To search or not to search, that is the (December) question. Job search, that is. Searches for life’s meaning or other deep issues can continue unabated, but candidates may need to decide if job search at year’s end is worthwhile.
It’s understandable that the question would come up. In the old days, it was obvious there were fewer job ads over the holidays. A glance at the Sunday paper told you that, leading to the conclusion that employers weren’t hiring for the month.
Ironically, this was really a chicken-and-egg situation, at least back then. Puzzled that employers would suddenly need fewer workers, I ran an informal experiment for a few years. Using just the phone book (remember those?) my employees called companies randomly until we had 100 answers to these two questions: Do you currently have openings? If yes, are you advertising those openings?
As it turns out, the non-advertising employers who had openings were holding back because they thought job seekers were on pause for December. Not wanting to waste money on expensive newspaper ads, they limited their outreach. The candidates, meanwhile, assumed that fewer ads meant hiring was shut down in December.
And so a tradition was born of job seekers deciding not to search in the last month of the year while employers chose not to advertise. Even so, not advertising wasn’t (and isn’t) the same as not hiring. Employers who met candidates through other means — including self-introduction — were still open to hiring, a fact that job seekers often missed.
Coming back around then, should candidates search in December? Some indicators have changed, making the decision muddier. For example, you can no longer tell at a glance that advertisements are more or less plentiful at any point in the year. With a significant number of online postings being duplicates across different platforms, and others being “held over” despite having expired, it’s not a statistic us laypeople could easily discern.
All that said, we’ve long known that postings don’t represent the bulk of hiring activity, so they’re not a great indicator of openings at any time.
From my perspective, the answer to the December question is more personal than global. Three arguments for continuing your search full-speed through December might be:
• 1. You need a job, and can’t afford to lose the 10 or 20 days of potential searching a full stop would represent.
• 2. You’re in an industry that uses December to gear up for the new year, such as tax accounting.
• 3. You’re afraid you won’t return to your search if you take a break.
Conversely, arguments for intentionally stopping or slowing your search in December could include:
• 1. You’re burned out and need recovery time from the process.
• 2. You’ll be traveling or dealing with kids on school break, effectively erasing your options for searching.
• 3. You know you’re not going to do the work anyway, so you might as well plan for that reality.
Over the years I’ve pressed for staying in the search, with the understanding that other candidates holding back makes a less crowded field for those who press forward. I still favor that concept, but I’ve also come to see the value of a catch-up month for job seekers, especially if it’s been a long search. In that version, here’s what you might do instead in the month of December:
First, keep your schedule, but shorten it. Suppose you’ve been reserving 9 am to noon, Monday through Friday for job search tasks. Stick with the 9 am start, but end after an hour instead of three. Maintaining the start time will make it easier to pick up the reins again in January.
Next, consider unfinished tasks from your search. Have you been meaning to organize your files or create a networking database? Identify what would make you more efficient and set that up for yourself.
Now, what about your contacts? Are there networking coffees you can organize for December or January? Maybe you want to send holiday wishes to those who have helped you this year.
Finally, what would make you a stronger candidate in January? Consider small things such as updates to your résumé or LinkedIn page, while also reviewing online sessions on Coursera or elsewhere for “universal” topics such as project management. December can be a good time for building knowledge that future employers will appreciate.
Whatever you choose, do set meetings for the first week of January. That will help you start your motor again.
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Reports of recent job cuts, especially by tech companies, have spurred speculation about the impact of AI on the workplace: Will the advanced computing technology increasingly replace people on the job?
That was on Kaitlyn McCormick’s mind as she pursued a bachelor’s degree in the information technology field. She is now working toward a master’s in artificial intelligence and machine learning through CSU Global, an online, fully accredited university that’s part of the Colorado State University system.
“If you’re thinking four years or two years of education is going to take you to right where you need to be and you’ll be fine for the next 50 years, that’s not reality,” McCormick said. “If you don’t try to become more relevant, you’re going to be left behind. That’s the cold, dark truth.”
McCormick, who lives in Littleton, has worked in IT for about 16 years and has been a software engineer at Q2 Software Inc. for almost 10 years. The firm had a recent companywide discussion about incorporating AI into its platform. Some employees expressed angst and uncertainty about the prospect.
“It is a fearful moment. I can relate with them on that,” McCormick said.
Even as she pursues a master’s degree in AI and machine learning, McCormick, who is deaf, experiences her own uncertainty. The single mother is working full-time and taking classes as she strives to keep up with the changes.
“Rather than running away, you should embrace it, take advantage of using AI as an assistant,” McCormick said. “The first thing to consider is that AI will always require a human.”
