Earlier this year, a new variant of COVID-19 began spreading globally. Some of those infected with the new variant, nicknamed Nimbus, reported an uncomfortable side effect known as razor blade throat.
By spring, the variant was present in the United States, and by May, it began to gain a foothold when compared to other circulating variants. But as of last week, Nimbus has jumped to be the dominant strain of COVID-19 in the U.S. Heres what you need to know.
What is Nimbus?
As Fast Company previously reported, Nimbus is the nickname given to the NB.1.8.1 lineage of COVID-19. Nimbus is a subvariant of Omicron. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that Nimbus was first detected in January 2025 and soon after began circulating around the globe.
The Nowcast tracker operated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that by the week ending March 15, NB.1.8.1 was already detected in America. At that point, it accounted for a minuscule amount of COVID-19 cases in the country. Yet by the week ending April 26, NB.1.8.1 accounted for about 2% of all cases.
In May, Nimbus began to assert its rise to dominance. By the week ending May 10, NB.1.8.1 had risen to 5% of cases in the United States. That share jumped to 10% by May 24. By the week ending June 7, NB.1.8.1 accounted for 24% of COVID-19 cases in America, and, most recently, for the week ending June 21, it accounted for 43% of all COVID-19 cases in America, making it the now dominant variant in the U.S.
Which U.S. states is Nimbus in?
Just because Nimbus is now the most dominant COVID-19 variant in America doesnt mean it is circulating in all states.
But it also could be.
The uncertainty of where Nimbus is circulating is because a lower number of sequences are being reported to the CDC than in the past.
This makes it harder for the CDC to determine where and to what extent COVID-19 variants are spreading in America. Because of this lack of sequencing reporting, the CDC cautions that its Nowcast datas precision in the most recent reporting period is low.
Today cites sequence data shared with the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) database that shows NB.1.8.1 has now been reported in 18 states as of June 25. Those states include:
Arizona
California
Colorado
Hawaii
Illinois
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Nebraska
New Jersey
New York
Ohio
Rhode Island
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
That is four more states than GISAID data showed NB.1.8.1 earlier in June. The four new states where the variant has been detected this time around are Michigan, Nebraska, Texas, and Utah.
What are the symptoms of NB.1.8.1 Nimbus?
The symptoms of Nimbus are much the same as other symptoms of COVID-19. However, there are reports of people saying they feel more harsh throat pain with Nimbus than with previous variants. This throat pain is nicknamed razor blade throat because it feels like you are swallowing razor blades.
Symptoms can include:
Body aches
Congestion
Cough
Fatigue
Fever or chills
Headache
Loss of smell
Loss of taste
Runny nose
Shortness of breath
Sore throat
What can I do to protect myself from Nimbus?
The precautionary measures you can take to mitigate the risk of contracting Nimbus are the same as those you would take for any other COVID-19 variant. The CDC says these measures include:
Staying up to date with COVID-19 vaccines
Practicing good hygiene
Make sure there is fresh, circulating air flowing through any spaces you are in. One way to help circulate fresh air through a space is by opening windows at home or in the office
Precautionary steps are important as Nimbus, like previous COVID variants, can be deadly. According to WHO data from the seven-day period ending June 8, there were 228 reported COVID-19-related deaths globally. A majority of those deaths128 of themoccurred in the United States.
As record heat waves hit much of the U.S., the Senate is about to pass a bill that will decimate clean energyand take away our best shot at curbing extreme weather and climate disasters. But while the headlines are dire, most Americans dont realize how close we are to a thriving clean energy economyand what a dramatic impact that would have on averting the worst impacts of climate change.
The clean energy revolution
I served in the White House Climate Policy Office under President Biden. Since leaving the White House, it has become painfully clear that we failed to convince the American people of the urgency of the climate crisis and that clean energy is our path to a secure, thriving future. Yet in the background, the U.S. has quietly launched a clean energy revolutionin March, for the first time in U.S. history, clean energy generated more electricity than fossil fuels in a single month.
Twice as many Americans now work in clean energy than in fossil fuels. In the past four years, the U.S. catalyzed over $860 billion in private clean energy investments and announced 400,000 new clean energy jobs. And we were reigning in the climate crisis, on track to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50% by 2030 and by 100% by 2050.
But that progress is now being threatenedand there will be profound consequences. To pay for Trumps tax cuts for the richest Americans, Congress is on the verge of passing a budget bill that will add $3 trillion to the deficit, gut the clean energy economy, and eliminate our chance at averting future climate disasters. But it hasnt passed yet. And its not too late to try to convince Congress to back off these extreme measures.
