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"Nobody's success story sounded calm while they were creating it." -FS

👋 Welcome, Jobseekers

AI just leveled up from “helpful” to doing real work end-to-end, so your job hunt has to evolve or get crushed. Workday, the HR company, cut 400 people, then waved through a CEO exit package that looks obscene next to severance. Use AI to halve your search time and ship proof fast. Money is still pouring into Runway world models, robotics, security, and energy AI. Also, 2025 hiring got revised down hard. Let’s dive in 🏊️ 

• 🧑‍✈️ Career CoPilot: "Something Big Is Happening": Latest AI models ignite both fear & excitement

• 📉 Layoff Report: Workday to Cut About 400 Employees Focused on Customer Support; Block cutting more than 1,100,

• 🔈️ Top Tech Signals This Week: Runway raises $315M to push “world models”

• 📡 Companies to Target This Week: Vega Security, Apptronik, Tem

• 📈 Trends & Data: 2025 Was Worse Than We Thought

"Something Big Is Happening": AI Is Now Doing Real Work End-to-End

A viral essay from HyperWrite CEO Matt Shumer makes a blunt claim: the “AI is kind of useful” era is over, and the “AI can do large chunks of real work end-to-end” era is here. He compares this moment to February 2020, when the early signals looked optional… until they weren’t.

Whether you buy his intensity or not, the direction is hard to ignore. One of the cleanest data points comes from METR, which measures how long a task (in human expert hours) an AI agent can complete reliably. METR reports that this “time horizon” has been climbing exponentially, with a historical doubling time around ~7 months (and notes it may have accelerated in 2024).

And this is not just blog vibes. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei told Axios he believes AI could wipe out up to 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs within 1 to 5 years.

What this means for Offboard readers: you do not need to “predict the future.” You need to out-adapt the median worker.

Do this this week (seriously):

1. Upgrade your workflow, not your résumé first. Pick one recurring task (job apps, networking emails, interview prep, recruiter outreach) and make AI cut the time by 50%.

2. Build proof, not opinions. Create 2 to 3 portfolio artifacts fast: a tailored outreach sequence, a company research brief, a role-specific interview prep doc.

3. Become the “AI-forward” candidate. In interviews: “Here’s how I use AI to move faster without lowering quality.”

If you are early, this wave is a weapon. If you are late, it is a layoff multiplier.

Workday proving we’re still not doing enough for people who lose their jobs: lays off 400

This week a company whose entire product is “helping HR leaders take care of people” laid off ~400 employees and spent roughly $40 million on their severance and benefits. That same week, the outgoing CEO walked out the door with $3.5 million — cash + accelerated stock vesting — after less than three years in the role.

The co-founder, Aneel Bhusri, is stepping back in as CEO.

Let me say that again, slowly: A founder of a company that sells payroll and HR software to the world just inherited (or at best, tolerated) a situation in which one executive gets more money for leaving than hundreds of employees get for being asked to leave.

This is shameful.

Not “bad optics.” Not “standard industry practice.” Shameful. Because every single one of us in tech has either lived this, watched friends live this, or quietly hoped it wouldn’t be us next. We keep telling ourselves the next round of layoffs will be handled better, the safety net will be stronger, the founders will finally model something different.

They don’t. We don’t. The collective keeps failing the individuals. That’s why this newsletter exists. Not to rage (though rage is justified), but to make sure you’re not left holding the bag alone. Better job-search resources, real severance negotiation scripts, community connections, mental-health lifelines, and when enough of us are ready, pressure for actual systemic change.

If you’re navigating a layoff right now (Workday or anywhere else), hit reply. Tell me what you actually need this week: résumé help, interview practice, a place to vent, whatever. I read every single one.

We deserve better than this. And we’re going to build it together.

• Fintech startup Fi pivots to focus on B2B tech services, plans layoffs 

• Palo Alto Networks cuts jobs after closing $25B CyberArk merger 

• UK's Ocado to eliminate up to 1,000 jobs in cost-cutting drive 

• Power Integrations cuts 7% of workforce as semiconductor revenue slows 

• Oppo said to begin Realme India layoffs weeks after brand reintegration 

• Riot Games lays off roughly 80 employees from 2XKO team 

• Salesforce quietly laid off workers in a new round of cuts 

• Global tech company to cut nearly 100 remote jobs near El Paso 

• Dorsey’s Block Cutting Up to 10% of Staff in Efficiency Push 

• Scope3 Cuts Engineering and Sales Staff in Second Round of Layoffs in 5 Months 

• Expedia plans 100 layoffs at North Austin office 

• Western Digital cuts 47 more jobs at San Jose headquarters following earlier round of layoffs 

• Denver tech company laying off hundreds, cited AI-driven efficiency 

• Crypto exchange Gemini plans to lay off up to 200 staff, exit Europe and Australia 

• Myntra consolidates Gurugram satellite ops with Bengaluru HQ leading to some transfers & layoffs 

• Consumer loan platform LendingTree lays off staff 

• Workday to Cut About 400 Employees Focused on Customer Support 

• Smartsheet layoffs: Enterprise software giant cuts staff 

• Remitly cuts 110 jobs in Israel and closes R&D hub three years after $80 million 

• Traveloka cuts jobs to reshape workforce for AI, long-term growth 

• Pinterest sacks workers for creating tool to track layoffs 

• Bellevue’s T-Mobile lays off 393 in WA as it ensures ‘right focus’ 

• Aumovio to cut 4,000 jobs as part of R&D spending rollback 

Top Tech Signals this Week

• Runway raises $315M to push “world models” (Score: 5) - Big Series E at a $5.3B valuation signals an aggressive scale phase and near-term hiring across ML, infra, product, and design.

