Career development

Jina Langley

1d

Hello! I worked as an economist in a small bank for 3.5 years. Now I’m moving to the same job in a big bank, and I’ll earn $50 more per month. I think it’s a better and more promising option. But my family says there’s no point in changing jobs. I’m really tired of staying in the same place and want something new. Honestly, I also hope for raises and career growth.

How can I convince my family?... They keep trying to talk me out of it, and it’s really stressful.(

more

1

Tomas Acidri
2h
So long as your husband works and is very supportive, one of you needs to watch over the family. If you only focus on your carrier and then family... life is going to be at stake, remember your family is much more important than carrier. Think twice and do the right thing
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Patrice Mack
2h
You do not need to convince your family. You do what you feel is best for you

Berta Harkness

Career development

2d

I work from home and take my 2.5-year-old to my mother-in-law for half the day (she lives just down the street). That was the plan from the beginning and both she and my husband agreed to it.
Now my mother-in-law doesn’t want to watch her grandson anymore. She says I can just work and take care of the child at the same time.
My husband agrees with her. I even offered to pay my mother-in-law like... a babysitter, because I really don’t want to lose my job or get stuck doing only house stuff.
What should I do? I’d appreciate any advice.

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3

Denise Murphy
9h
Get a Nanny to come inhouse for those few hours. Your family does not understand or your mother in law just does not want to babysit. Either one is ok... because you can fix it by getting someone else more
Michelle Willis
1d
They do not understand what it means to work at home. We always had a requirement that our work from home staff had alternate child care arrangements.... Does your work have any policies? 2.5 is a tough age to keep out of trouble. more
11 reply

Career development

11h

Crafting Effective Resume Goals to Elevate Your Career Potential

Crafting effective resume goals is an essential component of job searching and career advancement. Your resume goals serve as a vehicle to convey your career aspirations and direction clearly. Tailoring these goals can significantly enhance the impact of your resume by ensuring it aligns with the roles you're pursuing. Whether you're just starting your career, transitioning industries, or... re-entering the workforce, setting clearly defined resume goals can provide clarity and focus.

What are Resume Goals?

Resume goals are strategic objectives included in your resume that provide potential employers with a quick understanding of your professional aspirations and the value you aim to bring to their organization. These goals often appear in the form of a resume summary or objective statement, placed at the top of the resume. Well-crafted resume goals can highlight your skills, experiences, and intentions, thereby helping you stand out in a competitive job market.

The Importance of Effective Resume Goals

Effective resume goals do more than just state your career ambitions. They align your personal aspirations with the employer's needs, creating a compelling narrative that captures attention. By clearly articulating how your skills and experiences are relevant to the job, you can make a powerful first impression. This alignment also demonstrates foresight and a proactive approach to career planning, indicating to employers that you are both ambitious and prepared.

Crafting Your Resume Goals

When crafting resume goals, specificity is key. Consider these steps:

* Identify the specific role or type of position you are targeting.

* Reflect on the skills and experiences that uniquely qualify you for this role.

* Consider how your personal career aspirations align with the potential employer's objectives and values.

By taking the time to plan and articulate these elements, you enhance the likelihood of your resume resonating with hiring managers.

Examples of Effective Resume Goals

Here are some examples of effective resume goals tailored to various scenarios:

* Entry-Level Position: "Recent marketing graduate seeking to leverage proven creative problem-solving skills in a challenging marketing role where I can contribute to strategic marketing initiatives and business growth."

* Career Transition: "Experienced sales professional looking to transition into project management, seeking to utilize strong organizational and leadership skills to deliver effective project outcomes."

* Returning to Work: "Results-oriented professional returning to the workforce, aiming to apply solid technical and management skills in a dynamic IT environment." For more detailed insights on rejoining the workforce, check out our article on initiating a successful return with the Google Return to Work Program.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

When setting resume goals, avoid these common pitfalls:

* Being too vague or generic, which can make your resume lackluster.

* Focusing solely on what you seek to gain rather than what you can offer.

* Neglecting to tailor your goals for different applications.

Taking these into consideration helps ensure that your resume goals effectively reflect your qualifications and enthusiasm for the position.

Resume Goals and Future Planning

Resume goals should not only portray your present capabilities but also hint at your future ambitions. As you progress in your career, updating your resume goals to reflect new skills, experiences, and aspirations plays a crucial role in ongoing career development. Being forward-thinking in your goals demonstrates to employers that you are committed to continuous learning and professional growth. For a deeper understanding of aligning your resume with future educational and career advancements, explore resources like the comprehensive insights available through Wikipedia on education.

Whether you are seeking advancement within your current field, making a career change, or simply looking to reposition your skills, well-articulated resume goals can make a significant difference. By formulating specific, concise, and relevant goals, you enhance your ability to market yourself to potential employers effectively.

Takeaways

* Resume goals are critical for job applications and career advancement.

* Crafting specific and aligned resume goals can significantly enhance your job prospects.

* Avoid common pitfalls by tailoring goals to the specific job or industry.

* Effective resume goals require reflection on both current capabilities and future aspirations.

* Continuous updating and refining of goals can support ongoing career success.

FAQ

What is a resume goal?

A resume goal is a statement that outlines your professional ambitions and how they align with a specific job or industry, typically included in the resume header.

How often should I update my resume goals?

It's advisable to update your resume goals whenever you change job targets, acquire new skills, or experience a significant career development.

Can resume goals help in a career change?

Yes, well-crafted goals can highlight transferable skills and demonstrate your readiness for a new field, making them instrumental in career transitions.

Should resume goals be the same for every job application?

No, tailoring your resume goals to each specific job application enhances their effectiveness and shows attention to detail and genuine interest in the position.

How detailed should a resume goal be?

While detail is important, brevity is key. Aim for a concise statement that captures the essence of your aspirations and aligns with the job description. more

Career development

11h

The interview's on Zoom. Here's how to actually stand out.

Virtual meetings and job interviews are no longer the exception, but we're not all spiff and polished when presenting ourselves online.

This requires a skill set not naturally in many people's wheelhouse.

Nancy Ancowitz, a career strategist and author of the new book "Zoom to Success," has some coaching tips.

Here are edited excerpts of our recent conversation:

Kerry Hannon: Why did you write... this book right now?

Ancowitz: This is the book I wish I had to help me navigate the virtual world. There is so much that goes into all of this before we even open our mouths -- the lighting (two light sources from the front or sides for balanced, flattering light), the hair, the makeup, the camera, your background, what you are wearing, the tech checks. I show people ways to make it simpler and more accessible to bring your best face forward online.

What are the biggest challenges of virtual presentations?

Speaking to somebody 12 inches from their face, and where their face and your face are so big and filling up the whole space, is really tough for many people. And if you are presenting, looking at 20 or more of those faces in little boxes is truly abnormal.

Another big one is that you can't make real eye contact with anyone since you're looking into your tiny camera. Nobody knows where to look when they are speaking. Maybe you look at yourself. You get distracted by your hair out of place. Also, not everybody's blessed with a great voice, and your voice matters even more on Zoom and other virtual platforms because there's not as much of you to see and to experience. Finally, one of the hardest things, of course, is that you have to be your own tech person and when things go wrong, be calm and cool.

You need to carve out an hour ahead of time to get mentally grounded and ready.

A virtual presentation can create more jitters than in-person for many folks. What are some of the good techniques you can do?

My favorite technique is self-talk, or speaking to yourself in the second or third person. Instead of saying, 'I've got this,' say 'you've got this.' Reframe nerves as excitement. Think 'I feel most alive when I'm tackling things that are a little bit challenging.'

