Algorithm Rejections and Disney Zillennials
"it feels very dystopian to me"
Charli xcx and Lorde are headlining Austin City Limits; Justin Bieber has the most monthly listeners on Spotify (up 1,800%) after Coachella streaming surge; Elle, the Legally Blonde prequel coming in July, looks promising; and Old Navy's summer campaign stars Paris Hilton and Ciara Miller (the puka shell necklace!).
COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE IN SEARCH OF ‘AI-PROOF’ MAJORS. BUT NO ONE KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE, latimes
Undergrads are switching majors in response to AI-driven labor market anxiety, moving away from technical and vocational tracks toward fields that emphasize critical thinking and interpersonal skills. Miami University student Josephine Timperman, 20, switched from business analytics to marketing after realizing the statistical analysis and coding she was learning could be automated, and University of Virginia data science major Ava Lawless is considering a switch from data science to studio art. (Nothing says job security like studio art.) The people running these schools don't have answers either; as Brown University President Christina Paxson said at a recent panel, “We need to think really hard about what students need to learn to be successful in the job market in 10, 20, 30 years...And none of us know.”
HE COULDN’T LAND A JOB INTERVIEW. WAS AI TO BLAME?, wired
AI screening tools are now embedded across hiring and admissions decisions, but applicants have almost no recourse to understand how an algorithm assessed them. Chad Markey, a 33-year-old Dartmouth medical student with publications in JAMA and The Lancet, spent six months reverse-engineering Thalamus’ Cortex platform — used by roughly 1,500 residency programs, or 30% — after receiving only rejections, suspecting that “voluntarily” worded leave-of-absence language in his MSPE was being downgraded by AI rather than reflecting his actual medical condition. After cold-emailing program coordinators with a research update, Markey received 10 interview offers and ultimately matched at Columbia’s psychiatry program at NewYork-Presbyterian. As one job seeker told researchers, “It feels very dystopian to me. My worthiness as a human and as an employee, as a worker, is based on my ability to filter myself through a series of automated gateways.”
THESE ARE THE HIRING HOT SPOTS WHERE COLLEGE GRADS ARE LANDING GOOD JOBS, wsj
Sunbelt cities have the strongest job markets for new college graduates, with Southern metros taking six of the top ten spots in a new ADP analysis of 53 major metro areas. Birmingham, Ala. ranked first, followed by Tampa, Fla., San Jose, Calif., Columbus, Ohio, and Raleigh, N.C., based on hiring rates for degree-level jobs, pay, and affordability. “We’re seeing a huge migration of wealth, moving from the Northeast, like New York and Massachusetts, coming down south,” said Hazel McQueen, a University of Georgia finance major moving to Tampa to work as a J.P. Morgan Private Bank analyst. “I just felt that was a great opportunity for me to get my foot in the door.” Last year’s top performers Austin, Baltimore, and Milwaukee all dropped several spots.
FIRST-CLASS INFLUENCERS, airmail
Once written off as obsolete in the Expedia era, “travel adviser” — “more au courant than ‘agent,’” Airmail notes — has become a coveted job title, particularly for young women using social media to build high-net-worth clienteles tired of AI-generated listicles. LinkedIn data shows the number of people listing themselves as travel agents or advisers has risen more than 50% over the past three years, and the global luxury-travel market is projected to hit $2.1 trillion by 2030. The income isn’t quite as glamorous as the lifestyle may seem on Instagram — advisers working under host agencies like Fora, a VC-backed travel tech platform that raised $40 million last year, typically earn just 10-15% commission on room rates; other advisers operate independently, booking through affiliate portals that earn them kickbacks. And it’s an always-on job: “What the pictures don’t show is me on a call at three A.M. in Tokyo because the son of a client on vacation in Peru fell off a bicycle and broke his hand. I didn’t do anything wrong, but I’m the one who has to fix it,” said one industry vet who booked 5,500 trips in 2025 and says he sleeps with his AirPods in to catch overnight calls.
ARE DISNEY ADULTS THE HAPPIEST DEBTORS ON EARTH?, newyorker
A recent survey of more than 2,000 Americans found that nearly a quarter of Disney visitors had taken on debt for a trip, with Gen Z most likely to do so. A Quinnipiac University senior took seven solo Disney World trips in two years, watched her bank account drop from $15,000 to $5, and accumulated about $1,000 in credit card debt during a Disney College Program internship that paid around $400 a week after housing deductions. She’s now moving to Florida to be closer to the parks. AJ Wolfe, who wrote a book about Disney adults and went $17,000 into debt herself across ten trips in five years, described an “addictive, almost competitive” aspect to it; ”I compare it a lot to church,” she said. Costs are skyrocketing, with a single-park Disney World day ticket surpassing $200 for the first time in 2025 and the company now charging for previously free amenities like airport shuttles and skip-the-line passes (and that’s to say nothing of the exclusive members-only club that charges $40,000 initiation fee, plus another $12,000 annually).
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