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.”

Want to stand out, grow your network, and get more job opportunities? Sign up today for Smarter by CNBC Make It’s online course, How to Build a Standout Personal Brand: Online, In Person, and At Work. Learn how to showcase your skills, build a stellar reputation, and create a digital presence that AI can’t replicate.

It’s important to build resilience, but how do we actually do it? I’ve spent 15 years researching happiness, and I’ve interviewed thousands of people about what makes it possible for them to thrive.

I’ve learned that resilience isn’t something you’re born with. It’s not even about bouncing back, a concept that often does more harm than good. Real resilience is about building specific habits that train your brain to weather difficulty without breaking.

Here are 9 habits that actually work:

If your heart is racing before your big meeting, your instinct might be to panic. Before you do, pause and tell yourself: “I’m excited about this.”

I know it sounds like toxic positivity. It’s not. Research shows that this simple reframing, shifting from a threat to a challenge, can change your physiological response. 

Your body doesn’t easily distinguish between anxiety and excitement. The only difference is your interpretation. 

When you constantly second-guess yourself, your brain learns that you can’t be trusted to handle outcomes. Confident micro-decisions can help rewire your brain and boost your trust in yourself.

So pick your lunch without researching five options. Commit to a movie in two minutes flat. Send the email without editing it 10 times. This teaches your brain: “I can decide and handle what comes next, even if it’s not perfect.” That’s the exact skill you need in a crisis. 

It’s extremely difficult to maintain deep relationships with hundreds of people. Research has found we can manage about 150 stable relationships, but only about five truly intimate ones. 

The most emotionally resilient people don’t spread their emotional energy thin or try to handle everything alone.

They invest in these core relationships. And when things do get hard, they have people in their corner who can help them carry the weight. 

Most of us focus on what’s left undone. It’s a perpetual sense of failure. I want you to flip this.

Every day, write down what you actually accomplished, even the small stuff. Over time, your brain stops noticing gaps and starts noticing progress. That shift is where resilience lives.

When you deliberately pay attention to positive moments, you rewire neural pathways for happiness. Pick one moment a day worth savoring. A good conversation. A small win. Really good coffee. 

Spend 30 seconds actually noticing it. This practice counteracts your brain’s obsession with what’s wrong and builds psychological resilience, one moment at a time.

Be vulnerable with the people who matter to you. Tell someone about a real challenge. Ask for honest feedback, not just agreement. Have conversations where things might get uncomfortable.

The most resilient people feel safe to be themselves without fear of judgement. Being open with people who you trust can help build that muscle. 

This sounds counterintuitive until you realize that helping others is a powerful recharge practice. Plus, you’re building your support system for the future. You’re reinforcing your identity as capable and resourceful.

Most importantly, you remember that resilience is also about contributing and mattering to other people.

Most people avoid this question because they are afraid of the answer. But research shows that actually imagining the worst-case scenario can reduce anxiety, not increase it.

So after you ask yourself, “What’s the worst that could happen?” actually sit with the question. Then ask yourself, “Could I handle that?” The answer is usually yes. Maybe not easily, but yes.

The most resilient people understand that bad things can happen, but the most important thing is to be confident that you can handle them when they do.

Emotional resilience is a skill you can hone. It doesn’t require therapy, meditation retreats, or years of work.

Start with just one or two of these habits. Reframe stress when the stakes are low. Build your support relationships now, not when you’re desperate. Make confident decisions about small things, so you’re ready for big things.

Jessica Weiss is a keynote speaker and executive coach who teaches people and businesses how to find more happiness, fulfillment and satisfaction at work. With a background in positive psychology, she’s spent 15 years working with global brands like Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson and American Express. She is the author of ”Happiness Works: The Science of Thriving at Work.”

Want to give your kids the ultimate advantage? Sign up for CNBC’s new online course, How to Raise Financially Smart Kids. Learn how to build healthy financial habits today to set your children up for greater success in the future. Use coupon code EARLYBIRD for 30% off. Offer valid from Dec. 8 to Dec. 22, 2025. Terms apply.

Most parents know the frustration of dealing with a child’s unexpected public tantrum.

But parents are often too quick to call out their child’s negative behavior — chastising them for that unnecessary meltdown or even telling them to “cheer up” when they seem sad — while ignoring the underlying emotions behind those actions, according to parenting expert Reem Raouda.

Focusing solely on children’s behaviors, particularly bad behavior, rather than investigating and validating their emotions is a common parenting mistake that hinders your child’s ability to develop emotional intelligence, says Raouda, an author and certified conscious parenting coach.

