Molly Winslow


Career development 13h
Because of my studies and family situation, I’ll have to switch to fully remote work. Do you think it’s still possible to grow in my career if I don’t show up at the office? Or will people just forget about me?
2   

Nikolas Rumeliotti


Career development 1w
Hello! It’s an open position in my department and we’re choosing between two candidates: an experienced 48-year-old man and a recent college graduate with no experience but very motivated. I prefer the second candidate, as she will learn fast and work well. But our company director wants to hire the experienced man. To me, he seemed a bit dry and a little tired.
Who would you choose? Thanks for... your advice

 more
3   

  • charles magiri

    2h

    Dear Nikolas. I like encouraging the young persons for motivating challenging jobs but the issue is they need to attached to a mentor since they do... not have experience. The 48 years person is ideal but your comment that he seems a bit dry and tired. This puts him off because I retired at 60 very energetic and at 68, I do train health workers for both WHO, MOH and their partners.
    Please hire the young person and give him few deliverables for a start and since she is a fast learners , she will be OK. Consider your company career progression processes.
    Regards
    Charles G. Magiri     more

  • kevin nyamai

    4d

    Old and experienced. The youth has a wide spectrum to get other opportunies and has no responsibilities or less if any. Old is gold

    1
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AJ Rosso


Career development 2w
Did I do something wrong by asking my boss for a raise? I’ve been doing the whole project alone for two months since my coworker left. But instead of answering, my boss said I should just be grateful to work in such a nice team. He even said my questions could hurt trust in the company. Should I tell him I might quit so he’ll think about raising my salary?

3   

  • Cynthia Awino

    4h

    Quitting now is not the solution, continue working diligently and let your work speak out for itself. if you leave now in the middle of the project... someone else is coming in to take the glory for your hard efforts. meanwhile start looking for another job because from your boss response there is no hope of any future increment. more

  • anthony opolot

    17h

    u continue working God knows

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Dana Hendrickson


Career development 3d
Can you tell me, did I fail the interview? Everything seemed fine, but my chair was wobbly. I just read that this can be a test to see if a candidate will ask for a better chair. Now I’m really worried.
Has anything like this ever happened to you in an interview?

  • Noah Soko

    6h

    In some organizations it could be a form of a psychometric test yes. It could be that the interviewer wanted to test you to see if you can report to... the authorities what you see not fit in a work environment. Look the exterior environment will actually mirror the interior. At least for most workplaces. Occupation and work safety is of outmost importance everywhere. more

  • idlehands knitworks

    2d

    I don't know if it was or wasn't a test...but consider if you actually want to work for a place willing to put you in that position to see if you are... "their kind of person". So, pass or fail doesn't matter - the next phase, if they call you back, is what you're willing to tolerate from such an opaque group of interviewers. ❤️ more

    2
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Career development

 11h

Job Hunt Partner - Help Me Build a Service


I am thinking about starting a job hunting company. We will use myself as at test case before taking on clients. TIf we click, this could grow into a service we offer to others. The focus is on mid-level administrative positions and, although we will cast a wide net across every major board, LinkedIn will be your primary hunting ground. YOUR TASKS: * Daily scan of Canadian specific mediums -... LinkedIn (primary) + Indeed, SimplyHired, CareerBeacon, Jobbank, Workopolis, Monster, Eluta, Jobboom, ZipRecruiter and company sites * Log every promising lead in a shared Google Sheet: link, closing date, notes for tailoring * For each application I approve: craft a polished, role-specific résumé + cover letter (saved as Word files in Google Drive: "Company - Position") * Update the tracker with submission dates + follow-up notes * Communicate proactively so we can refine tone, focus, or keywords together WHAT I NEED FROM YOU: * Solid written English (Canadian/American norms) * Experience with resume/cover letter tailoring (bonus: admin roles) * Reliable internet + quiet workspace * Comfort with Google Sheets/Drive * Attention to detail + proactive communication 1. Bid with your hourly rate in CAD 2. In your proposal, include: - Your location + timezone - One mid-level admin role you'd target for me (and why) - A 2-3 sentence sample cover letter hook for that role 3. Optional: link to past writing/resume work NO AGENCIES. NO COPY/PASTE BIDS. I read every proposal. First step: A paid 2-hour trial task ($10 CAD milestone) to test fit and assess your skills. If we click, we talk ongoing work. Let's build something real. This support is fully remote and completely flexible; the only expectation is that promising roles are picked up quickly and applications are submitted well before their deadlines. I will monitor the sheet and give feedback so we can keep refining the approach together. Deliverables: * Continuously updated Google Sheet of targeted mid-level administrative roles * Custom résumé and cover letter for every application, stored in Google Drive * Ongoing communication so we can adjust focus or wording as the search evolves If you have a knack for persuasive writing, an eye for detail, and enough perseverance to sift through dozens of postings until the right ones surface, let's get started. Bonus but optional: create a YouTube video - with me - demonstrating how to find jobs with the aforementioned (Good Marketing in my opinion). more

Emil Kaminsky


Career development 1d
Hi! Need some advice. There’s a woman in my team who has a difficult life situation - she has two kids and takes care of her elderly mother. She often makes mistakes in her reports. I’ve been quietly fixing them and not criticizing her.
But lately I’ve been thinking about replacing her with someone who makes fewer mistakes. I know this would really upset her.
What would you do in my place?

1   

  • moni wa warikuo

    3h

    This is not the solution, kindly identify the root cause and try to find a solution,walk with her, assist where possible,she might be the best in... terms of production.
    😭😭     more

    1

  • Odok Peter

    3h

    Removing her from work is not the solution dear , remember we all make mistakes dear just guide her and give her time thanks

    2
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Barbara Rivera
Career development 1w

I've been applying for work amd its going to be a year in July. IVE HAD ZERO LUCK. Even applied at fast food places and I still get denied.

Anyone else having this kind of luck ad can lend some guidance?
1   

  • John Heinrich

    15h

    Barbara, take a look at our DISC profile course at www.bizsuccess.school. Profile yourself, get your strong points and apply only where they value... your strong points. And watch what you say on social media, too. It can and will be held against you. more

  • Leilani Barnett

    1
    6d

    Barbara, take a look at your social media accounts, like Facebook. Make sure your posts are "business like" or "family oriented." No low-top pictures,... no silly poses, etc. People WILL look before hiring, so your posts need to be in line with the image the company wants to project.  more

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Career development

 18h

Competence without warmth creates authority. Warmth without competence creates fondness. Very few people figure out how to hold both.


We trust competent people with our safety and warm people with our secrets, but rarely the same person with both. Social psychology has spent decades mapping these two dimensions of human perception, and the findings suggest something uncomfortable: most of us are wired to sort others into one category or the other, as though warmth and competence occupy opposite ends of a single dial rather than... two separate ones. The research now tells us why so few people manage to hold both -- and what those who do are actually doing differently.

