Anonymous member


Career development 2d
I recently started working at a bank branch and I'm surprised that everyone knows everyone else's salary. People talk about it openly, even before a new employee starts.
On my first day, at least two coworkers told me that I was too young to be earning that much and that I didn't deserve it.
Now we're getting a new employee, and everyone is talking about how much she'll be paid. The branch... manager is actually the one sharing this information. Is this normal or professional? Should I report it to head office or the compliance/security department? It doesn't seem right that employees' salary information is being shared so openly. Thanks

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2   

  • jasper mutiso

    52m

    Many human resources experts and labor advocates argue that pay transparency is right because it closes gender pay gaps, promotes meritocracy, and... stops employers from taking advantage of job seekers. However, openly disclosing specific pay figures can also lead to resentment, hostility, and privacy concerns if peers doing similar roles are paid differently based on experience or negotiation more

  • masendi patrick

    6h

    I like that everyone knows the figures such that if you don't put in the work I can tell you off to work because you are earning x amount

Load more...

Eliot Feldman
Career development 1d
How do you proactively manage your career development to ensure you are consistently moving toward your goals?

Ralph Lee


Career development 3d
At our company we never get raises or bonuses. Instead, the boss gives us company mugs, bags and notebooks. After a successful deal or project he buys us pizza. I know I'm getting paid what we agreed on, but it would be nice to get some kind of reward once in a while. That never happens.
What do you think? Should I hint that money would be more appreciated than getting a fifth mug with the... company logo on it?

 more
4   

  • neli oka

    2h

    Had the same in our company,but after some years when they noticed we were less interested with the rewards they changed to giving out certificates... 😂, some employers never put Cash in the equation. more

  • Ayodele Olaosebikan

    1d

    First appreciate your management. Avoid entitlement mentalities. Nonetheless, you may suggest a better option to your boss. But be sure you have... the right setting and time. Present your suggestion with a grateful heart void of arrogance. Be sure that you're a diligent staff too. Good luck  more

    1
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Career development

 2h

How to Find a Job Fast: A 14-Day Plan That Actually Works (2026)


Job search going nowhere? Run a focused 14-day sprint instead. Targeting, timing, and daily tracking are what actually get you hired fast.

To find a job fast, focus your search on one clear target role, apply within 24 hours of a posting, message a human connected to every serious application, and start interview prep before any invites arrive. Most job seekers do the opposite, which is exactly... why their searches drag: broad targeting, late applications, no outreach, and no practice until an interview is already on the calendar. This guide turns that around into a 14-day sprint you can start today.

You've sent 40 applications. Maybe 50. You've heard back from two, and one of those was a rejection. The math feels broken.

It kind of is. Not because the job market is hopeless, but because volume without a system doesn't scale. Sending more applications doesn't fix a search that's poorly targeted. It just means more of the same result, faster.

A United Way NCA survey of 1,000 recent and current US job seekers, conducted in early 2026, found that the average job search now takes about 6.6 months and 62.6 applications. The 14-day sprint below is built to compress that, because the people who get hired quickly aren't sending more applications than you. They're running a focused campaign with a specific structure: one clear target, early timing, human outreach on every serious job, fast tailoring, daily tracking, and interview prep that starts before any invitations arrive. That system is what the rest of this guide covers, step by step.

A quick note for one group of readers: if you need income right now, don't wait two weeks. Skip ahead to When You Need Money Now for the dual-track plan, then come back for the full sprint.

For context: as of April 2026, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 4.3% unemployment with 7.4 million unemployed workers and 1.8 million who have been out of work for six months or more. In the UK, the Office for National Statistics found that vacancies dropped 8.3% year over year in early 2026, with declines across 14 of 18 industry sectors. Competition is real (one reason a chunk of postings you see aren't even live roles, which is why spotting ghost jobs is a step in this sprint, not an afterthought). The system matters more than it ever has.

At AIApply, we've worked with over 1,166,000 job seekers, and the pattern in the fastest searches is consistent every time. It isn't about luck or connections. It's about running each step of this process with intention.

Here's the 14-day sprint at a glance before we get into each step:

Here's the sprint.

How to Structure a 14-Day Job Search Sprint

The goal for the next 14 days isn't "apply everywhere." It's to create as many high-quality hiring conversations as possible.

That's a different objective. High-quality conversations come from being relevant, timely, and human. Random applications don't create them. We've covered what AI tools for job searching do well, and the pattern is the same: automation handles volume so you spend your time on the moves that actually matter.

Here's what the sprint looks like on a daily basis:

That's the daily rhythm. It's intensive, but it's finite. You're not spinning plates indefinitely. You're running a 14-day focused effort with specific metrics to hit.

A few of these steps are repetitive by design: tailoring resumes, generating cover letters, scanning for ATS alignment, applying through job boards. Those are exactly the tasks that Auto Apply handles automatically. It scans over a million job postings, matches roles to your profile, and submits a tailored resume and cover letter for each application. The result is that the repetitive application volume gets handled while you spend your time on the activities that actually move the needle: networking, follow-up, and interview prep.

Here's what the Auto Apply dashboard looks like in practice. The status tracker, job matches, and per-application match scores update in real time as it works through your queue:

Before you touch a job board, though, do this first.

Why a Focused Job Search Works Faster Than a Broad One

According to Greenhouse's 2026 hiring benchmarks report, the number of applications per open role jumped from 116 in 2022 to 244 in 2025, a 111% increase. When every posting draws that much volume, being one more generic resume in the pile is a losing position. A focused search is what gets you read.

Most slow job searches start with vague targeting.

"I'm open to marketing, operations, customer success, project management, sales, maybe product."

That sounds flexible. It's actually paralyzing. Every job title has its own keywords, its own proof points, its own interview logic, and its own resume framing. When you apply broadly, every resume becomes generic. Generic resumes don't match ATS filters. They don't stand out to recruiters. And they're exhausting to write, because nothing from one application carries over to the next.

The fix is one clear primary target before you search a single job board.

Pick:

* 1 primary job title

* 2 backup job titles (similar role, different title)

* 1-2 industries where your experience is relevant

* 30-50 target companies (mix of sizes)

* Your minimum salary, location, and remote requirements

* The 4-5 proof points that matter most for this role type

Here's what that looks like in practice:

Do this before you search a single job board. With that target locked in, you need one document before you can apply effectively.

How to Build a Master Resume (And Why It's Not What You Send)

The master resume isn't what you submit to employers. It's raw material.

Create one comprehensive document with everything:

* Every role you've held, with full context

* Every measurable result (numbers, percentages, scale)

* Every tool and platform you know

* Every project, certification, and strong example

* Skills you'd describe only in conversation but should be written down

This document becomes the source you draw from when you tailor applications. You're not rewriting from memory with each job. You're selecting from an organized bank.

Once you've built your master resume, see resume examples for your target role to calibrate what strong looks like at the level you're targeting.

The AIApply Resume Builder is built for exactly this workflow: import or build your master resume, tailor it to a specific job description, run it through the ATS scanner to check keyword alignment, and export it or route it directly into Auto Apply.

The fastest resume formula: job title match + relevant keywords + proof. Here's what that means for a specific bullet point:

Too vague:

Responsible for social media

ATS-friendly and recruiter-ready:

Managed Instagram and LinkedIn content calendars for 3 brand accounts, increasing weekly posting consistency from 2x to 5x and lifting engagement on top-performing posts

The second version works because it gives the recruiter evidence. It also mirrors the language from job descriptions in this space. With your master resume built, here's how to apply it strategically.

Why You Should Apply Within 24 Hours of a Job Posting

Speed matters on job applications in a specific, documented way.

LinkedIn's career guidance explicitly recommends focusing on recently posted jobs because it increases your chance of being seen before recruiters stop actively reviewing new applicants. Recruiters often review on a rolling basis: they start interviewing when they have enough qualified candidates, not when the deadline passes. If you apply on day 12 of a 30-day posting, there's a real chance the first interviews have already happened.

Your daily search priority order should be:

Timing is a filter, not just a preference. The first wave of applicants gets reviewed most carefully. By day 15 of a 30-day posting, many hiring teams are already scheduling first-round calls.

Avoid spending your best energy on 30-day-old postings unless something clearly signals active recruitment. Early applications plus one extra move doubles your visibility, and that move is coming up next.

How to Message a Recruiter Right After You Apply

In Greenhouse's 2025 AI in Hiring Report, 34% of recruiters said they spend up to half their week filtering out spam and junk applications. A quiet, human note connected to the role is how you land on the other side of that filter. So never rely only on the application form.

For every serious job you apply to, do two things simultaneously:

That human could be the recruiter, the hiring manager, someone in the department, an employee who might refer you, or the founder if it's a small company. The point is that you're not just a name in a database. You're a person who was specific enough about the opportunity to reach out directly.

Use this message as a starting point:

Hi [Name], I just applied for the [Role] position at [Company]. I'm especially interested because [specific reason].

My background is in [relevant experience], and I've [specific proof or result]. Totally understand if you're not the right person, but wanted to reach out directly in case the team is actively reviewing candidates.

Keep it short. Don't beg. Don't send your life story. Make it easy for them to understand why you're relevant in the time it takes to read three sentences.

The difference this makes: instead of being one of 400 applications sitting in an ATS queue, you're a name that appeared twice. That's the gap between invisible and memorable. Once you're in the system with a human aware of you, here's how to tailor efficiently without spending two hours per application.

How to Tailor Your Resume in 20 Minutes, Not 2 Hours

You don't need to rewrite your entire resume for every application. You need to tailor four things:

That's the 80/20. Everything else in the resume stays the same. The goal is to mirror the employer's language while accurately describing your experience. You're not inventing skills. You're using their terminology for skills you genuinely have.

Here's what that looks like. If the job description says:

"Experience managing inbound tickets, customer onboarding, and churn risk"

Your resume shouldn't just say:

Customer support

It should say:

Managed inbound customer tickets, supported onboarding processes, and escalated churn-risk accounts to the account management team

Same experience. Same skills. Better match because the language maps directly to what the ATS and the recruiter are looking for. For the customer support, onboarding, and CRM skills that come up most in these roles, make sure your resume uses the exact terms the job description uses. And when the tailored resume is ready, pair it with a cover letter built around that specific role. It reinforces the same keywords and shows the hiring team you've read the job description carefully.

The method that multiplies this approach is networking. And most people get the timing of networking completely wrong.

How to Network During a Job Search (5 Messages a Day)

Networking is a major hiring channel, even if the popular "70-80% of jobs are hidden" claim doesn't hold up. A LinkedIn survey found that 70% of people hired in 2016 joined a company where they already had a connection, and Federal Reserve research reports that about half of US job seekers say a referral was used at some point in their hiring process. That's why most job seekers get this backwards: they treat networking as something to try after applications fail.

Networking should run parallel to applications from day one. Not 50 spam messages to random LinkedIn connections. Five real, specific messages per day to people who are genuinely relevant to your search.

The best people to reach out to:

* Alumni from your school who work in your target industry

* Former colleagues who've moved to companies on your target list

* People who recently joined a company you want to work at

* Recruiters actively hiring for your function

* Hiring managers who are posting about team growth on LinkedIn

Use this approach to open conversations:

Hi [Name], I saw you work on [team/function] at [Company]. I'm exploring [role type] positions and noticed [something specific about the team or company].

One quick question: what does the team usually look for in strong candidates for roles like this?

That question works better than "can you refer me?" because it starts a real conversation rather than making an immediate ask. Referrals often come naturally from conversations that started with genuine curiosity.

The application form gets you into the pool. Networking can move you to the front of it, often before the role is even posted publicly.

For a structured approach to modern job search techniques that includes both applications and outreach, that guide covers the full playbook.

Not every application you submit is going to a real open role, though. That's the next filter you need.

How to Spot Ghost Jobs Before You Waste an Application

Some job postings aren't real openings. They're either already filled, being kept open for talent pooling, or posted by mistake.

A 2024 ResumeBuilder.com survey found that 40% of surveyed hiring managers said their company had posted a fake job listing that year, and 30% said their company currently had one listed. Because that data is from 2024, treat the specific numbers as a signal rather than a current universal rate. But the signal is meaningful: fake and inactive listings are common enough to filter for.

