Read It And Eat 05/04

Welcome to ‘Read it and Eat’ — your go-to for bite-sized updates on corporate actions in finance, AI and anything I consider newsworthy. Join me twice a week for quick reads, where I serve up the latest insights that matter in the world of business. This one is a lot more personal to me as I share my job-hunting experience.

Major Headlines

• JP Morgan Chase launches Digital Media Business:

• JPMorgan Chase has launched a new digital media business, Chase Media Solutions, that will allow advertisers to connect directly with the financial institution’s 80 million customers. Chase Media Solutions will serve as a conduit for brands and will connect them with consumers’ personal passions and interests. In turn, Chase customers will benefit from personalised offers and the ability to earn cash-back with brands they love or are discovering for the first time. In addition, the bank-led media platform combines the scale and audience of a retail media network with the exclusive advantages of Chase’s first-party financial data, institutional credibility and targeting capabilities, it said in a statement. With Chase’s owned transaction data, brands and agencies can precisely target customers at scale based on purchase history. This includes targeting new, lapsed or loyal customers. Brands can also capture incremental spending on everyday purchases both in-store and online with clear attribution for every media dollar spent. Lastly, customers have the advantage of trust and brand safety too. This is because the platform is built on the foundational trust and institutional credibility of Chase, including a verified audience and brand-safe owned channels. “Our deep understanding of consumer spending across categories has driven us to reimagine what retail media networks can offer,” said Rich Muhlstock, president of Chase Media Solutions. [Reuters]
  

• Amazon AI (Anonymous Indians):

• The company spent years promoting its AI-based checkout-free Just Walk Out technology in its flagship Amazon Go stores. which eliminates the need for shoppers to stand in lines, scan their items, or pay in a traditional way. To enter an Amazon Go store, customers use their Amazon app, a credit card, or the Amazon One payment system to open an entry gate. They fill their bags with items they need, and when they’re ready to check out, they simply leave the store. Shoppers walk through the exit gate, and Amazon charges them for what they’ve taken. How it worked was that they claimed this technology combines computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning, similar to the technologies used in self-driving cars and that cameras and sensors within the store track items as customers pick them up or return them to shelves. Each customer has a virtual cart that keeps track of selected items. When customers leave the store, their Amazon account is charged accordingly. However, it has come to light that the reality of how it actually worked in comparison to the lie they spun is miles apart. The truth is that the company’s version of AI was to hire thousands of Indians to anonymously watch every single shopper and catalogue what is taken and walked out with and then charge that customer after they leave. It was reported by someone who worked on the technology that about 700 of every 1000 Just Walk Out sales had to be reviewed by Amazon’s team in India in 2022. An Amazon spokesperson disputed that claim in a statement to Business Insider, saying that the team in India mostly helps train the model that the company used for Just Walk Out. “Associates may also validate a small minority of shopping visits where our computer vision technology cannot determine with complete confidence an individual’s purchases,” the spokesperson said. This report comes on the heels of Amazon announcing that they would be scrapping the whole tech in its entirety. [Yahoo Finance]
  

• Google’s [Alphabet] Biggest acquisition yet:

• Google’s parent company Alphabet has been talking to advisers about the possibility of making an offer for HubSpot an online marketing software company with a market value of $35 billion. A HubSpot spokesperson told Quartz it “does not comment on rumours or speculation.” HubSpot’s stock rose as much as 11% to $693 following the news before dipping back down to $660 toward the end of the trading day. The company valued at $35 billion would be Alphabet’s largest acquisition to date, but there is no certainty that Alphabet will make the offer, according to Reuters. Reports of Alphabet’s potential bid for HubSpot come just as the company and its Big Tech peers are under fire from antitrust regulators. Google is facing two lawsuits from the Department of Justice for allegedly creating monopolies in the digital advertising and search engine markets. The exploration of a major acquisition by Google’s Alphabet GOOGL presents a potential investment opportunity for retail investors. If the deal goes through, it could impact the valuation and growth prospects of HubSpot, which could translate into potential gains for investors. The potential acquisition would also allow Alphabet’s Google to expand its offerings in the rapidly growing customer relationship management (CRM) software market. This could indicate Google’s recognition of the market’s potential and lead to increased revenues and market share, which could benefit retail investors. The potential acquisition could further intensify competition in the CRM software sector, challenging dominant players like Salesforce and Microsoft. Increased competition often leads to innovation, lower prices, and improved offerings, in theory, which may benefit both businesses and investors in the long term. The interest shown by Alphabet in acquiring HubSpot highlights the current market trend of companies investing in software and technology. This indicates the potential growth and profitability of the industry, making it an important area for retail investors to monitor and consider for their investment portfolios. [Reuters]
  

