• Chris Jereza left his well-paid job at Lyft after three months and became a barista. 
• He has explored different paths, including vlogging for BuzzFeed and working as a software engineer. 
• The 25-year-old shared what he's learned along the way with Business Insider.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Chris Jereza, 25, a former software engineer at Lyft. The following has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider has verified his identity, former employment, and earnings.

I studied computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, but didn't graduate because I got offered a job at Lyft, one of five companies I'd interned with.

Lyft was one of my dream companies to work for. I received a pretty good offer — an annual salary of $130,000 and a $50,000 sign-on bonus — so I decided to go straight into full-time employment.

A common Gen Z mentality is to think that college is a scam and that you need to learn by doing. I actually have no principles against college. If I feel like I need to return, I will; I just haven't had a reason to.

I ended up working at Lyft for about three months but left to get treatment for a severe medical condition. It was pretty life-altering; I got to reflect and start from scratch. I was no longer bound to this continuous career trajectory of being an engineer.

Over the years, I've gotten better at not attaching myself to a storyline I play in my head about how my life is supposed to go. I just want to make sure I'm doing something meaningful and important to me every moment, every month, every year.

I'm grateful for the break

There was actually a gap of several months between leaving Lyft and starting as a barista. During that period, I did some vlogging for BuzzFeed, but I no longer felt like I needed to sprint and get ahead in engineering. I was very grateful that I had enough of a financial buffer from my internships and from working at Lyft.

Most people can't abandon their main career and then work a minimum-wage job, but I knew I had this privilege, so I decided to explore my options.

Leaving Lyft gave me the time to figure out my values, what I care about, and what I want to do with my time. Then I realized that I wanted to do something crafty, and I like coffee, so why not learn how to create latte art? So, I became a barista earning $15.25 an hour.

The coffee shop I worked for was an artisanal café owned by a wholesome older Korean lady who roasted and selected coffee. This motivated me to learn more about coffee, so I explored the difference between where beans came from, brewing methods, and recipes.

In my spare time, I created content as a YouTuber, which allowed me to hone my filming and editing skills and explore other interests.

What I've learned along the way is that I'm a big fan of trying as many different things as possible, figuring out what I like, and then over time converging on something that really suits me, rather than picking something and trying to stick with it.

I still worry about where my career is going

At times, I think I'm constantly starting from scratch and that other people are further into their careers because they just stuck with it. It's natural to worry. But I practice mindfulness, try to cultivate self-awareness and realize that much of this pressure is compared to others and culturally conditioned into me.

But really, it shouldn't matter because, in a practical sense, I'm doing fine, and everything works out every time I take risks.

Another thing that I learned through that experience is that some people are hesitant to take what they consider to be a step down with a job like that because they're worried about being judged. But I didn't even mention my background when I was a barista. No one really cared, and it didn't come up.

Dealing with having a medical condition has taught me that there must be something outside work that determines the quality of my life experience. It made me question what makes me feel like I'm doing well. As a barista, my attention was occupied by something I felt was inherently satisfying — making a beverage for someone, doing something crafty, and slicing an avocado nicely.

It doesn't have to have some crazy purpose for me to enjoy it, and being a barista was really satisfying.

After six months, I left the barista job to work for BuzzFeed, where I helped with social media and blogging before I was laid off when the company cut jobs in 2023. Now I'm working as an engineer at a healthcare tech startup, which I think really suits me.

Do you have a tech career story to share? Contact this reporter at jmann@businessinsider.com

• Biden and Trump diverge sharply on climate policy as the 2024 election nears.
• Republicans are emphasizing fossil fuels; Democrats push renewable energy.
• Despite rising climate concern, voters prioritize other issues, surveys show.

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump couldn't be farther apart when it comes to climate action.

Trump has said he'd "drill, baby, drill" for fossil fuels that are causing the climate crisis, an issue that isn't mentioned once in the platform adopted by the Republican National Convention this week in Milwaukee. Trump and his pick for vice president, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, are both climate deniers. By contrast, the Democrats unveiled a platform that said it would build on the Biden administration's unprecedented spending on renewable energy and the green workforce while cracking down on the oil-and-gas industry.

A lot is at stake for the planet this election. America emits more greenhouse gases than any country except China, and leading climate scientists say it needs to slash greenhouse-gas emissions in half this decade if there's any chance of keeping global temperatures below catastrophic levels. Meanwhile, 2024 is on track to be the hottest year on record, fueling extreme heat that's killed dozens already this year as well as Hurricane Beryl in parts of the Caribbean and Texas.

But will it matter in November?

In a survey of 1,031 US adults, including 896 registered voters, taken from April 25 to May 4, about 62% of the registered voters said they would prefer a candidate who supports climate action. But when pollsters asked registered voters to indicate how important various issues were to them, global warming ranked 19th out of 28 issues Issues like free and fair elections, abortion, and healthcare were the top priorities for respondents. Plus, most respondents said they hadn't heard about Biden's signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act.

