Posts by Blake Coleman
The Southeast’s Automotive Boom: What It Means for Jobs in 2025 and Beyond
TL;DR FAQ: What is driving the Southeast automotive hiring surge? The U.S. labor market is in transition. Nationally, manufacturing jobs dipped slightly in August 2025, even as employers announced record-breaking investments in new plants and expansions. This split is important: capital is flowing now, but the bulk of the jobs are coming later as facilities…
Read MoreModernizing Your Executive Resume for 2025: What Still Works and What Doesn’t
TL;DR FAQ: How To Modernize an Executive Resume in 2025? Some executive resumes fail at making an impact for one simple reason: busy hiring managers and board members can’t quickly find what they’re looking for. After 20+ years of executive search experience, we’ve learned this truth: your resume is a scanning document, not a reading…
Read MoreThe 996 Work Schedule: Silicon Valley’s Most Controversial Productivity Experiment
TL;DR: The 996 Work Week Explained – What It Is, Pros, and Cons Picture this. You are 25, just landed a role at a hot AI startup in San Francisco. Your offer letter gives you two choices: Which do you choose? This is the reality creeping into Silicon Valley. The 996 schedule, born in China’s…
Read MoreThe U.S. Jobs Outlook: What Employers and Job Seekers Should Know in September 2025
TL;DR FAQ: The September 2025 U.S. Jobs Outlook The labor market is sending mixed signals as we enter the final quarter of 2025. While national employment data shows clear cooling, specialized industries continue to demonstrate resilience. At STEM Search Group, we see both the challenges and opportunities emerging across technology, engineering, manufacturing, life sciences, and…
Read MorePausing to Reflect: What Google’s Environmental Disclosure on Gemini Means for AI’s Growing Appetite
TL;DR FAQ: What does Google’s Gemini disclosure mean for AI’s environmental impact? When we published our blog The Growing Appetite of Artificial Intelligence: Impacts on U.S. Infrastructure & Resources, we focused on how the rapid rise of generative AI was already stretching electricity grids, water supplies, and material supply chains. Our point was that the…
Read MoreThe Great Hiring Paradox: Why More Jobs Doesn’t Mean Faster Hiring
TL;DR FAQ: Are employers slower to hire today vs. yesterday? July 2025 brought us a puzzling contradiction: more job postings hit the market, yet hiring is moving at a tortoise pace. After 20 years in recruiting, our team has seen market cycles come and go, but this paradox reveals something new about how employers think…
Read MoreWhat We Were Up To This Weekend: Carolina Code Conference
This past weekend, our team was proud to be part of the Carolina Code Conference, an event that brings together builders, engineers, and leaders from across the Carolinas. Co-Founder Blake Coleman spoke on How AI is Reshaping Hiring, Job Searching, and Careers. Meanwhile, Co-Founder Penn Sanders and Head of Research & Innovation Sam Sanders volunteered,…
Read MoreMicrosoft Research Just Mapped the Future of Work: What 200,000 AI Conversations Across 923 Jobs Reveal
TL;DR FAQ: What Microsoft Research Found About AI and the Future of Work Microsoft Research just published one of the most revealing studies on AI and work to date. Instead of asking experts to speculate about how AI might affect jobs, they analyzed 200,000 real conversations between people and AI assistants. They cataloged 19,265 specific…
Read MoreIt’s Not All Doom & Gloom: Looking at the US Job Market and Economy Over the Last 90 Days and Beyond
TL;DR FAQ: US Jobs, Tariffs, & The Economy (90-Day Review) The past 90 days have delivered a complex economic picture – new comprehensive tariffs, rising price projections, and a 15.6% decline in business investment during Q2 2025 alongside some unexpected bright spots. The data reveals both challenges and opportunities as markets adapt to significant policy…
Read MoreVibe Coding’s Public Scrutiny: Why Mastering AI-Assisted Development is More Critical Than Ever
TL;DR FAQ: Vibe Coding Explained Vibe Coding Has Been in the News – But for All the Wrong Reasons Vibe coding, the rapid, AI-driven method transforming how tech products are conceived and built, has dominated headlines in 2025. What’s grabbing attention isn’t just its potential, but a string of high-profile fiascos and public lessons in…
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