of singles, thereby making matchmaking my clients easier.

A Harvard alumnus once heard about me and told his 30-something son to hire me 

This is my favorite success story: The pandemic lockdown had just started, so I could only meet his son via Zoom. When we started working together, his dad sent me a handwritten note that said, "Find him someone wonderful, Shannon."

I remembered that note and  didn't give up. After dozens of introductions and months of working together virtually, I introduced him to "the one" for him, and they've been together ever since. Due to the pandemic, I haven't met this couple in person yet. They're still together and are talking about wedding plans, so I expect to meet them soon.

Like it or not, your online dating profile is a billboard for your dating prospects to get a 15-second read on you 

Invest in great quality, recent photos of yourself. I recommend a clear headshot and full body shot professional photos, but good candid shots work, too.

In a sea of profiles, share something about yourself that's different and creates interest. Instead of "I love cooking," say "I make a mean Osso Bucco." Instead of saying I love to travel and hike, say, "My next adventure is to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu." Instead of saying I like music, say, "I'm a die-hard fan of 80s music, in spite of the riffing my friends give me."

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The office has gone through dramatic transformations over the past several decades.

Once upon a time, cubicles and Xerox machines were the norm. Many years later, those were replaced with open offices and laptops.

Of course, it wasn't long before the flaws of the open-office model became apparent. Research shows that they tend to make workers more stressed and exhausted due to the lack of privacy and constant distractions. A 2013 Stockholm University study also revealed that those who worked in open offices were more likely to take sick leave than those who had their own office due to the increased risk of infection.

This risk forced many companies to send their staff home when COVID-19 became a threat. But as workers continued to work from home into this year, awareness increased about the limitations of modern office structure from both a productivity and health standpoint.

These insights have led companies to rethink the role of the office. And many business leaders, architects, and designers predict that it will primarily function as a place of collaboration in the future. They spoke to Insider about what that means in practice and what companies need to do to get it right.

The limitations of a pre-pandemic office

The open-office trend started in Silicon Valley during the dot-com boom. Not long after, much of corporate America followed.

What was intended to be a structure that encouraged collaboration and productivity turned into a subject of ire for many workers. But despite an abundance of research pointing to the open office's failure to create a collaborative environment, companies continued to adopt the structure — primarily because it's cost-effective.

The pre-pandemic modern office also came with elements that were problematic from a health standpoint. Lack of ventilation and insufficient access to nature and daylight have all negatively affected people's physical and mental health. 

"You really want to have people that are thriving," said Joanna Frank, the founder and CEO of Center For Active Design, a nonprofit that uses design in pursuit of fostering healthy and engaged communities. And a person's health and ability to thrive are directly correlated to an organization's financial ability to thrive, Frank added.

Designing for an activity-based workspace

Now more than ever workers expect to have more autonomy around when and where they work. According to a 2021 survey by the World Economic Forum, 66% of employees believed companies should allow flexible work, and 30% expressed that they would look for another job if they were required to go back to the office.

Designing for this reality means that companies should be "always moving toward activity-based design," said Lise Newman, director of workplace practice at SmithGroup, an integrated design firm with 15 offices across the US and China.

Frank agreed, saying that companies need to design with the "understanding that you need different physical spaces to support those different types of work."

That's likely to translate to more booths, pods, and cafe-like environments with seating arrangements similar to coffee shops. "The work cafe will serve two purposes — socialization and relationship building — but it will also serve as overflow seating on the days when 30% of the people are typically there, or on Fridays everyone is going to be there," Newman said.

Incorporating individual workspaces

Despite being of the view that the office will be a primarily collaborative space, Newman doesn't believe that individual spaces will go away any time soon. After all, one of the many inequities that the pandemic has brought to the forefront is that not everyone can transform their home into a safe and productive working environment.

There are also a "subset of employees that would prefer to do their work in the office than at home," Newman said. "Gen Z, in particular, are the ones that want to build relationships the most, and they want to be visibly present."

From a design standpoint, that means introducing individual rooms and enclaves rather than partitioned tables and cubicles. One of the themes that Newman consistently hears from clients is that many still want the ability to focus in the office but that the "old office wasn't cutting it."

Making nature and outdoors part of design

There's numerous pieces of research that illustrate the link between nature and creativity. 

A 2012 study found that hikers— after spending four days on the trail — performed 50% better on a "creativity problem-solving task" than those who weren't exposed to nature. Being in nature allows them to rest their prefrontal cortex, the researchers found, which allows creativity to flourish.

Businesses can tap into this benefit in the workplace, too, by incorporating more greenery into their office design. Newman said she's heard from clients that they would like their office space to open onto a terrace, but with Wi-Fi, monitors, and working spaces.

Incorporating health tools and tech

Air quality is another element that has a significant effect on workers' productivity and creativity.

In a 2016 study, researchers from Harvard University and Syracuse University found that employees who worked in offices with improved ventilation and reduced carbon dioxide levels and emissions performed 61% better on cognitive tasks than those who worked in standard building conditions.

According to Frank, before the pandemic, healthy buildings were generally seen as "nice to have." From a design standpoint, they require businesses to invest in the right technology. Frank said that tools allowing for temperature control and shading would be helpful for businesses and employees.

Transparency around quality is also critical, and Frank said employers should tell employees specifically what is happening in the workspace.

One example she's heard is that once an employee books a room in an office space, they can get information on when it was last used and whether the health status of the users presents any risks.

"Understanding that kind of powerful information is important for people," Frank said.

Inspiring creativity

In a world where the office is no longer the default place of work — and where collaboration is possible with just an internet connection and a computer screen — businesses also need to think of designing offices that make people want to come in.

David Schwarz, a partner at the design agency Hush, said the workplace should be "the iconography of a company culture and its mission and vision. You see that from Apple's circular rings, Steve Jobs sending a particular signal, and you see that in many other places." 

Schwarz gives the metaphor of a soccer stadium or a well-designed conference hub. "You enter and you're focused on a big clear gesture, " he said.

"It can be a flag in a stadium, or a certain type of light and window or architectural element that's so clearly put there," he added. "The programmatic element should beg interaction and collaboration. It shouldn't be something to observe without any kind of motivation. It should be something that's a touchstone where people gather."

After all, "collaboration doesn't go without inspiration," Schwarz said. And the workplace has been, and should continue to be, the "touchstone for that inspiration."