• Biden finally calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza:

• US President Joe Biden on Thursday spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call where Biden told the Israeli leader that an “immediate ceasefire is essential” to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, according to a readout by the White House. The remarks come after an Israeli air strike targeted an aid convoy and killed seven aid workers with the international charity, World Central Kitchen, resulting in widespread condemnation including from the Biden administration. “[Biden] underscored that an immediate ceasefire is essential to stabilise and improve the humanitarian situation and protect innocent civilians, and he urged the Prime Minister to empower his negotiators to conclude a deal without delay to bring the hostages home,” the readout said. The US president said in his call with Netanyahu that the killing of the aid workers was “unacceptable” and called on Israel to implement steps to “address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers”. Biden appeared to make a threat that Washington would condition its support for Israel’s war, with the White House saying that he” made clear that US policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps”. To be clear, this comes on the heels of the looming presidential election, they are attempting to pander to both their zionist and non-Zionist bases, it is not a eureka moment, just another political tactic. This is not also about the death of Americans, as if it were, the death of an Air Force veteran Aaron Bushnell who set himself on fire to draw attention to the situation would have caused a change. This is also, in our opinion, an addition to the list of of hot air takes that the president has made, this list includes tweeting for a cancellation of student debt, a reduction in the cost of living, and a reduction in the skyrocketing cost of housing. If he really wants an immediate ceasefire, he would sign an executive order that ceases the supply of military weapons and funding to Israel as Canada has done. [The Times]
  

MINOR NEWS

• Disney (Family) finally wins proxy war against activist investor Nelson Peltz for board control, Peltz profited $300 million from the infighting. [Business Insider]

• L’Oreal considering a potential minority stake in the $3.2 billion fragrance company, Amouage. [Bloomberg]

• McDonald’s to acquire its controversial 225 restaurants from Israeli operator Alonyal. [Bloomberg]

• Ukraine lowered its military draft age from 27 to 25, to ramp up troops in the Russian invasion. [The Telegraph]

• Private Equity companies to sell their stakes at a steep discount as investors seek exits. [Financial Times]

• Amazon to cut hundreds of jobs in cloud computing. [Bloomberg]

• Ex-legal and compliance head for $4B crypto scam OneCoin was sentenced to four years for money laundering (Bloomberg)

• Hilton will acquire a controlling interest in hospitality firm Sydell Group (Bloomberg)
  

NEWS OF THE DAY

THE JOB MARKET SUCKS:

I want to preface this piece with two statements. The first is; that this is based mostly on my experience in searching for a job and although I draw examples from some other people and official statistics this is my story, if you can relate to it, know that I empathise with you. The second being; that if you know of anyone who is currently job hunting, give them a deep and long embrace and if you want to go a step further, squeeze a little $100 into their hands.

The job market usually pendulum swings between an Employer’s Market, and an Employee’s Market. Pre-pandemic, Pandemic and Post-Pandemic times were examples of times when it was an Employee market, and the pendulum began swinging to an Employer’s market around early 2023.

