• Brittney Ball is struggling to find work after getting laid off from Meta as a 'low-performer.'
• Ball says she's been leaning on her parents, partner, and LinkedIn network for support.
• She recently launched her tech startup, TechniDox, and enrolled in college at Trinity University.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Brittney Ball, a 36-year-old former Meta employee in Washington, D.C. It's been edited for length and clarity.

When I got hired at Meta in 2020, it was life-changing for me as a single mom. It represented safety and stability — a place to work hard at and retire from.

So, when I was let go in February in a round of layoffs aimed at "low-performers," it felt like a punch in the gut.

Nine months later, my severance and savings have run dry, I'm struggling to find a tech job, and I feel that the low-performer "label" is part of the reason. I'm no longer the same happy-go-lucky person I used to be, applying for jobs with excitement.

But my layoff is not just this bad thing that happened. It actually changed me for the better.

I was devastated to be laid off as part of an effort to remove 'low performers'

I was once a single mom in a homeless shelter. I taught myself how to code and broke into tech without a college degree. Getting hired as a documentation engineer at Meta meant everything, not only to me, but to my family. I made my parents proud. I was the success story.

I really loved my time at Meta and took a lot of pride in my work and the community I built. I served as the global lead for the Black@Pride ERG and assisted with its developer advocacy team for a brief period. I truly believed I'd stay forever.

We knew layoffs were coming, but we didn't know who would be affected. Maybe my head was in the clouds, but I really didn't think I would be.

I was shocked to be laid off, especially since it was part of a round of layoffs targeting low performers. I was always so proud of my work, and I just didn't think I fell in that category. It was devastating, and I had no idea what to do next.

My mindset about tech has changed

I used to be naive and filled with excitement to work for a tech company, but since the layoff, I just see it as a resource to fund my life. It no longer feels like the secure space it once was.

I took about a month after the layoff to process everything and figure out what it meant for me. That's when I conceived the idea to create my own tech startup, TechniDox, an AI-powered documentation platform.

It really began as a way to distract myself and a space to pour my passion into, but it's gained some traction, and I'm continuing to build it in hopes that it will grow into something bigger.

I've been applying to jobs, mostly at smaller tech companies, but I haven't gotten any offers yet. I have the skills and passion, so I'm unsure what the problem is. The low-performer "label" could be the reason I'm still unemployed.

I've found support through family, friends, and my LinkedIn network

I know the layoff is not my fault, but it's been devastating not to be able to turn it around in a way that helps me provide for my family as a mom.

Unemployment services have not kicked in, so I've been in a gray area where my parents and partner have been helping me pay bills and for groceries. I've always been the independent type who doesn't ask for help, so it was initially uncomfortable, but I've learned that I can't always do it alone.

My best friend has dropped everything to be with me when I needed it, and my partner supports me by reminding me to get some sunlight and stay active. I have a team of people who want to see me succeed and are helping me to achieve it, and I'm so grateful for them.

My LinkedIn network has also been super supportive. I've been posting about my layoff, and people have reached out to offer résumé reviews, send me referrals, or simply tag me in a post with kind words. I had no idea that I had such supportive people watching me on my journey. That has been truly heartwarming.

My layoff has pushed me to try new things

I was so focused on Meta while working there that I didn't upskill as much as I should have. I'm focusing on learning new things and putting myself out there.

I'm reviving an old YouTube channel and posting about my company on LinkedIn as I build it. I never attended college, so I recently enrolled at Trinity University and am working toward a dual degree in journalism and computer science. During this challenging time, I've been finding joy in learning about things that excite me.

Even though I haven't landed a job, I remind myself that this is also happening to so many other people. The job market is hard, but I'm not giving up.

• Shubham Malhotra is a software engineer at Amazon with experience at Microsoft and Salesforce.
• He has five proven strategies that he's used to land all of his Big Tech software engineering jobs.
• He emphasizes the importance of internships, tailored résumés, and job search timing for career success.

Shubham Malhotra's Big Tech journey began during his fifth semester at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), where he was juggling coursework with a co-op at a real estate-focused tech firm.

While gaining experience and refining his résumé, Malhotra — who grew up in New Delhi, moved to the US to study software engineering, and is now a software engineer at Amazon — applied to roles at top tech companies.

He landed internships at Salesforce in the summer of 2021 and at Amazon AWS in the fall of 2021. During his second internship, he applied for a full-time position at Microsoft through a job portal and ultimately secured an offer for 2022.

Malhotra stayed at Microsoft for two and a half years before leaving the company in November 2024, when he relocated to the Seattle area to join Amazon.

Here are five job-search strategies he employed to secure multiple offers from Big Tech companies.

1. Take initiative during internships

Malhotra believes that completing purposeful internships on systems-focused teams was a significant factor in his success. "Breaking into Big Tech is hardest at the beginning," he said. "For me, that breakthrough came via internships at Amazon and Salesforce, which gave me enough credibility to land my Microsoft offer."