Matthew Brown echoed McCormick’s statement that the computer systems still need human input.
The machines don’t learn all on their own, said Brown, program director of computer science at CSU Global. “They still have to have data input, they have to have human interaction for those models to be built.”
Artificial intelligence is a set of technologies that allows machines and computer programs to mimic human intelligence through experience, identifying patterns and making decisions based on large volumes of data at a speed beyond what people can do alone. CSU Global describes machine learning as a subfield of AI that helps a system learn more quickly so it can accomplish a particular task.
Brown doesn’t believe “the mantra that AI is taking over the world” and is going to replace people. He said jobs are changing and morphing into something else. People are needed to work with AI to interpret data and results.
“I still have to have people that feed these models data and manage them. The roles are changing, but there’s still the need for people that understand this technology,” Brown said.
He gave an example of a quality engineer in aerospace working on a design for an airplane wing. An engineer might spend days producing a report while AI could review that data and issue a report in less than a day.
“Now the quality engineer can use their time more wisely reviewing the report and come in, looking at the assumptions that the AI engine gave, and make decisions based on that,” Brown said.
However, he expects certain jobs, such as data entry or writing lines of computer code, to change or disappear.
“AI can generate lines of code way faster than anyone could type it out,” Brown said. “So those jobs that are being impacted the most are jobs that are high-touch, redundant work that’s prone to errors because of human input.”
He expects entry-level tech jobs to be affected. People in the industry have told Brown that they’re not looking for interns or entry-level programmers but for people with skills in AI.
“Programs in universities are going to have to rethink what they’re training students to do,” Brown said. “I think everybody’s going to be impacted by it, just about every industry, just about every role. It’s that transformative.”
The global consulting firm Challenger Gray & Christmas released a tally from U.S. employers that said 153,074 jobs were eliminated in October, up 175% from the 55,597 cuts reported in October 2024. The firm said some industries are correcting after the hiring boom during the pandemic, but the reductions also come as companies are adopting AI, costs are rising, and consumer and corporate spending are softening.
Technology led in private-sector job cuts as companies restructure amid AI integration, slower demand and efficiency pressures, Challenger Gray & Christmas said. The industry announced 33,281 reductions, compared with 5,639 in September.
But experts told CNBC in early November that companies could be blaming AI for layoffs that are because of business mistakes and belt-tightening. Peter Cappelli, a professor of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, told CNBC “there’s very little evidence that it cuts jobs anywhere near like the level that we’re talking about.”
In most cases, Cappelli said, AI doesn’t cut head count at all.
About 560 students are enrolled in CSU Global’s online master’s degree program in AI and machine learning. Brown, whose background includes time in the military and work in retail, aerospace and government contracting, said the students are a diverse group. Many are looking to improve their skills or re-enter the job market.
“As an institution, we’ve decided that we need to understand and be a part of AI, making sure that students understand it and can use it efficiently to get the kind of work they want,” Brown said.
None of the Tim Walz failings have been enjoyable to chronicle. Jesse Ventura, Gov. Turnbuckle, was enjoyable to cover, even when he threatened to mow down the media with his state SUV. One time, Rudy Perpich brought an ink-stained lot of us to the attic in the old Irvine Mansion on Summit Avenue to show us a hose he had draining from the roof into a bucket — proof, he said, that the Legislature was treating him cruelly for not dumping millions of dollars into the governor’s mansion.
Those were the days, goofy governors serving a well-oiled state machine.
Walz?
Walz should not be running for a third term. He should resign immediately. He can’t explain the fraud under his watch, except for bromides and boilerplate nonsense and whatever else he can come up with — he speaks at a ridiculously high-speed tempo — to bring Donald Trump into his deflections.
Trump’s indecent playground bullying serves no purpose, but Trump did not allow fraud to happen in Minnesota. This is all on Walz. Too many sources, including a state representative, Marion Rarick, and more than 430 Department of Human Services employees, said that word came down through the chain of the bureaucracy to keep pushing our money out the door even when its final direction had been discovered.
The Walz fraud is now a national story. He can’t hide from it. He can’t continue to pretend that he didn’t know about it. He can’t “aw, shucks” his way out of this because his lame “aw, shucks” posturing has always been an act anyway. He has flirted with the idea that he would be thought a racist if he raised a fuss, so he chose instead to make an entire community “less than” by not expecting them to play by the book, which, of course, is racist itself.
