--- title: The Ex-Meta AI Exec Trying to Solve the Entry-Level Hiring Crisis description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. canonical: https://time.com/partner-content/charter/the-ex-meta-ai-exec-trying-to-solve-the-entry-level-hiring-crisis/ author: Jena McGregor article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-09-13T10:30:01.864Z article:modified_time: 2026-09-11T22:38:21.327Z article:section: Charter og:title: The Ex-Meta AI Exec Trying to Solve the Entry-Level Hiring Crisis og:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. 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Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt652943d258d909c5/6aa482aff65bda7211021836/charter-shih.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- The information presented here is created by Charter, independently from the TIME editorial staff.  Time charter * [Entry-level workers](/partner-content/-partner-name-/tag/entry-level-workers/) ## Entry-level workers # The Ex-Meta AI Exec Trying to Solve the Entry-Level Hiring Crisis > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. by [Jena McGregor](https://time.com/author/jena-mcgregor/) Managing Editor, Charter Sep 13, 2026 10:30 AM UTC  Art: Charter Art: Charter by [Jena McGregor](https://time.com/author/jena-mcgregor/) Managing Editor, Charter Sep 13, 2026 10:30 AM UTC Clara Shih spent two decades leading AI products at some of the biggest names in tech, including Salesforce and Meta. As she watched agentic AI shorten product development cycles and reduce team sizes, she started taking down her own team’s entry-level job postings, while at the same time watching young family members struggle to find jobs. That collision—seeing disruption from the inside and the impact on young people she knows—led Shih to leave Meta this spring and launch the [New Work Foundation](https://www.newworkfoundation.com/), a nonprofit aimed at closing what she calls the “[information asymmetry](https://www.platformer.news/clara-shih-new-work-dear-cc-interview-meta-salesforce/)” between people who work in AI and everyone else. The nonprofit runs three tools for young job seekers: a media arm called “[Dear CC](https://www.dearcc.org/?utm%5Fsource=nwf&utm%5Fmedium=referral&utm%5Fcontent=footer-link)” that publishes advice from managers and Gen Z workers; [Field Report](https://fieldreport.dearcc.org/?utm%5Fsource=nwf&utm%5Fmedium=referral&utm%5Fcontent=footer-fieldreport), a data tool that shows hiring trends, salary data, and exposure rates for different majors and occupations; and a platform called [Game Plan](https://gameplan.dearcc.org/?ref=platformer.news) that helps job seekers develop a job search plan and connects them with mentors and peers. Shih talked with Charter about AI’s role in the [entry-level hiring slowdown](https://www.charterworks.com/the-debate-over-whats-driving-entry-level-hiring/), what she’d like to see employers do now, and how she felt a personal call to work on the issue. Here are excerpts from our conversation, edited for length and clarity. (_To hear more from Shih about entry-level hiring, join us at the_ [_Charter Workplace Summit_](https://www.charterworks.com/events/cws/2026/) _on Oct. 21_.) Sign up for Charter's newsletter to get the handbook for the future of work delivered to your inbox. Email Address You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our [Terms of Service](https://www.charterworks.com/terms-of-service/) and [Privacy Policy](https://www.charterworks.com/privacy-policy/). **What is the origin of the New Work Foundation?** I've been working in AI for quite some time. I always worried in the back of my mind that if automation works really well, it could come at the expense of jobs. It was really when agentic reasoning models came out and suddenly you could use large language models not just to answer a question, but to come up with multi-step reasoning and a lot of these more complicated, traditionally human cognitive tasks that I started wondering about it more. When it really hit home for me was just talking to the people who were using our business agent products \[at Meta\], and deploying agents internally to accomplish everything from marketing to privacy policy review, our sales strategy, product roadmap, prototyping—pretty much every aspect of building, delivering, and taking a product to market. **When you recognized it was going to have an impact on jobs, how did that motivate you?** I saw it \[disrupt jobs\] in three different ways. If one of the things had happened, maybe I would've worried about it, but I wouldn't have acted. But \[there\] was this perfect storm of seeing what my customers were doing—deploying business agents and no longer needing as much of their team—and seeing my own team internally using AI agents, and I'm the one who took down the entry-level job postings. Then I saw the other side of it with my own family members graduating from good schools. They did everything right. They did internships, they took on campus leadership positions. Even two years ago, companies \[would\] have been fighting to hire them. All of a sudden they were coming to me one by one asking, ‘Aunt Clara, I need help. Aunt Clara, my job offer was rescinded. Aunt Clara, I'm not hearing back. Aunt Clara, I have only been interviewed by AIs and I have yet to actually talk to a human recruiter or hiring manager.’ Because I knew the employer side of this, I became worried. Then I looked into the [data](https://www.charterworks.com/how-much-is-ai-hurting-entry-level-hiring/), \[which\] confirmed again in subsequent studies \[that\] entry-level jobs were falling. It's like all the pieces started to fit together. **How much of it do you think is being driven by AI versus other issues—overhiring in recent years, or broader economic uncertainty?** I'm sure there's a multitude of factors. I will say as a hiring manager…I know that a lot of the entry-level jobs that I took down or I changed the experience requirements for—that was because of AI. I can point to it. **So what are you trying to get employers to do?** I know that businesses also don't know what they're supposed to do. They've invested a lot of money in AI pilots. Most of them have not shown ROI. They're not exactly sure how to upskill their workforce. It's often easier just to cut entry-level jobs and not hire people who haven't started yet than to do layoffs, so that's where they start. Our goal is to help them think longer term—to think more strategically about their own talent development pipeline. We also want to deliver to employers a next-generation of workers who have gone through our program and have learned critical AI skills. We are in early talks right now with a few employers that are willing to make large commitments to entry-level hiring, but rather than flying blind and just hiring people out there, we're going to vet people for them who, again, have the right AI skillset and mindset and community to help them be successful even once they're hired. **In February, we had an event where IBM's CHRO Nickle LaMoreaux made an** [**announcement**](https://www.charterworks.com/ibms-nine-year-ai-journey/) **that the company was tripling entry-level hiring. It got a lot of attention—people seem hungry for that kind of action. Are you potentially looking to get more companies to make those same kinds of pledges?** It's leadership. We would love to partner with these forward-leaning organizations and we're going to learn together. **Do you feel any sense of obligation, after having worked for Big Tech, that you need to go and do something like this?** Maybe. When you have knowledge about how something could play out and you have the skills and experience that are required to do something about it, then you have to do something about it. You have to take action. --- ## Read more from Charter [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/) [Open article: AI Did Not Kill the Entry-Level Job. Leaders Did.](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/ai-did-not-kill-the-entry-level-job-leaders-did-/)  ### AI Did Not Kill the Entry-Level Job. Leaders Did. [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/ai-did-not-kill-the-entry-level-job-leaders-did-/) [Open article: Why the Office Isn’t a Cure for Loneliness](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/why-the-office-isn-t-a-cure-for-loneliness/)  ### Why the Office Isn’t a Cure for Loneliness [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/why-the-office-isn-t-a-cure-for-loneliness/) [Open article: How to Pitch AI More Effectively to Workers](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/how-to-pitch-ai-more-effectively-to-workers/)  ### How to Pitch AI More Effectively to Workers [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/how-to-pitch-ai-more-effectively-to-workers/) --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/the-ex-meta-ai-exec-trying-to-solve-the-entry-level-hiring-crisis/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/the-ex-meta-ai-exec-trying-to-solve-the-entry-level-hiring-crisis/"},"headline":"The Ex-Meta AI Exec Trying to Solve the Entry-Level Hiring Crisis","datePublished":"2026-09-13T10:30:01.864Z","dateModified":"2026-09-11T22:38:21.327Z","description":"Clara Shih on what organizations should focus on now","url":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/the-ex-meta-ai-exec-trying-to-solve-the-entry-level-hiring-crisis/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt652943d258d909c5/6aa482aff65bda7211021836/charter-shih.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jena McGregor","jobTitle":"Managing Editor, Charter","url":"https://time.com/author/jena-mcgregor/"}],"articleSection":"Charter","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt652943d258d909c5/6aa482aff65bda7211021836/charter-shih.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"charter-shih.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/the-ex-meta-ai-exec-trying-to-solve-the-entry-level-hiring-crisis/","name":"The Ex-Meta AI Exec Trying to Solve the Entry-Level Hiring Crisis"}}]}] ```