Maria Irgens


Career development 12h
I work as a hotel cleaner and suddenly lifted a box of bottled water (we put 2 bottles in each guest room). I pinched a nerve in my back and can barely walk, even though I’m getting pain-relief injections. I stayed home for 5 days and yesterday I went back to work, but I can’t lift anything and hardly move.
Management doesn’t believe I’m in that much pain. They say I’m lazy. I really can’t work... and I’m afraid I’ll be fired. The doctor said five days should be enough to feel better. What should I do?

 more

  • maurine achieng

    3h

    Please get a seek sheet from the doctor and show the management

  • alex tee

    4h

    Get a work comp lawyer Pronto. He will arrange everything

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Donald Pirson


Career development 1d
I just got a project - building in Mumbai. A few issues came up with the contractors, so now I have to go there myself. I really don’t want to fly to India, especially for two weeks. I know it can be pretty dirty and not very safe. My boss is pushing me hard. I don’t want to risk my job, but I also don’t want to get sick while I’m there.
What would you do if you were me?

4   
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FRANCIS WANYINA
Career development 1d
Hello professionals, Pr. Francis Wanns here in Kampala Uganda.

With my 10 years of Insurance Sales and middle management Experience both in Life and non Life products and at age 50 now, I feel like changing my job to a more settled one with better professional benefits to reduce physical hustles.

Please guide on what would be the very best response to this usual question by interviewers that... .... "how much do you expect to be paid here just in case you succeeded through this interviews and what other benefits would you look at from us"

 more
1   

  • Alix Moore

    11h

    If you had your P & C license you could get good benefits. I wish I had 10 years, I only have 2! Do you not get good commission? Do they provide... leads? more

  • Gladys E. Bustos

    44
    1d

    Procurement. Energy and energy efficiency

Anonymous member


Career development 2d
I am 72 years old and not able toretire. I hadca incidence recently where I started a position working from home in a company I had never heard of. I started training on January 12, very intense training, which was saw using five different systems. The training jumped all over the place. There was no consistency at all to it. We were off on MLK birthday so when we came back to work, we had an... additional day of training tacked on. That was a total of two weeks. I work for a total of five days and then was terminated saying I did not catch on quick enough. Little did I know they have training every 2 weeks to onboard new nurses. I could not believe in 5 days with a preceptor and me asking questions with her answering half the question, I was terminated. D you think this is fair? more
4   

  • Uma Aggarwal

    1d

    Two weeks training is a large investment by the company. May be their needs did not grow as expected. When you work for a voice at the other end of... the phone, it is hard to develop a rapport. Hope you did some due diligence on the company on the company before accepting the job.
    In any case, you were not crazy about the way things were going. So better to cutoff early. Let it be their loss and a lesson for you. Do not let it get you down and continue your search. Good luck     more

  • Shawn P

    1d

    would you rather have a day off for Trumps bday?

    -1
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Career development

 15h

Epstein Files Reveal Job Application From Albanian Woman


Newly released documents from the Jeffrey Epstein case reveal the name of an Albanian woman among millions of pages made public in recent disclosures.

According to the files, the woman, identified by the initials E.T., applied in March 2017 for a position as a personal assistant. The materials show that she initially sent her résumé to an intermediary, whose name has been redacted in the... documents, expressing interest in the job.

Based on the résumé submitted, the applicant was living in Tirana at the time. In an email cited in the files, she wrote that she was interested in the position but noted she was not based in the United States, asking whether that would be an issue.

During subsequent correspondence, the intermediary requested that she submit three high-quality photographs along with her résumé. The applicant later sent the requested documents, as well as several personal photos.

After receiving the materials, the intermediary forwarded the email to Jeffrey Epstein, describing the applicant as a 21- to 22-year-old woman. Although the résumé stated that she lived in Tirana, the intermediary told Epstein that she was based in Paris and asked whether an interview should be arranged.

The list of attachments included the résumé, photographs and a video reportedly sent by the applicant as part of her application. The documents do not indicate that the Albanian woman had any direct communication with Epstein.

The disclosure is part of a broader release of records that continue to shed light on Epstein's network and recruitment practices. more

Silvia Truitt


Career development 5mo

My husband and parents don’t understand me. They ask how I could quit my job as a sous-chef and start working as a cook in a school cafeteria.
But I think this job is more important. When kids enjoy the food and even ask for more, it means a lot to me, more than a good review from a critic or a picky customer. Yes, I make less money, but it makes me feel really good.
Still my family doesn’t get... it.

 more
63   

  • AO Jordan

    18h

    Sous chef is no joke - pressure cooker of a job. You get to feed young bodies and minds - and find it joyful. Life is short enough - no need to reduce... happy years doing what you love. more

  • Abdul H Jaffar

    4d

    Often times that's what comes in the end of everything. Sacrifice. You made less, but you are happier. You may make more but you are less happy. The... price of that extra happiness is that amount of money that you have to give up. So happiness does have a price when you look at it like that. more

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Career development

 18h

If You're a Real Person Looking for a Job, the Flood of Fake AI Job Applications Will Make Your Blood Boil


"Within 12 hours of posting the role, we received more than 400 applications."

Still think getting a job in 2026 is as easy as walking in with a résumé and a firm handshake? You might want to read on.

In the United States, at least, the employment outlook is rough. After a horrendous year for employment, US jobs growth stalled out in December as layoffs and hiring freezes in areas like... construction and manufacturing take their toll on job growth numbers.