“Stop focusing on their behavior and start focusing on their [well-being],” she says. “Children are not robots, and their emotions are being completely ignored, dismissed [or even] punished.”

Experts often link emotional intelligence to success, because it helps people manage the kinds of negative emotions that could otherwise lead to burnout, anxiety or depression, research shows.

“Your emotional well-being is your success,” says Raouda, adding that parents who ignore their kids’ emotional development are less likely to raise happy, successful adults. “Who cares about how much money you have, if you are anxiety-ridden, depressed, [and] don’t know who you are?”

DON’T MISS: The ultimate guide to teaching your kids about money

Parents do need to enforce boundaries, Raouda says, particularly when a child’s outburst involves mistreating other people. They also need to remind kids that their feelings — positive or negative — are normal, and that it’s healthy to express them constructively, she says.

Focus on “not making them feel bad for their anger [and] not telling them to cheer up when they’re sad,” says Raouda. “Letting them be in their feelings is No. 1.”

You might, for example, ask your child what they were feeling that led them to act out, break a rule or otherwise cross a previously established boundary. Helping your kids name their emotions is the first step toward them developing the ability to manage those emotions, Raouda says.

Some other experts agree: Children who feel heard and not shamed for their feelings typically become more open to avoiding negative behaviors, according to psychologist Caroline Fleck. “The point is to validate the emotion and then focus on what’s not valid, which is the behavior [and that’s] what needs to change,” Fleck told CNBC Make It in January.

Parents who overemphasize obedience, which can require the suppression of big feelings, run the risk of raising people-pleasers who can’t advocate for themselves and are more likely to grow into anxious, unhappy adults, Raouda says.

A mother herself, Raouda says she’d practice emotion-naming exercises with her son even when he was too young to articulate how he was feeling on his own. That involved asking if he was angry or frustrated and, if so, having him rank the severity of his feelings on a scale of 1 to 10, she says.

And when parents feel emotional themselves, they can tell their children directly: I’m upset, or I’m sad. The idea is to show your children that you don’t have to suppress those negative feelings, says Raouda.

“Naming it takes away from the [negative] stigma,” she says. “It’s just, like, ‘Yeah, I was angry, I was embarrassed, I was sad, I was nervous’ … Feelings are normal and healthy and fine.”

Want to give your kids the ultimate advantage? Sign up for CNBC’s new online course, How to Raise Financially Smart Kids. Learn how to build healthy financial habits today to set your children up for greater success in the future. Use coupon code EARLYBIRD for 30% off. Offer valid from Dec. 8 to Dec. 22, 2025. Terms apply.

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. 

Want to give your kids the ultimate advantage? Sign up for CNBC’s new online course, How to Raise Financially Smart Kids. Learn how to build healthy financial habits today to set your children up for greater success in the future. Use coupon code EARLYBIRD for 30% off. Offer valid from Dec. 8 to Dec. 22, 2025. Terms apply.

Workers who moved out of London for remote work are under pressure to come back to the office in the city, and some are choosing to stay in Japanese-inspired sleeping pods for just £30 ($40).

I travelled to Piccadilly Circus in the heart of London to spend a night in a newly opened capsule hotel, after two of my colleagues who live outside the city recommended staying there.

Zedwell Capsule Hotel, a brand owned by Criterion Capital, opened in September and offers nearly 1,000 capsules measuring 1 meter long, 1 meter wide, and 2 meters in depth — likely the smallest hotel rooms in London.

It has a rather unassuming exterior despite being located inside the historic London Pavilion building — originally built as a music hall in 1885. The entrance is around the corner of the busy station, through some black doors.

The cost of staying in a hotel in Central London is staggering, sitting at an average of £265 per night in the third quarter of 2025, according to real estate firm Knight Frank. In comparison, the average daily rate of hotels across Europe was 125 euros in the summer, according to an analysis of over 600,000 reservations from 2,000 independent hotels by RoomRaccoon.

Criterion’s Head of Hotels Halima Aziz told me that the capsule hotel addresses a gap in the market between budget hostels and affordable accommodation.

“We’ve formed this sweet spot between the two. We’re not a budget hostel. We’re not coming in at a £15 rate, giving you a bunk bed in a steel room,” she said.

“When we decided to get into capsules, we really took inspiration from Asia, and the capsule concept was really born out of Japan as a response to very similar pressures we’re facing in London.”

In Japan, the first capsule hotel was built in the city of Osaka in 1979, primarily to serve as an inexpensive overnight option for salarymen who worked late and preferred to stay out drinking and socializing rather than spending more money commuting home.