An Employee’s market would be described as a market whereby the Employee holds all the cards, during this time a candidate would have multiple companies fighting for them and offering pay rises of 20–40% over asking in order to steal talent. Furthermore, in order to attract talent companies would offer generous benefits such as free lunches, free transportation to and from work, an on-site gym, free laundry services, free on-site massage, yoga and therapy sessions, 100% remote working capabilities. It sparked the rise of “Day in the Life videos” on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube which showed what people did in the day as employees of these companies, which consisted of very little work and a lot of expressing the perks of these companies. FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google) companies were the companies that everyone wanted to work at, and they were hiring a lot too, in 2021 they alone hired 250,000 which was a 44% increase from the year before. There was a talent shortage. This sparked the rise of people who worked two full-time jobs. However, businesses did not like seeing the prosperity of the people and started influencing the media to push false narratives and buzzwords such as quiet quitting, Rage applying, productive paranoia, Bare minimum Monday etc. Ideally, it is a non-issue but businesses made a mountain out of a molehill with it. Quiet Quitting for example is when the employee does their job to the standard that the job description dictates and the reason it is an issue is that businesses want employees to go above and beyond, for free while reaping the profits from the work done. Now there is a need to go above and beyond for the company you work for but I also believe in fair compensation for that work done plus, it should be the exception and not the norm. This market peaked at what was dubbed The Great Resignation, this term was coined by Anthony Klotz an associate professor of management at Texas A&M University. Employees across multiple sectors came to the realisation that they weren’t happy with their jobs during the pandemic. People weren’t satisfied with their work environment, the industry they were in or their work-life balance and left their jobs. The Great Resignation isn’t just a hypothetical idea; it’s an economic movement backed up by statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Between April 2021 through April 2022, 71.6 million people separated from their jobs, which averaged 3.98 million people quitting each month. In November 2021, the level of quits reached a new peak of 4.5 million Americans.

All of this peaked when Australia’s wealthiest man, Tim Gurner during a property summit in Sydney said “People decided they didn’t want to work too much any more through Covid-19, and that has had a massive issue on productivity… They have been paid a lot to do not too much in the last few years, and we need to see that change, We’ve got to kill that attitude,” the 41-year-old added. “We need to see pain in the economy.” He said the pandemic changed employees’ attitudes and work ethic for the worse.“There’s been a systematic change where employees feel the employer is extremely lucky to have them,” he said. “We need to remind people they work for the employer, not the other way around.” Even though he backtracked, his sentiments remain the same. Thus began the somewhat slow movement of the pendulum back to the Employee Market we are in today, the worst that there has ever been. It started slowly with Quiet Firing which occurs when when managers neglect or mistreat employees, eventually causing them to quit their jobs. Employees who are victims of quiet firing might find themselves passed over for promotions or pay rises, or left out of important meetings and discussions. In essence, the employee was Iced-Out and is given no other option but to resign. In addition to that there have been layoffs, the growth companies have opted for a leaner workforce. In the tech space alone there were 259,510 layoffs in total according to TechCrunch and in the first quarter of 2024 alone there have been 257,254 job cuts.

Unreasonable Hoops Job Seekers Jump Through

The laws of supply and demand, coupled with the oversupply of workers have made this an Employer’s Market and it is the worst is has ever been. This has given employers the gumption to be the most unreasonable they have ever been. When applying, employers have begun using AI in order to categorise applications that come in between the acceptance and reject piles. When an application is made then there Applicant Tracking System that compares the keywords on the Job description to the words on the Applicants CV to see if they would be a good fit for the role before passing the candidate to a human HR person to review and only then would they be contacted. Companies have complained of candidates using AI to better align their CVs to the job description while using AI to categorise their applicants. Furthermore, just applying for jobs, guarantees you a lesser probability of getting an interview, in essence applying is no longer the first step of the job hunt. The new first step after you apply is to reach out to people within the company on LinkedIn who have a similar background to yours such as going to the same university or having a mutual friend to make a personal internal referral for you alternatively, you find the hiring manager on LinkedIn and ask for a 15-minute chat to discuss the role, the company and how you fit in, in essence you schedule the interview rather than the other way around. These alone barely get your foot in the door for an interview, remember, you’re going against an oversaturated and incredibly competitive market and having two degrees from respected universities is just not enough. You also have to pay for and take external courses with certificates, I currently have 6; Client Account Management, Investment Banking, AML and Risk Assessment, Financial Analysis, Data Analytics, Microsoft Excel and Compliance Monitoring. I am also currently undergoing a course in “AN Introduction to Cybersecurity.” It gets worse, in order to stand out further, you have to build a personal brand and be an influencer on LinkedIn in your chosen field, I post a lot about compliance and I am trying to be one now in that space. BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE. Some people have gone further ahead to make CV-like videos and indulge in other extracurricular activities such as creating a finance newsletter.