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How to land a job at a top tech firm

Tech companies are eager to hire lawyers. Lawyers, in turn, are looking at tech. Big Law associates grappling with burnout have long eyed in-house positions as greener pastures that offer better work-life balance. Tech companies, perceived as high-speed and glamorous, are especially attractive.

But the path to pivoting in-house isn't straightforward. Insider spoke to 6 lawyers and legal recruiters to learn how to leverage Big Law experience to land a job in tech.

Read the full story here:

How to jump from Big Law to tech, from top feeder firms to the best time for making the switch

How to start your own law firm

Giving up a steady Big Law paycheck to venture off alone can seem like a daunting task, especially for young attorneys with clients who may not follow them to their next venture. But some careful preparations can go a long way. Insider spoke with seven lawyers who have launched their own firms.  

Read the full story here:

How to leave Big Law and start your own legal practice, according to 5 lawyers who made the leap

Insider spoke with Warren T. Allen II, a former Skadden lawyer who recently launched his own practice with another attorney. He broke down the steps he took before he made the leap.

Read the full story here:

This lawyer left Skadden after 12 years to start his own law firm. He walked us through the months of prep and savings he needed to do it.

How to land a clerkship

Federal judicial clerkships are often seen as extra gold stars on a lawyer's track record. Acting as apprentices to the decision-makers at courts, clerks assist judges with legal research and drafting, reviewing, and editing court decisions and memoranda. From picking a judge to crafting an airtight cover letter, six current and former clerks shared their advice on landing a prestigious federal judicial clerkship.

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How to land a coveted federal judicial clerkship, according to 6 current and former clerks

Supreme Court clerkships are highly competitive: Usually only 36 clerks are picked every term, four for each of the nine justices. Insider spoke with five former clerks about what it takes to land a clerkship on America's highest court.

Read the full story here:

How to land a Supreme Court clerkship, according to clerks for Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Anthony Kennedy

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The following testimonials are based on transcribed conversations with three adult content creators. Each has been edited for length and clarity.

'It was only a matter of time,' says Olivia Rose

With the onslaught of OnlyFans TV and celebrities flocking to the OnlyFans gravy train, I think it was only a matter of time before the app moved away from adult content creators. Like many businesses before them, they made their money off the backs of sex workers. Now that they're a huge company, and with pressure from credit card companies, they feel they can survive without us.

Blocking explicit content will affect me even though I don't do hardcore content, mostly just fetish and Femdom. The updated rules are vague, and it seems like anything but softcore lewds are now against terms of service. While I only make a portion of my monthly income on OF, for some it's all they have. It's going to be a huge blow to the income and livelihood of many marginalized workers. 

I'll be moving all my exclusive content, other than safe for work (SFW) shoots, over to sex worker-friendly platforms like AVN Stars, Just For Fans, and Loyal Fans. From what I understand, they have no plans on discarding adult content and turning their backs on sex workers. 

I just wonder why OF didn't release an official statement before we found out from the media. I'm disheartened that as the people who make them money, we have to hear things from other sources. Communication from the site is extremely lacking, which makes me distrust them even more. I personally will be working on my other fan sites while the OnlyFans tower falls, which it inevitably will. 

'Adult performers have always been OnlyFans' dirty little secret,' says Spencer Barrick

I wasn't surprised about OnlyFans decision, since they've openly stated they're steering away from adult content and focusing on "mainstream" creators. Adult performers have always been OnlyFans' dirty little secret, despite having been the real driving force behind the platform's success. 

I'm already seeing droves of adult performers transferring their content to other platforms. There are a handful of similar fan sites eager  to welcome on performers leaving OnlyFans. . 

The news has made me rethink how I want to distribute my exclusive content in the future. I plan on joining Bellesa Plus which I believe is an ethical adult site that honors consent, treats performers with respect, and pays fairly.  

At the end of the day, we're an adaptive bunch. We found a way to survive during the pandemic via OnlyFans, we'll find a way to survive this exodus from there too. 

It's frustrating to 'be pushed off a platform that we made successful,' says Romi Rain

Nothing really lasts forever, but the news was still heartbreaking to the sex worker community on deeply personal and financial levels. Despite adult content being the reason OnlyFans is now a household name, we're being slowly and methodically de-platformed after years of work and growth. 

As frustrating as it is to be pushed off a platform that we made successful, I think it's important to acknowledge the positive benefits that OF has given the adult content creator community overall, especially as this seems to be a payment processor issue having a problem with explicit content, rather than OF's sole decision (hopefully).

The irony is there are now so many alternative sites and similar apps solely because of OF, as the app undeniably changed our earning potential by showing the money adult content creators could bring in simply from interacting with fans. For many, the app gave us the ability to produce and own our work, so that no matter where we go we could still bring in revenue for ourselves if we chose to keep selling and promoting it. 

It's tough because as upset as I am with this 'slut shamey' decision, I'll still be forever grateful to a degree for OF's existence. I've had more conversations with performers who've said OF has saved or changed their lives for the better more than any other site or company they've ever worked for, for so many reasons, mainly the power of content ownership, anti-piracy, and larger percentages that the site gave us temporarily.

As an adult performer for over a decade, I've always known the importance of having eggs in multiple baskets, so I'll never stop working even if I add a different platform (or two, to be safe) to my roster in lieu of OF.

It will be interesting to see how much growth OF truly has without the hardworking people who made the site known all over the world in such a short time. Sex workers are powerful like that and regardless of this news, we will survive and thrive.

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To demystify how to leave a Big Law job to launch your own firm, Insider spoke with Warren T. Allen II, a former Skadden lawyer who recently launched his own practice with another attorney. The following is how he did it, as told to Insider and edited for length and clarity.

I had always thought about building my own law practice, even back to when I was a junior associate and reading books on how to do it. It got more serious in 2018, and I started approaching friends to see whether they'd be interested in joining. But for a while, it didn't look as though anyone would come. 

So in fall of that year, I hired a coach, who told me the only thing that was stopping me was fear — and by December, I was ready to pull the trigger. But I had months of preparation ahead. 

This meant I was still doing my full-time job at Skadden, but on nights and weekends, I was chipping away at a three-page to-do list I made. It included items like planning how to notify clients, listing what office equipment would be needed, registering entities with state bars, and filing an IRS form. One of the first steps was to get a Post Office box, so I could actually have a business address when applying for credit cards. I registered a professional limited liability company in Virginia, and a separate bar registration had a delayed start date so there were no even perceived conflicts. 

Around February, I believe, I told my bosses what my plans were, and they were as gracious and understanding as possible. I was going to keep working there until the end of May.

