• Giovanna Ventola was laid off for the third time in three years in November 2023.
• After struggling to find another corporate job, she tried to land a "bridge job" in the meantime.
• She always thought she could fall back on a bridge job but has been met with rejection or silence.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Giovanna Ventola, a 34-year-old job seeker in South Carolina. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I was laid off three times in three years in the real-estate industry, most recently in November 2023.

Since then, I've applied to around 180 corporate jobs and have only gotten six interviews, none of which have led to getting hired.

I've also applied for 18 "bridge jobs" — in-person roles in the service industry, many of which pay minimum wage or very low wages. I went through two rounds of interviews for one before being rejected for what felt like an arbitrary reason.

Failing to land a bridge job completely changed my outlook on the job market. I knew it would be difficult to land a high-paying corporate job with benefits, a 401(k) plan, and stock options, but not being able to get a job pouring coffee or stocking shelves has made me lose faith.

I've held service industry jobs before

I started my career as a professional dancer in Chicago. To supplement my income, I also worked as a personal trainer, bartender, server, dance teacher, and babysitter.

I got into real estate after one of my personal training clients recommended that I interview for an open role at the real estate development firm he worked for.

I got hired and became the executive assistant to the CEO. I learned the business over the course of the first year, got my broker's license, and became a leasing manager. I worked there for almost five years.

After 2 layoffs, the third came after only 90 days on the job

In October 2019, I left the firm for a better opportunity with a bigger developer. I thought this would be my career path for at least 10 years, but when COVID-19 hit, my job switched from growing the brand to just surviving.

I was only there for a year before getting laid off in October 2020. That was the first time I'd ever been let go.

I was unemployed for seven months before joining WeWork as a leasing manager. I worked for WeWork for two years, but in March 2023, I was laid off again.

Four months later, I got a new job but was only there for around 90 days before they laid me off in November 2023.

I've since applied for over 180 corporate jobs

I applied to 11 jobs in December, 30 in January, around 60 in both February and March, and 20 in April.

I applied for jobs I was qualified for in Chicago and elsewhere and to any and all types of roles — in-person, remote, and hybrid. I even applied for jobs I'm overqualified for, with much lower salaries than I wanted.

I was networking and doing everything you're "supposed" to do, but I couldn't get any traction on anything.

I moved on to applying for bridge jobs

In March, I started looking for bridge jobs. I applied to about 18 bridge jobs, like barista, grocery-store shelf stocker, and store manager. I heard nothing back besides some auto-rejections.

Many of these bridge jobs also required cover letters. I explained that I'd lost my corporate job and wanted to change industries. I talked about wanting to learn something new from the bottom and why I was interested in the job. I still got zero responses.

I started wondering, are they not hiring me because my résumé is too corporate? Bridge jobs may not want to hire people they think will leave. I understand that, but I don't know what they can expect if they pay minimum wage.

I moved back in with my parents

In April, I had to leave my life in Chicago and move back in with my parents in South Carolina.

I applied for a guest itinerary designer role at a luxury resort down the street. There were a lot of requirements, but it paid $18 an hour plus potential commission, and I thought it'd be a great bridge job.

I connected with the interviewer and landed a second interview, which also went great. I was excited for the third interview, sent my availability, and promptly stopped hearing back.

After multiple follow-up emails and calls, I was told they couldn't hire me because I lived too close to the business, and they didn't want to hire anyone living in the neighborhood. I still don't understand why that's their policy.

Being rejected from minimum wage bridge jobs makes me feel even worse than my other job rejections

I'm pretty strong and confident, and I feel very lucky to have an amazing, supportive network of people. Yet, being unemployed has caused me to feel a lot of self-doubt, insecurity, and isolation.

I got my first bartending job years ago because I was watching a football game at a dive bar and mentioned to the manager that I needed a job. It was slammed, and he said, "Yeah, come in on Monday." Now, I have to answer 10 questions about my personality and tell the hiring manager something fun about myself in 120 characters, and I still don't hear back.

One of my friends recommended I share my experience on TikTok. I quickly realized that my For You page was all other people who had been laid off.

When I saw how many people were in the same boat, I started a Slack networking community that now has over 1,500 members. The people who have joined are so smart — there are molecular biologists and people with PhDs. If even they can't get a job, I'm screwed.