I remind myself to slow down and breathe deeply, which sharpens my focus and clears my head when things get bumpy. Start with a two-minute reset: Inhale for four counts, hold for four, and exhale for eight.

It's a mindset matter. Remember that you're not there to impress people. You're there to share something, to share information, to inspire, to educate, to persuade. But you're not there for their judgment. That's a super important way to manage jitters. more

Career development

12h

The AI Billionaires Who Are Barely Old Enough to Drink

My week partying with the 20-somethings at the heart of the AI boom

Brendan Foody is 22 years old and runs a company worth billions. This August, I met the young CEO in a glass conference room overlooking the San Francisco Bay. While his peers are searching for their first jobs, Foody is pursuing a "master plan," as he calls it, to upend the global labor market. His start-up, Mercor, offers an... AI-powered hiring platform: Bots weed through résumés, and even conduct interviews. In the next five years, Foody told me, AI could automate 50 percent of the tasks that people do today. "That will be extremely exciting to see play out," he said. Humanity will become much more productive, he thinks, allowing us to cure cancer and land on Mars.

Although Foody does not have much by way of conventional work experience, he is already a seasoned entrepreneur. By his account, in middle school, he ran a business reselling Safeway donuts to his classmates at a 400 percent markup. His success at donut arbitrage made his mom nervous he might try to sell sketchier vices (drugs), so she sent him to Catholic school. There, he met his Mercor co-founders. In high school, he started a consulting business for online sneaker resellers that he said raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars by the time he graduated. ChatGPT came out during his sophomore year at Georgetown, and he soon ditched school to build Mercor. When we met this summer, Mercor was worth $2 billion.

The AI boom has become synonymous with a few giant companies: OpenAI, Nvidia, and Anthropic. All are led by middle-aged men who've had long careers in Silicon Valley. But many of the most successful new AI start-ups have been founded by people barely old enough to drink. Unlike OpenAI or Anthropic, Mercor is already profitable. Meanwhile, Cursor, a massively popular AI-coding tool run by 25-year-old Michael Truell, was recently valued at nearly $30 billion -- roughly the same as United Airlines.

In many ways, Foody, Truell, and others like them epitomize the long-standing Silicon Valley young-founder archetype: They are intensely nerdy and ravenously ambitious. (Foody's bio on X reads "labor markets fascinate me," and his pronouns are listed as "can/do.") But this group is coming of age at a time when the tech industry's aims -- and sense of self-importance -- have reached existential heights. They dream of creating superintelligent bots that can dramatically extend our lifespan and perhaps even automate scientific discovery itself.

If they are successful, they could end up with even more power than the tech titans who preceded them. If they fail, based on what I saw during a week in San Francisco, they seem determined to enjoy the party while it lasts.

The promise of remaking the world (and getting rich while doing so) has drawn a fresh wave of dropouts and new grads to San Francisco. Following ChatGPT's release, Rayan Krishnan abandoned plans to pursue a Ph.D. and instead launched an AI start-up. "It seemed like there was opportunity everywhere," he told me. One afternoon on my trip to San Francisco, I met Krishnan, the 24-year-old CEO of Vals AI, at his office, a refurbished brewery in the SoMa neighborhood. Vals, which helps evaluate AI models' performance on real-world tasks, has raised $5 million. Venture capitalists "are now indexing much more on companies that are started by younger founders," he said.

Many tech investors, I heard during my trip, believe that young people who have never spent time in an office are best-positioned to construct our AI future. Whereas 30-year-olds are already supposedly lost to the byzantine ways of workplace bureaucracies, those a decade their junior are blank slates. Foody recounted to me the story of dining with Adam D'Angelo when the Quora CEO (and OpenAI board member) was considering investing in Mercor. D'Angelo asked Foody about his work experience, and the young founder admitted that he didn't have any. Good, D'Angelo said, before later cutting him a check. Mercor's investors also include the Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, the tech billionaire Peter Thiel, and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.

In an attempt to track down these aspiring Zuckerbergs, Bay Area venture-capital firms host elaborate dinners for young tech workers and hire undergraduate scouts at elite colleges to keep tabs on promising talent. The same week I met Foody and Krishnan, I attended a mixer at an all-female hacker house -- a shared residence and workspace -- in the south of San Francisco. The women, all college-aged, had spent the summer hosting a series of VC-subsidized events. For one of the gatherings, a prominent firm had paid for a hibachi chef to cook dinner in their backyard. The night I visited the house, the women were hosting three investors for a talk. Among the panelists was Liz Wessel, a partner at the investment fund First Round Capital. Wessel said that two-thirds of her portfolio was composed of "young" founders, a label she applied to those 25 and under. By that calculus, even 26 counts as old.

Read: The view from inside the AI bubble

Young people in the industry are coming up with new ways to profit. Later in the trip, I spoke with Vatsalya Verma, 23, and Jasper Vyda, 21, at a Victorian mansion in Lower Pacific Heights that they'd rented through Airbnb. The front entrance was littered with flattened cans. The night prior, Verma and Vyda had thrown a 200-person party to celebrate the launch of a "private network" called V11, which they described to me as an exclusive community of "the smartest friends across the entire nation." Verma and Vyda believe that these friends are going to start Silicon Valley's next unicorns. They partner with early-stage venture funds, who then "capitalize on our friendships to basically find deals," Verma told me.

The Airbnb had been the site of the after-party, but the main event was held at a venue run by Silicon Valley Bank, where they had organized a poker room in a decommissioned bank vault. If Silicon Valley Bank sounds familiar, that's because it collapsed dramatically in 2023, causing the largest single-day bank run in American history.

Watching Silicon Valley mint billionaires who were born around the time Facebook launched is a spectacle. But it's been particularly absorbing for me because of my proximity to these young founders. Like Foody, I was a college sophomore when ChatGPT came out. I went to Stanford, where the chatbot set off a frenzy. My econ professor hosted students at his house for catered dinners with C-suite executives from Google and OpenAI. Waiters stood by and served champagne.

When I graduated last year and moved East, seemingly all my peers stayed in the Bay Area to work in AI. Over time, I've watched as some of them have been radicalized by the hype of artificial general intelligence, or AGI. ("I think I'll live more than 1,000 years," one recently told me.) Many have started their own companies. Early in my trip, I ran into a friend on the street waiting for a self-driving Waymo to take him to a vegan sushi restaurant. He had just raised millions for his AI start-up, and had hired a beloved Stanford adjunct professor to join his team, he told me.

People I know from my hometown near Seattle have also moved to San Francisco to join the AI scene. One helped start the all-female hacker house. Another launched Friend, which sells a $129 AI-powered necklace. Friend went viral earlier this year for plastering the New York City subway with more than 10,000 posters promoting the virtues of human-AI friendship. (I'll never leave dirty dishes in the sink, one ad read.) Avi Schiffmann, the company's 23-year-old CEO, has been cast as a misanthropic tech founder emblematic of Silicon Valley's ills. I know Schiffmann as the nerdy kid from high school who ran one of the world's most popular COVID-19 tracking websites. We used to hang out in our local public library brainstorming start-up ideas (for example, OnlyFans for stock-market watch lists). Over time, we grew apart. I finished my degree. He dropped out of Harvard and rode his motorcycle along the California coast.

Read: The most reviled tech CEO in New York confronts his haters

In August, Schiffmann hosted me for a few nights at his home in the Lower Haight neighborhood. For someone building an AI-companionship start-up, Schiffmann lives a strikingly offline life. Much to my inconvenience, he didn't have Wi-Fi. Instead, he spent a lot of time painting. "This is post-AGI living," he told me. "It's a religion I call life-maxxing." One day, Schiffmann and I walked to a nearby park and marveled at the glorious San Francisco afternoon. "God sculpted the Bay," he pronounced. Now the Bay is sculpting God. Or at least, a bunch of other 20-somethings in San Francisco think they are.

On my final evening, I ended up at a sci-fi-Barbie-themed party at San Francisco's Tesla showroom. The party was sponsored by a smattering of investment firms and start-ups with names such as CodeRabbit and Bubble Computing. "The vibe is unapologetically feminine and fun," read the invitation, which warned that anyone wearing a Patagonia vest would be turned away at the door. Even though this wasn't an official Tesla event, the company was showing off its latest car tech. I arrived -- sans Patagonia -- and joined a small group for a spin in a Cybertruck.

On the showroom floor, a long line snaked toward the bar, where people were ordering the James Damore, a cocktail named after the Google employee who was famously fired in 2017 after writing a memo arguing that women at the company were less likely to end up in tech and leadership roles partially due to innate biological differences. (The hosts of this party were enforcing a 50/50 balance between male and female guests, which had left hundreds of guys on the waitlist.)

In many ways, the scene was absurd. But Cybertruck rides aside, it didn't feel all that different from parties I have hosted in my own cramped apartment. Music blared while people awkwardly exchanged small talk and sipped their drinks. At the edges, some flirted while others danced. For a moment, I forgot that I was surrounded by young people at the center of an industry whose continued growth is now propping up the American economy. Then I spotted a Tesla humanoid robot standing on a pedestal, flanked by columns of hot-pink balloons.

It's hard to overstate just how much money is coursing through the city. This summer, Meta offered one 24-year-old a $250 million pay package. While in San Francisco, I heard rumors of people in their early 20s holed up in a bar discussing strategies for tax evasion.

The floods of money have made for a culture of constant comparison. People do napkin math at the dinner table using the latest funding announcements to calculate their friends' net worths and fret about declining job offers to join Anthropic or OpenAI. The most successful become the target of schadenfreude: Behind closed doors, people debate whether Mercor will stay afloat or come crashing down. When the AI bubble bursts, and many say it will, they could get wiped out entirely. For now, there's a Gatsby-ness to it all.

No matter what happens, the country could be in for a shock. If AI progress stalls and the money dries up, there will be economic chaos. If AI progress advances and leads to massive waves of automation, there will also be economic chaos. Throughout my trip, people kept asking me whether I was familiar with the "escape the permanent underclass" meme. It implies that a huge amount of economic output will soon come to be produced by a select few AI companies. Everyone else will get automated into oblivion. The only way to escape is to get in on the AI boom. In other words: Pack your bags and move to San Francisco. The meme is sort of a joke, but also, it's not: While a select few 20-somethings in the Bay Area are being paid astronomical sums, new grads across the country are struggling to find jobs, perhaps due to AI. Still, during my trip, people seemed singularly concerned with securing their own future. The only mandate is to keep building and get rich.

In October, Mercor completed another funding round, which valued the company at $10 billion -- five times as much as what it was worth when I visited this summer. Now Foody and his 22-year-old co-founders are the world's youngest self-made billionaires. I messaged Foody to ask him what it's like to be a billionaire. "Haha I don't think about it much," he insisted. To celebrate, the start-up rented out a nightclub. Foody told me more than 1,000 people showed up. They partied until 3 a.m. more

Jane Tilden

Career development

3d

Hi everyone! I’m a college student and I’m thinking about getting a job as a waiter in a cafe. But my parents are against it, my dad says that kind of job will ruin my resume, like no decent company will ever hire me afterward.
I’m tired of always asking my parents for money and I want to earn my own. How can I convince them?
Thanks

5

Counsel Mayabi
18h
At your age, you have to start doing things on your own. Most successful people had their first jobs as waiters/waitresses, delivery personnel etc.... Your parents are not being truthful. Start where you can and grow onwards by advancing in your career of choice. Your parents have lived their life, its time for you to live yours. more
EMAGALIT CHARLES
1d
It's up to you to create your own world.
2

Career development

18h

Trust your gut, Roblox CEO David Baszucki tells Gen Z: 5 career lessons job seekers can learn from the billionaire entrepreneur - The Times of India

As many Gen Z graduates struggle to find stable footing in the job market, a growing number are slipping into NEET status -- neither in employment, education, nor training. For some, the uncertainty feels prolonged and disorienting. Roblox CEO David Baszucki says that sense of career drift is not unusual, and it is something he knows well from personal experience.Speaking to students at his alma... mater, Stanford University, Baszucki reflected on his early career years and the lessons they hold for young professionals today. His remarks were reported by Fortune, which cited his address at Stanford and his subsequent comments on career decision-making. Today, Baszucki leads Roblox, a global gaming and creator platform valued at around $60 billion, and has an estimated net worth of $5 billion. But when he graduated from Stanford in 1985, his future looked uncertain, and his résumé was far from impressive.Baszucki told Stanford students that his transition from college to the professional world was marked by confusion rather than clarity. Despite graduating from a university known for producing tech founders and startup leaders, his dream job did not materialise.At the time, one of his only work experiences was a summer job cleaning windows with his brother. Like many graduates today, he felt pressure to seek guidance from mentors, professors, and peers on what career path to choose. Looking back, he believes that overvaluing such advice can sometimes do more harm than good."A lot of my development has been trying to, over time, ignore advice I've been given," Baszucki said while addressing students at Stanford, as cited by Fortune. Instead, he encouraged young people to listen closely to their own instincts, especially during periods of professional difficulty.Baszucki recalled trying to make career decisions using a highly analytical approach that did not reflect what he truly wanted. He described building a spreadsheet listing nine potential careers and rating them across multiple metrics."It was a really weird way to try to figure out your career," he told the Stanford audience, according to Fortune. He now sees this phase as a lesson in how excessive comparison and optimisation can distance people from their own intuition.For job seekers today, the takeaway is clear: data, rankings, and opinions can inform decisions, but they should not replace self-awareness.After eventually securing a salaried role, Baszucki spent the next few years in positions he now describes as deeply disappointing. He told students that he worked in what he considers the "absolute worst jobs in the world," facing repeated setbacks and frustration.These experiences, however, did not derail his career. Instead, they pushed him to reassess his direction. For Gen Z professionals navigating contract work, layoffs, or roles that do not align with their goals, Baszucki's story underscores that early missteps are not permanent labels.It was only after stepping back and listening to his instincts that Baszucki found clarity. Acting on that inner conviction, he went on to cofound Knowledge Revolution, an educational software company. The company was acquired for $20 million in 1998.Following the sale, Baszucki expected to be recruited into a senior executive role elsewhere. When that did not happen, he once again found himself needing to chart his own path.Reflecting on this pattern, he told Fortune earlier this year: "Time and time again, you have to participate in making your own reality."Baszucki's experience highlights a recurring theme: professional growth often requires self-initiative rather than external validation. A few years after selling Knowledge Revolution, he began working on what would eventually become Roblox.Today, Roblox has more than 150 million daily active users worldwide and is a major platform for digital creation and gaming. The company's scale stands in sharp contrast to the uncertainty Baszucki faced in his twenties, reinforcing his message that career success is rarely linear.At a time when data-driven decision-making shapes hiring, performance reviews, and career planning, Baszucki told students at Stanford that relying only on external inputs can leave young professionals disconnected from their own judgment. Speaking at his alma mater, as cited by Fortune, he reflected on how excessive analysis and constant comparison delayed clarity in his early career.Baszucki said that learning to trust his instincts was not a rejection of learning or feedback, but a way to regain agency over his decisions. His experience of moving through unfulfilling roles, reassessing his direction, and repeatedly starting over shaped his belief that careers cannot be optimised like spreadsheets.For Gen Z job seekers navigating uncertainty, Baszucki's advice is straightforward: gather information, reflect carefully, but recognise when it is time to rely on your own conviction. As he told Stanford students, sometimes the most useful guidance comes from trusting your gut rather than searching endlessly for external approval. more

Career development

20h

Careery Introduces an Autonomous AI Agent That Replaces Manual Job Applications

All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here

Careery is redefining how people find jobs by turning the job search into an autonomous background process. Instead of spending months manually submitting applications, users activate an AI agent that continuously finds relevant roles and applies to... them automatically -- at scale, around the clock.

