Career development

 3h

Rapid IT Resume Tailoring via summary adjustment and small tweaks & Submission


I am actively applying for Information Technology positions, specifically Product-management posts that sit at the intersection of AI and core platform work. For every job ad I forward, I need you to re-work the opening summary of my résumé so it mirrors the language, priorities, and KPIs in that listing -- always keeping AI Product Management and Technical Product Management front and center.... Once the résumé is updated and proof-read, you'll handle the actual submission through the employer's portal or the ATS link I provide, ensuring each field is populated correctly and confirming receipt. Your Project workflow will look like this: - Receive URLs for positions Total approximately: 30 URLs * Quick Analyze the new posting, extract must-have skills, metrics, and keywords. * Rewrite /Ok to use LLM to update the résumé summary (about 20-40 words) so it aligns with those requirements while highlighting my background in Agile delivery, data-driven market research, and stakeholder management where relevant. Examples will be provided. * Submit the revised version on my behalf and log the confirmation number, deadline, and any follow-up actions. - Goal is 1 or 2 page resumes based on best fit. - Goal is speed to submit to position with interest and applicable resume. A submission is considered complete when the résumé is uploaded without formatting errors, the tracking sheet is updated, and the system sends a confirmation email or screen-shot. Turnaround per posting is 24 hours or less. more

Katya Damjan


Career development 1d
I wanted to apply for a job at a small company near my home, but they set up an online interview. I said I could come to the office instead, but they said it had to be online.
Later they rejected me because my neighbors were doing repairs and there was noise during the interview. Is that normal? Or were they just looking for an excuse to reject me? Has this happened to anyone?
Thanks
3   

  • Kent Nelson

    4h

    Noise was not the reason. As VP of sales in a software company you sent red flags to the employer.
    1. Following directions . ( You questioned it.... FAIL)
    2. Improperly prepared for an online interview. You showed an inability for organization. ( Fail).
    3. You displayed that you would need a lot of hand holding.
    4. This is the hard line on why you lost right out of the gate.     more

    -1

  • Gladys E. Bustos

    10h

    Your immediate reaction disqualified you. If they say in person you know. You could book a quiet conference room at a library or professional office... building. Big boy pants moment.  more

    -2
Load more...

Career development

 6h

Benefit leaders face pay demands in restless 2026 market


* Key Insight: Discover how pay, career paths and flexibility jointly drive 2026 employee mobility.

* What's at Stake: Companies risk talent loss and competitive decline if rewards strategies remain static.

* Supporting Data: One in five employees plan to switch jobs; 42% are passively looking.

* Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review

Higher pay is the biggest driver pushing... employees to switch jobs in 2026, but employers say applicants' salary expectations are outpacing what they can offer.

A new report from Clarify Capital outlines some of the themes that are expected to dominate an active job market this year. One in five employees are planning to switch jobs, and 42% are passively looking for their next role.

"It's pretty telling that a possible threat of turnover is very real given the circumstances in the market," Michael Baynes, CEO and co-founder of Clarify Capital, said in an email response to questions. "Of course, the flip side of this is that 45% of HR leaders also say they're hiring."

Clarify Capital's report, which surveyed both employees and HR professionals, also highlighted the skills that employers are looking for: Customer support (23%), AI/machine learning (23%), and soft skills (22%).

Beyond pay, employees can still be swayed by competitive benefits, according to the report. When looking for a job, employees said that the top non-negotiable employee benefits are retirement (42%), remote/hybrid work options (39%) and flexible hours (37%).

Read more: The best HR teams of 2026

Baynes talked about these trends and more in a recent interview with Employee Benefit News. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What role do training and career development benefits play in retention strategies?

Career development has clearly shifted from being a "nice to have" to being a "must have" in today's job market. When we looked at the data, we saw that 33% of job seekers say that training and career development benefits are non-negotiables. What really speaks volumes to employees eyeing their exit is that 41% say they're calling it quits on their employer mainly because they want better career development opportunities. So clearly it's more than money; it's about professional growth and not hitting your head on the ceiling.

What does your data tell you about the increasing significance of flexibility in total rewards?

Flexibility is no longer a want for workers -- it is a must have. Thirty-four percent of HR leaders say they've lost a top candidate due to a lack of remote work. Whether you're working with a hybrid model, remote opportunities or flexible hours, it all falls back onto the idea of flexibility, and it's a foundational piece of the total rewards package.

What is the role of career development in an employee's decision to stay or leave?

One thing that's imperative for today's workers is career stagnation. For 41% of employees, the grass is greener on the other side, since they're saying they have better opportunities for advancement elsewhere. Whether it involves a defined internal career path or external career paths, it is important for companies to clearly communicate these paths to employees within the organization.

How do small and midsize organizations compete with larger ones on employee benefits?

It can be difficult for small and midsize organizations to realistically compete with the salaries of larger corporations. Flexibility, career development and clearly defined career paths are the solution. It is about positioning themselves well against the larger corporation. The good news is 67% of HR leaders are confident they can find qualified talent.

What can be concluded about job security? Are people feeling more secure in their jobs, or is the fear of layoffs continuing to play a role?

Job security is a fickle thing in 2026. You have 64% of job seekers feeling confident they'll find something better. Meanwhile, more than one in four are actively looking for a new job because their job security feels fleeting. So while optimism is definitely there for their next job, so is that creeping feeling of uncertainty when it comes to job stability. When almost one in 10 HR leaders expect layoffs this year, it's hard to argue with anyone who feels their job security is hanging on by a thread.

What recommendations would you make to HR leaders to ensure their organizations remain competitive through 2026?

It is definitely time to reevaluate pay scales since the pressure doesn't show any signs of slowing down. Next, organizations need to define career paths since employees do not always understand how they are progressing. Then there is the issue of flexibility since organizations are losing talent due to remote work limitations. Finally, organizations need to streamline their recruitment process. Twenty-six percent of HR leaders say there are too many unqualified applicants.

If you had to pick just one defining trend that will shape the 2026 job market, what would it be and why?

If I had to nail it down to one, it would be intentional mobility. The days of casual browsing for a new job are declining, and people are actively considering pay, career paths, flexibility and security simultaneously. Companies that emphasize retention and actual employee growth and well-being just as much as recruitment will be the ones who survive. The companies that can successfully marry competitive pay, career paths and flexibility will be the ones that have the last laugh in 2026's talent war. more

Career development

 7h

Privacy Policy | Jam Recruitment


JAM Recruitment Limited (JAM) will be what is known as the 'Controller' of the personal data you provide to us. JAM's registration number is 5052190 and our registered address is Cheadle Royal Business Park, Brooks Dr, Cheadle SK8 3TD.

JAM is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This notice sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide us,... will be processed by us.

Who we are and what we do

We are a recruitment agency and recruitment business as defined in the Employment Agencies and Employment Business Regulations 2013. We collect personal data from the following types of people to allow us to undertake our business:

* Prospective and placed candidates for permanent and contract roles

* Prospective and live client contacts

* Supplier contacts to support our services

* Employees, consultants, temporary workers

Types of Data We Collect

In order to provide the best possible employment opportunities that are tailored to our candidates, we need to process certain information. We only ask for details that will genuinely help us to help candidates find a new role, such as name, contact details, education details, employment history and immigration status (and other relevant information you may choose to share).

Where appropriate, and in accordance with local laws and requirements, we may also collect information related to diversity, security clearance status or details of any criminal convictions.

If you are a JAM client, we need to collect and use information about you, or individuals at your organisation, in the course of providing you with our recruitment services. This can include finding candidates to fill your roles, providing you with Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) services or notifying you of content published by JAM which may be relevant to you.

JAM will also store information relating to previous dealings with us, including job applications, email and telephone communications, job interviews and placements.

We collect a limited amount of data from the users of our website which we use to help us to improve your experience when using our website and to help us manage the services we provide. This includes information such as how you use our website, the most popular referrers and website responsiveness. You can read more about this in our Cookies Policy.

Where we obtain your information

We may obtain candidate information from any number of locations:

* When you register with our website or apply for jobs via our website

* When you correspond with us by phone, email or otherwise

* When you visit our website

* When you register your CV on a job board and it matches the skills we're looking for

* When you apply for one of our jobs via a job board

* When you are referred by a friend / colleague

* Your online profiles

* When we obtain your information from external sources such as LinkedIn, corporate websites and job boards we will inform you, by sending you this privacy notice, within a maximum of 30 days of collecting the data of the fact we hold personal data about you, the source the personal data originates from, and for what purpose we intend to retain and process your personal data.

There are two main ways in which we collect client data:

* Directly from you

* From third parties such as candidates, online job boards, LinkedIn and networking.

Data Retention

We will delete candidate personal data from our systems if we have not had any meaningful contact with you for seven years (or for such longer period as we believe, in good faith, that the law or relevant regulators require us to preserve your data). After this period, it is likely your data will no longer be relevant for the purposes for which it was collected.

We will consider there to be meaningful contact with you if you submit your updated CV onto our website, apply for jobs with us or we receive an updated CV from a job board. We will also consider it meaningful contact if you communicate with us about potential roles, either by verbal or written communication or engage with any of our marketing communications.

Under new data protection regulations (GDPR), we are required to keep the data we hold accurate and, where necessary, up to date. As such, we will make an effort to regularly communicate with you to ensure your data is up to date and accurate.

Whilst we will endeavour to permanently erase your personal data once it reaches the end of its retention period or where we receive a valid request from you to do so, some of your data may still exist within an archive system. While certain details may still exist on an archive system, this cannot be readily accessed by any of our operational systems, processes or staff.

For a list of all data categories and retention periods, please contact data@jamrecruitment.co.uk

Legal Basis for Processing

Our legal basis for the processing of personal data is our legitimate business interests, described in more detail below, although we will also rely on contract, legal obligation and consent for specific uses of data.

We will rely on contract if we are negotiating or have entered into a placement agreement with you or your organisation or any other contract to provide services to you or receive services from you or your organisation.

We will rely on legal obligation if we are legally required to hold information on to you to fulfil our legal obligations.

We will, in some circumstances, rely on consent for particular uses of your data and you will be asked for your express consent, if legally required. Examples of when consent may be the lawful basis for processing include permission to introduce you to a client (if you are a candidate).

Legitimate Interests

Here at JAM, we take your privacy seriously and will only use your personal information to administer your account and to provide you with our recruitment services.

We think it's reasonable to expect that, if you are looking for employment or have posted your professional CV information on a job board or professional networking site, you are happy for us to collect and otherwise use your personal data to provide our recruitment services to you, share that information with prospective employers (with your consent) and assess your skills against our live vacancies. During the job offer process, your potential employer may also want to confirm your references, qualifications and criminal record, to the extent that this is appropriate and in accordance with the law. We need to do these things so that we can help you find the job you deserve.

We want to provide you with tailored job alerts to help you on your job hunt. We therefore think it's reasonable for us to process your data to make sure that we send you the most appropriate jobs.

We may also need to use your data for our internal administrative activities, like payroll and invoicing where relevant.

Data Storage and Processing

All of the personal data we hold about you will be processed by our staff in the United Kingdom, and accessed by our cloud-based CRM system, Bullhorn (UK data centre). We take all reasonable steps to ensure that your personal data is processed securely and prevent unauthorised access to, and misuse of your personal data. For more information, please see our security policy.

Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Who do we share your data with?

As required under GDPR, we will only share your information to prospective employers with your express consent.

Unless you specify otherwise, we may also share your information with associated third parties such as our service providers where we feel this will help us to provide you with the best possible service and we have the appropriate processing agreement in place.

Data Subject Access Requests

You may ask us to confirm what information we hold about you at any time, and request us to modify, update or delete such information. If you wish to access your data at any time, there will be no administration charge (unless the request is excessive) and the request should be fulfilled within 30 days. To make such a request, please email data@jamrecruitment.co.uk

Marketing Consent

From time to time we would like to send you details of reports, promotions, offers, networking and client events and general information about the industry sectors which we think might be of interest to you. If you consent to us contacting you for marketing purposes, please click here to provide your confirmation.

Changes to our privacy notice

Any changes we make to our privacy notice in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by email. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy notice.

Contact

Questions, comments or requests regarding this privacy notice are welcomed and should be addressed to data@jamrecruitment.co.uk more

Career development

 8h

How to Deal with Interview Anxiety | Pin Point Recruitment


How to Deal with Interview Anxiety: Proven Strategies to Stay Calm and Confident

Interview anxiety is something almost everyone experiences at some point. Whether you're a recent graduate preparing for your first role or a seasoned professional aiming for a promotion, the pressure of performing well can feel overwhelming. The good news? Interview anxiety is manageable, and with the right... strategies, you can turn nervous energy into confidence.

In this guide, you'll learn why interview anxiety happens, how to overcome it, and practical techniques to stay calm before, during, and after a job interview.

Interview anxiety is the stress, fear, or nervousness you feel before or during a job interview. It may show up as:

These reactions are part of your body's natural "fight-or-flight" response. The key isn't eliminating anxiety entirely; it's learning how to manage it effectively.

Understanding the root cause helps you control it. Common reasons include:

Recognising your triggers allows you to address them directly rather than letting them control you.

Preparation builds confidence. Research the company, understand the role, and practice answering common interview questions.

Focus on:

When you know your material, your nerves naturally decrease.

When answering experience-based questions, follow a clear structure:

This prevents rambling and reduces the chance of "blanking out."

If anxiety spikes before or during the interview, try this:

Repeat a few times. This signals your body to calm down and lowers your heart rate quickly.

Instead of thinking:"I'm so nervous."

Tell yourself:"I'm excited about this opportunity."

Your body responds similarly to both emotions. This mental shift can instantly improve confidence.

Remember, interviews are conversations, not interrogations.

Prepare 2-3 thoughtful questions such as:

This shifts focus from being judged to having a professional discussion.

Even experienced professionals feel nervous before interviews. A small amount of anxiety can actually improve focus and performance.

You don't need to feel perfectly calm, just composed enough to communicate clearly.

Online interviews can add extra stress. To reduce anxiety:

Preparation eliminates avoidable stress.

If you're struggling with how to deal with interview anxiety, remember this:

Interview anxiety doesn't mean you're incapable, it means the opportunity matters to you. more

Anonymous member


Career development 5d

What really is "overqualified"? Should one have to dumb down to secure a job?
1   

  • Miika Lewandowski

    12h

    I was rejected many times for being overqualified for the job I was applying for.. my motivation was to work in a no brainer position and to enjoy... life. Their position was I might get bored more quickly as I can imagine and would quit the job.. I heard this argument at least five times. It’s annoying.  more

  • Sheila Milburn

    4d

    Having a skill set far beyond what is needed for the position. Not including internships. For ex: an employer may think the code writer that accepts... a data entry job, is a risk. Because they don't expect them to stay in the position long. Which translates to another vacancy and $$s needed for another hiring event.
    No, you shouldn't "dumb down".
    Is how you end up in an overqualified status.      more

    3
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Career development

 12h

How much are Americans lying on resumes? Here's what the data says - The Times of India


