Utkarsh Amitabh says he definitely wasn’t in the market for a new job in January 2025, when data labeling startup micro1 approached him about joining its network of human experts who help companies train artificial intelligence models.

The U.K.-based, 34-year-old entrepreneur already had a busy schedule as an author, university lecturer, founder and CEO of global mentorship and careers platform Network Capital, and student working toward a Ph.D. at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. He also had a newborn at home, he tells CNBC Make It.

Ultimately, Amitabh agreed to take on the added role, admitting that “intellectual curiosity drew me in,” he says. The prospect of training enterprise AI models felt like a perfect fit with his own background in “business strategy, financial modeling and tech,” he adds.

Indeed, micro1 says it recruits experts with deep knowledge across a wide landscape of specialties, from doctors and lawyers to engineers. A self-described “deep generalist,” Amitabh certainly seems to fit the bill.

He has an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering, a master’s degree in moral philosophy, and spent more than six years working on business development for Microsoft in a role that focused on cloud computing and AI partnerships. His past writing includes a book on “the side-hustle revolution” and a master’s thesis on how AI will affect the nature of achievement. 

The opportunity with micro1 seemed like a “natural” fit, says Amitabh. He also appreciated the flexibility of the part-time, freelance role — he works, on average, roughly 3.5 hours each night, typically after his 1-year-old daughter goes to bed, he says. 

“This didn’t seem like an add-on, but something that I could use to further my interests in a limited number of hours a week,” Amitabh says.

Amitabh now earns $200 per hour for his work training AI models for micro1, based on a pay stub viewed by CNBC Make It, and a company spokesman confirmed that Amitabh has earned nearly $300,000, including project completion bonuses, for his work dating back to January.

At the same time, Amitabh says that “money was less of a motivator” than the role’s overlap with his own personal and professional interests, especially considering that he already had a livable income from his other jobs, he says. Still, he considers “fair pay to be a core value,” he says, adding that he found the compensation to be “respectable” for work that requires significant expertise.

‘You need to have immense attention to detail’

Founded in 2022, micro1 has built a network of more than 2 million experts who work on training AI models for clients such as large AI labs, including Microsoft, and Fortune 100 businesses developing their own large language models for their respective workforces, according to TechCrunch. Micro1 was most recently valued at $500 million and counts larger startups like Mercor and ScaleAI among its competitors.

That network of experts like Amitabh forms the “backbone of our data quality,” micro1′s chief marketing officer, Daniel Warner, said in a statement: “Today’s AI models have already absorbed most publicly available knowledge, and real progress now comes from domain experts who can challenge, refine and effectively outthink the model. The ‘human data’ generated by true experts is what enables us to deliver best-in-class results for leading AI labs and the Fortune 100.”

AI model training involves feeding massive amounts of information and scenarios into an algorithm to form a large data set. The model is then refined over time by testing it with prompts that ask the model to answer questions or propose solutions to problems — like asking an AI agent to track expenses, project growth and create a new budget for a business unit within a company, for example.

Many of the projects he works on are confidential and involve “looking at a complex business problem that a regular user, a business owner or an executive, might have, and then breaking down that problem into small parts,” Amitabh says.

Much like prompt engineering, this part of the job requires him to break down each problem into clear, specific language that “machines will understand” to ensure the model can return an accurate and relevant response, he adds. 

If there are errors in the model’s response, or it strays too far outside the parameters of the original question or problem, Amitabh works to identify where “a point got missed or subtlety got lost” and address it so the model’s data set can be adjusted and improved before testing it again. It’s a trial and error process that can take “several hours” per problem set, he says.

“You need to have immense attention to detail, and you have to often look out for mistakes that the human might make or a machine might make, and you discover more about the kinds of mistakes that exist by the process of immersing yourself in it,” Amitabh says.

The job is “intellectually quite demanding,” particularly because the AI models are constantly learning and improving, requiring even experts like Amitabh to level up their own knowledge base and creative thinking skills, he says. 

“The ultimate goal is actually really energizing,” he adds. “You’re seeing whether the machine and human, the way this engagement is happening, [can] level up the output for problems that you asked and other kinds of problems that might be related to it.”