I kept my personal and business finances separate, so I decided early on what I was going to invest in the initial financial accounts. My whole career I had been a big saver, so I didn't have to scramble for it. The goal was to have 18 months of runway, also aided by a bank loan and multiple credit lines.

Before we actually started taking clients on June 1, 2019, I had spent about $40,000 on the firm — and a big chunk of that was in technology. I spent about $10,000 on items like office equipment, computers, iPads, and phones. Office space was a major expense as well as, somewhat surprisingly, legal-service subscriptions. We went with Lexis, the Anti-Corruption Report, and Law360, which especially gave us the most bang for our buck.

But frankly, like so many others trying to launch small businesses, you have to lean on your family and friends. One of my wife's best friends designed a logo and business cards. My wife, who is much smarter than I am, taught herself how to build a website for the new firm. 

And around this point of spring, Ray D. McKenzie, who was then an assistant US attorney in the Justice Department and had previously been an associate at Skadden, said he was going to come along. I believe I literally jumped up and down in my kitchen when he told me he was in. 

And when you're about to launch your own business, you have to get really in the weeds in logistical matters you likely never thought about before. We didn't have any training videos for how to pick billing software or timekeeping records. I had to be really thoughtful about what would work best for us and just do a ton of research. We landed on Practice Panther and QuickBooks.

We obviously didn't take on any clients when we were still working other jobs, but we did want to plan some marketing. So on our website, about a week before our launch day and the full thing went live, we started a countdown clock, going down until June 1. We made the announcement all over social media. 

When that clock hit zero, shortly after I left my last day at Skadden, it actually broke our website. But that was an easy fix the next morning — and then we were off running. 

Now some two years later, the firm, WTAII, which focuses on assisting companies and individuals with government enforcement, compliance, and litigation needs, has added a third member, and we're in a much more comfortable spot. The operating costs for the first year, not including compensation, were just north of $100,000. My pay did not ramp up as fast as I had hoped and is a big pay cut compared to Big Law salaries, but it's not really about the money. 

It's about prioritizing personal relationships inside and outside the firm over trying to make as much money as possible.

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With hybrid work looking like the norm for many office workers in 2021 and 2022, the issue of Zoom fatigue is unlikely to go away.

The reasons for Zoom burnout vary from being exhausted by looking at your own image on-screen to the unnatural, turn-based conversation video calls require. Some 38% of US workers polled in November 2020 had suffered some form of Zoom fatigue, according to the consultancy Robert Half.

And a Stanford study released in April 2021 suggests women experience higher levels of Zoom fatigue than men. 

Karin Reed is a communications coach and co-author of "Suddenly Virtual", which aims to help managers and employees cope with the sudden shift online.

Here are her tips for combating call fatigue:

1. Push back on video meetings

Having fewer meetings is the obvious starting point, said Reed. Before scheduling any, you should think about whether specific tasks require a meeting and whether you're using your meetings in the right way. 

"If you are using a meeting just to share information, and there is no expectation of discussion or dialogue, that is not an effective hybrid meeting," she said.

Meetings should be purpose-driven and shorter — 45 minutes max — and ensure that you, as host, are staying on track, said Reed.  You should also schedule recovery time in between meetings, she added. 

Fewer meetings doesn't have to mean poorer communication.

Think about how you can communicate information in other ways, said Reed, highlighting that recording asynchronous video and asynchronous audio methods are becoming increasingly popular.

Recording a video of you presenting a presentation and posting it in a Slack channel for people to watch in their own time can be much more efficient  and "richer" than composing a 300-word email, she added.

2. Do meeting prep to make the most of your time

Meetings can often feel overwhelming because we don't have enough time to adequately prepare.

Sending out documents and reports in advance is "critical" as is "holding people's feet to the fire" to ensure that they've read them, said Reed.

It's also essential to ensure that everybody in your team is trained properly, said Reed, adding that this isn't just in terms of using tech, but also how to communicate effectively — both can be causes of friction. 

In a hybrid work setting, just coming to an agreement about how work is going to be done is also essential. 

"Ensure that all communication is visible, regardless of location," said Reed. "You don't want to create a two-tiered system."

That requires a higher level of documentation and always an eye towards asking whether people have access to the same information whether they're in the office or remote.  

3. Switch off self-view

"We don't walk around with a mirror to our faces as we are talking to people face to face," said Reed. "For the first time a lot of us are seeing ourselves communicate in real time, and that can be disconcerting — and distracting."

This is sometimes referred to as mirror anxiety. 

Most video call platforms should have an option where you can 'hide self-view' and take your own image off your screen, without turning your camera off. In some cases, it's important that your colleagues can still read your non-verbal cues. 

Ensuring you're looking straight into the camera while talking can also reduce the impact of having to stare at yourself looking back, said Reed.

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Private equity is one of the most competitive jobs markets for young professionals on Wall Street. And the jobs are extremely lucrative: total comp for associate ranks can easily top $200,000. 

Insider mapped out everything you need to know if you're looking to land a job at firms like Blackstone and KKR, from the latest on the recruiting timeline for associates to the top headhunters to know.

The recruiting timeline for PE is on hold

Recruiting for associate PE roles had been creeping earlier and earlier in recent years, with firms looking to line up investment-banking analysts up to two years out. But with on-cycle recruiting timelines being upended by the pandemic, firms have taken that opportunity to re-evaluate the hiring arms race. 

Read more here: 

Private equity is backing off from recruiting young investment bankers in their first few weeks on the job. Here's what triggered the reversal.

The timeline for private-equity associate hiring is being totally rewritten. Here's how the fierce recruiting cycle is shaping up for 2021.

Top recruiters tell you what to expect

In December 2020, Insider spoke to the top internal and third-party PE recruiters to understand what to expect.

The group, which consisted of talent executives from Apollo Global Management, Bain Capital, and The Carlyle Group, detailed everything you need to know to land a gig in PE. 

Read more here: 

WATCH: Top talent execs at firms like Carlyle and Apollo reveal how to land a private-equity job in 2021

The typical cycle is changing for private-equity recruiting. Here are the new trends top hiring execs from firms like Apollo and Carlyle are seeing.

Top private-equity recruiters share tips on how to craft a perfect resume and the best way to prep for interviews

PE pays wells

There's a reason so many people are keen to work in PE: It pays very well. Total comp for associates can easily top $200,000.

And as the market for young talent has gotten more aggressive, PE firms have been willing to shell out more to attract and retain employees. 