The survey suggests that while concern about the climate crisis is on the rise in the US, other issues are top of mind for voters this year, Edward Maibach, the director of the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, told Business Insider. The center conducted the survey with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.

Maibach added that most Democrats, along with moderate and younger Republicans, want the US to do something about the climate crisis. But Republicans are very unlikely to factor the issue into their voting decisions, and the most conservative wing of the GOP has grown more opposed to renewable energy and electric vehicles over the past few years.

"Plenty of conservative Republicans in recent years have thought that moving the country towards a clean-energy future was a good idea for reasons totally unrelated to climate change," Maibach said. "Now they are increasingly moving away from that position, in large part because of what the elites and media pundits in their part are telling them."

The findings are similar to those of the Pew Research Center. A 2023 survey indicated that Republicans prioritized developing fossil fuels more than they did renewable sources like wind and solar. That's a change from 2020, when a majority of Republicans in a Pew poll said renewable energy should be prioritized over oil, gas, and coal.

There was one caveat: A majority of Republicans ages 18 to 29 in the 2023 survey said the country should focus on renewables. The findings are based on Pew's annual surveys of a nationally representative sample of more than 10,000 US adults.

Meanwhile, Americans are increasingly unlikely to say they would buy an electric vehicle. Pew, in a separate survey from May of more than 8,600 adults, found that 29% said they would consider purchasing an EV — down 9 percentage points over the past year. The share of Americans who said EVs are better for the environment than gas vehicles also dropped by 20 percentage points from 2021, largely due to Republicans.

The majority of Americans support climate action

Maibach said the shift among Republicans shouldn't distract from the fact that the majority of Americans support many of Biden's climate policies. These include implementing tax breaks for people who buy solar panels and energy-efficient vehicles and appliances; providing funding for transitioning the economy away from fossil fuels by 2050; cracking down on methane emissions from the oil-and-gas industry; and paying farmers to adopt practices that store more carbon in the soil.

Trump and GOP leaders, on the other hand, have said they would roll back many of those policies. Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign's national press secretary, argued that America was "caving to the radical demands of environmental extremists at home while begging" its adversaries to produce oil for us abroad, "creating the worst inflation crisis in generations."

While Biden has enacted the most sweeping climate policies in US history, the country has simultaneously become the world's largest exporter of natural gas, and crude-oil production has set records for six years in a row. American oil-and-gas companies also earned record profits in 2022 following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which scrambled global energy markets.

Maibach said it was distressing that conservative leaders and media pundits went negative on renewable energy and EVs, especially because investing in them is key to making America economically competitive with China, which dominates supply chains for green technology like solar panels, batteries, and critical minerals.

But Alec Tyson, an associate director of research at Pew, told Business Insider that in such a polarized political climate, a candidate's stance on any one issue won't be enough to sway voters anyway.

"We saw no change in Biden's ratings on climate before and after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, including among Democrats," Tyson said. "What that suggests is in this polarized environment where many folks have strong feelings about either Joe Biden or Donald Trump, it's very hard to change attitudes based on a single policy or issue."

• Russia has pulled its last Black Sea Fleet warship from Crimea, per a Ukrainian navy spokesperson.
• The retreat exposes the emptiness of Russia's red lines and nuclear threats, a Ukraine expert said.
• Peter Dickinson said it shows that when confronted with opposition, Putin will likely back down.

The Russian Black Sea Fleet's "humiliating" retreat from Crimea has exposed the emptiness of the country's red lines, according to a military observer.

Peter Dickinson, the editor of the Atlantic Council's UkraineAlert online publication and chief editor of Business Ukraine Magazine, made the analysis in an Atlantic Council blog post on Tuesday.

"The Russian Navy's readiness to retreat from its supposedly sacred home ports in Crimea has made a mockery of Moscow's so-called red lines and exposed the emptiness of Putin's nuclear threats," he said.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and has used its Sevastopol Naval Base as the primary headquarters for the Black Sea Fleet.

But Dmitry Pletenchuk, a spokesperson for the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said in a Facebook post earlier this week that Russia had pulled its last Black Sea Fleet warship out of Crimea.

"Remember this day," he wrote.

The Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine also said in a Telegram post on Tuesday that there were no longer any Russian naval ships left in the waters.

Ukraine has heavily targeted Russia's Black Sea Fleet, using aerial drones, sea drones, and anti-ship missiles.

Earlier this year, Ukraine's military claimed to have destroyed a third of the fleet, and in March, the UK's Ministry of Defence declared the Black Sea Fleet "functionally inactive."

According to Dickinson, Russia's reaction to the "mounting setbacks" in the Black Sea challenges the Western narrative that a "cornered and beaten" President Vladimir Putin could resort to the "most extreme measures," including the use of nuclear weapons.