Giving China a leg up
By harnessing sun, wind, and other clean sources, the U.S. was on track for 100% of our electricity to come from clean energy by 2035. In the past four years, the U.S. doubled solar power, enough to run 40 million homes. Last year, 93% of new electricity generation came from clean energy. In that same period, $127 billion was invested in 900 new clean manufacturing facilitiesmost in red statesto produce everything from wind turbines and heat pumps to electric vehicles.
Now, just five months into the Trump administration, the Republican budget bill will end that growth if its passed by Congress. It will eliminate tax credits that help families, schools, and churches cut their energy bills with solar, geothermal, and energy efficiency. The EV tax credit will end. The bill kills solar and wind farms, eliminates hundreds of thousands of jobs, undermines U.S. manufacturing, and gives China a leg up on clean energy.
Meanwhile, it expedites permits for dirty, higher-cost fossil fuels. In exchange for tax breaks for the wealthiest, Trump will increase consumer energy costs and hurt national security. In anticipation, solar companies that were thriving six months ago are now going bankrupt and laying off workers. At stake are almost a million existing and new jobs through 2030, over $522 billion in planned clean energy investments, and our opportunity to curb future climate disasters.
Maintaining legacy power
Todays political crisis is about consolidating and maintaining legacy power and money. During his campaign, Trump made a deal with fossil fuel executives that for $1 billion in campaign donations hed decimate environmental regulations, expedite oil and gas permits, expand their tax advantage, and cut the clean energy economy off at its knees. Since the Supreme Courts 2010 Citizens United ruling, oil and gas lobbying has grown 75-fold. In 2023, when consumer energy bills skyrocketed and climate disasters caused $182.7 billion in damages, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, and BPs profits exceeded $100 billion.
Now, the fossil fuel industry is getting what it paid for. Since January, large-scale clean energy and electric vehicle factories with investments of $14 billion have been canceled or downsizedleading to 10,000 jobs lost. The largest steel plant in America abandoned plans to replace its fossil fuel furnaces with clean hydrogen. Offshore wind projects that could power millions of homes were canceled. And even the most popular consumer energy efficiency program, EPAs Energy Star, which generated $40 billion in consumer energy savings at a price tag of just $32 million a year, has been eliminated. In March, Congress passed a bill that prevents California from transitioning to electric vehicles by 2035 (a policy 11 other states adopted).
This action by the President and Congress predictably raises consumer costs and makes households less economically secure in a country where one in four Americans and one in two low-income Americans already struggle to pay their energy bills. Ending clean energy tax credits will make rooftop solar at home more expensive. Without new solar and wind farms, consumer prices will spike as data centers and AI demand more power.
Climate crisis
Dismantling the clean energy sector and amping up fossil fuels will also intensify the climate crisis. Disasters like Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and the Los Angeles wildfires will only grow in frequency and power. Record-breaking extreme heat, like Phoenixs 70 days above 110 degrees Fahrenheit or Salem, Oregons 117-degree Fahrenheit temperatures, will become the norm.
Climate disasters are already causing property insurance ratesnbsp;to skyrocket and carriers to leave markets. All major property insurance companies now have climate scientists on staff to minimize the financial risk of climate disasters to their bottom line (while at the same time they invest more than a half a trillion dollars per year in fossil fuel assets that cause climate change). In February, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell testified before the Senate that if you fast-forward 10 or 15 years, there are going to be regions of the country where you cant get a mortgage because of climate change. To hide the climate truth, FEMA has been directed to stop collecting climate disaster data.
And this is just the beginning. Earth systems could collapse, choking food production, leading to loss of land, and causing mass migration and conflict, even here at home.
This is supposed to be our decade of action to keep global temperature increases under 1.5 degrees Celsius. Instead, were tearing down institutions that could grow a thriving clean energy economy.
Theres a myth that to be a good leader, you need to be the smartest person in the room. As a result, many leaders struggle to admit that they dont have all the answers. Theyre reluctant to ask for help and end up struggling in silence.
This reluctance is normalits a fear-based response to not wanting to look incompetent to your team or superiors. But there is a way you can ask for help that strengthens your position as a leader, rather than undermines it.
What you gain when you ask for help
Reluctance to ask for help isnt just pride: its often about perception. And this concern isnt entirely unfounded. One study found that male leaders risked being perceived as less competent when they asked for a lot of help. In contrast, their female counterparts in the same study didnt experience a significant drop in perceived competence when seeking help.
However, researchers cautioned that it isnt actually whether or not you ask for help, but how you ask. The same study noted that asking for help is critical for leaders to learn and improve. And the benefits of asking for help far outweigh the perceived risks. Harvard Business School researchers Alison Wood Brooks and Francesca Gino found that our mindset around seeking guidance is misguided. We might think that others will see us as less capable, but the opposite is true. In their study, Brooks and Gino found that when we ask others for advice, they view us as more competent. It signals that we value their expertise and dont overestimate ourselves, which is a sign of self-awareness.