It’s given rise to some capsule-style hotels in New York, from sleeping pods by Kama Central Park, to Nap York, a sleeping station with private pods for short naps or overnight stays.

Now that the concept has come to London, I was keen to see for myself what the British version has to offer.

It’s a Monday evening, and instead of my usual work-from-home routine, which involves preparing to go into the office the next day, I’m crawling into a brightly lit sleeping pod.

I roll down the garage-like shutters and lock it from the inside as I prepare to sleep. My head is just inches beneath the ceiling of my pod, which has a light dimmer, two clothing hooks, an air purifier, a wide mirror stretching along the head of the capsule, and charger sockets.

Although I can feel my luggage — a backpack and tote bag — at the end of my bed, and the bottom of my coat hung on the hooks, I’m surprised by how comfortable and cozy the bedding is.

I switch off the lights and noisy air purifier and find myself enveloped by pitch black and silence. It feels eerie, but with nothing to distract me, I fall asleep quickly.

Earlier in the day, I checked myself into the hotel using one of four kiosks, and as I roamed around the hotel, I noticed that the walls were painted black to match the exterior — and there isn’t a single window in sight.

I rode up to the first floor and used a key card to access my female-only dormitory. My capsule was one of seven stacked side by side or on top of each other, and some were only accessible via steps.

I learned that despite the low initial cost, there was a series of additional amenities guests can pay for, from an extra £10 to be in a female-only dormitory, to £8 for a padlock, and £15 to store luggage securely.

The hotel had an unfinished feel. The entrance was covered in scaffolding and the faint sound of drilling could be heard from inside the building.

That’s because it is “still under construction,” Zedwell’s General Manager Greg Walsh told me. The drilling sounds were coming from underground where a larger reception was being built, with direct links to Piccadilly Circus Station.

CEO Aziz confirmed that the building is not complete, adding that the additional cost for the female dorms was largely due to upgraded amenities, including a towel inside the pod and a female-only beauty room complete with hairdryers — although this is still under construction and not currently accessible.

“Ultimately, if you’re not just targeting the traditional hostel market, and you want to widen access, you need to respond to people’s needs, and people have needs for laundry, for beauty, that wouldn’t typically be considered,” she added.

While exploring the building, I found shared toilets and showers with classical music playing inside, as well as vending machines in the reception with snacks, drinks, slippers and eye masks amongst other items.

I wandered out for dinner and with Oxford Circus, Leicester Square, and Covent Garden within walking distance, it wasn’t hard to entertain myself.

During my time in the hotel, I discovered I was one of many working professionals in the building. I spotted several guests arriving in suits and ties and carrying briefcases. One chef from Newcastle even told me he paid a total of £284 to stay in the hotel for a fortnight to work in London.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, many office workers in London moved out of the city, where it was cheaper to rent or own a home, due to remote and flexible working options becoming a normality.

A 2021 report from City Hall said it was likely that London’s population fell during the pandemic. The number of payrolled London employees dropped sharply by about 210,000 by November 2020, with the report citing that flexible work arrangements made it easier to move out of the city.

The trend persisted, and by 2022, 43% of commuters lived over 30 minutes away from their workplace in the U.K., reflecting higher property prices in central areas, according to a report by commercial real estate firm CBRE which surveyed over 20,000 people globally.  

Additionally, CBRE found that 41% of people worldwide were planning to move to more remote locations in the next two years either in the same city or to a different city.

However, in 2025, there’s been a sharp recall in remote work offerings with major companies enforcing return to office mandates in London from HSBC to JPMorgan, Amazon, Salesforce and John Lewis.

Zedwell’s Aziz said one of the hotel’s core demographics is young professionals and hybrid workers who are using Zedwell as a “base in the city” due to their flexible working patterns which require them to be in the office for a few days a week. Roughly 20% of the hotel’s customers are corporate workers, Aziz said.

“The cost of commuting from Oxford, Cambridge, city centers that aren’t accessible via the London Underground system, is quite high,” she said. “Our product is often cheaper than their commute or late-night travel home.”

The return-to-office mandate has left workers who don’t live in cities scrambling to find inexpensive ways of staying in the city, without having to resort to unattractive options like hostels.

“Where they wouldn’t traditionally consider a hostel product, we identified that they would indeed consider a capsule hotel, because it gave that privacy,” Aziz added.

As a Londoner, my usual commute to the office lasts just over 30 minutes, so the hotel doesn’t offer much in terms of convenience for me, but I can see the appeal for those living further away from the city.

When I awoke in the morning, I almost forgot that I wasn’t in my bed at home. After a quick shower, I got ready inside my capsule before heading out and joining the throng of commuters in central London.