Treating his internships like "engineering labs," Malhotra said he used these experiences to intentionally build up infrastructure, performance, and systems expertise far beyond surface-level coding.

"I wasn't just doing 'intern tasks' — I was already solving latency and error-tolerance issues that directly affected customers and operational SLAs," he said. "This was mostly driven by my own initiative, with support from my managers."

During his internships at Salesforce and Amazon, Malhotra would ask his manager and senior engineers, "What's a real reliability or latency problem on the critical path that no one has had time to fix yet?" From there, he'd volunteer to own a slice of it, then they'd scope it out together.

"Doing this complex problem-solving also helped give me great visibility within my teams," he said.

These early experiences enabled him to craft a résumé that showcased both internships and technical depth, which he believes was key to landing his Microsoft interview. Then, the work he did to secure his internship offers meant he'd already practiced for the big leagues.

"Because I'd already been preparing through prior internship interviews, I was technically and behaviorally ready to interview for full-time positions at top tech companies."

2. Write a résumé that works for both ATS and humans

Malhotra avoided generic buzzwords and focused on scale, reliability, and research contributions in his résumé. He also reverse-engineered company job descriptions to match his résumé with ATS filters.

"I used LaTeX via Overleaf to create a clean, technical résumé optimized for parsing and readability," he said.

Another one of his strategies was tailoring keywords for each role, emphasizing "cloud computing," "distributed systems," and "backend engineering" throughout the document. Malhotra also ensured that his résumé bullets focused on measurable outcomes, rather than just effort.

"Every bullet emphasized not just tasks but quantifiable impact — like "reduced data latency by 40%" and "streamlined workflow to cut API response time by 25%."

3. Time the market as a new grad

Malhotra wanted to ensure that he applied for Big Tech roles at the right time. "As a fresh graduate, I learned that timing your job search is just as critical as skills," he said.

He began his application process early, around August, when most tech companies kick off full-time recruitment.

"From August to mid-November, companies fill the bulk of their head count for the next year," Malhotra said. "After a brief halt, a second hiring window opens between February and April of the following year."

Malhotra signed his Microsoft offer in October 2021. For his most recent move to Amazon as an experienced hire, his offer was also finalized in October with a November start date.

4. Scale interview prep to the role's specific challenges

Malhotra prepped for coding interviews using LeetCode, CodeChef, and HackerRank, identifying weak areas and tracking performance.

For behavioral rounds, he followed the STAR method and mapped his stories to leadership principles. He also ramped up his preparation for interviews using white papers, books, and real-world architecture case studies to help him discuss company-specific challenges.

5. Don't take shortcuts

Malhotra said he chose his college specifically for its co-op structure, helping him gain early real-world experience and build a strong US-based engineering track record.

Feeling confident in this background, he decided to try an out-of-the-box approach to his job search. Instead of relying on referrals, Malhotra cold-applied and followed up via LinkedIn with tailored pitches.

His cold outreach strategy centered on emailing recruiters with short, personalized pitches that included how he found their contact information, a brief introduction of himself, a clear ask to review his résumé for specific roles, and a note on why he was excited about the company.

His "short, personalized pitch" strategy played the biggest role in his Amazon transition.

"I leaned heavily on concise, personalized emails and LinkedIn messages to recruiters, plus a few warm intros," Malhotra said. "Most of my serious interview loops, including the one that led to my current offer, started from that outreach rather than just submitting an application and hoping."

He also developed personal projects, such as a handwriting recognition tool utilizing AWS Textract, which he hosted on the cloud with authentication and shared functionality.

"I treated job hunting like system design — mapping companies, targeting roles, cold emailing with personalized subject lines and value propositions," Malhotra said. "I always kept a ready-to-send project repo or research paper link handy to prove my value."

Malhotra is happy at Amazon

He's working on deep-seated infrastructure problems that he believes have a real impact. "It's exactly the kind of work I wanted when I first set my sights on Big Tech," he said.

If he had to look for another job in today's market, he says he'd use the same five strategies, but with one additional point.

"I'd run the same system again — just with a bit more compounding from public work and relationships," Malhotra said. "I'd add an even stronger emphasis on building signal in public while things are going well — open-source contributions, writing, small talks, and a tighter network of engineers and hiring managers. Those make your résumé, outreach, and timing work even harder for you when the market tightens."

• Lots of tech leaders like to say they hate ads.
• Then they decide that, actually, they don't hate ads, because ads can help them make money.
• It seems like OpenAI and Sam Altman are headed that way with ChatGPT.

ChatGPT turned three years old the other day, which means we've spent three years in an AI frenzy.

It also means hundreds of millions of people have been using ChatGPT for years and … not seeing any ads at all, whether they're using the paid version or the free one.

That's not totally astonishing: We've gotten used to consumer internet products like Google, Facebook, and Instagram taking off without ads for a few years. And then, the deluge.