Moving beyond perceptions, asking for help is also likely to yield better performance results. By utilizing the knowledge, expertise, and insight of your team, you expand your collective problem-solving capacity. Leveraging peoples strengths to solve complex problems is the hallmark of a competent leader.
Learning to practice strategic vulnerability
Theres a term for what effective leaders do when they admit they dont know everything: strategic vulnerability. Rather than appearing inept or oversharing indiscriminately, asking questions positions you to lead through vulnerability. Thats because you demonstrate that it has a purpose, which is to empower others, utilize their expertise, build trust, and spark collective solutions.
Harvard Professor Amy Edmondson, a leading expert on psychological safety, says the simple admission of I might miss something here, I need to hear from you lays a foundation of a psychologically safe environment. By modeling fallibilitynot ineptitude, you create an environment where people feel safe to speak up, ask questions, and share their opinions and ideas. These are all the fundamental elements of a high-performing team.
As Edmondson highlights in her research, an environment with high levels of psychological safety is one with fewer mistakes, less duplication, and less fear and anxiety. When you ask questions as a leader, you appear accessible and approachable. This creates the space for others to do the same, fast-tracking the discovery and recovery from mistakes or potentially more fatal decisions.
As a leader, you set the tone: what you do becomes the behaviors that you accept, which your team then reinforces. Asking questions models curiosity and humility. When people feel like you value their input, they can see how their contributions matter to the bigger picture. This builds trust, loyalty, and a sense of meaningfulness into the everyday functions of work. Strategic vulnerabilitywhen you do it rightflips the script from looking incompetent to empowering your team. It also beats pretending you have all the answers.
How to ask for help without losing authority
Asking for help is crucial to your leadership success. But how can you do so without looking incompetent? The key is to be intentional about when and how you ask. Here are some practical ways to ask for help that maintain (and even enhance) your credibility:
Frame the problem as a shared challenge
Without shifting accountability, frame the goal or problem as a collective one, rather than a personal failing. This enlists the help of your team’s collective brainpower, and doesnt look like you’re simply palming the problem off. Rather than, “I have no idea how were going to launch this new product successfully,” say “Were entering new territory herelets put our heads together to brainstorm how we can do this successfully.“
Lean on the expertise of others
Highlighting the knowledge and expertise of the people around you shows respect, and lets them know their contributions matter. Simple framing it as I know youre experienced in Xcan you help me understand this better? goes a long way in showing others you value them and their expertise.
Be specific and solution-focused
Vague pleas can sound like panic, so be clear about what kind of help you need. Reframe Im lostI need help, to Im not fully convinced our project X plan covers everything. Could you review it and see if were missing anything? This makes the ask direct and specific, clearly showing the intended outcome. It shows youve got a handle on the situation, but see opportunities to close the gaps and make improvements.
Use confident humility in your wording
Phrases like Id love your take on this or Lets hash this out together convey optimism and authority, alongside openness. Youre inviting others to contribute, creating a collective opportunity to problem-solve while demonstrating youre confident enough to be humble. The goal is to affirm the other persons ability while acknowledging your limitations (without undermining yourself).
Connect requests clearly to situations
Sometimes you can soften the ask by pointing to an external issue rather than your personal skills. This isnt about making excuses but clarifying that anyone in your situation would need input. For exampe, The client has requested a change to the usual scope, its not something we usually docan I get your insight to find a solution? This demonstrates the complexity of the challenge, not your incapacity as a leadershifting focus onto what you need to solve together, and how that persons expertise is beneficial.
Ultimately, leadership isnt about knowing everything. Its about how and when to leverage the strengths of those around you to create outcomes that are greater than the sum of their parts.
When you combine clear intention with a thoughtful ask, you open the conversation to solve complex problems you alone couldnt accomplish. And you create a culture where its safe to speak up, ask questions, and ask for help.
The only dumb question is the one you didn’t (skillfully) ask.
Stephen Miller, the hard-line Trump adviser who helped craft some of the administrations most aggressive immigration enforcement policies, is apparently profiting from the tools that make them possible, a new report finds.
According to financial disclosures cited in a new report by the Project on Government Oversight, Miller is one of a dozen current White House staffers invested in Palantir, the data analytics firm whose contracts with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have made it the top-performing stock in the S&P 500 this year. His stakevalued between $100,001 and $250,000is the largest among staffers.
Ethics experts say the investment raises serious concerns, given Palantirs deepening relationship with DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), agencies central to policies Miller continues to influence.
If he hasnt stepped over the line, hes just on the verge of it, Virginia Canter, counsel for ethics and anticorruption at Democracy Defenders Fund, told the Project on Government Oversight as part of its report. I just dont think anybody would be comfortable with him keeping this stock.
