Author: openjargon

• Carnival Cruise Line is well known for its relatively affordable fares.
• But my recent Carnival Firenze cruise was filled with enticing pay-to-play amenities.
• Even the complimentary venues had up-charged options, making it easy for travelers to blow past their budget.

If you aren't careful, your Carnival cruise could quickly become as expensive as an Oceania one.

Peruse any of the "US' most budget-friendly cruise lines" lists, and you're sure to find Carnival somewhere near the top. In 2024, its most affordable itinerary is $164 per person for a four-night sailing from Miami — more than $20 cheaper than Royal Caribbean and Norwegian's least expensive ones.

That's about $40 a day for food, accommodations, onboard entertainment, and the ability to see several destinations in one vacation.

Sounds like a steal, right?

Well, not quite.

You'll be met with a flurry of tempting up-charged amenities the moment you board Carnival's ships. So, if you're prone to giving into these little luxuries, you can kiss your budget goodbye.

I went on my first Carnival cruise in mid-May: a four-night sailing from Long Beach, California, on Carnival Firenze.

I paid $735 for a solo interior cabin, including optional gratuities.

If that sounds relatively expensive, you'd be right. Carnival Firenze is the company's latest vessel, and newer cruise ships generally command a pricing premium.

It's also worth noting that I had booked it less than 10 days before embarkation. Oops.

I thought I knew what to expect when it came to the cruise industry's 'pay-to-play' game.

Mass-market cruise lines have been increasingly slapping fees on on-board amenities and activities. I knew excesses like alcohol, WiFi, and specialty dining would cost extra, as is typical across the industry.

The only one I fell for was WiFi, of which the premium package cost me $85 for all four nights. I was there for work, after all.

Cocktails were generally about $13, while beers and seltzers were about $9 each. Specialty restaurants like teppanyaki and Italian cost about $40 per person, while the steakhouse was $49.

None of these were surprising. Even premium cruise lines charge extra for higher-end restaurants and beverages.

But on Carnival, it felt like almost everything beyond the bare minimum carried an additional fee.

Even complimentary dining venues dangled tempting dollar sign-afflicted dishes — including the buffet, where guests had to pay for chicken wings.

Want an empanada? The Empanadas and Pie kiosk sold them for $1.50 apiece.

Craving a lobster roll? The dinnertime Seafood Shack booth (which otherwise has free breakfast and lunch options) sells one for $18.

Looking for some pizza? You could grab a free pepperoni slice at the pizza stand — or pay $6 for the fancier Korean barbecue steak pie.

That darn dollar sign symbol tormented me morning to night, on and off the ship.

I had been craving a juice for breakfast. Too bad it was $5 (in the complimentary main dining room, no less).

I would've loved some popcorn during the evening movie showings. A bag costs $4.

During our second stop in Ensenada, Mexico, I briefly considered taking the shuttle from the port to downtown. However, that would've been another $4.

But the most egregious 'incident' came during afternoon tea.

The daily schedule denoted pay-to-play events with a small dollar sign symbol. "Tea Time" didn't have one, so off I scurried, excited for some free mid-afternoon caffeine and sweet treats.

You can probably guess where this story is headed.

After I took my seat, a waitperson arrived at my table with an organized box of tea bags, giving me just enough time to review my options before announcing they were $1.50 each. On principle, I declined.

A few minutes later, he returned to my table to let me know that he did, in fact, have some free options stashed behind the up-charged bags. They were the same as those available in the buffet: Lipton and Bigelow's green tea.

During breakfast, one of the servers joked that my croissant and Lipton tea would cost $20 each.

I knew he was kidding, but for a split second, I was worried he wasn't. At that point, I expected almost everything I wanted to come with a price tag.

Carnival, I get it. Get that bag, sis!

But not being immediately upfront about the $1.50 tea bag and otherwise free options felt unecessarily deceitful.

In the company's defense, not everything had a price tag. Fun activities like the mini-golf course, waterslides, and fear-of-height-inducing ropes course were complimentary and great for forgetting how annoyed I was about "tea gate."

Carnival is just following the industry trend.

There's a reason onboard spending has skyrocketed over the last year. Mass-market cruise lines have been increasingly adopting a model reminiscent of budget airlines: offer a low base fare and present a slew of irresistible amenities at an additional price.

Competitors like Norwegian and Royal Caribbean are repeat offenders, too.

On Norwegian Prima, mini-golf costs $10 per person, while the VR arcade sets guests back $29 for one hour.

On Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas, mini-golf is free! But walk slow if you decide to spend money on the ship's part-agility, part-ziplining course. It costs $49 to participate — and could be completed in a minute or so.

So yes, going on an ultra-cheap Carnival cruise is possible if you’re like me, stubbornly unwilling to spend extra.

But if you're a pushover who easily gives into temptation, be sure to develop a backbone before you cruise with Carnival.

If you don't, mai tais and movie popcorn costs could add up quicker than expected.

• Arielle Francois moved from the Miami metropolitan area to Dallas for a job.
• She's been living in Dallas since 2022; she talked to BI about how it compares to living in Florida.
• She thinks it's more affordable than being in South Florida for someone her age.

Arielle Francois, 24, would tell her past self it's fine to be nervous about making the move from South Florida to Dallas.

That move at the start of 2022 came with the unknown of what her "first big girl job" would be like. Francois would also have to figure out rent and finances, how to meet people, and everything else needed to thrive in a city and state she hadn't been to before.

"There was no initial excitement or happiness at all just because it was an unknown city to me," Francois told Business Insider.

She had been living with family in the Miami metropolitan area; she also attended college in Florida. Francois moved to Florida from Haiti because of the earthquake in 2010.

