Is that because we work so much or because the hybrid schedule has changed things so we're not in the office ready to punch out at 4:59 PM? Like, what, what, what has happened here?

Yeah, those are factors.

I would add to that, you know, some young professionals feel like they really wanna have more of a clean separation between their work and their personal lives, right? And so the happy hour kind of blurs that line in a way that they're not interested in.

We also have all been reading sort of broad scale, Americans are drinking less, right? So, so I think sort of these alcohol-infused get-togethers are, are kind of in, in decline, you know, in, in that way as well.

Um, I think even over the longer run, too, I think this is a positive development.

You know, obviously more fathers are more active in family life these days than they were 20 and 30 years ago.

So instead of hanging back after work to go drinking with coworkers, you know, they're going home to share the parenting duties.

Um, so how do you make it more like a kid's birthday party where, you know, you might reduce the loneliness or, you know, not have concerns over alcohol? What can you do?

How did they do it?

They did it by thinking about what was really important to them and what was realistic.

What could a company potentially offer even if they said, "We can't really do better on salary"? So for example, Cynthia Thorpe, she told me she recently started a job as an HR executive.

The base salary was really not gonna move, but she said, "The title was important to me." They were advertising for a director of human resources, and she said, "I really want to signal to everyone at the company that I'm here to shape workplace norms, so how about we call me the director of people and culture?" And the company said, "Sure, we like that." She also said, "This is a company that works in office.

I'm fine with that, but I also want some flexibility.

If I travel out of state to visit my grandkids, I wanna be able to remote work on those days." Okay, fine, so maybe negotiating a work-from-home day or some occasional flexibility is another point that you can potentially negotiate.

And then there's the base salary, but then there may also be incentive plans or bonuses, either a signing bonus or a performance bonus down the line.

How can you open up that dialogue? Like what should someone say?

Welcome to Tech News Briefing. It's Friday, March 7th. I'm Charlotte Gartenberg for The Wall Street Journal. For at least a generation, steering kids into STEM fields has felt like guiding them towards certain prosperity. But as bots replace entry-level software writers and even take on certain surgical tasks, some science and tech professionals are doing the once unthinkable. WSJ columnist Calum Borsers tells us about the surprising career advice they're giving their kids. Then, geothermal energy, the heat from the Earth that can be used to generate electricity, could provide clean and renewable power. But accessing that energy deep underground can be challenging. Now a startup called Quaise Energy is banking on President Trump's support for geothermal. WSJ reporter Benoit Morin tells us about Quaise's futuristic tech and how it's aiming to drill the deepest hole ever. But first, it's the age of artificial intelligence. But some parents who work on tech's cutting edge are encouraging their kids to pursue a different career path. Their advice? Go into the arts. Our columnist, Calum Borsers, tells us about this change in parental guidance. Calum, in order for us to get a sense of how much of a shift this might be, I want to start with, to what extent do people seem to view tech as the career ticket generally?

The biggest indicator I see is just how many more degrees we see conferred in computer science from when I was in college, not that long ago, Charlotte. I mean, 2009, we had 37 or so thousand computer science degrees coming out from bachelor's programs. That number has almost tripled since then. And so i- it's not just that kids all of a sudden develop this newfound interest in computer science. A big part of it is thinking, "Well, that's where the jobs are," right? And, and it would be hard to say that those people, or their parents, have been wrong in recent years, except for maybe just the last couple very recent years where we see a spate of layoffs in the tech sector. And for the people who were maybe part of that generation, the millennial parents who now have kids of their own, maybe they went into tech because they thought that's gonna be the safe, smart, lucrative career. They're second-guessing that plan for their own little ones now.

How widespread is this shift? Like, to me, it's kind of intuitive, as an individual from the singular point of view that I have, that like, you know, follow what you're interested in. The fallback plan is not the same as it was, but I'm only one person. How widespread is this?

We'll see if the, uh, major selections change dramatically in the coming years to figure out how widespread the shift really is. But i- it's interesting talking to the parents who really try to keep their finger on the pulse of where are the jobs going as they try to give some guidance to their kids. Rajiv Mudumba, who I spoke with, said he was very strategic about his own career selection when he moved here from India in the early aughts. He said, "Coding wasn't really my cup of tea, but I could see that tech was where everything was going at that time." And he's one of those dads who said, "I encouraged my kids to learn Python and programming languages when they were young," thinking like that's the hot skill that they're gonna need. Now he's got a girl who's a high school junior. She's, uh, looking at colleges, thinks she wants to major in biology. And he's not exactly telling her no, but he is saying, "Hey, make sure you keep up with your dance lessons and your vocal lessons, because I look at the woman who runs your dance studio and she seems to earn a pretty good living. And oh, by the way, I think that the robot isn't coming for her job." So I'm just tickled by this idea that dads with teens who dream of science careers are telling them to be practical, honey, and make sure you study music too as a fallback plan. (laughs) It's so backwards from what we've heard for so long.