Red flags to watch for:

* No posting date visible on the listing

* Vague job description with no specific responsibilities

* The role has been listed for 60 or more days

* It's not listed on the company's own careers page

* The recruiter listed doesn't respond to any outreach

* The company keeps reposting the exact same job every few weeks

* Salary, location, and core responsibilities are all unclear

The best filter: prioritize roles that are fresh (within the last 3 days), specific in their requirements, and also listed on the company's direct careers page. If you can find a listing in two places, it's probably real. A job search tracker that logs the source and date of every listing makes this filter automatic. You'll quickly notice which boards surface the freshest postings and which ones recycle old listings.

How to Follow Up on a Job Application and Get a Response

Send one follow-up per application. Time it 3-5 business days after you apply.

Hi [Name],

I recently applied for the [Role] position and wanted to follow up briefly.

I'm genuinely excited about this role because [specific reason], and my experience with [relevant skill or result] seems closely aligned with what the team is looking for.

Happy to share anything else that would be useful.

Best, [Your name]

That's it. Short, specific, confident but not pushy.

If they don't respond, move on. Speed in a job search comes from pipeline volume, not emotional attachment to a single application. The fastest job seekers treat their search like a sales pipeline: some deals close, most don't, and the metric that matters is the rate, not any individual outcome.

The final piece that most aggressive job seekers skip is also the one that kills the most offers.

How to Start Interview Prep Before You Get an Invitation

This is the most common failure mode in an aggressive job search.

Someone applies to 80 jobs over two weeks, finally gets three interview invitations, and then starts preparing. But they haven't practiced in weeks, their answers are rusty, and the gap between their application effort and their interview performance is huge. They lose roles they were qualified for.

The fix is simple: practice every day, even before any invites come.

Daily practice list (rotate through these):

→ "Tell me about yourself"

→ "Why this company?"

→ "Why this role?"

→ "Walk me through your resume"

→ "Tell me about a challenge you overcame"

→ "What are your salary expectations?"

→ One or two role-specific technical or scenario questions

You're not memorizing scripts. You're building proof. The goal is to have real examples ready so that when the question comes, you're not constructing an answer from scratch under pressure.

AIApply's Mock Interview Simulator and Interview Buddy are built for this exact phase: the simulator creates role-specific practice sessions with AI feedback on your answers, while Interview Buddy gives you real-time on-screen coaching during live interviews on Zoom, Google Meet, or Teams.

For structuring your answers, use this framework: Claim → Example → Result → Relevance.

Here's what that looks like in practice:

"I'm strong at handling high-pressure customer situations. In my last role, I managed support tickets during a product launch when wait times doubled overnight. I created saved replies for the top 10 issue types and escalated payment bugs directly to the engineering queue, which helped reduce repeat tickets by the end of the week. That's relevant here because this role owns customer satisfaction during product launches."

That answer is specific, credible, and connected back to the job. Practice enough of these and you'll walk into interviews with the confidence that comes from genuine preparation.

You need one more system to know whether your effort is actually working.

How to Track Your Job Search Like a Sales Pipeline

If you're not tracking your applications, you're guessing at what's broken.

Here's the bare minimum you need to record for every application:

And track these metrics weekly:

* Total applications sent

* Recruiter/outreach messages sent

* Replies received

* Interviews booked

* Rejections received

* Offers received

* Application-to-interview rate (this is your most important number)

The diagnostics from your data tell you exactly what to fix. Each scenario below points to a different problem:

Each of these diagnoses points to a different fix. Without tracking, you might keep doing the wrong thing for weeks before you notice.

How to Find a Job Fast When You Need Money Now

If you need income this week, run two searches at once: a survival search aimed at quick-hire roles that can move within days, and your career search on the full system above. Quick-hire categories (retail, hospitality, delivery, temp work) often go from application to start date in a matter of days, while professional roles typically take four to eight weeks even with a sharp search. Don't trade one for the other. Run both.

So, in parallel with your career search, apply immediately to the quick-hire categories where response times are much faster:

→ Retail and hospitality

→ Delivery and logistics

→ Customer support (remote, part-time)

→ Tutoring and teaching assistance

→ Temp agency placements

→ Warehouse and event staffing

→ Freelance work in your skill area

For these roles, having role-specific application materials ready matters just as much as it does in your career search. Our customer support cover letter examples and hospitality management career guides can help you move quickly on applications that actually match what those employers are looking for.

This reduces the panic that comes from financial pressure. And panic, practically speaking, makes people apply poorly. Rushed applications are generic. Generic applications don't match. The parallel strategy lets you run a careful main search while you have income coming in.

How AIApply Speeds Up Your Job Search

The principle worth repeating: don't use AI to become generic faster. Use it to become specific faster.

AIApply accelerates the parts of the job search that are repetitive and time-consuming, without replacing the judgment and personalization that make applications work.

Here's where it fits in the system:

* Resume tailoring: Turn one master resume into multiple tailored versions, each aligned to a specific role

* Cover letters: Generate job-specific cover letters that reflect the language of the job description

* ATS scanning: Scan your resume for keyword gaps before submitting

* Application volume: Use Auto Apply for matched roles so you're not manually filling every application form. The feature applies to matching jobs with a tailored resume and cover letter for each one, and it can handle up to 500 applications per month while you focus on networking and interview prep

* Interview practice: Practice interviews with the Mock Interview Simulator before you get any invites

* Live coaching: Get real-time coaching from Interview Buddy during live interviews when you need a confidence boost or a second brain in the room

The Resume Builder connects directly with the scanner, Auto Apply, Interview Buddy, and the Mock Interview tools. It's a pipeline, not a toolkit puzzle. You're not bouncing between five different apps. Each tool feeds the next.

6 Job Search Mistakes That Are Slowing You Down

1. Sending High-Volume Generic Applications

More applications only help if the jobs are relevant and your resume is tailored. Sending 200 generic applications to whatever comes up is a reliable way to burn out without results.

2. Using the Same Resume for Every Role

Recruiters hire for fit. Generic resumes hide fit. Even the 80/20 method takes 20 minutes, but those 20 minutes turn a generic application into a relevant one.

3. Not Asking for Referrals

A warm introduction moves you from "one of 400 applicants" to "someone worth checking out." If you have any connection to a company, use it. If you don't, a good networking message can create one.

4. Waiting Until You Have Interviews to Practice

The fastest job seekers often lose offers because they applied well and interviewed poorly. Practice starts now, regardless of where your inbox is.

5. Not Following Up After You Apply

A polite, specific follow-up sent 3-5 days after applying can revive applications that would otherwise sit unread. Most people don't send one. That's your advantage.

6. Spending Too Much Time on Cold Applications

Don't invest 90 minutes in a cold application unless it's a dream role. Build a faster tailoring system and protect your time for the actions that actually pay off.

Your 7-Day Job Search Kickstart Plan

Day 1: Define Your Job Search Target

Choose your primary role, two backup titles, your target industry, 30-50 companies, salary range, location requirements, and the 4-5 proof points that matter most. Write this down. Everything you build this week depends on it.

Day 2: Build Your Master Resume

Collect every role, result, tool, certification, and strong example from your career. Don't filter yet. Get everything in one document. Browse resume examples for your target role to see how other professionals in your field present the same kind of experience.

Day 3: Create Your First Tailored Application

Take your master resume and tailor it to your primary role type using the 80/20 method: headline, summary, top skills, top bullets. Apply resume optimization techniques and run it through the resume scanner before you touch a single application.

Day 4: Set Up Job Alerts on Every Major Board

Set job alerts on LinkedIn, Indeed, your target companies' careers pages, and any niche boards in your field. Add AIApply's job board. The goal is to be notified immediately when a new relevant role posts, not an hour later. Review AI tools for job searching to make sure your alert setup captures every major channel.

Day 5: Apply to 10 to 15 Freshly Posted Jobs

Focus exclusively on jobs posted in the last 24-72 hours. Apply to each one with your tailored resume. For every job you care about, send an outreach message to a human connected to the role. This is the two-channel rule in action.

Day 6: Send 5 Targeted Networking Messages

Use the template from earlier. Contact recruiters, employees at target companies, alumni, or any relevant connections. Ask the question, not the favor. Our guide on how recruiters decide who to call explains what makes a candidate stand out in their inbox.

Day 7: Run Your First Mock Interview Session

Practice your top five most likely interview questions for your target role. Aim for full answers using the Claim-Example-Result-Relevance structure. Write down the examples you used. They're your proof library.

The fastest way to build confidence before an interview is practicing interview answers online with real feedback on your delivery. Do it before any invites arrive.

Repeat for week two with updated data on what's working.

A Controlled Job Search vs. a Desperate One: What Changes

A desperate job search sends everything it can and waits. A controlled one sends the right things early, follows up deliberately, runs networking in parallel, and prepares for interviews before they're booked.

The controlled version is harder to start because it requires resisting the impulse to just do more. But it's shorter, less exhausting, and far more likely to end with an offer you actually want.

At AIApply, we've watched this pattern play out across more than a million job searches. The fastest ones share a structure: narrow targeting, early applications, human touch on every serious role, pre-built interview answers, and daily tracking. The slowest ones usually have one piece missing. Most often, it's the tracking (so they don't know what to fix) or the interview prep (so they lose opportunities they were qualified for).

Start today with Day 1 of the 7-day kickstart. Define your target. Build your master resume tomorrow. By day 5 you'll be applying to fresh jobs with a tailored resume and a human outreach going out alongside it.

If you want to compress the timeline further, Auto Apply handles the application volume so you can spend your time on the parts of the system that need your attention most.

The difference between six weeks and six months in a job search is usually one thing: doing it systematically, starting now.

Frequently Asked Questions: How to Find Jobs Quickly

How Many Jobs Should I Apply to Per Day?

For an intensive sprint, aim for 10-15 targeted applications per day, plus 5 outreach messages. That number should reflect quality, not volume. Fewer applications is completely fine if every one of them is genuinely tailored and submitted to a fresh, relevant posting. More is fine only if you can maintain the quality. For a deeper look at what the numbers actually mean for your odds, see our breakdown of how many applications lead to interviews.

Should I Apply Even If I Don't Meet Every Requirement?

Yes, if you meet around 60-70% of the core requirements and can credibly demonstrate the most important skills. Most job descriptions are written as wish lists, not strict cutoffs. Self-rejecting because you lack one "nice to have" qualification is one of the most common mistakes job seekers make. Review the key skills your target role actually requires before deciding whether you're genuinely underqualified.

Should I Apply on LinkedIn or Directly on the Company Website?

If possible, apply through the company's own careers page. It's usually closer to the actual recruiter, and some ATS systems receive applications more cleanly through their native forms. Use LinkedIn and other job boards for discovery, then move to the company site to submit. And after you apply, message a recruiter or relevant employee through LinkedIn. We cover exactly how to message a hiring manager in a way that actually gets a response.

How Fast Can I Realistically Find a Job?

Quick-hire work (retail, hospitality, delivery, temp roles) can move within days. Professional roles at established companies typically take weeks to months even with an excellent search. The fastest candidates in professional fields usually combine tight targeting, early applications, referral or warm outreach, and strong interview performance. When all four are present, four to eight weeks is achievable. If you're targeting a customer success role, for example, the market is competitive but active, and tight targeting plus fast applications make a real difference.

Should I Use AI Tools to Apply for Jobs?

Yes, if you use them to tailor applications faster and communicate your experience more accurately. No, if you're using them to blast identical applications at scale. AI works best when it helps you be more specific, not less. A tool that generates a role-specific resume in two minutes is saving you time without sacrificing quality. A tool that sends the same generic letter to 500 companies is just automating applications in a way that produces mediocrity at scale instead of quality at scale.

What's a Ghost Job and How Do I Avoid Wasting Time on One?