It feels like I've gone backward

It feels like everything I've learned and the knowledge I've gained from my amazing mentors is obsolete because nobody will give me a chance.

I'm 34. I've built a career, am educated and smart, and have accomplished many things.

I don't want to work somewhere for minimum wage — I've scrambled and worked five jobs before, and now it feels like I'm taking a hundred steps backward to when I was 22. I don't want to work at a bar until 4 a.m. anymore.

Freelance work is tiding me over

I started an hourly freelance social media job for a construction company, which I heard about through a friend. I'd be willing to take on a second job, but what happened to being able to have one stable job with benefits?

I'm still applying for jobs. I've never worked this hard trying to figure out what to do. I feel like I'll never stop looking for jobs because I'm afraid that any job I get won't last. I'll never approach the job market the same again.

If you have struggled to find a bridge job and want to share your story, email Jane Zhang at janezhang@businessinsider.com.

• The European Commission announced additional tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle imports on Wednesday.
• The tariffs follow a probe into Chinese subsidies and include up to 48.1% in duties.
• Stocks of China's EV makers surged despite the tariffs, driven by perceived manageability.

The European Commission, or EC, announced it will be slapping hefty tariffs on China's electric vehicle imports — but most investors seem unfazed.

On Wednesday, the EC said it will impose tariffs of up to 38.1% on Chinese EV imports from next month — on top of existing 10% duties.

All Chinese EV imports will be subject to additional tariffs from next month, but the commission singled out three major EV makers: BYD, Geely, and SAIC.

BYD will be subject to an additional 17.4% in duties, while Geely will pay an extra 20%. State-backed SAIC will be subject to additional levies of 38.1%.

On Thursday — less than a day after EC dropped its bombshell announcement — the shares of most Chinese EV automakers were up.

EV giant BYD was surging as much as 8.8% in Hong Kong, while Geely gained as much as 2.4%. The shares of EV startups Nio and Li Auto were also higher.

Shanghai-listed SAIC was an outlier in Thursday's Chinese stock rally, declining by as much as 3%.

The unlikely rally for most Chinese EV companies appears to stem from the perception that the European Union's tariffs were "modest," as Vincent Sun, an equity analyst at Morningstar, wrote in a note on Wednesday.

After all, US President Joe Biden's administration is levying a 100% tax on Chinese EVs.

BYD, one of the world's largest EV makers alongside Tesla, would be less impacted by the new EU tariffs than its peers, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Joanna Chen said on Thursday.

"BYD will likely be able to absorb most of the burden from EU import duties, since its cars carry peer-beating profitability," said Chen.

Even though the market indicates that the EU's tariff hike on Chinese EVs is manageable, Beijing is still extremely displeased.

"I would like to stress that the anti-subsidy probe is typical protectionism," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said of the EU's tariffs on Wednesday.

"To levy additional tariffs on EVs imported from China violates market economy principles and international trade rules, disrupts China-EU economic and trade cooperation and the global automotive industrial and supply chains and will eventually hurt Europe's own interests," said Lin.

In recent months, Western countries have been lining up to criticize China for its barrage of cheap exports flooding the world's markets. They say China's dumping and unfair trade practices have hurt their economies.

However, Beijing has consistently pushed back on the West's criticisms. Chinese authorities say the West's accusations are protectionist and aimed at containing China's economic growth.

• Elon Musk scorned Apple and OpenAI after the companies revealed their team-up on Monday.
• But Musk's hating on the partnership may not be solely due to his misgivings about OpenAI.
• In a big blow to Musk's xAI, OpenAI will soon have access to Apple's sprawling user base.

Elon Musk has had an awful lot to say about Apple's partnership with OpenAI.

The deal, announced on Monday, involves integrating ChatGPT into Apple's operating systems. And boy, has it riled Musk up.

Besides threatening to ban Apple's devices at his companies, Musk has also floated the possibility of getting either his social media company X or his EV giant Tesla to make a smartphone themselves.

"We could, but hopefully it isn't needed," Musk said in response to a Morgan Stanley analyst predicting that Tesla could make its own phone one day.

