Te-Ping Chen’s Post

To get one of the hottest jobs in tech, Deborah Martinez Castellanos didn’t need a bachelor’s degree. She needed a flair with a screwdriver—and a high tolerance for artificial lighting. Demand for data technicians is booming as companies pour billions into data centers to power everything from AI chatbots to the trillions of photos and emails stored in the cloud. We talk to the workers who keep the internet running about the 6-figure salaries they can command—and why some are picking this path instead of pursuing a traditional four-year degree. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gF-xrm3P

I had so much fun diving into the world of skilled-trade influencers and #bluecollar pride for today's piece in The Wall Street Journal. In it, you'll meet a handyman who makes $500k off social media and Lexis Czumak-Abreu, pictured here, who has >2.2 million followers tuning into daily videos featuring her work as an electrician. As skepticism about college has mounted, these influencers say they're working to reboot tired stereotypes about career paths in plumbing and construction. “We’ve made it more appealing. We have nice vehicles. We own homes, we are successful.” The number of students enrolled in vocational-focused community colleges jumped 16% last year to its highest level since the National Student Clearinghouse began tracking such data in 2018:

More Americans are profoundly lonely, and for many, the workplace -- long a wellspring of connection -- is deepening that sense of isolation. I learned so much in speaking w/social scientists to report this piece, from -- the most impactful number of times a month to come into the office to maximize social connection (hint: it might not be as often as you think) -- the importance of sometimes stultifying small talk -- what % of Americans say they don't leave the house for days while working remotely (>40). Thank you to all the researchers who shared their insights so generously for this one, including Jessica R. Methot, Connie Noonan Hadley, Rob Cross, Michael Arena, Philip Arkcoll, Louise Hawkley, Jeremy Nobel and many more: https://lnkd.in/eNr_wRpc

Meet the new geography of work. Salary gaps have flattened across the U.S., with premium pay for superstar cities like New York City falling as other metro areas rise. Three years ago, for example, jobs in NYC commanded a 19% pay premium over the national median, an advantage that shrank to 14% last year. Similarly while in 2021, workers in Lincoln, Neb. were paid salaries 6% lower than the U.S. norm, by last year, that gap had shrunk to just 3%. Meanwhile, jobs are booming in cities across the Sunbelt, even as growth rates have slowed substantially in the West. “It feels like living in the future," one recent grad told The Wall Street Journal who'd recently picked Phoenix as his new home over San Francisco. Since 2020, job postings for Phoenix have jumped by more than 60%; job postings in the Bay Area fell by 25% during that time. Read more: https://lnkd.in/dSF-wtxg

My brilliant colleagues at The Wall Street Journal want to help you land a job, get a promotion and safety-proof your current career, just in time for the new year. Check out week one of our networking challenge: https://lnkd.in/gz9P2T9G and sign up up to join other readers here: https://bit.ly/3N4jCS2 (Yes, it's free!)

More Americans are taking sick days, and not just when they're sick. New data in The Wall Street Journal shows that 30% of white-collar workers with access to paid leave have taken sick time, up from 21% in 2019. Among younger workers, the jump is even starker, with use rates soaring 45% since the pandemic. After years of following their older colleagues' lead and muscling through any illness at work, many say they're through. Others are using more days for mental health reasons, to care for family members or simply because they can: “It was a gorgeous day, I just wasn’t in the mood to work.” https://lnkd.in/eNkTBHqG

Bots are joining your meetings, and they think you talk too much. For today's The Wall Street Journal, I dove inside the wild, woolly new world of company meetings, where the minutes you speak are being counted (as are your 'ums' and other filler words!), to-do items are auto-generated, and AI assistants sometimes outnumber the humans. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eqy_-End

Our cover story in this weekend's Exchange on what it's like to hunt for a white-collar job today. Companies are piling on new requirements, including higher score requirements on technical tests, more years of experience & additional rounds of interviews. Especially after hiring sprees during the pandemic, recruiters and executives say, companies have gotten burned, and are moving extra cautiously. One job-seeker we spoke to went through nine interview rounds -- then was ghosted. “I’ve easily spent 20 hours on a single interview process.” Read more at The Wall Street Journal:

“They were just kind of, like, hoarding us like Pokémon cards.” “They hire everybody, whether they need it or not, just to have a reserve of talent. They can afford it.” Tech companies this year have laid off more than 168,000 workers. Amid job cuts, we talk to former workers who say they were paid six figures to do essentially nothing at all, and the industry professionals who say it isn't actually all that surprising. Read more in our story in today's The Wall Street Journal: