• Christine Tsai has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs since cofounding 500 Startups eight years ago, giving her some unique insights into what factors lead to success.
• She said successful founders tend to have two traits: they listen to feedback and they move quickly.
• To succeed, prospective entrepreneurs also have to be open-eyed about the difficulty of the task ahead of them, she said.

Christine Tsai has a lot of experience working with startups, and that's given her some pretty good insights on what makes entrepreneurs successful.

Tsai is the cofounder of 500 Startups, the famed Silicon Valley venture firm and startup accelerator. Since last August, she's also been its CEO, following the departure of Dave McClure, her fellow cofounder who left amid accusations of sexual harassment— accusations that she's declined to discuss in much detail.

Launched in 2010, 500 Startups has helped incubate hundreds of companies and has invested in more than 2,000 total, including Twilio, which went public in 2016. Over that time, Tsai has gotten a close-up look at lots of startup founders and seen what works and what doesn't and what it's like to be an entrepreneur.

Successful founders tend to have two key traits, she said in an interview this week with Business Insider. They're coachable, and they move fast.

Listening is one of the keys to success

Tsai said people have this image of the successful entrepreneur being someone like former Apple CEO Steve Jobs — the "don't listen to anybody, I'm always right type of founder." But those types of founders usually aren't successful, she said.

"I feel like those people who are like that, they succeeded despite being that way, not because they were that way," she said.

That doesn't mean successful entrepreneurs need to be ultra-congenial or acquiesce to every suggestion made to them, Tsai said. But they do need to be open to suggestions.

"They do listen," she said. "They do take the feedback from customers, from employees, from investors."

Moving fast is also crucial

Successful startup founders also move quickly, whether it's launching new products or putting new strategies in place — or learning from mistakes, Tsai said.

500 startups meets frequently with the founders of companies in its portfolio to check in with them about how their companies are doing and how things like fundraising are going, she noted. "It's always a bad sign if they say they're going to do something, and then a week later, two weeks later, they still haven't done it," she said.

Successful entrepreneurs have to be careful not to be rash or reckless, she said. But they also have to avoid stalling and overthinking things.

"It's a very fine balance, of course," Tsai said.

But founders that succeed have a very acute understanding that they've got to move as quickly as possible.

"You have a very limited runway either in terms time [or] cash," she said.

It's important to be clear eyed about the task ahead

Tsai also offered some advice for prospective entrepreneurs: Understand what you're getting into.

TV shows and news reports tend to romanticize the life of startup founders, particularly the super-successful ones. But founding and running a startup is usually anything but glamorous, she said.

Most startups fail. Many entrepreneurs are trading a stable, high-paying job for an uncertain, lonely, and stressful existence.

And the payoff — if there is any — usually only comes after years and years of hard work.

"It's really sucky … it's really hard," she said. "I definitely do warn [entrepreneurs] about that."

SEE ALSO: A new study shows that tech CEOs are optimistic about the future, even if they still don't understand millennials

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• 64 percent of women writers in the Writers Guild of America West said in a recent survey that they've faced sexual harassment at some point in their careers in film and TV.
• The survey interviewed more than 2,000 WGAW members, male and female, and found that "a significant amount of the harassment writers experience occurs in the writers' room."
• 11 percent of male writers in the guild said that they had also experienced sexual harassment at work.

In a recent survey conducted by the Writers Guild of America West, 64 percent of women writers in the Los Angeles-based guild said that they had faced sexual harassment at some point in their careers in film and television.

The survey interviewed more than 2,000 WGAW members, male and female, and found that "a significant amount of the harassment writers experience occurs in the writers' room," Deadline reported.

11 percent of male writers in the guild said that they had experienced sexual harassment at work, and the survey found that "many more writers have witnessed harassment."

The WGAW reportedly sent the results of the survey in a memo to guild members on May 22. The memo emphasized an "aim to ensure a respectful culture with zero tolerance for bullying, harassment and assault," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"While the Guild is not the employer, that does not exclude us from also addressing this as a union," the memo read. "We are exploring the possibility of a series of member conversations about standards for a successful writing room. By proscribing sexual and other harassment among writers, these standards would enable all the writers in the room to fully participate, rather than being alienated by treatment no one should have to experience. These conversations would also address situations that arise for screenwriters, MOW writers and series writers in professional meeting settings."

The memo also referenced a 2006 California Supreme Court ruling, known as the "Friends" decision, after the sitcom of the same name, which ruled that sexually explicit talk in a writers' room did not amount to sexual harassment.

The WGAW said that the decision has been "mistakenly used to justify inappropriate behavior in the workplace" and "does not permit such talk to be aimed at an individual in the room," according to THR.

SEE ALSO: The pay-TV exodus is ramping up as Netflix and other streaming services pump out high-quality original shows

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• Advice on how to spend your 20s includes "learn to say no with confidence" and "don't burn your bridges."
• That's according to people who've posted on Quora and Reddit threads around how to make the most of your youth.
• If you follow their tips, you'll have a better chance of living without regret once you hit your 40s and beyond.

They say youth is wasted on the young.

It doesn't have to be. If you take a look at Quora and Reddit, hundreds of people older and wiser than you have shared their best tips for living life to the fullest before you hit middle age. All you have to do is heed their advice.

We checked out some of those Quora and Redditthreads and highlighted some of our favorite insights about maximizing your youth. Read on to see what life changes you can make, starting today.

SEE ALSO: 13 things you'll probably regret doing in your 20s

'Learn to accept and love yourself first.'

So says Quora user Ruchi Rashinkar.

In other words, show some self-compassion. Scientists say it can make you more successful because you're learning from your missteps, instead of just berating yourself for them.

One self-compassion exercise involves treating yourself as you would treat a friend or a colleague who has failed. You might say to yourself: "This is really hard right now," or, "I'm sorry you are struggling."

'Learn to say no with confidence.'

That's another tip from Rashinkar.

It's best to learn this skill now, while it's still relatively early in your career. That way, you can prioritize the people and experiences that are truly meaningful to you.

If you're looking for tips on turning down an invitation— without seeming antisocial — etiquette and civility expert Rosalinda Oropeza Randall recommends keeping it simple: "It sounds great, but I think I'll pass this time."

You can even push back on your boss when they give you an assignment you feel like you can't take on. For example, if you're already overloaded with other projects, national workplace expert Lynn Taylor suggests responding:

"I would be happy to do that project, but what that could mean is that [whatever other project you're working on] will have to be put off until tomorrow, because I was actually going to spend the next three hours finishing that proposal. Would you like me to put that off?" 

'Take risks.'

Quora user Pranav Park writes:

"This is possibly the best time to take multiple leap of faiths and learn your lessons the hard way. If you succeed, you succeed. If you fail, you have a great story to tell in your 40s. At this age, you will have all the energy, courage and spirit required to rise back. Moreover, you will not be afraid to fail which apparently sets apart successful people from the others."