The Two Dimensions That Govern How We See Each Other

The Stereotype Content Model, developed by psychologist Susan Fiske and her colleagues at Princeton in the early 2000s, proposed that human social judgment runs along two primary axes: warmth and competence. Warmth captures whether we believe someone has good intentions toward us. Competence captures whether we believe they can act on those intentions effectively. Together, they account for roughly 80% of the variance in how we evaluate other people.

These aren't personality traits in the traditional sense. They're perception categories. They describe not what someone is, but what we believe about them in the first seconds of encounter. And those beliefs, it turns out, predict real-world outcomes with startling precision, from who gets hired to who gets elected, from who leads to who gets forgotten.

The model maps social groups into four quadrants. High warmth, high competence: the in-group, the allies, the people we admire and want to be around. High competence, low warmth: the envied, the respected-but-resented, the boss who gets results but whom nobody invites to dinner. High warmth, low competence: the pitied, the harmless, the sweet uncle who can't quite keep it together. Low on both: the despised, the invisible.

Where you land in that grid shapes everything about how people respond to you. Not what you say. Not what you've accomplished. Where you land.

What Hiring Data Reveals About the Warmth-Competence Trade-Off

If the framework only described social impressions at dinner parties, it would be interesting but limited. It's not limited. A recent meta-analysis published in PLOS ONE examined 21 US and Canadian correspondence studies -- experiments in which researchers send identical résumés to employers, varying only a single signal of identity: a name, a volunteer affiliation, a small detail that activates a stereotype. Then they measure who gets called back.

What the researchers found was striking. Warmth and competence ratings predicted callback differences between identities in studies that varied names to signal race, gender, and age. Applicants whose identity signals triggered perceptions of lower warmth and lower competence were less likely to receive callbacks, and the reverse held true as well.

The mechanism they propose: identity signals activate specific warmth and competence perceptions rooted in stereotypes, and those perceptions then shape callback decisions. The hiring manager isn't usually consciously thinking about race when making decisions based on stereotype-driven perceptions of warmth and competence. Instead, the hiring manager may have vague feelings about cultural fit that are actually shaped by warmth and competence perceptions rooted in stereotypes. That feeling has a structure. Warmth and competence are its grammar.

This is the hard part. The bias operates beneath conscious awareness, inside the same perceptual system we use to decide who to trust, who to follow, who to befriend. It's not a separate prejudice module. It's how social cognition works. The same two-axis classifier that shapes your impression of a new colleague shapes a hiring manager's impression of a résumé -- which means the warmth-competence trade-off isn't just a personal challenge. It's a structural one, embedded in the systems that determine who gets opportunity and who doesn't.

Authority Without Warmth: The Competence Trap

People who lead with competence alone generate a specific emotional response: respect mixed with unease. We trust their judgment but not their motives. We follow their directives but don't confide in them. We might describe them as impressive at dinner parties but never call them on weekends.

This pattern shows up everywhere, from corporate leadership to political campaigning to how organizations present their public figures. Technical competence alone doesn't sustain public support. You need people to feel something. You need warmth.

The competence-only leader creates an environment characterized by high output but low psychological safety. People deliver results because the consequences of failure are clear, not because they feel invested. This works in the short term. It corrodes in the long term. Teams stop sharing bad news. Innovation drops because the risk of looking foolish outweighs the reward of trying something new.

I left institutional journalism at 36 partly because I recognized this dynamic everywhere around me: brilliant editors and bureau chiefs whose competence was beyond question but whose teams were quietly hemorrhaging talent. The warmth-competence framework gave me language for what I'd been watching for years -- that the competence trap isn't a personality flaw but a perceptual prison. The more visibly skilled these leaders became, the less approachable they seemed, and the less approachable they seemed, the more isolated they grew from the honest feedback that would have made their competence actually useful. The work got done. The people got damaged.

Fondness Without Respect: The Warmth Trap

The inverse pattern is equally corrosive, just harder to see because it feels good. The warm, low-competence leader is beloved. People bring them coffee and defend them in meetings. But nobody takes their strategic suggestions seriously. Their influence is social, not operational.

Fiske's research found that groups perceived as high warmth but low competence trigger pity. We feel for them. We want to help them. We do not want to follow them into uncertain territory, because we don't believe they can get us through it.

This trap catches people who were conditioned early to prioritize likability over capability. They learned that being pleasant was a survival strategy, and it was. It got them through childhood, through school, through the early stages of careers where agreeableness matters more than expertise. But there's a ceiling. Warmth without competence generates affection without influence.

The fondness trap is particularly insidious because it's comfortable. Being liked is pleasant. Being respected but disliked is painful. Most people, given the choice, drift toward warmth and away from the harder work of demonstrating competence in ways that sometimes require saying no, setting boundaries, or making unpopular calls.

The Perception Problem: We See What We Expect

Recent research on visual encoding of warmth and competence suggests these judgments aren't just cognitive shortcuts. They are wired into how we process faces. Research in social perception has examined how warmth and competence stereotypes are visually encoded, finding that facial features alone can activate warmth and competence judgments before any behavioral information is available.

This means the warmth-competence perception is not something that forms slowly over repeated interactions. It forms fast. Milliseconds fast. And it sticks.

The implications are uncomfortable for anyone who believes they can simply act naturally and let others form accurate impressions over time. The first impression isn't a rough draft that gets refined. It's a frame that filters everything that comes after. If you're coded as competent but cold in the first encounter, subsequent warmth gets interpreted as manipulation or performance. If you're coded as warm but unreliable, subsequent competence gets interpreted as an exception.

I think about this constantly in the context of writing about physics and cosmology for general audiences. The moment someone decides you're "the science person who explains things clearly" rather than "the writer who understands people," the frame hardens -- and it becomes a live demonstration of the very phenomenon Fiske's model describes. You get slotted into a quadrant, and everything you do afterward gets interpreted through that slot. The challenge of holding both warmth and competence isn't abstract. It plays out in every encounter where someone is trying to decide what kind of person you are.

Power Changes the Equation

Research on power and warmth perception under Chinese cultural contexts, published in Frontiers in Psychology in 2024, found that power can actually enhance perceived warmth rather than diminish it, but only in cultures where hierarchical relationships carry expectations of benevolence. In those contexts, high-power individuals were perceived as warmer precisely because their power implied an obligation to care for subordinates.

Western contexts tend to work differently. Power amplifies perceived competence and suppresses perceived warmth. The CEO who was once your approachable coworker becomes, upon promotion, the person you perform for rather than confide in. Nothing about their personality changed. Their position in the social hierarchy changed, and the perception machinery recalibrated automatically.