So how much longer will ChatGPT remain ad-free? And what happens when it isn't?

Over the weekend, we got a hint that an ad push may be underway, via some code from ChatGPT's Android app unearthed by developer Tibor Blaho:

Scouring apps for yet-to-be-released features is a long-standing tech hobby, and sometimes it really does yield results. It's also entirely possible that what Blaho found is … something other than an ad product road map.

But it still seems very, very likely that ChatGPT will have ads at some point.

We know this in part because OpenAI executives, starting with Sam Altman, have suggested they will be coming (in 2024, Altman said ads were gross; this year, he allowed that maybe OpenAI could make "some cool ad product").

We know it because OpenAI has been stocking itself with talent from Meta — one of the most successful advertising companies in the world.

And we know it because it's simply logical: Altman says ChatGPT has around 800 million weekly users, and only a small percentage of them pay. At some point, his company will want to convert those non-paying users into revenue-generating ones, and ads are the obvious way to do that.

Meanwhile, The Information reports, OpenAI focus groups show that some ChatGPT users already assume ads play a role in the results they're seeing. (I've asked OpenAI for comment; while we're here, I'll note that OpenAI has a business partnership with Axel Springer, which owns Business Insider.)

But all of that is different from saying ads are coming soon, or knowing what kind of ads OpenAI would want to put into ChatGPT. And it certainly doesn't address the core question about what happens when you inject ads into an answer machine: Does that machine give you the best answers? Or the answers someone has paid to give you?

Which brings us to the next question: If ads do show up, what would they look like? Because sticking ads into an AI assistant isn't like putting them next to search results or inside a news feed. There's no feed. There's just the answer.

There are a few obvious possibilities, none of which are mutually exclusive:

• Search-style intent ads

This is the Google model: You tell Google exactly what you're looking for — "dumpling spot near me," "best Chromebook" — and advertisers bid to appear next to those queries. If ChatGPT is now a legitimate Google rival, why not use Google's business model, too?

• Personalized ads based on everything ChatGPT knows about you

This is the Meta model: Instead of bidding on queries, advertisers target people, based on what it has learned about their behavior, on and off Meta's properties.

• Old-school text links

The simplest version: "You asked for the best toaster, here are three recommendations, one of which is sponsored." That's basically affiliate marketing. It's low-key and probably the least lucrative.

• Multimedia ads

You are probably typing things into ChatGPT and reading its results. But it doesn't have to work like that: ChatGPT can already talk and show you images. Via Sora, it can show you video. The magic device famed designer Jony Ive is building for the service likely won't have any screen at all. All of which means that Altman and Co. may have a choice to serve you ads that aren't tiny boxes of text on your phone.

But no matter what route OpenAI takes, all of its ad plans will have the same peril: the possibility that injecting paid messages in a service you count on could change your relationship with that service, and weaken that trust.

It's a gnarly problem, even for a company that's used to moving quickly and fixing messes after the fact. They might move more slowly on this one than some people think.

Bryan Johnson, the 48-year-old centimillionaire and nocturnal-erection-measuring longevity influencer, sits in the lotus position on a white loveseat, his knees grazing the knees of Kate Tolo, his 29-year-old business partner and, today, his spiritual guide through his psychedelic mushroom trip. "My body feels so nimble and supple and loose," he says. "Everything feels youthful."

Like thousands of people watching the livestream on X, YouTube, or Instagram, I spent a portion of my Sunday watching "Bryan Johnson Takes Magic Mushrooms," a new entry into the Thanksgiving family entertainment canon in which Johnson took 5.24 milligrams of mushrooms, a near-heroic dose, "for science." I watched the entire five-and-a-half-hour production, "for journalism," to document a new phase in tech elites' evolving experimentation with psychedelics.

Observing the entrepreneur touch God's flesh in a plant-filled living room, share how he felt like a newborn baby while peeing, and be joined by his son, his father, Grimes, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, and several other business leaders cheering him on and extolling the virtues of longevity science was a surreal, moving, and at times nauseating trip itself — and I fear my grip with reality may now be permanently lost.

Johnson's life's mission is to vanquish death. As he notes on the livestream, he is "targeting 2039 as the date we arrest aging." To do this, he is spending $2 million a year on an elaborate daily anti-aging regimen that includes 5 a.m. light therapy, several dozen supplements, an hour of exercise, and eating a macadamia nut pomegranate juice, and pea protein mixture he calls "nutty pudding."

He postulates that taking magic mushrooms may also be a key protocol to living forever, or at least past 120; some studies suggest they may help extend the lifespan of mice, reduce inflammation, and increase neuroplasticity. So to begin testing that hypothesis — and to do what Johnson does best, preach the longevity gospel with content — Johnson decided to trip on X.