"In fact, he has responded to the humiliating defeat of the Black Sea Fleet by quietly ordering his remaining warships to retreat," Dickinson wrote.

Some in the West have voiced concerns that Russia could escalate the conflict beyond Ukraine's borders, or even use nuclear weapons on the battlefield, if its red lines were crossed.

It's a concern that has played a central role in how much and what kind of military aid is being given to Ukraine.

Recently, there have been worries among some Ukrainian allies about how Russia could respond to them lifting restrictions on weapons they've supplied being used to hit targets inside Russia itself.

But Dickinson said the overwhelming evidence from what has happened in the Black Sea confirms that "when confronted by resolute opposition, Putin is far more likely to back down than escalate."

"The West's fear of escalation is Putin's most effective weapon," he added. "It allows him to limit the military aid reaching Kyiv, while also preventing Ukraine from striking back against Russia."

This, he said, "is slowly but surely setting the stage for inevitable Russian victory in a long war of attrition."

• F1 Arcade, an F1 racing simulator experience, is coming to Washington DC and Las Vegas by 2025.
• Netflix's "Drive to Survive" series has boosted Formula 1's US popularity.
• I tested F1 Arcade in London to see what all the fuss was about.

F1 Arcade, a restaurant and bar that houses e-sport racing game machines meant to mimic the Formula 1 driving experience, is one of the latest ways the sport is being monetized after Netflix's hit series "Formula 1: Drive to Survive."

The Arcade — backed by Formula 1 and Liberty Media — has been open since 2022 in the UK and, after launching a branch in Boston in April, is now expanding further in the US.

This month, it was announced that F1 Arcade had completed a $130 million fundraising round to enable it to open another branch in Washington DC this fall and a flagship site in Las Vegas in 2025.

The announcement comes just months after the release of the sixth season of the 2019 Netflix hit series "Formula 1: Drive to Survive."

The hugely popular series has been credited with helping Formula 1 break into the US market, where the sport had largely been overshadowed by NASCAR and IndyCar.

I visited the F1 Arcade in London to see if the venue is worth it for die-hard racing fans.

The arcade is located in the heart of central London.

Games were priced at £15.95 ($20) for three races or £25.95 ($34) for five races. I thought this was expensive, given that each race only lasted six minutes.

I was excited to get on a simulator and start racing. The venue houses 60 machines at five different skill levels.

But first I had to order a cocktail. The most popular was the "Passion and Glory" which is made with Ferarri Trento Brut, the official sparkling wine of Formula 1.

I tried both "Rookie" and "Elite" modesm, the easiest and most difficult race settings. "Elite" mode threw me around in the seat a lot, which was a lot of fun, especially because it's difficult not to spin out on the corners.

The simulators are immersive, with multiple high-resolution screens offering different angles on the race. The surround sound makes it feel like you're really on the track.

I was surprised at how similar the machines felt to driving a car with accelerator and brake pedals. Staff told me that the simulators can adapt to in-game weather conditions, such as the feel of a slick track on a rainy day.

I really enjoyed the races, but the three-race package was short.

After I had completed my races, the only option I had — other than purchasing more — was to order lunch. The menu is designed to offer "high-end comfort food."

I ordered the truffle mac-and-cheese croquettes for £9 ($12), fried halloumi with a green sweet chili sauce also for £9 ($12), and miso mushroom tacos for £8.50 ($11).

The truffle mac-and-cheese croquettes were definitely my favorite. They were crispy, without too much truffle, and didn't feel heavy.

The quality of the food was very good, but it wasn't cheap. The bill came to £48.93 ($63) with service charge.

I think that F1 Arcade is quite expensive for what it is.

Although the races were a lot of fun, and the simulators were worth the hype, I found that there wasn't a lot to do once you were finished.

For visitors who are willing to pay more, you can earn enough "Arcadian" points to gain access to other Formula 1-themed games, including one that tests your reaction speed.

However, for guests on any kind of budget, paying for food, drink, and three races might not be worth the trip.

The simulators and the mac-and-cheese croquettes were great, but because the actual racing time was so short, I wouldn't hurry back.

• A 60-year-old says she's essentially been aging in reverse for about the past four years.
• One "biological age" test she recently did said her body is 35.
• She enjoys hiking, raving, hormone therapy, and fasting.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Tina Woods, a 60-year-old healthcare entrepreneur and the CEO of Business for Health in London. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I just turned 60, and I've never felt better.

I've got the strength of an ox, dance moves to rave all night, and I radiate renewed joy for my marriage and my job.

I made a conscious decision to change the way I live a few years back. I was in the midst of quitting the corporate world, watching my kids enter adulthood, and starting hormone replacement therapy. I decided this would be a good time to embark on a very simple — but remarkably effective — longevity quest.