This creates a structural problem for leadership. The very act of ascending to a position of authority makes you seem less warm. You have to work harder to demonstrate warmth the more competent and powerful you become. And that work often feels artificial, because it is: you're compensating for a perceptual distortion that has nothing to do with your actual intentions.

The People Who Hold Both

So who manages it? Who holds both warmth and competence simultaneously in the eyes of others?

The answer is not personality types. It's behavioral patterns. People who successfully occupy the high-warmth, high-competence quadrant tend to do specific things consistently. They demonstrate competence through action, not assertion. They don't tell you they're good at what they do; they show you, and they do it without fanfare. They demonstrate warmth through vulnerability, not agreeableness. They don't smile reflexively or agree with everything; they admit uncertainty, acknowledge mistakes, ask questions that reveal genuine curiosity about other people's perspectives.

The combination works because it resolves the central anxiety of social perception: can I trust this person's intentions AND their ability? When both answers are yes, the result is a rare quality that goes by different names in different fields. In leadership research, this relates to the distinction between prestige and dominance. In attachment theory, it maps roughly to secure attachment. In everyday language, people just call it trustworthiness.

In my recent piece on confusing hypervigilance with intuition, I wrote about how the nervous system learns to scan for threat and then relabels that scanning as wisdom. The warmth-competence framework reveals the other side of that coin: we don't just scan for threat in ourselves. We scan for it in everyone we meet, and the scan runs on a two-axis system that was designed for ancestral environments where both questions (do they mean well? can they follow through?) were matters of survival.

Why This Is So Hard to Change

The meta-analysis points to something deeper than individual bias. The researchers found that the warmth-competence framework predicted hiring outcomes across race, gender, and age categories, but not consistently across categories like sexuality and disability. This suggests the framework is powerful but not universal. Its explanatory power depends on how deeply a given stereotype is embedded in the culture's perceptual defaults.

The researchers explicitly noted that social perceptions may vary across cultures, and they encouraged future research to include intersectional studies that expand the attributes measured. They also highlighted their aim to use this link between perceived warmth and competence and callback rates to correct biases in the Large Language Models increasingly used for evaluating résumés.

That last point deserves attention. If LLMs are being trained on data that reflects the same warmth-competence biases as human hiring managers, then automating the process doesn't remove the bias. It scales it. The algorithm inherits the same perceptual grammar, and it runs faster.

The Existential Layer

There's a reason I think about this research in the same register I think about dark matter or the architecture of black holes. The warmth-competence framework describes something fundamental about how human minds construct social reality. It's not a preference or a choice. It's a perceptual system, as automatic as depth perception, as resistant to override as the Müller-Lyer illusion (the one where two lines of equal length look different because of the arrows at their ends).

We do not experience other people as they are. We experience them as our warmth-competence classifier reports them to be. And that classifier was calibrated by every interaction, every cultural message, every childhood lesson about who is safe and who is capable.

The people who hold both warmth and competence in others' eyes haven't transcended this system. They've learned to speak its language fluently. They understand, consciously or intuitively, that competence without warmth triggers vigilance and warmth without competence triggers patronage. So they signal both, continuously, in small calibrated doses.

That is not authenticity in the way most self-help culture uses the term. It is something more like social fluency: the ability to read what others need to perceive in order to trust, and the willingness to provide it without faking it. The distinction is subtle but important. They don't perform warmth they don't feel. They allow warmth they do feel to become visible, even when showing it costs them something.

And they don't perform competence through dominance displays. They let their work carry the signal, which requires the patience to trust that quality will eventually register, even when the temptation to self-promote is strong.

The Quiet Skill

Holding warmth and competence simultaneously is not a personality trait you're born with. It's a skill built through sustained, often uncomfortable practice. It requires you to resist the pull toward whichever dimension comes more naturally, and to develop the one that feels risky.

If competence is your default, the work is learning to let people in. To admit what you don't know. To ask for help in front of others. Every instinct will tell you this is dangerous, that it will undermine your authority. The research says the opposite: selective vulnerability, displayed by someone already perceived as competent, increases trust rather than decreasing it.

If warmth is your default, the work is harder to name. It involves becoming comfortable with other people's disappointment. Saying no. Holding a standard even when someone you care about falls short of it. Warmth-dominant people often experience competence-building as a betrayal of their identity, as though being rigorous means being cold.

It doesn't. Rigor in service of the people you're responsible for is one of the warmest things a person can do. It just doesn't feel like warmth in the moment.

The people who figure out how to hold both dimensions understand something the rest of us are still learning: that authority and tenderness are not opposites. They are the two hands of the same person, reaching for the same thing -- the trust of the people around them. That trust is what the warmth-competence classifier is ultimately trying to predict: not whether someone is pleasant, not whether someone is skilled, but whether they can be relied upon to care and to deliver at the same time.

Very few people figure it out. But it can be figured out. And the first step is recognizing which trap you've been living in -- then doing the harder, quieter work of building what's missing, not as performance, but as practice. The dial isn't single-axis. It never was. The two dimensions are separate, and that means both hands can reach at once.

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Pexels more

Career development

 1w

My Husband Can't Get a Job. Should I Divorce Him?


My husband is a very smart and capable person, but he became very sick in early 2020, and he has barely worked since then, despite tirelessly applying for positions. What can he do?

We recently moved so I could go to graduate school for music, but the stress of trying to make enough money to live on (even with help from my mom) has made it nearly impossible to focus and develop my skills. It's... literally ruining my life.

Currently he is doing an online master's program in computer science, but I worry that this will not improve his prospects. I don't really want to get divorced, but I think about it constantly. It's just too hard trying to support two adults as a nonprofit administrator. I can't live this way for the next 30-40 years.

Thanks for your help,

 more
1   

  • Cynthia Awino

    2
    4h

    If you married him because of his work then you can go ahead and divorce him. what if the tables were turned around, what if it was your brother, or... maybe son in the same situation would you advise their spouse to divorce them. this is a decision you decide on your own, reflect deeply and know that for every decision there are consequences. more

  • Barbara McAfee

    1
    15h

    You have my empathy. Sometimes life can be very difficult!! You may need to relocate to a different place, since where you are living seems to have... a drought. T more

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Melissa Brooks


Career development 2d
Our company has already hired a third young guy without a college degree. I honestly don’t understand it, since I’m a certified economist (I completed a master’s degree).
Can you tell me, is higher (specialized) education really no longer important for a career nowadays? Thanks

5   

  • lily Mwai

    19h

    Ever heard them say do your job and go home..yes that's it.
    That, as you look for a job elsewhere if you feel that's not the type of workmates you... deserve  more

    2

  • Crystal Thomas

    1d

    Honestly jobs are looking for staff eith the knowledge and experience instead of degrees. Why pay a person more money with out the experience but has... a degree when they can get the person with no degree for less and gain because that person has the knowledge. more

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Career development

 22h

Applying to 100 jobs but no calls? You might be doomjobbing


You open a job portal, scroll endlessly, hit "apply" again and again and yet, your inbox stays silent. If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. A growing number of jobseekers today are falling into a pattern called doomjobbing, a habit that feels productive but often leads nowhere.