Similarly, Redditor Bhruic says:

"Don't talk yourself out of doing things you want to do. Don't let fear win. If you want to vacation in Europe, do it. If you want to talk to that hot girl/guy at the bar, do it. If you want to start your own business, do it (and do the research first). Getting to your 30s and having a string of regrets is going to haunt you."

Park is right about successful people not being afraid to fail some, and therefore being more willing to take risks. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, for example, is notorious for this quality. Bezos has said: "Given a ten percent chance of a 100 times payoff, you should take that bet every time."

It's been a big year for Flatiron Health.

The New York-based cancer technology company in February got acquired by Roche in a $1.9 billion deal. 

A few months later, the company moved into its new 108,000 square-foot office space at One Soho Square, a space that's almost twice the size of its former office at 200 Fifth Ave.

Business Insider popped in to the new location in July to get a feel for the space and observe some of the demonstrations from a recent Hackathon event.

Here's a look at the company's new headquarters. 

SEE ALSO: We spoke to the CEO of Roche Pharmaceuticals about how the pharma giant became a deal-machine in 2018

DON'T MISS: Meet the 30 healthcare leaders under 40 who are using technology to shape the future of medicine

Our tour of the Flatiron headquarters started on the 5th floor. We were immediately greeted by a large open area with a pantry stocked with snacks, a Rise cold brew tap, and fridge space.

The majority of the 5th floor is common space so when it's lunchtime (catered in daily), employees can have space to eat. On the day we visited, we got to reap the benefits of an Insomnia Cookies snack delivery.

The rest of the floor, called the Everyone@ space, is filled with couches and chairs where employees can work and also gather for events.

• Student Loan Hero, a personal finance site, was acquired for $60 million this week.
• That milestone never would have happened if CEO Andy Josuweit stuck with his original idea for a company.
• Josuweit says learning from failure is key to finding success as an entrepreneur.

Part of being a successful entrepreneur is knowing when to give up on a bad idea.

Andy Josuweit learned that on the fly when he founded Student Loan Hero, a personal finance site dedicated to helping people manage their student loan debt.

This week, Student Loan Hero was acquired by LendingTree for $60 million. But that milestone never would have taken place if Josuweit stuck to his original idea for the company.

In 2012, Josuweit and his business partners won a $40,000 grant from the incubator Startup Chile for their idea for a service called Toolbox. As Josuweit told Business Insider, Toolbox was to be an online space where professionals could build profiles around the products and equipment they use for their jobs. Users would be able to compare the products recommended by people they follow, and they would earn commission from purchases made through their profiles.

But Toolbox never came to fruition. A few weeks into the incubator program, Josuweit realized he had an even better idea, one that addressed an issue that hit close to home. 

"We were playing with that idea and we saw some fundamental issues with it. We wrote down all our problems on a piece of paper in a spreadsheet and talked to advisers," Josuweit told Business Insider.

"At that point, my student loans were growing from $74,000 to a little over $100,000," he said. "I thought, 'Hey, this is my cancer, I'm bleeding right now. I need to solve this problem. And there are a lot of people like me out there.'"

Josuweit and his partners put Toolbox on hold and came up with an idea that eventually would become Student Loan Hero. The service provides financial comparison tools for student-loan holders and gives users personalized advice on paying off their debt. 

Launching Student Loan Hero wasn't quite so simple — it took a week for Josuweit and his partners to convince their Startup Chile advisers to allow him to go forward with the new idea, he said.

But once it was approved, the new project quickly became personal for Josuweit. He said that as his student loans mounted, he began to feel pressure from his family to succeed. His parents had cosigned on some of his loans, and his failure to pay off the loans was starting to affect their credit.

"It created a lot of stress and pressure in my family," he told Business Insider. "There was almost a year where I didn't talk to my dad, and it was pretty traumatic."

He continued: "That's what created pressure, like, 'Hey, we have to make this work. We don't have a choice.' When you have a gun to your head, your have to push and you have to fight."

LendingTree's acquisition of Student Loan Hero not only validates the early financial struggles for Josuweit, it reaffirms his decision in 2012 to completely change courses after finding a new idea.

"You're going to fall on your face a few times, you're going to screw up and fail. You're going to learn from the failures. It takes time," he said. "But if you are willing, have the determination, have the grit, ultimately it's inevitable you will succeed."

SEE ALSO: Experts say too many people suffer from a 'delusional belief' about their careers that doesn't do them any favors

DON'T MISS: A 'Shark Tank' entrepreneur who won $300,000 realized previous contestants were doomed by the same type of question

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NOW WATCH: 80% of startup money goes to 3 states — here's what one visionary is doing to help spread the wealth

• Ryanair, an Irish, ultra-low cost carrier, has been struggling with staffing as Dublin-based pilots and flight crew strike for better benefits and pay.
• Ryanair announced on Wednesday that it's cutting its Dublin-based fleet from 30 to 24 aircraft.
• In letters to about 300 crew members on Wednesday, Chief People Officer Eddie Wilson advised Ryanair employees to move to Poland to avoid being laid off, Bloomberg reported. 

Cabin crew at Ryanair have been battling for better benefits and pay.

Last week alone, the Dublin-based carrier canceled flights for 50,000 passengers due to strikes. 

In light of recent labor disputes, the low-budget airline announced Wednesday that it will cut six of its 30 planes from its Dublin fleet. More than 100 Dublin-based pilots and 200 cabin crew employees may be laid off as soon as Oct. 28, according to a Ryanair press release. 

The advice Chief People Officer Eddie Wilson gave to workers whose jobs were in sudden jeopardy: Move to Poland. 

"We would encourage both pilots and cabin crew to update your base transfer requests as an immediate priority," Wilson wrote in a letter reported by Bloomberg.

Those six Dublin-based planes are moving to Ryanair's Polish arm, Ryanair chief operating officer Peter Bellew wrote in a press release. That's thanks to growth in the Polish market as well as the Irish pilots' protesting, according to the airline. 

"We regret these base aircraft reductions at Dublin for Winter 2018, but the Board has decided to allocate more aircraft to those markets where we are enjoying strong growth," Bellew wrote. 

"This will result in some aircraft reductions and job cuts in country markets where business has weakened, or forward bookings are being damaged by rolling strikes by Irish pilots," he wrote.

Labor advocates said that the Dublin fleet reduction is a way to avoid working out a new labor agreement for the pilots and airline. Some of the demands by cabin crew include better sick pay and an end to high in-flight sales targets, The Telegraph reported.

Low-cost carriers provide a 'highly precarious' work environment — but consumers love the cheap tickets 

Low-budget airlines have exploded in popularity over the past few decades. Ryanair, founded in 1985, was among the first ultra low-cost carriers.