AI and jobs: ‘The trillion-dollar question’

Amid the rise of AI at work, a concern for employees across most industries is whether the advancing technology will eventually make human workers obsolete, or at least significantly transform their roles. So, does Amitabh worry that lending his own expertise to train AI models now could mean fewer career opportunities for himself, or others with similar backgrounds, in the future?

“This is the trillion-dollar question,” he says, noting that people typically fall into the camp of “techno-optimists or techno-pessimists” when it comes to how they view the impending AI revolution and its effects on the labor market. “I like to think of myself somewhere between a techno-optimist and a techno-realist,” he adds.

Amitabh concedes that there are sure to be “growing-up pains” as more companies implement AI tools in their workers’ day-to-day activities, likely resulting in the elimination of a significant number of jobs — an effect that human resources leaders say is already beginning to happen.

However, he is also in the optimistic camp that expects AI to eventually create more jobs to help offset those losses. For instance, a January 2025 analysis from the World Economic Forum predicted that AI will be a disruptive, but ultimately beneficial, force on the global labor market that will result in nearly 80 million net job gains by 2030.

Ultimately, Amitabh says he takes a more philosophical outlook: He is confident that knowledge, both in humans and machines, is not a “finite” resource, and that humans and machines will always have a symbiotic relationship where advancement for both will require perpetual collaboration. 

“It’s also possible that this AI fear collectively empowers us to learn better, upskill ourselves and frame questions differently about ourselves,” he says, adding: “So I’m not concerned about the [idea of] AI Doom entirely, because I think it does far more good than bad.”

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Neither of my parents had corporate jobs. I didn’t absorb the unwritten rules of the workplace at family dinners. But I did have a relentless curiosity about how influence actually works. 

That led me to become a licensed therapist and executive coach, research human behavior, and write my book, “Managing Up: How to Get What You Need From the People in Charge.” 

What I’ve discovered from coaching thousands of top performers is that you can be 10, 15 or even 20 years into your career and still feel like you’re missing the handbook on how to be taken seriously.  

If you want to be seen as operating at the next level, even before you have the title, here are the six things you need to do that 99% of people miss.

These principles of influence apply whether you’re navigating the office, family dynamics, or personal relationships. The ability to package your ideas and communicate decisively changes how people perceive and respond to you in every setting.

You might have the best insights. But if you don’t frame them in terms decision-makers care about most, your message will fall flat. 

Stop communicating about the tasks you’ve accomplished and instead focus on outcomes. For instance, “We analyzed the data and updated the slides,” can become, “The numbers show that if we go with option B, we’ll see a 15% return on investment.” 

When you over-explain, you think you’re being thorough, but to everyone else, it sounds like rambling. More information doesn’t always add value. 

Being concise shows command of the topic. If you can’t boil a topic down to its essence, then you don’t understand it well enough. 

Saying, “We have three key areas to cover: customer engagement, product positioning, and go-to-market strategy,” and encapsulating each in a few crisp sentences sounds more credible than a 15-minute explanation that buries your point. 

The time to get buy-in is in the days leading up to an important conversation, not during it.

Savvy professionals preview their ideas one-on-one beforehand. They reach out privately and say, “I’m thinking about proposing [X] during Friday’s check-in. What concerns do you have?” Or: “Before I bring this to the group, I want to answer your questions first.” 

By the time the formal meeting happens, you’ve cleared objections, built trust, and turned potentially adversaries into advocates. 

Waffling kills credibility faster than being wrong.

An executive told me recently that she’d let go of three very smart, capable people. “Every time I asked for their input, I got, ‘It depends,’ or, ‘There are many factors,’” she said. “I needed them to tell me what they thought we should do, not hand decisions back to me.”

Leaders would rather get a clear recommendation they can debate than hear you hedge. Give them something to react to, even if it’s not “right.”

When you’re the only one who can execute certain responsibilities, your manager panics at the thought of you leaving or advancing. You’ve accidentally locked yourself into your current role by being too good at it. 

Make yourself promotable by making yourself replaceable. Document your processes. Train a second-in-command. Show you can build systems so the team can operate without you. 

You’re absolutely entitled to set boundaries and protect your time. But if all your colleagues hear is, “No, that isn’t possible,” you’ll quickly get labeled as “difficult” or “not a team player.” 

Focus on what you can do instead. For instance: 

• Don’t say: “I’m not able to meet at that time” 
  Instead try: “I’m available at 2 p.m. or 4 p.m. What works for you?”