An anonymous White House official tells Fast Company that Miller in fact owns a number of stocks that surpass the legal threshold that could constitute a conflict of interest, but he has maintained to the White House ethics office that he has, and will continue to, recuse himself from official matters that could affect those stocks.
In a statement to Fast Company, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Trump administration is committed to transparency around such disclosures, insisting, President Trump, Vice President Vance, and senior White House staff have completed required ethics briefings and financial reporting obligations.
(Palantir did not respond to Fast Companys request for comment on the ethical implications of Millers investment.)
Palantirs ties to DHS and ICE date back to the early 2010s. The company supplies software that helps organize criminal investigations and track the movements of immigrants. During Trumps second term, those ties have only strengthened. Palantir has become a more mature partner to ICE, according to internal company communications obtained by 404 Media. In January, the company secured a $30 million contract to build ImmigrationOS, a system that monitors immigration cases from identification to removal and provides near real-time visibility into self-deportation, government records show.
That visibility fits neatly into the broader crackdown on immigration now underway, a campaign in which Miller plays a central role. Last month, he joined Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in setting an aggressive new enforcement benchmark: 3,000 immigration arrests per day. Thats triple the daily average from the start of Trumps second term, according to Axios. As of Monday, ICE was detaining 59,000 immigrantsmore than 140% of the agencys official detention capacity of 41,500 beds, CBS News reports.
Given Millers direct involvement in shaping enforcement policyand Palantirs growing role in executing itits not surprising that his financial interest in the company is setting off alarms among government ethics experts.
Miller could easily cross an ethical line in his work, for example, if he were in a meeting involving DHS officials talking about whether the data analytics capability of DHS needs to be improved or changed in some way, knowing full well that Palantir would be the beneficiary,” Don Fox, former general counsel of the Office of Government Ethics, told the Project on Government Oversight.
Still, investors remain bullish: Palantirs stock hit an all-time high on June 24, just one day after news of Millers stake became public.
Danish artist Andreas Refsgaard has been combining generative AI with handcrafted prototypes to create unique glimpses of whats aheada future that could one day make artists like him obsolete.
What if instead of asking AI to generate a picture, you built a cardboard model of what you wanted it to depict?
Thats exactly what Refsgaard has been exploring with his Future Mirror project, which invites students to use recycled materials to build prototypes of artifacts from the future. The Future Mirror web app then feeds these handmade objects into Stable Diffusion, producing unexpected visions of worlds we have yet to invent.
I thought it was kind of magical to have kids build something very scrappy [with] toilet paper rolls and papier-mâché, Refsgaard says. Have them imagine wild stories, which they are good at, and then actually see that thing come to life.
Since launching workshops with school classes in 2023, Refsgaard has seen kids create prototypes for sustainable buildings, autonomous food delivery vehicles, and teddy bears designed for all-ages space travel.
One strength of this approach is that language has many barriers. When I have an idea, or I have something in mind, words can [often] not describe it, Refsgaard explains. Building a model with your own hands allows for more detail, which then influences the final AI-generated image. Thats really, really powerful, he says.
A store for AI-generated books
Refsgaard has spent about a decade experimenting with machine learning and AI as an artist, often exploring the blurry boundaries between artist and algorithm, authorship and agency. An early example was Booksby.ai, an online bookstore selling paperbacks written entirely by AI.
Built in 2018, Booksby.ai came before todays powerful large language models. Instead, it used a much weaker text generator that could create realistic-sounding sentences but struggled with coherent plots. In terms of generative AI, this is medieval, Refsgaard says, noting that the books were barely legible.
I don’t think anyone has read an entire book from start to finish, he says, adding, They werent very interesting books. Even so, the store sold about 300 copies, mostly through Amazon. Some books even received five-star reviewsone recommending a book because its knodung, a piece of gibberish generated by AI.
Refsgaard enjoys these moments when AI stumbles, though he knows they are becoming more rare. Lets laugh about how bad it is right now, but also think about the future consequences. Because it will be good at some point, he says.
That moment is coming quickly. Refsgaard says he wouldnt launch something like Booksby.ai today. Why would I put AI-generated books onto Amazon [now]? Its swamped by AI-generated books already.
The fine line between art and a tech demo
Another recent project brought reality a little too close to Refsgaards art. As part of a series of experiments with image-to-text models, he built an online meme generator called MemeCam. The web app lets users snap a photo of an everyday object, then uses AI to turn it into a meme.
MemeCam was meant as a playful exploration but it quickly went viral. It became extremely popular, my biggest hit I guess, Refsgaard says, noting that his success came at a price. I lost quite a lot of money on it.
Although hes not personally a big fan of MemeCams humor, calling it a bit middle of the road, Refsgaard still appreciates its impact. Its sort of like youre indie, and you make a record that gets airplay on big stations, he says. Youre okay with it.