We have been poorly served. Minnesotans are having their eyes opened, especially when they open their property tax statements or really understand the way any size business has been treated by this state. We wonder where we would be if Walz and his incompetent and short-sighted legislative brothers and sisters didn’t blow the $18 billion surplus and then stare out the window, yawning, while another billion was stolen. The indictments keep coming; we don’t even have a final tally yet.
The national commentary tone is embarrassment for Minnesota, that things could get this bad. We actually don’t need the sympathy of the New York Times and the Washington Post, but the sentiment is accurate. We are embarrassed. Every time Walz opens his mouth is embarrassing.
Trump’s outbursts — Somalis have destroyed this state; they haven’t, we have a governor in charge of that — only served to give another platform to the gas-lighting virtuous among us to lecture us about how Somalis are important to the state and are, in fact, our friends and neighbors. The governor, the mayors and the city councils, trembling in fear of appearing racist, are pretty much saying, “it wasn’t their fault they stole the money.” It certainly has nothing to do with racism to say, well, yes, it was.
Ilhan Omar, on CNN just the other day, blamed the fraud on hastily available funding for new programs and there being no guardrails in place. By that pathetic excuse, she might think it’s OK to rob a bank if there is no security guard present.
Omar, a congresswoman, has a soapbox more significant than most of us. I am unaware that she ever denounced the fraud. She has given us boilerplate nonsense from time to time, and, because she is quicker on her feet than Walz, she has never bothered with the bumpkin act. Minnesotans are perfectly willing to be friends and neighbors with all our friends and neighbors, but are Somalis standing with all Minnesotans to condemn the fraud? Has any Somali leader pounded his or her fist on the podium to rail against the theft?
Zach Zarembinski fell in love with Isabelle Richard over a head of lettuce.
It happened in October 2024 at a restaurant in Lakeville. Richard ordered a salad that “came out looking like a head of iceberg lettuce, and she didn’t complain,” he said.
“She just started eating,” he said. “She’s so authentic. She doesn’t have a closed face that has to be revealed over time. She’s just herself. That’s rare.”
Even rarer are the circumstances surrounding how Zarembinski, 25, of Apple Valley, met Richard, 23, of Lakeville.
They arrived at Regions Hospital in St. Paul in 2018, nine days apart, after they had each suffered a near-fatal brain injury: Zarembinski, injured in a football game, spent nine days in a coma at Regions; Richard, who nearly died in a car crash, spent 2½ months in a coma at the adjacent Gillette Children’s Hospital.
Zarembinski learned about Richard when her mother came to the press conference announcing his release. The couple met in person in February 2019 when Zarembinski came to Richard’s hospital room after she regained consciousness. They met again last year and began dating.
Last month, they got engaged at the place where it all began: Regions Hospital. They plan to marry next fall.
“It’s crazy, isn’t it? People say it’s just like a Hallmark movie,” Zarembinski said. “We’re so lucky that we met each other.”
He gave hope
Zarembinski was 18 and a senior all-state nose tackle on the football team at Hill-Murray High School in Maplewood, dreaming of playing football in college, when he suffered a massive brain bleed on Oct. 27, 2018, on the sideline of a Hill-Murray football game.
Senior members of the Hill-Murray High School football team celebrate a Mass for Zach Zarembinski on Nov. 1, 2018, while Zarembinski remained in a medically induced coma. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)
Nine days later, on Nov. 5, 2018, Richard, a sophomore at Farmington High School, was driving to her job as a cashier at Hy-Vee in Lakeville when she swerved to avoid being hit by a driver who had crossed the center line.
A photo showing the Jeep Liberty that Isabelle Richard was driving on Nov. 5, 2018, when she swerved to avoid being hit by a driver who had crossed the centerline near the intersection of Dodd Road and Franchise Way in Lakeville. Richard suffered a traumatic brain injury and spent almost four months at Gillette Children’s Hospital in St. Paul. (Courtesy of Esther Wilzbacher)
She smashed her Jeep Liberty into a tree — going about 60 mph — near the intersection of Dodd Road and Franchise Way. Richard, who had just turned 16, had to be cut out of the vehicle. She suffered a massive head injury, underwent a craniotomy and spent almost four months at Gillette.
Richard’s mom, Esther Wilzbacher, was watching TV in her daughter’s hospital room at Gillette on Nov. 16, 2018, when she saw a press conference featuring Zarembinski, who had been released from Regions three days earlier. She realized the press conference was being broadcast live from the lobby of Regions.
Wilzbacher, her husband, Brad, and her sister, Elizabeth Brimer, ran to catch the last few minutes in person.