Fast-forwarding to the end of 2021, she had to consider moving for a job offer to take part in a program at PMG that required the relocation to Texas. She told BI she only had a short time "to find somewhere to stay, to learn about Dallas, to even figure out if I wanted to move to Dallas."

Francois studied criminal justice but changed interests toward the end of college after getting a taste of digital marketing work as a college side hustle. "The program is specifically designed for post-grad students who are looking to kick-start their career in digital marketing," she said.

After successfully completing the program, she works as a digital marketer on the influencer marketing team at PMG.

Francois is among the many people who moved to the Dallas metro area in 2022. Nearly 91,600 more people moved in than out of the Dallas area from elsewhere in the US during the period of July 1, 2021, and June 30, 2022, data from the Census Bureau showed.

"I find Dallas is up and coming," Francois said.

Francois sees several positives to living in Dallas, including more visibility and opportunities as a content creator. With more and more Gen Zers moving into full-time employment while baby boomers enter retirement or leave behind full-time jobs, Francois talked to BI about advice for anyone uprooting their lives to move somewhere new.

Leveraging social media

Francois advised people who are moving to make sure they do their research. She has also found social media can be useful for moving — not only to see what life is like in the place you are heading to but as a way to reach out to people.

For instance, Francois said she used Smart City to find a place to live. She said it's a service where you connect with a "locator to help you find the apartment that you want in your desired location." Francois said she learned about this "through a Dallas local I reached out to on social media while doing my research. This highlights the importance of seeking advice from locals and leveraging social media during the moving process."

"I feel like social media is the perfect place for you to discover a city because you have a ton of content creators who are creating amazing content about the good, the bad, pretty, the ugly about the city," she said.

Beyond scrolling through social media posts and apartment sites, there are also rent and costs to think about.

"I recommend budgeting and saving as much as possible — your future self will appreciate it," she said for other Gen Zers living on their own for the first time. She added that can include not spending too much on furniture and thrifting items.

Moving to a new city can also mean figuring out how to make friends. Francois said not to forget others may be new to the area and seeking new friends.

"Making friends can be intimidating, but there are often many social groups on Facebook or platforms like The Nudge that organize social events and provide lists of activities in your city," she told BI. "Social media is also a great way to meet new people and discover local events."

How her life in Dallas compares to Florida

"I think I would definitely say that my favorite part about the city is how helpful and open everyone is," Francois said about Dallas.

She said going out with her colleagues is one of her favorite things to do in the area. For instance, she went to her first-ever baseball game with her coworkers.

Francois has also found Dallas a good city to live in as a content creator compared to Miami. "The visibility I got in South Florida was very limited just because there were so many other creatives in terms of models and artists and content creators," she said.

Meanwhile, in Dallas, she feels she gets more visibility as a creator, "which has actually resulted in much more opportunities for me here," she said. "For example, I get invited to a ton of Dallas creator events with some brands that I personally use, and I just actually feel like a creator here just because I get that visibility as a creator, and so I'm treated like I'm a creator."

Additionally, Francois said she feels it's more affordable to live in Dallas than South Florida for someone her age. According to Zillow data at the time of reporting, the median rent for a one-bedroom property is $2,700 in Miami and around $1,400 in Dallas.

Francois, who hasn't had roommates while living in Dallas, paid nearly $1,600 a month in rent, including some fees, for her first apartment in the city. She moved earlier this year to a new building, where she pays over $1,800 a month.

She said she has "everything you could possibly need," at her current place. "To me, it was worth the increase in rent, but I know not everyone would necessarily agree."

Additionally, she finds that Dallas is quieter than Miami. "I remember when I lived there, I would say, 'I live where you vacation,'" Francois said.

"If you want to party, you go to Florida, whereas I don't think if you want to party, you would think of Dallas as the go-to city for that," Francois said. "And I'm totally OK with living somewhere like that because of where I'm at mentally, professionally, and all of that."

While she does miss being close to the beach, a personal pro for her of living in Dallas is seeing the differences in seasons and the changing weather.

"Because I grew up in the Caribbean islands, I'm very used to sunny weather and just basically summer weather all year long," Francois said. "So, I actually like that in Dallas I'm able to see the seasons change."

She also misses the Haitian community in Florida and says that if she's craving Haitian food, she won't really find it in Dallas.

"Because South Florida is so close to Haiti, you'll find a huge population of Haitians in South Florida," she said. "So when I moved to Florida, I didn't feel like I was too far away from home because there were so many Haitian restaurants, so many Haitian churches. There's even Little Haiti in South Florida. So, Haitian culture is very present there."

Given the mix of things she misses about South Florida and the perks of being in Dallas, Francois said she would tell her past self who was getting ready to move that, "It's normal to be nervous because change is uncomfortable" and it's an uneasy feeling to experience this new chapter in life alone.

"It's fine to feel how you feel, but if only you knew what was on the other side of all of that fear and anxiety, you would quickly wipe your tears and get to packing," she said.

Have you moved out of Florida or moved to Texas? Share your moving experience with this reporter at mhoff@businessinsider.com.

• Jace Mattinson returned to work after finding early retirement unfulfilling and repetitive.
• He initially retired at 32 after selling a lumber company but wanted to return to the office.
• Mattinson aims to balance work, family, and hobbies using a "life happiness index" as a guide.

Jace Mattinson, 36, has already determined that retirement is overrated. Four years ago, he tried it out for eight months, then realized he felt like he was throwing away a decade of hard work and low-sleep nights.

When he started his financial independence journey, he thought retirement would be 30 years out. But at 32, he had enough to never work at an office again. However, he said, the appeal of retirement, from playing golf to relaxing on a boat, got stale fast.