The modern résumé is no longer a summary of one's working life. It is a performance document, sharpened, optimised and, sometimes, subtly bent. In a hiring market defined by algorithms, applicant tracking systems and vanishing attention spans, the line between "polishing" and misrepresentation is increasingly thin. The question is no longer whether people embellish. It is how often, and why.A new... national survey by hiring platform Monster, titled the Credibility Gap Report, attempts to quantify what many recruiters have long suspected: honesty on résumés is more elastic than we like to admit.Monster surveyed more than 1,000 US job seekers. Thirteen per cent acknowledged that they had recently lied or included misleading information on their résumé. That figure alone is striking. But the deeper story lies in perception.According to the report:The numbers reveal a trust imbalance. Many candidates assume background checks are selective and inconsistent. That belief, Monster suggests, creates what it calls a "credibility gap," a space where job seekers feel emboldened to stretch facts because they expect scrutiny to be partial at best.This is not necessarily a story of grand deception. It is a story of rationalisation. When verification feels sporadic, candidates may inflate a title, smooth over a three-month gap, extend a contract by a few weeks, or elevate a working familiarity with a software tool into "proficiency." The risk, in their minds, appears calculated.Among those who admitted to misleading information, the most commonly adjusted elements were not degrees from imaginary universities or invented employers. They were details that feel, at first glance, negotiable:These are not usually outright fabrications. More often, they are expansions, stretching timelines, broadening scope, or rounding up results. A "team member" becomes a "team lead." A contributor to a project becomes the driver of it. A campaign that improved performance "significantly" gains a precise, and sometimes unverifiable, percentage increase.In an economy that rewards confidence and punishes hesitation, the temptation to self-amplify can feel less like dishonesty and more like survival.One anxiety hovering over recruitment today is artificial intelligence. Are machines writing our résumés for us? The data suggests caution in that assumption.Monster's research shows that 61% of job seekers say they do not use AI tools at all for résumé writing or editing. Among those who do, AI functions largely as a refinement tool:AI, in this context, is less a fabricator and more a copy editor. It smooths language, aligns phrasing with job descriptions and ensures keywords are present. Yet even here lies a subtle tension: when optimisation becomes over-optimisation, authenticity can erode.A résumé that perfectly mirrors a job description may pass an algorithmic filter, but it also risks signalling generic tailoring rather than lived expertise.The same credibility tension appears in professional branding.Monster found that 76% of job seekers believe a polished LinkedIn headshot is important (59% moderately important, 17% extremely important). Yet behaviour lags belief:Presentation matters, at least in theory. But the gap between aspiration and action persists. It suggests that while job seekers value polish, they do not always invest in it. Instead, energy may be diverted to résumé optimisation, where stakes feel higher and more immediate.Behind these statistics lies a structural reality. Many hiring processes are opaque. Candidates submit dozens, sometimes hundreds, of applications into digital voids. Rejections are automated. Feedback is rare. Roles are competitive.In such an environment, small enhancements can feel justified. A title upgrade might secure an interview. A more assertive metric might push an application past an applicant tracking system. When the cost of invisibility is high, the moral calculus shifts.But there is a countervailing force: verification often intensifies later in the hiring process. Employers may conduct selective checks once a candidate reaches advanced stages, particularly for roles involving compliance, seniority, or technical expertise. The assumption that "nobody checks" is, at best, partially true. Selective verification does not mean absent verification.The deeper issue is not simply whether candidates get caught. It is what credibility means in a professional life that can span decades.Inflated skills can unravel quickly during technical interviews. Exaggerated metrics can collapse under probing questions. Misstated dates may surface during background checks. Even when discrepancies go unnoticed initially, they create vulnerability, a weak seam that can split open under stress.Monster's findings point toward a truth: credibility itself is becoming a competitive advantage.In markets saturated with polished narratives, clarity and specificity stand out. Employers increasingly look for candidates who can explain not just what they did, but how they did it, who can walk through results, describe trade-offs and articulate failures as well as wins.That level of detail is difficult to fake.How to stand out without crossing the lineThe data suggests an alternative strategy to embellishment:The Credibility Gap Report ultimately reflects a hiring ecosystem built on selective trust. Candidates assume checks are inconsistent; some respond by stretching the truth. Employers assume exaggeration is common; some respond by increasing scrutiny.In that spiral, the most sustainable differentiator may be believability. The strongest candidates are not always the most embellished. They are the most coherent, their stories align across résumé, interview and reference checks. In a labour market shaped by algorithms and accelerated screening, that coherence may prove more powerful than any inflated bullet point.The résumé, after all, is a promise. And in the long run, promises are harder to maintain than polished lines of text. more

Alan Pfister


Career development 3d
Hi! I’m interviewing at different companies right now and my friends scared me. They said some HR “accidentally” drop a pen during the interview to see if the candidate will pick it up. They say it’s a test to check if you’re too eager to please.
I don’t get it, should I pick it up or not?
If I pick it up, will they think I’m trying too hard to please the boss? And if I don’t, will they think... I’m stubborn?
Am I thinking about this the right way?
What do you think? Thanks

 more
2   

  • Muhammad (Sani) Hamidu

    12h

    Honestly, you might be overthinking it a bit. Many of those “HR tricks” you hear about online are often exaggerated or just stories people share. Most... interviewers are more focused on your skills, experience, and how you communicate rather than small psychological tests like dropping a pen.

    If something like that happens naturally, just react normally. If someone drops a pen near you, picking it up is simply basic courtesy and professionalism — it doesn’t mean you’re trying too hard to please anyone.

    Also, hiring decisions are usually based on many factors: your qualifications, how well you answer questions, how you fit the role, and sometimes how you compare with other candidates. Small moments like that rarely determine the outcome of an interview.

    The best approach is to focus on preparing well, being confident, and behaving naturally rather than trying to guess or outplay supposed “tests.”     more

  • Comfort Kambey

    1d

    How you pick up the pen also counts. How sure are that picking up the pen in the course of the interview is not against the rules

Load more...

Career development

 15h

Unpacking personal branding


THINK of the world's most admired brands. Whether it is a global tech giant, a trusted airline or a beloved football team, what makes them attractive is rarely just their logo, colours or slogan. Their power lies in the value they provide and how consistently they communicate it.

Strong brands evoke trust, confidence and emotional connection. They represent something beyond the product. It is an... experience, promise and reputation.

In today's competitive world, everyone is in the business of themselves. Whether you are a student, professional, entrepreneur, academic or public servant, you are constantly presenting a version of yourself to the world.

In job interviews, meetings, social media interactions, community engagements and even casual conversations -- you are "selling" something: your competence, credibility, reliability or values.

Personal branding is often misunderstood as superficial packaging -- a polished LinkedIn profile, stylish clothing, eloquent speech or a carefully curated social media presence. While these elements may contribute to visibility, they do not constitute the essence of a personal brand.

At its core, personal branding is not cosmetic. It is reputational.

A personal brand is how people feel or think about you when your name comes up in a room you are not in.

It is the mental and emotional association others attach to your presence. Are you seen as dependable? Innovative? Ethical? Strategic? Compassionate? Results-driven? These perceptions shape whether opportunities find you or pass you by.

Personal branding, therefore, is deeply personal. It reflects who you are -- your values, beliefs, strengths, purpose and worldview.

It is anchored in authenticity. It is not about performing a role but embodying a consistent identity that others can trust.

In professional spaces, individuals are often evaluated not just on technical competence but on perceived character and leadership presence.

Two people may possess similar qualifications, but the one with a clearer personal brand -- a known track record of integrity, collaboration or innovation -- is more likely to be entrusted with responsibility.

Why? Because reputation reduces uncertainty.

Decision-makers are drawn to individuals whose brand signals reliability and alignment with institutional goals. In essence, personal branding becomes a shorthand for trust.

Furthermore, a strong personal brand allows individuals to transcend traditional limitations. Instead of waiting for opportunities within existing structures, individuals with defined brands often create new pathways. They become thought leaders, change agents and connectors who shape conversations rather than merely participate in them.

For instance, someone known for strategic thinking may find themselves invited to policy discussions. A person recognised for empathy and community engagement may be entrusted with stakeholder relations. Over time, their personal brand opens doors that formal titles alone cannot.

However, authenticity remains critical. A personal brand built on image without substance quickly collapses under scrutiny.

In an era where digital footprints are permanent and transparency is unavoidable, inconsistency between projected identity and lived values can damage credibility.

True personal branding is, therefore, not about image management but about alignment -- aligning what you believe, what you say, and what you consistently do.

In this sense, personal branding is not something you switch on when needed. It is something you live. It is a lifestyle.

Ultimately, personal branding is the authentic image you present to the world -- not crafted for applause, but grounded in purpose. When developed intentionally and ethically, it allows individuals not only to stand out but also to stand for something meaningful. And in a world full of noise, that distinction is powerful. more

Career development

 21h

'He beat the odds': Maudwella Kirkendoll's road to nonprofit leadership


Growing up in Milwaukee's Park West neighborhood on North 28th and West Clarke streets taught Maudwella Kirkendoll early that expectations can save a life.

His family and friends set high expectations for him, and being with them got him to where he is today.

The long road took him many places, some tragic.

He lost his mother at age 11 and was forced to grow up a little too early.

"It shapes... you," Kirkendoll said of the experience. "You learn to read people. You learn responsibility."