The term, inspired by doomscrolling, describes a cycle where candidates apply to dozens (sometimes hundreds) of... roles without a clear strategy, mistaking activity for progress. Experts warn that this approach can quietly derail careers rather than accelerate them.

Doomjobbing is essentially job hunting driven by anxiety rather than intention. Instead of carefully choosing roles, candidates apply impulsively, often to any job that seems remotely relevant.

This trend is rising because the job market feels uncertain and competitive. Many people believe that applying for more jobs will increase their chances. But in reality, this "more is better" mindset often backfires.

As experts point out, the process starts with purpose but soon turns into a repetitive cycle of scrolling and applying without direction.

Every time you click "apply," it gives a small sense of achievement. It feels like you're moving forward.

But that feeling is misleading.

In reality, mass applying without tailoring your resume or understanding the role reduces your chances. Recruiters can easily spot generic applications, and many get filtered out before they're even seen.

This creates a false loop, more applications, fewer responses, and growing frustration.

Here's the harsh truth: applying for 100 jobs doesn't mean you're increasing your chances.

In fact, it can hurt you because:

Research and career experts consistently highlight that networking and targeted applications are far more effective than bulk applying.

Yes, and more than you think.

Doomjobbing often comes from stress, fear, or urgency, especially after job loss or career uncertainty. Over time, it leads to burnout, self-doubt, and anxiety.

Instead of feeling in control, candidates begin to feel stuck. The constant cycle of applying and not hearing back can be emotionally draining and demotivating.

Experts even describe it as "anxiety in disguise," where the job search becomes reactive instead of strategic.

Breaking out of a doomjobbing job doesn't mean applying less, it means applying smarter.

Apply to fewer roles, but tailor your resume and cover letter carefully.

Be clear about your goals

Know what kind of job you're targeting instead of applying randomly.

Build connections, not just applications

Networking, referrals, and conversations often open more doors than job portals.

Create a structured routine

Set specific hours for job searching instead of doing it all day.

Track progress differently

Measure success by meaningful actions like interviews, conversations, or skill-building, not just the number of applications.

That's the question every jobseeker needs to ask.

Because doomjobbing isn't about laziness, it's about direction.

In a fast-moving, competitive job market, simply doing more isn't enough. What matters is doing the right things with clarity and purpose.

So the next time you feel tempted to apply to just one more job, pause and ask yourself: Is this a step forward or just another scroll? more

Career development

 22h

Death of the Résumé: How AI Killed It-and What Is Replacing the Interview


When everyone can produce a stellar application, employers no longer trust "the talk", they want to watch you solve real-life problems in a job tryout

For nearly a century, the résumé was the undisputed currency of the professional world. It was a formal, static document -- a curated ledger of pedigree, titles, and carefully balanced bullet points. It operated on a system of "proxy trust": if you... held a specific degree or worked for a recognizable brand, it was assumed you possessed the corresponding skills. But in the mid-2020s, the "Perfect Paper Candidate" hit a wall of silicon. We are witnessing the death of the résumé, and its killer is the very technology promised to streamline it.

The primary catalyst is AI-driven saturation. When generative AI tools became capable of crafting flawless, keyword-optimized cover letters and résumés in seconds, the signal-to-noise ratio in recruitment shattered. Recruiters, once tasked with finding the best talent, found themselves drowning in an ocean of indistinguishable "prompt-engineered" perfection. When everyone's prose is impeccable and every application hits every algorithmic requirement, the document itself becomes meaningless. It has ceased to be a differentiator; it has become a generic barrier to entry.

Faced with this "perfection paradox," employers have stopped reading and started watching. The industry's answer to the AI-inflated application is the rise of the high-stakes audition, a move designed to strip away the digital mask and reveal the raw capability underneath. But this pendulum swing toward practical testing has brought its own heavy costs.

The Friction of the New Frontier

The shift toward "job tryouts" is not a frictionless utopia. It introduces a series of systemic challenges that redefine the struggle for employment. First is the "Shadow Work" Trap: when an audition involves solving a company's actual backlogged problems, the line between evaluation and free consulting blurs. Without strict industry standards, this practice risks becoming a predatory form of "spec work" where companies crowdsource solutions under the guise of recruitment.

Furthermore, there is the Socio-Economic Barrier. A traditional interview takes two hours; a job tryout might take two days. For a candidate balancing a current 40-hour work week or childcare, a multi-day "sprint" is a massive hurdle. This creates a "time-poverty" filter that may inadvertently favor those with the financial luxury to stop their lives to prove their worth. Finally, these high-pressure simulations often favor the "Fast Performer" over the "Deep Thinker." By prioritizing immediate output, companies risk filtering out the reflective, cautious experts who produce superior long-term results but struggle to "dazzle" in a high-stakes, short-term spotlight. Once again, meritocracy may not win out as the best candidate may not get hired.

The Rise of Substance

Despite these hurdles, the industry is moving from an era of "Signal" (what you say you can do) to an era of "Substance" (what you can prove in real-time). The hiring process is being "gig-ified." Candidates are now asked to solve live problems, fix bugs, or draft strategy under a deadline before a contract is ever signed. These "paid auditions" turn the application process into a series of mini-jobs, shifting the burden of proof from the past (where you went to school) to the present (what you can deliver by 5:00 PM).

This shift levels the playing field for the "hidden gems" -- those who lack a prestigious pedigree but possess elite, demonstrable skills. The self-taught coder or the intuitive marketer can now bypass the "Ivy League filter" by simply out-performing their peers in a live simulation.

The death of the résumé marks the end of professional myth-making. The modern worker can no longer hide behind a polished history or a clever list of adjectives. In a world where AI can write your story, employers now demand to see you perform the lead role.

The future belongs to those who don't just have a record of being employed, but a visible, verifiable "Proof of Work." more

Career development

 1mo

Four things you should lie about in a job interview


A recruitment specialist - who has "been conducting interviews for years" - has outlined the four questions you should lie about in a job interview.

Taking to Reddit, the expert revealed that there are certain questions she feels are permissible to answer with a fib because being honest may have a negative effect on the interview process.

She went on to dub a job interview as less of an... "exhaustive exam" and more of a "negotiation", where the product the company is hoping to buy is your skills.

With that in mind, she encourages applicants to "have a few tricks" up their sleeves and lie about the following questions.

She advises hopefuls to lie about their previous salary, as human resources professionals are trying to find the most qualified person for the lowest cost to the company.

"During negotiations, if they pressure you to reveal your salary (which we will pressure you to do), don't give the real amount if you want a bigger raise," she shared.