He wanted to get back into the workforce and return to an executive position, which brought him much more fulfillment. He also wanted to be a role model for his kids, who saw their dad as someone motivated less by money and more by genuine passion.

So he did just that, working slightly fewer hours but maintaining a strong balance between work, family, and hobbies. It's all part of his "life happiness index" that drives his financial and life decisions.

"I decided that retirement in the traditional sense was not something that is going to happen for myself anytime soon," Mattinson told Business Insider.

Mattinson is one of many members of the FIRE community — financial independence, retire early — who has gravitated away from the "RE" part of the acronym. Some previously told BI that after testing out retirement, they felt directionless or bored, itching to return to the workforce. Some wanted to resume their past jobs, while others looked to lower-stress roles like nonprofit or charity work.

Retiring early, but not for long

Mattinson started his career at PwC as an associate in Dallas making $52,000 a year after graduating from Brigham Young University. He quickly rose the ranks at an outsourced accounting firm making about $150,000, where he became a partner and relocated from Dallas to Austin.

One of his clients worked in the lumber building material hardware distribution space, and at 27, he took over a lumber company which was struggling. At this time, he was making in the mid-six figures, putting much of that money into various retirement and investment accounts.

After working long weeks, he sold the company at 32 for seven figures and reached the amount he needed to retire comfortably while providing for his five kids. He said he was living on just $30,000 to $40,000 a year, as most of his earnings went to maxing out his retirement accounts and investing in real estate.

"I skipped over five years like it was nothing, but if you ask my wife, there were some extremely tough years," he said. "I was gone a few nights a week at a minimum. I had operations all over Texas and Oklahoma. And I spent a lot of time trying to build up this company."

During this time, he acquired a real estate portfolio in Texas, taking advantage of house hacking and other strategies to have extra passive income.

He said he was drained after years of nearly nonstop work and figured that he would never have this kind of freedom again after selling the company. He took a "mini-retirement" that included golfing as much as four times a week, skiing, playing basketball, and boating.

A few months in, he realized his hobbies were getting repetitive and boring. He felt disengaged from his work and social communities, and a part of him felt his quick rise up the corporate ladder was being neglected. He wasn't worried about money, though, as he had plenty in investments and hadn't yet deployed much of the large cash infusion from the company's sale.

"I didn't think I was going to close up shop forever, but it was like, maybe I'll take a bunch of time off," Mattinson said. "But after about eight months of that mini-retirement, I decided that I had way too much time on my hands to not be engaged."

He didn't view the mini-retirement as a complete mistake, as it helped him recharge and reconsider his values. But he eventually noticed he wasn't "wired" to relax for long periods, and he wanted to pursue his passions of growing his investments and real estate portfolio — or, in other words, work.

"I had this mindset shift of, I'm pretty young, and I don't want to essentially be retired," Mattinson said. "I didn't want my kids growing up thinking that daddy worked really hard at one point, but now he hangs out and goes golfing all the time."

Returning to work

He decided to find new challenges in the lumber distribution space, which he said was much more fulfilling than doing his hobbies every day. He's now an executive at a lumber building materials company doing another nationwide roll-up.

He continues to invest in franchises and real estate and has had a podcast for seven years. He has a three-bucket investment strategy of investing in the market, business, and real estate.

He recently shifted from a scarcity mindset of wanting to save and DIY everything to an abundance mindset of investing more in what matters and splurging on things that make life easier. He still enjoys yard work but pays for house cleaning or laundry.

He keeps track of a "life happiness index," which he said is highest when he balances his work with family and hobbies. He tries to maximize this index by pursuing work in areas such as investment and distribution. He considered switching to charity work or other lower-stress options, though he said the best use of his talents, from an impact standpoint, was returning to the field he left.

As part of this, he's less on top of his family's budget than he used to be, spending roughly what he thinks they should but no longer tracking every dollar. He's also been putting aside money for community improvement projects that could benefit others long-term.

"I don't try to nickel and dime myself if it doesn't make me happy," he said. "I don't want to be a billionaire by any stretch of the imagination, but there are things that I would like to do after I've shifted my mind. I would love to create a park one day, for example, in my area that has all different equipment."

He schedules one-on-one time with his kids, plays basketball twice a week, and makes time for tennis or golf with friends, all of which take precedence in his schedule.

When considering his "final" retirement, he said he plans to work as long as he enjoys it. While he doesn't want to be a "full-time parent" and needs work to keep him going, he's increasingly trying to pick up and drop off his kids at school and attend their sporting events.

"As long as I'm able to continue to take enough vacations, travel, do some of the things that I've always liked doing locally, and do some of my hobbies a few times a year, I'm in a pretty good spot," he said.

Are you part of the FIRE movement or living by some of its principles? Reach out to this reporter at nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.

• Tesla is preparing for a showdown between some big investment firms and individual shareholders on June 13.
• Several institutional investors have indicated they plan to vote against Elon Musk's pay plan.
• Retail investors, who hold 44% of Tesla stock, could sway the vote.

Tesla is setting the stage for a battle between some vocal institutional investors and some of Elon Musk's biggest supporters.

The two sides appear ready to face off at Tesla's annual shareholder meeting on June 13. Over the past few weeks, several investment firms have urged shareholders to vote against the proposed pay package for Musk, which was valued at $55 billion when it was struck down by a Delaware judge earlier this year.

The executive pay plan, which was first approved in 2018, is centered on a series of goalposts around Tesla's financial growth. The plan involves a 10-year grant of 12 tranches of stock options that are vested when Tesla hits specific targets. When the company hits each milestone, Musk gets stock equal to 1% of outstanding shares at the time of the grant. Tesla said it hit all of the 12 targets as of 2023.

