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☆ Black tech workers at Apple, Shopify, Google, explain the anxious mood at their companies right now, but remain excited for the future
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Monica Melton | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Over one hundred tech companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, and Shopify were represented at the event. Black tech workers shared insights, hopes and fears about the current economic environment. The brainchild of Blavity CEO Morgan DeBaun, AfroTech, in its sixth year, is a gathering of Black professionals and companies that hope to hire them. But at a time when tech companies across sectors are scaling back hiring and doing mass layoffs, job prospects can feel slim. It's a tumultuous time to be in tech and Black workers may be feeling that in a different way.

☆ Meet Prenuvo, a company that says its whole-body MRI scan can detect the earliest stages of disease. Experts say it could do more harm than good.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Sarah Braner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Prenuvo, a company offering preventive MRI scans, raised a $70 million Series A in October. Some say healthy people probably don't need whole-body scans, which can lead to risky procedures. On October 18, the company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, said it had raised a $70 million Series A to provide whole-body MRI scans to consumers. The website says the scans are performed by MRI technologists and analyzed by radiologists trained to read Prenuvo scans. PrenuvoWhole-body MRI scans aren't accessible for everyoneSafavi said whole-body MRI scans have been available for more than two decades for people curious about what might be in their bodies undetected.

☆ Andreessen Horowitz bets millions on emerging startup MotherDuck to build data analytics tech for companies that don't need all the oomph pushed by cloud giants
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Matthew Lynley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

CEO Jordan Tigani says it won't replace Snowflake but can carve its own niche in the data market. DuckDB, an open source database and analytics technology, was launched by the DuckDB foundation in 2019 to tackle this problem. It's designed for work with smaller chunks of data, which is the size most companies are actually typically analyzing, Tigani said. The round comes at a $175 million valuation with combined a $35 million series A funding round led by Andreessen-Horowitz and a $12.5 million seed funding round led by Redpoint. It could also be compared to the emerging Snowflake-endorsed data technology Iceberg (3,600 stars).

☆ Before his epic fall, Sam Bankman-Fried was hailed as a crypto genius. Some clients saw smoke and mirrors.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Gretchen Morgenson | Gretchen Morgenson Is The Senior Financial Reporter For The Nbc News Investigative Unit. A Former Stockbroker | She Won The Pulitzer Prize In For Her | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +14 min

Until a few days ago, Sam Bankman-Fried was the king of crypto. “I’m sorry I didn’t do better,” Bankman-Fried said Tuesday in a message to investors reviewed by NBC News. The contentions of the people who spoke with NBC News are echoed in a 2019 lawsuit brought in federal court against FTX Alameda, Bankman-Fried and other executives. But the crypto market does not have the protections or price transparency found in listed stock markets, for example. FTX and Alameda, as a major crypto exchange and market maker, attracted crypto developers to list their projects for trading.

☆ Wall Street pushed into digital assets. Now investors are paying the price as FTX's crisis raises questions of a ripple effect in cryptoworld.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | Danielle Walker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

FTX, the crypto exchange in crisis, found backers in BlackRock, VanEck, and Ontario Teachers. The solvency crisis facing the exchange and its famous CEO raises questions of a ripple effect. Now, in the middle of crypto winter, FTX is in the middle of a solvency crisis. Binance, a rival crypto exchange that was initially going to buy FTX, backed out. "What we like about it is that we're not really speculating on whether prices of crypto assets, bitcoin or otherwise, are going up or down.

☆ Influencers debate leaving Twitter, but where would they go?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

PHILADELPHIA — Pariss Chandler built a community for Black tech workers on Twitter that eventually became the foundation for her own recruitment company. I have lost hope in that,” said Chandler, 31, founder of Black Tech Pipeline, a jobs board and recruitment website. She now has more than 60,000 followers and her own company connecting Black tech workers with companies large and small. “This is the exact reason that Musk bought Twitter and didn’t just build his own social network,” Donovan said. “I’m personally going to stay on Twitter until there is really not a reason to stay anymore.

☆ A Meta exec quit after 11 years to join Web3 at the peak of its hype. Here's why she's staying through a crypto winter.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Ex-Meta marketing exec Jennifer Kattula quit after 11 years to "take the leap" into Web3. The call piqued her interest and she began to research crypto and Web3 — both still nascent industries. Former Meta marketing executive Jennifer Kattula, now senior vice president of marketing at Polygon. Interest in Web3 and crypto was peaking, with bullish investors pouring a record $30 billion into crypto ventures that year. But Kattula's first foray into crypto did not go smoothly, and she left Celsius after less than six months in April 2022.

☆ Amazon healthcare salaries revealed: See how much bioengineering and health-data roles earn as the tech giant pushes into medicine and prepares to buy One Medical
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Katherine Long | Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Amazon hired many positions in healthcare informatics last quarter, according to H-1B visa filings. The new positions include nursing-informatics specialists, who typically manage patient data, and medical laboratory technicians. But the end of Amazon Care, which failed to gain as much traction as Amazon had hoped, coincides with an expansion of Amazon's healthcare ambitions. The company announced plans in July to purchase the One Medical chain of medical clinics for $3.9 billion. Data-privacy activists have registered concerns about the company's planned acquisition of One Medical, which would give Amazon control of huge amounts of patient data.