She also encouraged applicants to lie about why they're looking for a new job.

"Don't tell us you didn't like your previous work environment," she instructed. "That makes you seem like a difficult person to recruiters and makes us think you might cause problems in this job.

"Instead, say you're looking for new professional challenges."

The recruitment expert added that one should lie about how their previous boss made them feel, otherwise you will be viewed as a "difficult person incapable of leadership".

"Look, I've worked with some real jerks in the office, and everyone knew it. But even though we all know tyrants exist in companies, don't tell anyone at another company that your old boss was one, because we're not from there."

Lastly, she advised applicants to lie about their goals five to ten years in order to seem like a better investment to the company.

"Although I also see myself running a farm with cows, I'm not going to tell people at the company," she hilariously shared.

"The company wants you there for a long time and they're thinking about the future with you.

She then compared the scenario to navigating relationships.

"It's like going on a date and saying you're afraid of commitment," she noted.

Social media users piled into the comments section to give their two cents on the controversial advice.

"Interviews aren't lie detectors, they're sales meetings so stop confessing and start marketing," one person wrote.

Another chimed in: "Literally treat all interviews as acting auditions and do/say whatever you think they'll like best until it gets down to the real details (pay, hours, etc)."

"God interviews are so exhausting. Like you need someone to do the job, I need a job to do, cool let's shake hands and see how it goes," one person penned.

Another added: "I learnt all this the hard way. Nobody told me anything. My honesty screwed me over so much. Companies want the best liars. Not the hard workers. At least in all my cases." more
9   

  • Mwamba Cephas

    23h

    very nice

  • Kahutia Hernandez

    4w

    Hi there. How are you doing today. I just need a lil’ help connecting me to your school colleagues 🔴. I wanna assist them to crush their assignments... and get top grades ‘cause I’m solid in:

    Marketing
    Psychology
    Econometrics
    Social work
    Nursing/Health Sciences
    Engineering
    Business/Management
    English/Literature/Creative Writing

    You wanna hook me up with them so I can help ‘em soar with my assignment writing skills.

    Regards     more

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Career development

 23h

Companies don't want your résumé. You'll have to show up instead.


About a decade ago, I taught a business communications course to MBA students. One aspect of it was résumé writing. I'd share tips for crafting a standout résumé, then have students workshop each other's drafts in small groups, pushing for sharper, more distinctive, and memorable copy.

Today, these skills are increasingly obsolete. AI can just do it for you.

My colleague Amanda Hoover has... chronicled two major shifts in the workplace that are reshaping how people get jobs. First, she declared the death of the résumé. Hiring managers are increasingly ignoring them, as they are overwhelmed by a flood of AI-generated résumés and cover letters that look polished, keyword-optimized, and eerily similar.

That means job hunters are scrambling for new ways to stand out, especially as companies rely more on LinkedIn and referrals to narrow their candidate pool.

Ultimately, as Amanda writes, companies are much more interested in how these candidates can perform on the job than in how they present themselves on paper.

That leads to the second big shift Amanda focuses on: Résumés are out, job tryouts are in.

Companies are asking candidates to prove their abilities, sometimes for days or even a week in the office, through live tests and work trials. Employers can see a candidate's technical skills and collaboration abilities IRL.

They can also assess how effectively a candidate can use AI tools in practice. This is the reality for many workers already on the job, too, especially as companies are increasingly tying performance bonuses to AI usage.

There are benefits on the other side, too. Job candidates can see how their prospective employers operate, who their new boss might be, and if the role or the company would be a good fit.

If I ever went back into teaching, the 2026 thing would be to focus on vibe-coding a way to find new job postings that fit your role. RIP résumé. more

Career development

 1d

What your media kit says about you before you say a word - The Blog Herald


Editor's note (April 2025): This article is part of Blog Herald's editorial archive. Originally published in the early 2010s, it has been reviewed and updated to ensure accuracy and relevance for today's readers.

There's a document sitting between you and your next brand deal, podcast collaboration, or press feature. Most bloggers and creators know it exists. Far fewer have built one that... actually works.

The media kit -- sometimes called a press kit or blog kit -- has been a staple of professional publishing for decades. But what passed for a good media kit in 2012 looks embarrassingly thin today. Brands are more data-literate. Journalists move faster. The bar for first impressions has risen sharply, and a cluttered PDF full of stock icons won't clear it.

If you want to engage with media professionals effectively -- whether that's brand managers, PR teams, editors, or podcast hosts -- your media kit needs to do something most don't: tell a coherent story at a glance.

At its foundation, a media kit is a professional summary of who you are, who you reach, and why that reach matters. Think of it less like a résumé and more like a pitch deck for your personal brand.

The non-negotiable elements for any blogger or creator in 2025 include a clear bio framed around your niche and value proposition, audience demographics (age range, location, gender split, primary interests), engagement metrics across the platforms you actively use, traffic data if your site is a significant channel, and a short selection of previous brand collaborations or press mentions.

What separates the functional from the forgettable is context. Raw follower counts mean almost nothing to a seasoned brand manager who has seen inflated numbers too many times. What they want to know is whether your audience actually listens -- and acts. Average engagement rates, click-through data, email open rates if you run a newsletter: these numbers tell the real story.

The visual format of your media kit should reflect your creative voice. A lifestyle blogger and a B2B content strategist are pitching to different audiences with different expectations -- and their kits should look and feel accordingly.

That said, a few principles hold universally. Keep it scannable: decision-makers spend 30 seconds on a first pass, not 30 minutes. Use clear section breaks, consistent typography, and enough white space that the most important figures stand out rather than disappear into the layout. Canva has become the go-to tool for creators building polished kits without a design background -- their media kit templates are a reasonable starting point, though customisation is essential if you want to avoid a generic look.

One-page kits work well for initial outreach. A longer two-to-three-page version makes sense when you're sending a formal proposal or responding to a detailed brief. Some creators maintain both versions and send accordingly.

The media kit landscape has shifted substantially since the early days of blogging. Back then, a blog's page view count was the headline metric. Today, brands and publishers care about a much more layered picture.

Instagram engagement rates have dropped industry-wide -- the average sits around 0.5-1% for accounts with more than 10,000 followers, according to Sprout Social's benchmark data. That context matters when you're presenting your own numbers. A 3% engagement rate on a modest audience is a stronger signal than 0.4% on a much larger one.

Email newsletters have also become a credibility marker in a way they weren't a decade ago. If you've built a list, include your subscriber count and open rate. For many niche creators, a well-engaged newsletter audience of a few thousand is worth more to the right brand than a passive social following of tens of thousands.

Video content -- whether YouTube, short-form on TikTok or Reels, or embedded in blog posts -- is increasingly expected to be part of the picture. If video is part of your output, include view counts and watch-time data.