The Delaware judge that voided the compensation plan in January argued that Musk had undue influence over the package and its approval because of his close ties to several board members, resulting in an "unfair price."

Meanwhile, Tesla has argued that the pay package is both fair and necessary to maintain Musk's focus on the car company. In a series of advertisements and messages to shareholders ahead of the June shareholder vote, Tesla has continued to argue that the plan is "critical to the future success of Tesla" and a matter of properly compensating Musk for his work over the past six years.

And some of Musk's most devout fans, many of which count themselves as investors, have begun to spread the same message. Tesla has even shared screenshots of some of its fans' tweets about voting in some of its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including a video from @TeslaBoomerMama that includes step-by-step instructions on how to vote in the annual meeting.

In some ways, Tesla has made retail investors like @TeslaBoomerMama an influencer of sorts, according to a report from The Information. Over the past few weeks, Tesla retail investors have been raising a rallying cry on social media, and even targeting investors like Leo Koguan, one of Tesla's largest individual shareholders, who has expressed his intentions to vote against the proposal.

Tesla's retail investors hold a notable level of power at the company. Individual investors hold a large portion of Tesla stock, accounting for about 44% of Tesla shares, per S&P Global Market Intelligence data quoted by Reuters. That's the highest percentage out of the 10 largest companies in the S&P 500, according to Reuters. So while institutions like CalPERS — which holds about 9.5 million Tesla shares, according to Bloomberg — have said they plan to vote against the proposal, they might be faced with a large number of individual investors canceling out their votes.

Adam Jonas, head of Morgan Stanley's auto and space research, said in an analyst note from Friday that, based on a survey of 109 respondents, Morgan Stanley expects Musk's pay package to be met with 57% approval.

Ultimately, the issue comes down to whether individual investors will show out for the vote. Anat Alon-Beck, a corporate law expert out of Case Western Reserve University, told Business Insider that it's uncommon for individual investors to put in the effort to cast a vote.

"I'd say 90% of retail investors throw out those proxy cards," Alon-Beck said. "I'd be shocked if a large number of them actually vote and mail it back."

For its part, Tesla has been working overtime to distribute material on how to vote, providing QR codes and online options in addition to mail-in votes. On Tuesday, the company even kicked off a raffle, offering shareholders who could provide proof that they'd voted the chance for a special tour of the Texas gigafactory alongside Musk.

The Tesla CEO has also promoted the proposal and criticized institutional investors who have spoken out against the pay plan. He even threatened to take his work with AI outside of Tesla if he is unable to secure additional voting shares.

A spokesperson for Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ahead of the June 13 shareholder meeting, shareholders will be asked to vote on several other proposals in addition to Musk's pay package. The company is also asking investors to vote on whether to move Tesla's state of incorporation from Delaware to Texas and a separate proposal to reelect Tesla board members Kimbal Musk and Murdoch.

For Musk, whose net worth is largely tied to his Tesla shares, the stakes couldn't be higher.

Do you work for Tesla or have a tip? Reach out to the reporter via a non-work email and device at gkay@businessinsider.com or 248-894-6012.

• Dania Swails found her résumé wasn't being read by applicant-tracking systems.
• Swails, who's worked in finance, revamped her résumé to make it easier to get through.
• She simplified her résumé format and has started to get more callbacks for job applications.

Dania Swails, 28, has worked in finance and is looking for another job in the industry after leaving her last role. She has faced numerous rejections to jobs she's applied for. A recruiter suggested she rework her résumé so an applicant-tracking system might more easily read it.

I have a bachelor's degree in sports management. I graduated in 2019, and the pandemic started in March 2020. So, some of the job offers I had — and the prospects I had — weren't starting until the next season, but my opportunities went away because of the pandemic.

I had a friend who was a stockbroker. She said, "Hey, my job will train you to become a broker if that's something you're interested in." At the time, I just needed a job. So, I became a broker.

I got into it, and I just really liked it. I really liked finance. My dad works in finance; he does taxes and investing. He's told me my whole life that I need to look into finance. When I started in the industry, my dad and I used to study every night for my Series 7 exam, which I passed.

After working as a broker, I was recruited to be an equity trader. I really got into data and trends research when I was working at that job. I was there for two years, and then I got laid off.

After I got laid off, I went on LinkedIn and found a job as an analyst. It was my first time not working with clients. I worked directly for the bank. I did like being an analyst; I just didn't like the company.

I felt like, "Well, I've been in finance for four years. I've managed these accounts. I've done this. I haven't had a problem having a job." So, at the end of January, I thought, "I'm burned out from this employer. I'll just leave. I'm sure I can find something else." That didn't happen.

When I was a broker — a first-year broker — it felt like I was getting recruited on LinkedIn every day. That's how I got that job as an equity trader. And, even when I was laid off, I was only out of work for three weeks, and I was right back at work at a new job.

But now, it's months later, and I still don't have a role. This has been the hardest it's ever been. I've never had an experience like this. LinkedIn had always been my best friend, but now it's my worst enemy — it's like a shift happened.

Revamping my résumé

I'd been told my résumé is impressive. I'd also been told it's too long, it's too short, it's too vague, and you need to change the formatting. I had my education and my skills on the side, along with my contact information. I had a template that was pretty fancy looking. I'd always used it, and I always thought that it had caught the recruiter's eye. But I just haven't been having much luck. So, I've been changing my résumé — adding things, taking things off.

There would be jobs where I met every requirement, and I was getting rejected, getting rejected, getting rejected. When I was an equity trader, I needed three to five years of experience, but they recruited me, and I only had a year and a half of experience. So, I was able to get into a higher role. And then, I became an analyst who needed a bit more experience than I had. But they said in the interview that they liked where my head was at, and so I got hired.