It all started when I was researching my 2020 book, "Live Longer with AI," and I began seeking out the advice of longevity experts all over the world. At that point, longevity science was still pretty fringe, so there were a lot of fairly out-there characters I spoke to who wanted to live forever and who touted radical life extension as something within our grasp.

But even among the most die-hard immortalists I spoke with for the book, I started to notice a trend. Most of the stuff they were actually doing day in and day out to stay young is pretty simple and cheap. It usually involves some form of caloric restriction, a healthy diet composed of lots of plants, decent exercise, and good sleep. In short, the basics. Stuff your grandmother could have recommended.

I reduced my 'biological age' by 10 years — here's what that means

Tests I took on my 60th birthday this spring suggest my brain is aging like that of a 35-year-old, my heart health is mid-40s, and so is my metabolism.

It's amazing to realize that in just four years, I've reduced one key measure of biological aging by a decade — my GlycanAge has plummeted from 46 to 35, while I've aged from 56 to 60. (The GlycanAge test is a finger prick that's meant to track the level of chronic inflammation in your body, which directly predicts a lot of age-associated decline.)

It drives me crazy when people wear these kinds of one-off "biological age" stats like some sort of badge of honor. As if any of the new tests being used for aging are definitive or validated.

I find that what they can do is help provide an overall snapshot of our health. Taken together, along with daily data from my smartwatch and various apps I use to track my health over time, my GlycanAge provides a single datapoint that goes hand in hand with how I feel, which is fantastic.

If I hadn't been doing research for my book, and meeting with experts offering to let me try out all this longevity medicine tech for free, I probably wouldn't have ever paid for a biological age test. It costs hundreds of dollars just for one. Do I really need a test to tell me that I have never felt this good? Regular checkups, blood tests, and scans at the doctor are one thing, but I wouldn't pay 300 pounds just to brag about a biological age result. (Though it is cool to see.)

4 simple changes I made to stave off aging

• Supplements: I do take some supplements, but I don't expect them to perform miracles.

  Like a lot of longevity-seekers, I make sure to pop some vitamin D every day, and then there's B12, omega-3s, and collagen for my joints — which are definitely not what they used to be, I'd probably rate them my oldest body part, biologically speaking.

  A bone scan I did as part of my recent longevity workup in Poland has proved to be diagnostically useful, and has convinced me to start supplementing a bit of calcium as well. I do enjoy eating Swiss cheese on my non-fasting days, and I also try to prioritize proteins like chicken and fish in my diet, as well as lots of plants. I make a mean lentil soup, and I snack on seeds and nuts, generally avoiding ultra-processed foods.

• Caloric restriction: Four days a week I stick to only eating one meal a day, and — though it's still somewhat controversial — I'm convinced this is one of the big keys to healthy aging. It was a conversation with geneticist and longevity doctor Nir Barzilai in New York that really pushed me over the edge on this idea, as he explained how, mechanistically, it makes sense that a little caloric restriction, and specifically, some fasted time each day, might be good for human longevity. (We already know this is great for flies, worms, and mice, and there is enough anecdotal evidence of a benefit in people that many longevity scientists already practice some form of caloric restriction or fasting themselves.)

• VO2 max: I also hold a religious devotion to exercise — I enjoy Zumba class twice a week, plus strength training at home in the cellar (my "gym") and YouTube videos for some conditioning. My VO2 max, a key measure of heart health and fitness, is off the charts!

  

  All this regular training keeps me fit as a fiddle and ready to rave all night with my husband at some of London's grooviest clubs. Being on the dance floor absolutely electrifies me, and it has also rekindled aspects of my relationship with my husband which I'd lost during early menopause, bringing us closer together in a funny sort of way. I feel like music is my lifeblood. I even DJ now — I recently turned tables at the world's first longevity rave (held at a vegan cafe, of course).

• HRT: One of the most pharmacological ways I've changed my biological age since I started this journey is hormone replacement therapy for menopause. It's been an eye-opening experience. I'd always been pretty fit and relatively healthy, but I noticed during menopause that I was starting to gain some weight, and I felt just generally kind of low-energy, not like myself. Low sex drive, urinary issues. Yuk, I thought. This is a bit boring.

  My doctor suggested I try HRT — I started with a patch version, but that didn't work very well. My current regimen is a few pumps of estradiol gel, which is rubbed into the skin, plus progesterone capsules and a tiny bit of testosterone gel I take off-label (I monitor my hormone levels very closely with regular blood tests, and make sure my testosterone sachets are brand name, not sourced from a dodgy online pharmacy.) It took a while for me to find the dose that worked well for me, but now I absolutely love it, and I'm convinced that it's played a big part in my recent biological age reduction (along with eating healthier, losing about 20 pounds, finding my joy, and everything else!) I was initially worried that the testosterone might hurt my heart health, or mess with my cholesterol levels, but I'm pleased to report everything seems to be going really well.