Now, low-cost carriers comprise more than 40% of all flights in Europe and about a third of flights in the US, Business Insider reported. Carriers like KLM Royal Dutch Airlines have had to lower their costs in response, KLM CEO Pieter Elbers told Business Insider last year. 

One major way that low-cost carriers are able to keep their ticket prices low is by basing their companies in several different countries. 

Norwegian Air, for instance, is based in Ireland and Norway. Ireland's lax labor laws allows the company to staff its planes with pilots and crew members from outside of Europe, Business Insider's Ben Zhang reported. 

Ryanair is no stranger to trying to side-step international labor laws, as well. Last year, it insisted to the European Union courts that its non-Irish cabin crew should come to Ireland when it has disputes with the Dublin-based carrier. It ultimately lost. 

As Zhang reported, low-cost carriers can also offer rock bottom prices because they operate with lower overhead than their full-service competitors. This tends to mean less generous pay and benefits for employees.

But now, some analysts say Ryanair's middling pay and benefits are working against the company. 

"Ryanair has a highly transactional relationship with staff and one that is highly precarious for workers, but now also clearly for the airline," Geraint Harvey, a senior lecturer in human resources management and industrial relations at the University of Birmingham, told German media company DW.

SEE ALSO: Major airlines are finally taking on the biggest threat to their business

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NOW WATCH: One of your most important career decisions is who you have kids with

• Facebook, Google, Netflix, and other top companies in the US are competing for the best talent out there.
• To compete, they offer some of the best benefits and perks around.
• But, considering a recent ban in Mountain View, California, on free cafeteria food — and another ban that may soon follow in San Francisco — companies may have to look beyond free grub to attract new hires.
• See which companies are raising the bar and going beyond free food to attract top talent.

Most of us spend a majority of our waking hours at work, so it's only natural that we want to enjoy our time in the office as much as we can. And perks help with that — a lot.

According to career site Glassdoor, more than half (57%) of all workers say perks and benefits are among the top things they consider when deciding whether to accept a job, and almost 80% of employees say they would prefer new benefits over a pay raise.

That's why some employers are raising the bar and going beyond standard vacation days, health insurance benefits, and 401k matching to attract top talent.

Companies like Airbnb and Google offer unique and surprising perks like travel stipends and death benefits, Glassdoor reports, while Facebook and Netflix have upped the ante for companies wanting to support new parents.

"Benefits and perks matter because they're an added piece of the total compensation puzzle," Scott Dobroski, Glassdoor's career trends analyst, told Business Insider. "Job seekers should understand what benefits and perks an employer may be offering, and do their research ahead of time to find companies that offer benefits that matter most to them."

Employees rated some of their favorite employee benefits on Glassdoor. The following perks are not only unique, but they also received a rating of at least 4.0 out of 5.0 on Glassdoor.

SEE ALSO: San Francisco Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at Facebook and other tech companies

DON'T MISS: The 20 most flexible jobs for working parents

Generous paid parental leave at Netflix

Netflix offers one paid year of maternity and paternity leave to new parents. The company also allows parents to return part-time or full-time and take time off as needed throughout the year.

'Yay Days' at REI

REI encourages its employees to get outside by offering two paid days off each year, called "Yay Days," to enjoy their favorite outside activity.

Paid time off for volunteering at Salesforce

Salesforce employees receive six days of paid volunteer time off a year, as well as $1,000 a year to donate to a charity of their choice.

• The husband-and-wife team behind Lollacup (now Lollaland) earned an investment deal on "Shark Tank" in 2012.
• But Hanna and Mark Lim only applied to "Shark Tank" on a whim.
• Once they were accepted, they practiced every single day and sought constructive criticism on their pitch.

It was just before midnight in spring 2012. The kids were asleep, and Hanna and Mark Lim were assembling sippy cups in their living room.

In the background, the TV was tuned to an early season of "Shark Tank."

"We were watching and having such a great time commenting on what we would have done," Mark Lim told me. "We said, 'You know, I bet if we went on that show, we would do great.' We were like, 'Yeah, honey, you would do great. We were kind of pumping each other up.'"

They were only joking though. Their business, Lollacup, was still in its infancy.

On his way back from the kitchen, Mark decided, just for kicks, to look up the date of the next "Shark Tank" casting call, in Los Angeles.

"Lo and behold, it was the next morning," he told me. "We said, 'You know what? What do we lose? We'll be a little tired, but let's just wake up super early, drop the kids off at our parents, and we'll see what happens." Still giggling, they filled out an application.

The next morning, they waited seven hours in line for their turn to audition. When they were called back a few months later, things started to feel real — a little too real.

"We asked, 'Is there any way we could delay this for a year, for next season, so that we can have some more traction and figure out our overall strategy?" Mark remembered.

The team's answer? "Absolutely not. It's now or never."

"So we went through with it," Mark said. They were scheduled to pitch the sharks in late summer, and in the months leading up, "we proceeded to watch every episode, write down each question, and then have a typed-out answer, like how we would answer."

Mark went on: "We got in front of people who were not afraid to criticize us." He and Hanna practiced every single day, he said, "until we were tired of the word 'Shark Tank.'"

The Lims' appearance on 'Shark Tank' was dramatic

The Lims appeared on season three, episode 12 of "Shark Tank," requesting $100,000 for a 15% stake in Lollacup. They explained that the cup was a better alternative to traditional sippy cups with straws, which can damage kids' teeth. To ensure safety, the cups were made in the US instead of overseas.

Drama ensued.

Kevin O'Leary made the first offer, $100,000 for 50%, but he wanted to produce the cups offshore. Daymond John matched O'Leary's offer, but wanted the Lims to get out of a deal they'd recently made with a sales agent.

Other sharks took the bait, and things got tense.

Robert Herjavec asked the Lims if they had a counteroffer, and Mark came back with $100,000 for 40%. Mark Cuban jumped out of his chair — "Yes! I'm in!"— but Mark first wanted to see if Herjavec would accept his counteroffer.

John tweaked his offer to $100,000 for 30%, but when Hanna said they'd rather partner with Cuban and Herjavec, John went back out.

Ultimately, the Lims struck a deal with Mark Cuban and Robert Herjavec: $100,000 for 40% of the company.

Since then, Lollacup has expanded into Lollaland, with more products for infants and toddlers. The company has passed $2 million in sales.

"That's the classic thing with business and entrepreneurship," Hanna told me. "When the opportunity arises, you have to seize it."

That's how they approached their appearance on Shark Tank. Hanna added, "We haven't really looked back."

SEE ALSO: When the founders of dating app Coffee Meets Bagel turned down Mark Cuban's $30 million offer on 'Shark Tank' 3 years ago, they got dozens of emails calling them 'crazy,' 'greedy,' and 'stupid' — but they still aren't sorry

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NOW WATCH: 'Shark Tank' star Barbara Corcoran shares her keys to making a good first impression

• Success isn't just about money, power, and fame. Personal fulfillment and making an impact count for something, too.
• We collected a series of indicators that you're going to be more successful than you think. Those include being open to failure and making time every day to learn.
• If even a few of these signs sound familiar to you, you're making good progress.