After I left my last job, I applied for roles where I didn't meet all the requirements, but I figured I could talk about my experience. I was getting automatically rejected, so I decided to apply only for jobs where I met every qualification. And I was still getting rejected.

I've been here in Cincinnati now for four years. I like it but would also like to go somewhere else — maybe Miami, Philly, D.C., or Chicago. I was applying for jobs and taking my address off my résumé so it wouldn't flag in the system. I was still not getting anything.

Then, a recruiter I'd been working with said my résumé could be getting caught in applicant-tracking systems. She said I should put it through a system that will see if it flags when you compare it to a certain job description.

When I submitted my résumé and job description through this system, I was surprised by the results. It said I had a low chance of getting the job. My résumé had dashes, which could have been throwing it off because an ATS sometimes doesn't recognize dashes. I also had more than 32 characters in the file name, and I was told that wasn't good, so I shortened that.

The recruiter said the formatting and template I used weren't reading, and the ATS wasn't picking up my key skills or education. I was also told that if it's over one page, but definitely two, it will kick it out automatically.

I've had to revamp my résumé completely. I made it a simple document — basic black and white. Instead of having separate columns, it's straight up and down and in chronological order. It hasn't been that long, but I have had two callbacks since I updated it.

I was glad to have the new résumé, but it also made me sad, honestly, because I feel like I missed out on many jobs — especially ones that I really wanted.

I said, "Oh, yeah, I definitely will qualify for this." I'd set my LinkedIn filters: I would apply for jobs that just opened in the past 24 hours with under 10 applicants. It's like, "OK, this only has three applicants. I meet all the requirements besides a bachelor's degree in finance." I have the required experience. Then, my résumé was automatically rejected.

Where I go from here

In the end, I will probably keep both versions of my résumé. I want to have one that stands out when a person actually looks at it — that jumps out against all the other black-and-white, simpler résumés. And then I'll have the résumé I enter in the system for the ATS.

All of this just makes me feel like, what is the point of having recruiters if you're going to have a system that flags everything? I get it from an HR standpoint. If I were a recruiter, I would not want to go through 5,000 applications. However, being someone who's job-seeking, this system doesn't work.

At my last job, my mental health was just deteriorating. But I have a new source of stress now. Part of me feels like I'm being punished for not staying at my job — like I stuck my neck out too far. I wasn't arrogant when I left, but I did have the mindset that I could find something else because I have experience and I have a degree. And in the past, I was always getting recruited.

When you've been unemployed for four months, you feel like maybe you were too arrogant. Maybe I wasn't humble enough. Maybe I should have stuck it out. Maybe I should have just stayed until there was something else. You have all these scenarios that go through your head when you're just not getting anything. It is very demoralizing.

Now, when I apply, it often feels like it's just about what scans in the system. If you can get through the system, then you can prove yourself or have someone take a chance on you. But you have to get through the system first.

• I tracked all the ads I saw in a day and counted over 130.
• Some ad settings can be adjusted, but control over frequency remains limited across many platforms.
• I didn't mind most ads because they either catered to my interests or were easy to tune out.

Ads have become so embedded in everyday activities and media consumption that you may not even notice how often you run into them.

When my editor asked me to track all the ads I saw in a day, I wasn't sure how it would go. Prior to this experiment, I hadn't paid close attention to how often an ad or sponsored content floated before my eyes.

While the words "sponsored" may show up on a video or image you scroll past on social media, the font is often small and if the content is successfully targeting you, you may not even notice.

I missed a few ads during this process, especially on sites where I was focused on getting the answer I was searching for. But based on what I did catch, I spotted over 130 ads in a single day.

Let's dive in.

Your settings can (sometimes) make a difference

The type of ads you receive may be adjustable in your settings. But for most platforms, you won't be able to control how many you see.

To personalize Google ads, for example, you can go to "My Ad Center" and opt to turn personalized ads on or off in the top-right corner. If you turn them on, Google will use the information it collects about you to give you more personalized ads. That means your activity on Google sites and apps will be saved in your Google Account and information from your account, like your age, will also be used.

I decided to keep personalized ads off for Google because that's how I usually have it. This resulted in me sometimes missing ads on my screen. I'm so used to seeing random photos and brand names in the corners and sides of my screen that my eyes glazed over some of them. It drew a sharp contrast to my experience with social media ads, which are fully personalized to my activity on and off-site and often pull my attention.

When it comes to social media, you don't have as much of a choice — although some do let you pay to remove or decrease ads. Facebook now offers a paid version in the EU for people who prefer an ad-free experience, YouTube lets you pay for Premium to remove them, and Elon Musk's X says paying for X Premium+ means no ads in your For You or Following feeds.

But TikTok, for example, says on its website that "you will always see ads based on what you do on TikTok." But you can provide feedback on an ad if you're not interested in it. Other social media sites have similar ad policies.

With TikTok, Instagram, and most apps that you download on your phone, you can turn off ad-tracking across companies and websites in your privacy settings.

My social media feeds were filled with ads

I spent about two and a half hours on Instagram on the day of this experiment — and I saw about 75 ads.

I probably never went through more than four posts at a time without being interrupted by an ad. But most of the ads were similar to content I regularly engage with in my explore feed or online.

I find ads with multiple products and links particularly effective because it's easy to engage with them and find out pricing or other details. I also loved seeing sponsored food content because it gave me ideas of where to go out to eat.

None of the ads resulted in me purchasing any items, but if I continue to see interesting ads in my price range for weeks at a time, it may eventually influence my buying patterns.

For TikTok, the ads were even less noticeable because the app is so casual. For example, I would start watching a woman wipe down her counters and then see Mr. Clean at the end of the video before noticing the "sponsored" label at the bottom. I also found some of the TikTok ads interesting or helpful.