Read more here:

Meet the top headhunters in the space

Third-party recruiters hold a pivotal role in PE hiring process. These headhunters help top firms suss out the best talent.

Insider identified the leaders in the space, in addition to creating a searchable database of more than 350 headhunters. 

Read more here: 

THE GATEKEEPERS: 12 headhunting firms to know if you want to land a hedge fund or private-equity job

Use our searchable database to find more than 350 Wall Street headhunters for private equity, investment banking, and hedge fund jobs

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This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Robert Schwartz, a college and graduate school admissions essay consultant and founder and president of Your Best College Essay from Brooklyn, New York, about how he built his company. It has been edited for length and clarity.

My first break in Hollywood was as a scriptwriter on the staff of several highly forgettable TV sitcoms. It got me in the writer's room and into the union. 

But being successful meant befriending the next great showrunner, having the right agent, and parlaying one job into the next — things I wasn't very good at.

From the late 1990s to mid-2000s, when movie studios were flush with development money, they made 25 movies a year and had 100 scripts in development — this was before the studios decided to just make five movies and didn't develop as much, so my end of the business dried up — so there was lots of work for writers like me. There were always dozens or more writers working on scripts for the dwindling number of stars who could open a film. 

It wasn't uncommon for an actor or actress to have half a dozen scripts in development. The hottest writers were always working on a few scripts at once ("stacking") and regularly subcontracted out vast portions of the scriptwriting work to another writer, or "ghostwriters."  

If you couldn't get a writing job on a TV show or weren't on the "approved writers" list for studios — and your self-worth was not a consideration — there was money to be made as a ghostwriter

A ghostwriter is hired by the script's credited writer or by the producer or studio to write, fix, or rewrite a script

A ghostwriter understands they're doing so without credit.

The pay was often good, you made your own hours, and no one except the people who surreptitiously hired you knew you even existed. 

I was a freelancer/contractor on the scripts I ghostwrote. My fee was negotiated. As an example, the writer who sold the script might've been paid $250,000, and for my ghostwriting work, I was paid $25,000, along with a bonus if the film got made. 

The drill was this: A script assignment sale would happen, there was a splashy announcement in the trade publications, and my phone would ring offering me a flat rate to write some portion — or occasionally, large portions — of the script. 

I had to be fast, easy to work with, and not prone to complaining. I'd be provided an outline for the script, write scenes or a few in a row, then read drafts and rewrite pages along the way. 

Over five or six years, I ghostwrote scripts for films starring Will Smith, Jim Carrey, Angelina Jolie, and others, along with a TV pilot or two. 

It was good fun until it wasn't

Ten or 15 scripts into my tenure, I looked at where I was. I could work for weeks straight, then not again for half a year. 

I started to see less movies developed, less writers hired, less work for someone like me. The anonymity lost its allure, and I started to complain. 

I didn't see a future for myself. So I walked away and started working in journalism instead, freelancing as a journalist for Entertainment Weekly, Variety, ESPN Magazine, The Daily Beast, and other publications. 

A few months later, I spotted an online job listing from a grad school essay company looking for a writer with a background in TV, feature film, and journalism 

Their thinking: A TV writer is witty, a screenwriter can construct a story, and a journalist can get strangers to confess everything to them. They saw these three skills as essential to helping graduate school applicants with their admissions essays.  

I had, coincidentally, just finished helping my lawyer's daughter with her Brown essays. I had fun, her essays were stellar, and she got accepted. 

On the phone interview, one of the owners complimented me on my experience, my resume, and that Brown acceptance. But when he asked where I went to college and I didn't say Yale or Princeton (they wanted to sell me as their Ivy League advisor), the call ended quickly, and I never heard from them again.  

The following day, my lawyer said, "Just do it yourself," which didn't seem like a totally idiotic idea.

Over the next 2 weeks, I opened an LLC, registered a domain name, found someone to throw together a website, and opened a business

To get applicants those first couple of years, I did everything I could. I went to college nights or SAT test days at local high schools and plastered promotional postcards on car windshields. I sent out mailers — thousands and thousands of mailers. I did my own SEO. I shoveled money in Google's direction for ads. 

My first year, I had four applicants, but steadily over each year, I got better and busier. 

This past year, I had nearly 100 applicants, including undergraduates and med school, law school, and business school applicants. Just last year, applicants I worked with were accepted to Yale, Brown, Columbia, UChicago, Cornell, UPenn, Dartmouth, and Berkeley. I've worked with applicants accepted to Harvard, Stanford, and MIT, too.

I'm now part tutor, part shrink

Up to nearly half of my day is spent talking to an applicant applying to college or graduate school.

I engage with them trying to figure out who they are, what they want, how they're exceptional, and what they should write about in their essays. I see it as a fact-finding mission.  

These five strategies helped me turn my idea into a fun, viable, and lucrative business:

Respect and know your competitors

When I first started out, there were very few competitors. The college essay consulting business was done by the local English teacher. 

But now, it's a crowded field. My potential customers are talking to them now, too. I had to be better and smarter than they are to get clients. I had to adapt my marketing strategy to differentiate myself. 

Some of the other admissions advisors had a limit to the number of drafts and consultation calls they offered clients. I decided to offer unlimited drafts and calls. Some admissions advisors had strict hours of operations, while I basically work all the time. 

Also, my marketing strategy was to pursue applicants applying to only elite schools, rather than top 25 schools. 

I researched who my competitors were and did my best to understand how they work, what their process was, and how much they charged. When I knew who was out there, I tweaked everything I did so it made sense from a personal and business standpoint. 

I noticed that many of my competitors charged applicants by the hour — so I set flat-rate plans based on the number of schools a client was applying to.

Work for dirt cheap in the beginning

When I started, I made sure my prices were low to get applicants in the door, but still enough to make my time, effort, and expertise worth it. Some clients I took on pro bono because I wanted to get some great results early to know how to do my job.

And I took on any applicants I thought I could help get results. Once I started to understand my business and what my value was, I raised my prices. 

In the beginning, my average per-client fee was $800. Now it's four times that. Currently, I make five times now what I made as a ghostwriter in Hollywood. 

Accept that you'll make a million mistakes

I made so many mistakes early on, I've forgotten half of them. I knew nothing about online advertising and wasted thousands on Google. I spent too much on mailers.

I underestimated how much work it would be to work with kids over the phone and took on applicants I shouldn't have. Over time, I made adjustments when I made a mistake, changed my way of doing business, and prioritized what needed to be done.