If you're pursuing your passions, if you're learning, and if you're forging solid relationships, you're probably on track to do great things — even if you aren't extraordinarily famous or wealthy.

Below, we've listed a series of signs — based on research and expert opinion — that you're doing better at this thing called life than you'd be inclined to believe.

SEE ALSO: 12 rich, powerful people share their surprising definitions of success

You're always looking for a better way to do things

Are you stuck in the past — or hurtling toward the future?

On an episode of Business Insider's podcast, "Success! How I Did It," John Sculley, a former Apple CEO and president of Pepsi, said throughout his career he's always asked questions like, "Why is it done this way?" He said success is largely about to the willingness "to solve a problem in a way that's never been solved before."

The opposite trait — resistance to change — can stall your career, the same way it stalls big companies' progress. That's according to Scott Galloway, a clinical professor of marketing at New York University's Stern School of Business, the founder of the digital intelligence firm L2, and the author of the new book "The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google."

In his book, Galloway writes: "Trying to resist this tide of change will drown you. Successful people in the digital age are those who go to work every day, not dreading the net change, but asking: 'What if we did it this way?'"

You have a vision for the kind of life you want

Granted, that vision may evolve over time. But the point is not to take a job exclusively for the short-term benefits — like compensation.

As Nathaniel Koloc, former ReWork CEO, told The Harvard Business Review, instead of asking yourself, "What job do I want?" you should be asking yourself, "What life do I want?" And how does this gig fit into the broader picture?

Even if you only have a vision for the year ahead, career coach and former Googler Jenny Blake recommends asking yourself questions like, "What does my ideal average day look like?" and "What kinds of people do I want to be connected with or meeting?"

You're using your 'signature strengths'

Your signature strengths are simply the skills you're uniquely good at.

As Eric Barker, author of "Barking Up the Wrong Tree," previously told Business Insider, research suggests that "the more often you use those skills, the more you're happier, you're respected, you feel good about your job." What's more, "if you're using those skills in your job, you're going to achieve more."

• Companies' reputations are crucial to their success, so they spend millions of dollars on marketing.
• Many companies achieve success when their names become synonymous with the product or service they provide.
• If you've ever Googled something or Ubered to work, you know exactly what we mean.
• Here are 17 companies with such good marketing that their names have become verbs.

When you're in business, reputation is everything. Many brands spend a fortune on marketing, trying to become a household name. But you know a brand has really arrived when its name actually becomes synonymous with the product or service it provides.

Odds are, you've Ubered from time to time when you didn't feel like driving. You've probably FaceTimed a friend or Skyped with a colleague in a remote workspace at some point. And honestly, who doesn't Google something on a daily basis?

Here are 17 brands that are so well-marketed, they've actually become verbs:

SEE ALSO: I make $48,000 as an Uber driver and government employee — here's how I spend my money

1. Uber

This app-based car service hit the streets in 2009. The name means "topmost" or "above" in German. Since then, people have been Ubering all over the place — in 633 cities, to be exact, as of January 2018.

2. FaceTime and Skype

When a phone call won't quite cut it but you can't be there in person, just Skype or FaceTime — and actually see the person you're talking to from across town or across the world.

3. Photoshop

Want to touch up a photo or change it entirely? It's simple — just Photoshop it. The first version of this popular photo-editing software was released in 1990, rendering "airbrushing" obsolete.

• Since its founding, Google has been accused of providing poor customer support. Customers were often frustrated by an inability to get ahold of a service representative.
• At the Google Cloud Next conference this week, a manager at Google Maps conceded that the company had been "very bad, usually, at picking up the phone."
• Things might be changing — at least when it comes to how Google works with larger businesses. 

A subtle but significant shift is occurring in a small number of areas within Google's enterprise business when it comes to customer-service representatives.

They're actually going to exist.

"We wanted to make sure that every customer is treated like an enterprise customer," Amit Litsur, a product manager at Google Maps, told attendees of the Google Cloud Next conference on Tuesday. "We now provide customer support for free, 24 hours a day, and we think that will kind of help us set the stage to make your experience dramatically simpler.

"Yes, you can clap," he joked.

And clap they should. Google has helped changed the world with search and AdSense and YouTube and on and on, but one of the biggest complaints about the company, going back to its earliest days, was a lack of service representatives available to help when something with a product went wrong.

Google Maps' decision to offer human customer-service reps, free of charge, to all customers, was announced shortly before Diane Greene, the CEO of the company's cloud business, said her unit would soon make service reps available round-the-clock via chat for customers whose accounts were flagged by fraud-detection systems.

Whether Google might offer more human help in other product areas is unclear. Company representatives who could answer that did not respond to interview requests.

Exactly why Google didn't do more to improve customer service after so many years and complaints is often the subject of speculation. Google's founders supposedly believe humans don't scale. In this case, that would mean the more customers a company acquires, the more reps it needs — but that's less efficient and more expensive than using automated systems or posting a webpage with responses to frequently asked questions.

Whatever the reasons, Google's approach was often insufficient.

Go online and read the complaints that have accumulated over the years from angry users of Android, AdSense, Gmail, etc., about the lack of support. Anybody but Googlers might find them sort of humorous.

'Is there any such thing as SUPPORT here?'

"Is there any such thing as SUPPORT here?"one disgruntled and obviously frustrated user wrote on an AdSense forum in 2009. "REAL honest to GOD support? From a HUMAN person? NOT a self help page, or forum, or any of that? Like an email that doesn't bounce? Or better still A PHONE NUMBER??????"

Even Google's employees have made fun of the company's spotty track record with customer support.

"What we've heard again and again, what the customer wants more than anything else, any guesses?" Litsur asked the crowd. "They'd like to talk to us. And Google is very bad, usually, at picking up the phone."

Sometimes, however, a situation crops up that isn't funny. In June, an anonymous administrator overseeing a system that monitors "hundreds of wind turbines and scores of solar plants"posted a complaint on Medium. The panicked admin said Google blocked the system's website, app, and other services on June 28 without warning because it had detected "potential suspicious activity." They said that Google had threatened to suspend the account and that they couldn't get in touch with anyone.

The complaint went viral, and suddenly hundreds of people were on message boards complaining about Google's poor customer service.

To their credit, Greene and her staff responded to the admin's complaint within an hour and solved the problem. Within weeks, they had rewritten their rules on responding to suspicious activity.

They introduced the 24/7 chat and ended the practice of allowing automated systems to suspend accounts belonging to established customers. For other customers, Google said it would "institute a second human review for flagged fraud accounts" before suspending them. Again, a human.