☆ A $14 billion NYC-based hedge fund is trying a different approach to getting people into the office— opening a suburban hub where its traders and managers live
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Alyson Velati | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Hedge fund Schonfeld has opened an office in Summit, New Jersey after surveying staff. $14 billion Schonfeld Strategic Advisors is taking a different route from other Wall Street firms to get their employees into the office and to attract talent in the long run. The family-office-turned-hedge fund has been on a growth tear since Ryan Tolkin took over as chief executive at the beginning of 2021. Schonfeld employees are typically in the office three days a week but this can vary across teams. "By accessing a broader talent pool, we will naturally continue to grow in each of these offices," Tolkin, who is also the firm's chief investment officer, told Insider.

☆ Top media recruiters and Hollywood insiders reveal the entertainment jobs in demand now and which companies are hiring in an 'awful' job market
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Elaine Low | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The typical fall "hiring boom" in the entertainment industry, especially at the big streamers, is quieter this year. Recruiters and job seekers said the job market is slow, though data and analytics pros are still in demand. Autumn is typically ripe for hiring in Hollywood. "The streamers are always in a hiring boom this time of year but you're not seeing that anymore." Data and tech jobs are still hot, said Sucherman, calling it a sector of the entertainment industry "that is expanding, not contracting."

☆ From Liquid Death to Feastables, Gen Z-ers are into snacks that look like junk food but are actually good for you. Check out this roundup of healthy products with edgy packaging.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-15 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A number of healthy snack brands are marketing themselves as junk food. Here's a list of seemingly unhealthy but healthy snacks trending with Gen Z. "It's very in line with Gen Z making the pristine Instagram grid obsolete. At the same time, the healthy food and beverage space has historically been a stale category filled with boring brands." Insider surveyed more than 20 Gen Z-ers to pull together a list of trending snack brands that pose as junk food but are actually…kind of healthy.

☆ Democrats are getting a boost from an unlikely source: Laid-off tech workers with more free time
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( David Ingram | David Ingram Covers Tech For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

Like many tech workers and investors, she moved to San Francisco from elsewhere — Michigan, in her case — and still feels invested in the politics of her home state. Whether there’s a tech expertise gap between Democrats and Republicans is difficult to measure. The Republican State Leadership Committee, which works to elect Republicans at the state level, didn’t respond to requests for comment. Some tech workers are in their third election cycles as volunteers, giving them a base of experience to work from. Given its size, Tech for Campaigns can test different messages and tactics across states.

☆ Billionaire Izzy Englander's hedge fund is hiring for more than 100 engineers and developers. Here's how to get a job at $57 billion Millennium, according to a top recruiter.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Alyson Velati | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Millennium Management, which houses multiple trading pods across the globe, is looking for more than 100 engineers and developers to help expand its footprint in top technology hubs. Izzy Englander's $57 billion fund is just one of many quant shops battling it out with the finance industry and top tech companies for hot talent. The firm is looking for back-end engineers, front-end engineers, data engineers, and quantitative researchers who are experts in Python, which is a popular computer programming language. Millennium looks for the typical attributes most financial institutions and big tech companies look for in engineers like experience and having an "entrepreneurial mindset," Talarico said. "You have to be able to communicate effectively with your client, whether that is an investment professional or someone else in the organization or someone else within technology" Talarico said.

☆ Some Big Tech firms were the top landing spot for recent Goldman Sachs tech departures, and it could be an early sign of the changing tides in the war for talent
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

But first, the latest installment in Wall Street's war for tech talent. Big Tech wants its engineers back. In the ongoing war for top engineering talent, Big Tech has landed the latest blow against one of Wall Street's most powerful firms. Read more about the top firms scooping up recent Goldman departures, and how it could be representative of the larger issues Wall Street faces when trying to attract tech talent. Robo-advisor Betterment just launched customized crypto portfolios, the Wall Street Journal reports.

☆ Google and Amazon are two of the biggest poachers of Goldman's tech talent. We mapped out the top 10 firms snapping up the bank's recent departures.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Bianca Chan | Carter Johnson | Dakin Campbell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Amazon was the biggest poacher of Goldman tech talent from June to August. The organization tracked the LinkedIn profiles of people who left Goldman Sachs and picked up another job from June through August. Wall Street's tech hiring ambitions ramp up as tech powerhouses and startups pull backNonetheless, the demand for tech talent on Wall Street has remained strong. JPMorgan, the biggest beneficiary of the departures, hired 18 former Goldman Sachs employees. Citi and Morgan Stanley were also among the top poachers of Goldman talent, with the firms both scooping up 12 Goldman employees each.