Today, as the chief operating officer, or COO, of Community Advocates, Kirkendoll oversees one of Milwaukee's most stable and largest social service organizations. The group's work includes housing, behavioral health, emergency assistance and partnerships with grassroots groups across the city.

But the foundation of his leadership was built long before he ever heard the phrase social services.

According to his sister Nurika Thomas, Kirkendoll has always been a leader.

"He is loyal, passionate and caring," she said.

As a child, they called him "Dynamite." The nickname stuck so much that some family members never used his given name.

The name came with expectations. His friends leaned on him for advice and even random facts about math or government. They held him to a standard he sometimes didn't hold for himself.

"They would skip school and do whatever they did," he said. "But if they caught me during the school day they'd walk me to the bus stop."

That role never ended. He still gets calls from old friends who need help with résumés, marriages or job leads. He doesn't hang out the way he used to, but he always helps, gives advice and listens.

At home, he said, there was church four nights a week.

That mix -- street reality and moral expectation -- defines his approach to service.

As a case manager, clients respected him because he could say, "I understand."

He did. He grew up poor, experienced trauma and knows firsthand what instability feels like.

But he believes empathy must be paired with accountability.

"I'll help you this month," he'd tell clients. "But what are we going to do so you're not back here next month?"

That balance comes from his own life. He was given a second chance, he said. He believes others deserve one, too. But they also deserve someone who believes they're capable of more.

Social services were never the goal. He actually didn't know much about the field before joining it.

As a kid, his only exposure to assistance came from standing in food lines and knowing the building at North 12th and West Vliet streets.

"Food stamps and free cheese," he said. "That's all I knew."

At 16 he enrolled at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and failed every class. He was smart but unfocused and getting into trouble.

He said he struggled to navigate between what he knew was right and what was right in front of him.

Then he met the woman who became his wife. She challenged him to lean into his smarts and give school another try.

He enrolled at Milwaukee Area Technical College before transferring to University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

"He beat the odds," Thomas said. "I'm very proud that he still reaches back in the community to try to help, and he's understanding also because he knows the environment and he knows how hard it is."

He graduated college, began a graduate program in school business management and interned with Milwaukee Public Schools, planning for a career in school administration.

He hated it.

"This is a place where nothing gets done," he said he remembers thinking. Six months in, he knew he couldn't stay.

Around the same time, a coordinator position opened at Community Advocates. He took it. It was the only job he ever formally applied for there. Every promotion since, from manager to division director, to COO, he said, came because someone saw something in him.

"I never planned this," he said. "But I love what I do."

On paper, COO seems like there is some distance from day-to-day realities.

In practice, Kirkendoll starts his days at 7 a.m. answering emails before he no longer has time. By 9 in the morning, he's checking in with managers and frontline staff.

Community Advocates runs a shelter and several other buildings so he's wherever he needs to be when a crisis happens. This includes repairs and other general maintenance.

He prefers working with his hands. Roofing, plumbing, windows and anything else he can do with them gives him peace.

So does golf, a sport he once dismissed as "not for me."

Inside the organization, managers are expected to collaborate because clients rarely arrive with a single issue.

Andi Elliott, CEO of Community Advocates, said Kirkendoll thrives at bringing people and thoughts together.

"If there's conflict on a team, he brings everybody together and talks it through," she said. "Strengthening team dynamics rather than creating division."

Outside the building, Community Advocates quietly supports smaller grassroots groups that lack infrastructure.

"We don't talk about that work a lot," Kirkendoll said. "But it matters."

He is wary of politics. Years in meetings with city and county officials made him skeptical of silos and public alliances that don't match private conversations. He refuses to "play the game." It may cost some opportunities, he admits, but he can look at himself in the mirror.

He believes integrity is non-negotiable.

Good service to Kirkendoll looks like fully listening, assessing the immediate need, and then digging deeper to address the root cause so the person doesn't have to return.

"I would love to work ourselves out of business," he said. "If we can stop young Black and brown people from coming through our doors, that's success."

He leads staffers the same way.

In his 26 years at Community Advocates, Kirkendoll said elevating people was his greatest accomplishment.

Many of the organization's current leaders started as interns, temps or entry-level staff under his supervision. He pulled them up, developed them and positioned them to lead.

"I'm not going to be here forever," he said. "We've set ourselves up for a good transition."

The serenity prayer guides him: Change what you can, release what you can't. Focus on the work in front of you.

Sometimes he's surprised he made it this far. There were moments in his youth when living past 18 didn't feel guaranteed.

Now he's 50. He's thinking about grandchildren. And eventually stepping back so younger leaders can take the reins so he can enjoy his later years instead of working until there's no time left to enjoy them.

"He is the type of person that is genuine, authentic and makes real connections with everybody he encounters," Elliott said. "He just quietly does the work, not for accolades or attention, just because that's who he is and that's what he believes in." more

Career development

 23h

Senior SysAdmin Resume Package


I want to position myself for senior-level system administration roles within the technology sector and need a cohesive personal-branding bundle. My current résumé is dated and poorly written. I have no cover letter. My LinkedIn profile lacks the right keywords for today's applicant-tracking systems. Here's what I need from you: * An accomplishment-driven résumé tailored to senior technology... hiring managers and optimised for ATS parsing (Word + PDF). * A persuasive, one-page cover letter that speaks directly to common pain points -- high-availability, automation, security hardening -- and shows how my experience solves them. * A fully rewritten LinkedIn profile: headline, summary, experience bullets, skills, and recommendations prompts, all tuned to system administration search terms and thought-leadership tone. I'll supply my current documents I'm looking for crisp language and a consistent voice across all three assets. Please outline your process, expected turnaround, and one round of revisions so we can get this right. more

Career development

 1d

UW-Oshkosh Internship and Career Fair links more than 1,000 students, alumni to industry leaders - UW Oshkosh Today


More than 1,000 students met with 118 employers during the spring 2026 UW-Oshkosh Internship and Career Fair inside the Kolf Sports Center.

A total of 118 companies, including those represented by dozens of University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh alumni, filled Kolf Sports Center for the Spring 2026 Internship and Career Fair -- connecting more than 1,000 students with internships, jobs and future... mentors.

The March 2 on-campus event, now in its 21st year, continues to serve as a cornerstone of career preparation, said Jamie Page-Stadler, director of Career and Professional Development.

"What I really hope students get out of coming to the internship and career fair is that they build connections," Page-Stadler said. "Some students are looking for internships or full-time roles. Others already have a job and want to keep their network open. Learning how to stay connected is huge."

Titan alumni recruiting Titans

At the booth for Society Insurance, 2025 finance graduate Elizabeth Buck stood on the other side of the table from where she once nervously handed employers her résumé. Buck, now a commercial underwriter, interned with Society for a year after connecting at the career fair. Upon graduation, she transitioned full time into underwriting.

"Yes, it does work," Buck said of the fair. "It can be so nerve-wracking. We've all been in that seat before. But getting out and doing it is a big, big step."

She credits UW-Oshkosh's business program for helping her build confidence and industry connections, particularly through faculty who brought insurance professionals into the classroom.

"I think UWO does an amazing job connecting you into the business world," she said. "Finding mentors, finding people who were in the same position as you, that's so important when you're starting your career."

At Secura Insurance, multiple alumni returned to recruit. Alex Madden, a 2018 marketing graduate and now a commercial lines underwriter, remembers being "nervous, all sweaty" walking up to employers as a student.

"I wanted to give back and kind of ease that tension," Madden said. "I love working for Secura, so I want to try to get UWO grads into the company."

He said UW-Oshkosh's sales emphasis helped him grow comfortable with public speaking, a skill he uses daily in underwriting.

Fellow alum Michael Powell, a 2019 business project management graduate who now works as a workers' compensation claims representative, also traces his path back to connections made at the campus career fairs.

"The career fair is a big thumbs up," said Powell, who landed an internship through the career fair as a student. "It builds so many different skills, from getting up in front of strangers and shaking hands to making eye contact and starting what could become a professional relationship with your future employer."

Across the fieldhouse, 2023 business administration graduate Riley Anastasi represented Sprocket Security, where he works in business development. His advice to students seeking jobs is not to let a single handshake be the end of the conversation.

"Don't think that shaking hands here is something someone's going to remember forever," Anastasi said. "Go the extra step. Shoot them a message. Follow up."

For 2021 history graduate Jacob Patterson, now a talent attraction specialist with Hoffmaster Group, the fair offers a chance to keep talent local.

"Obviously I love UWO. I went here," Patterson said. "We're local, so it helps bring in local talent instead of needing to ship people in from elsewhere."

He encourages students to focus on perseverance and clear communication.

"Make sure you're communicating your skills and abilities clearly, both through your résumé and when you're speaking to people," he said.

The event also drew alumni from public service. Troy Krepsky, a 1994 psychology graduate and behavioral health supervisor with Sheboygan County Health and Human Services, said his department has successfully hired UW-Oshkosh graduates, including one recent connection first made at the career fair.

"We got a sense of who she was before we offered her an interview," Krepsky said.

Students making the rounds

Among those working the booths this year was UWO senior finance major Andrew Schad of Kiel, who has attended the fair every year since arriving on campus.

"I've made great connections every single year," Schad said, adding he secured an internship through a previous fair.

For Page-Stadler, those success stories, internships turning into full-time roles and alumni returning to recruit, are the reason the event continues to grow. Roughly half of the recruiters are UW-Oshkosh alumni.

"They have a shared story with our students," Page-Stadler said. "They can talk about their time on campus. They care. And they can get the students' questions answered."

She describes UW-Oshkosh students as "humble and qualified." more

Career development

 1d

15+ Job candidates who weren't prepared for their interviews: 'I knew right there: I am not getting this job'


The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

The more confident you seem in a job interview, the better your chances are at getting the job. This often backfires, though. People who are true experts in their field might be asked about something, and if they don't know it, they have the confidence to admit that. Meanwhile, people who are newer to the field will... just make something up to try and appease the interviewer. And guess which person will make it to round #2? That's right, the newbie will, while the person with a stronger background will be sent a rejection email.

Once you've recovered from the initial shock and surprise of doing a less-than-stellar interview, you do build character from it. You might wind up with a funny story to tell your friends about. You will certainly learn for next time!

These folks shared some of their most unfortunate job interview experiences -- for example, some people get so nervous that they start crying mid-interview. You might still be able to recover from that (especially if you're just starting out!). Other people got literally called out by their own interviewers! Though that must be a harsh kind of criticism to hear in the moment, it's actually very valuable to know exactly what you're doing wrong, so that way, you won't ruin another interview with it.

Interestingly, some people will tell you that the best way to do a job interview is by going with zero expectations. Instead, try to charm the interviewer, and view the entire thing as a conversation, rather than a one-sided barrage of questions.

However, I've also heard that no matter how old or experienced you are, you'll probably always get butterflies in your stomach before a job interview, so... that's worth remembering, too. Even CEOs making 7 figures a year will still get anxious before meeting with a hiring manager! All we can do is learn from our mistakes and be better in the future. more

Career development

 1d

Professional Credentials And Certifications Are Booming, But 'Many Of Them Are Crap'


(Yahoo! Finance) - There's no shortage of certifications, badges, and credentials for enterprising workers to acquire and tout to potential employers -- especially when everyone's trying to flex AI literacy.

But which ones are actually worthwhile?

Nondegree credentials are becoming increasingly prevalent on US résumés, according to a new analysis from the Brookings Institution, with more than... 1.5 million unique certificates, certifications, badges, and microcredentials to choose from. Following the passage of President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, certain credential programs will even be eligible for Pell Grants, the federal aid program for low-income students, as more workers eschew traditional four-year degrees that are increasingly seen as not worth the money.

Yet the impact of nondegree credentials on workers' pay varies widely, with some offering little to no boost. And that's not always clear to job seekers looking to stack up new skills in ultracompetitive job searches.

"The growth of this market has been tremendous," Marcela Escobari, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told Yahoo Finance. "People are going to these tools, and yet many of them are crap -- and many of them could actually be helpful."

"We have a skilling market that's not very accountable," Escobari added.

Return on investment

To draw the greatest benefit from a nondegree credential, the type of program is important, as is its relevance to the worker's field, the Brookings researchers found in their review of résumé data from Revelio Labs.

Career-relevant certifications that are recognized by the industry and require a proctored exam or third-party verification, for example, offer stronger returns to workers' pay, even when multiple certifications are accumulated.

"Certifications look like they add value for additional ones, and that probably has to do with their rigor and industry recognition," said Ian Seyal, a senior research analyst at the Brookings Institution. "They appear to be conferring generally valuable skills."

Meanwhile, badges -- a digital representation of a worker's completion of an online program -- may offer a more modest, one-time wage benefit, even if they're not relevant to the worker's industry.

As for who is receiving the credentials, college-educated and experienced workers flock to the programs more than early-career workers and people without a college degree, despite the latter two categories experiencing the biggest wage gains from upskilling.

In fact, workers without a bachelor's degree can see a 6.8% wage premium for their first job-relevant nondegree credential, according to the Brookings Institution. Those workers might also be poised to benefit from the Pell Grant program opening up to nondegree credentials.

"Somebody with less experience and with a high school degree gets the most value, and yet gets credentials at the lowest rate," Escobari said. "That's where the Pell opportunity -- if accompanied with real accountability and data on value -- can turn this around."

Higher pay isn't the only upside of nondegree credentials. A report from the Burning Glass Institute noted that some credentials place workers on a better path toward mobility and stability.

A "more holistic assessment shows that roughly 1 in 3 credentials move workers ahead, either through delivering increased wages, driving upward mobility within a current career path, and/or helping workers find a new job," the report said.

Still, "the data also confirms that 69% of credentials offer minimal value."

"Non-degree credentials are meant to be not only mechanisms for people to learn, but mechanisms for people to signal that they have acquired capabilities that their resumes wouldn't suggest," Burning Glass Institute president Matt Sigelman told Yahoo Finance. "When so few of them work, that means that employers have trouble interpreting them and are less likely to honor them, and workers don't know which ones to choose, and ultimately in many cases decide to skip the whole endeavor."

Certificate in AI?

Wading through an avalanche of possible credentials can be daunting, particularly when competition in the job market is steep, and job seekers feel squeezed between overqualified candidates and the much-hyped AI advances that threaten to both displace new workers and create new types of jobs.

"AI-related credentials appear to be growing at least twice as fast as non-AI credentials, even though it's a small part of the whole credential growth," Escobari said. "Growth is especially strong among people implementing AI, not developing it."

Indeed, LinkedIn's Skills on the Rise list, released on Feb. 24, noted AI-based skills were among the fastest-growing. Mercer's recent Global Talent Trends report for 2026 stressed that while the vast majority of executives expect to slash headcount amid AI advancements in the next two years, most HR managers also felt "difficulty attracting talent with vital digital skills is the top workforce challenge facing businesses in 2026."

But that doesn't mean everyone should race to get a generalized credential with "AI" in the title. Since there are many use cases for the technology, employers may be most interested in how workers can apply AI to their chosen field, or one that's complementary, if the worker risks being displaced due to AI exposure.

"Exposure is not a bad thing," Escobari said. "It's complementarity that makes a difference in what you should be thinking about when you choose to upskill, and what to choose in terms of a resilient job out there." more

Martin Firth


Career development 27m
I’m on a trial period at work and I’m not sure if I want to stay at this company. Our workday ends at 7 PM and I go home on time. But my coworkers don’t understand why I don’t stay late. They say I’m not interested in the company and that I don’t care about my job.
I honestly don’t understand, are they jealous or do they just want to control me?

Career development

 1d

How the Multifamily Industry Is Finding the Next Generation of Talent


Industry professionals share their top ways for searching for talent across the brokerage, development and property management trades.

Recruiting in the multifamily business has evolved way beyond simply posting an opening on a recruiting website and waiting for resumes to flow in. In today's job market, firms of all shapes and sizes are combining online recruitment with professional networks and... hands-on training programs to attract the next generation of talent.

While online job boards and social media have widened the applicant pool and strengthened network connections, higher application numbers have also reshaped how companies evaluate candidates. In conversations with Multi-Housing News, recruiters said that curiosity, initiative and communication about culture and growth opportunities now play a larger role in both standing out as a company to the talent pool and the selection of those candidates.