Ironically, Google also this week revealed a human-sounding software bot called Contact Center AI. During a demonstration on Tuesday, Fei-Fei Li, Google's chief artificial-intelligence scientist, demonstrated the system, saying it was designed to be the next generation of automated customer-service voices. Like Duplex, the restaurant-booking AI that made a splash at the Google I/O developer conference last spring, Contact Center can engage in brief conversations and sounds very humanlike.

Li stressed that the technology is not intended to replace humans but "enhance human talent."

So maybe that's Google's play here. At a time when the company is competing with Microsoft and Amazon for the cloud, it's seeking to offer enterprise customers more support while cutting down on expense with Contact Center.

SEE ALSO: Google showed off another human-sounding software bot and its famed scientist insists it won't kill jobs

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Everything wrong with Android

• Your résumé is a recruiter's first impression of you during the job search.
• Celeste Joy Diaz, a recruiting manager at Amazon, said not explaining your job accomplishments clearly is one key way to alienate recruiters from the outset.
• Instead, use hard numbers to demonstrate how you succeeded in previous roles. 

Celeste Joy Diaz, the recruiting manager for university programs at Amazon, said her team doesn't like to talk about "red flags."

But there is one big thing that can irk recruiters like Diaz during the application process: namedropping your place of employment, without explaining what you did there.

"Titles are great, but we want to understand what was the project you owned, what was the scope of a project, and what did you accomplish," Diaz told Business Insider.

Simply stating in your résumé that you worked at Google, The New York Times, or some other name-brand company is impressive, but it doesn't really communicate what you did with that opportunity. 

That doesn't just apply to recruiters at Amazon, either. Career experts across the board have named lack of explanation as one of the biggest mistakes that applicants make in their résumés.

"Lack of measurements and results in the file is my biggest résumé pet peeve,"executive résumé writer and career strategist Adrienne Tom previously told Business Insider. "Without any measurements of success, the file is lacking proof of skill."

So, expand upon what you did in that job that brought value — whether that's an amount of revenue you produced, projects you led, or how you excelled in your monthly goals. Including the numbers that back up your success is key, Tina Nicolai, executive career coach and founder of Résumé Writers' Ink, previously told Business Insider.

Be as specific as possible. Write, "Helped grow revenue by 500% to $1 million in 12 month period by doing X" instead of "Helped grow revenue," Nicolai said.

"Employers need numbers to be able to fully evaluate the scope of your bandwidth," Nicolai said. "No position is exempt from measuring results. And metrics help employers determine if a person is capable of leading a team, managing clients, or growing the business."

This extends to job interviews as well, Diaz said. She recommended discussing your previous roles with other people, so you can practice giving concrete examples of your achievements and explaining what your job meant beyond the title and the company. 

"People might not take the time to think about the impact of the work they’ve done," Diaz said. "I want to understand scope of impact more than just job titles."

SEE ALSO: A woman who has reviewed more than 40,000 résumés outlines the 8 most annoying mistakes she sees

DON'T MISS: The biggest résumé mistake makes recruiters cringe and hiring managers dismiss you immediately

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: One of your most important career decisions is who you have kids with

• Weebly CEO David Rusenko recently sold his company to Square for $365 million.
• Now Rusenko is offering advice to other entrepreneurs: Take fewer risks.
• Rusenko says entrepreneurs aren't so much risk-takers as they are eternal optimists. 

"I think I am demonstrably not a risk taker," says David Rusenko, the CEO of the website-software company Weebly. "Anyone who has worked with me would back me up on that."

Rusenko, who sold his company to Square earlier this year for $365 million, says there's one enduring mythology about entrepreneurs that he'd like to set straight: Entrepreneurs, it's largely held, are risk-takers.

But according to Rusenko, this is a mischaracterization that's not only inaccurate, but damaging.

"Taking risks is important," Rusenko said, "but people's conception of entrepreneurship as this inappropriate, cavalier risk-taking is draining."

Rusenko cautions that entrepreneurs should take as few risks as possible. He speaks from experience — he's spent more than 10 years working on his San Francisco-based company, and along the way there's been plenty of ups and downs. For Rusenko, being a successful entrepreneur is less about hair-trigger decision-making and more about diligence, persistence, and patience.

"I take as few risks as possible," Rusenko said. "It's more about having conviction in what you're doing. It's about seeing a need in the marketing and going out and building it. People along the way will tell you that it won't work, that it won't be successful, that the market doesn't need this. If you have the evidence, you have to continue to believe in your company."

Entrepreneurs aren't so much risk-takers as they are eternal optimists, Rusenko said.

"Entrepreneurs don't see risks where other people see risks," he said. "They're optimists."

Of course, there's some risk-taking involved, but less than you might think. Appropriate risks are calculated risks, Rusenko says.

"The risks are principled," Rusenko said. "But it's more about the optimism to believe that what you're doing is going to work."

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NOW WATCH: A diehard Mac user switches to PC

It seems like Google is everywhere.

And it is.

Google, and parent company Alphabet, are major players in everything from consumer electronics and self-driving cars to high-speed internet access and video entertainment — and of course, there's the search engine.  

But while everyone knows the marquee names like Google CEO Sundar Pichai and YouTube boss Susan Wojcicki, there's an incredible surfeit of talent one layer below that's driving some of the company's most influential projects. Business Insider spoke to Google insiders, partners and rivals to get a sense of the most buzzed about names within the 80,000-person tech giant. 

From programmers to designers, Google veterans to new hires, we rounded up a roster of Google's unsung rockstars. These are the names you might not have heard of yet, but that could just become the next Sundar Pichai.

SEE ALSO: Forget the sex, the hot new book about Google is an important reminder of what Sergey and Larry are really after

Rishi Chandra, Vice President of product management and general manager of home products

Google has high hopes for home products.

The living room is an important battleground for Google and rivals Amazon and Apple. To spearhead the efforts there, Google turned to Rishi Chandra, vice president of product management and general manager of home products.

Amazon's Echo got to market first and was an undeniable hit but under Chandra's leadership,  Google Home has closed the gap. In review after review, Home and Echo are neck and neck. 

Management apparently has enough faith in Chandra to continue adding to his responsibilities. Two weeks ago, the Nest division,  maker of smart thermostats, smoke detectors and security cameras, was folded into his unit.  

Chandra has been in Google's home area for three years and before that worked on Chromecast, the popular streaming-media gadget. Prior to that, he helped launch Google TV, now known as Android TV.

Here's a tip: if you have to pitch Chandra, say something nice about the Philadelphia Eagles.  

Elizabeth Hamon Reid, Vice President of Engineering for Geo's local team

Elizabeth Hamon Reid, Vice President of Engineering for Geo's local team, was the first woman engineer at Google's New York headquarters.

Google relies on her to oversee the company's engineering efforts that are focused on helping people discover and  find information about the physical world. 

She helped develop the earliest version of the Google Maps Search by Location feature. From there, she was selected to lead development across various maps and local search products. 