☆ Mark Zuckerberg sets expectations for his new $1,500 metaverse gadget at rock bottom
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Steve Kovach | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., demonstrates the Meta Quest Pro during the virtual Meta Connect event in New York, US, on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022. Mark Zuckerberg himself was too. His comments effectively place expectations for the success of the new Meta Quest Pro, which goes on sale Oct. 25, at next to zero. Specifically, he told The Verge "it's not going to be until later this decade" when metaverse gadgets like the Quest Pro will be "fully mature." WATCH: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveils $1,500 mixed reality headset, the Meta Quest Pro

☆ 3 IBM employees share how mentorship and connection to their heritage helped shape their careers
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Sponsor Post | Created Ibm With Insider Studios | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, we asked three IBM employees to share their experiences. Robert Loredo is the IBM quantum ambassador worldwide lead and a master inventor based in South Florida. In this Q&A, these three employees open up about how mentorship has benefitted their careers and share the importance of giving back to fellow members of the Hispanic community. Loredo: I joined IBM in 2004 and am fortunate to have a successful career because of IBM's network and community. I've since switched roles to a different business unit, thanks to the guidance of fellow volunteers of Hispanics@IBM, the community for Hispanic IBM employees.

☆ Hollywood streamers' typical fall 'hiring boom' is much quieter this year. Here's where the jobs are now and when hiring will pick up again.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Elaine Low | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Fall is usually a busy time for hiring in the entertainment industry, especially at the big streamers. Here's why there's a slump and when hiring is likely to pick up again. "The streamers are always in a hiring boom this time of year but you're not seeing that anymore." "Fall is usually busy — you can usually mark the seasons," said entertainment headhunter and former E! Data and tech jobs are still hot, said Sucherman, calling it a sector of the entertainment industry "that is expanding, not contracting."

☆ $57 billion Millennium just tapped a Goldman Sachs alum to build out its Miami tech hub as the battle for talent in the Sunshine State heats up
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Alyson Velati | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Millennium Management has tapped Olga Naumovich to lead its technology team in Miami. The war for local investing and tech talent is heating up as more hedge funds move South. Izzy Englander's $57 billion Millennium Management has tapped Olga Naumovich to lead its technology build-out in Miami, a source familiar with the hedge fund's plans told Insider. "I can see how there would be an increased demand for tech talent as firms start to run their footprint there." "Needless to say, the market for technology talent is intensely competitive at this time," Englander said.

☆ Netflix insiders reveal how the streamer uses data to drive creative decisions, with 'contentious' debates over renewals and reliance on a sometimes 'flawed science'
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Elaine Low | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Discussions about renewing shows can be "contentious" between creative execs and data analysts. "When you want to buy a project, they will do an analysis and do a budget ballpark on it," one former Netflix exec told Insider. Compared to similar teams at traditional production companies and Hollywood studios and networks, Netflix's CS&A execs have more of a front-row seat in creative discussions, insiders said. At legacy studios, deciding whether or not to greenlight a show or acquire a film is "much more of a gut instinct," said a second former Netflix exec. That can be particularly useful when assessing whether to acquire certain IP, said a third former Netflix exec.

☆ China had a plan to dominate tech and become the world's most powerful country. It's all gone wrong.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-08 | by ( Linette Lopez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

Semiconductor chips are the tiny brains that power our technological world, from cars and cellphones to fighter jets and advanced missile systems. Right now China is awash in money for tech, but you need the right people and customers that trust you. Why China needs the chipsThe Chinese economy is big, but it isn't wealthy. In other words, China needs a more lucrative line of business the same way someone with credit-card debt needs a raise. The Made in China 2025 plan lays out a goal for domestically manufactured chips to meet 70% of China's semiconductor needs within three years.

☆ The Hidden Image Descriptions Making the Internet Accessible
▼ + stars: | 2022-02-18 | by ( Meg Miller | Ilaria Parogni | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +15 min

surfacing The Hidden Image Descriptions Making the Internet AccessibleThree different alt text examples over a blank box. Alt text examples from Wirecutter, The New York Times’s product recommendation service; Alt Text Chrome Extension; and Microsoft Word. Fleet, the tech educator, who is blind, posts on Twitter about alt text and agrees that these efforts are making a difference. Alt Text Reminder, another Twitter bot, notifies followers when they have tweeted an image without alt text. Folkens of CloudSight said that his company is careful not to use racial identifiers in the alt text it generates.

☆ Writing for Insider — Business
▼ + stars: | 2021-01-14 | by ( Business Insider | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Insider covers the people, companies, and ideas changing our world — and we welcome outside voices to help us do that. There are two main ways to write for Insider: as a contributor or as a freelance writer. Contributors at Insider — BusinessOn a case-by-case basis, we accept one-off posts from outside contributors that fit in seamlessly with the areas we cover: Business News, Tech, Finance, Markets, Healthcare, Transportation, Retail, Strategy, Real Estate, and Politics. Freelance writers at Insider — BusinessWe welcome pitches of personal essays, as-told-tos, diaries, profiles, how-tos, reported features, and more. Our policies: What to knowAll writers — both contributors and paid freelance writers — must sign a contract when a piece is accepted.

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