A ghost job is a posting that isn't attached to an active, open role. It might be an old listing never taken down, a position already filled internally, or a posting kept live for talent pooling. To filter them out: check that the listing appears on the company's own careers page, verify it was posted within the last 7 days, and check whether the recruiter is responsive on LinkedIn. If none of those signals are present, move it down your priority list. Tracking which applications go quiet helps you spot patterns. Use a job search tracking system to flag listings that never generate a response.

What Should I Do If I'm Not Getting Any Responses After 80+ Applications?

The problem is almost always one of three things: your targeting is too broad (applying to roles where your background doesn't clearly match), your resume isn't reflecting ATS keywords from the job descriptions, or the jobs you're applying to are low quality (old, fake, or too competitive for your current experience level). Run your resume through AIApply's Resume Scanner to check keyword alignment. Also review how ATS systems actually score resumes so you understand what to fix. And review the quality of the jobs you've been applying to: are they fresh, specific, and listed on company career pages? more

Career development

 3h

'Are You Planning To Get Married?': 24-Year-Old Candidate Left Shocked With HR Questions, Exposes Hiring 'Red Flags'


A LinkedIn post has gone viral after a 24-year-old fresher was allegedly asked about her boyfriend, marriage plans and family situation during a job interview

A viral post shared on LinkedIn has triggered a heated debate on social media after a young job seeker faced a series of personal questions during a job interview.

The post was shared by Lakshmi Laya, who recounted the experience of her... 24-year-old friend while interviewing for an entry-level position. According to Laya, the interview quickly shifted away from professional qualifications and focused instead on personal matters, leaving the candidate uncomfortable and questioning whether such practices were normal.

Describing the incident, Laya said her friend was asked whether she had a boyfriend and if she was planning to get married. The questioning reportedly continued even after the candidate mentioned that her father had passed away.

Interviewers allegedly asked whether she intended to move to her mother's residence, noting that the location would be far from the office.

The candidate was also informed about several workplace expectations, including extended working hours, no leave during a six-month probation period, and Sundays off only when required.

According to the post, an offer letter had not yet been issued, but significant emphasis was placed on personal circumstances and the level of sacrifice expected from the prospective employee.

Following the interview, the young woman reportedly called Laya and asked a simple question: "Is this normal?"

Using the incident as an example, Laya urged fresh graduates and job seekers to understand that not every question asked during an interview is necessarily reasonable or relevant. She argued that interviews should be viewed as a two-way process in which candidates also assess potential employers.

The LinkedIn user noted that when companies show greater interest in an applicant's marriage plans, family circumstances or personal commitments than in their qualifications and abilities, it can reveal important aspects of workplace culture.

She further suggested that the way candidates are treated during the hiring process often reflects how employees are treated after joining the organisation.

Laya praised her friend's decision to decline the opportunity, writing that some warning signs are not merely red flags but "walls" that candidates should not ignore.

The post quickly gained traction on social media, with many users sharing similar experiences from their own careers.

One user wrote, "I still don't understand what's the logic behind asking about someone's relationship status, Single and Married shit I still understand."

Another commented, "This same lala-type company asked me am I married or planning to get married since I am the eldest one among all? According to them, I might resign if get married."

A third user criticised the hiring process, saying, "Worst part about Lala company are there HR. They are just there to fill the position. Not targeting all HR only the Lala company one."

Sharing a similar experience, another person wrote, "Correct I have also given few interviews in which I was asked when you are planning to get married instead of asking about my job role."

One commenter summed up their reaction in a brief statement: "ISSA NO FROM ME 🤡"

Another user offered a broader criticism of recruitment practices, writing, "Problem is that the people that end up in these senior positions doing the recruiting end up being the most narcissistic in the organisation, which then overspill into interviews." more

Career development

 5h

Meet Vanessa Dessieu


We're excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Vanessa Dessieu. We hope you'll enjoy our conversation with Vanessa below.

Alright, Vanessa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We'd love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the... backstory.

After years of work that felt less like a job and more like a calling, after nights when one more hour could mean the difference between a child eating, a mother receiving medication, or a community holding onto hope. I received a pink slip. In January 2025, the Trump administration dismantled USAID. With it, an entire professional ecosystem vanished almost overnight. More than 176,000 people lost their jobs. This was not a layoff. It was an erasure. One year later, 68 percent of global development professionals remained unemployed, underemployed, or pushed into early retirement.

The hardest part, a colleague told me, was not losing the job. It was being forced to walk away from the people they had committed their lives to serve.

I understood that completely.

What followed was something none of us had been prepared for.

I watched colleagues, individuals with 20, 30, even 40 years of experience in conflict zones, famine response, and post-disaster governance sit across from hiring panels and be met with blank stares. Their résumés should have commanded silence, respect, recognition. Instead, they were rejected. Ignored. Ghosted. Roles seemingly designed for them were quietly reposted and filled by candidates from the corporate sector individuals whose experience was not deeper, but simply more legible.

I lived it myself.

I walked out of one interview certain I had secured the role. I had already imagined my start date. Six weeks passed. No call. No email. The position was reposted, filled, then reposted again eventually going to someone whose career had never intersected with mine, but whose language the hiring committee already understood.

That was the moment something shifted.

This was not a failure of talent or credentials. It was a failure of translation.

International development had been our entire world, through college, graduate school, doctoral programs, and careers shaped by mission-driven work. We had never needed to translate ourselves. Our sector had its own language, its own metrics, its own definitions of impact.

I watched people try to bridge the gap. To explain that a "beneficiary" is, in fact, a client. That a "program" is a portfolio. That 15 years of work others might experience as a brief volunteer stint was not charity it was some of the most sophisticated strategic experience one could accumulate.

The rooms would fall quiet. Faces would turn politely blank.

I had struggled to explain my own work to people closest to me. If I could not make it legible to them, how could I expect a hiring committee one unfamiliar with USAID, or worse, one that believed it already understood it to see its value?

That realization was not a pivot. It was a recognition.

The skills we built in the field from crisis navigation, stakeholder management, high-stakes communication, narrative control under extreme pressure were never "development skills." They were power skills: rare, transferable, and invaluable. We had simply been deploying them in arenas the corporate world had never thought to examine.

At the same time, I saw something else with equal clarity: the private sector was operating without them.

The market was saturated with public relations firms focused on spin, reactive, surface-level strategies designed to manage headlines rather than shape underlying perception. Crisis communications agencies entered only after damage had been done, treating reputation as something to repair rather than something to architect.

At the highest level true governance, strategic narrative design, the ability to embed within an organization before crisis emerges and construct the infrastructure that makes resilience possible there was almost nothing.

The gap was vast, but largely invisible. The leaders who needed these capabilities most did not yet have language for what was missing.

I did, because I had spent my career operating precisely in that space not after the storm, but within it. Before the world was watching. Making decisions where the stakes were not reputational, but human. Where precision and judgment were not optional, but inseparable.

That is not a skill learned in a communications program. It is not one most firms are ever asked to deploy. It is the discipline of holding systems and people together when failure carries consequences far beyond a news cycle.

That is what The Executor & Associates was built to deliver.

Not spin. Not cleanup. Governance.

The kind of counsel that operates upstream, architecting narrative, safeguarding reputation, and positioning leaders to shape outcomes rather than react to them.

Were others doing this? Not at this level. Not with this depth. Not from this vantage point.

The market has no shortage of professionals who can tell a story after the fact. I built a firm for leaders who understand that the story must be constructed long before anyone is watching and that the cost of getting it wrong is never just a headline.

I did not start this firm from ambition.

I started it from a pink slip, a collapsed industry, a ghosted interview and a refusal to let someone else write the final sentence of my story.

So I wrote it myself.

Awesome - so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I'm Vanessa Dessieu, founder and Chief Strategic Officer of The Executor & Associates, a strategic advisory and crisis governance firm built for leaders, institutions, public figures, and high-visibility brands who cannot afford to move without discipline.

My background is not traditional PR. It is not traditional consulting either. I come from more than 15 years of work in international development, public health, governance, stabilization, and high-pressure program design. I have worked in spaces where decisions carry consequences, where communication is not just about image, and where leadership is tested in real time. I have designed programs, managed complex proposals, supported multi-stakeholder strategies, and worked across fragile, political, humanitarian, and institutional environments where clarity, timing, and judgment matter.

The idea for The Executor & Associates came from a very real observation: many leaders, businesses, and public figures do not fail because they lack talent. They fail because they are not properly positioned. They are visible, but not protected. They are influential, but not structured. They are speaking, but not always governing the message. They are moving, but without a strategy strong enough to withstand pressure.

That is the gap The Executor & Associates was created to fill.

We specialize in crisis governance, executive positioning, reputation strategy, narrative control, and visibility risk management. In simple terms, we help leaders and organizations understand what their presence is saying before the public, the media, their stakeholders, their clients, or their opponents decide for them.

Our work includes crisis preparedness, strategic communications, reputation recovery, public figure audits, executive advisory, media and interview coaching, internal crisis simulations, visibility assessments, and brand positioning for individuals and organizations operating under scrutiny. We also work with political figures, founders, attorneys, institutions, and high-level professionals who are preparing for a major public move, transition, launch, controversy, or leadership moment.

The problems we solve are not surface-level problems. We are not simply asking, "What should you post?" or "What should your statement say?" We are asking deeper questions: What is at risk? Who is watching? What does silence communicate? What does your timing suggest? What is the public already assuming? What power are you protecting? What legacy are you building?

That is what sets us apart. The Executor & Associates is not built around panic. It is built around control. We do not believe crisis begins when the scandal breaks. By then, the damage has already started. Crisis often begins much earlier -- with poor positioning, unclear leadership, weak messaging, unprotected visibility, or decisions made without a full understanding of how they will be interpreted.

Our philosophy is simple: visibility without strategy is vulnerability.

I am most proud that The Executor & Associates gives language, structure, and authority to something many leaders feel but cannot always name. They know they are exposed. They know they are being watched. They know their next move matters. What we do is bring discipline to that moment. We help them govern the narrative, protect their authority, and move with intention.

I am also proud that this firm allows me to bring the fullness of my background into one place. My public health training taught me to look at systems. My governance and international development work taught me to understand power, institutions, and behavior. My crisis management background taught me to think under pressure. My communications instincts taught me that people do not only respond to facts; they respond to framing, emotion, timing, and trust.

The Executor & Associates sits at the intersection of all of that.

What I want potential clients, followers, and future collaborators to know is this: we are not here to make noise. We are here to bring order. We are not here to chase attention. We are here to govern visibility. We are not here to make leaders look powerful for a moment. We are here to help them remain credible when the moment turns difficult.

My work is for people and institutions who understand that reputation is not decoration. It is infrastructure. Presence is not performance. It is strategy. And leadership is not only about being seen. it is about being ready for what comes with being seen.

The Executor & Associates exists for the leader, the founder, the public figure, the organization, or the institution standing at the edge of a defining moment and realizing that talent alone is not enough. You need positioning. You need discipline. You need judgment. You need someone who can see the risks before they become public, shape the message before it is misunderstood, and protect the authority you have worked too hard to build.

That is what we do.

We govern how power survives pressure.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

One story that illustrates my resilience is the moment I realized I had to stop waiting for permission to become who I already was.

For years, I worked in international development, public health, governance, and program design. I was doing work that required strategy, judgment, leadership, crisis thinking, and the ability to move through pressure with clarity. I was designing programs, managing complex proposals, working across fragile contexts, building partnerships, and translating big ideas into operational plans.

But when I started trying to move into spaces outside of that world, I realized something painful: the language I had spent years mastering did not always translate.

I remember leaving interviews feeling sure I had made the case for myself. I knew the depth of my experience. I knew what I had carried. I knew the rooms I had been in, the pressure I had worked under, the impact I had helped create. And yet, I would watch roles get reposted, filled by people whose résumés looked more familiar to corporate decision-makers, even when my experience was just as strong, if not stronger.

That moment could have made me shrink.

Instead, it made me study the problem.

I realized it was not just rejection. It was translation. It was positioning. It was the gap between having the experience and having the language, framing, and strategy to make people understand the value of that experience.

And in many ways, that became one of the seeds of The Executor & Associates.

Because I understood what it felt like to be powerful on paper, proven in practice, but misunderstood in the room. I understood what it meant to carry years of serious work and still have to fight to make people see it correctly. I understood what happens when your story is not governed well enough for the audience in front of you.

So I stopped treating those moments as personal failures and started treating them as data.

I asked myself: What is missing? What is being misunderstood? What is not being translated? What does my presence communicate before I even speak? What does my résumé say that my story does not? What power am I carrying that is not yet properly positioned?

That shift changed everything.

Resilience, for me, has not always looked like loud comebacks or dramatic reinventions. Sometimes it looked like sitting with disappointment and refusing to let it define me. Sometimes it looked like rebuilding the language around my own value. Sometimes it looked like creating the very firm I needed -- one that helps people, leaders, and institutions take control of their narrative before someone else reduces it for them.

The Executor & Associates was born from that kind of resilience.

Not the kind that simply survives rejection, but the kind that studies it, learns from it, builds from it, and turns it into strategy.

Today, when I work with clients, I bring that experience with me. I know what it means to be misread. I know what it means to be underestimated. I know what it means to have substance but need sharper positioning. And I know what it means to decide that if the room does not understand your value, you do not shrink yourself to fit the room you refine the message, govern the narrative, and build a stronger table.

That is resilience to me.

Not just bouncing back.

Reclaiming the authority to define yourself.

How'd you build such a strong reputation within your market?

What helped me build my reputation within my market was the decision to enter the space with a clear point of view. I came into this business knowing I was not just defining a lane. I was creating a new one.

From the beginning, I surveyed who my competition would have been, studied the gaps in the market, and paid close attention to the clients who were most visibly at risk but did not know it yet. I understood that many leaders, organizations, and public figures were not waiting for crisis support because they did not yet recognize their visibility as a risk.

That became the foundation of The Executor & Associates.

I did not want to simply use the language that was already out there. We created our own. We built the firm around concepts like visibility risk, crisis governance, narrative control, and the belief that visibility without strategy is vulnerability. At the beginning, we published insights, expert advice, industry "need-to-know" pieces, and strategic commentary to educate the market, not just sell to it.

People beginning to understand our value helps tremendously.

The Executor & Associates is not traditional PR, nor is it general consulting. We guide leaders, institutions, and public figures govern visibility, narrative, and decision-making before pressure becomes public. My background in public health, international development, governance, stabilization, and crisis management allows me to look at reputation as more than image. I see it as infrastructure.

The Executor commands discipline. It speaks to leaders who understand that being visible is not the same as being protected. It speaks to people who want their next move to be thoughtful, not reactive and it speaks to those who understand that it is best to not have to fix your reputation after it is damaged; it is something you govern before pressure arrives.

Last but not least, ultimately, what helped me build my reputation was alignment. My background aligned with the gap I saw. My voice aligned with the problems I wanted to solve. My standards aligned with the type of clients I wanted to serve. And my brand aligned with the way I see the world: strategically, structurally, and with deep respect for the power of perception.

That is what I want my reputation to stand on.

Precision. Trust. Authority. And the discipline to move before the crisis becomes public. more

Charlotte Baker


Career development 13h
I work at a small company where everyone goes to the pub on Friday evenings with their husbands or wives. I don't go very often, and I never bring my boyfriend because I don't really want to be part of that whole family-style group. Lately, though, my coworkers have been asking if I even have a boyfriend and seem annoyed that I don't join them. How can I get them to stop asking and leave me alone... about these Friday pub outings?

 more

  • Albert Otu-Siaw

    5h

    Take advantage of this; apply for a weekend professional/degree course, and by the time they realise, you have advanced mightly in your career and... family life, the same thing they are toying with!!
    U are blessed.     more

  • Albert Otu-Siaw

    5h

    Take advantage of this; apply for a weekend professional/degree course, and by the time they realise, you have advanced mightly in your career and... family life, the same thing they are toying with!!
    U are blessed.     more

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Career development

 17h

Governor Wes Moore's Résumé Under Scrutiny for Multiple False Claims About Military Service - SSBCrack News


In a recent interview, Maryland Governor Wes Moore addressed doubts about his personal accomplishments, asserting his ability to tell his own story. However, a comprehensive investigative series by Spotlight on Maryland reveals significant discrepancies in his self-representations, particularly concerning his military service.

Moore's application for a White House Fellowship in 2006 included... several claims that have since been proven false or misleading. Notably, he stated that he had been awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his service in Afghanistan -- an assertion that was not only incorrect at the time of his application but was retroactively awarded to him in 2024 after being scrutinized by The New York Times. Despite having received the medal nearly two decades later, Moore had previously described himself as a Bronze Star recipient in various public biographies and interviews without correction.

The application for the fellowship had a specific purpose: to place rising leaders in significant roles alongside government officials. As such, the implications of false claims in a résumé for a prestigious government opportunity are severe. Under federal law, making willfully false statements in such an application is a felony.

Moore's former military superior, retired Lt. Gen. Michael R. Fenzel, acknowledged that including the Bronze Star in his application violated the law. This claim is not the only misrepresentation; Spotlight's investigation unearthed additional embellishments regarding Moore's military experience that contradict his official records.

For example, Moore stated he received the Combat Action Badge (CAB), but the orders for this badge were issued months after his fellowship application was submitted, raising questions about the legitimacy of the claim. Additionally, while his résumé indicated an Afghan deployment from July 2005 to April 2006, Army records authenticate a shorter deployment of just under seven months.

Moore's résumé also inaccurately detailed his attendance at the Military Police Officer Basic Course, misrepresenting the dates related to his qualifications. The U.S. Army has verified that there is no documentation supporting his assertion of receiving a "Top Leadership Award" during this training, further casting doubt on the integrity of his résumé.

Veterans' reactions to Moore's military narrative have not been supportive. Prominent military figures and combat veterans have openly criticized Moore, asserting that he's overstated his military service and awards. Comments from former military officers indicate that claims regarding medals and distinctions are not merely discrepancies but are viewed as a serious breach of integrity within the military community.

The investigative series aims to continue revealing the truth behind Moore's claimed honors and military accolades, emphasizing the importance of accurate representation in a highly competitive environment like the White House Fellowship. This scrutiny raises broader questions not only about Moore's past but also about his judgment and integrity as a political leader.

Despite repeated requests from Spotlight for clarification or supporting documentation related to the claims made in his résumé, Moore has remained silent. As the investigation unfolds, it continues to highlight a troubling pattern of misrepresentation that may significantly impact Moore's standing and future political career. more

Career development

 18h

I was rejected from hundreds of jobs - until I tried 'CV-Botoxing'


There is nothing quite as depressing as feeling as if you have wasted the past 20 years of your life. But that's exactly how I felt at the beginning of this year when, at the age of 54, I was trying to find a job in one of the toughest markets I've ever known.

I had been applying since late 2025, when my last freelance gig working as a senior strategist at a global content agency had ended after... eight months, but all I had to show for it was an inbox full of automated rejections.

Honestly, this was a bit of a first for me. I had always picked up jobs pretty swiftly in the past, whether it was full-time roles or freelance work, but job hunting in my 50s was brutal.

My savings were running out fast, so I had been frantically applying for everything from senior roles, which matched my experience, to more junior roles and even, in a fit of desperation, as a bra fitter for M&S. But each application (and I sent hundreds) was met with either silence or a curt rejection.

Well, apart from the job at M&S, where they invited me for an interview, but when I tried to book using their automated system it continually told me there were no available slots. About two months later I got a polite rejection email saying it had been nice to meet me at the interview (I'd never been able to book one), but they were going with another candidate. For me this just summed up the farcical nature of job hunting when you take the humanity out of it.

It was a sorry state to find myself in after spending the last couple of decades smashing it in a career in content, a catch-all term for writing, editing and filming for websites and social media. I had held senior global roles, including being a director at one of the country's best-known private health insurers, given masterclasses and won awards. But all this experience counted for nothing in a job market where AI makes the decisions and too much expertise is a distinct disadvantage.

It's no surprise that I was finding it hard to find a role at my age as figures from the Office for National Statistics show that unemployment for those aged 50-64 has risen steadily in the past five years. The problem is that while our parents might have been gently coasting towards a comfortable retirement by their mid-fifties, my generation isn't so lucky. Steep house prices, having children later, an ever-rising pension age and better health mean that many of us have to, or want to, work until we are much older.

I was desperate to find a job, partly for the salary, but also because I love to work and being at home and unemployed left me feeling depressed and useless. That's when I read about CV Botoxing. The clue is in the name. This is a practice where, rather than smooth out the wrinkles in your forehead, you artfully airbrush your career history to make yourself appear more youthful and thereby employable.

Each application that Ursula Hirschkorn sent off was met with either silence or a curt rejection

Since botoxing her CV, Ursula secured four interviews in two weeks, which is more than she got in the previous six months

Botox wasn't something I'd ever considered before, either for my face or my CV. I had learned how to write a resume during a stint at a posh secretarial college when I was 18, so my self promotion skills were stuck in the dark ages. Luckily there are experts in the art of CV Botoxing who can help.

Executive CV writer Sarah Lovell, who charges up to £400 to write killer resumes, admits that she has clients who ask her about this. 'I don't encourage it. If an employer wants to hire a 25-year-old they are not going to recruit someone in their 50s.' But when she looks at my CV she says she can help me knock at least a decade off it without straying into downright deception.

Lovell has been a full-time CV writer for the past 14 years and now employs her daughter to help her cater for the growing number of ageing executives who need her help. Despite my pleas to make me look like a Gen Z, she firmly maintains that honesty is still the best policy.

'I always advise clients to be transparent, be who you are - just don't overdo it by oversharing. Recruiters really don't care about anything before 2010, so I naturally Botox CVs to focus on what employers are looking for.'

I sent her my CV to see where it was showing my age and the wrinkles appeared before we even get on to my employment history. 'Calling it a Curriculum Vitae is the first thing you need to get rid of. Only your generation calls them this now, so this instantly ages you,' she explains, leaving me red-faced with embarrassment. Ditch the Latin, she says, and just use CV.

Best second careers for the over-50s: Lucrative jobs that require more life experience than training

The elephant in the room is that most of our CVs aren't screened by humans any more - instead businesses use AI-powered Applicant Tracking Systems. So Lovell says the real key is to tailor your CV to make it attractive to the bots. This is something older applicants like me often get wrong. It turns out a lot of my CV is pure waffle that needs to go since AI likes things clean and simple. 'Use bullet points, clear headings and include keywords that relate to the jobs you are applying for,' Lovell advises.

Be ruthless when it comes to trimming your CV and ditch vague phrases. Instead use data to highlight what you've achieved. Lovell warns me not to waste my time telling recruiters what they already know. Instead of saying that I was a senior leader, I should point out that I led a team of five, mentoring two into management positions. This jars with my old-fashioned notions of modesty, but it's dog eat dog in today's market so I have to learn to show off about myself more and with Lovell's brutal honesty I learnt to.

It was a bruising experience recognising quite how outdated my CV was. It hadn't been properly reviewed in over ten years, but I followed Lovell's advice to create a more youthful resume and it worked. Since botoxing my CV I secured four interviews in two weeks, which is more than I got in the previous six months. I went on to interview for a very well-paid senior role as a strategy director and reader, with a similar salary to what I was earning in my last job in the City and I was offered it. more

Career development

 22h

Analysis: Moore's White House Fellows résumé claimed military honors he hadn't earned


In a May 18 interview with Politico, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore was asked whether those questioning his personal accomplishments were acting in bad faith.

"I can tell my own story," Moore said. "I don't need someone else to tell it."

A Spotlight on Maryland investigative series has found that, for more than 20 years, Moore has repeatedly told versions of his story that do not match the record.

In... a career-advancing 2006 application for a White House Fellowship, critical parts of his submission were knowingly false. Spotlight's review of Moore's résumé, available military records, and related documents found false, misleading, or unsubstantiated claims about his Army service -- including the most serious one: that he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for service in Afghanistan.

It had not been awarded.