Lest the viewer switch over to NFL games or venture outside and experience what Johnson would soon call — while baked out of his gourd — "the gorgeous gift of existence," he puts up a slide listing his bona fides: His muscles are in the 98th percentile of all men, his blood pressure is lower than 90% of 18 year olds, his bone mineral density is in the 99th percentile, and he's more fertile than 99 percent of all men. Then he teases a tip for the men who want to join his ranks: You should do sauna daily, but before you do, "you have ice on your boys, otherwise it wrecks your fertility markers."

"We are in a legal environment," says Johnson. Soon after, his business partner asks him to take his shirt off.

He then pivots from frosting balls to tripping balls. "Mushrooms are a really serious molecule," Johnson cautions. "We are in a legal environment." Soon after, his business partner asks him to take his shirt off. He obeys, and Tolo shoots his naked chest with a thermal gun, recording his upper body temperature.

This is one of 249 biomarkers Johnson takes of himself before, which he re-measures after he takes the mushrooms, as part of the "most quantified psychedelic experiment in history." Tolo collects his saliva, tests his reaction time, and measures his brain activity via a snowboard helmet-shaped device that measures the brain's oxygen levels (Johnson founded Kernel, the maker of the helmets, in 2016). While this science experiment unfolds, hundreds of incisive comments stream in, like "my telomeres are so long" from @lasercupcake, "are skidmarks biomarkers" from @bobfreakman and "what is the ideal age to poop" from @jaredafrica.

Johnson and his business partner have a distinctive synergy. "Kate just makes everything better, everything is better with Kate," Johnson says of Tolo. A few minutes later, she gently puts a metal slinky on his knee, and he closes his eyes in ecstasy. She then gently rubs his back in silence. Later, while laying in bed during the peak of his trip, Johnson holds his business partner's hand in silence for 20 minutes.

Before ingesting, Johnson sets an intention for his trip. With rapid advancements in AI, he says, "this sobering moment to be a human." This trip is an opportunity to help put humanity on a path where "existence itself is the highest virtue, it's not wealth, it's not power, it's not status."

Because it's illegal for Johnson to show on screen the thing everyone tuning in has come to see him do — take the shrooms — when he does, a red cartoon Alice in Wonderland-like mushroom appears over his face as he downs them.

Minutes later, Talmage Johnson, 20, one of Johnson's three children, joins the livestream from a separate video feed.

"What's it like seeing your dad do a psychedelic like this?" Johnson asks.

"For some reason, I don't really bat an eye; it's kind of expected at this point," Talmage says. Johnson has also infused himself with his son's plasma, and has publicly compared the force of his nighttime erections, which he ritually measures, with his son's on X. (The younger Johnson's johnson just edged out the elder's, with 184 minutes of hardness to dad's 182 minutes.)

"I have to say, Talmage really is a phenomenal son," Johnson says. "I love you very much. I think you're amazing."

"Mmm. I could not have said it better," Talmage says.

Just when I start to think, "Am I tripping?" I'm reminded of something Bryan Johnson said in an interview with Wired earlier this year: "Bryan Johnson in 2025 is a normal dude in 2030."

Some 30 minutes after he takes the shrooms, they hit him, and he says the sorts of things teenage YouTubers say in videos of their drug trips. "I feel a lot more love, a lot more compassion immediately," he says. "Everything's alive." He plays with a slinky for five minutes.

For the next 20 minutes, the livestream is in a quad screen. In the upper left is the journalist Ashlee Vance, sitting in his kitchen in front of a framed poster of a quote from the comedian Bill Hicks: "Don't worry, don't be afraid ever, because this is just a ride." Below him is the entrepreneur and investor Naval Ravikant, who tells Vance "I don't want to die either," and calls Johnson "a one-man FDA."

And beside him, huddled close in a living room, are the entrepreneur and "All-In" podcaster David Friedberg and Marc Benioff, who tells Vance they're beaming in from a "super secret location," before espounding on his bible study that morning, which was about the Genesis story of Jacob's Ladder. Vance interviews them as the entrepreneurs explain the science of stem cells. All four men take heaping sips of what appears to be coffee — Friedberg and Benioff with matching venti Starbucks holiday cups — but Johnson, who does not drink caffeine because it "creates too much of a metabolic rollercoaster," is not present to chastise them. He's in the bottom right screen, laying under the covers of a twin bed, wearing a sleep mask and wriggling like a worm.

Johnson, the star of the show, remains supine and masked for more than two hours.

In 1653, a 15-year-old Louis XIV starred in a 12-hour-long ballet at the Louvre, performing before the royal court and ambassadors of every European nation to display his mastery over mind and body and the prowess of French culture. The lifespan in France at the time was about 30. Johnson's marathon livestream is something of the 2025 equivalent, a prince of tech displaying his mastery over mind and body and the prowess of technology — and its promise to expand our lifespans, so that we enjoy ever more years of consuming marathon livestreams.

At some point during Grimes' DJ set — a thing that also happened — the stomach bug that'd been going around my five-year-old's kindergarten class hit her, and she threw up. I'd never been more relieved to have to clean up vomit.

