Career development

Billy Whitcomb

6d

Hey! I had two interviews at the same company and both seemed to go fine. But then their HR person called and said they’re not moving forward with me because of a couple of my social media posts. Apparently they think I look “inappropriate” in them (even though there’s honestly nothing like that).
So I’m wondering, is this even normal? Photos from a party are my own business. Why does a company... think it gets a say in my personal life?

more

5

Yahaya Ibrahim
4h
𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡𝑠 𝑀𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑇𝑜 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑀𝑦 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑆𝑡𝑦𝑙𝑒 𝑀𝑦 𝑅𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠
IRADUKUNDA Christian
1d
everything we post on social medias are our own business, but when we post them they are no longer private they become public to society.

Vronwyn Su

Career development

1mo

Yesterday I went to an interview for a junior economist position. They offered me to work for a month or two for free like an internship, and then, if a vacancy opens up, they might hire me.
Is this some kind of scam? The company seems respectable, but I don’t understand why they’re holding interviews if there isn’t an actual job available.
Would you agree to something like that?

11

AO Jordan
6h
Consult and employment attorney - this sounds like bait and switch.
Also we need to pay our interns. Otherwise only people who have some other means... to support themselves get the benefits of this time of inside experience.
Run away. They are not honoring the terms they advertised. more
Steward Tony Pacheco
1mo
You Should Have Gotten A Call From HR Or The Interviewing Manager With An Offer. Then If You Accept The Terms Of The Offer, A Start Date Could Be... Acknowledged By Both Sides. This Is “The Basics” That Can Be Done.

How Does A Sales Manager Close A Deal Or Hire Without Proper Procedure? more

Brianna Hollister

Career development

3d

A young, attractive woman just joined our team and immediately started dating a guy from IT. I get it, she’s young and has a personal life. But she basically doesn’t work. She’s always on her phone or disappearing, and when she does do something, it’s full of mistakes.
We’re the ones getting in trouble from management because of this. Now we’re not sure, should we just keep an eye on her work... ourselves, or tell the boss this can’t keep going?

more

6

Jullie Wright
7h
If one is not responsible for a subordinate, why taking the fall for a subordinate. Especially, if management is blanketing the complaints and... corrections on the team. Retraining is an option. more
IRADUKUNDA Christian
1d
i understand that but give her advice about dating in business after understanding her attitudes, habits, personalities, show her support in business... activities so that she may understand that business requires friendship among workers not dating. tell her difference between dating, friendship in business. more

Career development

1w

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

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

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

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

Here are edited excerpts of our recent conversation:

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

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

What are the biggest challenges of virtual presentations?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4

BENEDICT OCHIENG
1
12h
Great sharing
1
Varaidzo Mavetera
5d
Many thanks for sharing

Career development

23h

I moved to the US from India. Here's how I landed a job at Microsoft after first misunderstanding the Big Tech hiring process.

He suggests tech hopefuls build a public presence and continually develop skills to stand out.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rishab Jolly, a 37-year-old senior product manager at Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington. Business Insider has verified Jolly's employment history with documentation. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Before moving to the US... in 2015, I studied engineering and computer science in India, where I worked as both a software quality tester and an engineer.

I was always interested in the business side of technology, so I left my job in India to pursue an MBA at the University of Arizona. My goal was to gain business acumen to complement my engineering background. I saw firsthand how much innovation takes place in the US and how many opportunities exist to work on cutting-edge products, which inspired me to build my career here.

One of the most valuable parts of the MBA program was its partnerships with Big Tech companies. As part of the curriculum, representatives from Microsoft, Amazon, and Google brought projects to campus.

Students formed teams, worked on deliverables, and were graded by company representatives. In 2016, I was team lead on a Microsoft project, and we did an excellent job. That gave me a chance to network and to demonstrate my skills to an actual Microsoft product manager.

I applied to about 200 jobs, sending the same generic résumé without referrals. I received only three calls back and passed two interviews, but both offers were subsequently rescinded: one company considered my visa too risky without a STEM extension, and another cited budgetary reasons.