San Francisco, US, December 20, 2025 -- In today's hiring market, job search is no longer about who is the most qualified on paper. It is about who applies first.

The Problem: A Broken Job Search System

The modern job market places an unsustainable burden on candidates:

* Job seekers manually submit hundreds of applications

* Recruiters often review only the first wave of applicants

* Speed matters more than resume polish

* Timing, not talent, decides outcomes

As a result, many strong candidates lose opportunities simply because they applied too late. Manual job searching has become a repetitive, exhausting, and fundamentally non-scalable process -- effectively a full-time job with no guaranteed payoff.

The Insight: Speed Is the Hidden Advantage

Recruiters rarely review every application. In practice, most hiring decisions are shaped by early submissions. Candidates who apply within the first hours after a job is posted have a disproportionately higher chance of being seen, reviewed, and invited to interview.

CareeryPro was built around this insight.

The Solution: An Autonomous AI Job-Search Agent

Careery replaces manual job searching with a fully autonomous AI agent. Once activated, the agent works independently -- without human intervention -- to manage the entire application process.

The Careery agent:

* Continuously scans new job postings

* Matches roles to the candidate's profile and preferences

* Submits complete applications automatically

* Operates 24/7, without pauses or burnout

* Applies within 1-3 hours of job posting

For users, job searching becomes a background task instead of a daily obligation.

Not an "Easy Apply" Bot

Unlike basic automation tools, Careery is not limited to "Easy Apply" buttons or simple autofill workflows.

The autonomous agent is designed to operate directly on company career pages and complete full, multi-step application flows used by enterprise hiring systems. It works across major Applicant Tracking Systems, including:

* Workday

* Greenhouse

* Jobvite

* Ultipro

* And other complex ATS platforms

This allows Careery to reach high-quality roles that most automation tools cannot access -- including positions that require detailed forms, custom workflows, and multi-page applications.

As a result, Careery users are not confined to the crowded "Easy Apply" pool. They gain visibility across the entire hiring market, including roles that most candidates never apply to at scale.

Measurable Results at Scale

Careery's approach delivers quantifiable outcomes:

* Up to 250 targeted applications per day

* 150-350+ hours saved per week

* Average time to first interview: 5 days

* Hundreds of high-conversion user reviews

Users consistently report reaching interviews in days instead of months -- without spending their time manually searching and applying.

Why It Works

Careery optimizes for the three factors that matter most in modern hiring:

In a market where timing often determines visibility, Careery gives candidates a structural advantage.

Proven in Crisis: Battle-Tested During Layoff Waves & COVID

Careery is not a theoretical product built for ideal conditions.

It was pressure-tested during the most extreme job market disruptions of the last decade.

During the COVID hiring freeze and subsequent mass layoff waves in the U.S. tech and white-collar sectors, Careery helped thousands of candidates stay visible in an overloaded hiring system -- when speed and volume mattered more than ever.

At a time when:

* Millions of professionals were laid off simultaneously

* Job postings received hundreds or thousands of applicants within hours

* Recruiters filtered aggressively and reviewed only early submissions

Careery users were able to:

* Apply within hours of postings -- even during peak competition

* Maintain consistent application volume despite emotional and financial stress

* Reach interviews while others were still manually searching

This period validated a core insight that still defines the product today:

In mass-layoff markets, manual job search breaks first. Automation wins.

Careery's autonomous agent proved its value precisely when human-driven processes failed -- operating continuously, without burnout, panic, or delay.

That real-world usage during COVID and large-scale U.S. layoff cycles established Careery's authority long before "AI agents" became a trend -- and shaped its evolution into a fully autonomous, production-grade system trusted by thousands of candidates navigating the hardest job markets.

A New Category: Superhuman Job Search

Careery represents a new category of product: a fully autonomous AI job-search agent. It does not assist the user -- it replaces the repetitive work entirely.

For the first time, job seekers can compete at machine speed in a market that quietly rewards it.

In a hiring landscape where speed decides who gets seen, Careery ensures candidates are always early -- even while they sleep.

About Careery

Since 2020, Careery has been helping people land their dream jobs faster through AI-powered job application automation and expert career guidance. We're on a mission to make job searching smarter, easier, and more accessible for everyone.

At Careery, we combine advanced automation, data-driven insights, and human expertise to remove the most frustrating parts of the job search.

Media Contact

Bogdan Careery

Founder

Email: hi@careery.pro

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Name: Bogdan Careery

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Organization: Careery

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If there are any deficiencies, discrepancies, or concerns regarding the information presented in this press release, we kindly request that you promptly inform us by contacting error@releasecontact.com (it is important to note that this email is the authorized channel for such matters, sending multiple emails to multiple addresses does not necessarily help expedite your request). Our dedicated team is committed to addressing any identified issues within 8 hours to guarantee the delivery of accurate and reliable content to our esteemed readers. more

Career development

22h

SIM Introduces CareerSense: An AI-Driven Career Guidance Platform for Students

SINGAPORE - Media OutReach Newswire - 20 December 2025 - The Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) has unveiled CareerSense, an innovative AI-powered career guidance application designed to transform how students strategize, prepare for, and pursue their career journeys. This initiative highlights SIM's commitment to equipping learners for a dynamically evolving workforce, especially as... technology reshapes industries and job roles at a remarkable speed.

The Significance of CareerSense in Today's Job Market

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The global employment landscape is rapidly changing. Automation, technological advancements, and digital innovations are creating new opportunities while also presenting challenges. Successfully maneuvering through this terrain requires not only academic qualifications but also self-awareness, adaptability, and strategic foresight.

CareerSense meets these demands by integrating artificial intelligence with career development insights, offering a personalized, data-driven approach to job readiness. It functions as a comprehensive career advisor, accessible around the clock.

Key Features of CareerSense

CareerSense incorporates a wide array of features aimed at empowering students throughout their career development journey. Its AI-driven VIPS profiling assesses Values, Interests, Personality, and Skills to provide customized career recommendations based on individual strengths and goals. The smart resume builder gives instant feedback and enhancement suggestions, while the job-matching algorithm connects students with positions that fit their unique profiles. With integrated functionalities, students can RSVP for events, schedule advisory sessions, and easily apply for internships and job openings. Moreover, the Employability Index assesses job readiness and collaborates with skill gap analyses and personalized course suggestions to ensure students remain competitive in today's fast-paced job market.

The Broader Vision: Preparing Graduates for the Future

The future workforce will continue to evolve, marked by rapid changes, technological disruptions, and global interconnectedness. Employers seek individuals who can adapt, are self-aware, and possess pertinent skill sets. CareerSense empowers students to take control of their career paths, identify their strengths, recognize weaknesses, and develop the competencies that are crucial in the current job market.