• Don’t say: “I can’t stay late to finish this.“
  Instead try: “I can give this another hour today and pick back up in the morning.” 

You teach people how to treat you in the workplace and beyond. Start communicating like someone who deserves to be taken seriously and others will follow suit. 

Melody Wilding, LMSW is an executive coach, human behavior professor, and author of ”Managing Up: How to Get What You Need from the People in Charge.” Get her free training, 5 Steps to Speak Like a Senior Leader, here. 

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It’s never a good time to get laid off, but when Symone Austin got the dreaded email notice from HR in January, it was an especially tough time to lose her six-figure income.

Austin, 33, was less than a year into homeownership in North Carolina, which came with a $2,800 monthly mortgage and credit card debt she’d accumulated to furnish the space on her own.

As she worked through the feelings of shock and concern, Austin tells CNBC Make It she quickly got to work cutting her budget down to the basics. She estimates she spends $1,000 less per month now, compared with before the layoff.

First, Austin went through her expenses line by line to determine what wasn’t valuable to her that she could cut out entirely: entertainment, subscriptions, shopping just for fun.

With what was left, she drilled into how she could get the things she valued for cheaper or for free. For example, she swapped paid yoga classes for free videos online. She’s leaned into free or low-cost hobbies, like borrowing books from the library.

In some cases, she’s tapped into her network to get things at a discount. Austin has been a member at a local Pilates studio for a while and in 2024 started doing virtual assistant work for it; she’s built that relationship over time and now earns $300, plus free classes, for 10 hours of work per month with the studio.

Austin says her biggest money-saving tip is to change where you shop. Instead of defaulting to brand-name items, look for dupes or cheaper alternatives. “I used to shop at Sephora for beauty things, and now I’m an e.l.f. girl,” Austin says of the budget beauty brand.

She no longer buys in bulk and only gets what she needs, when she needs it.

She also recommends getting creative and shopping in places you’re not as familiar with. For example, Austin is now a regular at her local farmers market after she learned of a deal where she can buy a bag filled with produce for $25.

“This year, my brain has been rewired around how I see money,” Austin says. “Even when I do find a full-time job again, a lot of the habits that I’ve developed for saving money, I’m going to carry that into my next chapter in life.”

In October, Austin spent around $4,400 to cover her basics: housing, food, minimum payments on her credit cards and student loan balances, health insurance, a car repair and gas.

After being laid off in January, Austin’s final paycheck included payouts for accrued vacation time; she also received her last bonus and a small severance package.

She immediately filed for unemployment and qualified for 12 weeks of benefits, paid at $600 per week, for a total of $7,200 in jobless aid.

The bulk of Austin’s earnings this year have come from her YouTube channel, where she posted a now-viral video reacting to her layoff; the clip has racked up over 700,000 views on YouTube and 1.6 million on TikTok.

Her YouTube channel, Life and Numbers, has helped her bring in over $21,000 via ad revenue, sponsorships and brand deals, and another $3,000 for digital products like a job-search tracker and physical merch like sweatshirts.

Austin says her newfound income streams, as well as focused budgeting, mean she didn’t touch her $40,000 emergency fund for the majority of the year, and she hasn’t racked up any new credit card debt.

“I’ve learned that I’m a lot stronger than I thought I was,” Austin says. “Throughout the year, I’ve still felt a lot of anxiety, and sometimes depression, but I’m still here.”

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Between long office days, late dinners and endless to-dos, many working couples slip into a routine of coexisting instead of really connecting. The excuses feel valid: “We’re exhausted,” or, “We’ll catch up this weekend.” The problem is that they both end up missing the everyday moments that keep a relationship alive.

As a psychologist who studies couples and as a husband, I’ve found that people in the happiest, most resilient relationships treat their weeknights as opportunities that don’t go wasted.

Here are the seven things these couples consistently do before bedtime.

You can’t always expect your partner to walk through the door ready to cook, talk, or be cheerful. Healthy couples build in 15 to 30 minutes of guilt-free alone time for each partner — one decompresses while the other handles a light task, then they switch.

It’s not glamorous, but it’s a huge kindness. By protecting each other’s battery early in the evening, they preserve the bandwidth they’ll need to connect later on.

Some nights, even after a decompression session, you may still feel drained. Happy couples don’t force it. They start their evening together, but quietly: sitting on the balcony, lying side by side, taking a slow walk.