Joy is a key component of my longevity

I do hope that more effort is placed on measuring how happiness and optimism can change our lives and help improve our longevity. There's already been some study of how big stressors and health events — like a pregnancy — can temporarily speed up biological aging. And we know that happier, more optimistic people tend to live longer.

Scientific studies on flies, worms, and mice won't ever give us better insights into how happiness, purpose, and joy affect human health. I'm looking forward to seeing how we might better study this in people, gathering biological age data that will illuminate the simple, low-cost things we can all do to live more fruitful and, yes, longer lives.

I know the longevity Blue Zones have gotten a lot of attention as beacons of healthy aging, and a lot of the techniques their backers espouse do make sense. But I'd like more solid, scientific data to inform what the rest of us can do moving forward to make the most of our days, in a relatively cheap and simple way.

It's amazing to see the impact of all this basic stuff: nutrition, fitness, purpose, joy. I'm not getting any IV blood transfusions, stem cell treatments or any of that other biohacking stuff that costs an arm and a leg, I'm doing all of this pretty low-cost. I'm now convinced that hope and happiness will outdo any pill when it comes to improving biological aging. That's just my opinion for now, but it's based on what I've seen in myself.

• The Chinese yuan has become a key currency for Russia's trade settlement.
• But tightened US sanctions are freezing and delaying yuan payments, Bloomberg reports.
• Russia is eying alternative payment systems, including cryptocurrency, to bypass Western sanctions.

Western sanctions have shut Russia out of the dollar-dominant global financial order, but the country has managed to keep its wartime economy humming thanks to the Chinese yuan.

But even this line of trade looks like it's starting to get shut down, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. It's unclear how widespread this issue is.

Several unnamed major Russian commodity exporters told Bloomberg that trade with China has become increasingly difficult as even direct payments made in the yuan are getting frozen or delayed. This is the same with Chinese customers buying Russian products, they told the media outlet.

The US tightened sanctions on Russia in June, but there were already problems before this round of restrictions, according to earlier local media reports.

Last June, a major Chinese lender started restricting transitions between Russian clients and lenders in the West. In February, some Chinese state banks stopped accepting payments from sanctioned Russian financial institutions due to fears of US secondary sanctions.

The problem appears to be widening as even some smaller Chinese lenders are not processing yuan payments to Russia, per Bloomberg.

In mid-June, analysts at Sberbank — a Russian bank major — acknowledged there had been problems setting trade in the yuan.

Russia explores alternative payment infrastructure

Bloomberg's report about the difficulties Russia has with yuan payments — one of its last few international currency options — highlights the challenges the country's isolated economy faces amid Western sanctions.

The West blocked some Russian banks from the widely used SWIFT messaging system for payments early in the war, but Russia and its trade partners have been able to skirt sanctions by using smaller banks or other payment modes.

Russia is now looking into alternative payments infrastructure — which a top Russian banker said should be made a "state secret" because it's likely the West would shut them down really fast.

On Wednesday, Russia's money laundering watchdog said the country should create a cryptocurrency payments infrastructure, Reuters reported.

"This is a need for businesses, especially in cases involving sanction mechanisms, when they need to enter the international market, and it can't always be resolved through standard methods," said the watchdog's head, Yuri Chekhanchin, per the news agency.

• Elon Musk said SpaceX would move its HQ to Texas in response to California law protecting LGBTQ+ youth.
• Other space startups have responded by appealing to SpaceX employees to come join them.
• One CEO of a French rocket firm offered SpaceX engineers 12 bottles of champagne if they jumped ship.

Elon Musk says he plans to move SpaceX to Texas, and some of the company's competitors are trying to capitalize by poaching his employees.

At least two space firms have launched public appeals for SpaceX employees to join them after Musk announced SpaceX would move its HQ from California, with one CEO promising engineers 12 bottles of champagne if they make the move.

Stanislas Maximin, the CEO of rocket startup and SpaceX rival Latitude, responded to Musk's post announcing SpaceX's move to Texas with an appeal for disaffected SpaceX employees to move to France, where the company is based.

"For SpaceX employees misaligned with these values and looking to join an inclusive and highly ambitious rocket company in a great living city near Paris, my DMs are open," he wrote on X.

"We take care of everything for you; moving out, visas, full healthcare, your house/apartment, finding your spouse a job… a few have already taken the plunge, join them!" Maximin said. He added that he would offer 12 bottles of champagne to every engineer making the move.

A spokesperson for Latitude confirmed to Business Insider the company was "absolutely" open to hiring SpaceX employees uncomfortable with the move, and was making efforts to hire US talent more generally.

Asteroid mining startup AstroForge, which used a SpaceX rocket to launch its first mission in 2023, also responded to Musk's post with an appeal to SpaceX employees.

"We are hiring, and located in Seal Beach, CA," the company wrote on X.