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This initiative reflects SIM's commitment to lifelong learning and employability, ensuring that graduates are prepared not just for jobs but for future challenges. In a competitive environment, CareerSense positions SIM students as confident and agile professionals ready to excel in the digital economy.

References:

Hashtag: #SIMGlobalEducation #SIMGE #GlobalEducation #InternationalDegree #CareerReady #FutureSkills

https://www.sim.edu.sg/

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

SIM Global Education (SIM GE) is recognized as a leading private educational institution in Singapore and the surrounding region. We offer over 140 academic programs, including diplomas, graduate diplomas, bachelor's degrees, and master's degrees in partnership with some of the world's most esteemed universities from Australia, Canada, Europe, the United Kingdom, and the United States. With a diverse student body of 16,000 individuals, comprising full- and part-time students as well as adult learners, approximately 36% come from international backgrounds spanning over 50 countries.

SIM GE's thorough learning framework and rich cultural environment are designed to equip students with knowledge, industry skills, and employability competencies, along with a global perspective to excel as future leaders in a technology-driven world. more

Career development

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How to Manage Talent in the Age of AI: A Playbook for Asset and Wealth Management Leaders - CEOWORLD magazine

AI Moves From the Back Office to the Front Line: Generative AI and advanced automation have officially crossed the line from support function to core investment capability. Tasks that were once the preserve of middle and back offices -- report generation, data checks, and operational controls -- are now deeply embedded in front-office workflows, assisting research analysts, portfolio managers, and... client advisors in real time. This shift is delivering measurable productivity gains, with some firms reporting up to a 30 percent improvement in analytical activities as AI models handle data synthesis, first-draft research, and pattern detection.

For leaders, the question is no longer whether AI can create efficiency, but how to deploy that efficiency strategically. The opportunities are considerable: more thoughtful research, richer client conversations, faster decision-making. The risks are equally real: hollowed-out talent pipelines, weakened learning curves, and cultures that become overly dependent on systems at the expense of human judgment.

Two Strategic Paths: Reinvest or Optimize?

The industry is coalescing around two distinct strategies for harnessing AI-driven efficiencies in investment teams.

Path 1: Reinvesting Efficiency for Deeper Alpha

Under the first model, firms treat AI as a tool to expand the scope and quality of human analysis rather than as a direct substitute for headcount. AI takes on repetitive, lower-value tasks -- data cleaning, basic screening, and initial report drafting -- so analysts can push further into high-conviction insights, scenario analysis, and differentiated views that contribute directly to alpha.

In this construct, the analyst role becomes more of an orchestrator and interpreter. The value shifts from manually producing every data point to:

Designing better questions and prompts for AI tools. Curating, stress-testing, and refining AI-generated outputs. Connecting quantitative signals with qualitative context, market structure, and client needs.

This model preserves the traditional analyst career path, but significantly updates the skill stack. Technical proficiency in AI and automation tools becomes a baseline requirement rather than a niche capability. The premium is on analysts who can combine domain expertise, tech fluency, and original thinking.

The challenge is the learning curve. Junior analysts are increasingly being asked to supervise AI outputs before they have fully mastered the underlying analytical craft. That creates a risk of "shallow expertise" -- where people can operate tools but lack the depth to know when the outputs are incomplete, biased, or strategically misaligned.

Path 2: Optimization and Leaner Cost Structures

The second model is more defensive and cost-focused: using AI efficiencies to shrink analyst pools, particularly at the junior level. Firms reduce the number of entry-level roles and shift more routine work to AI, while relying on a smaller cadre of experienced professionals to oversee both machines and portfolios.

This delivers immediate P&L relief -- fewer headcount costs, less pressure on compensation budgets, tighter margins. But it introduces a medium-term structural risk: the "hourglass effect." When the base of junior talent is narrowed and mid-level roles become scarce, the firm eventually faces a shortage of future senior portfolio managers and investment leaders.

The sector is already showing signs of this dynamic. Many firms are attempting to "juniorize" teams to control costs, while at the same time witnessing a seniorization trend, with a growing share of portfolio managers having more than 25 years of experience. The pipeline between those two ends of the spectrum is fragile. If junior hiring continues to compress while AI takes on more foundational learning tasks, the mid-senior layer risks becoming thin and brittle.

The Hourglass Effect and the Future of Investment Careers

The hourglass effect is more than a headcount pattern; it is a strategic vulnerability. If too few analysts progress into mid-level and senior decision-making roles, firms may face:

Reduced diversity of viewpoints at the investment committee level. Greater key-person risk concentrated in a small number of veteran portfolio managers. Limited capacity to absorb new asset classes, strategies, or client demands.

Over time, the firm's ability to adapt diminishes. The market may still see impressive senior résumés, but the underlying bench strength is weak. That becomes particularly dangerous in periods of regime change when new paradigms, products, or technologies require fresh thinking and agile leadership.

Avoiding the hourglass means consciously designing pathways that connect junior, mid-career, and senior roles in an AI-augmented environment. It requires thinking about talent architecture with the same discipline that is applied to portfolio construction.

HR as a Strategic Partner: Workforce Planning in an AI Era

In this environment, human resources can no longer operate as a purely transactional support function. HR must become a strategic partner to investment and technology teams, co-owning decisions around workforce planning, role design, and capability-building.

Three priorities stand out:

Redesigning workforce planning:

Clarify the target size and shape of analyst cohorts across seniority tiers in an AI-rich future. Decide explicitly how much efficiency will be reinvested into research depth versus translated into cost optimization. Scenario-plan different combinations of human and AI contribution to research, risk, and portfolio oversight.

Integrating AI into learning pathways:

Build structured learning journeys where juniors first understand core analysis techniques, then progressively layer in AI tools, rather than starting with automation alone. Codify a "craft + tool" model: for every AI capability introduced, define the underlying human skill that must be understood to supervise it intelligently.

Designing sustainable succession strategies:

Map current portfolio managers and senior analysts against future retirement and transition timelines. Identify gaps where AI adoption has inadvertently reduced the inflow of promotable talent. Create explicit development tracks that blend investment, data, and leadership capabilities.

The goal is organizational resilience: ensuring that talent systems are robust enough to sustain performance through both technological and market cycles.

Attracting New Talent: Beyond the Traditional Finance Profile

AI's growing role in asset and wealth management is reshaping the profile of ideal hires. For decades, the industry favored candidates with strong quantitative and financial backgrounds, often from a relatively narrow set of universities and training programs. That is now changing.

As AI and automation become embedded in investment processes, firms need a more diverse mix of skills:

Data science, machine learning, and engineering capabilities to build, evaluate, and maintain AI models. Human-centric skills -- communication, empathy, cultural sensitivity -- to support increasingly client-centric business models. Cross-functional fluency, where professionals are comfortable operating at the intersection of investments, technology, and client advisory.

This broadens the talent universe beyond pure finance graduates. At the same time, it intensifies competition with technology firms, startups, and other sectors that prize the same transferable skill sets.

To compete credibly, asset and wealth managers must refresh their value proposition to talent. Compensation still matters, but it is no longer sufficient. Candidates want clarity on:

The firm's AI strategy and how they will be empowered to work with new tools. Opportunities for learning, rotation, and cross-functional exposure. The firm's culture, including openness to experimentation, psychological safety, and ethical standards around data and automation.

Retaining Talent in a Hybrid "Human + AI" Workplace

Retention in an AI-enabled investment firm is as much about development as it is about pay. When work changes quickly, people stay where they believe their skills will remain relevant and their careers will progress.