Redefining the Word Entry Level

It also must be stated that job postings have become extremely ludicrous. There has been a rise of parody videos making jest of the fact that the meaning of Entry Level has changed in the past few years. Prior to 2024 Entry Level meant no experience was required for the role, you would be trained on-site, you only need a degree in the relative field and then possess a few soft skills. Now Entry Level means 2–8 years of direct experience, a PhD, and being the CEO of a startup too. What is incredible is that the businesses still pay entry-level salaries even though they want senior staff. What is worse is the fact that even more senior people are applying for these entry-level and junior roles just in order to live and keep a roof over their heads. Coupled with the fact that employees, even though they have conducted rounds of layoffs would question and not employ in some cases candidates who have the skills but have moved jobs “frequently.”

External Recruiters:

It must be stated that the majority of the recruiters that I have come in contact with are probably not seeing the pearly gates of heaven. Recruiters are people who companies go to to source for and find candidates and the recruiter takes a fee which is usually a percentage of the candidates’ base salary. The problem with external recruiters is that you are not a person to them, you’re a KPI data point, a means to an end for them. Their standard M.O. is to reach out to you about the role and ask preliminary questions which mainly revolve about discussing the salary and explaining the employer, they then begin to sell you the sun, moon and stars and get you incredibly excited about the role. I have personally been told by a recruiter “I understand you have been searching for a role, I want you to thank your lucky stars your CV came across my desk, consider your search over and this job yours” only to be completely ghosted, and having no response after repeated attempts at calls, emails and texts. I find myself stopping the recruiter halfway through their sales pitch of the role and bringing the conversation back to the most important information. They would sell you dreams and you would never hear from them again, and even if you reach out to them, they would read and not respond. They are not the decision maker and if they do not get you to have an interview, they do not give you the curtsey of informing you that you were not selected.

On the topic of “Ghosting” many people would have 3–5 rounds of interviews, which include written assessments and panel interviews, only to not respond to you about the outcome of said interview. I have witnessed going through 4 rounds of interviews and having to follow up with the company multiple times to get an automatic rejection email with no sort of feedback as to why I was not selected.

Furthermore, I like thousands of other job seekers in the UK, Canada, America and other countries have to navigate this cesspool of job hunting while having it in the back of my mind that we are on borrowed time. I, like thousands of others, am on a graduate visa, which is a visa issued after the completion of your Master or PhD degree programme that gives you between 2–3 years to find work and be eligible for work until a company sponsors your visa and then you move into the Skilled Worker visa. That mental clock is what makes this particular job hunt even more tricky. If not for this clock, I would have gone into contracting full-time or started a business or a hundred thousand other things that would generate honest revenue.

I cannot understate the mental toll this has taken on me, I’ve lost count of the number of sleepless nights I have, and I have stopped talking about it all together with anyone because to me it’s much more than just a job hunt for me, it is the basis of my ability to remain in this country. I am not seeking sympathy, it does nothing for me, I need solutions and advice on things I have yet to do. I am exhausted of discussing the issue with multiple people who, although have good intentions offer me solutions I have already implemented. I also am tired of explaining at length my entire situation so I wrote this to exhaustively explain my situation so I can use it as a referral point in discussions, my CV is on its 3rd version this year alone, I have a Masters degree, I am a qualified lawyer, and I have helped startups raise hundreds of thousands of dollars, I have built and sold businesses, I have multiple certificates. I learned and still learning how to build a media organisation from scratch. What more do I have to do? [Reuters]

Gen-Z Word Of The Day

Yap

To talk noisily, stupidly or excessively.