Latest news with #ChidiAchara
Time of India
19-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Why your job applications keep getting ghosted: Top tech executive reveals red flags young candidates ignore
In a world brimming with glossy job titles and Instagram-worthy offices, it's easy for young professionals to fall for roles that sound cool but have little alignment with their experience. But according to Chidi Achara , the Global Chief Product Officer at design and tech powerhouse Huge , that mismatch is one of the most common—and fatal—mistakes fresh candidates make. Speaking to CNBC Make It at Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Gala and Summit , Achara reflected on his years of experience leading teams at major companies including Nike and investment app Stash. With a keen eye for talent, Achara has conducted countless interviews and learned to spot red and green flags almost instantly. Humor and Storytelling Go a Long Way In an era where AI can mimic professionalism and resumes are increasingly polished, Achara values something far more human: personality. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Vergiss die blaue Pille: Diese Methode stellt alles auf den Kopf Undo 'Do they have a sense of humor?' he told CNBC Make It . 'Do they have storytelling ability so they can communicate clearly?' These two qualities, he believes, are not just soft skills—they're essential signals that a candidate can gel with a team and carry ideas forward with impact. It's not just about ticking technical boxes anymore. The ability to tell a story, to inject warmth and clarity into communication, is a trait that separates good hires from great ones, Achara emphasizes. You Might Also Like: This job search hack helped a candidate land 3 interviews in a week. Here's how Applying Without Alignment But for all the charm a candidate might bring, a lack of relevant experience is still a dealbreaker. One of the biggest issues, according to Achara, is the 'scattergun approach' many young jobseekers take when sending out applications. 'They're just applying for a bunch of stuff because the title sounds cool, or they like the comp, or they like the location,' he explained. This unfocused strategy may stem from desperation in a tough job market, but it rarely works. 'Hiring managers can very quickly see those people are not qualified,' Achara warned. And when it's clear that a resume doesn't match the role, 'I'm probably going to move on to the next.' Experience Doesn't Always Mean Employment Still, Achara isn't suggesting that recent graduates need years of full-time work behind them. He's a strong believer in the value of side projects, internships, and passion-driven pursuits. 'Say you're applying for a web developer or an engineering job and you've never worked full-time in either but on the side, you've built an app,' he said. If you've published it and drawn users—even just a few thousand— that counts. You Might Also Like: Bill Gates predicts only three jobs will survive the AI takeover. Here is why Tailoring your resume to highlight such accomplishments can tilt the odds in your favor. 'Immediately, you'll take that person more seriously,' Achara noted. The hiring team is looking for proof of potential—not perfection. So, what's the key takeaway for job-hunters, especially those at the start of their careers? Be selective. Be strategic. And be honest. 'If they're just applying because they think it sounds like a cool job, then it's probably not going to work,' Achara concluded.
CNBC
18-06-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Don't apply to a role just 'because the title sounds cool,' C-suite exec warns young job-seekers
Chidi Achara has worked at some enterprising companies, including investment app Stash and Nike. He's currently the global chief product officer at design and tech company Huge. In his years working in leadership, Achara interviewed many job candidates. Among his green flags is potential chemistry with his team. "Do they have a sense of humor?" he told CNBC Make It at Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Gala and Summit. "Do they have storytelling ability" so they can communicate clearly? When it comes to red flags, he's noticed one pattern some young jobseekers fall into: applying when they have "no experience that matches the job," he said. Here's why and how they can troubleshoot. Young people are eager to get hired — especially in this tough job market. But a lot of young people new to the job market "take a scattergun approach to job application," he said, "and they're just applying for a bunch of stuff because the title sounds cool, or they like the comp, or they like the location." That is ultimately not a winning approach. Hiring managers can very quickly see those people are not qualified. And if Achara sees a candidate simply doesn't have the experience he needs to move forward with the interview, "I'm probably going to move on to the next," he said. Achara does not want to rule out suitable candidates who have not worked in the exact position he's hiring for but who still have some relevant experience. Recent grads might not have full-time experience but still have internships, clubs and side hustles under their belt. Say you're applying for a web developer or an engineering job and you've never worked full-time in either but on the side, you've built an app, he said. "[You] published it in the app store and [you] got 5,000 people using it." Include that in your resume. Tailor your material so it shows you have the results needed to succeed in the job. "Immediately, you'll take that person more seriously," Achara says of the hiring team. But, if you see a job you're interested in and you simply don't have the background — whether that be on-the-job experience or outside of it, think twice about sending in your material. Young jobseekers in particular "should be more discerning about what they apply for," he said. If "they're just applying because they think it sounds like a cool job, then it's probably not going to work."