Moore controversially received the Bronze Star retroactively in 2024, nearly 19 years later, after being called out by The New York Times in an article that exposed Moore, but also seemingly gave him cover. Yet in his 2006 White House Fellows résumé, Moore represented himself as a Bronze Star recipient while competing for one of the country's most prestigious leadership opportunities.

This was not a casual biography. It was a formal résumé, falsely enhanced and submitted for a federal fellowship designed to place rising leaders in full-time roles alongside senior White House staff and cabinet officials.

The application Moore submitted to the federal government contained multiple false representations of his accomplishments. Under 18 U.S.C. 1001, it is unlawful to knowingly and willfully make materially false statements, or submit false writings, in matters within federal jurisdiction. Moore's résumé did not contain one "honest mistake," as he has stated. It contained several claims that were knowingly false when submitted, a felony under federal law for which the statute of limitations has expired.

Even Moore's friend, mentor, and military boss, retired Lt. Gen. Michael R. Fenzel, acknowledged the Bronze Star problem. Fenzel told The New York Times that by "the letter of the absolute law," the Bronze Star should not have been included in Moore's application.

And the Bronze Star was not the only problem. Spotlight identified other military claims that do not match Moore's record, cannot be substantiated, or appear to inflate his military experience while he sought a career-defining opportunity.

This article focuses only on the military claims in Moore's 2006 White House Fellows materials. Problematic non-military entries will be addressed in future reporting. The Washington Free Beacon has also reported significantly on misrepresentations from Moore's résumé during his time at Oxford.

The Bronze Star claim

The most consequential false claim in Moore's résumé was his statement, "For my work, the 82nd Airborne Division have[sic]awarded me the Bronze Star Medal and the Combat Action Badge."

Moore knew he did not receive the Bronze Star in 2006 at the end of his Afghanistan deployment. He knew he didn't receive it during his White House Fellowship application process. And he didn't receive it during the years public biographies and interview introductions described him as a Bronze Star recipient, which he never corrected.

This sort of claim could have been pursued by federal prosecutors under the 2005 version of the Stolen Valor Act, which made it a federal offense to falsely represent, verbally or in writing, that one had been awarded "any decoration or medal authorized by Congress for the Armed Forces of the United States." The act was amended in 2013, leaving out the Bronze Star. Still, many veterans reacting to Moore on social media view this kind of military embellishment as stolen valor.

Moore eventually received the Bronze Star under questionable circumstances -- and retroactively -- after almost 19 years of intentionally misleading the public about having earned it. Spotlight is preparing an in-depth investigative report revealing how Moore obtained the Bronze Star in 2024.

Moore said he included the Bronze Star because Fenzel told him it had been approved and advised him to add it to his White House résumé. Yet in an online statement on his military record, Moore said, "Towards the end of my deployment, I was disappointed to learn that I hadn't received the Bronze Star," indicating he may have been disapproved for the medal before leaving Afghanistan, which puts daylight between his and Fenzel's accounts.

The inconsistency defines the issue.

It also raises questions. If Fenzel, as deputy brigade commander, saw Moore's completed Bronze Star packet with all approving signatures, as he told The New York Times in 2024, why did he not arrange a ceremony and present the medal while still in the combat theater, as is Army custom?

Even accepting Moore's claim that he made an "honest mistake," he acknowledged he knew the Bronze Star had not been awarded before leaving Afghanistan. Spotlight asked Moore whether he corrected his résumé with the White House Fellows Selection Commission -- and, if so, whether he could provide evidence of that.

Moore has continuously refused to answer, leaving one to wonder: If he knew he hadn't received the Bronze Star, why didn't he correct his resume with the White House?

The Bronze Star is among the most recognizable military awards associated with combat-zone service. For a young Army officer applying to a highly competitive fellowship, claiming a Bronze Star Medal would have strengthened his application and burnished his image as a leader.

Retired Army Maj. Larry Moores, a member of the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame and recipient of the Silver Star Medal for valor during the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, made famous in the movie "Black Hawk Down," put the issue plainly.

"Serving with distinction in a combat zone and being the recipient of a Bronze Star Medal are two completely different things," Moores wrote in a 2024 LinkedIn post. "If Gov. Moore stated in an application for a White House Fellowship and political campaigns that he was the recipient of a Bronze Star that he was never awarded, he is misrepresenting his military service."

Maj. Moores also rejected Moore's explanation that Fenzel urged him to include the award.

"I don't buy the 'urging of his superiors' argument as acceptable either," Moores wrote. "If any of my superiors urged me to wear an award on my uniform that I did not have orders for, I would tell them no If any of my superiors asked me to write about an award I did not receive on an application to benefit myself, I would tell them no."

That is the standard, according to Maj. Moores, that Moore, and apparently his superior, Fenzel, failed to meet.

The Combat Action Badge

Moore's 2006 White House Fellows résumé also stated that he had received the Combat Action Badge, or "CAB" in Army lingo.

That claim raises questions of timing and documentation.

White House Fellows applications were due Feb. 1, 2006. The orders for Moore's CAB are dated May 1, 2006 -- three months later.

The timing matters. A résumé is not supposed to list what an applicant hopes to receive, expects to receive, or believes may later be approved. It is supposed to list what the applicant has actually earned, and Moore had not yet been approved for the CAB.

Moore says he was eventually awarded the badge. His staff provided orders approving it to a small group of selectively invited national journalists at his retroactive Bronze Star pinning ceremony in Annapolis on Dec. 23, 2024. No local journalists were invited.

Moore's staff claimed the orders did not make it into his official record because his first name was misspelled as "Wesley" instead of "Westley." That explanation is suspect. In 2006, primary identifying fields for military orders would also have included last name and Social Security number. A misspelled first name alone does not explain why an approved badge failed to make it into a soldier's record.

The documentation raises more concerns. The CAB orders were once downloadable from a State of Maryland webpage, with Moore's statement about his military career and the Bronze Star controversy. That page still exists, but the orders were removed shortly before Spotlight began its investigative series on Moore's time in the Army.

Also previously available for download and now removed were Moore's Afghanistan deployment DD Form 214 and a Jun. 30, 2014, letter from the National Archives responding to Moore's request that his military awards and decorations be confirmed and reissued.

That 2014 letter did not list the CAB among Moore's approved awards or badges. According to the National Archives, the information came from Army Human Resources Command.

Also notable, when the Army issued a DD Form 215 to correct Moore's DD Form 214 and add the Bronze Star Medal presented in 2024, it did not add the Combat Action Badge -- despite Moore's staff later producing CAB orders at the presentation ceremony they say were valid.

This does not prove Moore did not earn the badge. But it means that as late as 2014, the CAB was not reflected in his official Army record, and it may still not be today. Validation of his CAB was not among the records the Army released in response to Spotlight's FOIA requests.

Spotlight has filed a specific FOIA request with the Army seeking to verify the CAB's legitimacy.

The Afghanistan deployment timeline

Moore's résumé also categorically inflates the timeframe of his Afghanistan deployment.

The résumé presented his Afghanistan service as running from July 2005 to April 2006 -- 10 months. But according to Army records, Moore deployed to Afghanistan from Aug. 15, 2005, to March 14, 2006 -- six months and 27 days.

Records also indicate Moore was out of Afghanistan on emergency leave for about 30 days, from roughly Dec. 10, 2005, to Jan. 10, 2006.

None of that diminishes the fact that Moore deployed. But it matters when an Army officer applying for a celebrated White House Fellowship presents his service as longer or more substantial than the record supports.

The Military Police Officer Basic Course

Moore's résumé also noted his attendance at the U.S. Army Military Police Officer Basic Course at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri -- the course finally qualifying him to deploy more than seven years after his commissioning.

The résumé states Moore graduated in March 2005. Army records show his report date for the 18-week course was Feb. 21, 2005, and his graduation was June 14, 2005 -- less than two months before he mobilized as an Army reservist for Afghanistan.

The issue is not whether Moore completed the course. It is whether his résumé presented the timing of his qualifications in a way that made his military record appear cleaner, longer, or more impressive than the documentation supports.

The "Top Leadership Award"

The same résumé entry states that Moore earned the "Top Leadership Award" at the M.P. Officer Basic Course from a class of 45 students.

Spotlight asked the Army for records substantiating that claim. The Army was unable to support Moore's declaration.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the Army stated: "After consultation with the Military Police Officer Basic Course Schoolhouse, there is no record/documentation of CPT Moore being awarded the Leadership Award during MP Officer Basic Course 3-05."

This is confirmation from the Army that this statement in Moore's résumé is false.

A Top Leadership Award is precisely the kind of résumé entry that can separate one applicant from another. The Army has definitively stated Moore did not receive the award. If Moore can disprove that, he should produce proof. Otherwise, the conclusion is obvious.

Moore continually refuses to address this and other simple questions.

Veterans are asking the obvious questions

The criticism has not come only from political opponents or partisan observers. Moore's military story has drawn concern from veterans, who understand that awards, badges, deployment dates, and combat claims are documented facts, not vague memories.

Retired Maj. Larry Moores' criticism carries particular weight because it comes from a combat veteran decorated for valor. His point was direct: Serving honorably in a combat zone and claiming receipt of a specific military award are not the same thing.

Other veterans have raised similar concerns about Moore's shifting military story and lack of transparency.

After Spotlight reported on Moore's claims about experiencing direct-fire combat, Navy veteran Robert Carona wrote on social media, "As a Veteran of 5 deployments in 4 years I know exactly where I was and who I was with. I know what awards/medals I received. You don't forget any of that I can assure you."

Former Army intelligence officer Victor Salazar also questioned Moore's account, writing on social media, "As a former military officer this lack of transparency is very telling. I believe he is claiming more credit than maybe he deservedI am very much calling him out on his service and his integrity[is]suspect."

Those comments capture why Moore's 2006 résumé matters. This is not about diminishing his service. It is about whether he inflated that service while competing for a career-defining fellowship -- and whether he corrected the record knowing that important claims in his résumé were false.

The 2006-2007 White House Fellowship placed Moore inside an elite national leadership network. It gave him access, credibility, and proximity to power.

That makes the accuracy of the résumé more important, not less.

If Moore listed awards he had not received, overstated deployment dates, claimed honors the Army says he did not earn, and failed to correct the record, then the issue is not lost paperwork.

It is judgment.

It is integrity.

And Spotlight's investigation shows it is a pattern.

Moore says he can tell his own story. But when he told his story to the White House Fellows program in 2006, the version he presented was full of blatant falsehoods.

Spotlight has asked Governor Moore in multiple letters and emails to provide evidence and documentation to refute its reporting. Moore has consistently refused to acknowledge our request or provide any answers.

Drew Sullins can be reached at . Spotlight on Maryland is a joint venture by FOX45 News, The Baltimore Sun and WJLA in Washington, D.C. Send story tips to or call our hotline at . Follow us on X at @spotlightMDNews, and on Instagram and Facebook at Spotlight on Maryland. more

Career development

 1d

Free resume feedback for international students


Have your resume polished by a professional before job hunting in Korea.

Seoul Global Center is offering a free resume review service for 50 international students.

International students who want their resumes to sound more natural, better present their work experience or receive detailed feedback on their cover letters may apply.

Applicants must submit resumes and cover letters written in... Korean. The required format is available through the Google Drive link on the application page.

Feedback may take up to 10 days and will be sent by email. more

Career development

 1d

You can't become what you can't see


WHEN I first pitched this column to the management of The Manila Times, I knew exactly what I didn't want it to become. I had absolutely no interest in creating yet another conventional tech space that simply recycles the buzzwords we are bombarded with every day. We hear about AI, blockchain, cybersecurity and digital transformation constantly, often stripped of context. The truth is that we have... no shortage of highly technical discussions about systems, code and infrastructure. What felt profoundly missing from the national conversation was a focus on the actual people behind the screen.

More specifically, I wanted to talk about women in technology. I don't mean featuring them as rare exceptions, token success stories or boxes to be checked on a corporate diversity checklist. Instead, I wanted to highlight them as leaders, builders, educators and innovators who are shaping the digital infrastructure of our country from the ground up.