And beneath the official jobs data is a growing accessibility crisis. More and more job seekers are finding themselves shut out of the labor market -- not because there are no jobs to be had, but because torrents of AI slop are crowding them out of consideration.

Case in point: a few months back, tech publication The Markup posted an opening for an engineer role. As product director and editor Andrew Losowsky writes, the experience was an instructive look at just how much the job market has broken down.

"Within 12 hours of posting the role, we received more than 400 applications," Losowsky explained. "At first, most of these candidates seemed to be genuine. However, as the person who had to read them all, I quickly saw some red flags, which were all clear indicators of inauthenticity."

Those "red flags" included repeating contact information, broken or nonworking links to LinkedIn profiles, repetitive resume formatting, and non-residential mailing addresses.

In a response to prompts on the company's application form, most followed a "near-identical four-sentence pattern with minor variations." A number of applications included "ChatGPT says" in their answers, or included information that "almost perfectly matched our job description," Losowsky writes.

"In the most extreme case, one person claimed they had built our website and Blacklight [web privacy] tool (they hadn't)," the editor continues.

After just a day of that nonsense, the Markup removed its ad from job platforms like Glassdoor and Indeed. Instead, they opted for internal outreach and word-of-mouth. Though that undoubtedly limited their reach, it slowed the flood of fake applicants "to a trickle."

The publication has since found their engineer, but not without significant headaches. If you extrapolate this out to the rest of the job market, it's no wonder job seekers are calling 2025 the year of the "Great Frustration." Barring any major changes, 2026 could be even worse. more

Ben Weatherford


Career development 4d
I think I blew the interview yesterday because of how I answered one question “What would you do if you were the only survivor of a plane crash?”
I said that if I was fine and no one else needed help, I’d look through the passengers’ stuff to find a phone and call the police or rescue services. That seems pretty logical to me. But the HR immediately asked if that counts as stealing.
That really... made me stop and think, mainly about whether I even want to work there. If they already annoy me during the interview, it’ll probably be way worse once I’m actually working there. What do you think?

 more
15   

  • DERRICK KARANI

    22h

    You better do your own thing.

  • Steward Tony Pacheco

    1d

    Always answer honestly. As a professional headhunter, I was impressed with your answer & survivor reasoning. That’s what’s leaders do in tragic... situations while others cry over superficial idiocies. more

    2
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Career development

 1d

TestGorilla's Founder Wouter Durville joins the EU-Startups Summit 2026 on May 7-8 in Malta!


Founded in Amsterdam, TestGorilla is reshaping how companies hire by replacing traditional CV screening with science-backed, skills-based assessments. The platform helps organisations identify the right candidates faster, more objectively, and without bias, allowing hiring teams to focus on real abilities rather than subjective or inflated résumés. Today, TestGorilla supports companies worldwide... across a wide range of roles, helping them make fairer and more data-driven hiring decisions.

At the Summit, Wouter Durville will deliver a keynote titled "Hiring for the AI Era: Why the CV is Dead and 'AI-Fluency' is King." Drawing on data showing that 71% of leaders now prioritise AI skills over years of experience, he will explore why many startups remain stuck in outdated hiring practices and what founders can do to break out of this so-called legacy loop. His session will offer a practical blueprint for identifying AI fluency and building high-performance teams faster and more effectively in an increasingly AI-driven world.

Don't miss this opportunity to hear from one of Europe's leading voices in skills-based hiring, and make sure to secure your ticket for the EU-Startups Summit 2026!

Malta Enterprise is Malta's economic development agency, facilitating economic growth, investment, and innovation by offering a range of support services for local and foreign enterprises setting up a productive presence in Malta. As a key player in Malta's economic landscape, it contributes to the nation's prosperity by attracting investments, supporting businesses, and driving innovation, thereby reinforcing Malta's position as an attractive destination for entrepreneurs and investors alike. Malta Enterprise actively cultivates a vibrant startup ecosystem, playing a pivotal role in fostering a conducive environment for startups and offering tailored support and incentives to empower emerging businesses.

M. Demajo Group is a leading business player in Malta, with a successful history spanning 115 years. The Group's growth and diversification have resulted in a wide coverage of business sectors through a commitment to long-term results. M. Demajo Group's workforce is 500 strong and their various activities have been developed through organic growth, acquisitions, partnerships, and startups. Its strong financial situation and ethical standards, its business reputation, and its renowned track record as a business partner are all key factors in its continued expansion.

The IONOS Cloud Start-up Program provides young companies with up to €100,000 in cloud credits for up to five years after their founding. Start-ups benefit from a sovereign IT infrastructure "Made in Germany," offering 100% GDPR compliance and full legal certainty. IONOS Cloud guarantees technological freedom without vendor lock-in. Long-term support is also ensured: exclusive discounts after the first year enable a seamless transition into the IONOS Cloud ISV Partner Program. In this way, digital sovereignty becomes a strategic competitive advantage from founding to scaling. more

Career development

 1d

The US job market is in limbo -- and it's quietly prolonging people's job searches


You may be desperate to quickly get a job, but hiring managers aren't feeling the same pressure.

It's easier to apply to jobs, but employers are taking longer to fill openings. From sales positions to tech jobs, the lengthier hiring process is across the board. The reward from job switching has also been waning; wage growth has slowed as employers aren't as worried about finding talent.

Cory... Stahle, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab, said the job market is in limbo as unemployment inches up, job postings are around pre-pandemic levels, and year-over-year growth in advertised wages on the job-search platform has cooled to over a five-year low.

More people are job searching than there are openings. People waiting for a dream role may have to settle or shift their perspective.

"Longer hiring times, paired with muted overall hiring activity, suggest that finding a job may prove difficult for many job seekers in 2026," Stahle said.

Stahle said macroeconomic conditions affect how long it takes to hire. Uncertainty, less urgency than in the pandemic recovery and Great Resignation years, and a qualifications mismatch could be why it's taking longer.

Stahle said many people voluntarily quit their roles in 2021 and 2022, likely leading employers to create job postings to backfill those gigs. The quits rate dropped from 3% in March 2022 to 2% this past November, suggesting workers are less confident about finding something new.

When employers aren't desperate to fill a spot, hiring decisions could take longer. Stahle said employers can "wait for the 'perfect' candidate" when they're looking to expand their head count, rather than just backfill.

The average time it takes for a posting to become a hire climbed to 49 days in August, the highest since early 2019. Stahle said the rise in the spring and summer could've been due to continued uncertainty, such as with trade policies.

"Some of that uncertainty has waned since, but hiring timelines remain longer than they were at the start of 2025," he added.

While employers can wait for their dream employee, job seekers might not have time to find their ideal role.

"Any offer is much harder to come by in this environment versus a couple of years ago, when there was a lot more power in the hands of the worker," Nicole Bachaud, an economist at ZipRecruiter, said.

Indeed's data showed the average time for a posting to turn into a hire varies by job group, but it's taking longer than it did a few years ago across the board.

For tech occupations, the three-month moving average has increased from 42 days in March 2021 to about 57 days this past November. For food and beverage jobs, the average number of days surged in 2025, from about a month to about 51 days in September and October.

Healthcare has been prominent in job market data because of its job growth. Indeed's data showed healthcare postings are taking longer to become a hire than a few years ago. These gigs can require specific skills and education, which Stahle said could make it harder for employers to find what they're looking for and employees to get hired.

Meanwhile, Stahle said there could be more applicants than jobs actually being filled for occupations with weak hiring.

"In that case, it's reasonable to assume that time-to-hire may increase further as employers take more time to weed through a larger pool of candidates and may feel like they can take their time in the process," he said.

Stahle doesn't see the cooling job market stopping soon, given economic uncertainty.

Unemployed job seekers may need to take a role that doesn't cater to all their ambitions.

"A job with lower pay is better than no job with no pay," Bachaud said. "We're seeing a lot of drive from necessity."

That doesn't mean you have to take a job you hate. Bachaud said to find a job where you think you would be comfortable with the day-to-day routine and who you work with.

"There still are opportunities to find places that offer meaningful work and offer consistent and good work-life balance and benefits, and those things that workers are really driven toward," Bachaud said.

Talking to your network or developing one can be helpful when many people are trying to get hired. Lisa Simon, the chief economist at Revelio Labs, said to lean on connections like a referral since so many people will tailor their application materials to the job posting, with or without the help of AI.

"The thing that is going to get you to the front of the line when jobs are scarce is interpersonal relationships with people who are willing to go above and beyond and expend political capital to help you," communication coach Dorie Clark previously told Business Insider. more

Career development

 1d

How India's Budget 2026 can future-proof hiring against workforce fraud


Authored by: Ajay Trehan, CEO and Founder, AuthBridge

India's Budget 2026 has an opportunity to embed trust into recruitment by addressing rising threat of workforce fraud.

Rapid digitisation has transformed how companies onboard talent. While digital techniques offer speed, they have resulted in a new vulnerability -- workforce fraud. From fake credentials, résumé inflation, to identity misuse... and impersonation, fraudulent hiring practices are increasingly undermining trust in recruitment systems across sectors.

Background checks in the BFSI sector have surged and in an extreme case 7,000 ghost workers were flagged across companies in Hyderabad. In the latter development, many ghost workers received salaries fraudulently with government departments. Instances of ghost employees, mule accounts and forged Aadhaar-linked records uncovered by government audits show that workforce fraud is no longer limited to private sector hiring.

This has implications for public finance, welfare delivery and national productivity and as India prepares for the national Budget 2026, there is a need to nip this fraud. A step at this juncture would also help redesign hiring ecosystems to ensure collective trust.

RECOGNISING THE STRUCTURAL THREAT

Workforce fraud dents confidence in India's job market and distorts the promise of merit-based employment. For employers, a single bad hire can cost up to a third of that employee's first-year salary when accounting for training, lost productivity and replacement. For jobseekers, especially honest ones, fraudulent practices crowd out fair competition and erode faith in formal employment pathways.

This challenge is amplified by India's labour structure where nearly 85% of the workforce remains informal and where misrepresentation of skills, unverifiable work histories and proxy credentials are harder to detect. High youth unemployment -- particularly among those aged 15 to 29 -- has also driven desperate tactics, including invented companies, fake experience letters and even AI-generated deepfakes during interviews.

Technological availability has complicated the challenge. Fake documentation is now as easily procured from the dark web as designed using AI tools. Advancements such as 3D-printed IDs, voice cloning and synthetic profiles blur the line between real and fabricated identities. What was once a human resource issue has become a systemic risk to organisational integrity and public trust. Although companies and regulators are responding with tightened employee background checks as frauds, these may be insufficient. A set of policy reforms are the need of the hour.

EVIDENCE OF EVOLVING FRAUD PATTERNS

Recent findings from Workforce Fraud Files 2025 reinforce how deeply embedded hiring fraud has become across sectors.

