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The Hot, New High-Paying Career Is An AI Prompt Engineer
Companies are chasing after experienced artificial intelligence tech professionals and offering high compensation packages to get the best talent in this space. AI job listings surged 42% compared to its low point in December 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported. Meanwhile, the tech market as a whole is trending downward with a continual flow of layoff announcements.
AI prompt engineering is quickly becoming a hot job with the ascendancy of this emerging technology. A prompt engineer designs and continually refines inputs on generative AI platforms, such as Gemini (formerly Bard), ChatGPT, Midjourney and DALLE-2, to gain optimal results. Salary ranges for prompt engineer job listings range from $200k to more than $300k.
Tech giant Salesforce’s focus on teaching prompt building shows that there is a fast-growing trend to make AI user friendly for nearly everyone. Within the context of the workplace, the technology aids in boosting productivity across business functions such as sales, customer service, marketing and commerce.
Latest Developments In The Job Market, Tech And The U.S. Economy
Private Payrolls Rose By 140,000 In February, Less Than Expected
Private sector job growth improved during February though growth was slightly less than expected, payrolls processing firm ADP reported Wednesday.
Companies added 140,000 positions for the month, an increase from the upwardly revised 111,000 in January but a bit below the Dow Jones estimate for 150,000.
Job gains came across multiple areas, led by leisure and hospitality with 41,000 and construction, which added 28,000 positions. Other industries showing solid gains included trade, transportation and utilities (24,000), finance (17,000), and the other services category (14,000).
Of the total, 110,000 came from the services sector while goods producers added 30,000. Growth was concentrated among larger companies, as establishments with fewer than 50 employees contributed just 13,000 to the total.
Along with the job growth, annual pay increased 5.1% for those staying in their jobs, which ADP said was the smallest rise since August 2021, a potential indication that inflation pressures are receding.
KPMG Managers Plan ‘Energy Check-Ins’ To Assess Employee Burnout
Research suggests a quarter of the workforce faces burnout symptoms, which affect productivity in the office and people’s mental and physical health. Burnout often stems from a lack of work-life balance, support in the workplace, and control.
Companies are contending with various interventions to manage pervasive burnout rates, from mental health benefits to flexible workplaces.
This year, KPMG is announcing an “energy check-in” initiative to target at-risk employees. After piloting the program last year in a smaller division, KPMG—a Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2023—plans to have a companywide rollout to their 36,000 employees and partners by the end of 2024.
Using primarily self-reported data and KPMG’s internal system, managers can sense which employees may be running out of steam based on how many hours they work compared to their chargeable hours, PTO hours, and hours spent in meetings. If an employee receives three flags across these buckets, their manager gets a prompt to conduct a check-in. Flags are given to those in the 75th percentile for hours worked or hours on audio calls, and in the 25th percentile for used PTO compared to their peers.
Heather Inocencio, Founder and CEO of The Product Consult: Why Product Managers Fail
Heather is a sought-after product management consultant with more than 30 years of product management experience at large public companies and high-growth consumer startups, including The RealReal and HauteLook. She talks about about how the product management discipline has evolved and what it was like to be a product manager as the internet blew up to what it is today.
Heather shares what many CEOs and startup founders get wrong about product management and what it really takes to succeed as a product manager. She explains how to find product manager-company fit and why a company with product-market fit might not have one. We also explore the common reasons product managers fail or leave companies and the secret that the best product managers have that can take them to the C-suite.
Employees Are Not Financially Prepared For Emergency Medical Expenses, Study Finds
A recent survey conducted by New York Life among U.S. adults with employer-sponsored health insurance shows that many feel financially unprepared to handle medical costs. This financial burden has led some to delay care as a result, underscoring a widespread need for additional financial protection solutions.
Survey participants reported notable concerns when it comes to their ability to manage healthcare expenses. A substantial 72% of respondents expressed a desire for lower out-of-pocket healthcare expenses, reflecting the broader sentiment that healthcare costs are increasingly becoming a financial burden.
Key findings of the survey include:
Growing Concern Over Increasing Expenses: Half of adults surveyed said they are covering more out-of-pocket costs now than in the past.
Delay in Medical Treatment Due to Costs: 57% of adults surveyed said they have delayed medical treatment with concerns around their ability to pay for medical expenses being the top reason. Of note, 70% of millennials reported delaying medical treatment, with concerns around their ability to pay being the leading reason.
Lack of Preparedness: 4-in-10 adults (41%) do not feel prepared to face an unexpected out-of-pocket medical expense. While almost 7-in-10 men (69%) feel prepared to face an out-of-pocket medical cost, in contrast, less than half of women (49%) feel the same way.
Unexpected Healthcare Costs are Placing Many Deeper in Debt: 44% of adults say they would have to take on additional debt to cover an unexpected medical cost, primarily using credit cards (44%) and payment plans (46%).
Confusion Around Existing Medical Coverage: 1-in-3 adults do not fully understand what their health insurance plan covers, indicating a need for improved educational resources on the specifics of medical coverage and assistance selecting benefits that can help fill gaps in coverage.
Microsoft Engineer Warns Company’s AI Tool Creates Violent, Sexual Images And Ignores Copyrights
On a late night in December, Shane Jones, an artificial intelligence engineer at Microsoft, felt sickened by the images popping up on his computer.
Jones was noodling with Copilot Designer, the AI image generator that Microsoft debuted in March 2023, powered by OpenAI’s technology. Like with OpenAI’s DALL-E, users enter text prompts to create pictures. Creativity is encouraged to run wild.
Since the month prior, Jones had been actively testing the product for vulnerabilities, a practice known as red-teaming. In that time, he saw the tool generate images that ran far afoul of Microsoft’s oft-cited responsible AI principles.
The AI service has depicted demons and monsters alongside terminology related to abortion rights, teenagers with assault rifles, sexualized images of women in violent tableaus and underage drinking and drug use, according to CNBC.
Powell Reinforces Position That The Fed Is Not Ready To Start Cutting Interest Rates
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday reiterated that he expects interest rates to start coming down this year, but is not ready yet to say when.
In prepared remarks for congressionally mandated appearances on Capitol Hill Wednesday and Thursday, Powell said policymakers remain attentive to the risks that inflation poses and don’t want to ease up too quickly.
“In considering any adjustments to the target range for the policy rate, we will carefully assess the incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks,” he said. “The Committee does not expect that it will be appropriate to reduce the target range until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%.”
How To Get A Job In Tough Times: All The Advice You Need To Succeed From A Top Executive Recruiter
There’s an old saying, “Tough times make tough people.” In this book, Jack Kelly will help guide you every step of the way in your job search to ensure that you stay strong, resilient and positive, and get that great, new job.