Rethinking the tried-and-true

In recent years, job boards have shifted from Monster and CareerBuilder to platforms such as Indeed and LinkedIn, which remain some companies' preferred method to source talent. Gladys Pagan, assistant vice president of human resources at Draper & Kramer, said that most of the firm's applicants come from Indeed.

She attributes these patterns to the platforms' ease of use and quick one-click applications, which speed up the process.

While applying has become easier, resumes and cover letters begin to look similar with the evolution of AI tools, Pagan pointed out. "Don't lose that extra touch," she advised. "Use your critical thinking skills, and don't rely on tools."

Despite the increase in applicant volumes, Draper & Kramer continues to prioritize customer service and sales experience when evaluating candidates, particularly for entry-level positions, which are typically leasing roles that can lead to property management positions.

READ ALSO: MHN Executive Council: The Multifamily Industry is Changing. Here's How Professionals Need to Adapt.

While national-scale firms such as Draper & Kramer are managing higher volumes of online applicants via recruiting networks, others are using their social media presence to attract talent. An employer's online presence plays a growing role in how candidates evaluate where they want to work, according to Lori Flaska, vice president of human resources at Habitat.

"We take a multichannel approach to recruiting that blends digital tools with relationship-driven sourcing," she said.

Platforms such as LinkedIn have expanded Habitat's access to prospective talent. To compete in the Chicagoland market, the firm emphasizes its reputation and growth opportunities while also strengthening its employer brand online to stand out to potential hires.

Hubbell Realty's recruiting strategy increasingly depends on the role at hand. "One size does not fit all in our world," observed Rick Tollakson, the firm's CEO. For technology and corporate development positions, Hubbell sees the most engagement from LinkedIn, targeted job boards and social media campaigns. For construction positions, these are sourced through trade schools, apprenticeships and industry connections.

Leaning on networks

Professional networks also continue to play a role in multifamily hiring. Jon Morgan, co-founder and managing principal at Interra Realty, said that referrals have become the preferred recruitment method in today's environment.

"When I started, there were a lot of job boards that have morphed into Indeed and others," he said. "With AI-driven technology out there, the quality of leads and candidates isn't as good as it used to be. A big source of our recruitment comes from referrals."

Morgan noted that many of those referrals come from repeat clients and longstanding relationships. He added that those who do their homework by researching Interra on social media stand out in the process. Persistent interest in a position is a quality recruiters value in applicants.

On the property management side, Habitat also identifies quality candidates from industry networks. "This allows us to identify emerging talent and professionals who are already invested in the industry," Flaska reported. "That combination helps us attract candidates who are both qualified and aligned with our culture."

In-house and client referrals have also been successful channels for JLL. "With referrals, our team still goes through the proper vetting process to make sure candidates have the tangible skills for the role," noted Katie Norman, recruitment lead for JLL Capital Markets and Risk Advisory.

Hands-on experiences

Building experience through internships, mentorship and hands-on training has become another key supplier for multifamily industry talent. JLL hosts a 10-week internship program every summer, designed to train potential employees for multiple roles. The end goal is a job offer for students and interns, which the company typically hires at the one- to five-year experience level.

The firm promotes this program through college career fairs and online job listings. Norman listed the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Illinois as two schools JLL sends recruitment teams to, but the firm also hosts virtual events to inform candidates across the U.S. about the program and encourage them to apply. For context, JLL receives roughly 40,000 applicants for about 350 internship spots each year.

"The standout candidates are really the ones that can speak to why JLL, why commercial real estate, and have a macroeconomic understanding of what's happening in the real estate industry," Norman said.

READ ALSO: Hire Smart, Retain Smarter: Gen Z Employee Retention Strategies

Each year Interra hires one or two interns, who eventually become strong employees for the firm. The program acts as a "Brokerage 101" course, with interns working closely with a mentor and gaining hands-on experience similar to a first-year broker's.

"They get to do everything from helping our brokers clean up their databases to putting together call lists, doing market analysis and research and full underwriting," Morgan said.

Interns who stay plugged into the process, ask questions and demonstrate leadership skills are the most successful, he added.

Helen Marshall, executive vice president & chief people officer at Campus Apartments, said the company sees success through university co-op partnerships that give students early exposure to development in student housing. Related and relevant coursework in real estate, finance, construction or engineering can signal a long-term commitment to the industry.

For development and other construction-related roles, that hands-on experience goes past internships into apprenticeships and school partnerships, including trade schools, community colleges and workforce development programs.

"In today's market, you have to show up where the next generation already is," Tollakson observed. more

Career development

 1d

Outstanding Citation Or Warrant? Here's How To Handle It Without Panic - Trulite Led


It is not only a matter of a single day in the courtroom. It can follow you into background checks, job interviews as well as insurance renewals and even daily routines such as going to work. There are a lot of stakes in West Texas where reputation and transportation are tied closely to opportunities. Experienced guidance is crucial when confronted with legal issues. It can mean the difference... between a long and inexplicably resolvable issue.

Aaronson Law Firm is a firm that has been serving clients throughout El Paso, Texas and the surrounding counties for more than 40 years. The firm has handled thousands of cases and knows that each situation is unique. Every defense has to be crafted to meet the needs of each client.

A conviction for driving while impaired can bring immediate anxiety. You might be worried about prison time, fines and court costs. Beyond that, convictions may impact employment, professional licensure, and insurance rates.

A DWI lawyer who is well-informed will go beyond the simple charge. The details of the stop, arrest as well as other related events should be carefully examined. This includes evaluating the law enforcement's compliance with procedures, if the equipment used to test was properly maintained, as well as whether evidence was collected lawfully.

Aaronson Law Firm does not reuse strategies for criminal defense from the case to case. Each client receives a personalized defense plan tailored to their specific circumstances and long-term goals. Our focus is always on protecting your rights while minimizing possible consequences, regardless of regardless of whether the goal is to secure a dismissal or reduce penalties or prepare for trial.

In many areas of Texas, driving is essential. If a driver's license is suspended in the aftermath of an DWI or traffic related offense the daily obligations can become difficult to handle. Transport is typically required to attend work, family obligations, and medical appointments.

A valid occupational driver's license can allow limited driving privileges during a suspension period. The license is restricted and allows for travel subject to certain conditions and is endorsed by the court. However, the process for applying needs careful preparation, correct filing and conformity with the specific legal requirements.

Aaronson Law Firm helps clients obtain a professional drivers license in a speedy and accurate manner. By acting swiftly, people can reduce disruption to their lives and keep peace while dealing with the legal aspect.

Background checks can reveal an arrest history even if the case is dismissed or resolved favorably. This can have an impact on employment application, housing applications and even professional advancement. If the circumstances are suitable the criminal expunctions provide an opportunity to block certain information from the public domain.

Criminal expunctions can erase arrests or charges. This allows individuals to move on without this history showing up in most searches. Determining eligibility under Texas law requires a careful review of the law, as not all cases meet the criteria.

Aaronson Law Firm evaluates each client's circumstances to determine whether criminal expunction is an option. The procedure involves careful legal filings as well as strict adherence to the rules of procedure. If done correctly, the process can be a significant relief and bring peace of mind.

Legal issues can cause doubt and uncertainty regarding what lies ahead. If you are facing an DWI charge, license suspension, outstanding warrant, or seeking criminal expunctions, experienced legal representation can provide the clarity and direction.

Aaronson Law Firm is dedicated to direct communication, customized defense strategies, and advocacy. The firm has more than 40 years of experience with Texas criminal law and is dedicated to protecting clients' rights, returning their driving privileges, as well as aiding them in pursuing a better future.

A well-informed decision can help you create a better future when it comes to your freedom, your mobility, or even the history you've built. more

Career development

 2d

What You've Built > Where You Studied


Résumés used to rely on where you studied. Your school, your GPA, your degree, that was the story. But now, that story is changing.

In 2021, Google dropped degree requirements for many roles. Why? Because they found that great problem-solvers don't always come from elite colleges. Some come from community forums. From YouTube. From figuring things out the hard way. People from non-traditional... paths often show more resilience and resourcefulness because no one hands them the answers; they learn to find them.

When a hiring manager sees a self-taught coder with open-source projects on GitHub and real users, that speaks louder than a CS degree without work to show. A writer with a viral Substack post has more credibility than one with a forgotten diploma. These are not exceptions; they're becoming the norm.