The most common problem is outdated metrics. A media kit referencing stats from 18 months ago signals that you're not actively managing your brand. Treat your kit as a living document and review it quarterly.

A close second is burying the value proposition under too much personal biography. A paragraph about your origin story is fine; three paragraphs about your blogging journey before you get to audience data is not. The person reading your kit wants to know what you can do for them, not just who you are.

Many creators also neglect to tailor the kit for different use cases. A pitch to a beauty brand needs different emphasis than one going to a podcast looking for guests, or a media outlet considering you as a contributor. Keep a core version and adapt it for the context.

Finally, avoid vague language where specific numbers would serve better. "Large, engaged following" tells no one anything. "14,000 monthly unique visitors, 42% returning audience, 2.8% average email click rate" tells a very clear story.

A media kit isn't a bureaucratic formality -- it's a tool for making the right first impression with the right people. For bloggers and content creators who are serious about monetisation, collaboration, or editorial recognition, it deserves the same attention as any other part of the publishing operation.

The creators who get consistent traction from their kits are the ones who treat them as a pitch, not a document dump. They lead with their strongest metrics, frame their audience in terms of value rather than volume, and make it easy for the reader to take the next step -- whether that's booking a call, approving a brief, or forwarding the kit to a decision-maker.

Get that right, and the kit does real work for you. That's the point. more

Anonymous member


Career development 5d
Hi! I work in an all-women team and no one has a car. My husband picks me up every day and my coworkers often ask for a ride too. They got used to it and if I say no, they get upset. But I’m tired of driving everyone home. How can I stop this without arguments? Thanks

1   

  • Dr. Delores Thompson

    1d

    Explain to them that while you would love to offer a ride home you can no longer do it because it takes about from obligations that you need to... attend to right after work. This isn't a lie because your obligation os your families needs more

    1

  • Amony Jackline

    2d

    You needn't be kind,do they buy fuel. When leaving, walk out alone and get your husband in unusual places

    2
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Career development

 1d

Eastern Florida State's Cybersecurity Program Serves as Pipeline for Space Coast's Thriving Information Technology industry - Space Coast Daily


By Casey Covel, Eastern Florida State College // April 11, 2026

Eastern Florida State College's Cybersecurity Program Upgrades Tomorrow's Professionals

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA - Blending foundational IT skills with hands-on operations, national competitions, and real-world internship experience, Eastern Florida State's Cybersecurity program serves as an employment pipeline for the Space Coast's... thriving Information Technology industry.

"Between L3Harris, Northrop, Health First, and other local employers, there are a lot of cool opportunities here on the Space Coast and beyond," said program assistant professor Nicole Dyess.

"As alumni enter hiring-management positions, we've built up this little Cyber Titans network. They're constantly asking me for my best students and their résumés."

With over 20 years of experience in systems engineering and network security, Dyess brings her diverse skill set to the classroom.

Students learn cryptography, network architecture, data extraction, malware identification, and phishing investigation in an environment where confidence- and community-building are as critical as real-time forensics simulations.

Laboratory Experiences Designed by Students

One of these immersive lab experiences, the Palm Bay Cyber Range Lab, features an air-gapped network where students can conduct penetration testing, run incident response drills, and simulate live attacks.

The Cyber Range Lab's gamer-style vibe takes inspiration from series like Mr. Robot, featuring LED lights, cutting-edge machinery, and even an arcade console.

"The students built much of our lab environment themselves. That sense of ownership gives them real résumé experience," said Dyess.

It's not the only lab designed by the program's students. Andrew Klinsic, who is completing his Cybersecurity & Network Systems A.S. degree before continuing to his Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) degree in Cybersecurity, contributed heavily to designing the College's Cyber Van.

This lab-on-wheels enables mobile outreach to the community, libraries, high schools, and middle schools.

"As we designed the Cyber Van, we had to consider constraints with power and equipment. It's all real experience we can put on a résumé," said Klinsic, who enjoys performing live demonstrations for public awareness.

"In the van, we demo phishing attacks -- what the victim sees versus what the attacker sees -- to help others become more aware of scams."

As students teach the public and youth about cybersecurity, they also build confidence and reinforce their skills.

"The technical documentation the students produced for the Cyber Van is some of the best I've ever seen," said Dyess.

In-Demand Certifications and Industry Training

Students interested in completing EFSC's BAS degree in Cybersecurity typically begin with the two-year A.S. in Cybersecurity & Network Systems, which provides a strong foundation and technical prerequisites for their four-year degree.

Additionally, students can consider beginning their academic journey with one of EFSC's six College Credit Certificates (Network Server Administration, Network Infrastructure, IP Communications, Network Support Technician, Network Virtualization, and Network Security), which can be used to build toward their two-year degree.

Although students can alternatively complete an Associate in Arts degree as part of their BAS pathway, Klinsic found the A.S. in Cybersecurity & Network Systems to be the right choice for him.

"I wanted to get technical classes before I went on to the bachelor's, so I swapped into the A.S. degree," he said. "If you do the A.A., you're doing more general education. I wanted the prerequisites that really matter for the bachelor's."

The program is designed so that certain courses articulate to certifications such as Security+, Linux+, or Network+, which are highly sought after by employers.

"Once students finish the required courses, they can complete the CompTIA Boot Camp prep and get a free voucher to sit for these important exams," said Dyess.

"For example, Security+ is an absolute requirement for cybersecurity roles, especially with DoD-compliant companies."

Klinsic is currently completing the Network Security Fundamentals course, which prepares students for the CompTIA Security+ certification, including applied questions in which students must demonstrate cybersecurity-related skills in real time.

"Security+ is legally required depending on the project you're working on," he said. "It's essential for many IT and federal roles. Employers expect you to have the certificate and be able to learn on the job."

Community Support & the Cybersecurity Club

Sponsored by Nicole Dyess, EFSC's Cybersecurity Club proudly upholds EFSC's prestigious Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense designation by the National Security Agency and U.S. Department of Homeland Security, while also providing students with access to exam preparation, peer support, and events like the National Cyber League competition.

For Klinsic, joining the club in his first semester and meeting other students interested in cybersecurity convinced him to switch his degree.

"The club's main purpose is helping you get your foot in the door through community events, professional networking, and skill building," said Klinsic.

"It's all about who you know -- especially in cybersecurity, where you work long hours in stressful environments. Your employers need to know they can work with you, trust you, rely on you."

"L3Harris hired three or four new grads straight from our club recently," added BAS Cybersecurity student Steven Lay. "Once you get into one of those companies, you can go anywhere -- especially if you get your security clearance."

The Cybersecurity Club provides access to both the National Cyber League and Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition. In the CCDC, students troubleshoot real-world cybersecurity challenges, including malware, network traffic, log analysis, cryptography, and web applications -- all while competing against professional and volunteer hackers.