I needed to secure a job within 60-90 days after graduation, or I would be forced to return to India. I ran out of money, asked a friend if I could crash on their couch, and felt a constant sense of anxiety.

During that time, I stayed in touch with the Microsoft contact I'd met through my MBA project. When an opening came up, I asked if he would refer me.

He agreed, and I rewrote my résumé to match the specific role. The hiring manager liked my application, called me in, and I got a shot. That referral and tailoring my résumé made all the difference.

I was hired by Microsoft in July 2017 and started as a product manager. I became a senior product manager in 2021.

First, you have to get the interview, and second, you have to pass it. For the first step, referrals are critical. Big Tech companies receive tens of thousands of résumés every month. A referral can push yours to the top of the stack.

To prepare for interviews, I relied heavily on mock interviews. I reached out to peers who had been in the same boat and asked them to test me. They helped me refine my storytelling, practice answering metrics-driven questions, and pinpoint areas for improvement.

When I finally interviewed at Microsoft, the feedback I received was that my stories were authentic and clearly based on real experiences. That authenticity resonated far more than rehearsed answers pulled from the internet.

In today's tech world, showcasing your skills outside work or school, whether on LinkedIn, GitHub, or through personal projects, demonstrates passion and initiative.

I started posting more consistently on LinkedIn during the pandemic. I shared lessons from my career, thoughts on product management, and observations about the industry. I wasn't trying to "build a following," I just focused on topics that genuinely resonated with me.

Over time, those posts resonated with others, and a community naturally formed around them. The growth happened gradually and organically, simply because people connected with the ideas and conversations.

Recruiters notice when you go beyond the curriculum to learn new tools or contribute to open-source projects. In a fast-changing industry where AI and new technologies emerge every six months, demonstrating your ability to adapt and self-learn is as important as the content of your résumé.

While a small percentage of jobs may prefer an MBA, I know successful product managers who came from accounting, English literature, or completely different areas. Microsoft values diverse backgrounds because innovation thrives when teams bring fresh perspectives.

Even with this knowledge, I would still pursue an MBA because it was not just about academics; it was also about gaining practical experience. It provided me with exposure to new perspectives, helped me transition into product management, and connected me with mentors and peers who have shaped my career in meaningful ways.

I don't think an MBA is mandatory for everyone. It depends on your goals and whether you're looking for a career pivot, a network, or structured learning.

Visa restrictions, financial pressure, and cultural adjustments can make the experience stressful. I had moments when I felt defeated, but staying focused and working smart eventually brought everything together.

After over eight years at Microsoft, I plan to continue contributing to the technology and innovation ecosystem. I'm exploring the appropriate pathways that align with my career goals, but nothing is finalized at this time. My focus is on the work itself and continuing to grow professionally.

My advice to anyone following a similar path is straightforward: network strategically, prepare thoroughly, stay authentic, and continually build your skills and presence. Things may look uncertain now, but persistence and the right relationships can open doors you didn't think were possible. more

3

tawanda chipere
15h
Thank you, quite insightful

Career development

20h

What if we broke up Australia's monopolies? | Alex White

More than 900 leaders, campaigners and organisers subscribe to my email newsletter.

Australia has the most concentrated industries and markets, with the least competition of any developed country. This worsens inequality and hands exorbitant power to corporate executives and billionaires.

* Supermarkets: Coles and Woolworths are the most prominent examples, with a combined market share of over... 65 percent. This is significantly higher than in countries like the UK or the US.

* Airlines: The Australian airline market is dominated by Qantas and Virgin, which together control around 98 percent of domestic passenger traffic.

* Banking: The "big four" banks control the vast majority of the market, with the top two, Commbank and Westpac, controlling nearly half of all mortgage lending.

* Pharmacies: Just four companies control 50 percent of the market.

* Telecommunications: Telstra and Optus have a combined market share of over 80 percent.

* Mining: Massive multinational firms like BHP, Rio Tinto, and local billionaire owned firms like Hancock and Fortescue control substantial resource extraction in iron and gas.