Musk wrote on X that both SpaceX and X would move headquarters to Texas, in response to a new California law protecting LGBTQ+ youth that he said was "attacking both families and companies."

SpaceX dominates the space industry, conducting far more launches than any other company last year.

However, the rocket firm has faced scrutiny in recent years over its culture, with a group of former employees recently suing the company, alleging they were fired for speaking out against a hostile and misogynistic work environment.

SpaceX, Latitude, and AstroForge did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, sent outside normal working hours.

Do you work at SpaceX or have a tip? Get in touch with this reporter via email at tcarter@businessinsider.com.

• Job-search platform Indeed published a list of fast-growing jobs without many people applying.
• Based on how Indeed ranked the list, five of the top seven don't typically require a degree.
• Indeed's Gabrielle Davis said the list shows "new avenues for job seekers to consider."

Not all job postings get a lot of attention. Roles that are being overlooked by job seekers could be a new opportunity if they find one that fits their interests.

Job-search platform Indeed published a list of top jobs that are "waiting for you to apply" based on a year's worth of US job postings, starting with ones in March 2023. The list includes jobs that had seen a large growth in their share of postings across the site that also had very small numbers of job seekers checking those postings out.

"The criteria included the largest percentage increase in job postings per million, as well as the lowest click share," Indeed said.

Gabrielle Davis, a career trends expert at Indeed, told Business Insider that this list highlights some potential "new avenues for job seekers to consider if they're feeling stuck in their job search."

Davis said that despite a positive-looking labor market, job seekers may find it tough to land work. Amid a modestly slowing job market, Davis suggested job seekers focus on things they can control, such as having their résumé and online profiles in order.

"It can seem like a full-time job in and of itself," Davis said, emphasizing the importance of consistency and working toward goals in the job search process, like dedicating an hour to update your résumé and another to apply to roles.

Below are the seven top jobs on the new Indeed list, which were ranked using the increase in job share per 1 million. According to the Indeed report, banking consultants and board-certified behavior analysts were the only jobs among the top seven that typically need a bachelor's degree.

7. Banking consultant

Increase in job share per 1 million: 287%

Average salary: $110,318

6. Licensed realtor

Increase in job share per 1 million: 309%

Average salary: $205,609

Indeed said this average "accounts for performance-based commission."

5. Stock supervisor

Increase in job share per 1 million: 347%

Average salary: $33,249

4. Board-certified behavior analyst

Increase in job share per 1 million: 397%

Average salary: $75,158

3. Insurance broker

Increase in job share per 1 million: 424%

Average salary: $90,293

2. Mortgage consultant

Increase in job share per 1 million: 592%

Average salary: $64,049

1. Document reviewer

Increase in job share per 1 million: 975%

Average salary: $51,883

In June, the pop artist Charli XCX released her sixth studio album, "Brat." A few days later, she released a second version, with three more songs, and cheekily called it "Brat and it's the same but there's three more songs so it's not." Some speculated this was a dig at Taylor Swift, whose album rereleases have drawn criticism by some who see them as a push to stay atop the charts. Really it was a nod to the same game many big artists are playing today: rolling out a tidal wave of iterations of albums and songs as they seek to grab attention and please the algorithmic gods on crowded apps like Spotify and TikTok.

"Everybody's playing a streaming game," said Nima Nasseri, a former A&R lead at Universal Music Group who manages the music producer and artist Hit-Boy.

In the streaming era, more is more, and the biggest stars in pop are fully embracing the never-ending album-release cycle — as well as nearly never-ending albums. Country artist Morgan Wallen's 2023 album "One Thing at a Time" clocked in at 36 tracks. In March, Beyoncé released 27 songs for "Cowboy Carter." In April, Swift gave her fans two hours to comb through her 16-track album, "The Tortured Poets Department," before unloading an additional 15 songs in an anthology edition just a few hours later. The music executive Nathan Hubbard, who podcasts for The Ringer and was trying to review Swift's first version when he got hit with the second, described the onslaught as a "hostage situation."

Swift has since released more than 30 different iterations of "Tortured Poets" in the form of remixes, vinyl editions, cassettes, and first-draft phone memos. In May, Billie Eilish released nine vinyl editions, four CDs, and a slew of sped-up and slowed-down versions of songs from her album "Hit Me Hard and Soft."

"It's a very momentum-driven market," said Ben Klein, the cofounder at the record label and music-marketing firm Hundred Days. And when an artist has momentum, he said, "you want to really capitalize on that by putting out as much product as possible."

Long albums can feel like a sprawling mess, particularly as most TikTok-era listeners rarely take time to play even full songs, never mind 31-track sagas. But while they grate on casual listeners, and critics, they can also delight superfans who take pleasure in conducting forensic analysis on lyrics while buying limited-edition vinyls to hang on their walls. "If you have the power to do so, small changes to the format or capsuled editions allow for artists to continue to satisfy their rabid fan bases," said David O'Connor, the vice president of artist and business development at Live Nation Entertainment. For megastars, the real money is in catering to their base.