"When you're competing under pressure, it pushes you to figure things out," said Lay. "And after you solve the problem, it just feels amazing -- like 'I can't believe I got it!'"

The NCL competition, which takes place in the Fall and Spring semesters, involves more than 500 schools and 10,000 students. In 2025, the Cyber Titans competed in both individual and team-based events, earning an impressive 20th place in the Cyber Power Rankings.

"We remain tremendously proud of our Cyber Titans and the excellence they demonstrate year after year," said College President Dr. Jim Richey.

"Their success reflects their skill, determination, and strong commitment to their future careers in cybersecurity. None of this would be possible without the clear vision and dedication of Assistant Professor Nicole Dyess, whose leadership continues to be an example to others in this challenging and exciting field."

Entering the Field

EFSC's Cybersecurity program maintains strong relationships with local employers, providing students with built-in internship-for-credit opportunities as they enter the final year of their degree.

Trish Tackett, who is halfway through her BAS Cybersecurity degree and already employed as an engineering technician at L3Harris, looks forward to the opportunity to put her classroom experience to work in an internship.

"The internship component is optional, but I thought it would be a great thing to have," she said. "It will help me get into the cyber area at L3Harris if I've already completed an internship in that same department."

Additionally, Assistant Professor Dyess emphasizes student proactivity being key to future employment -- honing and implementing skills beyond classroom and laboratory hours, as well as taking time to meet others in the industry.

"Networking is one of the most important things students can do. A lot of our job placements come from meeting industry people at events," she said. "I always ask students: 'What are you building at home? Are you managing your home network? Are you the family's PC technician?'"

Graduates of the Cybersecurity program often begin with entry-level IT roles, such as help desk technicians or system administrators, before moving into more cybersecurity-related roles.

Lay, who has a background in computer programming, says it's been helpful in his transition to cybersecurity, which offers a wide range of career paths.

"Cybersecurity has like 20 niches inside of niches," he said. "There are different avenues one can go down. I know a person who went into compliance and another who went into forensics. It can appeal to all kinds of personalities, industries, and interests."

Justin Miller, a graduate of the Cybersecurity program and EFSC alum, had the honor of leading the Cybersecurity Club as Captain in the NCL competition during his second year.

He credits these hands-on experiences for pushing him to conduct further research and perform simulations that proved invaluable in finding employment.

"It taught me to be self-sufficient and independent in my job," said Miller. "I'm employed at TechRev Inc., where I do a lot of email investigations into phishing activity. I'm learning a lot on the job as I serve others and help them stay safe."

Looking Ahead: Growth & Emerging Technologies

EFSC continues to expand its cybersecurity program with enhanced labs, a new classroom setting in the newly opened Center for Innovative Technology Education building on the Melbourne Campus, and additional industry partnerships.

"The program keeps growing," said Dyess. "Cybersecurity isn't going away, and we're keeping up with industry trends. For example, we're training a local language model on our network so students can use AI safely in their labs. Students need to learn how to use AI well, not fear it."

EFSC alum Cheyenne Burkhart spent more than five years working in healthcare before choosing to pursue a lifelong passion for cybersecurity. Seeing a rise in ransomware and malware attacks on hospitals eventually brought her to EFSC's BAS program.

"Most colleges charged exorbitant tuition, but EFSC fit the criteria perfectly -- their BAS program is affordable and always had class availability for any day or time I needed," said Burkhart.

"Without this program, I would not have made it as far as I have in my professional career. My employers were highly impressed with the extracurricular work I did in addition to my classes."

Today, Burkhart works as a Security Operations Center Analyst for a local Department of Defense contractor, where daily tasks include detecting threats and ensuring protective measures are in place.

Whether students have a history of experience in the field or a newly budding interest, EFSC's Cybersecurity program provides innovative laboratories, industry connections, expert instruction, and community involvement to launch any future professional's career.

In Burkhart's own words: "EFSC's Cybersecurity program is one of the best around and will prepare anyone for a career in this field."

CLICK HERE to find out more about Eastern Florida State College's Cybersecurity program.

If you would like to help students achieve their cybersecurity career dreams, please consider donating to the EFSC Foundation to support the purchase of needed equipment or student scholarships. If interested, please contact the EFSC Foundation by calling 321-433-7094 or visiting their website at efscfoundation.org. more

Career development

 1d

How Ultra-Luxury Hotels Decide Who Gets a Key


Forget V.I.P. Are you P.L.U.? (That's People Like Us, rather than just one of them.) Select -- and selective -- five-star hotels are increasingly screening would-be guests for desirability rather than ability to pay. Jason Squatriglia, founder of Your Favorite Travel Agent, spends significant time filling out so-called pitch bios to persuade persnickety property managers that his clients would be... additive to the poolside scene. "They work hard to curate that environment, which they don't want to lose just because someone can pay $2,500 a night," he says.

These travel résumés detail everything from a client's board positions to whether they're accompanied by young, noisy children or less-disruptive older teens. If you're arriving by private jet, he'll add in that you require a transfer from the local fixed-base operator. "It already speaks volumes, whether you own or charter," he says.

Such dossiers are a near-essential for one world-famous, always-booked hotel in the south of France. And even when a booking is accepted, it's usually conditional: The exact rate per night will be determined at check-in, and guests must agree to accept whatever they're offered.

One general manager, who asked not to be named, admits he approaches reservations this way. "We are working on building a members'-club mindset at our place," he says. "They are not only booking a suite, but they want to be part of a community."

Cari Gray of Gray & Co., which focuses on trips for active travelers, frames these inquiries more like matchmaking. It's a natural evolution for lavish private villas. Owners of such houses are, unsurprisingly, keen to know what kind of people are sleeping under their roofs. Five Star Greece's founder and director Ileana von Hirsch works with a villa on the tony island of Antiparos. The art-filled home was built by a collector to be what she calls "a beacon of civilization in the dark of this world." The last time she booked it successfully? For a wealthy Swiss traveler who had a passion for collecting. He qualified with credibility, not credit score.

Still, there are always work-arounds. Take a name with the wrong kind of recognition, or digital footprint, for example. Squatriglia sometimes makes the booking request using a spouse's bio instead. "She can get a reservation, with a guest, but if he's coming? They have no availability," he says. "You just have to get creative." more

Career development

 1d

Unemployed recent college grad: I've applied to over 1,000 jobs


Business Insider tells the global tech, finance, stock market, media, economy, lifestyle, real estate, AI and innovative stories you want to know.

For most of my life, I believed in a very specific formula: work hard in school, build a strong résumé, study abroad, learn languages, get a master's degree, and be globally aware.