When I return 20 minutes later, Johnson is doing post-trip analysis with his son and his father. "We like you even more on shrooms," Johnson's father says.

Johnson asks Talmage to write down and then share a favorite memory with his father. His son recounts a time Johnson brought a calzone to his school.

"Parents: It's worth it. Kids suck on so many levels," Johnson says, tears in his eyes. "They're also like the most majestic creations within our reach."

Just before the livestream ends, Talmage reflects on what he and some very online corners of the world just witnessed over the past 334 minutes — just half an hour shy of his and his father's combined duration of their nighttime erections. "When people see this," he says, "they'll see he's just like one of us. He's human."

Zak Jason is the executive editor of Business Insider's Discourse team.

• "Rage bait" is the Oxford University Press' Word of the Year.
• I worry: Will overexposure to the concept of rage baiting kill it off?
• I say SELL on rage bait and BUY on earnest posting for 2026.

I have bad news for my fellow rage baiters: We may be seeing the peak of the rage-bait bubble. I'm advising you to exit your rage-bait positions and go long on earnest posting through at least 2027.

My recommendation comes as "rage bait" has been named the Oxford Word of the Year for 2025, narrowly edging out runners-up "aura farming" and "biohack." Last year's word was "brain rot." (Oxford is insisting the phrases "rage bait" and "brain rot" are two separate words, which, in my opinion, is its own form of rage bait!)

Rage bait, of course, is the tactic of purposely posting rage-inducing things just to garner attention or engagement, for fun and/or profit (Rage bait is an online-only term; saying unnecessarily provocative things in real life is just being an a-hole.) Ideally, a rage bait post is something you don't even really believe — you're just posting it to stir the pot and elicit a response.

I know something about rage bait. I was all in on rage baiting in the fall of 2024 on Threads. I had discovered that the algorithm of the nascent platform tended to favor content that got a lot of replies, and the easiest way to get a ton of replies was to say something so objectionably stupid and awful that strangers couldn't help but yell at me in the replies. (A particularly successful post in this vein was saying that teachers should be responsible for buying school supplies for kids. People hated that!)

Not long before that, I interviewed a couple whose rage-bait TikTok videos I initially fell for (game recognize game). They'd post videos about gifting thousands of dollars worth of toys and an iPhone to their toddler, or going barefoot on the streets of Cleveland to experience the wellness trend of "grounding." Getting lots of views by rage baiting turned out to be lucrative for them — and others — who found rage bait to be a smart way to garner a following on TikTok.

Meanwhile, on X, a longtime bastion of rage, the newish monetization element added by Elon Musk put a spotlight on what had been a whole new incentive structure for rage bait. It's such a successful strategy that when X recently added a new transparency measure that shows you what country an account is based in, people noticed that some accounts that tweeted hyperpartisan things about US politics were apparently based in other countries. Baiting Americans was easy money!

But here's the problem. Rage bait only fully works when it catches the element of surprise. If you know someone is rage-baiting, you know to ignore them.

And if now "rage baiting" is the word of the year, well, can a rage baiter still bait?

That's why I'm calling it! It's the peak of the rage-bait market; it's time to pull out and move on. The rage fields have been salted; it's time to let them lie fallow.

Instead, I am going long on earnest posting. Posting nice and thoughtful things, perhaps politely complimenting someone, or expressing gratitude. Eh, who am I kidding?

• The accounting industry has long grappled with a shortage of young talent.
• New data suggests more students are choosing accounting again.
• Stability and stronger entry-level pay are helping to attract them back to the profession.

For years the accounting industry has been shouting the same warning on repeat: the US is running out of accountants.

New data, however, suggests that the profession's talent crunch may be — cautiously — easing.

Graduates who earned a bachelor's or master's degree in accounting fell to 55,152 in the 2023-24 academic year, according to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

That's a 6.6% decline from the year prior — still a drop, but a slower one than the 9.6% decline in 2022-23 and 7.4% in 2021-22, years when pandemic disruption dragged down college completion rates across the board.

There's also a positive trend in the growing number of high school students pursuing accounting degrees.

Data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center shows that spring accounting enrollment in the 2024-2025 school year grew 12% year-over-year — the third consecutive semester of growth in accounting enrollment.

"I am certainly seeing students more knowledgeable about the opportunities in accounting, and more students going into accounting in the US," Yvonne Hinson, CEO of the American Accounting Association, told Business Insider.

"I'm very excited about where we're headed now," Hinson said.

A different generation

Students are responding to the combination of better pay and the promise of a stable career, said Hinson.

Accounting majors were the fourth-best degree ranked by return on investment after five years in the workforce, according to analysis by Student Choice, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Engineering, computer science, and nursing took the top three spots.

In high schools, the stability of the profession is the strongest message that resonates with students, said Hinson. "You just don't see a lot of unemployed accountants and CPAs out there. They usually can find a job."