Make it easy for customers to understand your services

I can't even estimate the amount of time I spent on the phone explaining my services and trying to get people to "yes."

To save time, I crafted documents explaining in meticulous detail my process, what they can expect from me, and what I expect from them, and another with terms and fees.

Present these documents first to a prospective client, so they know what you do and how much you charge before committing to a long phone call. 

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I spend a lot of time daydreaming about the day I take a phone call in a crowded room and coyly excuse myself because "my agent is on the phone." I don't have an agent (yet), but more than that, I don't even know how to go about getting one.

The best way to learn something is to ask someone who's done it, so I did. Here's how five published authors met their agents — or landed a book deal on their own.

Meg Elison tried every traditional route before working directly with a publisher

Meg Elison describes writing her first science-fiction novel, "The Book of the Unnamed Midwife," as a huge creative release — she wrote the first 13,000 words immediately after a college final. After a summer workshop, she knew she wanted it published.

"I did the process that everybody's supposed to do. I looked at whose career I wanted to have and who was getting the deals that I wanted for myself. And I wrote to those agents, I wrote queries. I got very few responses — not even for rejections, but just silence," Elison said.

After nearly 100 rejected queries to agents, Elison reached out to Sybaritic Press, an independent publisher who had published her work in anthologies. The press bought the manuscript and "The Book of the Unnamed Midwife" was published in time for Elison's college graduation.

The post-apocalyptic feminist epic was short-listed for the Phillip K. Dick award later that same year — an occurrence Elison calls an "absolutely one-in-a-million chance." In celebration, Elison's partner changed all the computer screens in the library where he worked to display the award announcement. An agent happened to be returning a book when they saw the screen and told Elison's partner to connect them.

"Because of the award not only getting shortlisted but winning, I got my first agent and I got it republished. I got my first book deal because of that. I did [things] sort of backwards, but it's such a hard business to break into that there's really no wrong way," Elison said.

AJ Vrana sparked interest in her novel during a Twitter contest

AJ Vrana's "The Hollow Gods" climbed the Amazon bestsellers charts in November after taking more than eight years to see the light of day.

Like Elison, Vrana also chose to work directly with an independent press. Vrana was connected with Parliament House Press after sparking interest during a Twitter contest known as #PitDark. Authors use the hashtag on designated days to pitch their manuscript. Interested agents or presses will "like" the tweet, inviting the author to send a completed manuscript for review.

Vrana's original tweet does a concise job of telling interested parties the crucial information to sell her story — what titles are similar, what happens in the story to whom, and what the stakes are.

Vrana also used the categorized hashtags that the pitching contest suggests for different types of books. For example #DF is " dark fantasy." These hashtags can be a gamechanger in a contest environment as it allows publishers and agents to filter by what they're most interested in.

After successfully publishing with Parliament House, Vrana met her agent by contacting them about advanced copies for their book blog. Emmy Nordstrom Higdon is a book blogger turned literary agent who now represents Vrana. Vrana had emailed them originally to ask if they'd like to receive an advanced reader copy (ARC) of "The Hollow Gods" to review on their book blog but didn't hear back for a while.

"In the several months that lapsed, they ended up becoming an agent," Vrana said. When Higdon wrote back, they were interested in a different capacity.

"They were like, 'Hey, I love your book. Can I represent you?' Within a few months, they sold my audio rights to a large publisher. [It was] very nontraditional, but it works," Vrana said.

Charlie Jane Anders read acknowledgements in books she enjoyed to see who the agent was

"For a lot of people, their first agent is not the agent who ends up getting their stuff published," Charlie Jane Anders, whose latest work is "Victories Greater Than Death," said."It doesn't work out for whatever reason."

Anders is the author of five published books, including two short-story collections and three full-length novels. Like many authors, Anders had a journeyed path to publication, including working with an independent press.

Anders parted ways with her first agent in 2007, continuing to write in between representation. While querying "All the Birds in the Sky" in 2013, Anders contacted Russell Galen, an accomplished sci-fi agent who has represented authors like Diana Gabaldon and Terry Goodkind. 

"He wasn't sure, at first, if he was going to be able to sell that book because it's kind of a weird genre hybrid," Anders said. But after some revisions together, Galen agreed to represent Anders and the two have enjoyed their working relationship since. "He's an amazing agent. I'm really happy with him," Anders said.

"Be familiar with books that person has worked on," Anders said of the querying process. "I always advise reading acknowledgements in books that you enjoyed to see who was the agent. The more you can show that you've chosen this person — you didn't just send the same letter to every single agent on your list — but you actually customized it to the agent you're submitting to. I think it shows that you're actually serious about working with them."

Jacopo della Quercia landed a writer-to-writer referral

Jacopo della Quercia got his start writing under his current pen name at Cracked.com. His articles were included in their popular anthology, "You Might Be a Zombie and Other Bad News," which led della Quercia to meet fellow author Jonathan Mayberry.

"He met with me, heard what I wanted to do, and he showed me how to write a book proposal," della Quercia said. "He referred me to his agent and she was able to sell my first book."

It's not uncommon for authors to discuss their agents with one another, often when they're in between representation, but landing a writer-to-writer referral on a first book requires some stars to align.

"I got the handshake recommendation, but I do want to make it very clear: It was luck that I was searching for," della Quercia said. "I was trying to find an opportunity where I would be able to meet the right person or the right people."

Anna Godbersen decided on the type of agent she wanted before she chose one

Before she was the New York Times bestselling author of a popular young-adult, historical-fiction series, Anna Godbersen was a ghostwriter for book packager Alloy Entertainment.

Book packagers often function in a hybrid environment, sometimes publishing directly, sometimes developing and then selling a book to another publisher.

In Godbersen's case, when she pitched Alloy, she'd already ghostwritten several other books for them. Her half-finished manuscript and proposal got her in the front door to a kind of working-content arrangement, where Alloy helped her to develop the rest of the novel while selling it to another publishing house.

Her first book, "The Luxe," sold to HarperCollins as a package. It hit the bestseller list quickly, which Godbersen said put her in a position to meet a lot of agents casually.

"I find agents very scary," Godbersen said. "It was hard for me to figure it out." So, when it came time to work with an agent, she chose someone she was comfortable with — a mentor's husband who she knew as a friend prior to her book's release. 

Godbersen encourages other writers to know the type of balance they may want from an agent when they begin searching. "I think some people need the attack dog and some people need a sort of babysitter, and different agents are good at playing different roles," she said.