* Media: Australia's print and broadcast media is the second most concentrated in the world, with News Corp, Nine Entertainment, Seven West Media and Australian Community Media controlling 84 percent of the market, and Google and Meta controlling 70 percent of the advertising market.

* Insurance: Just four companies, IAG, Suncorp, Allianz, and QBE, control 50 brands to make it seem like they don't control 75 percent of the market. Three companies, TAL, AIA, and Zurich, control 60 percent of the life insurance market.

* Port operations: Two companies, DP World and Toll Holdings, control basically all of the logistics operations at Australia's major ports.

* Share trading: The trading of shares in public companies is controlled by a for-profit company, ASX, which has an effective monopoly to set listing fees and other charges.

* Job hunting: If you want to advertise or search for a job, Seek controls 66 percent of the market, allowing it to increase fees for advertising.

* Property transactions: A single software company, Pexa, controls 80 percent of the property transactions (conveyancing) in Australia. Pexa is itself around 40 percent owned by another monopolist, Link Group, which has a near monopoly on the administrative software used by financial fund managers and superannuation funds.

Despite this -- actually, because of this -- Australia doesn't have laws that allow the Commonwealth government to break up monopolies.

Monopolies are undemocratic because they transform economic size into unaccountable political power. When corporations become massive, they cease to be just businesses and act as private governments, using their wealth to capture the state and override the public will. This creates a situation where a handful of wealthy executives make decisions that affect the entire society, like setting wages, prices, and investment strategies. The fifty brands of insurance owned by four companies create the illusion that we have free choice we can choose between Budget Direct and AAMI -- it's a mechanism of political paralysis. And they can use their size and power to block any meaningful democratic control over the economy.

The lack of competition and concentration of power allows monopolies to extract value and wealth through their sheer size or through financial engineering, rather than the genuine value of what they produced. When Coles increases its prices above inflation, that is monopolistic theft from your pocket.

They are morally corrosive because they steal the right to coordinate economic activity from ordinary people. The current legal system allows massive firms to coordinate production and prices (through mergers and internal management), yet laws in Australia (and globally) restricts collective action by workers or small producers as if it were illegal collusion. Industrial action, strikes, pickets and boycotts, are all highly restricted. The ability for small businesses or producers to coordinate is also similarly restricted. This turns workers and small companies into dependent servants of the monopolistic platforms and gatekeepers.

Economically, monopolies amplify the destructive internal logic of capitalism to pursue wealth for its own sake rather than for human need. Firms are driven by a blind compulsion to accumulate profit, which inevitably leads to inequality, unemployment, pauperisation, and environmental destruction. Monopolies are not the result of superior efficiency, but of a system designed by the monopolists to concentrate wealth. They relentlessly squeeze workers, consumers and suppliers to feed an endless cycle of accumulation that is remorselessly indifferent to actual social well-being and human needs.

Finally, monopolies are dangerous because they perpetuate the myth that the market is a "natural" force beyond our control. Dominant firms thrive on the ideology that their power is the natural, inevitable result of merit, technological progress or superior efficiency, rather than political decisions and power. However, markets are constructed by people and societies who create laws. Monopoly power is the result of specific laws that give special privileges and protections to massive corporations. Accepting monopolies as natural creates a sense of political helplessness, rather than the truth which is that we have agency to rewrite the rules and restructure the economy to serve the public interest.

Breaking up monopolies is a vital, highly effective and strategic transitional demand. It allows for a fundamental redistribution of economic and political power, and would give people and politics democratic agency over the economy. Reducing monopoly power would also enable new forms of collective action, especially in workplaces, but also in the broader economy.

A central argument for breaking up monopolies is that it challenges the capitalist monopoly on coordination. In practice, the legal right to coordinate production and set prices is concentrated in the hands of massive firms like Coles, Telstra, Microsoft, Amazon or Allianz. The two supermarkets for example have such enormous market power over its workforce, suppliers and logistics that they operate as a for-profit planned economy, no longer subject to meaningful market competition or democratic oversight.