Eric Baczuk, designer for secret projects at Google

In his four years at Google, Baczuk has been tapped to work on several super-secret programs. 

A designer with roots at the iconic frog industrial design firm and MIT's SENSable City Lab, Baczuk now identifies himself on LinkedIn as a designer for "Special Projects" at Google. According to a source, he is in fact now part of Daydream, Google's virtual reality project.

Up until a few months ago, Baczuk was a designer-in-residence at  Sidewalk Labs, Google's urban-planning unit. His work exploring new concepts in urban housing and other critical issues plaguing cities across the globe attracted attention within the company, and led to his current assignment. We can't wait to see what he dreams up in the virtual world.

• Weebly CEO David Rusenko sold his company to Square earlier this year for $365 million.
• The journey leading up to the sale wasn't always so easy. Rusenko recalls a moment of doubt he had early on when he revealed Weebly's product for the first time and was told it was a terrible idea.
• Now, he reflects on his top piece of advice for budding entrepreneurs. 

When David Rusenko, founder of website building platform Weebly, debuted his product for the very first time before a crowd of nearly 1,000 people in 2006, he was met with a remarkably unfavorable response.

At an an early tech gathering led by a prominent tech CEO in New York, Rusenko was one among a number of early-stage entrepreneurs to deliver a five-minute business pitch before the group of tech enthusiasts.

Rusenko leaned into the mic and described his plan to build an online platform that made it easy for anyone to create their own professional website. 

"After we finished our demo, [the tech CEO leading the meeting] grabbed the mic and said it was the worst idea he ever heard of," said Rusenko.

"He said that no one needed to make a website and anyone who needed to would be able to figure it out on their own."

For Rusenko, the moment was unforgettable.

"It was humiliating," he said.

It was also confusing.

"We didn't know if he was wrong," said Rusenko. "But it was obvious to us that people didn't know how to build websites. It just seemed self-evident that building a website could be made easier."

Despite this initial rejection, Rusenko, along with his co-founders Chris Fanini and Dan Veltri, buckled down on their idea.

From his experience designing websites for his friends and colleagues, Rusenko believed that Weebly was a product that would be successful, and perhaps also necessary for small business owners to use for their companies.

Turns out, he wasn't wrong. 

In just over 10 years, Weebly grew from a lean, three-person startup to a multi-million dollar business with hundreds of employees. Their flagship product, a platform that makes it easy to build professional websites, has been a tool that's regularly used by business owners, marketers, and freelancers alike.

And, in late April this year, it was announced that Weebly had a bidder: Square was interested in purchasing Rusenko's company for $365 million.

Now, with the acquisition behind him, Rusenko has spent some time thinking back on that moment of doubt 12 years ago, when he was told that his idea didn't stand a chance.

In retrospect, he says there's one piece of advice he has to offer other up-and-coming entrepreneurs who might have moments of hesitation. 

The one surefire way to kill your company completely, says Rusenko, is if you give up on it.

"Entrepreneurs just keep on going," said Rusenko. 'They don't give up. They don't stop. The only way your company fails is if you stop working on it."

For Rusenko, being an entrepreneur is mostly about persistence.

"It's all about waking up and taking one step forward and before you know if, you've walked a marathon," he said. "To a lot of people from the outside, it might look like an overnight success, or that you've leapt from zero to one if a company has a big product release or raises a big round."

This is seldom the case, he said. Being an entrepreneur is seldom about the big wins, and more often tied to diligence, hard work, and recommitting yourself to an idea — even when that idea is derided onstage before a crowd of a 1,000 people. 

"There's nothing magical about a seven-year journey," said Rusenko, referring to the number of years that many entrepreneurs believe to be the amount of time it takes for a company to prove successful. "You’ve just got to keep going for that seven years."

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NOW WATCH: What would happen if America's Internet went down

You might be surprised to learn that almost half of the jobs at tech companies aren't tech-related at all.

According to a Glassdoor report, 43% of the jobs currently being hired in tech companies are non-tech roles. However, the composition of tech vs. non-tech roles varies by company, as shown in the graph depicting the percentage of tech openings below. 

Here's a list of the average salaries of the 10 highest-paying non-technical jobs in the world of tech, according to Glassdoor data:

10. Commodity manager: $116,800

A commodity manager generally maintains relationships with suppliers, oversees the supply chain, and deals with supply contracts. 

9. Finance manager: $117,200

A finance manager  controls the financial operations within a company, usually including payroll, transactions, and other purchases. In general, they're responsible for portions of the company's accounting. 

8. Management consultant: $118,500

A management consultant will work with both clients and project management teams, and will help oversee internal projects. 

• Starting a business isn't as exhilarating as it can seem, experts say.
• The rise of "entrepreneurship porn" is luring many ambitious young Americans into launching their own companies, when they might be better off joining a more established organization.
• If they do decide to found a company, these entrepreneurs should at least be adequately prepared, instead of simply diving in headfirst. Entrepreneurship isn't just about risk-taking and passion.

Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic has been teaching MBA students for more than 15 years.

When he first started teaching, all his students wanted to work for corporate giants like Goldman Sachs, IBM, and Unilever.

A decade later, Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon were the big draws.

"Now," he told me when we spoke by phone in July, "the vast majority tell me, 'You know, I'm going to be a startup guy. I'm launching something. I'm going to create the next big X, Y, Z."

"Who are we to crush their spirits?" Chamorro-Premuzic said. "But I think we have a responsibility to inform people that the probability of attaining that is really, really, really low, and that to actually attain it, they're going have to sacrifice so many things."

Today, Chamorro-Premuzic is a psychology professor at Columbia University and the chief talent scientist at Manpower. In one of the opening chapters to his 2017 book, "The Talent Delusion," he explains why many ambitious young Americans today would be better off working for an established company than trying to build their own business.

And yet many of these young Americans are hypnotized by stories of entrepreneurs who, against the odds, made it big. Even if they're not prepared — personally or professionally — to launch a business, they forge ahead anyway.

"People feel like, 'Oh, I have an idea. I don't like the idea of having a boss. I'm going to be the next Elon Musk,'" Chamorro-Premuzic said. "It's not that easy."

Telling people you're an entrepreneur is 'sexy'

The rate of new-company failure in the US is unclear. In 2017, USA Today highlighted data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showing that about 20% of new businesses survive longer than one year. In fact, according to BLS data, that number hasn't budged since 1995.

But "entrepreneurship" is notoriously hard to define. Do mom-and-pop businesses count? Or is it just high-potential ventures? "Failure" is even harder to define: What if a startup pivots or downsizes?

Still, Chamorro-Premuzic's observations about entrepreneurial overeagerness are echoed by academics and business people alike.

Morra Aarons-Mele, the founder of Women Online and The Mission List, appears to have coined the term "entrepreneurship porn" in a 2014 Harvard Business Review article, to describe "an airbrushed reality in which all work is always meaningful and running your own business is a way to achieve better work/life harmony."