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The Great Resignation has peaked. 

The number of job openings in the US reached a 20-year high at 10.1 million at the end of June, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. As millions of Americans leave their jobs, many will partake in a customary practice: the exit interview. 

While often viewed as a formality, the exit interview needs to be treated with the utmost professionalism, career experts told Insider. It's an opportunity for the employer to learn about any issues on a team and for the employee to leave the door open to network with former colleagues.

It can be tricky to navigate. It's important you remain professional throughout the process but also honest about challenges you faced during your time at the company. 

Brie Reynolds, FlexJobs' career-development manager, told Insider how anyone can answer the six most common exit-interview questions. 

Why are you leaving? 

This question is one of the most widely asked and allows the company to determine whether problems from within their organization inspired you to change jobs. 

Reynolds said honesty is always the best policy. 

"The exit interview from the company's perspective should be an open place where you can really share things," she said. "You are not going to be working there any longer. So you should feel a little bit more open." 

But she cautioned against criticizing the company or your former manager too much. Keep your answers truthful but vague to avoid unnecessarily burning bridges, she said.

Did you have the tools to succeed at your job? 

While a phone or computer might be necessary to do your job, so are mentorships and professional-development tools. 

Employees should not use this question as an opportunity to complain about the things that they disliked about their job, Reynolds said. They should mainly share the feedback that is actionable, she said. 

"One of the biggest things that we always recommend is to figure out ways to help the transition," Reynolds said. 

Employees should identify which tools they would want future employees to have and they think are necessary to succeed. 

How was your manager?

When answering this question, employees should treat it as though their manager will hear their answer. As companies try to decipher whether you're leaving your role because of the position or your boss, employees should be explicit with their compliments but general with their criticism, Reynolds said.

"You never know when you're going to meet somebody again," Reynolds said. "You never know who your boss might be in the future." 

By the time employees are completing an exit interview, they should have a decent understanding of how the company receives feedback, and they should use this information to help determine how much or how little to share, Reynolds said. 

What did you like and dislike about the job?

The rule of thumb is to always start with something positive, Reynolds said. 

It will lighten the mood before diving into more critical comments. 

"Start by just saying, overall your experience was a really positive one and you did want to mention this one thing because you think there's room for improvement there," Reynolds said. 

Employers will use the answer to this question to consider what could change about the position. 

Would you recommend the company to others?

Just like many of the questions before, employees should not go into too much detail, Reynolds said. 

Employers are asking this question for an obvious reason — to determine what they can change about the position to make it more appealing. 

Some companies will treat the information from the exit interview seriously, and will take employees' feedback to the team lead or manager, Reynolds said. 

What are your recommendations?

This is one of the last questions companies normally ask during an exit interview. 

Answers to this question should highlight the facets of the company or job that you believe should change but should avoid giving a step-by-step of how the change should be implemented. 

"I think because when you're suggesting things, you kind of also have to leave it open for them to implement that in a way that they think would be advisable," Reynolds said. "But also because you are leaving that company, you want to be mindful of your own time too." 

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In April, 4 million people quit their jobs, according to the labor department. A Microsoft report found that 41% of workers are considering leaving their jobs this year, while 48% are actively job searching or keeping an eye out for new opportunities, according to a study conducted by analytics and consulting firm Gallup. 

The pandemic may have resulted in layoffs in industries like travel and hospitality, but it's also created labor shortages in technology and professional services. As a result, companies are having to get creative when it comes to attracting talent.

A lucrative salary, prestige, and being part of a brand-name company are no longer enough to draw candidates in — not when job seekers are working with multiple offers and employees are constantly getting recruitment emails from competitors.

Recruiters and HR professionals shared their thoughts on which perks and benefits are most important to employees and job seekers right now. 

Flexibility in terms of physical location and hours 

According to the Survey Of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, conducted in June 2021 by a team of researchers and professors from the University of Chicago, Stanford University, and Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), around 35% of employees said they'd look for a job that allowed for remote work if their companies required them to come back to the office full time. Meanwhile, about 6% said that they would leave their current position without another job secured. 

"Not everyone wants to work remotely," Kimberly Merriman, a management professor at the Manning School of Business at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, told Insider, but "they want (and expect) a greater degree of flexibility." 

Rhiannon Staples, chief marketing officer at Hibob, an HR and people management platform, agreed that flexible work is the one benefit that companies can't afford to skip.

"Employees are disillusioned right now by employers that are not willing to afford the opportunity to work on their own terms. They've proven they can be productive. It feels disingenuous to say, 'You've gotta come back,'" she said. 

Of course, flexibility is more than just about physical place of work.

The pandemic showed many companies that not only is it possible for their employees to be productive outside of the office — they also don't need to stick to a rigid schedule.

For example, software management company Atlassian requires employees to be online and responsive for just four hours a day. Outside of that, it's up to employees what hours they want to work, as long as their work gets done.

Paul McDonald, a senior executive director at international recruitment firm Robert Half, refers to this arrangement as "windowed working." 

"I'm finding that many employees are being flexible and encouraging windowed work. It builds retention, and right now, companies are so focused in the highly-skilled areas on retention because it's so hard to replace them," he said. 

It's important to note that not all roles can be done remotely or according to the employee's timeline.

Lily Valentin, head of operations for North America at job-search engine Adzuna, said that healthcare is a sector where conventional benefits — like flexibility — aren't always possible.

In that case, employers are making an effort to change shift schedules and work hours to allow for better work-life balance or take into account childcare obligations.

A focus on health and wellbeing 

Before COVID-19, many companies viewed health and wellness from a physical lens, and that's what employees expected. The pandemic, however, has underscored the importance of treating health as a holistic matter that encompasses mental and emotional health as well as physical health.

According to a survey conducted by the International Foundation Of Employee Benefit Plans, 49% of corporations surveyed reported a "slight increase" in mental health claims and 14.5% reported a "significant increase" in mental health claims. 

Julie Stich, the foundation's vice president of content, said that 16% of the survey's respondents reported adding "components to the mental health benefits they offer due to the pandemic." 

Changes included adding providers into their network, adding more available services to their EAP, adding coverage for mindfulness, resilience, and counseling apps, and giving more time off for mental wellbeing, Stich told Insider in an email. 

Staples has also seen companies provide "reset days," where they add extra holidays in addition to what's legally mandated.