I studied journalism and... media, and I leaned into storytelling early on. I spent time abroad multiple times in Rome, Florence, Kuwait, and Scotland. I learned how to navigate new cultures, new systems, and new expectations. I became fluent in spaces that were not designed for a first-generation student like me.After graduating, I went on to earn my master's degree in international affairs as part of the inaugural cohort at John Cabot University in Rome . I focused on global justice, human rights, and representation. I contributed to research on the gig economy, attended UN conferences both in Italy and Azerbaijan, and built what I thought was a strong, competitive profile.I completed my MA degree early, believing I had done everything right. But I still can't find a job.Since graduating, I've applied to over 1,000 jobs.That includes roles in Rome with UN agencies, NGOs, and humanitarian organizations. It also includes jobs across the US -- in-person, hybrid, and remote roles. I applied to communications positions, research roles, media jobs, and anything that aligned with my background in storytelling and global affairs.I tailored résumés. I wrote cover letters that took hours. I researched organizations, memorized their missions, reached out to every connection, and prepared for interviews like they were exams.Out of all those applications, I've gotten 15 interviews. Only two of those moved me to a second round. Less than five of the roles I interviewed for were actually filled.For the rest, I watched the same job postings reappear weeks or months later. Were those even real positions?It started to feel like I wasn't competing for jobs. I was competing for the possibility of a job.Rejection is one thing. Uncertainty is another.When you don't get a job, you can usually point to something. Maybe someone had more experience. Maybe you didn't interview well. Maybe the role just wasn't the right fit.But what do you do when there's no outcome at all? When positions stay open indefinitely. When companies repost roles without hiring. When you make it through multiple steps and still hear nothing back.It creates this constant loop in your mind. You start questioning everything: your degree, your experience, and the choices you made.I did everything I was told would make me employable. Yet, I've never felt more unsure about where I stand.At some point, I had to shift my focus from waiting to building.During undergrad, I spent four years working in publicity and creative marketing. That became the one thing I could return to when the job market kept shutting me out.Now, I freelance as a creative director and marketing professional. I design campaigns, create visual content, and work with clients to build cohesive brand identities. I've worked on everything from social media strategy to email marketing to photoshoots to editorial visuals.It's not stable or the full-time role I desire for myself. But it's something I built myself.Freelancing has taught me how to trust my skills in a different way. It's shown me that I don't need permission to create meaningful work.Still, there's a difference between surviving and feeling secure. I'm still trying to figure out how to bridge that gap.For a long time, I was chasing stability as it was defined for me: a full time job, steady paycheck, and clear title. But not having that has pushed me to ask a different question. What kind of work do I actually want to be doing?The answer keeps bringing me back to storytelling.I want to be a creative director who focuses on telling BIPOC stories with care and accuracy. I want to create media that doesn't flatten people into stereotypes or reduce cultures into trends. I want to build projects that feel honest, layered, and intentional.That's the work I've been drawn to for years. It's also the work I kept putting off because I thought I needed something more "stable" first.Now, I'm starting to see that maybe the path I was following was never designed to lead me there.I don't have a clean ending to this story.I'm still applying for jobs while freelancing, and trying to make sense of a system that feels unpredictable and, at times, impossible to navigate.But I also know this: the effort I've put in hasn't been wasted. It just didn't lead me where I expected. Maybe that means I have to build something different instead.

College Education Careers Gen Z

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Career development

 1d

I've applied to 1,000 jobs since earning my master's and am still unemployed. I'm frustrated because I thought I did everything right.


I'm frustrated because I thought I did everything right, but I'm now focusing on freelancing.

For most of my life, I believed in a very specific formula: work hard in school, build a strong résumé, study abroad, learn languages, get a master's degree, and be globally aware.

I studied journalism and media, and I leaned into storytelling early on. I spent time abroad multiple times in Rome,... Florence, Kuwait, and Scotland. I learned how to navigate new cultures, new systems, and new expectations. I became fluent in spaces that were not designed for a first-generation student like me.

After graduating, I went on to earn my master's degree in international affairs as part of the inaugural cohort at John Cabot University in Rome (again). I focused on global justice, human rights, and representation. I contributed to research on the gig economy, attended UN conferences both in Italy and Azerbaijan, and built what I thought was a strong, competitive profile.

I completed my MA degree early, believing I had done everything right. But I still can't find a job.

Since graduating, I've applied to over 1,000 jobs.

That includes roles in Rome with UN agencies, NGOs, and humanitarian organizations. It also includes jobs across the US -- in-person, hybrid, and remote roles. I applied to communications positions, research roles, media jobs, and anything that aligned with my background in storytelling and global affairs.

I tailored résumés. I wrote cover letters that took hours. I researched organizations, memorized their missions, reached out to every connection, and prepared for interviews like they were exams.

Out of all those applications, I've gotten 15 interviews. Only two of those moved me to a second round. Less than five of the roles I interviewed for were actually filled.

For the rest, I watched the same job postings reappear weeks or months later. Were those even real positions?

It started to feel like I wasn't competing for jobs. I was competing for the possibility of a job.

Rejection is one thing. Uncertainty is another.

When you don't get a job, you can usually point to something. Maybe someone had more experience. Maybe you didn't interview well. Maybe the role just wasn't the right fit.

But what do you do when there's no outcome at all? When positions stay open indefinitely. When companies repost roles without hiring. When you make it through multiple steps and still hear nothing back.

It creates this constant loop in your mind. You start questioning everything: your degree, your experience, and the choices you made.

I did everything I was told would make me employable. Yet, I've never felt more unsure about where I stand.

At some point, I had to shift my focus from waiting to building.

During undergrad, I spent four years working in publicity and creative marketing. That became the one thing I could return to when the job market kept shutting me out.

Now, I freelance as a creative director and marketing professional. I design campaigns, create visual content, and work with clients to build cohesive brand identities. I've worked on everything from social media strategy to email marketing to photoshoots to editorial visuals.

It's not stable or the full-time role I desire for myself. But it's something I built myself.

Freelancing has taught me how to trust my skills in a different way. It's shown me that I don't need permission to create meaningful work.

Still, there's a difference between surviving and feeling secure. I'm still trying to figure out how to bridge that gap.

For a long time, I was chasing stability as it was defined for me: a full time job, steady paycheck, and clear title. But not having that has pushed me to ask a different question. What kind of work do I actually want to be doing?

The answer keeps bringing me back to storytelling.

I want to be a creative director who focuses on telling BIPOC stories with care and accuracy. I want to create media that doesn't flatten people into stereotypes or reduce cultures into trends. I want to build projects that feel honest, layered, and intentional.

That's the work I've been drawn to for years. It's also the work I kept putting off because I thought I needed something more "stable" first.

Now, I'm starting to see that maybe the path I was following was never designed to lead me there.

I don't have a clean ending to this story.

I'm still applying for jobs while freelancing, and trying to make sense of a system that feels unpredictable and, at times, impossible to navigate.

But I also know this: the effort I've put in hasn't been wasted. It just didn't lead me where I expected. Maybe that means I have to build something different instead. more