What these trends ultimately reveal is how a handful of tech platforms like Spotify and TikTok continue to dramatically shape how music is made and consumed today. No artist, no matter how big, can ignore the algorithm.

Gen Z was too young to remember this, but not long ago, if you wanted to hear a song and it wasn't on the radio, the only way was to go to a store and buy a full album.

For decades, the record industry's stranglehold on music distribution kept record sales growing at a healthy clip, peaking in the US at about $15 billion in 1999 (some $27 billion in today's dollars). But Napster arrived that same year, bringing illegal music downloads into the mainstream. In 2003, Apple's iTunes music store began selling individual songs for about a dollar, returning some revenue back to rights holders but further diminishing the album's position as music gatekeeper.

"Steve Jobs radically remapped the music industry," said Robert Fink, a professor of musicology and the music-industry program chair at UCLA's Herb Alpert School of Music. "He arguably saved the record business by creating a store where people would actually pay $0.99 for a song as opposed to zero. That was great. But what he also did is he re-created the singles format. You could just buy the one song."

Some artists even admit to thinking about TikTokable moments during the songwriting process.

The album took another blow with the arrival of playlists on subscription streaming services like Spotify. And now, in the attention-span-depleted TikTok era of music discovery, the most meme-able 15 seconds of a song have started to matter more than the full track, much less a full album. Some artists even admit to thinking about TikTokable moments during the songwriting process. As it has with politics and news, the sound-bite-ification of social media has come for music.

"Most of my fans aren't really looking for an album," said Charlie Green, an artist and YouTuber who performs under the stage name CG5. "In the music industry today it's very important to just see how your singles do, and if they do well, then you release an album."

"It's a little bit of the Wild West when it comes to why we release tracks on certain artists and albums on the other," Taylor Lindsey, a senior vice president of A&R at Sony Music Nashville, said. "So much of it is just about artist preference and also where they are in their careers. But in the same breath, because we are in a world where there are 100,000 tracks uploaded to digital streaming platforms per day, and because the attention span is like 2.5 seconds, there's this sense of, 'You need more.'"

Still, for some artists, albums can be a useful tool for marketing, streaming economics, and nourishing their biggest fans. More tracks on an album can also help it have the best chance at breaking through.

"The more songs on an album, the more bites at the apple for editorial and user playlisting and the potential for higher first-week sales," said Brian Zisook, the head of artist and label services and executive vice president of global operations at the music-streaming platform Audiomack.

"There's just less cost-prohibitive reasons to not put more songs on a record," said Audrey Benoualid, a music lawyer at the firm Myman Greenspan who has worked with artists like Ariana Grande and Tate McRae. "If you're capturing all of your fans and the fans are streaming 10 songs or they're streaming 30 songs, it actually makes a big difference on charting and streaming revenue."

Of course, writing lots of quality songs for an album is easier said than done. And some artists are wary of letting social-media strategies or streaming incentives bleed into the creative process.

Performers, whether indie artists or chart-topping pop stars, know digital virality can be fleeting and many listeners will hear their music only once. What matters more for their long-term careers is building an audience of superfans. That's where albums can really shine.

"Our core fan, as far as people that are buying meet-and-greet tickets to Judah & the Lion shows, I do think that they love records," said Judah Akers, a singer and guitarist in the folk band Judah & the Lion, which released a 19-track album called "The Process" in May.

Superfans are the listeners most likely to buy concert tickets, drive repeat Apple Music streams, and shell out money for physical records that they can listen to or frame as a wall hanging. The resurgence of vinyl sales as a fan collectible in recent years reflects that. US revenue from vinyl records, CDs, and other physical formats grew to $1.91 billion last year, a 10% increase from 2022, per data compiled by the RIAA. According to entertainment industry data firm Luminate, the top 10 best-selling albums of 2024 had an average of seven vinyl releases, 13 CDs, and two cassettes.

"The album as a form is simultaneously dying and living its best life," said Marie Clausen, a managing director at the record label Ninja Tune. "Now that music discovery is driven so much by TikTok and shorts and reels, it is really important to offer these real-life touch points or experiences basically where you can hold a record in your hand."

Like their counterparts in pop, Akers' band plans to release an extended deluxe version of "The Process" with five additional songs later this year. He hopes fans will try to guess how those added tracks fit into the album's broader storyline, which tackles the artist's and his cowriter's experiences with grief.

"A 24-song record is like feeding someone a full-course meal and then giving them free desserts," Akers said. "It could be too much. But I think for us, since this record is so important to us, we want to keep pointing our fans back."