Employers have also been making concessions to make the field more attractive, especially for younger generations who have different demands of the workplace.

"Gen Z is just not going to do what we did," said Hinson. "I never questioned if I had to work late at night or weekends. They're just flat-out not going to do that."

The big firms have been investing in affinity groups and retention programs, boosting workplace culture, and embracing hybrid work to bridge that gap, said Hinson.

Compensation for junior workers — long a sore point — has also undergone a reset.

"We've had a salary issue for a long time, and that has turned around," Hinson said. Entry-level pay, which previously ranged from $55,000 to $60,000, has increased to around $85,000, or even six figures, depending on the city, she said.

Technology is also redefining the type of work that accountants do, which leaders hope will make the profession more appealing.

"AI is a welcome relief for these people that are out there, that they have another tool to be able to help and do more," EY's global managing partner, Raj Sharma, previously told Business Insider.

At PwC, new hires will be doing the roles that managers currently perform within three years as AI takes on the more mundane aspects of the job, Jenn Kosar, PwC's AI assurance leader, told Business Insider in August.

Technology has widened what you can do with an accounting career, said Hinson: "If you have a base in accounting, you can jump off and you can do so many exciting things, valuations, forensics. Now that we've got all of this technology, it makes it even more sexy, more fun."

'Don't take your foot off the gas pedal'

The uptick in accounting's talent crisis is encouraging, but it's neither evenly distributed nor permanent, warned Hinson.

The Big Four and the top schools "get the talent they want," but community colleges and smaller firms aren't experiencing the same enrollment boost. Demographic shifts and a widening array of majors within business schools threaten to dilute the flow of students into accounting.

"We see the enrollment cliff coming," Hinson warned. "There are going to be fewer students from high school. When you add to that the questioning of higher education that is going on, even if the same percentage choose business school, that's a declining number."

For Hinson, the takeaway is clear — the profession can't afford complacency.

"Don't take your foot off the gas pedal," she said. "We've got to keep talking about how great this profession is and keep getting young people to go into it because we are going to need them."

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at pthompson@businessinsider.com or Signal at Polly_Thompson.89. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• The competition to supply the government has reached new heights among drone startups.
• Even commercial drone players are seeing a boost as funding and interest in the sector abounds.
• This is the first installment in a three-part series on the major players in the drone industry.

The booming American drone market is having a moment.

From niche gadgets to strategic infrastructure, the growing industry is getting another boost from the Trump administration's supercharged defense spending and the military's growing interest in heavily investing in drones.

The resulting boom isn't just benefiting the legacy players.

Early-stage drone startups are suddenly winning contracts once typically reserved for more established defense companies, a frenzy that has turned 2025 into a breakout year for drones across both defense and commercial markets.

Defense-focused drone startups are motivated to work on the tech and "make sure the West wins in the emerging era of unmanned wars," Ethan Thornton, CEO and founder of Mach Industries, said in an email to Business Insider. His startup recently won a US Army contract for its cruise missiles.

Business Insider dug into the booming drone market, looking at the startups winning the biggest term sheets and government contracts this year. Figures on the number of employees and the amount of funding each company has raised are based on data provided by PitchBook, unless otherwise specified.

Here's a list of the startups trying to define how drone tech is being built, deployed, and used by governments and commercial customers alike:

• Carl Erik Rinsch, charged with wire fraud and money laundering, goes on trial Tuesday in Manhattan.
• The feds say he defrauded Netflix out of $11 million for a never-finished sci-fi series.
• Prosecutors say Rinsch spent Netflix's money on cars, crypto, and $638,000 for mattresses.

He's taking it to the $638,000 mattresses.

Filmmaker Carl Erik Rinsch is going to trial in Manhattan, fighting charges that he defrauded Netflix out of $11 million — money prosecutors say was conditioned on his delivering a humans-versus-clones sci-fi series he ultimately never completed.

Rinsch spent the money on himself instead, prosecutors say, using it to pay off his debts and splurge on luxury cars and furnishings, including two mattresses that together cost $648K.

Openings in the colorful case are expected early Tuesday afternoon.

Jurors can expect to hear a rollicking Hollywood tale featuring a bidding war (a half-dozen streamers, including Amazon, had vied for the project's rights) and at least one celebrity (Keanu Reeves was an early investor, according to the New York Times.)

They'll likely see raw footage from Rinsch's dystopian, AI-themed thriller, "White Horse," turning a federal courtroom in Manhattan into the project's first public screening venue.

And they'll hear extensive details of Rinsch's spending — with what prosecutors contend was Netflix's money — on cars, watches, clothing, luxury rentals, and those two very pricey premium mattresses.

"Mr. Rinsch, you can agree that these are extraordinarily expensive mattresses, right?" Rinsch was asked once, during a civil deposition.

"Not only extraordinary," he answered, according to a transcript included in his criminal docket. "Almost Cat in the Hat crazy expensive mattresses, yes," he added.