"Tesla is one of the few companies that has its own tech stack (not iOS, Android or forked Android," he continued.

But Musk's full-throated condemnation of the Apple-OpenAI team-up may not be solely due to his misgivings toward OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman.

To be sure, Musk does have a long-running feud with Altman and OpenAI. Musk filed a lawsuit against the ChatGPT maker in February, accusing the company of violating its nonprofit mission by partnering with Microsoft.

Musk might have dropped the lawsuit on Tuesday, but there's no evidence to suggest that that had anything to do with him wanting to bury the hatchet with Altman.

Moreover, Musk's contempt for the Apple deal may stem from more practical considerations. For one, Apple seems open to cutting deals with Google for the use of Gemini, but xAI doesn't appear to have been part of those conversations just yet — if the WWDC keynote on Monday was anything to go by.

Apple, an AI kingmaker

Bloomberg columnist Dave Lee called Apple a kingmaker in the AI race — and it's not hard to see why.

For one, the Cupertino-based tech giant has over one billion iPhone users at its disposal. Such a massive user base would be a boon for any AI company looking to gain a foothold in the highly competitive field.

In Musk's case, letting OpenAI grab the precious mindshare of Apple's users could prove to be a major blow to his AI company, xAI. This is because xAI doesn't have easy access to a wide-ranging consumer platform like OpenAI will soon own.

OpenAI can now count on both Apple and Microsoft to promote its AI offerings to their user bases. Even Google, whose AI products have been hit with scathing reviews, can turn to its mobile operating system, Android, which boasts over three billion users.

Musk still has X, but the social media platform averaged only 22 million daily active users in April, which pales in comparison to Apple's and Google's numbers.

That said, one shouldn't rule out Musk and xAI just yet. The company said in late May that it raised $6 billion for its Series B funding round, giving it a total valuation of $24 billion.

Altman's OpenAI, meanwhile, is worth around $80 billion.

And while Musk might not have a product with iPhone-levels of popularity, he still has the "Muskonomy" to back him up.

Musk's constellation of businesses, which includes Tesla and his satellite internet service Starlink, could give xAI the type of boost most AI startups can only dream of.

Musk may have been preoccupied with the Tesla shareholder vote, but there's no telling when he will refocus his attention on xAI and fire the next salvo in the AI race.

"There will be more to announce in the coming weeks," Musk said on May 27, shortly after xAI's funding announcement.

Representatives for Musk and Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

• Millennials and Gen X have been known to call out their younger colleagues for their work ethic.
• But some envy Gen Z's ability to say "no" in the workplace, and prioritize a work-life balance.
• Gen Z has seen that following the workplace status quo hasn't always worked out for their older colleagues.

Actress Jodie Foster made headlines earlier this year when she called Gen Z "really annoying, especially in the workplace." She targeted their lackluster attitude to showing up to work and their inability to write professional-sounding emails.

But she's now admitted that she's envious of Gen Z's key skill: the ability to say "no" in the workplace.

"That's what is good about this new generation. They're very comfortable saying no, setting boundaries, and going, 'I don't like that, and I want to do this,'" Foster said during a Hollywood Reporter roundtable. "I didn't know that was possible."

And she's not alone in admiring the young people's ability to speak out in the workplace.

Gen Z's attitude to work

Millennials and Gen Xers have been rattled by Gen Z's work ethic: from skipping morning meetings to attend fitness classes, to refusing to work long hours, to asking about work-life balance in job interviews.

But in reality, this generation has seen what burnout culture did to the generations before them, and they're putting their foot down.

More Gen Zers are adopting an attitude of "work to live" instead of "live to work," future-of-work expert Ravin Jesuthasan previously told Business Insider. That means standing up for themselves to employers and, in some cases, refusing to do more work than is necessary — known as quiet quitting.

"Gen Zers are more likely to advocate for their rights, work-life balance, and their personal values in the workplace," Dan Schawbel, future-of-work expert and a managing partner at Workplace Intelligence, told Business Insider.

"If no one listens, then they choose action over complaints," Sophie O'Brien, a Gen Z hiring expert and the founder of the recruitment agency Pollen Careers, told BI.

"They question why we do things the way they do, not to defy authority, but to see if there are better ways," she added.