Why the shift? Because companies have been burned. They've hired based on education only to find candidates who freeze when problems don't match the textbook. In contrast, the ones who've built in the wild already know how to adapt when the rules change.

It's not that degrees are useless. They still show structure, discipline, and foundation. But without proof of what you can apply, they fall flat. In a world shaped by rapid tech, instant publishing, and AI-everything, showing your work isn't extra ; it's essential.

So build something. Make it public. Let your ideas live in the open. Because your résumé isn't your past anymore, it's your platform. more

  • Steward Tony Pacheco

    56
    1d

    Finally! Some common great advice. Degrees no longer hold that value as it once did after years of scandals in education, entitlement in real world... interaction & inadequate performance in the workplace. Seems that ideologies have over run the education system in the last few decades leaving the various industries that sustain our civilization with adult children who care more about what’s in hand than actually building something substantial with hand. I’ll take performance over self imposed prestige any day. more

Career development

 1d

It's official: Hiring managers aren't reading your résumé


A decade ago, I walked into an office to interview for my first newsroom internship. Wearing a millennial-core business casual H&M pencil skirt and Steve Madden flats, I handed my résumé -- neatly spaced Arial font, carefully considered, and kept crisp in its designated folder -- to the editor. Without looking up from her computer, she said, "I don't read résumés," and flicked the paper to the... floor.

If you've ever assumed an automated applicant tracking system has thrown out your résumé, I can tell you it feels just as demoralizing to watch it happen IRL. Today, more hiring managers and recruiters are following that approach. Now that anyone can spin up a buzzword-filled résumé and cover letter in seconds with ChatGPT, doctor a flawless headshot, or cheat a coding test, faked or embellished applications have become indiscernible from quality candidates.

The résumé has been relegated.

"Resume not your thing? That's great, we don't really read them anyway!" reads a job post for an engineer at Expensify. "While we know you're awesome, it's actually really hard and time consuming to find you in the midst of literally hundreds of other applications we get from everyone else." The post goes on to list five questions applications should answer to be considered. "We don't require a résumé, and we don't expect one," notes a software engineering job at Automattic, which owns WordPress.com and Tumblr.

Some employers are focusing more on a person's enthusiasm and skills than shiny credentials. E-commerce platform Gumroad asks prospective software engineers to send an email detailing why they want to work there, what they've built, and, if selected, to participate in a paid four-to-six-week work trial.

Research has long shown that résumés alone with impressive companies and years of experience aren't great predictors of success in a new job. Now, in the age of Gen AI slop, "the résumé is almost worthless because they all read the same," says Michelle Volberg, founder and CEO of Twill, a recruiting software company. She compares AI-edited résumés to going to a restaurant where "the menu looked really beautiful and had all these amazing ingredients and dishes, but there was no one there actually making the food."

Volberg tells me she's seen a shift just in the past three months: some companies she works with are opting to extend paid work trials for as long as a month to evaluate a candidate. Some are focused more on workers' real-time abilities than if they've worked at a Big Tech company or went to an Ivy League school. A new survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that 70% of employers say they're using skills-based hiring, which prioritizes practical abilities and aptitudes over credentials like degrees and years of experience. A résumé might still be used to identify and track a candidate, Volberg says, but AI résumés aren't wowing recruiters.

In a callous job market where it can feel like everyone's hungry and nobody's making it to the table, recruiters and job seekers alike are looking for a shakeup. But anytime the rules of the game change, there's bound to be new winners and losers.

For more than a decade, AI tools that evaluate résumés and cover letters have made biased choices, preferring male candidates or the applicants seen earlier in the process. Recruiters and job seekers have complained to me about AI-generated and cover letters hitting AI résumé readers -- overwhelming recruiters with unqualified applicants and demoralizing job seekers who had been looking for work for months. As the labor market tightened after 2022, the problem worsened. Mass layoffs in the tech industry shifted the power from a worker market to an employer one, and it wasn't feasible for many human recruiters to review all the inbound applications they received, says Stephanie Alston, CEO of staffing firm BGG Enterprises. Software engineers started using AI to cheat their way through coding tests, leaving hiring managers to come up with novel ways to evaluate candidates. Realizing how easy it had become to apply for a role and how that had become a problem rather than an asset always, LinkedIn started using AI to compare profiles and job descriptions, encouraging people to apply for jobs they might be a better fit for, rather than following the age-old career advice of just throwing an application in the ring.

"We don't require a résumé, and we don't expect one," reads a software engineer job opening at Automattic.

Recruiters have increasingly moved away from relying on application portals to instead actively source candidates from LinkedIn or their own networks. "There's a lot of frustration on both ends, and I'm just wondering at what point will it all just come to a crash," Alston says.

Résumé fluffing and editing has broken down trust between employers and job seekers. Bolun Li tells me he ran into this disconnect when he was working on his first fintech startup in college. He would hire engineers with the "perfect résumé" from Duke University, where he was also enrolled, but found his hires "couldn't build anything," he tells me. "You can't look at people's résumés to know if they're good at what they do. I always had this notion that I need to look at people's work to hire someone, versus looking at what they say they've done."

That frustration inspired his new startup, Vamo, which searches GitHub to find software developers who have completed projects similar to what a company needs. Li, now 27, launched it last month, after using an early model of the concept to make his own hires. Among them is Alex Vasquez, 23, who became the company's founding engineer after Li found a past project he made on GitHub. Vasquez, who attended the University of Massachusetts Lowell, applied to plenty of jobs, but felt he was lost in automated applicant systems. He kept tinkering and building projects that interested him on his own, and that's how Li found him. "I definitely didn't stand a chance, even if I was very capable," Vasquez tells me of other jobs for which he applied. Li tells me never even saw Vasquez's résumé.

Showing skills rather than listing them could become the new normal, even outside of technical fields, J.T. O'Donnell, founder of Work It Daily, a career coaching platform, tells me. Companies are shifting away from posting jobs on career sites, and instead opting for internal promotions or having recruiters do cold outreach in fields where the number of applicants far surpasses the open jobs. It's a trend O'Donnell calls "quiet hiring," and to succeed, she says, job seekers have to market themselves by posting about their projects and thoughts on LinkedIn. O'Donnell thinks posting videos will become crucial ways for people to showcase their knowledge, personality, and signal that they're human. "When you're talking about your industry and your skill sets, you're actually feeding the database so that recruiters can find you in the quiet hiring era, and that's where you're gonna see a big shift in how people get hired," she says.

LinkedIn has also noticed the change. The company announced a new feature for job seekers to verify skills listed on their profiles. The site partnered with AI tools like Descript, Lovable, and Replit to confirm a person's proficiency based on how they actually use the tools, using AI to assess how well the person can use them. "There is a shift happening from surface level signals like titles or keywords to this deeper evidence of capability," Pat Whelan, product manager at LinkedIn. A résumé is "still a helpful signal, but it's just one. Employers want to know the next level of detail, like the projects you've worked on, the skills you've gained, the context and scale of your experience."

For six months, Indeed has been running a beta program that speeds up the interview process, allowing people to apply for entry-level roles in fields like retail and hospitality and immediately interview if a recruiter is online. It's a model that harkens back to the old days of walking into a business and submitting an application face-to-face. The job site found candidates were waiting longer to hear back from recruiters and falling into the "the black hole problem," says Connie Cheng, a senior product manager at Indeed, tells me. The goal was to compress the time between submitting applications and scheduling calls, but the virtual interview process also allows job seekers "to be able to put their best foot forward and for them to be able to stand out beyond just their typical application," Cheng says.

Not everyone has a star résumé. Basing hiring decisions on skills might open doors to candidates previously overlooked, but perhaps the best workers aren't publishing their work online, and the most creative problem solvers might not post regularly on LinkedIn or feel comfortable spilling their thoughts on camera. Not everyone has access to robust networking events where they live or time to attend if they're balancing work with other responsibilities like school or caregiving. Paid work trials might be great for candidates and employers to see if there's a good fit, but companies won't offer them to many prospective workers. The new ways of hiring could exclude people just as biased résumé reading has, but it will take time for us to see the effects.