The project also made him reflect on what it means to create art in todays fast-evolving AI world. Sometimes even he isnt sure how to define his own work. Are they interesting art, or are they tech demos?
When he started working with AI a decade ago, projects relied on basic tools and a lot of custom programming. Today, AI code generators handle much of that work, producing polished but sometimes less-interesting results. Im not going to make something new and unique in Midjourney, Refsgaard says. I dont care how beautiful an image can become. But Im interested in generating that image from cardboard.
He adds that making AI art today is way easier technically, but its more tricky conceptually.
When AI art replaces the AI artist
Despite these shifts, Refsgaard still sees a place for artists like him, who approach AI playfully while also exploring its cracks and limitations. These experiments, he argues, help foster a more informed critique of AI. If you just reject it completely, then the criticism you have of it is typically not very nuanced.
As for his own work, Refsgaard plans to keep exploring the shifting line between artist and algorithm as AI continues to evolve. I try to write myself out of my own art, he says, noting that hes also looking to experiment with agentic AI to see whether such agents can create entirely original workseven if that means replacing himself in the process.
I try to write myself out of my own art, he says again. I dont mind not being the artist.
Twelve years ago, I was interviewing with Suzanne “Suz” Gibbs Howard for a role at Ideo. Suz had been a partner at Ideo for about 20 years and had built her career as a human-centered consultant.
I was a young, aspiring designer who didnt fully understand the enormity of the brands name. I just knew how to design learning experiences. I was 25 years old and had previously worked as a grassroots organizer, where I designed experiences to bring people together. After that, I found myself at an online university startup in San Francisco.
As fate would have it, Suz had an idea to build a learning platform (which would later become Ideo U), and she needed a junior instructional designer.
Yes! I blurted out when she asked if Id be up for a six-week experiment. But in the hours after the call, the fear started to creep in. Sure, I was at a fast-paced, fairly chaotic startup, but it was still a steady job. Id also just finished grad school with student loans. I also lived in a city where people paid $1,200 to live in a walk-in closet. I paced around my living room and called her back.
Hey Mark, she said.
Hi Suz, I said nervously, but still unaware that the question I was about to ask was ridiculous: If this doesnt work out . . . will you have my back?
Suz said yes. But shed later tell me that her yes carried a weight for her. That night, she brought it up with her husband: Should I have said yes? I mean, I dont know if it will work out. And hes taking a risk.
Great leaders have your back
Suz never once went back on her word. She had my back from that day forward. She mentored meeven when I was probably being difficult. She invested in me, signed me up for sessions with a leadership coach, and connected me with mentor after mentor. Even years after I left Ideo to move to Berlin, shed go out of her way to see me and respond to all my notes within a day.
She knew the gravity of saying shed have my back. She didnt take it lightly. And she surely didnt owe that promise to a 25-year-old kid. She wasand still isa giant in the field of design innovation. But thats her style of leadership: she walks alongside you.
That experience taught me just how important it was for leaders to have their peoples backs. And that requires the following:
1. See the whole person
Supporting your people begins with seeing the wholeness of those you lead. The Japanese term sei-katsu-shawhich describes seeing a person in the fullness of their lifestyle, dreams, and aspirationscaptures this beautifully. Everyone is uniqueget to know their specific flavor. What makes each person tick? What makes their heart sing? What motivates them?
2. Be the net
When they take risks, let them know youre there to catch them. When they stumble, dont just criticize themyou also need to offer support, resources, or time to help them recover and learn. It shows them you believe in their potential, even in tough moments, especially in tough moments. What are their fears? How might you help design the conditions for them to lean into those with bravery?
3. Cocreate
Yes, I know. Its such an overused word. But having someones back means inviting them into spaces where you can roll up your sleeves together, spaces that are about work and growth. Set goals together that align with the teams mission. Find out what their long-term career aspirations and North Stars are, and figure out how you might be able to help them stretch in a way that gets them closer to that goal.
4. Tell the truth with care
Now, I get that this doesnt always scream Ive got your back. When youre young (and a little naive, like I was), it can feel like a critique. But the leaders who truly had my back showed me that my blind spots werent just flawsthey were part of what made me whole. For example, my ability to light up a room and unlock people could also suck a room dry if I was burned out or stressed.
5. Show up, dont just say so
Dont just say the thing, do the thing. The most inspiring leaders dont wait for the perfect momentthey create it. They understand that words are hollow without the weight of action behind them. They know that action is where purpose meets the real worldand where real growth begins. Whats one small step that you can take to show up? Whats something you can do that they might remember forever?
Suz changed my life. We both believed in the sanctity of those words: I have your back. Back then, I only understood them in the context of friendship. Now I know what they mean by leadership.
And heres what Ive learned: its not just about giving. Theres something profoundly reciprocal about it all. The real gift is getting to witness someone else grow, thrive, and leave their mark on the world.