In the BFSI sector, the report highlights a high incidence of employment history discrepancies, including inflated tenures, undisclosed exits and fabricated past employers. Address and identity mismatches also remain prominent in BFSI background verification checks, raising serious concerns in an industry governed by strict regulatory and compliance frameworks. These discrepancies underline that workforce fraud in financial services is no longer just an HR concern, but a systemic compliance and reputational risk.

Across white-collar hiring, the report identifies resume mis-match as a key risk, with candidates overstating job roles, responsibilities or project experience when compared against verified records. Alongside this, moonlighting cases, where employees take up undisclosed secondary employment, have emerged as a growing concern in professional and tech-driven roles. These trends indicate evolving fraud patterns in India's white-collar workforce and reinforce the need for continuous verification rather than one-time background checks.

POLICY IMPERATIVES

Budget 2026 can influence fraud resilience not only through punitive measures but by strengthening the infrastructure of trust. Six unique models could be activated to regain trust. Since the focus has been around verified credentials, the budget could influence policies around leveraging Aadhaar and DigiLocker as verifiable platforms for credentials.

Secondly, the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, which has created a timely framework for responsible data use, could have more potency by adding clearer standards for anonymisation, purpose limitation and auditability while ensuring fraud detection does not become surveillance.

There is a strong case for public-private collaboration in building AI-led verification platforms that flag anomalies, detect duplicate identities and identify behavioural red flags early. Government funding or viability gap support for such platforms would enable smaller firms and startups to access sophisticated fraud prevention tools that are currently affordable only for large enterprises.

Linking incentives such as GST rationalisation in accordance with digital verification standards could simultaneously expand formal employment and shrink fraud havens that thrive in opacity. At the same time, Budget 2026 can promote smarter enforcement through risk-based audits and proportionate penalties for employment fraud. This approach protects honest businesses while creating strong disincentives for organised credential fabrication and identity misuse.

ERA OF CONTINUOUS TRUST

As India's hiring landscape becomes more digital, distributed and dynamic, the notion of a one-time background check is rapidly becoming obsolete. Secure onboarding today requires continuous screening, where credentials, conduct and compliance are monitored across the employment lifecycle.

AI-led verification, behavioural analytics and real-time identity validation are already transforming how companies mitigate risk. Budget 2026 can accelerate this shift by making regulatory tech an integral part of workforce governance, not an afterthought.

In doing so, India can turn a growing menace into an opportunity: to position itself as a global benchmark for trusted, future-ready hiring. A labour market where credibility travels with the worker, and fraud finds no easy hiding place, is not just good for business but foundational to inclusive growth. more

Career development

 1d

Performing Arts CV & Cover Letter


I have a graduate-level résumé and cover letter that are headed to academic postings in the performing arts, and I need a sharp editorial eye to polish both documents so they read with absolute clarity and align with typical hiring-committee preferences. The content is complete, but wording, structure, and formatting still feel uneven. I'm looking for someone who can: * refine language for... academic tone without losing my artistic voice, * highlight research, directing, and teaching credits in a way search committees instantly notice, * implement a clean, ATS-friendly layout that keeps to common academic CV conventions, and * craft a complementary cover letter that speaks to teaching philosophy, creative practice, and service in no more than two pages. Final deliverables: an editable Word file for each document plus a PDF ready to send. Turnaround within one week is ideal. Familiarity with MLA or Chicago style, as well as knowledge of faculty search norms (statements of teaching, diversity, etc.), will be a strong advantage.

Project ID: 40192764

About the project

Open for bidding

Remote project

Active 56 yrs ago

Place your bid

Benefits of bidding on Freelancer more

Career development

 1d

Executive Resume & LinkedIn Refresh


I need an accomplished executive-level career writer to sharpen the documents I already have on hand and turn them into stand-out, ready-to-use assets. You'll be working with my current résumé, a personal SWOT analysis, and a 100-day leadership plan -- all of which will be provided in editable format -- so your focus is refinement, not starting from scratch. Here's what I expect: * An updated... résumé that highlights C-suite achievements, is keyword-optimized for modern ATS filters, and remains succinct enough for busy recruiters. * A tightened SWOT analysis that reads clearly, is visually skimmable, and can double as talking points for board-level interviews. * A concise, outcome-oriented 100-day plan formatted for mining executive presentations. * A LinkedIn headline, "About" summary, and key experience bullets that I can simply copy and paste into my profile without formatting hassles. Everything should project an executive tone, emphasize measurable results, and align seamlessly across all four documents. Please build in one round of revisions so the final versions land exactly where I need them. I own a stud cattle company called victory cattle co which we focus on creating elite animals that are in the best of the speckle park breed. Look at Facebook page to get an understanding of what we are trying to achieve and our level of professionalism. I am currently the secretary / director / Organizational development subcommittee board liaison for speckle park international. This is the organization who leads the direction of speckle park cattle in Australia. I have created the sub committees structure and strategic plan drive. Involved in negotiating contracts for employees, partake in board meetings and help set direction for the breed. Go onto speckle park international and research quickly myself and what we do to give you understanding of what to use for this project. I want to use the colour light green in the documents to break them up.