Meanwhile, workers and small producers are atomised and heavily restricted from coordinating. Restrictions on unions and industrial action for example. Anti-collusion laws are almost entirely enforced against small or medium businesses rather than mega-corporations.

By breaking the vertical control of dominant firms, anti-monopoly reform opens the door for "horizontal collective action". This allows workers, gig workers, independent contractors, and small business owners to organise for genuine productive autonomy, while restricting coordination of massive capital holders.

Anti-monopoly laws help demonstrate that markets are structured by law and that the economy is a political construct. Neoliberalism likes to argue that market concentration and dominance is an inevitable outcome of the natural laws of capitalism -- literally "monopolies are good" and that legal reforms are either futile or actively anti-capitalist.

However, laws and societies literally make markets. There is nothing natural about them. Anti-monopoly laws help challenge the learned helplessness that underpins capitalist realism. It also breaks the "monopoly is good" ideology of the Chicago School that says that monopolies are evidence of success and are therefore moral.

It builds broad, anti-oligarchic coalitions that is practical and self-reinforcing. Although ultimately anti-monopoly laws don't fundamentally challenge the exploitation and expropriation inherent in capitalism, breaking up monopolies offers a practical way to construct a majoritarian coalition.

A strategy that unites workers' interest in autonomy with consumers' interest in fair prices and services through anti-monopoly improves material conditions for everyday people, while simultaneously reducing the real economic and political power of the monopolist oligarchs. Simply, the divide between the extractive power of corporate monopolies and everyone else is so large that there are shared material interests between workers and "normal" capitalists.

Anti-monopoly creates space for alternatives to for-profit corporations. In this way, it is a complement (not a substitute) to the other goals that the Left has, such as cooperatives and public, democratic ownership. By reducing the political and economic leverage of massive corporations, the primary blockers of other progressive reforms have less power. It is difficult to pass a wealth tax or land tax when a handful of billionaire monopolists decide to oppose it.

What about nationalisation? If the supermarket duopoly has already created a planned distribution system, why fragment them? What if we take them over and democratise them for public need? This is certainly the program that Chifley proposed in 1945 for the banks:

based on the conviction that the Government must accept responsibility for the economic condition of the nation ... the Government has decided to assume the powers which are necessary over banking policy to assist it in maintaining national economic health and prosperity.

At the top of this post, I noted that anti-monopoly is a highly effective and strategic transitional demand. As we saw with Chifley, there was an immediate and unprecedented reaction to oppose nationalisation. A similar dynamic occurred under Rudd when the mining industry opposed the most timid of super-profit taxes on the industry's massive windfall gains. Lacking a powerful, militant union movement and civil society to force the issue, the Australian state cannot simply choose to nationalise major corporations.

Ultimately, we must not advocate for breaking up monopolies because we love competition. Instead, we want to give real economic and political power to everyday people, to workers and to communities.

The choice is stark: we either break the monopolies, or we accept our status as their serfs. more

Career development

23h

Beyond Lines of Code: Using AI to Understand How Engineers Actually Work

Megan Winson

Career development

1d

Hey everyone! Our HR person at work is constantly sticking her nose into everyone’s relationships, arguments, and conflicts. She’s always trying to “sort things out”, even though she’s not a psychologist or anything. It’s honestly really annoying.
How do I tell her that I can handle my own issues and decide for myself who I want to be friends with and who I’d rather just keep things neutral... with?

more

Michelle Willis
1d
One of the places I worked had a similar situation, and I avoided her as much as possible. HR is there to protect the company and saying something... always makes it worse more
Richard Bernard Gudoi Gid'Agui
1d
Has she got wprkplans and or measurable out puts that are performance based

Adetola AjaoOjo

Career development

4d

Life teaches us lessons in unexpected ways. Sometimes roles change, doors close, and silence replaces activity—but growth never stops. I remain grateful for every experience and open to new opportunities to learn, serve, and contribute. The journey continues