Thats the beautythose relationships, built on mutual care, end up shaping you just as much as you shape them.
Short-term jobs are common in todays employment landscape, so dont fret if you have a few brief stints on your résumé. Not only can such experiences at several organizations showcase the breadth of your experience, your ability to adapt to new corporate cultures is also a skill you can sell.
But you do have to sell it it, and HR experts explain how to positively spin your employment scorecard and answer questions about your résumé that hiring managers may ask.
Should you list all your short-term jobs on your résumé?
Your résumé can be the first impression you make, so let it reflect an accurate history of your experience. Your résumé sets the tone for a transparent dialogue with potential employers, says Jaune Little, director of recruiting services at Insperity who is based in Houston. Honesty builds trust, and trust is the foundation of any successful professional relationship.
From her vantage point as a recruiting executive, Little says todays career paths are less linear. Many professionals are taking on project-based or exploratory roles to build skills, broaden their exposure, or recalibrate their long-term goals, she continues. This kind of career agility reflects curiosity and self-awareness but knowing how to frame them in a conversation or cover letter can be make or break, she notes.
How to upskill and highlight various job stints on your résumé
Its best to be prepared to answer questions about your short employment stints. Here are a few ways you can frame a shorter stint to highlight your learnings and intentionality when asked for in a job interview:
Why were you only at that company for five months?
Be forthcoming, say the role wasnt a good fit. Little recommends answering with a response like: The role wasnt what I expected, but my experience there clarified what Im looking for. Show self-awareness, integrity, and a commitment to meaningful work by describing what didnt align for you, the steps you took to pivot, and more importantly, why, Little outlines.
We are wondering what caused you to leave this job after only a few weeks?
If the role was a contract opportunity, be sure to convey that, by having an answer ready. Little says this reply will leave the interviewer understanding more. Tell them that the The role was short-term by design. Its also valuable to add context around an intentionally short project-based or contract role, sharing that you are open to opportunities that help you to build different skills quickly, and where youre able to contribute in a focused manner for the benefit of your skill set, asserts Little.
As long as you are prepared to offer context and an explanation as to why your tenure at these companies was brief, it can be framed as an edge. At the end of the day, HR professionals are looking for storytelling and context that makes sense, Little says. If your résumé reflects thoughtful decisions and real contributions, it can easily be framed as a competitive advantage. Just be ready to explain why you did itand how it made you better.
Should you always include brief job stints on your résumé?
If you were at a job a very short time and it didnt add anything to your skill set, in some cases omitting it from your résumé is acceptable. Theres a difference between being strategic and being misleading, says Joshua Smith, a senior vice president at Adecco in Dallas. If a role lasted a few weeks and had no impact on your trajectory, it might be reasonable to omit it.
However, if that brief stint sharpened your skills, or improved your decision-making or your career path, youre better off including it with context, he clarifies. The key is to frame it well in your interview dialogue, he says. Keep in mind, a gap with no explanation, he says, tends to raise more red flags than a short stint with an honest story. If you leave it out, you must be prepared to address the gap, as smart interviewers will ask what you did during that time, Smith advises.
Ultimately, can you spin that several shorts stints were helpful to your development?
Smith says several roles over a short period of time do present your ability to be nimble and agile so you can turn perceived instability into a story of momentum. To do this, he suggests you might say: Each role gave me the chance to stretch different muscles, solve new problems, and build resilience. Or While some of these roles were brief, they were highly intentional. I sought out environments where I could quickly add value and accelerate my learning curve.
Another component to consider regarding your whirlwind work history could be that your interviewer is curious about your professional path. As someone who partners closely with HR and hiring leaders across industries, I can tell you the first instinct is curiosity rather than judgment, says Smith. We care more about the why than the how.
Use your cover letter
If your résumé could spark questions, opt to use a cover letter to get in front of it. Smith says even a brief letter that addresses your circumstance could work to your advantage. He suggests framing your cover letter this way: My recent roles have each been targeted opportunities where I was brought in to support transformation, lead through change, or build something from scratch.
Offering this statement simply will set the tone with maturity and ownership and will showcase your ability to be transparent, which is vital in the interview process, he says.
Five months into its second term, the Trump administration has cut billions of dollars in healthcare, foreign aid, and other social spending. The presidents proposed budget seeks to eliminate more than $160 billion in additional discretionary spending.
The result of these cuts will be an onslaught of need across U.S. and global communities. In our lifetime, there hasnt been a greater opportunity for philanthropy to make an impact.
Every philanthropic family and foundation has its own idiosyncrasies. At the same time, a few widespread and unconstructive habits continue to hold the sector back from having the impact needed in this moment.