Several levers become critical:

Balanced AI education: Training should not focus solely on how to use tools. It must emphasize judgment -- when to trust outputs, when to challenge them, and how to integrate AI insights into broader investment theses and client narratives. Support for leaders: Senior portfolio managers and executives often need structured support to navigate change: learning how to lead mixed teams of investors, data scientists, and engineers; understanding AI ethics; and modeling new behaviors in public ways. Clear role evolution: Analysts and PMs should understand how their roles will change over the next three to five years in light of AI adoption. Ambiguity breeds anxiety; clarity supports engagement.

Building the New Learning Architecture

Traditional HR development tools -- classroom training, e-learning, and static competency frameworks -- are insufficient on their own for the AI era. What is required is a more experiential, integrated approach.

Three practical mechanisms stand out:

Rotations across investment, data, and technology teams

Short, structured rotations allow investment professionals to understand how AI models are built and maintained, while giving technologists exposure to real-world portfolio constraints and client needs. This builds mutual respect and reduces the "black box" perception of AI among front-office staff.

Hands-on AI labs and sandboxes

Safe environments where analysts and PMs can experiment with AI tools using synthetic or non-sensitive data. Encourage practical use cases: building custom dashboards, testing signals, or prototyping new client-reporting formats.

Mentorship pairings between senior portfolio managers and technologists

Pairing high-tenure PMs with experienced data or AI leads can accelerate knowledge transfer in both directions. Over time, this supports the emergence of hybrid leaders who are comfortable with investment judgment and technological architecture.

These approaches preserve deep expertise while simultaneously building the leaders of the future -- people who can steward both capital and capability.

Culture as the Ultimate Constraint -- and Enabler

In many asset and wealth management organizations, culture will determine the pace and depth of AI adoption more than any technical choice. Conservative, risk-averse cultures are not inherently a problem; they can be an asset if change is designed thoughtfully. But culture cannot be ignored.

Existing cultural profiles -- how decisions are made, how mistakes are treated, how innovation is perceived -- will shape which interventions work and which do not. Imposing a generic "innovation" program on a conservative investment house is unlikely to succeed. Tailored, context-aware change programs are far more effective.

Key cultural levers include:

Incentives:

Recognize and reward employees who responsibly use AI to improve performance, reduce risk, or enhance client experience. Incorporate AI-related contributions into performance reviews, promotion criteria, and internal awards.

Rituals:

Create regular internal showcases where teams present AI-enhanced projects, share lessons, and demystify failures. Encourage leaders to visibly model new behaviors -- using AI dashboards in meetings, asking for AI-augmented scenarios, or sponsoring cross-functional initiatives.

Narrative:

Communicate clearly that AI is there to extend human capability, not erase it. Reinforce that judgment, integrity, and client-centricity remain non-negotiable human responsibilities.

Designing the Workforce of the Future

For CEOs, CIOs, and heads of wealth and asset management, managing talent in this environment is a strategic exercise, not a tactical HR concern. The decisions made today about how to structure roles, hire skills, and shape culture will determine which firms are still generating competitive alpha and trusted client relationships ten years from now.

The most resilient firms will likely share a few traits:

They treat AI as a co-pilot for investment professionals, not an excuse to hollow out the analyst bench. They invest in new skills while protecting the deep apprenticeship that underpins sound judgment. They compete aggressively for non-traditional talent and give that talent a compelling reason to stay. They view culture and incentives as levers to align technology, people, and clients -- not as afterthoughts.

In an industry where advantage often appears at the margins, the difference between those who simply adopt AI tools and those who intelligently redesign their talent systems around them will be material. The future of performance will be written not just in algorithms and models, but in how investment firms manage, cultivate, and empower the humans who work alongside them.

Talent & AI Table (Asset and Wealth Management) DimensionKey InsightStrategic Implication AI adoption shiftAI has moved from middle/back-office tasks to front-office analytical support.Talent strategies must reflect that AI now directly shapes research and client outcomes. Productivity impactFirms are seeing up to 30% improvement in analytical efficiency from AI tools.Leaders must decide how much of this gain to reinvest in deeper research versus cost cuts. Efficiency path 1Reinvesting time into broader and deeper analysis enhances alpha potential.Preserve analyst headcount while elevating the analytical bar and expectations. Efficiency path 2Using AI to reduce analyst numbers creates leaner cost structures.Short-term savings may undermine long-term bench strength and succession. Analyst role evolutionAnalysts become orchestrators of AI outputs, not just producers of raw analysis.Hiring and promotion criteria must include tech fluency and synthesis skills. Junior learning curveJuniors may oversee AI outputs before mastering foundational analysis.Firms need staged learning paths to avoid shallow expertise and overreliance on tools. Hourglass riskFewer juniors and a heavily senior PM base create a mid-career bottleneck.Succession planning must explicitly address mid-senior talent gaps. Seniorization trendPortfolio managers are increasingly senior in tenure.Key-person risk and generational transition risk both rise. Workforce planningTraditional headcount planning is misaligned with AI-driven workflows.HR and investment leadership must co-design future workforce shapes. New skill setsAI requires skills beyond traditional finance and math backgrounds.Talent pools must expand to include data, tech, and human-centric capabilities. Client-centric shiftWealth and asset management are becoming more relationship-focused.Emotional intelligence and cultural sensitivity are as critical as quantitative skills. Talent competitionTech and other industries compete aggressively for hybrid skill sets.Firms must renew their talent value proposition beyond compensation. AI literacyPractical AI knowledge is now a core competency across investment roles.Training programs must be ongoing, hands-on, and role-specific. Judgment emphasisJudgment remains central in validating and applying AI outputs.Development must explicitly focus on critical thinking and ethical decision-making. Leadership demandsLeaders need support in change management and cross-functional collaboration.Executive development should blend investment, technology, and people leadership. Ethical use of AIMisuse of AI can create reputational and regulatory risks.Governance, guidelines, and training on ethics are non-negotiable. Rotational programsRotations across investment and tech build shared understanding.Structured rotations should be embedded in early- and mid-career development. AI labsHands-on labs allow safe experimentation with AI tools.Firms should provide sandboxes for innovation without operational risk. Mentorship modelsPairing PMs with technologists accelerates mutual learning.Formalized hybrid mentorship can create the leaders of the future. Cultural constraintConservative cultures can slow AI adoption if unmanaged.Tailored change programs must respect and work with existing cultures. Incentive leversRecognizing AI-enhanced performance encourages adoption.Performance systems should explicitly value responsible AI use. Rituals & storytellingInternal showcases normalize experimentation and learning.Regular rituals help embed AI into everyday work, not just projects. Career transparencyUnclear role evolution fuels anxiety and attrition.Firms must articulate how AI will change each role over time. Organizational resilienceTalent misalignment amplifies technology and market shocks.Aligning AI, people, and culture is central to long-term competitiveness. Strategic imperativeTalent management in an AI era is a core strategic issue, not back-office HR.Boards and C-suites must own the agenda and track it as closely as performance metrics.

This structure positions the piece as a reference article that senior decision-makers, consultants, and even regulators can cite when discussing how AI is reshaping talent strategy in asset and wealth management.

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Career development

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No degree, no job? Tighter labor market leaves many with fewer options

Cheryl Wilson's résumé is near perfect.

She has worked all her life, notching decades of experience at back-to-back corporate jobs that often tapped her to train new hires.

But after a software company laid her off two years ago, the 64-year-old has struggled to land a new job for the first time in her career.

Because for all her experience, there's one missing element from Wilson's résumé: a... college degree.

The labor market slowed this year as economic uncertainty made employers hesitant to hire, a reversal from the worker-friendly Great Resignation period a few years ago. The loss of employee power has hit new college graduates hardest, with their unemployment rate now outpacing overall unemployment for the first time in decades.