Fast Company
21-05-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
How 'Intelligent Experiences' will change the way we engage online
As chief product officer at Huge, Chidi Achara sits at the intersection of technology, design, and human behavior—a confluence of areas that the design and tech company is facing with a framework they call 'Intelligent Experiences.' In an era where digital fatigue has consumers tuning out traditional approaches, Achara envisions a fundamental shift from capturing attention to understanding intention. Through the convergence of AI, behavioral data, and design thinking, Huge is crafting experiences that anticipate needs rather than simply responding to commands. Their approach seeks to transform static interactions into dynamic, personalized journeys that evolve with each engagement, potentially redefining how brands connect with consumers in an AI-driven landscape. Here, Achara explains how the company is setting out to achieve these objectives. There's been a lot of talk about digital experiences failing to engage users effectively. How is Huge's approach to intelligent experiences different from what we've seen before? Typically, digital experiences want your attention to drive engagement—conversion into a transaction, if it's a commercial—followed by building brand loyalty of some kind. If you go to Google and click for information about booking a holiday in Hawaii, for example, it's going to serve you information. It could be based on your budget, or the date, or the airline, or whatever—but it doesn't know what your intention is. By that, I mean it has a basic understanding of desire to book a Hawaii trip, but it doesn't know why. It could be that you're burnt out from work and just want to be alone for a week. Or it's your wedding anniversary and you want to celebrate with your partner. It doesn't know that. But as AI becomes more intent-aware, it will be able to craft an experience specific to what you're hoping to achieve through that transaction and help you arrive at a more meaningful and satisfying outcome. We'll see a transition from an attention economy based on interest to an intention one based on need. Why is that shift happening now? Because new AI-driven tools are available? Or because the attention-based approach is delivering diminishing returns? Digital experiences started off as business-centric. Websites typically look like org charts. For example, a retail site might have categories like men's, women's, shoes, clothing—which reflects how the business is structured internally more than anything else. And then companies like Huge began nudging their clients to adopt a more user -centric mindset starting from the needs of consumers. Now we're headed toward a human-directed phase where I don't have to navigate a fixed technical architecture. The experience itself is dictated by my conversational inputs, which means my experience of a particular product will be different from yours, with content generated on the fly. So yes, I do think a lot of digital experiences just failed to hit the mark, and people have zoned out as a consequence. Can you define what an 'intelligent experience' means at Huge and how it differs from traditional digital interaction models? The broadest definition is leveraging generative AI to create an experience that is more personalized, conversational, contextual, and anticipatory. Those are the hallmarks of a real relationship—which is not how we engaged with technology until recently. I'll give you a client of ours as an example. NBCU was the official U.S. broadcaster for the Paris Summer Olympics. They came to us with a specific pain point: there was so much live programming—more than 7,000 hours across seven platforms and multiple time zones—that viewers found it hard to find what they wanted to watch, as well as where and when to watch it. An online search for when Simone Biles is next scheduled to perform might take 20 or 30 minutes of searching. So, they asked us to create an AI assistant—a viewing guide we named OLI—to solve it. We designed the brand identity, the content solution, and a chat experience trained to deliver highly accurate results to queries related to programming. No hallucinations! It's exactly the kind of tool that can be rebuilt and repurposed for other sporting events of that size where you need to connect viewers with your content in a way that feels seamless and easy in a matter of seconds rather than minutes or even hours. There's often an 'uncanny valley' effect with AI—chatbot interactions don't quite feel authentic. How are you addressing this when creating AI experiences for clients? We've been working with a European luxury brand to develop a personalized AI to replicate the high-touch, white-glove experience you would get in one of their boutiques. It's not going to be through a traditional website. But to your point, the tone of voice and look and feel [of] UX and UI has to align with the brand's specific codes of behavior, and that's where Huge excels. While others may know how to fine-tune the models, and plenty of brand shops are experienced in defining brand guidelines, it's our unique ability to combine the two—refining the voice while building the technical architecture and designing the customer journey—that guarantees it speaks with a voice that's completely aligned with the brand's expression across its other channels, including retail. It's also about using AI to create experiences that feel unique, which brings to mind Huge Horizons, an immersive activation to turn innovation into reality that we're bringing to life at Fast Company 's MIC [Most Innovative Companies] Summit. Participants will share their perspective on specific subjects and watch their input shape a unique digital artifact—a personalized vision of the future that will both help them refine their thinking and connect with like-minded innovators. An AI-fueled experience that is very on brand for Huge. There's an obvious tension between personalization and privacy. How do you see the relationship between personal data and capturing intention evolving? I've always liked to see brand experiences as gateways to building relationships. There was a time maybe 20 years ago when people were hesitant to enter their credit card details into a website, and now we have no hesitation sharing our most personal information. I think the intention economy is just the next generation of that dynamic, in which trust is built over time as we engage with the experience and give it more of ourselves—provided that robust privacy and security frameworks are in place. Because in order to understand someone's intention, they have to share information about it. I know it sounds like a truism, but it's inescapable—the more time users spend immersed in the intelligent experiences we create, the better we understand them and get to know their individual tastes, rhythms, and the cadence of their purchasing patterns. It all ladders up to create more humanlike relationships in a digital space. How do you envision digital experiences evolving in the coming years? Will traditional websites eventually be replaced by more conversational interfaces? Yes? No? Absolutely. There are certain industries that are either heavily regulated or rely on aggregated infrastructure—like airline booking engines—that aren't going away. But there are many other sectors where, at some point, a website could be replaced by a conversation. I don't know what the future's going to look like, but as we begin to adopt more AI tools to build these experiences, it's going to have a significant impact on the roles and capabilities of internal teams. The question for a lot of companies is to what extent they build these resources internally versus relying on specialist partners. At Huge, we've always been able to look around the corner for what's coming next and make it relatable, understandable, and meaningful for our clients in order to help them build the next generation of experiences that drive growth for their business. There are certain things we will build for our clients, certain things we will build with them, and certain things we will help them enhance and continue into the future. But what exactly that's going to look like, it's a little early to say.