I didn't engage at all with internet ads

I tracked about 40 ads online, but since they weren't personalized to my interests I sometimes didn't notice them. I saw a range of ads from USPS to T-Mobile, to random shows on streaming services that I had no interest in.

Sometimes, they were images, and other times, they were full videos. I also saw a couple of ads on YouTube videos but usually skipped after a few seconds, so I didn't fully engage with those either.

Miscellaneous ads

I use the language-learning app Duolingo every day and those are the only ads I truly dread. The ads are animated with sound and I sometimes put my phone down and walk away because of how painful it feels to watch.

I also saw about 10 ads in real life on the subway on my way to and from work. By the end of the day, I noticed these less, but in general, they tend to stick out more than non-targeted ads on the internet.

I also receive several push notifications and ads over text every day. I counted about seven on the day of this experiment, including a push notification from Urban Outfitters about a flash sale, a text from CorePower Yoga for discounted class packs, and a push notification from Amazon about trending sunscreen.

Most of the ads don't bother me

My biggest takeaway from this experiment was that I really didn't mind the ads. In fact, sometimes I liked them.

I love online shopping and browsing — and I like that apps like Instagram curate content to my interests. I've discovered new brands on Instagram that I ended up ordering from because of ads. Even if it doesn't lead to a purchase, I enjoy seeing items that fall in my line of interest and inspire me to look at similar products.

The push notifications and the texts were probably the most annoying of all the ads I received, and I find myself deleting them on a daily basis.

I also don't follow too many influencers, but I immediately scrolled past content if I saw it labeled with "creator earns commission" or if it included a discount code in the caption because I'm not interested in paid content from someone I follow for enjoyment.

As far as Duolingo's ads go, yes, I find them annoying — but I also wouldn't pay $12.99 per month to get rid of them.

It's clear that we're seeing more and more ads on our phones and TV screens — Netflix and Amazon recently introduced ads to their streaming services, although both offer ad-free options for an extra cost.

Luckily, I'm on my roommate's plan for Netflix, and my family has an Amazon and Spotify subscription, so I don't have to deal with these. I sometimes watch Hulu shows and the ads are annoying, but I usually walk away if an ad comes on.

For me, watching or listening to an ad is the most frustrating, and I would definitely be bothered if I was constantly interrupted by them. When I was growing up, I found radio commercials unbearable, and I might have paid for an ad-free option if I still had to go through those several-minute interruptions.

But the honest answer is I'm used to ads by now, and even find some genuinely interesting. We're living in an advertising world — and if I have to deal with sponsored content for clothing brands I like while scrolling on social media — then so be it.

• Job hunting these days can be daunting, and veteran career coach Shari Santoriello knows it.
• But instead of trying to reinvent the wheel for each job you apply to, the search can be simpler.
• Here are Santoriello's top tips for streamlining your job search to make the process less miserable.

Job hunting can be daunting — miserable, even.

And in the age of AI, where it seems like even sending out hundreds of applications won't guarantee your résumé will ever be reviewed by a hiring manager, it's easy to get discouraged.

Career coach Shari Santoriello, who has been working in the industry for 25 years, knows it; she sees it all the time. So when her clients come to her asking how to streamline their job hunt and make the process easier but still optimized to draw the most eyes, she's a wealth of knowledge.

Here are three tips she gives her clients to make their job search simpler.

Create a résumé vault

Sometimes, we think of a résumé as being set in stone, when Santoriello says it's a dynamic piece of material for a job seeker — it should be flexible and adaptable for every job you're applying for. She noted that nobody likes to hear that, but you can make it easier for yourself by creating what some people call a résumé vault or master résumé.

Your résumé vault is a living document listing all your past jobs and accomplishments that you can select from. So, when you create a résumé for a particular role, instead of creating a new résumé from scratch, just make a copy of your résumé vault and delete everything that isn't relevant based upon the job description.

"When you ask yourself the question: what do you leave? What do you cut? Highlight those things that make you distinctive with regard to what the job description is asking for," Santoriello told Business Insider. "You may have something really cool in your background, but if it's not relevant to this role, you don't want to take up your precious real estate on your résumé with something that isn't going to be relevant to the hiring manager."

On average, Santoriello estimates, job seekers have roughly five seconds when a hiring manager looks at their résumé. So you want to ensure they can see what impact, value, and contribution you bring to the team in those five seconds.

One of the best ways to do that when you're talking about what to keep and what to lose is you want to keep things that show results. Keep words like increased, decreased, drove revenue, successfully, efficiently, and streamlined.

"Any of those action language words that lets the reader immediately see you've done something," Santoriello said. "And put them at the front of the sentence, we don't want to bury it in the far right side of a sentence."

Learn the language of hiring managers in your industry

This comes in especially handy when considering a career change and trying to describe your transferrable skills in a new industry, according to Santoriello.

"When you write your résumé toward the new industry, you want to use the industry specific language," Santoriello said. "This is about showing them — not telling, showing them — that you understand how your skill transfers and use that language to support that. It doesn't mean that the 15 years you've spent in tech aren't relevant now that you want to go into medical research. There's probably a whole lot of skill there that's relevant. We just need to formulate it and put it in the language that the new industry understands."

She noted that this is where a career coach really can help, but when it comes to describing the language of your chosen industry, it's time to "play with your best friend Google."

"And when I say play, I mean play, have fun. Go down rabbit holes, do the research, spend the time getting lost reading articles on LinkedIn," Santoriello said. "Join groups specific to where you want to go — both digital and face-to-face if that's your thing. Check out trade associations. There's so much information available today. When I'm working with my members, I say this to them: 'It's scavenger hunt time.' Let's find the stuff and then compare it to what you already have in place so that we're presenting your best fit here."