5

IRADUKUNDA Christian
1d
in life we obeserve many things, positivity and negativity but always be useful rather than being useless.
Willis Alford
1
4d
As a senior actively involved in involved in several aspects of a startup business, there are two ways to go in life. To "go" or to "grow. To just go... on daily or to "grow", to learn new things, explore new avenues new pathways. I want to "grow" and "squeeze everything " out of life. Life's to short to just "go" daily through life. And I might add, God has a purpose foe each of us! Really!! more
1

Adetola AjaoOjo

Career development

4d

I felt disengaged from my role as PMTCT Focal Person in my office because I was given almost no tasks to manage. I tried everything I could to engage myself. How should I approach my boss to request a different role?

3

IRADUKUNDA Christian
1d
give it time. be patient with that, if you like it continue with it, if you dont like it, ask for another alternative role.
Sheila Chemutai
4d
Prevention of mother to child transmission

Obitech Invents

Career development

6d

Honestly its really heart breaking 💔 😪

for over 12 months now i have been hunting for a Job as Full-stack Software Engineer still no luck 😑 . I really don't know what am doing wrong or where am getting it all wrong.

A few couple of months ago I was able to scure a good $10k/mo by AWS as a Software ll. But the offer withdrawn due to HB-1 Visa support.

Honestly, am so excited to... collab and work eh—but I have been at home for a while and i feel like am getting a little bit dusty 🙃 .

Although i haven't been idle, i have had a couple of cool project i have launched with one AI based Fitness App—although this was a Freelance gig 😅.

I can't wait to get back in the game 😩 more

2

Horace WS
2d
Was an Azure badge or similar badge a required with the previous AWS job?
1 reply
arnold ntimani
6
3d
I totally get how frustrating this feels. I actually saw a story on Facebook about a recent grad who couldn’t get a job because he didn’t have... experience. Instead of waiting around, he started documenting his coding projects and skills online to stay relevant and fresh. When his current employer invited him to an interview, he even shared a write-up of how he solved a problem they gave him, and the interviewer was really impressed. He ended up landing a senior role because of it.

Maybe you can try something similar showcasing your projects, AI app work, and problem-solving process could really make you stand out. more
11 reply

Career development

1d

6 tips on how to prepare for a job interview in your 50s, 60s, and beyond - Rest Less

Before you head off for your interview, it's important to do some background research in advance. Knowledge is power, and you can never underestimate the confidence you'll get from learning more about the company, its values, its specific roles, etc.

Most large employers' websites can offer prospective employees a treasure trove of information. For example, a quick look at the Sainsbury's website... and you'll find their values, vision, what skills they're looking for, and some insights into what it's like to work there. All of this is in addition to the information provided on a basic job spec about the role you're applying for.

Most companies make this information freely available on their website and therefore expect you to have done some homework before your interview.

You can expect to be asked about why you want the job and why you want to work for that company specifically. So it's helpful to use the information available on a company's website to boost your confidence and help you prepare some strong responses. more

Tim Jacobs

Career development

4w

Do you know what is the "coffee test" in a job interview?
They offer you a coffee. Then they watch what you do with the cup.
What they’re looking for: Do you bring the cup back, ask where to put it, or leave it on the table (Oops, no).
It’s meant to reveal things like: basic courtesy, culture fit, and how you handle the tiny, unspoken stuff.
I hope, you got now what to do with the cup.

14

world connect limted
1d
Hhhhhh i drink a coffe but not in interview i'm already done in BUSSINES Administration i'm looking a job
Phindile Mahlangu
5d
The interviewing agencies usually askvif you do want the tea that is actually the tea test and I can say is part of the queries within an interview... session. It is for the candidate whether he or she respond with a yes or no. Is not really a big deal you are not enforce to drink it. more

Career development

1d

Can Dating Apps Help You Land Your Next Job?

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It's one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

In today's job market, submitting a résumé can feel like tossing a message into a digital void where it's instantly judged, and often rejected, by an algorithm that doesn't care about your personality, potential, or rent.