Project ID: 40192728

About the project

16 proposals

Open for bidding

Remote project

Active 3 mins ago

Place your bid

Benefits of bidding on Freelancer more

Career development

 1d

Remote Customer Service Applications


Need help getting my resume in front of the right hiring managers for fully-remote customer service roles. The task is two-fold: first, comb through new openings on Indeed, LinkedIn and Glassdoor that match my profile; then tailor and submit each application, including a concise, job-specific cover letter you'll draft for me. I supply the base résumé and a few highlights of my experience. You... refine the résumé if minor tweaks improve relevance, compose the cover letters, and complete the application forms on the three platforms. All log-in credentials and any two-factor codes will be provided securely. Deliverables * A shared tracker (Google Sheet or similar) listing every position applied to, with links, date, and status * One unique cover letter per application, uploaded to the tracker as text or PDF * Confirmation screenshots or submission receipts for each completed application Acceptance criteria * Minimum 10 quality applications per week that meet the job type and remote requirement * Cover letters use the hiring company's name, mirror key keywords from the posting, and stay under 200 words * No duplicate submissions; all entries in the tracker must be verifiable Experience with job-search tools, ATS-friendly formatting, and professional writing will make this go smoothly, but the most important thing is consistent, accurate execution and airtight confidentiality of my data. more

Career development

 1d

I Got U


I Got U

"The one quality most absent in leadership today is the one we overlook the most -- the ability to connect, to relate, to truly see others. When we teach our daughters that this is not a burden but a brilliance, we raise women who lead with power, heart, and unshakeable truth."

I'm not a perfectionist.

It felt safer that way.

But I never mastered the politics of networking.... Surface-level conversations drained me, and in a large corporate system where promotions hinge on visibility, I never wanted to compete for airtime in front of directors. It felt inauthentic.

"People will value me for the work I do," I insisted once to my counterpart, Megan.

She shook her head. "No they won't. It's all about networking."

And she was right. Megan is a manager now -- one of the few women in leadership in a system where women still hold less than half of all management roles despite making up nearly half the workforce.

When I graduated college in 2002, I had no idea what I wanted to do. With a communications degree, I figured maybe something creative -- an advertising agency, perhaps. I sent out dozens of résumés and heard nothing back. Three months after graduation, the panic set in. This was not how I pictured my post-grad life: living at home with my parents, waiting.

Then our neighbor called. Her friend was a VP at a global high-tech public relations firm and could get me an interview for an account coordinator job. I bought a suit, sensible heels, and interviewed with the account director. A week later, she called me back: they went with someone else.

I was disappointed, but something in me sparked.

"Could I do an internship?" I asked.

I'd done an unpaid internship before, so I figured -- why not try?

"Yes, we can do that," she said. And the bonus? It was paid. Barely ($8 an hour), but still.

I started immediately, assisting account coordinators across teams, and picked up a retail job on the side to cover my bills. Three months later, they offered me a full-time coordinator role -- with one caveat: I'd also be assisting the VP and covering administrative duties around the office. I didn't hesitate. I had a salary ($25K -- peanuts, but at the time, I felt like I'd made it) and business cards. I was coming up in the world. I was finally able to move out... until I wasn't.

"It's just temporary," they promised -- without ever giving an end date.

My plate was as full as a Thanksgiving table.

Every day, I was the first to arrive at 7 a.m. and the last to leave at 7 p.m. I was barely hanging on. The stress began showing up on my skin -- hives all over my face. I thought it was acne until an aesthetician gently told me, "This is stress. You need to slow down."

Sure. Easy for her to say.

Then it all came to a head.

"Where are the press kits?" the account director asked, her voice icy.

My stomach dropped.

I had forgotten to FedEx them.

It was the kind of mistake you don't recover from in PR. I was put on probation and, at my year-end review, instead of a 4% raise, I was given 1% because of that single error. My one win -- the journalist meeting -- was eclipsed entirely by the one mistake.

And just like so many girls and women, my strengths were minimized while my shortcomings were magnified. A skill that should have been celebrated became invisible, overshadowed instantly by the one thing I didn't get perfect.

After that, I became hypervigilant. I second-guessed everything. I overthought every detail, terrified of getting anything wrong again.

The shame consumed me.

Not long after, I quit.

No job lined up. No plan. I just... quit.

I saw myself as a failure. I told myself I wasn't cut out for public relations and needed something safer -- something I wouldn't ruin.

And here's the kicker: when I left, they filled my role with seven people.

When I look back now, I can see it clearly: I was overperforming. Not because I was ambitious, but because that's what girls are taught to do. Society reinforces it at every turn -- that our value comes from output, from holding everything together without complaint, from doing the work of seven people and never dropping a single ball. And when one finally slips? Instead of someone stepping in to help, we're corrected, shamed, or punished.

I've always known I was strong. I never doubted that. What I doubted was whether I was allowed to have moments where I wasn't carrying the mental, emotional, and physical load. I didn't question this pattern until I saw it reflected back to me in the most potent mirror I have: my daughter.

I assumed our kids would inherit those traits from him rather than my overperforming, people-pleasing tendencies.

And at first, Ali did seem to take after him -- fearless, relentless, going after the ball with a certainty I envied. We'd take her to pickup games at the local field when she was six, and she'd be battling it out with eleven-year-olds like it was nothing.

Ali's talent emerged early.

"She's really smart," Justin would say constantly. "She just gets things."

I saw it too -- the maturity, the perceptiveness, the emotional intelligence that surpassed most adults. But I didn't interpret any of it as extraordinary. John's communication challenges had set the bar differently, and Ali's quickness felt more like a relief than a revelation.

She was easy. I didn't need to worry about her.

And how often do we do this as mothers?

We assume our daughters are fine because they function well.

We mistake competence for resilience.

We see their gifts as evidence that they don't need us in the same way.

Without meaning to, we treat our daughters differently from our sons because that's how society differentiates them. We teach girls that their talents exist to make them useful -- productive, efficient, helpful. Our boys are taught productivity too, but their strengths are framed as exceptional, as signs they are meant to stand out.