"I think the expectations of job seekers and employees have changed. They're seeking to understand very clearly not just what's expected of them but how they will be supported as an employee to be able to succeed in their new job or their existing job," Alison Stevens, director of HR services at Paychex, a company that provides HR and payroll technology and services, said. 

If that support isn't available, employees are seriously considering the opportunity cost.

"The focus on work-life balance is much greater now than what it used to be. I think many employers believed, pre-pandemic, you can throw titles at people," Staples said. Now, the impact that a job might have on one's quality of life is "taking more prominence over traditional benefits like title or pay."

Home office stipends 

In pre-pandemic times, tech companies were known for their lavish perks, such as free meals, in-office laundry services, and on-site fitness classes.

But in an era where employees expect (and demand) flexibility, those perks are unlikely to sway an employee to join a company or encourage an existing employee to stay.

In place of that, many companies are offering stipends for an employee's home office and, in some cases, commuter benefits. 

"Now, job seekers are thinking, at the minimum, 'I'd like to be compensated for expenses at home that I didn't have pre-pandemic,'" McDonald said, adding that that could be high-speed internet, the ability to have monitors at home, or at the minimum, a laptop.

Childcare support

Childcare support was a perk that many employees valued before the pandemic, and that's likely to continue, Stevens said. The pandemic put a major strain on many working parents, particularly working mothers.

According to a 2021 report by the Center for Global Development, the average woman was forced to take on 173 additional (unpaid) hours of childcare during 2020 up until October, compared to 59 extra hours for men. 

"A few companies are starting to offer on-site childcare to help with the work-life balance of employees," Sitch said. She references the policy of Utah-based SAAS company Podium, who opened an onsite center in 2021, in partnership with onsite childcare provider Bright Horizons.

According to an article in Human Resource Executive, benefit-eligible employees can take advantage of the facility, which serves up to 50 children between the ages of six weeks and five years old.

Learning and development perks

As the pandemic made workers rethink what they want out of their work lives, many are prioritizing personal development and growth. Tuition and education subsidies and learning and development benefits are benefits that talented employees value.

According to Valentin, "employees want to feel like they're growing within their own disciplines."

As a result, companies are posting job listings that advertise mentorship and learning and development. The idea, Valentin added, is that "the employee isn't just an employee per say. It's someone a business is investing in." 

A customized and personalized approach 

All the experts Insider spoke to agreed that the pandemic has led employees to expect more than just cookie-cutter benefits. 

"In this tight labor market, companies are laser-focused on unique ways to attract talent," Stich said, "but it's really coming down to designing/modifying benefit packages that meet workers where they are today."

For the most part, employee benefits haven't changed over the last two to three decades, Jean-Philippe Provost, Fidelity Investments' global consulting practice leader, told Insider.

"It's a bit of a wake-up call for employers, and it's also a wake-up call for employees," he said. "The companies that will do well are the ones that are going to be braver to make the bigger changes." 

Stevens suggested that companies who aren't willing to listen to their employees and realign their benefits and perks in accordance with what their workers need stand to lose more than just new talent. 

They can "lose their ability to remain operational," she said. Merriman said that disgruntled workers "can erode performance and culture until they finally leave or get fired." As a company, she said, "those are the workers I'd be more worried about." 

That very threat makes Provost hopeful about companies' willingness to change and introduce policies that are more in line with their employees' expectations and demands.

"I do think it's going to take a little bit of time," Provost said. "The transition is a pretty big one. I think what we're going to see is as more and more employers try to make concrete moves in that direction, the ones that have not made the move will suffer consequences, and that will create the momentum to address the rest of the marketplace." 

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A UK conservation charity is giving some staff and volunteers longer lunch breaks during the summer because of climate change pushing up temperatures in the middle of the day, it says.

The National Trust, a conservation charity, said staff and volunteers at Ham House, in Richmond Upon Thames, London, have the option of changing their hours so that they start earlier and take a long lunch break during the hottest part of the day, before returning later in the afternoon. 

In 2019, Ham House was forced to close to visitors when temperatures peaked over 104 Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius).

The charity said the options were similar to the "Mediterranean hours" seen in countries like Spain and Italy, where workers will regularly take 'siestas' during the afternoon, when temperatures are hottest.

"It's fair to say that as we experience more extreme temperatures, we will be looking to offer Mediterranean working hours, especially in the east which is likely to experience more frequent higher temperatures to ensure the health and safety of our staff and volunteers," it told The Guardian.

A National Trust spokesperson told Insider that Ham House was currently the only site offering the choice, but that other sites may consider similar plans, in exceptional circumstances, as the climate warms.

The charity — which conserves more than 500 historic houses, 780 miles of coastline, and 250,000 hectares of farmland across the UK — revealed the plans alongside the publication of a four-year study into the impact of weather conditions on visits to its sites.

It said a warming climate could pose a threat to the UK tourism industry. Based on 85 million individual visits, it showed that visitor numbers began to decline once temperatures topped 84 Fahrenheit (28 degrees Celsius).

Planting new trees for shade, improving ventilation, and new flood prevention programs were some of the other options the trust was exploring in light of changing climate conditions, it said.

A recent study shared by the Meteorological Office, which monitors UK weather conditions, predicted that the UK could see an extra five extremely hot days and eight extra days of intense rainfall a year if temperatures rise to 1.5 degrees above preindustrial levels. 

Last month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a stark warning that global temperatures were likely to rise by more than that within the next two decades. 

As global temperatures continue to rise, organizations around the world will increasingly have to think about the impact of extreme weather on their workers. 

A report by the Union of Concerned Scientists predicted that by 2050, 60% of outdoor workers in the US could face a week's worth of days annually where it's too dangerous for them to work. 

More than 200 people died as a result of the heatwave that scorched the US West Coast earlier this year — many of them had been forced to work through the heat. Farm workers and line chefs were some of the professions most at risk. 

Extreme temperatures and raging wild fires around the world have forced city authorities in both Miami and the Greek capital Athens to hire chief heat officers in order to help residents and workers stay safe. 

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The summer-internship pathway in investment banking is a competitive process that begins as early as 18 to 24 months before opportunities kick off.

The road to an internship typically culminates in a "superday"— a competitive, rapid-fire sequence of multiple interview rounds conducted by senior bankers like managing directors and vice presidents. At this phase, human-resources professionals or campus recruiters are less likely to be involved than they were at the outset of the recruiting process.

While banks like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Evercore, Bank of America, and Citigroup have already issued some offer letters for next year's summer internships, many firms are still conducting superdays this fall to fill out their 2022 internship classes.