Keep your network simmering

"If you wanted a forest, you needed to plant a tree 20 years ago, but today would be OK, too," Santoriello told BI.

The truth is, she said, there's no bad time to be reaching out to friends and past, present, or prospective colleagues to set up informational interviews or networking lunches.

"We as human beings, people in the professional workplace, tend to not realize the value of building connections all the time — that's not a place you want to stagnate," Santoriello said. "You want to be building your connection base regularly.

Santoriello swears by the value of staying in touch with someone you played soccer with in fourth grade. Each and every person won't be a valuable connection each and every day — and, let's be realistic, you're not keeping in touch with the one person that you really didn't care for — but maintaining cordial relationships will come in handy when you least expect them, and sometimes when you need them most.

"I'm not saying be the person who has a Rolodex of 97,000 people but doesn't have a real relationship with anybody," Santoriello said. "I'm talking about the value of building real relationships over time, without always having an ulterior motive, just for the sake of building those relationships over time. And ideally, you're doing that now. The best time really is anytime it's comfortable for you to do that."

• The anti-obesity drug market will be worth $130 billion by 2030, Goldman Sachs said.
• New products such as Eli Lilly's Zepbound prompted the bank to raise its forecast.
• The FDA approved the pharma giant's new weight-loss drug in November.

The market for weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy will keep surging due to new products including Eli Lilly's Zepbound, according to Goldman Sachs.

In a research note the bank forecast that the sector will be worth $130 billion by 2030 — $30 billion higher than its previous projection.

Eli Lilly and Danish giant Novo Nordisk will remain the dominant players with a combined market share of 80% by the end of the decade, said a team of analysts led by Chris Shibutani.

Shares in both companies have racked up big gains since the start of 2023 following rising demand for anti-obesity drugs.

Eli is now valued at $775 billion — far more than Tesla's $550 billion market cap, following a 37% surge this year.

Shibutani's team cited the new Lilly drug Zepbound, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in November, and the expansion of the FDA label for Novo's Wegovy as "key events" that had led to Goldman raising its forecast.

When it reported first-quarter results in April, Lilly cited strong demand for Zepbound and other drugs like Mounjaro, Verzenio, and Jardiance as the driving force behind a 26% rise in revenues to $8.77 billion.

The Indianapolis-based company said last month it would double its investment in a manufacturing plant to increase production of the drug, which can treat sleep apnea as well as obesity.

Goldman Sachs also raised its forecast for how many US adults are expected to take drugs for chronic weight-loss management from 15 million to 19 million, excluding patients being prescribed the medication to treat Type-2 diabetes.

• Learning how Google Photos works can go a long way towards optimizing your photo storage.
• Google Photos lets you store, share, view, and edit photos and videos, and has additional AI tools.
• Google Photos users have access to 15GB of free storage, but can pay to upgrade their accounts.

Launched in 2015, Google Photos is Google's service for storing and sharing photos and videos.

It's a solid media backup system to have at your disposal. And, because it's a cloud-based tool, it can free up space on your phone. Plus, it works on both Android and iOS devices, as well as on your desktop computer.

Here's what to know about how Google Photos works, and how to get started:

How does Google Photos work?

Google Photos users can upload new photos and videos, and they can view, edit, save and create new videos, animations, collages, albums and photos books. Users can also download everything, meaning your cloud-based backup can itself be easily backed up onto your computer or external hard drive.

Google Photos is completely private, and the pictures you upload are visible only to you. Once you share your photos with others, however, they will also have access.

How do I access my Google Photos on iPhone and Android?

It's easy to access Google Photos on any device. Here's how: 

1. Download Google Photos from the Google Play Store or iOS App Store.
2. Open the app and log in with your Google account.
3. Provide the permissions necessary to access your files and media in your phone's settings.

You can access all your stored photos in the Google Photos app. Open the Google Photos app on your iPhone, iPad, or Android and tap the photos icon in the lower-left corner on your screen. Here you will find all your memories.

How do I download all my photos from Google photos? 

Downloading every photo from Google Drive is simple, but the option isn't accessible in Google photos. 

Google Takeout lets you download data from any Google's services. You can do this on your mobile as well as your computer. 

Here's how: 

1. Go to Google Takeout 
2. Click Deselect all. This ensures you're not downloading data from your entire Google account. 

3. Check the box next to Google Photos, and click into "All photo albums included" if you want to choose which specific albums to download. Otherwise, Google Takeout will download everything in Google Photos.

4. Once you are happy with your selection, select Next step to export. 

Quick tip: in your export settings, you can choose how often you want to download your Google photos. 

5. Next, choose how you wish to download your photos. 

6. Next, confirm the file type and size of your exported file, and click Create export when you're ready.

Why can't I see all my Google Photos?

If you are unable to access all your photos, you may not have enabled the permissions for Google Photos to back up your photos automatically. 

Here's how you can check and fix the issue:

1. Open up the Google Photos app and tap on your profile picture in the top right corner.
2. Select Google Photo settings, then select Backup. 

3. Toggle the Backup button on to keep your photos backed up. 

Is Google Photos still free?

Google Photos has unfortunately ended its unlimited free storage policy.

Every Google account comes with 15GB of free cloud storage shared across Google Drives, Google Photos, and Gmail — so any new photos and videos you upload to Google Photos will count toward the free 15GB of storage. 

To add more storage and save your high-quality images, users can upgrade using the Google One subscription plan, starting at $1.99 per month for 100GB.

Quick tip: If your device is running low on storage, Google Photos may not display all your photos so ensure you have sufficient space for all your images. 

Google Photos features an AI-powered assistant

Like many of Google's products, Google Photos has begun enhancing its services with new AI tools. 