Leadership today is built around positional power, and boys are ushered toward it.

Girls, though?

Their gifts are reframed as responsibility.

Growing up, my brother was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder. Now every kid under the sun has the diagnosis, but in the 80s, it was a relatively new label, and my mother had to fight for every service he needed -- all while running a construction company with my father. Her bandwidth was stretched thin, and I was the easy child. The one with good grades. The one she didn't have to worry about.

I remember getting an F on a social studies test in elementary school. We had to label directions on a map, and for the life of me I couldn't remember north, south, east, and west. (I still can't. Thank God for maps apps.) I needed a parent's signature and dreaded showing it to my mom. If I could have asked my dad, I would have. But he wasn't available.

I handed her the test, bracing myself.

Instead of being asked what happened or whether I needed help, I was reprimanded. Told I should've done better. Another problem added to her overflowing plate was simply too much.

And because I was "the smart one," the child who required no extra attention, I learned early that needing help was not an option. If I didn't understand something, I had to figure it out myself. If I struggled, I had to hide it. That was my role: competent child, low-maintenance daughter, self-sufficient girl.

My emotional awareness -- the trait that would eventually shape my entire life -- wasn't seen as a strength. It became a tool I used to smooth situations, ease tension, and make others more comfortable. And in the process, I learned that to keep the peace, I had to keep overperforming.

That was the cost of maintaining the status quo.

The other day, I was driving Ali and her friends, and they were talking about the time Ali guest-played with her friend's soccer team two years back. Her friend casually mentioned something she'd overheard from her coach on the sideline:

"Yeah, he said you're really good, but you don't pass the ball."

My blood boiled. Not at her friend -- she's an unaware ten-year-old -- but at the fact that an adult male coach made that comment loudly enough for eight-year-old girls to absorb it.

"Yeah, I know," Ali said, half-laughing. " I was a ball hog then."

"Everyone's a ball hog at eight," I told her, because it's true. And most of them still are. Funny how no one minded when she scored eight goals in that same game -- but the moment she didn't pass, that became the thing they highlighted.

Meanwhile, her own daughter didn't pass either.

The moment Ali shifted from fearless little girl to tentative performer didn't happen all at once. It happened in tiny, almost invisible moments -- the kind girls collect quietly because they've been trained to. When teammates told her to pass but never passed back. When she was called a ball hog for doing what every eight-year-old naturally does.

But because she had more talent, more awareness, she was expected to overgive -- to adjust, to be accommodating, to be "better" -- instead of being allowed the same space to learn and grow as everyone else.

Because this is what girls learn early: be brilliant, but only when it benefits others.

When she began scanning faces before making decisions. When she was excluded from social plans simply because she did different activities. When her hard work was treated as expected rather than exceptional.

And that's the trap so many girls fall into: instead of having their natural empathy recognized as insight, we treat it as ordinary -- nothing special, nothing noteworthy.

Why?

Our daughters are our mirrors, yes -- but we are also theirs.

And just like my skill in landing that impossible journalist meeting was minimized and overshadowed by one mistake, our daughters' relational brilliance is so often overlooked -- not because it lacks value, but because we've been conditioned to see only their shortcomings, never their strengths.

I used to think leadership was about who spoke the loudest or moved up the fastest. Now I understand it's about who carries awareness -- and who gets taught to carry it alone.

If we don't hold our own gifts as worthy of recognition, how can we expect them to believe theirs are?

The glass shattered recently.

The little girl I had always been so proud of -- the one who was fierce where I was fearful -- began to pull back. She started cracking her knuckles, chewing on erasers, paper clips, anything she could get her hands on. I took her to the orthodontist to evaluate her underbite, and the doctor asked if she grinds her teeth.

"She doesn't, but my son used to," I said automatically.

"No... I do," Ali whispered.

"You do?" I asked, stunned.

I used to lie in bed with both her and John when they were younger. John ground his teeth loudly every night at age five -- I heard every sound of it. But Ali? Never.

That's when it hit me: She had been carrying more than I ever realized.

And I hadn't noticed.

Because I wasn't looking.

Because I assumed she was fine.

Because she was the one I thought I didn't have to worry about.

And that's when I did the most honest evaluation of myself I've ever done.

It wasn't her father she was modeling -- it was me.

That's what my daughter has been studying all along.

We can tell our daughters to be strong, to follow their dreams, to speak their truth -- but if we're not living those truths ourselves, our words fall into a void.

Yes, I had an awakening at forty-five, but it wasn't a dramatic come-to-Jesus moment. It was a quiet breakthrough: the realization that no one can show my daughter what good looks like more than I can.

So when people ask -- or silently wonder -- what happened to me, the answer is simple:

I don't want my daughter to shrink.

I don't want her to become the old version of me.

I want her to become my 2.0 -- the upgraded version.

But to make that possible, I have to update my operating system first.

When I was pregnant with John, I announced it the moment the first trimester ended. But when I was pregnant with Ali, I didn't tell most people until six months. It wasn't that I didn't care -- it was that I felt like no one else really did.

At one ultrasound, the tech printed a photo of Ali -- the fetus staring straight at the camera -- and a thought flashed through me:

Do you even notice me?

I didn't realize then how much that question would echo years later, not just for me, but for her.

Because this is what we pass down without meaning to:

the belief that our visibility depends on how much we do, how well we perform, how little space we take up.

But we can teach our daughters something different.

We can teach them that to be powerful leaders, they don't need to abandon who they are or adopt traits that don't fit them. Sensitivity, intuition, emotional awareness, the ability to read a room -- these are not liabilities.