Intergenerational tensions

Older generations have spent their careers paying their dues, which can breed tension when the younger generation refuses to do the same.

Millennials and Gen X were more inclined to follow established hierarchies. "They're often taught to 'pay their dues' and be more deferential to authority figures or senior colleagues," Schawbel explained.

He added that this can lead senior employees to perceive Gen Zers as "entitled, impatient, or disrespectful of established norms."

Seeing Gen Z challenge these norms can be unsettling for older generations who may fear change.

"There was a sense of 'this is how things are done, these are the expectations, this is how you earn your stripes,' and they just got on with it," Alice Stapleton, a UK-based career change coach, told Business Insider.

"Perhaps some wish they'd had the courage to stand up for themselves at that age, especially if they're now feeling burned out and resentful at how their career has panned out since," she added.

Gen Z is showing older generations that there is a different way to work

Gen Zers have seen from previous generations that the status quo hasn't wielded the results they were promised.

Millennials were sold on a promise that landing a job and clocking the hours would lead to high salaries and a steady climb up the ladder, only to be met with layoffs and dwindling work benefits.

Gen Z doesn't want to fall victim to the same fate. Even if that means job-hopping.

"Instead of suffering in a job that doesn't align with their values, they'd rather leave than endure it just for a paycheck," O'Brien said. "This attitude is forcing the hand of organizations who want to attract Gen Zs."

Growing up with the internet and social media has made this generation acutely aware of injustice, and they're bringing this awareness to the workplace.

Groups of young people, like the youth-led nonprofit Gen Z for Change, have taken to TikTok to spread pro-union messages and educate their peers about their worker rights.

And that's helped fuel Gen Z's confidence to put their foot down when they spot workplace injustice.

But Gen Z isn't a monolith

Every generation that reaches adulthood in society is put under a microscope — we've seen it with millennials and even generations before, O'Brien explained. "But when it comes to Gen Z, a noticeable difference I see is that they choose action, so it almost forces change," she said.

That's not to say all Gen Zers are comfortable with confrontation; in fact, many experience more anxiety in the workplace.

Stapleton said that some of the Gen Z clients she works with still struggle with assertiveness and have concerns over how employers will respond to them saying no.

But as a generation, she said, they are much more willing to speak up if something feels unfair or unreasonable.

"Gen Z is showing that there is a different way, and that doesn't always go down too well with the previous generation," Stapleton told BI.

• OpenAI is facing a wave of controversy over safety concerns and its commitment to responsible AI.
• But CEO Sam Altman keeps racking up wins regardless.
• According to The Information, Altman told staff the company's annualized revenue was $3.4 billion.

Nothing seems to stop the AI boy king.

Amid a torrent of bad publicity surrounding artificial intelligence startup OpenAI, the company's wunderkind CEO, Sam Altman, stays winning.

The Information reported Wednesday, that Altman recently told OpenAI staff the company's annualized revenue was $3.4 billion. Bloomberg, citing an unnamed source, confirmed this number. The startup's annualized revenue was $1.6 billion in late 2023, according to a previous report from The Information.

The company's rapid growth suggests OpenAI is still the gold standard for AI innovation even as competition heats up in the sector. OpenAI was most recently valued at around $86 billion.

A representative for OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider but told The Information that the reported financial details were "inaccurate" without offering further information.

While the majority of OpenAI's revenue comes from subscriptions to its chatbots, the company also pockets money from its Microsoft partnership, which brings in about $200 million annually, Altman told employees, per The Information.

Reporting on OpenAI's revenue growth comes just two days after Apple announced an anticipated AI partnership with the company. The collaboration will integrate OpenAI's ChatGPT with Apple's new and improved Siri feature, introducing the chatbot to billions of devices if users opt into the integration.

Neither company is expected to make direct revenue as a result of the agreement, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the deal who said Apple thinks introducing OpenAI technology to its devices is a fair enough price to pay.

Following Apple's Worldwide Development Conference on Monday, BI's Alex Bitter posited that Altman was the real winner of the global tech conference. The Apple partnership represents a huge endorsement of both OpenAI and Altman at a time when the startup is facing scrutiny over its commitment to safety.

