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Well, Joe, I did it. I applied to all the jobs. That is exactly how Sam opened our conversation. It made me laugh out loud, in spite of myself. Let me set this up real quick. Sam is a former vice president of product who came up through the project management ranks. Shes been out of work since being laid off at the end of last year, so about five full months now. Sam is different. Shes not like you and me. Shes kind of a machine. Shes never been a developer, but she knows all the connective tissue between a developers brain and a successful production applicationincluding infrastructure, security, Agile and Scrum, QA, and every flavor of every process that brings good code to paying customers. Sam will tell you that shes not an idea gal. She executes. With extreme prejudice. I tell you all this to tell you that when Sam loses her job or wants another job, she immediately pulls out every stop, in an optimized and efficient manner, never for a hot second taking her eyes off the goal of getting Sams butt into a new seat. Yeah. She went third person there. Last week, to her surprise, Sam realized that in her six months of relentless execution, she had applied to all the jobs she was remotely qualified for. Every single one. There was nothing left to do. No job description she hadnt combed through, no company she hadnt researched and reached out to, no networking spoke left unbugged. So she called me and invited me out for coffee. Hyperbole aside, Sam has applied for hundreds of positions, maybe over 500, she says. She has been through dozens of screens and definitely more than 50 interview loops. If theres a war for jobs underway right now, this is what Sam has learned from her stint on the front lines. The ATS-Friendly Résumé Thing Is Bullshit Her words. But I tend to agree. Sam got on the ATS-friendly résumé train right away, because the company that let her go had been leaning into AI résumé screening for about a year, and she had a friend helping with the tech in the HR department. It took a month before I realized that I was just throwing darts,” she said. “Then I thought about all the talks I’d had with [my HR tech friend] and it hit me that theres no single ATS-friendly format, and everyone is probably doing the screening differently. The responses she was getting were from companies she didnt really want to work for anyway, usually for low-paying, low-culture jobs. Further, the next step after contact was almost always a series of vibe check interviews. Most of the time, these resulted in fun conversations with young HR reps followed by a brief rejection note a week later. I felt like I was wasting my time and I needed to get out of that loop, she said. So I took a risk and just redid my résumé to speak directly to the person I would want to hire me. That, she said, resulted in better initial contact. There Is Nothing in the Middle Sam immediately decided to apply for everything she could. She has almost 20 years of experience, so she applied to everything from midlevel jobs that required five years of experience all the way to the executive-level jobs that would serve as her logical next career move. Fifteen years is the max theyll put into the JD, she laughed. What does that tell you? Each time, she tweaked her résumé and application so as not to scare anyone off. I didnt lie. I was just selective about what I said. What she noticed is that there were a lot of just above entry level jobsin other words, people who were already broken in but still cheap. And there were a fair number of director and up positions, less hands-on stuff. They dont say youll need to be out there selling for those executive jobs, but they imply it pretty heavily, she said. I take this to mean that there is a lot less emphasis on management. And in my own research, Ive also found this to be the case. Youve got labor, and youve got sales, and everything else is AI-driven. And by the way . . . AI Jobs Are as Dumb as You Think They Are At first, Sam admits, I wasnt applying for AI jobs because I dont have the tech experience there, but after reading some of the requirements I said [WTF], I can use ChatGPT, and I applied for a couple and got responses. Turns out, no one really knows what an AI job is, beyond the PhD-level math and machine learning that drive the AI platforms themselves. According to Sam, almost everything thats not that is just hiring managers who want to make sure that you can use ChatGPT to pretty stuff up, you know, documentation and presentations. I am shocked that I didnt assume that. Salaries Are Coming Down This one sucks. She said, I swearI didnt keep notes or anything on itbut, six months ago, salaries at my level were mostly $250,000 to $300,000, and now they are definitely in the $180,000 to $220,000 range, give or take. It makes sense. A combination of continued economic uncertainty on one side of the hiring table and growing desperation on the other side. Something had to give. You Need to Be Ex-BigCo Ive touched on this in previous posts, and Sam confirms what Ive already been told. It comes up. A lot, she said. Many years ago, Sam spent some time at a multibillion-dollar big-name tech company. Now she was getting frustrated when interviewers would inevitably ask her about that position first. I did a stint, she said. I didnt change the world or anything. Im really proud of what I did at my last job, but they were under $50 million and falling, so . . . Money Men (and Women) Are Pulling the Strings Theres a lot more oversight into org structure and hiring in general coming from investors and boards who traditionally dont play as much of a role in the company makeup below the C-suite. This is something I asked Sam about, and her eyes lighted up. Yes! she said. Ive had . . . three loops that went great, and right before the offer I got set up with some rando or a private equity guy and then whammo. Is that a thing? Yeah. She said whammo. And, yeah, thats a thing. I know this because Ive been the rando. Ive been asked to vet executives multiple times this year by those very venture capitalists and private equity