• Vega Security raises $120M to rethink enterprise threat detection (Score: 5) - Series B explicitly tied to product buildout plus GTM expansion, a classic indicator of hiring ramp in security engineering, solutions, and sales engineering.

• Apptronik totals $935M raised at a $5B valuation (Score: 5) - Massive capital for humanoid robotics scale suggests broad hiring across robotics software, controls/perception, hardware, manufacturing, and field deployment.

• xAI co-founder and senior engineer exits amid reorg controversy (Score: 4) - High-profile departures plus reorg talk implies instability but also urgent backfills in AI infra/training/inference and product execution.

•  https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/09/tem-raises-75m-to-remake-electricity-markets-using-ai/ (Score: 4) - Energy + AI funding signals hiring in data, market operations, automation, and growth as the company scales into new geos and utilities.

• Harvey reportedly raising at an $11B valuation (Score: 4) - Legal AI leader staying in “scale mode” usually translates into ongoing hiring for product, engineering, and enterprise GTM roles.

• Monaco launches an AI-native sales platform aimed at Salesforce (Score: 3) - Early-stage entrant in rev-tech likely hiring fast for full-stack builders, data/CRM infrastructure, and early GTM execution.

8 Companies to Target this Week

(Near-term hiring probability: next 3 to 6 months)

1) Runway (AI video + world models)

• Stage: Growth (Series E) on a $5.3B valuation raise.

• Signal: Large round + aggressive roadmap typically drives headcount growth.

• Likely roles: ML, infra/platform, product, design, creative tools, enterprise GTM.

• Careers: https://runwayml.com/careers

2) Vega Security (AI-native security ops)

• Stage: Series B (~$700M valuation).

• Signal: Funding earmarked for product + GTM expansion.

• Likely roles: Backend/data, detection/threat, solutions, sales engineering, PM.

• Careers: https://www.comeet.com/jobs/vega/C9.009

3) Apptronik (humanoid robotics)

• Stage: Late A extension; $935M total raised at ~$5B valuation.

• Signal: Scaling robots implies hiring across hardware, autonomy, manufacturing, field ops.

• Likely roles: Robotics SW, perception, controls, mech/electrical, TPM, QA.

• Careers: https://apptronik.com/careers

4) Tem (AI-powered electricity markets)

• Stage: Growth-ish (fresh $75M raise; expanding).

• Signal: Energy + AI + US expansion usually means multi-team buildout.

• Likely roles: Data/analytics, ops automation, growth, energy policy/regulatory.

5) Harvey (legal AI)

• Stage: Late growth.

• Signal: Reported raise at higher valuation implies scale mode.

• Likely roles: Full-stack, applied AI, product, legal ops, enterprise GTM.

• Jobs: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/harvey

6) Monaco (AI-native sales CRM)

• Stage: Early (seed/A vibes) launching from stealth.

• Signal: New product + agentic workflows = fast iteration hiring.

• Likely roles: Full-stack, data/CRM infra, PM, growth, sales engineering.

• Site: https://www.monaco.com/product

7) Inertia Enterprises (fusion, laser-driven)

• Stage: Series A.

• Signal: Large round to build core hardware program.

• Likely roles: Optical/mech, controls, materials, simulation, program ops.

• Jobs: https://www.inertia.com/jobs

8) xAI (AI lab)

• Stage: Late-stage scale, but volatile org.

• Signal: Senior churn often creates urgent backfills.

• Likely roles: Infra, training/inference, product, safety/compliance, GTM.

2025 Was Worse Than We Thought

Overview

January’s jobs report looked fine on the surface: payrolls rose by 130,000 and unemployment ticked down to 4.3%. But major benchmark revisions made 2025 look dramatically weaker than previously reported, turning a “soft” year into a near-standstill for hiring. The pattern is getting clearer: job growth is still heavily concentrated in health care and social assistance.

The numbers

• +130,000 nonfarm jobs in January 2026; unemployment rate 4.3%.

• 2025 payroll employment revised down by 403,000, leaving just +181,000 jobs in 2025 (about +15,000/month on average).

• January sector gains: +81,900 health care, +41,600 social assistance, +34,000 professional and business services, +33,000 construction.

• January was basically flat in consumer-facing sectors: ~+1,000 retail and ~+1,000 leisure and hospitality; federal government and financial activities fell.

• Context: the US added just over 2 million jobs in 2024 (about 168,000/month). 2025’s revised total is a fraction of that.

Why this matters for tech jobseekers

• Treat “headline job gains” as noise until you see breadth. The revisions are the story: hiring has been weaker than the vibes, so plan for a longer search and fewer fresh openings.

• Follow the gravity wells: health care, social assistance, and engineering postings are holding up better, so target health systems, payers, services vendors, and regulated-adjacent software (revenue cycle, compliance, scheduling, data).

• Make “budget-proof” your pitch. In low-hire markets, teams buy candidates who can reduce costs, automate ops, protect revenue, or de-risk compliance. Bring 2 to 3 quantified stories.

• Expect slower loops and cautious offers. Build a pipeline that includes contract-to-hire, backfills, and internal tools teams (construction and pro services strength can spill into IT, analytics, and systems work).

• Use the revisions as a networking hook: ask hiring managers what got funding despite 2025’s slowdown, and what metrics they must hit in 2026 to open headcount.

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