With no physical bounds, an album today can really be whatever an artist wants it to be (even if the nebulous shape of it can make it a moving target for music critics).

"What defines an album is entirely up to the artist," said Nathan Hubbard. "I think constraints can breed creativity, and historically they have. But I think that the removal of those constraints has given artists the ability to just create on their own terms and to define whatever an album is for them."

Dan Whateley is a senior media reporter at Business Insider covering social media and the music business.

• Julie Berninger, 35, now spends over $25,000 a month so she can spend more time with her kids.
• Berninger amassed wealth through tech jobs and passive income to achieve financial independence.
• Still, she outsources most daily tasks to invest more time in her businesses.

Julie Berninger, 35, and her husband used to save 70% of their income. Now, they spend over $25,000 a month on outsourcing aspects of their lives like cleaning, cooking, and transportation.

Berninger and her husband have built their high net worth through previous high-paying corporate jobs, Berninger's digital course businesses, and passive income, which has given them the comfort of knowing they could retire early. However, Berninger said she's investing in the growth of her companies — and is spending a lot to do so.

She said these purchases have allowed her to spend more time with her family, keep work to under 40 hours a week, and focus on expanding her companies without being overworked. She's been satisfied with her spending choices and isn't too worried about adhering to all principles of the FIRE — financial independence, retire early — movement.

"When I was pursuing FIRE, I was trying to get to the lowest monthly cost possible," Berninger said. "Now that I found my passion, I want to have it all. I want to be able to give my kids time to see me."

Working toward FIRE

Berninger grew up middle class and said she didn't have much financial literacy until getting to college. She got scholarships and financial aid but still had student loans.

Shortly after graduating, Berninger and her husband paid off over $100,000 of student loan debt as Berninger worked high-paying jobs in tech. She was a project manager at Apple and Amazon, rising the corporate ladder. Around this time, she started getting into the FIRE movement, and she knew she wanted to achieve financial independence by her 30s.

She started a FIRE blog called Millennial Boss in 2015, and starting in 2017, she hosted podcast episodes that got over 2 million downloads within the first two years. She spoke with various leaders in the movement who shared their best advice for building wealth. She and her husband, now a strength and conditioning coach, had saved over $1 million.

"While I did love my tech job, which I found very interesting and stimulating, and I was accomplishing a lot, it wasn't quite the same as following a passion," Berninger said, noting her blog brought in about $35,000 in passive income last year.

She had a solid financial base, which allowed her to consider stepping away from the corporate world and starting a business. While at Amazon, she started selling digital products part-time on Etsy, as she wanted side income and opportunities to try different fields of work.

During her first few months, she made a couple hundred dollars selling printables, which quickly grew into the thousands. Later, she collaborated with Cody Berman, an entrepreneur who achieved financial independence at 25, on Gold City Ventures, which created online courses for selling products on Etsy.

In five years, they've helped over 15,000 people start Etsy shops. She said the business brought in over $2 million in gross revenue last year.

"The people who sell on Etsy are basically just everyday people. They're not huge corporations but rather your neighbor down the street who makes personalized, handcrafted things," Berninger said. "There's a printable for every profession."

Shifting spending habits

In 2023, she also founded Auros Agency, a boutique digital course creation agency with a similar business model. However, as her "flexible but not passive" business became more involved, she spent less time with her two kids. She didn't want her kids in day care every day, but she also didn't want to sacrifice her business.

She began to outsource many daily tasks, such as dry cleaning, folding laundry, cooking, and landscaping. Her home payments were small because they had a large downpayment, and her and her husband's income allowed them to reduce their savings rate. She estimates her current savings rate is around 18% of her income, well below her past peak of saving 70% when starting her business, but she noted that her overall income is now much higher.

"If my goal was to stop working at 40, then I obviously wouldn't be doing all these things," she said. "I would be hanging out with my family, and I wouldn't be working. But I genuinely love everything I'm doing and have much bigger ambitions."

As of the end of May, Berninger spent slightly over $200,000 and made almost $250,000 gross so far in 2024, screenshots shared with BI show.

She said this choice has given her the flexibility to take off whenever she chooses, as she can hire others for temporary positions if she needs more time off. She makes time for lunches with her kids and often works at night and on weekends when her kids are asleep. She estimates she works fewer than 40 hours a week.

She's also recruited successful course participants to coach the next class of future Etsy sellers. She said it was a breath of fresh air not to have to worry about job security, though it took her time to accept being in full control of her destiny.

She said that even if her business crashed overnight, she still had over a million in savings and could easily pivot to her original FIRE principles. Still, she doesn't consider herself completely financially independent.

She said her FIRE ethos is not oriented where the goal is not to get out of productive work — the goal is to have a greater impact on the world, to get personal fulfillment, and to make life more interesting," she said. "Sometimes, if you're just optimizing toward regular FIRE and you try to get out as fast as possible, then I think you're missing out."

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