That is how Beyond the Binary came to life. The title, of course, is a direct reference to the fundamental language of computers -- the rigid 1s and 0s that power our digital world. But for me, going "beyond the binary" means moving past outdated assumptions about gender roles in the workplace. It means rewriting the script on who gets to innovate, who gets to lead and who gets a seat at the table when our collective digital future is being designed. It is, in many ways, about women breaking the glass ceiling in technology -- but on a deeper level.

To be absolutely clear, this will never be a column of glorified corporate résumés or PR-driven profiles. Nor am I interested in highlighting women simply because they happen to be women. What genuinely fascinates me is something much larger and more impactful: What do their unique, often hard-won experiences teach us about leadership, resilience and the future we are building together?

A perfect example of this quiet excellence is Mary Joy Abueg. If you aren't deeply embedded in the local technology, academic or public policy sectors, her name might not immediately ring a bell. Yet her work touches areas that affect our daily digital lives in ways we rarely realize. As a certified data privacy specialist and data protection officer, Dr. Abueg has spent years strengthening information technology education and workforce readiness alongside organizations such as the Commission on Higher Education and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority. She has also contributed to national information technology standards through the Bureau of Philippine Standards. Today, she serves as an associate professor, chief information officer and data protection officer at Palawan State University while also chairing PalwaNXT and serving as a trustee of the National ICT Confederation of the Philippines.

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On paper, those credentials are undeniably impressive, but it was the quiet gravity of her day-to-day work that caught my attention. Much of what she does involves helping large, traditional institutions adapt to a rapidly changing digital landscape. She tackles data protection, technology governance and digital transformation -- critical but often unglamorous areas that do not generate flashy headlines yet remain essential to a stable digital economy. It is the kind of heavy lifting that happens behind the scenes, but it matters enormously.

Encountering Dr. Abueg's journey reminded me of a phrase I have carried throughout my own career in technology: You can't become what you can't see.

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We often hear this phrase in conversations about women in STEM, but it deserves a deeper look in the Philippine context. For young Filipinas considering careers in technology, the barrier has never been a lack of talent. The Philippines is rich with brilliant and capable minds. The real issue is visibility. When you rarely see women leading high-stakes digital initiatives, writing technology policy, managing cybersecurity crises or architecting national data governance frameworks, picturing yourself in those roles requires a leap of faith. It is not impossible, but it becomes far less likely to happen naturally.

Representation is not about political correctness or meeting diversity quotas. It is about expanding the horizon of what is possible for the next generation. When a student sees someone she can genuinely relate to succeeding in a highly technical field, it changes her blueprint for the future. A young professional gains the confidence to pursue leadership roles, and organizations are challenged to question long-held assumptions about who belongs in decision-making positions. Over time, these individual shifts can reshape the culture of an industry.

Right now, the national conversation around women in technology remains too focused on participation statistics. We celebrate enrollment numbers, encourage young girls to pursue STEM education and create programs to expand technology access in underserved communities. These initiatives are important and must continue. But the conversation must evolve. The question is no longer whether women belong in technology. Their contributions have answered that decisively. The more urgent question is whether women are being given the influence to shape the systems, policies and innovations that will govern our collective future.

Technology is never neutral. The people who design algorithms, secure networks and write digital policies make decisions that affect how we learn, work and access essential services. Diversity in technology is not simply a matter of fairness; it is also a matter of quality. Different perspectives lead to stronger problem-solving, better products and systems that serve the public more effectively.

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Yet many women doing this essential work remain invisible outside their professional circles. Beyond the Binary aims to change that -- not by handing out praise, but by examining what these leaders' journeys reveal about the future of our digital society.

Dr. Abueg's story is a reminder that some of the most important work in the digital economy is happening far from the spotlight -- inside state universities, regional technology hubs, government agencies and professional communities preparing the Philippines for the future. If we want a globally competitive digital economy, we must pay attention to the people building it. In the end, our greatest national advantage will not be the technology we purchase, but the talent we intentionally develop, support and empower.

When more people can see themselves in technology, more people will step forward to help build it. And that is how we create a stronger future.

Gail Macapagal is the 2025 TOWNS (The Outstanding Women in Nation's Service) awardee for information technology and entrepreneurship, executive director of Qadena Foundation, head of external and government affairs at Traxion Tech, founder of Women in Blockchain Philippines, and co-founder of Cyber S|Heroes and Lakambini ng Kalayaan. She serves on the boards of Humanility and the Blockchain Council of the Philippines. She is also a member of the 100 Most Influential Filipino Women on LinkedIn Hall of Fame and a TEDx speaker. She writes Beyond the Binary, a column exploring technology, leadership, innovation and the people shaping the digital future. more

Career development

 1d

On the job hunt? The Ravens are hiring at M&T Bank Stadium job fair


MOST OF THE DAY WILL BE UNDER PARTLY CLOUDY SKIES. THANKS, DALENCIA. WELL, IF YOU'VE EVER WANTED TO WORK WITH THE BALTIMORE RAVENS AND MAYBE SEE GAMES THERE AT THE STADIUM, NOW IS YOUR CHANCE. THE TEAM IS HOSTING A MAJOR JOB FAIR AT T BANK STADIUM, AND THAT EVENT KICKS OFF IN JUST A FEW MINUTES. JOINING US LIVE THIS MORNING WITH MORE A PREVIEW IS SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF THE STADIUM OPERATIONS... RICH TAMAYO. GOOD MORNING. THANKS FOR BEING HERE WITH US. THANK YOU FOR HAVING US. YES. YOU'RE EXCITING. IT'S GOING TO BE A GREAT DAY TODAY. THIS IS GREAT. YOU'RE HIRING FOR LITERALLY HUNDREDS OF POSITIONS. WE ARE ACROSS ALL PARTNERS HERE AT THE STADIUM. WE WANT TO HAVE THE BEST PERSON TO COME IN AND PROVIDE THE BEST SERVICE TO THE GREATEST FANS IN THE WORLD. TALK ABOUT THE TYPES OF JOBS WE'RE TALKING EVERYTHING FROM CONCESSIONS TO SECURITY. CORRECT. EACH PARTNER THAT WE HAVE LEAVE YOU WITH OUR FOOD AND BEVERAGE TEAM IS LOOKING FOR AN ARRAY OF POSITIONS TO PROVIDE SOME GREAT SERVICE AND SOME COOK SOME OF THAT AMAZING FOOD THAT YOU KNOW OF THAT WE HAVE ON GAME DAY. WE HAVE A M OUR JANITORIAL PARTNER WHO'S LOOKING TO MAKE SURE THAT THE PRESENTATION STAYS WELL HERE AT THE STADIUM, ALL THE WAY FROM AP APEX, WITH SECURITY, SAFE MANAGEMENT, WITH SECURITY SERVICES, AND THEN SOME POSITIONS THAT COME UP RIGHT UP THROUGH THE RAVENS SERVICES AS WELL. WHAT DO PEOPLE NEED TO BRING WITH THEM WHEN THEY COME OUT FOR THE INTERVIEW? THEIR ATTITUDE. RIGHT. A GREAT ATTITUDE THIS, THAT BALTIMORE CHARM THAT WE THAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR AND PROVIDING SERVICE FOR THE GUESTS WHO COME IN, THEY NEED TO BE 18 YEARS OR OLDER. THE JOB FAIR IS TODAY FROM 9 TO 2, AND WE ARE UP HERE IN THE CLUB LEVEL AT M T BANK STADIUM. SO ANOTHER WAY TO BEAT THE HEAT IS COME HERE AND ENJOY THE HVAC THAT WE HAVE AND THE SERVICE THAT WE'RE GOING TO PROVIDE THOSE APPLICANTS AS THEY COME IN, BECAUSE WE FEEL THEY'RE INTERVIEWING US JUST AS MUCH AS WE'RE INTERVIEWING THEM FOR THE POSITIONS HERE. YEAH. AND LISTEN, I KNOW IN YEARS PAST YOU WANTED TO REALLY PROVIDE SORT OF LIKE A FUN GAME DAY ATMOSPHERE WHEN PEOPLE COME OUT FOR THE JOB FAIRS. ARE YOU DOING THAT AGAIN THIS YEAR ARE THERE'S SOME THERE'S SOME SPECIAL SURPRISES. SO WE'RE DEFINITELY HAVING A WELCOME. AND WE'RE CHOOSING TO DO IT HERE ON OUR CLUB LEVEL TO GIVE THEM THAT KIND OF THAT EXPERIENCE, THAT PREMIUM EXPERIENCE AS THEY COME INTO THE BUILDING. AND THEN WE DO, YOU KNOW, WE WELCOME THEM WITH FOOD, WE WELCOME THEM WITH BEVERAGE. BUT THEN THERE'S A FUN SURPRISE AS WE ARE HIRING HERE TODAY. SO THEY'LL BE HIRED TODAY PENDING BACKGROUND CHECKS. THERE'S A FUN SURPRISE AT THE END THAT REALLY WILL MAKE THEM FEEL LIKE THEY'VE SIGNED ON TO PLAY AND WORK FOR THE BALTIMORE RAVENS. THAT IS SO COOL. AND LISTEN, NOT EVERYONE WHO'S WATCHING THIS HAS A RESUME READY TO GO. DO YOU HAVE TO HAVE A RESUME? I MEAN, YOU MENTIONED HAVING A GREAT ATTITUDE. CAN YOU JUST SHOW UP AND SAY, LOOK, I'M READY TO WORK. CAN YOU PUT ME TO WORK? YOU CAN WRITE. NO. RESUMES ARE ALWAYS HELPFUL, BUT YOU CAN COME IN AND AND AS YOU WALK UP, YOU MAY NOT EVEN FULLY, YOU KNOW, UNDERSTAND WHICH JOB YOU WANT TO APPLY FOR. BUT WE'LL HAVE ALL THE INFORMATION FOR YOU, RIGHT? WE EVEN WILL HAVE A RAFFLE FOR THE PEOPLE TO COME IN SO THEY CAN GET A PRIZE AS THEY'RE WAITING. AND, AND THEN AS YOU CHOOSE YOU, YOU WILL FILL OUT THE APPLICATION OF THAT, THAT, THAT PARTNER. AND THEN YOU CAN COME IN AND, YOU KNOW, NO RESUME NECESSARY. IT'S GREAT TO HAVE ONE, BUT NO RESUME NECESSARY. FANTASTIC. AND WE PUT UP THE INFORMATION ON THE SCREEN. YOU'RE GOING TO GO THROUGH THAT SOUTH CLUB LEVEL ENTRANCE AND PARKING IN LOT D AND IT'S FREE. YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAY. YOU JUST GO RIGHT IN THERE. NO, YOU COME RIGHT IN, YOU COME RIGHT IN. AND WE'RE TRYING TO CREATE AN EXPERIENCE FOR THOSE WHO ARE GOING TO PROVIDE A GREAT EXPERIENCE FOR THOSE GUESTS WHO COME ON SUNDAYS. more

Career development

 1d

Why every startup uses an ai resume builder to hire faster - Film Daily


Startups face an application flood that manual screening can no longer handle. An ai resume builder paired with automated screening now sits at the center of hiring plans for most venture-backed teams. The shift is not about novelty. It is about keeping time-to-hire from stretching past the point where top candidates disappear to competitors.

Volume pressure on lean teams

Ashby's 2026 report... tracked 1,200 venture-backed startups and 11 million applications. The data shows postings mentioning AI doubled in two years while .ai domains in job ads rose from 5 percent to 16 percent. Those numbers translate into daily inboxes that small recruiting teams cannot clear without help.

Founders report that a single well-posted engineering role can draw several hundred résumés inside 48 hours. Manual review at that scale eats days that product roadmaps cannot spare. The result is a backlog that delays every downstream interview.

Startups therefore treat screening automation as infrastructure rather than a nice-to-have. Without it, hiring velocity falls behind funding milestones and growth targets.

Adoption numbers across the sector

Resume-Now surveys from late 2025 found 91 percent of employers already use AI in hiring, with 79 percent applying it directly to résumé review. Among companies using these tools, 73 percent recorded measurable drops in time-to-hire. The same cohort projected that 68 percent of U.S. firms would rely on AI screening by the end of 2025.