In the article, she makes the point that entrepreneurship is hardly as liberating as it can seem: "Starting a company doesn't mean being freed from the grind; it means that the buck stops with you, always, even if it's Sunday morning or Friday night."

When Aarons-Mele launched her companies, "I just wanted to make a living," she told me, and she knew that "I just never wanted to go an office again for 10 hours a day." But a couple years in, something changed.

"I drank the Kool Aid," Aarons-Mele said, "of being not just an entrepreneur, but a woman entrepreneur. It was sexy." She started going to conferences and speaking at events for founders.

"It was only after I realized that I did not want to scale, that really becoming this sort of entrepreneur with a capital 'E' would make me have to live a lifestyle that I didn't want, that I became a happy small business owner instead."

Aarons-Mele knows firsthand that the word "entrepreneur" can sound infinitely more appealing than "small-business owner." She suspects that can play a big role in people's desire to scale their company, and quickly. That is to say, entrepreneurship can be as much about the founder's ego as anything else.

"It's a very American thing to be an entrepreneur," Aarons-Mele said. "'Small business' implies small. It's a lot of what ambitious people might even want to escape versus create."

Too many aspiring founders think entrepreneurship is about 'diving in'

Then there's the problematic notion that starting a business is all about taking risks.

"There's something a little bit inherent in a lot of founders' psyches of, 'You've just got to dive in,' that it's the type of thing that you can't go and learn about before you do it," said Noam Wasserman. The common misconception is that "you have to fail, learn from that, pick yourself back up."

Wasserman is the founding director of the Founder Central Initiative at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. When we spoke by phone in June, he told me that this myth "heads off at the pass any of that inclination to go and learn before you go and dive in."

Wasserman's observations recall those of Wharton professor Adam Grant. In his 2016 book, "Originals," Grant wrote that, contrary to popular belief, the most successful entrepreneurs don't quit their day job to start a company. One University of Wisconsin study found that entrepreneurs who kept their day jobs were 33% less likely to fail than those who don't.

Recent research also reveals just how important it is to wait until you have enough experience before building a company.

An MIT study found the average age of a successful startup founder is 45. The study authors found that work experience explains much of the age advantage. They write in the Harvard Business Review,"Relative to founders with no relevant experience, those with at least three years of prior work experience in the same narrow industry as their startup were 85% more likely to launch a highly successful startup."

Indeed, Chamorro-Premuzic said that technical expertise in the area where you're founding a company is one of the most "underrated" attributes of a successful entrepreneur.

'It's your baby, your everything'

I asked a few entrepreneurs to tell me about their experiences, about how entrepreneurship porn had (or hadn't) influenced their decision to launch a company.

Sophie Kahn took a relatively cautious approach: As she told Business Insider's Libby Kane, she kept her job at Marc Jacobs while developing the plans for AUrate New York, the jewelry company she cofounded with Bouchra Ezzahraoui and that's raised $2.6 million. Entrepreneurship, she learned, was both harder and easier than she'd anticipated.

"Harder, because it's truly all-consuming and you never ever have a day off. It's your baby, your everything, and always with you," she wrote in an email.

And "easier, because it doesn't feel like work in the sense that it's your passion and you want to work on it, and of course since you're free to make your own choices and set your own schedule."

Jen Rubio left her job at Warby Parker a few years before cofounding direct-to-consumer luggage company Away, which has raised a total of $81 million. But Rubio says she and her cofounder, Steph Korey, another Warby Parker alum, learned a lot from their experience there: "Being on the ground floor of an early-stage startup with that mentality allowed us both to build something entirely new every day," Rubio wrote in an email.

Rubio's best advice for anyone considering starting a business is "to be really specific about why you're doing it and what problems you'll be able to solve in a meaningful way for your customers; don't start a business just because you think you have have a great idea."

'Passion can become your peril'

Another persistent myth about entrepreneurship is that, once you've got the product and financing in place, the people stuff will come naturally. Many entrepreneurs, Wasserman said, are completely oblivious to the importance of the people side — i.e. who you hire and how you manage your company.

For example, some entrepreneurs figure that they're already best friends with their cofounder, so everything should be fine. "Unfortunately, those happen to be the least stable of founding teams," Wasserman said.

But perhaps the most destructive misconception around entrepreneurship is the importance of passion.

At the start of every semester, Wasserman asks his students: How important is passion for the "entrepreneurial magic?"

"We get a resounding, 'Passion is critical. Passion is going to be the main ingredient that is going to enable me to go and succeed as a founder,'" Wasserman said. Then he presents them with a case study "that drives home to them that passion can become your peril."

Specifically, Wasserman said, passion can mislead you into thinking you're readier to start a company than you are, or make you believe that your idea is more valuable than it is. "You have to really go and grab the founders by the lapels and have them think deeper about these people issues," Wasserman said, "where the person that they're dealing with is themselves."

SEE ALSO: The 32-year-old CEO of The Muse who quit a job at McKinsey to start her own company shows there are 2 ways to launch a business — and one gives you a much better chance of success

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NOW WATCH: Learning to celebrate failure at a young age led to this billionaire's success

• Work-from-home is becoming a popular job perk. 
• These companies have the most remote work jobs, according to a FlexJobs study.
• UnitedHealth, SAP, and Anthem have the most remote work positions available. 

Work-from-home is becoming increasingly normal — and some Americans are even able to work remotely for the entirety of the work week.

Around 31% of Americans told Gallup in 2016 that they worked from home most or all of the time, up from 24% in 2012. 

But finding those jobs can be tricky. 

Thankfully, FlexJobs found 30 companies with the most work-from-home job openings in the first half of 2018.

Many of these jobs are in healthcare, education, or computing. UnitedHealth, SAP, and Anthem topped the list of companies with the most work from home jobs.

In ascending order, here are the top 30 with the most remote jobs, with company descriptions and sample job titles from FlexJobs:

SEE ALSO: The 20 most flexible jobs for working parents

DON'T MISS: 11 high-paying jobs you can do from home

Ellucian

Based in Reston, Virginia, Ellucian provides software and technology for the higher education sector. Its services are used by millions of institutions and students worldwide. 

Past flexible job openings: Senior Customer Success Manager, Business Manager, Corporate Events Coordinator 

Red Hat

Red Hat offers the open-source Linux operating system as well as content, server, and embedded operating systems; collaboration management applications; and database and software development tools. It's based in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

Past flexible job openings: Senior Technical Support Engineer, Sales Account Manager, Senior Solutions Architect 

Colorado State University

Founded in 1870 and located in Fort Collins, Colorado, Colorado State University now enrolls over 26,500 students and is a top research university.