Donors are too risk-averse in how they approach their giving
All donors want to ensure impact. But for many, this desire to steward resources effectively leads to a cumbersome, overly cautious approach that misses innovative opportunities. The most pressing problems we are facing as a society are thorny and multilayered, made more so by our current political environment. These problems require new, innovative solutions. That means taking more risks on untested ideas and organizations.
Because of this dynamic, such organizations, usually headed by community leaders, are most often underserved. Donors tend to concentrate their grantmaking on a handful of blue chip organizations or on ones that have had the time to accumulate significant evidence on the effectiveness of their approach.
A track record of success is of course great, but donors who dont also consider new approaches for which there is not yet evidence are unintentionally stifling innovation. Calibrating risk to incentivize both positive outcomes and innovation is essential.
Donors are too risk-tolerant after grants have been made
Once donors commit to a plan, too many are slow to change courseeven when conditions have changed or their approach is falling short. In philanthropy, there is a fundamental difference between leading with ideology versus leading with impact. Many philanthropists commit to an ideology around how to address a particular problem and funnel time, attention, and resources into their chosen approach without taking an honest and hard look at whats working and what isnt.
For some, this can be about wanting to honor a particular philanthropys legacy or reputation. Others are held back by the all-too-human desire to avoid failure. But in a lot of these cases, too many philanthropists are sacrificing impact to save face. The savviest donors avoid this by being open about their failures, continually questioning their own biases, and diversifying the voices they are listening to in an effort to bring a more critical lens to their work.
Donors dont think creatively enough about how to make an impact outside of giving
While check-writing is the core of philanthropic work, all donorsindividuals, families, foundationshave an array of additional ways they can impact the issues they care about. Too few are using those tools.
One example of a highly effective tool is advocacy. Savvy donors engaging in advocacy recognize that the policy conditions and public funding related to the issues they care about are incredibly impactful and can create leverage for the dollars they are giving.
A second example is how aggressively donors are activating their peers. The savviest donors are activating money that is currently sitting on the sidelines as part of the solution. And there are many more examples ranging from how donors use their platform to elevate the voices of the communities they are impacting, to donors leveraging mission-aligned investing and more. At a moment when the need for philanthropy far outstrips the sectors capacity, the most effective donors are finding ways to create leverage that amplifies their giving.
Solving the most pressing social challenges we face has never been more complex. Unfortunately, theres no one secret sauce to effective philanthropy. There are, however, common mistakes that too many donors make, while those who avoid these tendencies are seeing real impact. Now is the moment for donors to shed these unconstructive habits.
Late-night Zillow scrolling just got a little easier on the eyes.
The residential real estate platform announced that dark mode is now available on its iOS app. Just tap your profile icon in the top-right corner, then tap app settings, select the dark app theme, and voil, you can scroll through listings more comfortably in the dark. “Your midnight move starts here,” Zillow says.
Dark mode has been one of Zillow’s most requested features, the company says, and before the update, the best fans of dark mode could do was use a browser extension that offered a three-month free trial. Dark mode is popular for reducing energy consumption (and saving battery life), and Zillow says it’s about more than just aesthetics because it reduces screen glare and eye strain in low-light settings.
[Image: Zillow]
The reason Zillow dark mode took so long to arrive is because the companys app has many content-rich screens, including interactive maps, listing photos, and financial tools. Designing a dark mode wasn’t as simple as applying a dark theme across the board, Zillow tells Fast Company. Extra attention had to be paid to elements like color-coded map pins that show different listing types and statuses such as rentals, for sale, new construction, or homes youve already viewed.
Zillow has 227 million average monthly unique users. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Zillow usage surged as Americans on lockdown dreamed of moving to a new place. Today, scrolling Zillow without any purchase intentionknown as Zillow doomscrolling (or Zillow therapy for some)is how many people use the app since mortgage rates remain high and home sales are softening. At least with dark mode, there’s one less reason bedtime Zillowing will keep you up at night.
How do we tell our story?
That’s a familiar phrase in brand marketing.
Its a decent question, but heres a provocation to challenge this conventional wisdom:
Storytelling and marketing are no longer reliable ways to build and grow a brand.
To understand whats to come, its useful to look at what gets awardedand what doesntat the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. Based on what we saw last week, the patterns indicate that marketing, storytelling, and, in particular, the marketing funnel, in a conventional sense, have become less dependable.
This framework has long been defined as:
Company builds brand (awareness)
Brand attracts customers (interest and consideration)
Customers buy product (purchase)
[Image: I&CO]
In the past decade, three factors have emerged and dominated human psyche, culture, and marketing: short-form video, people as brands, and heightened consumer expectations.
These shifted the power dynamic between brands and consumers, rendering the traditional marketing funnel doctrine less relevant.
As marketers and brand builders helping companies grow, what we should be asking now is this: How do we build trust?