In psychological research, this is a form of co-regulation: the process of two people syncing up emotionally, allowing the emotions of the day to rise and fall until they feel like themselves again. A few minutes of shared quiet can reset your rhythm better than a forced conversation.

Not every weeknight has room for deep emotional check-ins. So the happiest couples keep it simple: each person shares one thing about their day, good or bad.

It could be venting some frustration, sharing a little win they had at the office or even just something funny that happened. No advice. No solutions. Just listening. This light, consistent sharing keeps them emotionally updated without draining what’s left of their workweek energy.

Even on nights when both partners want to zone out, they stick to one small shared ritual they never skip.

For most, it’s something ridiculously simple: eating dinner together without their phones, making a nightly cup of tea, or doing a word game together. The ritual becomes a daily anchor — something predictable, comforting, and theirs alone.

If I had to choose just one nightly habit to keep, this would be it. Research shows that partners who cuddle regularly report higher relationship satisfaction and commitment, even compared with couples who emphasize “quality time” together.

Cuddling triggers oxytocin (the bonding hormone) and lowers cortisol (the stress hormone). It’s the easiest, fastest biological boost your relationship can get.

Even the happiest couples feel the low-level resentment of uneven household work. That’s why they end the evening with 5 to 10 minutes of shared tidying, wiping counters, packing tomorrow’s lunches, loading the dishwasher.

The point isn’t actually about cleaning, but rather to prove that they’re committed to keeping things fair.

Instead of rehashing the day, heathy and happy couples look ahead. They share one small thing they’re looking forward to tomorrow, or even one small thing they’re dreading.

This is a brief, gentle way for working couples to stay in sync without needing to fully rehash the emotional weight of their day. You get a sense of what your partner might need tomorrow, whether it’s encouragement, space, or just a little extra support. And they get the same from you.

Mark Travers, PhD, is a psychologist who specializes in relationships. He holds degrees from Cornell University and the University of Colorado Boulder. He is the lead psychologist at Awake Therapy, a telehealth company that provides online psychotherapy, counseling, and coaching. He is also the curator of the popular mental health and wellness website, Therapytips.org.

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If you’ve been thinking about making certain energy-efficient improvements to your home, now may be a good time to act.

That’s because President Donald Trump’s so-called “big beautiful” budget bill, which Congress passed in July, accelerates the expiration date for two credits aimed at helping Americans pay for energy-efficient home upgrades.

Both the residential clean energy and energy efficient home improvement tax credits expire Dec. 31, meaning you have just about two weeks to take advantage.

The residential clean energy credit generally allows you to claim 30% of the cost of new, qualified clean energy property for your home, whether you own it or rent it — as long as you reside there. Per the IRS, these include:

• Solar electric panels
• Solar water heaters
• Wind turbines
• Geothermal heat pumps
• Fuel cells
• Battery storage technology

If you make energy-efficient home upgrades before the end of the year, you could also qualify for the energy efficient home improvement credit, which is worth up to $3,200. That includes up to $2,000 for qualified heat pumps, water heaters, biomass stoves or biomass boilers and $1,200 for other energy-efficient property costs, including doors, windows, skylights and home energy audits — with limits per item.

Before you start dialing contractors, it may make sense to speak with a tax pro. The language around these credits’ expiration is specific. The residential clean energy credit, per the bill’s language, expires with respect to “expenditures made after December 31.”

The energy efficient home improvement credit, meanwhile, expires for any product “placed in service” after year-end.

For all intents and purposes, this language means the same thing for taxpayers. Any improvements or installations you plan to make must be completed by year-end to qualify for the credit. That means your qualified heat pump, solar panels or energy-efficient doors and windows must be installed, working and paid for by midnight on Dec. 31.

“You have to be very, very careful,” says Miklos Ringbauer, a certified public accountant and founder of MiklosCPA. “This is where you have to do your homework as a taxpayer.”

A project you’re considering might require a lengthy installation or permitting process, Ringbauer says. Even if you pay for it now, you could find yourself holding the bag tax-wise if the work isn’t completed before the applicable tax credit expires, he says.

“With the energy credits, it is incredibly crucial that you have the ability to properly plan it out and [make sure] everything is set,” Ringbauer says. “Don’t leave it down to the wire.”

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