"But they appreciate in value, strangely."

A name inspired by the first horseman of the apocalypse

Rinsch, 48, is charged with wire fraud, money laundering, and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions, charges carrying a combined maximum penalty of 90 years in prison.

At the trial's center is an ill-fated TV series named for the color of the steed ridden by the first horseman of the apocalypse. (The name was later changed to "Conquest.")

Federal prosecutors say Netflix execs gave the Los Angeles native their first infusion of cash for "White Horse" — $44 million — in 2018, after falling in love with a trailer and six mini-episodes he'd already filmed.

Rinsch soon asked for more money, and in 2020, Netflix wired him $11 million on the condition that he use it for specific pre- and post-production purposes, including costumes, editing, and payroll.

Instead, according to the charges, Rinsch routed the money through a series of bank accounts to his personal brokerage account.

Prosecutors say Rinsch then lost more than half the funds on speculative stock investments, all the while giving Netflix false, rosy updates.

"By the way, don't worry about the show," he emailed Cindy Holland in April 2020, telling the then-vice president of original content that his progress on the project was "awesome," "other level," and "game changing good," court documents said.

According to the indictment, Rinsch then invested the money he hadn't lost in cryptocurrency, making nearly $10 million.

Prosecutors say he used these winnings to pay down credit card debt, hire divorce lawyers, and splurge on a warehouse worth of luxury items, including five Rolls-Royces — props, he contends, for "White Horse."

Not a single episode in the promised 13-episode, 120-minute first season was completed.

The trial, before US District Judge Jed Rakoff, is expected to last two weeks and will include testimony for the government by multiple former Netflix executives.

Court documents have named four ex-executives as having involvement in the project. They are Holland, Peter Friedlander (former head of US and Canadian scripted TV content), Rochelle Gerson (former head of business affairs), and Bryan Noon (former vice president, original series).

Rinsch's ex-wife, once a producer on the project, is also slated to be called by prosecutors, who have asked the judge to "police" her cross-examination "to avoid digression into a sideshow."

Rinsch blames the pandemic — and Netflix

In defense filings, Rinsch blames the project's implosion on the pandemic and on what his lawyers describe as the streaming giant's decision to abandon "White Horse" and write it off as a tax loss.

Prosecutors blame Rinsch alone, citing Netflix executives' belief that Rinsch's mental health had, in their words, "drastically decompensated" at around the time Netflix wired him the $11 million.

Rinsch's mental health — and the question of whether he could form the requisite intent to commit fraud — may be a significant issue at trial, particularly for his side.

"The defense is not making any argument or submitting any evidence that Mr. Rinsch was or is insane," his lawyers wrote in a defense filing two weeks ago.

Still, "the condition of his mind and mental state" is "worthy of exploration and contextualization," they wrote.

The filmmaker — described by his lawyers as currently "indigent" and "unemployed" — is so confident of his prospects that he declined to even discuss taking a plea deal, prosecutors revealed last week.

"Mr. Rinsch is looking forward to the opportunity to show that these charges are not founded and that he's completely innocent," lead attorney Daniel Adam McGuinness told Business Insider.

"He's eager to get this trial underway."

• Most people don't eat enough fiber, which supports heart health and lowers the risk of colon cancer.
• However, a dietitian warned that eating too much fiber too soon can cause digestive distress.
• She shared tips on how to gradually increase your fiber intake until your body adjusts.

Most Americans don't eat enough fiber. As a result, they miss out on its many benefits, including supporting heart and gut health, lowering cholesterol, managing weight, and reducing the risk of colon cancer.

If you feel tempted to stock up on soluble fiber — say, by adding beans to every meal — you might want to take your foot off the gas. Literally.

"Many people can experience gas or bloating when they increase fiber too quickly," Michelle Routhenstein, a preventive cardiology dietitian, told Business Insider. Eating too much fiber too quickly can cause more intense symptoms of gastrointestinal distress, like constipation, abdominal pain, and nausea.

Routhenstein works with her clients to gradually introduce more fiber to their diets until they reach their daily goal — 25 grams for women and 38 grams for men.

Here are a few of Routhenstein's tips on how to sneak in more fiber — without any discouraging stomach pains.

Start with small changes

Routhenstein recommends starting by adding fiber to one meal a day at a time.

"Choose foods you already enjoy and tolerate well, then build from there," she said.

If you're very new to eating fiber (or have a history of it causing gassiness and bloating), some easy additions include:

• Sprinkling a teaspoon or two of ground flax or chia seeds on your morning yogurt or oats, building up as you go
• Mixing ¼ or ½ of a cup of beans or lentils into a stew
• Swapping fries with cooked vegetables, which are gentler on digestion than raw vegetables

Eventually, the goal is to ramp up your fiber intake — like adding fresh fruit to that morning yogurt, snacking on raw carrots, and having at least two servings of vegetables for dinner.