In May 2024, Google announced it would upgrade Google Photos to incorporate its Gemini AI model to make it even easier for users to search through their galleries for memories or details. A new feature called Ask Photos will let users ask broad queries like, "Show me the best photo from every city I've visited," and the tool will instantly pull together a series of relevant images from their galleries.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai demonstrated the feature at the Google I/O 2024 conference, asking the app, "What's my license plate number again?" The Ask Photos feature immediately provided a text response with the license plate number and a corresponding image.

Google Photos provides users with a lot of auto-generated extras, and additional AI editing tools will be available to all users without a subscription. 

Magic Eraser, PhotoUnblur, and Portrait light will allow users to make complex edits with simple actions, previously native to Android users. 

Historical features will remain. With Google Photos, you can also create photo-book collections, grouping together pictures based on factors like the date, people, and places featured. Users are given the option to print and ship those books (for a fee, of course).

The Assistant will also take photos that were captured in rapid succession and turn them into GIFs (referred to as "animations"), while individual photos can be saved as motion photos — meaning they record video of a few seconds before and after you've taken the shot. These may also be known as Live Photos to iPhone users.

Google Photos has other smart features

Like Google Images, Google's search engine for photos, Google Photos has a robust search option that serves as a major draw for the platform. It lets you search for generic subjects, like "dogs" or "beach" to narrow your options, which is especially useful if you haven't yet sorted your pictures into albums.

It also gives you the option to identify different people in your photos by manually putting a name to the face. After that, pictures with those people are automatically sorted so you can later search for pictures featuring specific people.

Similarly, you can also set it to create "live albums," which automatically populate with photos of friends and family members.

For those looking to backup their physical photo prints, you can quickly 'scan' those to have them uploaded by taking a quick pic using your phone or other Photos-friendly device. And for those who photograph paper documents, Google Photos also lets you highlight desired sections of text, and even crop out backgrounds to make it easier to do things like upload and expense a receipt from a work trip.

Google Photos is a powerful and versatile tool that requires little effort to use to its fullest. And, given the fact that it provides free, unlimited storage without sacrificing too much on photo and video quality, it can be a solid option for backing up your media files.

How to delete all photos from Google Photos

If you're frustrated by Google Photos' frequent reminders about purchasing more storage, you're not alone. Deleting mass quantities of photos from Google Photos — or even deleting your entire Google Photos account — is a hotly discussed topic on tech forums.

If you opt to delete Google Photos, proceed with caution: deleting batches of photos from the Google Photos mobile app will also delete them off your phone entirely — even in external storage applications like iCloud. Before you try deleting anything, make sure you remove Google Photos' access to your mobile device and native photo gallery.

On an iPhone, that process will look like this:

1. Go to Settings, and scroll down to Google Photos.
2. Under the menu that says "ALLOW GOOGLE PHOTOS TO ACCESS," tap Photos, then select None.

3. Then, open up your Google Photos app on your iPhone, and turn off Backup by going into Google Photos settings, then toggling Backup off.

Now, to actually delete your photos from Google Photos, you'll have to get a little creative. Google Photos doesn't make it easy to delete all your photos at once; there's no "select all" option to click.

Instead, you'll have to use a workaround — the easiest way is to open up Google Photos on your web browser:

1. In your Google Photos gallery, click on the grey checkmark at the top left-hand corner of your most recent batch of photos. The checkmark will automatically select all the photos from that date.

2. Scroll down to the very bottom of the gallery until you reach your very first photo. Hold down the Shift key on your keyboard, and click that first photo. You should now see all your photos selected (if you have a lot of photos, you may need to work with smaller batches, rather than deleting your whole photo gallery all at once).
3. Click the trash can icon in the top right-hand corner of the window, which will open up a pop-up warning. Click Move to trash.

4. You can always test this method out on a smaller batch before deleting your full Google Photos gallery.

• Poppi, a trendy soda touted by A-listers, contains prebiotics for gut health and low sugar content.
• A new class action lawsuit alleges the marketing for the viral drink is misleading consumers.
• The suit claims consumers would need to drink four sodas a day to experience health benefits.

If you tried Poppi prebiotic sodas in hopes that the trendy drinks — touted by A-listers like Kylie Jenner and J-Lo in social media posts — would help your gut health, you may have been misled, according to a new class action lawsuit.

"Prebiotics are a special type of fiber that can act as food for healthy bacteria in your gut," Poppi's website claims of its products. "Each can of poppi includes agave inulin, a prebiotic (and natural sweetener!) extracted from the agave tequilana plant."

However, the lawsuit, filed Wednesday, alleges the low-sugar, "gut-healthy" sodas contain such small amounts of prebiotic fiber (just 2 grams per serving) that the average consumer wouldn't experience any health benefits from drinking them.

"A consumer would need to drink more than four Poppi sodas in a day to realize any potential health benefits from its prebiotic fiber," the suit, which seeks $5,000,000 in financial damages, says. "However, even if a consumer were to do this, Poppi's high sugar content would offset most, if not all, of these purported gut health benefits."

The complaint goes on to say that an inulin-based diet could cause "inflammation and even liver damage" with doses as low as 10 grams per day and demands a jury trial to determine whether Poppi has broken the law with its advertisements.

Poppi's sodas, which have gone viral in the years since their 2018 appearance on "Shark Tank," sell for $2.49 a can through the manufacturer's website.

The colorful cans of apple cider vinegar-infused sodas have become so popular that the suit noted Forbes reporting from March that the brand sits at a 19% market share — more than 1.5x that of Coke products — and is the 11th-fastest growing beverage brand, beating out companies like Gatorade and Liquid Death.

Representatives for Poppi did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.