guys. Theres No Confidence Sam and I had a long and winding conversation, and Ive tried to put this in a format with a single cohesive thread. If I had to pick, that thread would be no confidence. From a lack of confidence in résumé screening to a lack of confidence in how to put people to work to a lack of confidence in what kind of talent is needed to even a lack of confidence in executives making sound fiscal hiring decisions. No one knows whats really going on or how to make it better. And thus, according to Sam, this malaise has spread to every corner of the job market. Outside of a few lucky breaks or local connections, theres no good way to get from point A to point B, with point B being putting a butt in a seat. And then one morning last week, I went to my laptop and there was nothing to do,” she said. “It took me some time to figure it out, but every job board, all my networking tracking, everything. I was up to date. It made me a little scared. A few days later, Sam did text me to tell me that new jobs were coming in and chatter had picked up across her network. In my mind, this is a wave, and a necessary one, as companies continue to figure out what isnt working, and then try to figure out what will. Or, at least, thats what my optimistic side says. If youre interested in more stories from the front lines of tech and innovation, please join my email list and well commiserate and speculate together. By Joe Procopio This article originally appeared in Fast Companys sister publication, Inc. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
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There are times when the best way to learn something about urbanism is to embrace sheer ignorance. The more a planner knows about zoning, the more careful they become about zoning reform. The more an engineer knows about intersection design, the more timid they become about innovative intersection design. Its human nature to mentally codify something as you become more familiar with it: Its always been done this way, so it must be right. The Citizen Kane Case Study Applied ignorance has been a theme in my career, so Im always happy to hear about others who experienced some form of success by similar means. Im a sucker for behind-the-scenes stories about my favorite movies, screenwriters, and directors. Legendary film critic Roger Ebert used to say Citizen Kane was the greatest film of all time and there could be no competitor. Hundreds of polls and articles have been published over the years sharing Eberts opinion. The storytelling techniques, emotional soundtrack, and the morally complex characters transformed the way future writers and directors approached filmmaking. This was director Orson Welles debut film, and he was only 24 years old when he was crafting the masterpiece. He sat for an interview with the BBC Monitor when he was 44, and heres one of many insightful segments. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"","headline":"Urbanism Speakeasy","description":"Join Andy Boenau as he explores ideas that the infrastructure status quo would rather keep quiet. To learn more, visit urbanismspeakeasy.com.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.urbanismspeakeasy.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}} Welles: I didnt want money. I wanted authority. And after a year of negotiations, I got it. My love for films began only when we started work. BBC: What Id like to know is where did you get the confidence to Welles: Ignorance. Sheer ignorance. You know, theres no confidence to equal it. Its only when you know something about a profession, I think, that youre timid or careful. BBC: How does ignorance show itself? Welles: I thought you could do anything with a camera that the eye could do, or the imagination could do. And if you come up from the bottom in the film business, youre taught all the things that the cameraman doesnt want to attempt for fear he will be criticized for having failed. In this case I had a cameraman who didnt care if he was criticized if he failed, and I didnt know that there were things you couldnt do. So anything I could think up in my dreams I attempted to photograph. BBC: You got away with enormous technical advancements, didnt you. Welles: Simply by not knowing that they were impossible. Or theoretically impossible. Questioning the status quo Im no Orson Welles, but Im great at asking dumb questions about topics that I have no expertise in. Sometimes it leads to learning about an important reason the status quo does what it does, and sometimes the discovery is that the status quo is practicing pseudoscience. Asking big Why and What If questions is so unusual in professional planning and engineering, because these are industries with established processes and structure. Some things just arent supposed to be challenged. Heres a starter pack of sample questions you might bring up with your local decision-makers: Land planning: Residential lot size. What are the trade-offs when regulations require a minimum property size for homes? Single-stair code. Considering single-stair building has been almost universally outlawed in the U.S., why is there a push among architects to legalize them? Building setbacks. How is walkability impacted by forcing buildings to be a certain distance away from the street? Single-use zoning. How does banning mixed-use neighborhoods affect car dependency? Units per parcel. Are there economic benefits by allowing property owners to build multiple housing units on their land? Transportation engineering: Car lane width. Is there any research on the safety impacts of 10 vs. 12foot lanes? Signal timing. Is there any benefit to giving pedestrians a head start before the green light? Roundabout diameter. Are there case studies about smaller roundabouts being safer? Street light type. Are there case studies about highway-scale lighting vs. pedestrian-scale? Geometric design. What are the trade-offs when the design speed is higher than the operating speed? Practice some applied ignorance in your urbanism projects or advocacy. Humbly ask questions knowing you dont know what you dont know. The worst thing that happens is you learn something new about a topic. The best thing that happens is you spark a conversation that leads to a policy or infrastructure improvement. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"","headline":"Urbanism Speakeasy","description":"Join Andy Boenau as he explores ideas that the infrastructure status quo would rather keep quiet. To learn more, visit urbanismspeakeasy.com.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.urbanismspeakeasy.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}}