Within that group, 82 percent specifically route incoming résumés through an ai resume builder before any recruiter opens a file. The pattern holds across Series A through growth-stage companies that cannot afford bloated talent teams.

These figures matter because they reflect repeatable outcomes rather than isolated experiments. Teams that adopt the workflow see the same compression in screening cycles.

Countering AI-generated applications

The Willo Hiring Trends Report 2026 documented that 41 percent of employers are already moving away from résumé-first processes. Ten percent have largely replaced traditional résumés with skills-based assessments. The driver is simple: candidates now use an ai resume builder to tailor documents at scale, eroding the signal value of submitted materials.

Startups respond by layering their own AI filters that parse context, synonyms, and transferable skills instead of keyword matches alone. The move restores some balance to an inbox where polished language no longer guarantees competence.

Without that counter-layer, hiring managers report spending extra time separating crafted narratives from actual experience.

Tool choices favored by startups

Platforms such as Fabric, Workable, and Interviewer.AI appear repeatedly in startup tech stacks. Fabric emphasizes semantic matching that goes beyond rigid keywords. Workable focuses on ranking speed for hyper-growth teams. Interviewer.AI applies natural-language processing to surface relevant experience that standard parsers miss.

These options integrate with existing applicant tracking systems without requiring new headcount to manage them. Pricing scales with volume rather than seat licenses, which aligns with the cash-conscious reality of early-stage companies.

Teams test two or three options in parallel before committing, then standardize once measurable time savings appear in the first hiring cycle.

Practitioner conversations on speed

Recent threads on X describe the same workflow in practical terms. Recruiters note that an ai resume builder can read 100 résumés and return a shortlist in minutes. One detailed post claimed the approach fills roles two to three times faster than spreadsheet-based reviews.

The shared complaint is consistent: volume broke the old process. Hiring managers describe spending entire afternoons on initial screens that now finish before lunch.

These anecdotes line up with the aggregate data and reinforce why adoption continues to climb.

Time-to-hire compression in practice

Teams that implement AI screening report cutting the first-pass review from days to hours. That compression matters when competing offers sit in a candidate's inbox. A role that once took six weeks to fill now closes in three because interviews begin sooner.

The 73 percent improvement figure from Resume-Now surveys reflects this pattern across multiple company sizes. Startups see the upper end of those gains because their baseline process was already stretched thin.

Founders track the metric against funding runway and headcount plans, treating faster hiring as a direct input to growth forecasts.

Skills signals over polished documents

With AI-generated résumés flooding the market, startups increasingly supplement screening with short skills tests or scenario prompts. The shift does not eliminate the ai resume builder on the employer side. It adds a second filter that verifies claims before calendar invites go out.

Early data from the Willo report suggests this hybrid approach reduces later-stage drop-off. Candidates who clear both automated résumé review and a quick skills check tend to accept offers at higher rates.

The combination keeps the process fast while restoring some authenticity that pure document review can no longer provide.

Market signals and next steps

Ashby data shows AI mentions appearing in roughly one-third of startup job postings. That visibility signals both demand for AI talent and acceptance of AI tools inside talent operations. Investors now ask about hiring velocity during due diligence, and automated screening appears on the answer sheet.

Companies still evaluating options are testing integrations during active requisitions rather than waiting for a quiet period. The learning curve is short once the first batch of résumés runs through the system.

Expect continued iteration on assessment layers that sit on top of résumé screening to maintain signal quality as candidate-side tools improve.

Where the workflow heads next

Startups that treat an ai resume builder as standard operating procedure are already shortening the distance between application and interview. The pattern shows up in hiring metrics, recruiter anecdotes, and investor questions. Teams that delay adoption face longer backlogs and higher risk of losing candidates to faster-moving competitors. The infrastructure is in place. The remaining variable is how quickly each company folds it into daily operations. more

Career development

 4d

As a recent college graduate, I knew I'd have to do more than just send out my résumé. I found my first job from a Facebook post.


Last May, I graduated from Smith College. Now I live in New York and work as a Project Manager at PDS Development, a Brooklyn-based real estate development and consulting firm. My experience with the job application process had nothing to do with LinkedIn, a perfect résumé, or most of the mainstream advice Gen Z has been given about landing a job.

It had everything to do with human... connection.

I've loved all things real estate and design since I was 10 years old. I grew up around it -- spreading garden mulch on Brooklyn investment properties for $15 an hour, shadowing agents at showings, interning at a local architecture firm, and ultimately passing my real estate licensing exam at 18.

Thankfully, I landed my dream job straight out of college in a unique way.

A Facebook post, and seizing the moment

One day, during my junior year, I randomly hopped on Facebook and spotted a post in a community group called "Park Slope Together," formed during COVID to support neighbors and local businesses. A successful real estate developer was looking for administrative assistance, and I was hungry for real-world, working experience -- something not easily accessible as a full-time student in Massachusetts.

Twenty-three people flooded the comments. I messaged him directly on Facebook Messenger, we got on the phone, and within days, he started sending me remote tasks to complete while I finished my studies. The most amusing part? He lived up the street from my childhood home; we were neighbors.

I worked quietly in the background of his operations for two years.

As my last semester of college approached, he said, "You know, if you're ever interested in full-time work, we can talk about what that could look like." It was a no-brainer; I jumped at the opportunity to work with him, someone who was so inspiring to me. His mentorship and generosity felt invaluable. I'm now working full-time at PDS, and I couldn't be happier.

Since starting, I've sourced sites for charter schools and other nonprofit programs, attended RFP site visits, supported loan financing for nonprofits, helped facilitate relationships with financial institutions, and represented the firm at events. The most meaningful part has been the building of relationships with clients, brokers, building owners, and coworkers.

The importance of human connection

In this new era of digital connection, where many people are firing off identical applications, I've found that human connection is what helps people stand out -- nurturing real relationships. I've watched peers navigate the process through digital channels alone, and the contrast is stark.

I've recently started attending real estate events. Though I've struggled with a fear of public speaking, I raised my hand to ask a question during a Q&A. I left feeling proud, and it even opened up conversations after the event.

It's no surprise that much of professional communication happens digitally, and often without a face behind the name. As communication becomes increasingly digitized, it's more important than ever to grow human connections.

Recognizing your existing network

Despite the challenges that come with building a career as a young person, one major advantage is that people want to help you. They think back to when they were just as uncertain in their early 20's.

Accept the help and welcome mentorship.

For those who don't think they already have a strong network: you may not realize it, but you do. You have family, friends, neighbors, teachers, community members, alum. Asking someone to grab a coffee may seem like a small step, but you never know what types of opportunities could come from it.

Don't rush figuring everything out

When I was a kid, I went rock hunting behind my home in Michigan. I found a rock, and something made me grab a marker and write a message on it: "Try new things." I still have the rock, and I often think back to the message.

I've learned to go with the flow and not rush myself to figure out my life. It's easy to feel pressured to follow specific, linear paths, but I've observed that career trajectories (and personal ones for that matter) aren't always as structured as they appear to be.

Three years ago, I would never have expected to be doing the work I'm currently doing, but I was open to the experience of trying something new.

My message to those reading, who may feel lost: Believe in yourself, even when the destination isn't visible. Put yourself out there and meet new people. Try new things. more
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  • Kathy Omaits

    1
    4d

    Where in Michigan did you grow up? I am also from Michigan, the Milford/ Fenton/Holly triangle.

Career development

 2d

LinkedIn's New Reality: Professionals Turn to GoFundMe as Job Hunts Drag On


LinkedIn once stood as the spot for polished résumés, mutual connections and subtle humblebrags. No longer. Desperate job seekers now paste GoFundMe links into their posts. They ask former colleagues, recruiters and strangers for cash to cover rent, groceries and health insurance while applications vanish into digital black holes.

But the shift didn't happen overnight. Prolonged unemployment has... worn down savings. Bills piled up. Pride gave way to necessity. And the platform that promised career growth now hosts raw pleas for financial survival.

The Breaking Point

Take one laid-off Morgan Stanley employee. After months without work, he created a GoFundMe campaign and first shared it on Facebook. Days later he posted on LinkedIn. "I don't know if this is the right thing to do on LinkedIn, but I'm kind of desperate," he wrote, according to a report from Business Insider. The post captured a sentiment echoing across feeds in 2026.

Others followed. Recruiters. Tech workers. Marketing professionals. Some had hunted jobs for over two years. Their résumés once drew calls. Now those same documents sit unread. One recruiter recently posted a GoFundMe with 48 hours left on the clock, pleading for family support after layoffs, as seen in recent LinkedIn activity shared across platforms.

Carlos Gil, a LinkedIn influencer, captured the mood in a widely viewed post. He described the site as a "digital graveyard for careers." He noted brilliant people from Meta, Google, Microsoft and Amazon unemployed for one to two years or more. "People with résumés that should have recruiters fighting over them are now posting GoFundMe links just trying to survive," Gil wrote. He contrasted the scene with 2008. Back then, he said, leaders admitted a crisis existed. Today companies tout mental health awareness while cutting staff by email.

The posts don't arrive in isolation. They mix with #OpenToWork banners, AI takeover warnings and survivor guilt from those still employed. One user logged into LinkedIn and felt "utterly overwhelmed" by the mix of artificial intelligence job losses, layoffs and crowdfunding requests. Another observed that the trend escalated from "looking for work" to "starting a gofundme page so my family can hopefully eat next month."

Reactions split. Some scroll past in discomfort. Others donate small amounts or share the posts. A few criticize the practice as unprofessional. Yet the volume grows. LinkedIn itself has evolved. It tolerates layoff announcements that once might have been scrubbed. The buttoned-up network now hosts unfiltered accounts of financial strain.

Why here? LinkedIn remains the premier site for professional identity. Recruiters still prowl it. Former bosses and coworkers stay connected. A GoFundMe link placed among career updates reaches exactly the audience that once offered opportunity. It also signals rock bottom. Savings depleted. Unemployment benefits exhausted. Side gigs insufficient.

Data points paint a tough picture. Tech sector cuts tracked by sites like Layoffs.fyi continue. White-collar roles shrink. Companies eliminate positions without backfilling. Applicants report thousands of résumés for single openings. Hiring managers admit they can't keep up. Meanwhile AI tools automate tasks once done by mid-level staff. The combination leaves experienced workers adrift.

One tech professional shared his story after 2.5 years without stable employment. Encouraging comments arrived. A GoFundMe brought temporary relief. Yet he kept the campaign active, knowing the funds wouldn't last. "I would have preferred a job months ago but finding a job is not happening," he stated in a post.

Similar stories surface daily. Parents worry about mortgages and children's needs. Health coverage gaps create fresh emergencies. The requests feel urgent because they are. One campaign sought money for a laptop to improve job search prospects. Another came from a small business owner hit by broader economic pressure.

Experts and observers note the psychological toll. Posting a funding request on a network built for success requires lowering every guard. It admits vulnerability in a space that rewards confidence. Yet silence brings isolation. The posts become both cry for help and quiet protest against a system that discards talent after years of loyalty.

And the trend shows no immediate reversal. Recent X discussions highlight feeds dominated by these appeals. One post from June 5, 2026 directly referenced the Business Insider report and noted its spread. Others tie the phenomenon to AI-driven displacement, arguing the technology eliminates roles faster than new ones appear.

LinkedIn's own initiatives, such as its Future of Work Fund supporting nonprofits focused on skills and economic opportunity, acknowledge the transition. Those programs target systemic issues. They don't address immediate rent due next week. That's where individual GoFundMe campaigns fill the gap, however imperfectly.

Critics wonder if the practice damages personal brands. Will recruiters hesitate to engage candidates who aired financial struggles publicly? Possibly. But many posters have concluded they possess little left to lose. Two years of silence yielded nothing. A direct ask at least generates some funds and occasional job leads.

The shift reveals deeper fractures. Corporate messaging around resilience clashes with lived experience. Mental health campaigns feel hollow when paired with mass email terminations. Workers once encouraged to network now use those networks for survival money. The platform that connected talent to opportunity now surfaces the cost when opportunity dries up.