“Right after my press conference, I looked at Esther,” Zarembinski said. “I knew there were other people around, but I only fully remember Esther. Her eyes were just full of tears. I had no idea who she was. Not a clue. I saw her crying, and I said, ‘What’s going on?’”
Wilzbacher explained what had happened to her daughter and that she was in a coma. She told Zarembinski that he gave her hope.
“For whatever reason, I just kept saying, ‘She’s going to be OK. She’s going to be fine,’” he said.
Mothers connect
Esther Wilzbacher met Tracy Zarembinski, Zach’s mother, at the press conference, and the two connected on Facebook.
Tracy Zarembinski also followed Richard’s progress on CaringBridge — and kept her son apprised over the next few months.
“She was like, ‘You know, you’re so lucky. Remember that girl? She’s still in the hospital,’” he said. “I’m like, ‘She’s still in the hospital? … She just woke up?’ My mom said, ‘Hey, you should go try to meet her,’ and my mom started pushing.”
The pair met in Richard’s hospital room on Feb. 18, 2019. A photo of the two of them shows Zarembinski, wearing a Pioneers jersey, crouching next to Richard’s hospital bed. Both are smiling.
Zach Zarembinski and Isabelle Richard met Feb. 18, 2019, a few months after their brain injuries, in Richard’s hospital room. (Courtesy of Zach Zarembinski)
“I said a couple of kind words to Isabelle, and that was it for almost six years,” he said. “But my mom will tell you that in the back of her mind she was thinking, ‘It would be cool if they got together one day.’”
Five and a half years later, on Sept. 26, 2024, Richard’s neurosurgeon gave her the final “all-clear,” and Esther Wilzbacher shared the news on Facebook.
“Thank you for sharing her beautiful progress all the time,” Zach Zarembinski wrote in response. “God does amazing things for great people. Isabelle, your smile shines bright! I pray you continue to stay amazing and fight the good fight!!! We should connect sometime soon!”
Wilzbacher suggested that the families get together and sent Zarembinski her phone number. Two weeks later, they gathered at Gary’s Supper Club in Lakeville.
‘I think I really like you’
Richard said it wasn’t love at first sight for her. “I saw potential, but I just, like, wasn’t really in that mindset yet,” she said.
Said Zarembinski: “I didn’t go in there expecting to get a phone number. I didn’t go in there expecting anything other than to congratulate her on her recovery.”
But as dinner progressed, Zarembinski said he realized he wanted to see her again. Richard’s mother suggested the two connect on Snapchat, he said.
“We started chatting more and more, and I started to like her more,” he said. “I’m like, ‘I think I really like you.’”
Their first date occurred at Panino’s in North Oaks on Oct. 28, 2024. Zarembinski was living in Shoreview at the time, and Richard drove up to meet him.
“I was worried she was going to be a ‘four forks’ girl, where everything had to be perfect,” he said. “But she was OK getting messy. She was a girl that I felt comfortable around — and she felt the same about me.”
Their second date was going to a Sunday service at Richard’s church, ZOE Church in Burnsville, and then out for lunch. Their faith is the foundation of their relationship, he said.
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“I was relieved 100% because Isabelle shares that same faith with me that I have with Jesus,” he said. “Our values are aligned. I grew up with Catholic traditions, so there was a little bit of difference there, but, honestly, we have the same faith.”
Richard credits Jeremiah 29:11 with aiding in her recovery, and she can quote the Bible verse from memory: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
“That is engraved in her heart, in her mind,” he said.
Richard said she thinks she fell in love with Zarembinski on their third or fourth date. “I can’t really remember that far back,” she said. “I just love that he’s not perfect, because I’m not perfect. I kind of need someone that’s not perfect. I love that he loves God just as much as I do. I would say that’s a big one.”
Left-brain, right-brain
Zarembinski says he practiced for hours to make the heart sign with his fingers with Richard. The newly engaged couple hope for a September 2026 wedding. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
Zarembinski prides himself on doing all of the little things she loves. He makes her dinner, buys her flowers, opens her car door, makes sure her car is regularly washed, and buys her favorite treats.
Last week, he bought her a package of Goldfish Snoopy Peppermint Cocoa Graham Crackers.
“She said, ‘Why did you buy mint Goldfish? You hate mint,’” he said. “I looked at her and said, ‘I bought them for you!’”
Richard helps clean his apartment, shops for groceries and does the dishes. She tickles him when he’s in a bad mood — “and when he’s not in a bad mood,” she said.
“I love everything about him,” she said. “I love that he helps me with my finances. I’m not the best with money, and he’s really good at it. He’s really good at planning certain things. He’s just better on everything — everything that I’m not good at.”