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A big increase in the tax on university endowments is adding to financial uncertainty for the wealthiest colleges in the U.S., leading several already to lay off staff or implement hiring freezes.Spending more endowment money on taxes could also lead colleges to reduce financial aid, cutting off access to elite institutions for lower-income students, colleges and industry experts have warned. President Donald Trump signed the tax increase into law last month as part of his signature spending bill.The new tax rates take effect in 2026, but colleges such as Harvard, Yale and Stanford already are citing the tax as one of many reasons for making cuts across their universities. Each will be on the hook to pay hundreds of millions more in taxes, while also navigating reductions in research grants and other threats to funding by the Trump administration.A tax on college endowments was introduced during Trump’s first administration, collecting 1.4% of wealthy universities’ investment earnings. The law signed by Trump last month creates a new tiered system that taxes the richest schools at the highest rates.The new tax will charge an 8% rate at schools with $2 million or more in assets for each enrolled student. Schools with $750,000 to $2 million will be charged 4%, and schools with $500,000 to $750,000 will continue to be charged the 1.4% rate.The tax applies only to private colleges and universities with at least 3,000 students, up from the previous cutoff of 500 students.“The tax now will really solely apply to private research universities,” said Steven Bloom, assistant vice president of government relations for the American Council on Education. “It’s going to mean that these schools are going to have to spend more money under the tax, taking it away from what they primarily use their endowment assets for financial aid.” This small group of wealthy colleges faces a tax increase The law will increase the endowment tax for about a dozen universities, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from the National Association of College and University Business Officers.Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are expected to pay the 8% rate next year. The schools facing the 4% rate include Notre Dame, Dartmouth College, Rice University, University of Pennsylvania, Washington University in St. Louis and Vanderbilt University.Some universities are on the edge of the law’s parameters. Both Duke and Emory, for instance, were shy of the $750,000-per-student endowment threshold based on last fiscal year.Endowments are made up of donations to the college, which are invested to maintain the money over time. Colleges often spend about 5% of their investment earnings every year to put toward their budgets. Much of it goes toward scholarships for students, along with costs such as research or endowed faculty positions.Despite the colleges’ wealth, the tax will drastically impact their budgets, said Phillip Levine, an economist and professor at Wellesley College.“They’re looking for savings wherever possible,” Levine said, which could impact financial aid. “One of the most important things they do with their endowment is lower the cost of education for lower- and middle-income students. The institutions paying the highest tax are also the ones charging these students the least amount of money to attend.”For example, at Rice University in Houston, officials anticipate the college will need to pay $6.4 million more in taxes. That equates to more than 100 student financial aid packages, the university said, but Rice officials will explore all other options to avoid cutting that support. How colleges are adjusting to financial pressures In the meantime, some universities are going forward with staff cuts.Yale University says it will have to pay an estimated $280 million in total endowment taxes, citing the tax in a campus message implementing a hiring freeze. Stanford University announced plans to reduce its operating budget by $140 million this upcoming school year, which included 363 layoffs and an ongoing hiring freeze. The university spent months trying to determine where to reduce its budget, but said it would continue to support undergraduate financial aid and funding for Ph.D. students.Research universities are under increasing financial pressure from reductions in funding from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies.No university knows this pressure better than Harvard, the country’s wealthiest college. Its $53 billion endowment puts it at the top of the list for the new tax, but it’s also seeing massive portions of research funding under threat in its ongoing battle with the White House.The federal government has frozen $2.6 billion in Harvard’s research grants in connection with civil rights investigations focused on antisemitism and Harvard’s efforts to promote diversity on campus. But the impact of other administration policies on the university could approach $1 billion annually, Harvard said in a statement.“It’s not like Harvard is going to go from one of the best institutions in the world to just a mediocre institution. That’s probably not going to happen,” Levine said. “But that doesn’t mean it’s not going to be a bad thing that there won’t be pain and that students won’t suffer.” Mumphrey reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writer Sharon Lurye in Philadelphia contributed to this report. The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. Cheyanne Mumphrey, AP Education Writer
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