They are leadership skills.

They are superpowers.

They don't have to say yes to everything.

They don't have to carry what isn't theirs.

They can set boundaries and say, My plate is full.

They can be celebrated for their insight and intelligence, not just their output.

And the only way we teach our daughters this is by consciously integrating it into our own lives. By showing them, not telling them, what "good" looks like. That you can be strong and soft at the same time. That you can stay rooted in who you are without letting others trample over you.

I'm only at the beginning of this practice myself, so check back with me in a few years -- but truly, it's never too late to start. Once you see the pattern, you can't unsee it.

And even the smallest shifts today can become the biggest leaps tomorrow.

. more

Career development

 1d

C-Level CV Layout Design


I already have the finished copy for a Commercial Director résumé and reference images of the David Thompson executive template. What I need now is a designer who can mirror that clean, black-and-grey style, preserving its precise hierarchy, spacing, and overall layout & structure. Key points * This is layout only -- no rewriting of text. * Strictly black and grey, no icons, graphics, or colour. *... Strong, highly readable typography that matches the reference. * Two pages preferred (three only if absolutely necessary). You'll receive the content in Word along with the reference screenshots. In return, I require: * A fully editable .docx that replicates the reference style. * A print-ready PDF version of the same file. If you can faithfully recreate the look and feel of the David Thompson C-level résumé, I'm ready to get started right away. more

Career development

 1d

Students or statistics? How technocracy is seeping into classrooms and changing education's picture


As data systems and algorithms reshape education, decisions once guided by teachers and counsellors are increasingly driven by metrics and predictive tools. While technocracy promises efficiency and career clarity, it also risks reducing students to data profiles. The article explores how automated systems influence learning and hiring, urging institutions to preserve human judgment, creativity,... and mentorship in shaping students' futures.

Education has always been a gateway to opportunity. For generations, classrooms were places where teachers guided students, counsellors offered advice, and career choices grew out of conversations, curiosity, and lived experience. Today, that picture is changing.

Across schools, universities, and workplaces, decisions once shaped by human judgment are increasingly influenced by data systems, performance metrics, and predictive software. From admissions shortlists and learning analytics to employability scores and automated hiring tools, a new form of governance is taking root, one driven by technical expertise and algorithms. This is technocracy entering education.

At its core, technocracy argues that complex systems work best when guided by specialists, engineers, economists, data scientists, rather than traditional institutions alone. In education, this approach promises efficiency, fairness, and measurable outcomes. But as classrooms become dashboards and students become datasets, an important question emerges: who really controls the future of learning and work?

Once, progress was measured through grades, teacher feedback, and parent meetings. Today, students are tracked through attendance algorithms, engagement metrics, adaptive testing platforms, and predictive models that claim to forecast academic success.

Many schools now rely on learning management systems that monitor everything from assignment submissions to screen time. Universities use data to flag "at-risk" students. Career platforms analyse skills, behaviour, and past outcomes to suggest suitable professions. Recruiters increasingly depend on automated screening tools to shortlist candidates before a human ever reads a résumé.

Supporters say this makes education more personalised and career guidance more precise. And in some cases, it does. Early alerts can help struggling students. Skill-mapping tools can reveal new pathways. But these systems also reshape how learners are seen, not as evolving individuals, but as profiles built from historical data. A student's future, in many settings, now begins with an algorithmic assessment.

Technocratic thinking brings a strong focus on outcomes. Schools are ranked. Universities are compared. Courses are judged by placement rates and salary projections. Degrees are increasingly valued for employability rather than intellectual growth. This shift has changed how students approach education.

Young people are encouraged to optimise their choices early: select subjects with higher market demand, pursue certifications with proven returns, and build résumés from their teenage years. Career readiness has become a central goal, often overshadowing exploration and creativity.

For many families, especially in competitive environments, this feels unavoidable. When dashboards display placement percentages and income averages, education starts to resemble a financial investment portfolio. Students learn quickly that their worth is being calculated.

The risk is subtle but significant: learning becomes transactional, and curiosity gives way to constant performance.

Nowhere is technocracy more visible than in recruitment. Automated systems screen applications, analyse video interviews, and assess personality traits using artificial intelligence. These tools promise to remove bias and speed up hiring. Yet they are trained on past data -- data shaped by existing inequalities in access to education, language, and opportunity.

A student from a less-resourced background may already face barriers in schooling. When algorithms trained on elite profiles decide who advances in hiring pipelines, those gaps can quietly widen.

Career guidance platforms also rely heavily on labour market projections and skill taxonomies. While helpful, they tend to favour linear, predictable paths. They struggle to recognise unconventional talent, late bloomers, or those whose strengths do not fit neat categories. In effect, technology is beginning to curate ambition.

As systems grow more sophisticated, the role of educators is evolving. Teachers are asked to interpret analytics alongside lesson plans. Counsellors must balance algorithmic recommendations with personal insight. Administrators are judged by performance indicators that may not reflect classroom realities.

Many educators welcome tools that reduce paperwork and identify learning gaps. But there is also concern that professional judgment is being sidelined. When software flags a student as "low potential" or predicts dropout risk, it can shape expectations, sometimes unconsciously.

Education works best when adults see possibility, not probabilities. Human mentorship cannot be replaced by predictive models. A teacher's belief in a student, a counsellor's understanding of family context, or a mentor's encouragement can change trajectories in ways no system can anticipate.

Perhaps the greatest challenge of technocratic education is emotional. Students today grow up knowing they are constantly being measured. Every test, click, and application feeds into systems that evaluate readiness and rank potential. For many, this creates quiet pressure, to perform, to optimise, to stay competitive in an invisible race.