Richard suffered right-side brain damage; Zarembinski suffered damage on the left side.
Richard doesn’t keep secrets and says what is on her mind, he said. “I’m so grateful for that,” he said. “I’m the same way. I can’t keep secrets. That’s just too hard. I had a brain injury. I forget what I even lied to you about last week, you know? So I’ll say, ‘If I lied, I’m sorry. Here’s the truth. This is what I remember.’ And she does the same thing to me.”
“Both still carry unique challenges from their TBIs, but here’s the beautiful part — their injuries were on opposite sides of the brain,” she wrote. “Where one is weak, the other brings strength. They balance and support one another in ways that only God could have orchestrated. They are both absolute miracles! Thank you Jesus!”
Isabelle Richard shows off the engagement ring that Zach Zarembinski got her while at Zach’s Apple Valley apartment on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
Isabelle Richard smiles at her fiancé Zach Zarembinski as they talk about how they met while at Zach’s Apple Valley apartment on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
A little Jesus statue accompanies every one of Zach Zarembinski’s and Isabelle Richard’s Uno games as they play at Zach’s Apple Valley apartment on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
Isabelle Richard tallies the wins at Uno — this one for her fiancé Zach Zarembinski — after another game at Zach’s Apple Valley apartment on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
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Isabelle Richard shows off the engagement ring that Zach Zarembinski got her while at Zach’s Apple Valley apartment on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
Zarembinski, who has worked as a supervisor at a fiber-optics construction company and as a door-to-door salesman, is looking for work. “Isabelle is always here for me in dark times,” he said. “She supports me along the way without hesitation or negativity. She’s willing to sacrifice buying material things so that we can still do the things that matter most to us.”
Richard, who works about 30 hours a week as a cashier at Hy-Vee in Lakeville, drives over to Zarembinski’s apartment each morning before work. The couple work out together in his apartment complex’s gym before going back to his apartment to make breakfast, he said.
“We push each other at least once every other week to run a 5K on the treadmill,” he said.
The couple is currently playing an Uno marathon – the first one to win 100 games has to forfeit a kiss and buy dinner. The score as of Thursday: Richard, 50; Zarembinski, 29.
Isabelle Richard reacts as her fiancé Zach Zarembinski hits her with a “draw four” card as the couple play Uno. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
“I try my best, but she’s just better at it,” he said. “We have fun. Honestly, we love to do everything together. There is not much we are willing to do separately.”
Their other major hobby is producing a podcast, “Hope in Healing,” that they launched together in July. “We want to share our testimony of the pain and suffering we went through and how we came out of it,” he said. “It is such a miracle to be alive, let alone share our lives together. We’re going to work on it slowly to where we interview people who have gone through pain and who need help healing or have come out of that already.”
Zarembinski arranged for the last episode of the podcast to be recorded on Nov. 3 at Regions Hospital. A few minutes into sharing their stories, Zarembinski told Richard he had a question.
“Will you marry me?” he asked.
Their families and people who had cared for the couple at Regions and Gillette emerged from hiding to join the celebration in the lobby.
Erin Ingvalson, a speech language pathologist at Gillette, helped orchestrate the event, which included a huge red heart made of flowers and “Will You Marry Me?” written in neon.
“Oftentimes when we discharge kiddos, they kind of leave us, and we don’t get to see what happens with the rest of their lives and the successes that they are able to achieve,” Ingvalson said. “This was just really, really special.”
The couple is hoping for a September wedding. “Her birthday is on September 5th. Mine’s the 18th. If we could, it would be cool to do it in between the birthdays,” Zarembinski said.
Richard said she can’t wait to get married and move in together. “He just showed me the plan of the house he wants to build,” she said. “I’m excited for that.”
The couple would like to have three children. They already have names picked out: Selah, John and Noah.
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“I’m excited for just starting a life away from our families,” Zarembinski said. “Just paving a new path with Jesus and not having other people tell us what to do, because that’s been a lot of our lives for the last seven years. … When we become married as one, we’re going to be able to just make that path right down straight with Jesus.”
Zarembinski said Richard has helped him heal.
“I didn’t lose my mental capacity, but I have had pain and suffering over these last seven years,” he said. “Isabelle had a different journey. She doesn’t really remember the first six months. … I continue to bear the burden of stress and anxiety and hurt and pain, but she has none of that. She has none of the hurt. She doesn’t remember a lot of it, and she’s just so grateful for life. She shows up with a smile every single day. Every day I’m with her, I feel joy knowing she truly loves me.”