Earlier this month, a group of current and former OpenAI employees went public in a New York Times report with concerns about the company's financial motivations and approach to safety. The whistleblowers accused OpenAI of making false promises over its commitment to developing responsible AI, suggesting the company has prioritized growth and profits over safety.

Multiple high-profile employees have also left OpenAI in recent months, including Jan Leike, who oversaw the company's superalignment strategy, and chief scientist Ilya Sustkever, who expressed concerns about Altman's leadership last year, according to reports.

OpenAI has also found itself entangled in conflict with Hollywood A-lister Scarlett Johansson, who skewered the company for launching a new AI model with a voice that sounds suspiciously like hers. The company denied that it meant to impersonate Johansson's voice, but the similarities were stark, and Altman exacerbated the situation by posting "her" on X in an apparent reference to the 2013 Johansson film by the same name in which she voices an AI virtual assistant.

But even as controversy swirls around OpenAI, the company keeps racking up wins. Maribel Lopez, an AI analyst and founder of research and strategy consulting firm Lopez Research, attributed Altman's teflon-like success to a series of smart business decisions the 39-year-old CEO has made.

"OpenAI was largely ahead on foundation models. They're perceived as having had it longer and doing it well," Lopez told BI, referring to the company's GPT models.

"The second reason is their relationship with Microsoft, which gives people confidence that they might be enterprise-ready," Lopez added, referencing the standard that many models must meet for adoption.

OpenAI's new partnership with Apple has only increased the company's reputation and power in the industry, she said.

On Monday, Apple CEO Tim Cook praised OpenAI for ChatGPT's "world knowledge," calling the company the "best" in the business.

• Apple will use OpenAI's ChatGPT, but neither party will pay the other, per Bloomberg.
• People familiar with the deal said neither company is expected to generate revenue from it right now.
• Apple may also introduce similar chatbot partnerships with Google's Gemini and Anthropic.

Apple announced on Monday that it would integrate OpenAI's ChatGPT into its devices. However, people familiar with the deal told Bloomberg that the iPhone maker won't pay OpenAI to use its product.

Instead, Apple thinks the new deal will bring OpenAI's technology closer to hundreds of millions of users and will be of equal or greater value than a cash payment, Bloomberg's sources told the outlet.

However, the sources said this alliance between Apple and OpenAI isn't expected to generate meaningful revenue for either company yet.

The deal could still be a win for both parties. Apple, for one, would benefit from offering users access to an advanced AI chatbot.

And OpenAI stands to reap the benefits of access to Apple's vast platform. Being integrated into devices means it will reach millions of Apple users, some of whom may upgrade to paid ChatGPT versions, access to which starts at $20 a month.

OpenAI and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Still, OpenAI may be getting a pretty good deal. That's considering that partnering with Apple doesn't often come free — Google in 2022 paid the company $20 billion to have its search engine be the default on iPhones and other Apple devices.

The extent of OpenAi's access to Apple users is also fairly extensive. At its Worldwide Developer's Conference on Monday, Apple announced that it would add ChatGPT to its iPhone, iPad, and Mac products. Users will have access to writing tools, document reading, and image generation without switching between apps.

The tech giant also plans to integrate ChatGPT with Siri, the digital assistant built into Apple devices. Users can opt out of the integration and decide if they want Siri to send their queries to ChatGPT.

Apple's WWDC keynote, which also discussed its in-house Apple Intelligence offerings, provided relief to investors who worried that the company was falling behind in the AI race.

Analysts reacting to the OpenAI deal also predicted that the tie-up may dilute Apple's revenue, at least in the near term.

For one, analysts at Bernstein wrote after the WWDC keynote that while revenue sharing could benefit both firms, "some possible migration from traditional search queries" may still affect Apple's returns on the investment.

That said, Apple may also introduce similar partnerships with other chatbots.

Top Apple executive Craig Federighi also said at the WWDC keynote that Apple's looking to cut a deal with Google to use its Gemini AI model.

Apple has also held talks with Anthropic for a potential chatbot deal, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg in March.

• The final results of Tesla's shareholder vote aren't out yet but Elon Musk is celebrating already.
• Musk said the proposals on his pay deal and to reincorporate in Texas are "passing by wide margins."
• Winning the vote would be a huge boost for Musk, who was hit with fresh scandals this week.