Yet young people are not spreadsheets. They carry doubts, creativity, resilience, and evolving interests. Careers rarely follow straight lines. Some of the most meaningful journeys emerge from detours, failures, and unexpected discoveries. When education becomes too tightly governed by metrics, it risks narrowing these possibilities.

Expertise and technology have an important place in modern education. Data can highlight gaps, expand access, and inform policy. But they should support human decision-making, not replace it.

Schools and universities must remain spaces for exploration, not just skill production. Career systems should open doors, not quietly close them through opaque algorithms. Most importantly, students deserve transparency, about how decisions are made and how their data is used.

As technocracy continues to shape classrooms and careers, the task for educators, policymakers, and institutions is clear: protect the human core of learning. Because while systems can predict outcomes, only people can nurture potential. And in education, potential is everything. more

Career development

 5d

Interviewers have been sharing the weird reasons they instantly decided not to hire candidates - 17 examples of how not to job hunt


Job hunting is a pain. As well as worrying about money, you've got to prepare a CV, write a covering letter, and win over people in the interview.

If you're looking for a job, improve your chances of success by avoiding the weird behaviour that DemonSkank stumbled across when they put the following question to interviewers over on r/AskReddit:

'People who have conducted job interviews, what's... something someone said/did that made you instantly decide not to hire them?'

Here are the top replies from people who are presumably still signing on...

1.

'Had a guy show up to a design interview with my work in his portfolio.'

-killersim

2.

'Told about how he stole goods from a store they worked at, put them in his buddy's car, called the cops so his buddy would get arrested. Then slept with his buddy's girlfriend while the buddy was in jail.

'All this in response to the question, "Tell us about a time when you had an ethical dilemma, what did you do, and what was the outcome?"

'Apparently his buddy's was cheating him on their shared drug business and so he told us what he did when his best friend wasn't splitting the profits 50/50.'

-C130IN

3.

'Candidate kept boasting about how many languages he speaks even though it was not a requirement for the position. Finally asked him in which foreign language he was most fluent, and he replied Spanish. Followed up with a simple question asked in Spanish. He did not speak Spanish.'

-L48Shark

4.

'She brought her boyfriend and the boyfriend was answering all the questions.'

-Medium-Sized-Jaque

5.

'He pulled his pants down to his knees, to fix/tuck in his shirt. Didn't break eye contact with me as he stood up to do it.'

-chrec

6.

'Interviewing for an IT position, asked a basic question about virus removal. "Oh I dunno my husband does that"

Well then tell him to apply'

-xMcRaemanx

7.

'Described former colleagues as 'bitches' within fifteen minutes of the interview starting. I ended it immediately.'

-GlitteringFlame888

8.

'She sat down, plunked her purse on the desk and started with, "I need to let you know, I have issues."'

-DrakeSavory

9.

'I worked at a big-box retailer and got called up to the service counter to deal with a customer who was upset. This was only a couple minutes before I was scheduled to conduct an interview with a potential new hire.

'I get up there, and this woman is berating the employee behind the counter, referring to her as "this bitch", etc.

'I ask her to lower her voice and please stop being disrespectful to my employee. She isn't happy but she does eventually calm down enough to be reasonable and we resolve the situation at the service desk. I turn to walk away, thinking we're done here, and she goes

'"Anyway, I'm here for my interview."

'I can't believe that this is actually happening, it seems like awful rom-com movie type shit, but this rude ass woman actually expected me to proceed with interviewing her.

'"I'm sorry ma'am, that position is no longer available."'

-DamnitBlueWasOld more
4   

Sloan Bochkorr


Career development 3d
About a week and a half ago the head of our department really started feeling sick, went home and said she was put on sick leave. But the very next day she still came to work with a fever and a cough and barely managed to get through the day. Because she was worried that we wouldn’t cope with the project. After that, three more employees got sick and now I’m the only healthy person left working in... the department.
Could you please tell me if there is any legislation that forbids sick employees from coming to work and infecting their colleagues? Thank you

 more
5   

  • Steward Tony Pacheco

    1d

    If You Are Not A Medical Doctor, I Would Not Assume That One Person Is The Cause Of Everyone Illness. Especially In Business Were Interaction With... People & Infected Items Could Covertly Cause A Spread Of What Ever This Bug Is. This Person Could Be The Weakest Immuned Body & Reacted Wuicker Than Most, The Others Then Followed. Many Times Infections Can Be Spread By The Very People Who Appear To Be The Healthiest!  more

  • Elly Nyambok

    2d

    No person should wilfully infect another with infectious disease contrary to provisions of Kenyan public health act cap 242 LOK

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Byte Logic
Career development 5d
The US job market right now feels… confusing.

There are roles posted every day, especially remote and hybrid ones, but the competition is intense and timelines are slower than they used to be. I’ve noticed companies being more selective, asking for broader skill sets, and stretching interview processes longer than expected.

For anyone actively searching: consistency matters more than volume,... tailoring applications still makes a difference, and networking is quietly doing a lot of the heavy lifting behind the scenes.

Curious how others are experiencing it — are interviews moving forward, or stalling after first rounds?

#jobsearch #workfromhome #interview #application #advice #careers #techjobs more
12   

  • Last First

    19
    1d

    Don't bother with companies who may or may not have selective pursuits. When this Jagoff says "networking is doing the heavy lifting he means "the new... employee asked their friend for a job. They need you more than you need them. Get a union job instead more