"We've seen innocent looking or innocuous proxies that actually turn out to be very biased, and you only know that because somebody checked, and unfortunately often nobody checks," says Hilke Schellmann, author of "The Algorithm," a book that examines the decisions AI makes about who gets hired, promoted, or fired. The technology behind candidate evaluations isn't necessarily a problem when paired with a sharp human recruiter, but it can't be made strictly in the name of efficiency for the hiring process. "There needs to be a technological solution, but I actually think what it might be is not one technological solution, but a much more holistic assessment of candidates." For now, jobs might not make you upload a résumé, but that doesn't mean landing a job will get easier overnight. more

Career development

 1d

The latest casualty in the white-collar job apocalypse: Résumés


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A decade ago, I walked into an office to interview for my first newsroom internship. Wearing a millennial-core business casual H&M pencil skirt and Steve Madden flats, I handed my résumé -- neatly spaced Arial font, carefully considered, and kept crisp in its... designated folder -- to the editor. Without looking up from her computer, she said, "I don't read résumés," and flicked the paper to the floor.

If you've ever assumed an automated applicant tracking system has thrown out your résumé, I can tell you it feels just as demoralizing to watch it happen IRL. Today, more hiring managers and recruiters are following that approach. Now that anyone can spin up a buzzword-filled résumé and cover letter in seconds with ChatGPT, doctor a flawless headshot, or cheat a coding test, faked or embellished applications have become indiscernible from quality candidates.

The résumé has been relegated.

"Resume not your thing? That's great, we don't really read them anyway!" reads a job post for an engineer at Expensify. "While we know you're awesome, it's actually really hard and time consuming to find you in the midst of literally hundreds of other applications we get from everyone else." The post goes on to list five questions applications should answer to be considered. "We don't require a résumé, and we don't expect one," notes a software engineering job at Automattic, which owns WordPress.com and Tumblr.

Some employers are focusing more on a person's enthusiasm and skills than shiny credentials. E-commerce platform Gumroad asks prospective software engineers to send an email detailing why they want to work there, what they've built, and, if selected, to participate in a paid four-to-six-week work trial.

Research has long shown that résumés alone with impressive companies and years of experience aren't great predictors of success in a new job. Now, in the age of Gen AI slop, "the résumé is almost worthless because they all read the same," says Michelle Volberg, founder and CEO of Twill, a recruiting software company. She compares AI-edited résumés to going to a restaurant where "the menu looked really beautiful and had all these amazing ingredients and dishes, but there was no one there actually making the food."

Volberg tells me she's seen a shift just in the past three months: some companies she works with are opting to extend paid work trials for as long as a month to evaluate a candidate. Some are focused more on workers' real-time abilities than if they've worked at a Big Tech company or went to an Ivy League school. A new survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that 70% of employers say they're using skills-based hiring, which prioritizes practical abilities and aptitudes over credentials like degrees and years of experience. A résumé might still be used to identify and track a candidate, Volberg says, but AI résumés aren't wowing recruiters.

In a callous job market where it can feel like everyone's hungry and nobody's making it to the table, recruiters and job seekers alike are looking for a shakeup. But anytime the rules of the game change, there's bound to be new winners and losers.

For more than a decade, AI tools that evaluate résumés and cover letters have made biased choices, preferring male candidates or the applicants seen earlier in the process. Recruiters and job seekers have complained to me about AI-generated and cover letters hitting AI résumé readers -- overwhelming recruiters with unqualified applicants and demoralizing job seekers who had been looking for work for months. As the labor market tightened after 2022, the problem worsened. Mass layoffs in the tech industry shifted the power from a worker market to an employer one, and it wasn't feasible for many human recruiters to review all the inbound applications they received, says Stephanie Alston, CEO of staffing firm BGG Enterprises. Software engineers started using AI to cheat their way through coding tests, leaving hiring managers to come up with novel ways to evaluate candidates. Realizing how easy it had become to apply for a role and how that had become a problem rather than an asset always, LinkedIn started using AI to compare profiles and job descriptions, encouraging people to apply for jobs they might be a better fit for, rather than following the age-old career advice of just throwing an application in the ring.

Recruiters have increasingly moved away from relying on application portals to instead actively source candidates from LinkedIn or their own networks. "There's a lot of frustration on both ends, and I'm just wondering at what point will it all just come to a crash," Alston says.

Résumé fluffing and editing has broken down trust between employers and job seekers. Bolun Li tells me he ran into this disconnect when he was working on his first fintech startup in college. He would hire engineers with the "perfect résumé" from Duke University, where he was also enrolled, but found his hires "couldn't build anything," he tells me. "You can't look at people's résumés to know if they're good at what they do. I always had this notion that I need to look at people's work to hire someone, versus looking at what they say they've done."

That frustration inspired his new startup, Vamo, which searches GitHub to find software developers who have completed projects similar to what a company needs. Li, now 27, launched it last month, after using an early model of the concept to make his own hires. Among them is Alex Vasquez, 23, who became the company's founding engineer after Li found a past project he made on GitHub. Vasquez, who attended the University of Massachusetts Lowell, applied to plenty of jobs, but felt he was lost in automated applicant systems. He kept tinkering and building projects that interested him on his own, and that's how Li found him. "I definitely didn't stand a chance, even if I was very capable," Vasquez tells me of other jobs for which he applied. Li tells me never even saw Vasquez's résumé.

Showing skills rather than listing them could become the new normal, even outside of technical fields, J.T. O'Donnell, founder of Work It Daily, a career coaching platform, tells me. Companies are shifting away from posting jobs on career sites, and instead opting for internal promotions or having recruiters do cold outreach in fields where the number of applicants far surpasses the open jobs. It's a trend O'Donnell calls "quiet hiring," and to succeed, she says, job seekers have to market themselves by posting about their projects and thoughts on LinkedIn. O'Donnell thinks posting videos will become crucial ways for people to showcase their knowledge, personality, and signal that they're human. "When you're talking about your industry and your skill sets, you're actually feeding the database so that recruiters can find you in the quiet hiring era, and that's where you're gonna see a big shift in how people get hired," she says.

LinkedIn has also noticed the change. The company announced a new feature for job seekers to verify skills listed on their profiles. The site partnered with AI tools like Descript, Lovable, and Replit to confirm a person's proficiency based on how they actually use the tools, using AI to assess how well the person can use them. "There is a shift happening from surface level signals like titles or keywords to this deeper evidence of capability," Pat Whelan, product manager at LinkedIn. A résumé is "still a helpful signal, but it's just one. Employers want to know the next level of detail, like the projects you've worked on, the skills you've gained, the context and scale of your experience."

For six months, Indeed has been running a beta program that speeds up the interview process, allowing people to apply for entry-level roles in fields like retail and hospitality and immediately interview if a recruiter is online. It's a model that harkens back to the old days of walking into a business and submitting an application face-to-face. The job site found candidates were waiting longer to hear back from recruiters and falling into the "the black hole problem," says Connie Cheng, a senior product manager at Indeed, tells me. The goal was to compress the time between submitting applications and scheduling calls, but the virtual interview process also allows job seekers "to be able to put their best foot forward and for them to be able to stand out beyond just their typical application," Cheng says.

Not everyone has a star résumé. Basing hiring decisions on skills might open doors to candidates previously overlooked, but perhaps the best workers aren't publishing their work online, and the most creative problem solvers might not post regularly on LinkedIn or feel comfortable spilling their thoughts on camera. Not everyone has access to robust networking events where they live or time to attend if they're balancing work with other responsibilities like school or caregiving. Paid work trials might be great for candidates and employers to see if there's a good fit, but companies won't offer them to many prospective workers. The new ways of hiring could exclude people just as biased résumé reading has, but it will take time for us to see the effects.

"We've seen innocent looking or innocuous proxies that actually turn out to be very biased, and you only know that because somebody checked, and unfortunately often nobody checks," says Hilke Schellmann, author of "The Algorithm," a book that examines the decisions AI makes about who gets hired, promoted, or fired. The technology behind candidate evaluations isn't necessarily a problem when paired with a sharp human recruiter, but it can't be made strictly in the name of efficiency for the hiring process. "There needs to be a technological solution, but I actually think what it might be is not one technological solution, but a much more holistic assessment of candidates." For now, jobs might not make you upload a résumé, but that doesn't mean landing a job will get easier overnight. more