Now, with year-end layoffs in full swing and the latest jobs reports showing continued sluggishness, jobseekers are facing even more competition.

"At this point in my life, I'm afraid I'm not going to ever get another job," said Wilson, of Inver Grove Heights, Minn. "I know a lot of people are laid off. Everyone is looking for jobs."

A recent survey found many Americans don't believe a college degree is worth the cost yet the unemployment rate for college graduates as a whole remains lower than for those without a degree. And as employers tighten up hiring criteria in the loosening labor market, it's becoming even harder for the roughly 60 percent of Americans without a degree to land a job.

"It feels like the landscape is incredibly competitive. It feels like individuals who have those degrees are applying for a wider variety of positions, including entry-level positions," said Becca Lopez, vice president of career education and employment services at workforce nonprofit Avivo. "And so it can feel to our jobseekers like there maybe isn't room for them in this labor market."

The September jobs report, released Nov. 20 after a delay during the federal government shutdown, showed a 2.8 percent unemployment rate for degree-holders aged 25 and older. For high school graduates without a degree, that number was 4.2 percent -- slightly under the national unemployment rate.

Minnesota in September had a lower unemployment rate overall, at 3.7 percent, and a lower rate for college graduates, at 2.1 percent, according to data from the state Department of Employment and Economic Development. But high school graduates without degrees had a higher unemployment rate, at 4.8 percent.

Faced with a historic worker shortage coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, major employers in Minnesota and across the country shifted to "skills-based hiring" that values experience rather than educational attainment.

Results have been limited: Less than 40 percent of employers that removed degree requirements in the past decade have significantly changed their hiring practices, according to a report last year from the Burning Glass Institute and Harvard Business School.

Though the college wage premium has stagnated in the past 20 years, according to research from the San Francisco Fed, college-educated workers still earn about 75 percent more than those without degrees.

"I think that for most higher-paying jobs, it's still the case that a four-year degree is just the cutoff," said Bill Baldus, career center director at Metropolitan State University. "Can people get great jobs without one? Absolutely. But you're going to be a much stronger candidate with a degree."

Students at the St. Paul university are either working or looking for work while pursuing their degree, Baldus said. The school offers resources including a course on navigating the job market in partnership with local employers.

Faculty have started to recognize the need to aid in closing the skills gap for students aiming to become "first-generation professionals," said career counselor Rachel Nihart.

"There's frustrations of, 'I don't have a degree. How do I get into this market?' " she said. " 'I don't know what working with Microsoft Teams looks like.' 'I don't know what working with Excel looks like.' "

Nihart said more students are visiting her office as the job market tightens, and more are still in contact six months after their initial visit. Many are applying for jobs and not hearing back, she said.

Kila Seki, 23, has worked in retail and other customer-facing roles since she was a teenager. When she pursued higher-paying work, she said, she faced rejection after rejection.

This spring, Seki transferred from a community college to Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minn., and expects to graduate in about a year with a bachelor's degree in marketing management.

"The turning point for me was that talent and hard work is not always going to win, so you need credentials," she said. "I knew that I wanted a real opportunity."

As a teenager in Alabama, Wilson was on track to study fashion and design. Then she got pregnant.

Her mother offered to care for the baby while she pursued her degree, but because she had already raised 10 children and one grandchild, Wilson said no.

"I said, 'This is my responsibility, so I won't. I can't let you do that,'" she said.

Decades later, Wilson still wants to work full time. She's taking an online computer skills course through Minneapolis-based nonprofit Hired and plans to seek help brushing up her résumé and practicing interviewing.

She hopes prospective employers can look past what's missing from her résumé, and those of others without degrees, and see what's there -- experience, hard work, an eagerness to learn.

"College is really important, but that wasn't in the cards for me," Wilson said. "But I have worked. I've paid my taxes. Just give us a chance to prove ourselves." more

Career development

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One woman's 'meme' application helped her land a gig after two years of job hunting

Ryan Reed is a contributing writer for GOOD residing in Knoxville, Tennessee who specializes in stories on music and pop culture. He has contributed to Rolling Stone, Relix, Revolver, SPIN and The New York Times.

You might think you're better at making goofy memes than punching up your work résumé, but after hearing the story of Allie Latic, you might notice some interesting overlap between those... two seemingly unrelated skills. In July 2025, after more than two years of aggressive job hunting and frustrating rejections, the 29-year-old landed a gig with help from an outside-the-box "application meme" that made everything fall into place.

Latic shared her story in an "as-told-to" feature with Business Insider, detailing how her silly but creative Hail-Mary move came to life. She pointed back to May 2023 when she graduated with a master's degree in library and information science. That was the beginning of a winding journey: applying to over 500 jobs, lots of networking, optimizing her résumé and cover letters. Nothing seemed to work. One day, feeling especially frustrated, she took a break by making a graphic on Canva and sending it to her friends.

It was a "satirical art piece" that also doubled as an eye-catching résumé, with Latic's skills and background set against a checkered backdrop, adorned with the words "PLZ hiRe me," a photo of her dog for "tax," an image of herself next to a massive tomato sculpture, and a list of her astrology signs. It wasn't intended for actual use, but her friends encouraged her to try it anyway, so she posted it in a local Facebook group "geared toward women in Chicago."

Within a few hours, the post had over 200 reactions and multiple comments, with several hiring managers reaching out to her directly. She ended up with 25 job leads. "I hadn't realized it, but I'd showcased a lot of my skills: being personable and good at communication, and making things more approachable," she said, recalling how her now-boss responded to her playful image. "For those stuck in a really long job hunt, do something silly! Do something artistic, something that's going to make people stop scrolling and empathize with you...That human connection is going to do way more for you than anything else. That was true for me."

While Latic's approach might not work in every situation, it clearly demonstrates the power of showing your personality and making a strong impression with your application. In 2016, Forbes shared some helpful tips for how to spice up your résumé, from avoiding business jargon to using the word "I" to limiting your use of figures and digits (for non-sales positions, at least). Meanwhile, in 2017, Fast Company offered a list of "do"s (mentioning "unique, relatable hobbies") and "don't"s (touching on "politics, religion, or anything controversial").

As Indeed notes, you can even gain an edge during the interview process by introducing yourself through some "casual but impactful" fun facts. "From quirky hobbies and hidden talents to favorite books and childhood memories," they observe, "sharing the right detail can help you connect with others and stand out." more

Career development

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Opinion: Ghost jobs are the scourge of a deficient labour market

John Turley-Ewart is a contributing columnist for The Globe and Mail, a regulatory compliance consultant and a Canadian banking historian.

This is the most difficult time of the year for the 1.5-million unemployed in this country. Moments of gratitude and plenty are for them days of anxiety and exclusion.

An impending New Year in the past might have fostered hope for better luck to come, yet it... is diminished today by the chasm between those seeking work and those hiring.

That gulf's measure, one that compromises labour mobility and trust, is ghosting - never communicating with job applicants, suddenly cutting off all communications post interview, and posting fake jobs.

What was once unprofessional is now structural, a labour-market deficiency that artificial intelligence is exacerbating.

Opinion: 'Ghost jobs,' where companies put up ads but don't actually want to hire anyone

To address this, Ontario wants to legislate common decency with Bill 190, which comes into effect on Jan. 1. Its "Duty to Inform" legislation targets employer ghosting. It's a start, yet more human intelligence is the long-term answer.

