Checking in on Big Tech's original headquarters

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Welcome back to our Sunday edition, where we round up some of our top stories and take you inside our newsroom. Jade Bonacolta landed five promotions at LinkedIn in less than seven years. The secret to her success? A 3-step "pre-read" email she sent her manager before each one-on-one meeting.

On the agenda today:

• Jamie Dimon told his employees to quit if they didn't agree with his RTO stance. Some of his tech workers might do just that.
• In today's job market, having an advanced degree is becoming a liability.
• Goldman Sachs has grand ambitions for its Dallas office. Employees took us inside.
• Amazon loves AI, except when candidates use it in their job interviews.

But first: A trip to San Francisco.

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This week's dispatch

Business in the Bay Area

I spent much of the past week in San Francisco, where I met many of my West Coast-based colleagues for the first time. What a talented team! It was especially exciting to see them in action.

On Tuesday night, a bunch of us were out for drinks around the waterfront — but two people were missing. It turned out they were working on a big scoop: Mira Murati, OpenAI's former chief technology officer, was aiming to raise a $1 billion funding round at about a $9 billion valuation for her new startup, Thinking Machines Lab.

"A $9 billion valuation is unusually high for a startup less than a year old, but investors have been eager to back AI startups, especially those founded by former OpenAI employees," wrote Ben Bergman and Julia Hornstein, who broke the story. It certainly got the attention of Elon Musk, who replied to an X user who wondered "How the heck is it valued at $9 billion?"

That wasn't the only tech scoop we had this past week. Hugh Langley wrote about Google employees tracking the company's layoffs in a Google Doc. Meanwhile, Eugene Kim revealed Amazon is cracking down on job seekers who use AI in the interview process, which you can read more about below.

We also spent some time meeting with VCs and founders. Steve Russolillo, our Chief News Editor, and I had breakfast with Sarah Guo, a Goldman Sachs and Greylock alum who started her own AI-focused VC fund, Conviction, a few years ago. Click here for a Q&A on her views on spotting AI opportunities, making it in tech, and more.

The pace of change and the capital at stake in tech right now are mindblowing. Our crackerjack staff is committed to chronicling the boom and what it means for people trying to make it during this wild time. As always, please let me know what you think, at eic@businessinsider.com.

Jamie Dimon's RTO showdown

At JPMorgan, Monday marks the the beginning of the end of hybrid work. It could also be the start of a standoff between some of the bank's tech workers and CEO Jamie Dimon.

Following Dimon's harsh words about remote work, BI spoke with a handful of recruiters and JPMorgan employees about what's to come. While 70% of the bank's employees are back in the office five days a week, tech workers are among those still working a few days from home. Some employees told BI they are considering putting out feelers elsewhere. Others — including Nicolas Welch, who sparked Dimon's infamous town hall comments — want to stick around, under certain conditions.

Is RTO a dealbreaker?

The harsh truth about advanced degrees

For years, advanced degrees were a safety net people believed they could rely on when the job market got tough. More recently, the opposite is ringing true.

The shift to remote work, skills-based hiring, and AI have altered the white-collar landscape. People with advanced degrees now face longer job searches than their less-educated peers. Some highly educated candidates are even hiding their credentials to try and increase their employment chances.

Unemployment by degrees.

Goldman's Lone Star era

Goldman Sachs' Dallas office has existed for decades, but it's now experiencing a massive growth spurt. What was once a back-office hub for real estate and private wealth is now the bank's second-largest US office, behind New York.

Dallas' lower cost of living and open-door culture are just two of the highlights of working there, employees told BI. A suite for every Mavericks game and free entry to the Nasher Sculpture Center don't hurt, either.

Wall Street heads west.

Also read:

• Inside Goldman Sachs' plans for a new Dallas campus, from the rooftop gardens to the 1.5-acre park

Don't use AI during your Amazon interview

When it comes to AI, Amazon is all for it — except during its job interviews. The retail giant is cracking down on job seekers using AI tools in interviews. Candidates could be disqualified from the hiring process if caught doing so, according to recent Amazon guidelines that BI obtained.

The trend is sparking a debate across Silicon Valley. Some companies are open to allowing these apps in job interviews because they're already used at work.

A double standard.

This week's quote:

"I saw it come down. I knew immediately this was really bad — this was one of those moments where things change."

— A supervisor who witnessed a freelance crew member get injured on the set of MrBeast's "Beast Games" game show.

More of this week's top reads:

• As the price of beans hits a record high, trouble is brewing for your morning latte.
• Layoffs are everywhere. Here's what happens when you don't do them.
• Elon Musk hates OpenAI's for-profit transformation plan. He's not the only one.
• Inflation is no longer the scariest risk.
• Forever 21 and Billabong built their business selling low-cost clothes. Then Shein came along.
• Model Karolina Kurkova and her husband are at war with Fisher Island's exclusive members-only club.
• Shake-up at WaPo: The opinion editor is out as Bezos says op-eds must defend 'free markets' and 'personal liberties.'
• Why Netflix isn't worried if you cancel your subscription.
• I tested Anthropic's Claude 3.7 Sonnet. Its 'extended thinking' mode outdoes ChatGPT and Grok, but it can overthink.
• The downside of dream jobs.

• Can America's kids read? It'll be harder to know after Trump's education cuts, researchers say.

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  The BI Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Grace Lett, editor, in Chicago. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York. Elizabeth Casolo, fellow, in Chicago.