Past flexible job openings: Student Ledger Specialist, Budget Analyst, Enrollment Counselor

SEE ALSO: McDonald's employees share their 8 best tips for customers

DON'T MISS: 7 insider facts about Panera Bread that employees know and most customers don't

SEE ALSO: Trader Joe's is one of the best places to work in the US — employees share the 7 best parts of the job

The steak and arugula sandwich

One Panera Bread associate of one year told Business Insider that they prefer this meaty offering.

"It's super unique and has so many flavors," the employee told Business Insider, adding that they'd award the meal ten out of ten stars.

The squash soup

Associate Dorian Bach wrote in a 2016 Quora post that this particular option is the best soup in Panera Bread.

But, alas, fans of this autumnal-gourd-based dish will have to wait until fall to partake once more. It's a seasonal item at Panera Bread. 

The chipotle chicken avocado melt

A former Panera Bread associate trainer told Business Insider that they "used to always get the chipotle chicken avocado melt."

• Truck drivers' salaries are on the rise, thanks in part to a shortage of drivers.
• The shortage has been brewing for decades, but the recently passed ELD mandate has exacerbated trucking's tight labor market.
• Under ELD, truckers can drive no more than 11 hours a day.
• Drivers' salaries are still as much as 50% lower than they were in the 1970s when adjusted for inflation.

Jay Sidor quit his job hauling produce from Canada to Los Angeles. So did 50 of his coworkers.

They were protesting the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate, which went into effect in December. ELD requires truckers to keep an electronic log in their cabins to ensure they don't work for more than 14 hours a day or drive more than 11, in accordance with the hours-of-service law. As drivers are paid by the mile, driving less ostensibly slashes their pay.

"I was in the position to lose around $1,800 a month," Sidor told Business Insider.

But now that law is working in his favor. Because many truckers are working less in accordance with ELD, it's caused a labor shortage and for some salaries to go up. Sidor and most of his coworkers are back at work with a 15% pay increase.

Drivers' salaries are seeing "unprecedented" jumps, Gordon Klemp, principal of the National Transportation Institute, said. But analysts say the increases aren't enough to make up for the drop in drivers' real wages since the 1970s and '80s. According to a Business Insider analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data, truckers' hourly pay, when adjusted for inflation, has dropped by as much as 35% in some places.

"Wages are so far below what they need to be that we're having issues finding drivers," David Ross, managing director of the St. Louis business bank Stifel, told Business Insider.

And as the driver shortage continues, the costs are being passed along to retailers and consumers. Food manufacturers like General Mills, Hormel Foods, and Tyson Foods said earlier this year that they would raise the cost of some products to offset rising shipping costs.

Driver pay is making 'big moves'

"Driver pay is going up pretty rapidly across the board,"Andrew Lynch, the cofounder and president of Columbus, Ohio, supply-chain company Zipline Logistics, told Business Insider. "We've definitely seen spikes before, but nothing like what we're experiencing now."

Total compensation numbers have increased by 10% to 12% since June 2017, Lynch told Business Insider. Nearly 50% of all drivers in the National Transportation Institute's quarterly survey on trucker pay received pay bumps in 2018. Last year, only 11% did.

Sign-on bonuses for flatbed drivers have jumped from $1,500 in 2017 Q2 to $6,000 in 2018 Q2, according to Klemp.

"That's pretty unprecedented," Klemp said. "Those are big moves." Drivers historically enjoy salary bumps as freight rates increase, and freight rates are up 30% year-over-year.

A history of decline

Not all drivers have experienced the sort of double-digit pay jumps that truckers like Sidor enjoyed this year. Lenny Oppelaar, who started trucking after he graduated from high school more than 40 years ago, is paid less now.

Oppelaar's first trucking job, in 1977, paid $5 an hour — or $21.50 an hour in 2018 dollars, he said. That was soon bumped up to $30 an hour in today's dollars.

But now, as a line-haul driver for XPO Logistics, one of the world's largest logistics companies, Oppelaar earns about $22.30 an hour, he told Business Insider.

Business Insider compared freight wages, adjusted for inflation, from the BLS 1980 area wage survey and location-specific wage estimates from the BLS' Occupational Employment Statistics. For the five cities in which comparable data existed in both surveys, wages decreased by 21%, on average.

Other studies have found more drastic drops. Michael Belzer, an economics professor at Wayne State University who studies the freight industry, estimated that base compensation for long-haul truck drivers is down 50% in real terms from 40 years ago.

"To be able to be a truck driver used to be quite a good blue-collar, middle-class job, but over the past 40 years, it has kind of dwindled away," Klemp said.

Many truckers and analysts point to the Motor Carrier Act of 1980 as the starting point when trucking wages ceased to keep up with inflation. That law, passed by President Jimmy Carter, deregulated the trucking industry.

One of the results of the 1980 legislation was a highly fragmented industry in which "destructive competition" has kept freight rates low, University of Pennsylvania professor Steve Viscelli wrote in "The Big Rig: Trucking and the Decline of the American Dream."

Klemp added: "It's just been super competitive, because there's just been a glut of drivers and capacity, so shippers have enjoyed the ability to bid and rebid their freight on a continual basis."

Suppressed freight rates resulted in low driver pay, and few new entrants to the trucking industry.

This year's salary increases have been considerable, but they're not saving the industry

Driver pay would need to jump by 40% to 50% to attract new workers, Ross told Business Insider. But increases have occurred in the 10% to 12% range this year.

"All these near-term pay increases are not attracting anybody new into driving the truck industry," Ross said.

The American Trucking Association estimates the industry will have a shortage of 175,000 drivers by 2026 if the industry makes no changes. The term "driver shortage" has been recited for decades by the trucking industry, but experts say it's now reached a peak. Turnover rates are now 95%, Lynch said.

"They're in such high demand that a driver can quit his or her job for any reason and have a job essentially waiting for them the second they decide to look," Lynch told Business Insider. "Trucking companies are in constant recruitment mode."

That's because other industries, particularly construction and energy, are attracting the sort of blue-collar workers who would normally go into truck driving, according to Mark Montague, senior industry pricing analyst at DAT Solutions. Those jobs have better pay without the challenges of trucking, and employees can be home every night.

But the biggest cause for the driver shortage, analysts said, is the low pay.

"Driver pay has not gone up at the same rate as trucking prices have gone up," Lynch said. "That's a big part of why we're such in a crisis right now."

Montague said companies would continue to pass on the increasing price of shipping to customers.

"Costs have ratcheted up sharply, and it's causing a lot of pain, consternation, and speculation," Montague said.

Are you a truck driver with a story about the industry? Email the author at rpremack@businessinsider.com.

DON'T MISS: There's a critical shortage of truck drivers in the US, and it's causing everything from delayed Amazon orders to more expensive groceries

SEE ALSO: Truck drivers say the latest measure to keep roads safe has left them 'chained up,' 'more reckless than ever,' and unable to support their families

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: One of your most important career decisions is who you have kids with