It's been a pretty rough week for Elon Musk.

Besides watching his rival Sam Altman get a leg-up in the AI race with the Apple–OpenAI team-up, Musk was also hit by a sprawling piece from The Wall Street Journal — and a bombshell lawsuit — both of which contained new allegations about his behavior with staffers at SpaceX.

But it looks like something is finally going his way.

The billionaire said on Wednesday night that the shareholder votes to pass his $56 billion pay package and to reincorporate Tesla in Texas are "passing by wide margins."

"Thanks for your support!!" Musk said in an X post.

The final results of the vote will be announced at a shareholder meeting at Tesla's headquarters in Austin on Thursday.

Winning both votes will be a huge boost for Musk, who has pulled out all the stops to woo Tesla shareholders. Aside from campaigning on his social media platform X, Musk has also offered shareholders the opportunity to go on a personally guided tour of Tesla's Gigafactory in Texas.

Musk even sought to turn what's been widely viewed as a disadvantage — running half a dozen companies simultaneously —into an advantage.

The billionaire spent his weekend pitching shareholders on the benefits of having Tesla as a part of his sprawling business empire, also known as the "Muskonomy."

He's also argued that a Musk-led Tesla would not only allow the EV giant to use technology from his other companies, and grant shareholders access to his future IPOs too.

"I've mentioned something like this before, but if any of my companies goes public, we will prioritize other longtime shareholders of my other companies, including Tesla," Musk said on Saturday.

"Loyalty deserves loyalty," he added.

But Musk's overtures to shareholders ran into a speed bump on Tuesday after The Wall Street Journal published an extensive story about his sexual advances to female employees at his rocket company, SpaceX.

And a day later, Musk was hit with a lawsuit from eight former SpaceX employees.

The lawsuit, filed in California, accuses Musk and SpaceX of wrongfully terminating employees after they raised concerns about sexual harassment and gender discrimination.

Representatives for Musk and Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

• Forget friendship bracelets — some Swifties are calling Covid-19 their new concert souvenirs.
• Some fans who got COVID-10 after attending her Eras Tour are calling it a "gift" from "Mother."
• In an informal poll on X after the Madrid show, over 3,700 people said they contracted the virus.

It's been years since the pandemic times of COVID-19 lockdowns and the era of mandated masking. But while the virus is still circulating, some Swifties have become wildly optimistic about what it means to catch an infection at one of their idol's concerts.

So much so that some Swifties on social media are playfully dubbing the COVID-19 infection they think they got from her concerts a "souvenir" and a "gift" from "Mother."

A post on X from a Spanish Taylor Swift fan account asked followers: "Did you go to #MadridTStheErasTour and take COVID, a virus, or a cold with you as a souvenir? I open a survey."

Of the nearly 10,800 votes, 35% voted yes. People in the poll's comments section described their symptoms and showed their positive COVID-19 tests — but also raved about how they thought it was worth it.

The poll has been viewed nearly 144,000 times at press time.

One X user commented: "Going to Taylor's concert has meant losing my voice, losing my mental health and, well, my health in general, I'm more dead than alive (but I would go to the concert a thousand more times)."

Earlier in February, an Australian concertgoer posted a TikTok of herself dressed up in her concert outfit and glam makeup. The video then cut straight to her holding up a positive COVID-19 test kit in bed.

She captioned the post: "The Eras Tour souvenir no ones talking about. if youre heading to the sydney shows this weekend, wash your hands regularly!"

However, other X users have voiced their disbelief at Swifties calling the virus a souvenir.

One X user wrote: "Taylor Swift's concert attendees are calling their Covid infections 'souvenirs' and 'gifts' from 'Mother,' and I'm supposed to NOT wanna launch myself into the sun???"

Concerts have gained notoriety as COVID-19 superspreader events. In 2021, over 2,200 people caught the virus after going to music festivals in northeast Spain.

And while the virus is treated more like the common flu now, COVID-19 is still circulating — and people are getting infected across the US.

Virus-spreading or not, Swift's Eras Tour has been widely successful, propelling the singer-songwriter to billionaire status. Swift is now in the UK for her next leg of the tour.

Swift's representative didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.