Stay hydrated and move around

Besides watching your diet, Routhenstein said there are a few other ways to avoid fiber-related bloating.

Staying hydrated and drinking plenty of water aids digestion and helps prevent constipation.

Exercise can also help. Routhenstein recommended easy walks after meals, which also improves digestion.

It can take a few weeks to 6 months to adjust

How long it takes for your body to get used to your daily recommended fiber intake all depends on where you start, Routhenstein said.

If you're someone who already eats some fiber, the transition can take a few weeks with a steady increase of salads and fruit.

But if you almost never eat fiber, your gut microbiome is likely less equipped to handle a sudden fiber introduction, she said. "In those cases, it can take six months or more to rebuild the microbial diversity needed to comfortably tolerate higher fiber levels."

No matter where you begin, the key is to go slow and not give up.

"The focus isn't on racing to the 'end goal,'" she said, "but on making small, consistent daily adjustments that support long-term digestive health and a sustainable heart-healthy lifestyle."

• Business Insider asked readers to tell us about price changes.
• Many said the cost of groceries and dining out has increased.
• High costs have affected spending habits; some people mentioned they aren't dining out.

Official inflation reports have been in chaos since the government shutdown, so we took matters into our own hands.

Business Insider turned to its readers to gauge whether grocery hauls, shopping sprees, and fuel were more expensive while official data reporting was in question.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks roughly 80,000 prices a month and uses that to compile a monthly report about food, apparel, and other expenditures. However, the agency couldn't collect survey data for the October consumer price index report due to the government shutdown, leading to the report's cancellation. The November data release has been pushed back from December 10 to December 18.

Given that uncertainty, Business Insider was curious what kind of price changes US consumers were seeing. We asked Americans to answer our survey between November 10 and November 13. Naturally, this unscientific survey is a far cry from BLS' usual heroic efforts to gather price data, but it can at least give a sense of how everyday shoppers are feeling about their wallets.

We asked about whether people saw price changes in the last month or two for 10 categories, and about 200 readers filled out the survey at least in part. This chart shows how many said they saw a price hike in each category.

Some responded with observations about how prices have shifted over a longer period, so the chart below reflects any mention of a rise. We excluded responses that were unclear or were not applicable, with some exceptions. For each category, that resulted in between 90 and around 200 usable responses.

Most respondents said they've noticed a rise in grocery and dining out prices, with one person calling dining out a luxury and another saying it's nearly impossible to do so. Some respondents specifically called out the cost of meat. A higher share of applicable respondents noticed an increase in coffee prices than in alcoholic beverages. Some said gas prices fluctuate, so less than half said they've noticed a rise. Not many Americans noticed a rise in their rent.

Survey respondent Jeni Garcin said she and her husband have noticed price increases for tires, coffee, and many other items.

"It's so frustrating that people like us who are financially responsible, who are doing everything right, are still just feeling like we're stretched every step of the way," Garcin told Business Insider.

Garcin is cost-conscious, but she's not willing to cut out all expenses; she views coffee as a luxury "self-care item," so she's willing to pay the higher price. However, she's willing to opt for a cheaper burger option when dining out or cut back on chips.

"Even though sometimes I want the sour cream and onion, I look at the price, and I just, I'm not going to do that," she said.

Almost all survey respondents mentioned a price change in groceries. One person said they're forgoing treats because things are too expensive, while another said they look for buy-one-get-one offers. One survey respondent said coupons aren't helping and that their standard list of groceries has more than doubled in price.

Survey respondent Sarah DeVellis Adams said grocery prices have crept up. She thinks the cost of vegetables has been pretty stable, but thinks the cost of meat and processed foods has increased.

"It's absolutely affected our bottom line because the other things that are going through increases, we're forced to pay — utilities and things like that," she said. "There's no way out of it. And so the only thing we can manipulate is our grocery budget, and it gets harder and harder the more things cost."

DeVellis Adams said her family doesn't dine out often because it has become unaffordable, adding that one outing can add up to an entire week of food, so she would rather use the money for groceries.

Some survey takers were so put off by prices that they would rather not dine out anymore. Year-over-year consumer price index data up to September showed prices have been rising faster for food away from home than for food at home.

Pet owners are also finding they're spending more to feed their furry friends. Some respondents said there's been double-digit growth. Consumer price index data showed prices for pet food and treats increased 0.5% in September from a year ago, much smaller than the increases in 2022 when inflation was sky high.

About two-thirds of people said they have seen a change in toiletries and personal care products. Some of them said paper products have increased.

A few survey respondents called out or alluded to shrinkflation, where items have shrunk but not the price, or felt like prices have jumped, but quality has worsened, such as for clothing.

We asked survey takers if they had experienced any other notable price changes. Several people mentioned the cost of entertainment, repairs, and insurance. CPI data showed that the year-over-year increase in motor vehicle maintenance and repair remains elevated compared to pre-pandemic rates.