Ghost jobs are posted for market research or compliance purposes without any intention of ever filling them. Some postings are expired but continually reposted to give the impression that a company is growing but just can't find that unicorn candidate. Some postings are designed to harvest résumé data while others are for show, the job having already been assigned to an internal candidate.

The most malicious are scams targeting vulnerable people seeking work and using that vulnerability to extract information and money.

One Canadian report published by career website Jobs.ca in September suggests that 34 per cent of all job postings across all industries today are ghost jobs. The toll is concerning.

Job applicants are three times less likely to receive a response today compared with 2021. The typical Canadian job candidate spends hours on what turns out to be ghost jobs, tailoring résumés, doing company research and prepping for interviews.

The cost per job seeker chasing ghost jobs is an estimated $847 by Jobs.ca. Time is money, even to the unemployed.

Canada's jobless rate falls to 6.5% driven by rise in part-time, youth employment

Well-known career websites such as Indeed Canada and Monster Canada are reported to have a 30-per-cent-plus ghost rate by Jobs.ca, which uses humans to review all job postings and consequently asserts to have as little as 4.7 per cent.

One of the worst offenders appears to be the federal government's Job Bank Canada.

Its ghost job rate may exceed 40 per cent because of reasons specific to the government. Jobs are posted for compliance reasons rather than for filling actual roles, the foreign worker programs encourage postings to boost the impression of labour shortages and there seems to be little ability to validate job postings.

Work-from-home job postings are far more likely to be scams, with a ghost rate that nears 70 per cent. Roughly half of clerical and sales-jobs postings across career websites and about 60 per cent for entry-level general workers and customer service are real.

Ontario's anti-ghosting legislation applies to provincially regulated companies with more than 25 employees. When an employer interviews a job seeker but does not hire them, they must inform the person if the role was filled.

This offers some welcome relief. The meat of the law, however, is found in its prohibition of posting ghost jobs. Companies will be required to disclose if a posting is for an existing vacancy. They will also have to reveal if they are deploying AI to screen or chose applicants. Importantly, Ontario is imposing salary transparency by mandating the inclusion of wage ranges in job postings.

Fines for non-compliance can reach $100,000 and audits will be conducted to enforce the legislation.

Legal misconceptions by employers fearful of discrimination lawsuits contribute to the say-nothing culture that prevails today. Moreover, job-application tracking systems (ATS) enhanced today with AI algorithms deployed to manage high volumes of job applications have dehumanized the entire exercise.

So much so that job seekers are responding with their own AI application bots to game the application system and fool company bots. It is a dysfunctional mess with real human and economic consequences.

Bill 190 will help by entrenching some accountability. What will help more is companies valuing human connection in the hiring process.

If someone drops off a résumé at a business in person, don't direct them to a website. Appreciate their effort, prioritize it. After a person has applied and a skills match has been identified using ATS or AI, the approach should emphasize a high human-touch experience to its conclusion, be it a hire or not.

Companies are hiring people, not bots. If they treat them like bots, that, ironically, is exactly what they will find in their application funnels. more

Career development

1mo

I'm in my 40s and on my third career change. I got rejected from 83 jobs last month but I'm not losing hope.

In September I applied to over 80 jobs and didn't get any job offers.

In September, I applied to 83 jobs -- and got ghosted or rejected by every single one.

While I've been working since 2000 in different industries, I'm starting a new career following my passion in design. I have an internship, but need a full time job to cover the bills.

Job hunting at 43 has become a full-time hustle -- and... a brutal reminder that starting over never gets easier, no matter how many times you do it.

I was a bartender for 15 years before becoming a doula around 2015, diving into birth, postpartum, and end-of-life work and education. That work was deeply fulfilling. I supported people through life's most vulnerable moments, but the financial instability and long overnight shifts took their toll after nearly a decade.

When the pandemic hit New York City in 2020, doulas were temporarily banned from hospitals. Suddenly, I had time to reimagine what I wanted next. I'd always loved technology and computer science but figured that without a bachelor's degree, that dream wasn't for me.

But something shifted during the pandemic. My mindset changed from "Maybe someday" to "it's now or never."

I started doing things that scared me: trying pole dancing, saying no without guilt, and pursuing a career that many would say I wasn't "qualified" for.

Fast forward to November 2022, I enrolled in Springboard's UX/UI Design Career Track. I felt it in my gut, this was the right move. But I also knew I needed to make a financial shift from being an independent contractor (as a doula) to earning steady hourly pay. I transitioned into studio management and slowly began planning my exit from birth work.

By 2024, I had fully retired from my doula career. Working hourly jobs brought new challenges, but I learned how to advocate for myself, negotiate raises, and apply both soft and technical skills to every new role. I've now changed paid positions three times not because I'm inconsistent, but because I've fought for growth, for better pay, and for opportunities to use my design and management skills.

In September 2025, I made it my mission to apply to at least three companies every night. My résumé looked strong, my portfolio was solid for my level of experience, and my determination was unshakable.

Still, the rejections piled up. Eighty-three applications later, I hadn't received a single interview. Not one.

What I find most disturbing about this product design job-hunting saga is that I've applied to nearly a hundred positions and have nothing to show for it.

Making a career change in 2025 shouldn't feel this impossible.

I have close friends in tech, engineers and product designers, who remind me that breaking in takes time, persistence, and resilience. I've experienced this wave of disappointment before: when I became a bartender, when I transitioned to being a doula, and now as a product designer. Each time, I started from scratch, built new skills, and found my footing.

Right now, I'm working as an executive assistant, a role that combines many of the skills I've developed over the years: empathy, organization, communication, and creative problem-solving. And I'm still designing part-time at 5wins, staying connected to the craft and community that remind me why I chose this path in the first place.

The truth is, rejection still stings. But I've learned that every "no" brings me closer to the right "yes." Reinvention isn't easy, it takes courage, grit, and the ability to rebuild your sense of worth again and again. I may be on my third career change, but I'm far from done. more

17

Sheila Milburn
20
1mo
Have you asked those at your internship if they know of any paid internships. Also, from reading your post it seems you are all over the place. I... would be asking if you were in Manage-ment, health, administration or
design? Potential employers may be thinking you won't stay long or are indecisive. Try to find a common theme (word) or 3 from the job description that you can highlight throughout the
job write-ups in your resume. Like: creative, Manage. Customer service. Then update your application to highlight those attributes. Goodluck more
Rebecca Erinah
2
1mo
Let me stop loosing hope it's now 4 years without working ever since my grad
1

Tomas Eckholm

Career development

1w

Hi! I work as a driver for a large company and I’m assigned to one of the managers. I drive him to and from work and during the day if he needs it. But my boss keeps giving me more and more tasks. First, I had to drive his daughter to school. Then I started picking her up every day. Now I’m supposed to go to his house and walk his dog. I also have to drive his wife wherever she needs to go.
None... of this is part of my job. Should I ask for extra pay, refuse these tasks or talk to the company director? Thanks.

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6

JENNER KAKURU
1d
Does your JD have any other duties, if not your boss should be paying outside his pocked for additional duties or raise an issue to your HR,
James Anderson
2d
If you weren’t aware this situation could arise, you should have been. Now it’s awkward for you, the greedy person and your boss. How you resolve this... now, after the fact, will determine whether or not you remain employed. The problem is further exacerbated by you actually performing the requests presented to you. I see only one way out: continue on as though nothing is out of the ordinary- you are merely doing your job. As for pay, I’m not sure how you are paid, either hourly or salaried. If hourly, it’s easy- simply present your hours to accounting. If salaried, also easy- refuse to work only the hours you are salaried for. Either of these choices will bring the issue to the person who can resolve it- the Boss. more