To that end, it's crunch time for students to prepare. Insider reviewed two lists of questions developed by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley that you can use as you think through your interview strategy.

In the case of Goldman Sachs, these are prep questions developed by human resources as part of programming for student career development that can be used to prepare for superday interviews.

In Morgan Stanley's case, these are some questions that may be asked in interviews. 

Goldman Sachs

1. If no one's options mattered but my own, what would I want to accomplish this year? Next year? In 5 years?
2. What is a verb that represents an activity I love to do?
3. Does it matter with/for whom I do this activity?
4. Does the objective of the activity impact how energizing it is?
5. When have I felt most proud?
6. How has something I've done meaningfully impacted someone else?
7. When have I really challenged/pushed myself outside of my comfort zone?
8. When have I made meaningful decisions under pressure or succeeded (or failed and learned)?
9. How do I manage my time? How do I manage my relationships?
10. What obstacles/challenges have I faced? What lessons have I learned through these challenges?
11. What is something I've always said I'm good at, and when did that begin?
12. What is something I've always said I'm bad at, and when did that begin?
13. Why do I work so hard to accomplish my goals?

Morgan Stanley

1. Walk me through your résumé.
2. What do you think makes a good analyst? What do you think makes a great analyst?
3. What recent transaction interests you and why? 
4. Walk me through a DCF.
5. You are modeling a company, and your VP tells you that depreciation should actually be $10MM higher. Please explain the impact of this change on the three core financial statements.
6. What are the most commonly used ways to value a company?
7. How much revenue does the Starbucks in 1585 make? Walk me through your logic. ["1585" refers to Morgan Stanley's global headquarters at 1585 Broadway in New York City.]
8. Simple arithmetic problems (200 divided by 8).
9. What do you think are valid measures for evaluating financial performance of an investment?

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The prestigious Skadden fellowship is likely a dream job for many law students who have their hearts set on doing good.

The two-year paid public-interest fellowship was launched in 1988 with the goal of improving legal services for low-income people. Of the more than 900 fellows the Skadden foundation has funded, 90% have remained in public service, with most continuing to work in the same area addressed in their original fellowship. 

But it's incredibly competitive. The fellowship attracts some of the most decorated applicants coming out of law school. They are all, largely, at the top of their class, have top-notch work experiences, and are deeply knowledgeable about their public-interest legal area. Each year, about 200 law students apply for the fellowship. Only 28 fellows are chosen.

This year's application deadline is September 10. Insider spoke to a former fellow and two Skadden Foundation leaders who are responsible for picking fellows to learn how candidates can stand out among competitors, from essays all the way to the interview.

"Because the fellowships are for the clients, what we're doing is looking for starting attorneys who will be exemplary attorneys for very vulnerable clients on day one," said Kathleen Rubenstein, the executive director of the foundation.

Here's what Rubenstein and the others shared:

Don't be afraid to reach out ahead of time

Rubenstein said she is happy to speak to any prospective candidate who reaches out with questions. She ends up speaking to most candidates before they apply each year.

"If I can offer to them any questions or concerns I have — or help them advance their thinking, or connect them with individuals who may be very insightful about the nature of the needs — they may be able to put forward a more nuanced and effective proposal," she said. 

Akilah Browne, a current fellow, said she started her application months ahead of the deadline in 2018 and went through about 20 drafts. Fellows need to find a nonprofit organization to host them for the two-year fellowship. Browne said she worked with her host organization to fine-tune her application and to make sure she had their full support.

The fellowship's website also has a recorded information session for applicants and an FAQ page. 

Being bilingual is a big advantage

The fellowship's guiding principle is to encourage economic independence by improving legal services for the poor. A major part of that is a fellow's ability to work directly with clients. 

In many cases, that means speaking a language other than English.

"If one of the candidates is fluent in one of the languages, or the language, the client base speaks, that person has a huge leg up," said Lauren Aguiar, chair of the Skadden Foundation and also a partner at the firm. "Even if the other candidate has a couple more checkmarks in their column, we're thinking about the clients."

Rubenstein added that the application reflects the seriousness of this skill too. There's not just one line that asks whether applicants speak another language. Candidates are expected to describe their ability, whether they've used the language in a legal setting, if they are professionally proficient, or if they have lived in a country where the language is spoken. 

Make sure you show your passion

Hopeful applicants can start building their application before they've even gotten into law school. 

Aguiar said she looks for someone who has demonstrated a clear passion for the legal issue they hope to cover during the fellowship.This can pop up in a lot of ways, she said, like an undergraduate major or past volunteer work for a nonprofit organization.

"We sort of want to fund someone's passion," Aguiar said.

Browne, who is working to use community land trusts as a tool to create permanently affordable housing, said the fellowship is essentially an opportunity to create your own dream job. You need to be able to identify your passion and convey it in your writing and interview.

Focus on your writing

Because the quality of applicants is so high — they're all at the top of their class and have won awards and earned other fellowships before — reviewers are picky when it comes to writing.

The fellowship wants excellent writers who can be strong advocates for their clients, Aguiar said. 

So take time to edit, proofread, and get those 400-word essays as concise and intentional as possible. 

How to nail the interview

The interview, which Rubenstein conducts with another member of the advisory committee, is absolutely crucial for getting a fellowship. Some candidates have sterling applications, but when they get into the room, they blow it, Aguiar said. Sometimes they make the interview all about them, instead of focusing on the project. 

Aguiar said the interview is an opportunity to suss out whether a candidate might make clients — especially those who have recently experienced trauma — feel uncomfortable. Some tells include a terrible handshake, not answering questions, or just generally exuding anxiety, she said.  

"You're thinking, 'Oh, goodness, if you walked into an intake meeting or an interview with a new client, you're not instilling confidence,'" Aguiar said.

Candidates should be good listeners, confident but not cocky, and knowledgeable without getting stuck in the weeds. The interviews are meant to be conversational.

"We don't want them coming in thinking we're there to grill them," Aguiar said.

Browne recommended doing several practice interviews, which she did, as well as rehearsing a tight elevator pitch that explains the project in clear language. She said candidates should expect questions asking why the project is important and why it's specifically for you. You have to make the case in the room, she said. 

"Look people in the eye and explain why it's dire and it's needed and it's a real missed opportunity if this work is not funded," she said. 

From there, it's out of the applicant's hands. The advisory committee selects about 56 finalists and makes the case for each to the selection trustees, who will pick next year's fellows on November 10. Finalists will be notified if they got the fellowship the next day.

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