So what comes next? More posts seem likely unless hiring rebounds sharply. Some campaigns succeed modestly. Others raise enough to buy time. A few go viral and draw meaningful support. Most serve as stark reminders that professional polish can't always mask empty bank accounts.

This isn't pity-seeking. It's adaptation. Professionals face a market that values speed, specific skills and cost-cutting above tenure or breadth of experience. When that market rejects them for extended periods, they turn to the tools available. GoFundMe offers one. LinkedIn provides the distribution.

The result feels uncomfortable. Feeds mix inspirational career advice with urgent donation requests. Optimistic hiring announcements sit beside tales of two-year job searches. The contrast doesn't lie. It simply reflects 2026's white-collar reality more honestly than corporate slogans ever could. more

Charles French
Career development 1d
Crazy, I worked in tech/UI/UX design and development for over 20 year with fortune 250/500 pretty large size companies and as a federal contractor. I loved the space when I first staarted. I seperated last year, not necessarily loving it anymore, but still working at a very high level because we know the pay is great. It took time away and jumping back into Desgin/Development for myself and the... peole in the industry I am currently in to realize why I loved designing and building things. The love was because in my own way I was solving a problem for the better good. Am I a unicorn? more

Career development

 2d

43 Accurate Memes That Sum Up Regular 9-To-5 Workplace Culture


msqueen_vee Report

Workplace expert Taylor told Bored Panda that leaving a job can be a stressful proposition. "You've invested a lot of time and energy into it, but now you realize it's time to move to greener pastures." She gave us some advice on what employees can do to move forward if they feel like there are no alternatives out there for them.

"Take heart... You're already halfway there by... deciding to make the move. Many people languish in a state of inertia as they try to make big career or life changes. The employment market is strong and the talent shortage is pervasive. Fortunately, now is still a good time to explore opportunities," she said.

"Touch base with those you admire who have made career changes successfully. Finding a mentor is also helpful in your motivational level. Start networking activities in your professional network. You're likely to discover just how marketable you are after getting feedback," the workplace expert said.

Utsav Rajoria Report

Soucy Lacson Jenny Report

Taylor also suggested creating a 'kudos file' of your achievements and reviewing it often. "This includes letters of commendation; complimentary emails from bosses, coworkers, clients, and outside colleagues; and a list of accomplishments and awards. Keep it updated. This will also help you prepare a powerful résumé, as you'll be reminded of your skills and successes."

Meanwhile, you should study the going salaries for your position in the market. If you happen to find that you're underpaid, you'll "feel more empowered to move on." Taylor pointed out that life is not a dress rehearsal. "Having a job that's familiar and routine may have given you a sense of comfort. But once you start envisioning your next career phase, it will make it easier to take the leap."

Brianna Lent Report

madebymagnolia Report

Annie TuLiuie Report

We also wanted to get the workplace expert's thoughts on constantly being mired in negativity at work. "It's easy to spiral downwards when you're frustrated with your job. Negativity can breed more negativity, but you can 'jam the system' of your repeated patterns with more positive thoughts and practices. Not always simple to do when some habits can die hard," the author of 'Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant' told Bored Panda.

"When you're mired in negativity, your work product suffers and your office life starts spilling into your private life. It's difficult to 'turn off' a bad job, boss or coworker who is making your life miserable. It's human nature to want to resolve these matters, and that often affects you after hours," she said. "The best antidote is to get into the driver's seat with some proactive steps. Create a document that outlines the problem, how and why it's affecting you. Then address the issue(s) with all the options. For example: Your 'terrible two' Boss is demanding too many projects within too short a timeframe. You have choices."

Here are some of your options going forward:

Taylor added: "Of course, if you're in an unbearable job you have many other choices, including new job avenues."

Valentin Tobon Report

glamgamine Report

Coral Marek Report

The 'Work Memes' Facebook group was created at the height of the pandemic in November 2020, and has since amassed a huge following of meme-lovers from around the world. At the time of writing, nearly 564k Facebook users called the group their home.

The founder of the page notes that the focus of the group should be on work memes. However, not all memes have to be work-related. A few off-topic memes here and there are perfectly fine, but if the situation's getting out of control, don't be surprised if some of your more random posts end up being tidied up and removed.

The 'Work Memes' group has absolutely no tolerance for bullying and political posts and comments are not permitted. "We get enough politics crammed down our throat by the media. We do not need it here as well," the founder writes.

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Meanwhile, if you want to be an active and wholesome member of the community, try to "give more than you take to this group." There's no room for self-promotion and spam. But there's a deep and abiding love for witty, silly, and relatable work memes.

As we've covered on Bored Panda very recently, there are a few things that can help memes go viral and have more longevity. Luck is one factor that we can't control: there's an element of randomness as to what content will end up being popular and what will be left by the wayside.

However, some of the things that content creators can control include what the format of the meme is like. For instance, memes that the audience can quickly read and understand are more likely to be successful. Surprising or making your audience happy is also a good way to ensure a meme's popularity.

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Meanwhile, how relatable people find a meme to be is absolutely essential to the content's virality and long-term success. It's natural that we 'vibe' with memes that resonate with us. They build on a sense of belonging and create a relationship between the content creator and all members of the audience.

However, behind all the hilarious, silly, and incredibly relatable memes lie some harsh truths about the workplace. Like burnout. Chronic exhaustion. Lack of growth. Quiet firing and quiet hiring. Unpaid overtime. Having to deal with poor management.

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Some other common problems include feeling like your job has no purpose and you have no control over the direction of your career. Bullying at the workplace. Dealing with nepotism and unfairness. Having someone keep stealing your lunch from the office fridge.

These are just some of the workplace issues that many workers deal with on a daily basis. What all of these things have in common is how the employee sets and enforces boundaries to protect their physical and mental health, as well as maintain their work-life balance.

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The fact of the matter is that you and you alone are responsible for what you're willing to tolerate at work. Yes, you'll likely run into unfair bosses, bad managers, lazy colleagues, and mind-numbingly huge workloads at some point -- it's practically impossible to avoid. However, you can control how you react to all of this.

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One thing that you can do if you constantly find yourself dealing with unfair practices in the workplace is to raise the question with your supervisor, boss, or human resources rep. There is no substitute for diplomatic and open communication. Instead of suffering in silence, have a friendly but frank discussion about the issues that affect you every single day. Propose some solutions and look for a compromise that would make both sides happy. It takes real guts to be the one to shine the spotlight on the problems that everyone sees (but few actually address).

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However, you have to be honest with yourself about whether you'd actually be willing to stay at the company if things were to change for the better, like you want. It could be that you've simply outgrown the place. Or maybe the company's values are completely at odds with your own and there's no real future there at all. Or (and this is quite likely) management doesn't want to consider any of your suggestions at all.

If that's the case, you may want to consider looking for employment elsewhere. No, there's no such thing as a 'perfect' workplace. But it'd be naive to think that every company is equally bad!

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Which of these work memes did you relate to the most, dear Pandas? Were there any that you cheekily forwarded to your fave colleagues? How do you maintain a healthy work-life balance? We'd love to hear what you think, so grab yourself another cup of coffee and swing by the comment section to share your opinions.

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You might also like: "It's A 'Benefit' To My Employer, Not Me": People Are Sharing 28 Insulting Things A Job Has Offered Them more

Career development

 2d

Gift to the graduates


With two grandkids graduating from college last week, graduates are on my mind. Here are a few tips to help young adults conquer the world.

Before your first job interview, learn what you can about the company and ask someone older than you what attire would be appropriate. Keep your shoes polished or clean; well-maintained shoes tell the world you pay attention to detail and have pride in your... appearance. Practice a firm handshake; it shows your self-confidence. Leave your cell phone in the car when you go for interviews. Any job could be the entry stepping stone to a career.

Do not expect praise for doing your job. Be loyal to the company that writes your check; if you speak badly of an employer or company to others, you need to change jobs. Actions show your character best when no one is looking. Consider the turtle; he sticks his head out when necessary. Volunteer, it will make you a better person. Help your neighbors without expecting payment.

If you are not at least 5 to 10 minutes early, consider yourself late. Appreciate breathing. Too much of a good thing at one time is bad -- even sunshine. Read. Read. Read. Read. Learn to make one good soup.

Spelling matters. With the word "its," think his and hers as comparative words; none of these need an apostrophe. A smile is the most noticed accessory you can wear. Everyone is equal in importance. Talk with, and learn from, older people. Avoid narcissists. When a word you do not know appears in print or conversation, look it up, learn the word, and use it so you can expand your vocabulary.

Change your windshield wipers when you notice they are not doing a good job. Check your tire pressure. Keep your gas tank at least half full so you will never be running on fumes. You will save yourself much hassle by doing so.

Be kind. Sleep is not overrated. New socks bring joy to the wearer. Clean up after yourself. Pay cash; if you do not have the money to buy something right now, you cannot afford it. Cheap credit quickly becomes very expensive; ignore credit card offers.

Painted lines in parking lots are not concrete barriers. Pull ahead to the empty space in front of you in a parking lot, then you can drive forward when you leave and will not have to back out; most parking lot accidents happened during backing. Call your parents even when you do not want anything. Email, write or call your grandparents often. Walk instead of driving any time you can. Do not lend your car; the insurance likely only covers you as a driver. Your word is your bond, your reputation depends on that.

Enjoy meaningful, in person talks; texting isn't the same. Keep memories in your heart and enjoy your lives.

Sanders is a national-award winning columnist who writes from the farm in southwest South Dakota. Her internet latchstring is always out at peggy@peggysanders.com. She can be reached through her website at http://www.peggysanders.com. more

Career development

 2d

Ogbonnaya Onu Polytechnic Finalists Gain Workplace Readiness Training


Jobberman Nigeria in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation has trained the Students of Ogbonnaya Onu Polytechnic on employability and workplace readiness skills.

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‎The exercise, which brought together National Diploma (ND) and Higher National Diploma (HND) finalists, was aimed at enhancing participants' capacity to compete effectively in the labour market through the acquisition of... critical soft skills and career development knowledge.

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‎Prior to the training, officials of Jobberman Nigeria, led by Mr. Flex Kennedy, accompanied by the Head of Career Services and Skill Development Center, Dr. Joan Okafor, paid a courtesy call to the Rector of the Polytechnic, Engr. Dr. Christopher Okoro Kalu, at the institution's Council Chamber Hall.

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‎Speaking during the visit, Kennedy explained that the intervention is part of a nationwide initiative targeted at preparing young people for emerging opportunities within the digital and broader economic landscape.

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He noted that the programme links learning with opportunities for career progression by exposing students to practical workplace expectations and pathways to internships.

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According to him, the initiative seeks to ensure that graduates possess not only academic qualifications but also the behavioural and interpersonal competencies increasingly demanded by employers.

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‎He further acknowledged the Polytechnic Management for its emphasis on practical education and entrepreneurial development, particularly through support for skill-based programmes in Welding and Fabrication, Fashion Design, and other vocational areas that provide students with opportunities for economic self-sufficiency.

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‎Kennedy urged the students to cultivate confidence in their abilities, stressing that personal achievement often begins with the decision to believe in one's potential.

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‎The participants were engaged on subjects including self-development, effective communication, time management, workplace conduct, overcoming personal limitations, and the application of constructive feedback in professional settings.

‎One of the participants, Mitchell Ihendu, an ND II student from the department of Public Administration, narrated the programme as enriching and relevant to the realities of today's job market.

She commended the facilitators for their methodical approach and the use of pre-training and post-training assessments to evaluate participants' learning outcomes.

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‎She stated that the sessions provided fresh perspectives on professional growth and expanded her understanding of what employers expect from prospective employees.

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‎Ihendu also appreciated the prompt issuance of certificates of participation and expressed gratitude to the Polytechnic Management for approving the programme, which she said offered students valuable exposure beyond the confines of academic coursework.

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‎The training forms part of ongoing efforts by Jobberman Nigeria and the Mastercard Foundation to address youth unemployment by equipping young people with the competencies required to secure meaningful employment and contribute productively to national development. more