Trust has always been essential for any brand, but it’s becoming a new, essential currency. The premium on trustworthiness has increased as the line between what is real versus generated or what is true versus not becomes indistinguishable.
Here are the four steps of Trustnomicsthe new currency for brand growthin an algorithmic, agentic, and synthetic world.
Identify your key product moment
A key product moment is a distinct feature that makes the product value visible and readily understandable. Weve been obsessed with storytelling and marketing and overlooked the power of key product moments for brands.
Look to the French insurance company AXA to see the power of a key product moment with measurable impact.
Home insurance policies typically guarantee emergency relocation for fire and flood victims. AXA added de violences conjugales (and domestic violence) to contracts for its customers. It is a promise to help survivors of domestic violence escape by providing emergency housing relocation.
Three Words is a profoundly simple key product moment that makes AXAs product value immediately tangible and morally differentiated. Within six months of adding domestic violence coverage to its policies, AXA provided emergency relocation assistance to more than 500 families. Customer trust metrics increased by 27%, and brand consideration among women ages 25 to 45 rose by 34%.
The German discount supermarket Penny created another example with its Price Packs initiative.
After redesigning packaging to display fixed prices in bright colors and big fonts, and showing its commitment to price stability, Pennys store traffic increased by 22% and market share grew by 3.2% in key regions, despite broader market volatility. In customer surveys, 78% of shoppers cited price transparency as a key factor in choosing Penny over competitors.
To earn the currency of trust, dont tell why your brand is better. Show why its different in the product.
Treat product as content
Theres a brand that was on everyones mind and lips but didnt win any Lion inside the Palais: OpenAI.
The company has grown by treating product as content. OpenAI publishes product-related press releases and articles several times a week. There is little effort in creating an emotional connection with consumers through marketing or storytelling. CEO Sam Altman understands that products are the make-or-break for any business. In an information era that is becoming agentic, the best way to earn attention and trust is through the products themselves.
The brand that understands product as content best iswait for itApple, the Grand Prix winner of Creative Effectiveness for its decade-long Shot on iPhone initiative.
At the ceremony, everyone was hoping for an emotionally driven, brand-led campaign. Quite the contrary, Shot on iPhone is technically a product demo, which creative judges and types often look down on.
As appealing as brand marketing has been, a better way to earn trust, build a brand, and drive business now is by treating product as content. When you do this, though, you have to have a point of view and stick to it. Kudos to the Apple team for being highly disciplined and single-minded with their Instagram page and not littering it with product ads. Dont confuse product ads with product as content.
[Screenshot: Apple/Instagram]
Repeatable system > Scalable campaign
Using Apple as a guide is aspirational but unrealistic. Most marketers and brand builders dont have $48.5 billion sitting in our bank accounts to spend on huge campaigns, media buys, or expensive productions.
The Japanese streetwear brand Human Made, founded by the ultra-hip Nigo and supported by Pharrell Williams, was established in 2010. Despite its celebrity status, it had modest growth for more than a decade, and its revenue hovered around 1.7 billion yen (roughly $11.6 million).
When Rei Matsunuma, a longtime Uniqlo executive, joined in 2021 as Human Mades COO, he created a 52-week product planning calendar and addressed supply chain issues. Then, he started Daily Tsdaily drops of date-stamped white T-shirts, making each days T-shirts unique and exclusive.
[Image: Human Made]
These were not shiny, scalable campaigns that would see much limelight at marketing industry events like Cannes. Instead, they were repeatable systems that generated consistent demand among brand fans and prospective customers.
In less than four years, Human Mades revenue grew sixfold to 10 billion yen (nearly $70 million), with a presence in more than 80 countries and minimal investment in storytelling or marketing.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit, wrote Will Durant in his 1926 book, The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers (paraphrasing Aristotle).
Repeatable systems beat scalable campaigns.
Flywheel of Trust
By the time a business problem reaches marketing, its too late. When culture moves in real time, no marketing funnel can save a business. We need to turn our funnel mindset into a flywheel.
[Image: I&CO]
The flywheel of trust framework is based on the product itself, which is now the main driver in attracting customers.
Company creates product
Product attracts customers
Customers trust brand
Brand differentiates company
In the past decade, this phenomenon has increased. Besides the aforementioned examples, others like Stanleys Quencher or Uniqlos Round Mini Shoulder Bag became sensational hits without relying on emotional storytelling or brand marketing.
These brands gained traction not because they asked How do we tell our story?
They asked, How do we build trust?
If we translate this flywheel into tangible action, the four steps of Trustnomics are:
Identify your key product moment
Treat product as content
Build a repeatable system
Kick the flywheel of trust into motion
As the world shifts from the information era to the agentic era, the marketing funnel doctrine is giving way to a new flywheel framework focused on earning and building trust.
Trustnomics is not just an ingredient of your brand. Its the currency that powers brand growth.