With... AI-powered hiring tools acting as bouncers at the club of employment, job seekers are getting creative. Very creative.

Some have decided that if networking is the only way in, they might as well swipe for it.

According to a new survey from ResumeBuilder.com, one in three people has used a dating app to help find a job.

Nearly one in ten said that was their main reason for being there. Romance? Optional. Referrals? Mandatory.

The strategy is surprisingly calculated. 66% of respondents said they searched for people working at companies they wanted to join, while 75% intentionally matched with users in roles they hoped to land themselves.

As ResumeBuilder's chief career advisor, Stacie Haller put it, networking is "the only way people are rising above the horror show that the job search is today."

And, awkwardly enough, it works. 88% of job-focused daters said they successfully made professional connections.

That often meant advice, mentorship, referrals, or interviews, but 37% went all the way and got a job offer.

In a truly modern twist, 38% also said the professional connection became physical, proving that sometimes you can have it all. The rise of AI in hiring is a big reason for this behavior.

Companies rely on automated résumé scanners to handle floods of applications driven by mass-apply culture on platforms like LinkedIn.

These systems are fast and cheap, but also notorious for bias and false negatives. Even highly qualified candidates can be rejected before a human ever sees their name.

That's where referrals come in, often the only reliable way to bypass the algorithm.

But networking favors people who already have connections, reinforcing inequality, a trend noted by Cornell professor John McCarthy of Cornell University.

For those without built-in networks, dating apps are becoming the workaround. While Tinder and Bumble are the most commonly used, some platforms lean into the crossover.

Raya lets users search by industry, and Grindr reports that roughly a quarter of its users network professionally. Love may be dead, but apparently, job leads are thriving.

Follow us on Flipboard, Google News, or Apple News google-news Related TopicsAIdatingNews Ronil Thakkar

Ronil is a Computer Engineer by education and a consumer technology writer by choice. Over the course of his professional career, his work has appeared in reputable publications like MakeUseOf, TechJunkie, GreenBot, and many more. When not working, you'll find him at the gym breaking a new PR. more

Career development

1d

CEO Scott Tannen asks this question to catch unprepared candidates: 7 cues that quietly tell employers you walked in casually - The Times of India

In a hiring market crowded with polished résumés and rehearsed answers, effort has become the real differentiator.That is the blunt message from Scott Tannen, founder and CEO of Boll & Branch, who has personally interviewed and hired hundreds across roles ranging from interns to C-suite executives. Speaking to CNBC, Tannen says he always begins interviews with the same, deceptively simple... question: What do you know about Boll & Branch?It is not a warm-up. It is a filter. "I think when people have not done their homework, that is the biggest red flag," Tannen has been quoted saying in the CNBC interview. "You don't have to know every answer, but you have to have done your homework," he added. Tannen does not expect encyclopaedic recall, but he does expect signs of effort -- time spent reading, understanding the business, and thinking about how the company works. "If they can't at least give me back what's on our Wikipedia page, we probably are not starting off on the best foot," he shared. What Tannen is really diagnosing here is not ignorance, but indifference. In an era when candidates have unlimited access to information, failing to learn even the basics about a prospective employer signals something deeper: A casual attitude towards opportunity. The question works because it collapses pretence. Confidence, charm and fluency cannot compensate for the absence of preparation. Within minutes, the employer knows whether a candidate has shown up curious, or merely hopeful.And this is where most interview advice quietly falls apart. Candidates obsess over answers -- how to explain weaknesses, how to negotiate salary, how to sound passionate -- but neglect the far more consequential mistake: Walking into a conversation without context. Employers are not testing memory; they are testing intent. Here are 7 ways you are inadvertently telling employers that you're not serious.Saying a company is "into tech," "does consulting," or "makes products" is not neutrality, it is a tell. It signals that the candidate has skimmed, not studied. When you cannot articulate what a company actually builds, sells, or stands for -- even in broad strokes -- you are telling the interviewer that this organisation could have been swapped with ten others. Employers hear that as a lack of intent, not a lack of information."I'm excited to learn." "I'm looking for growth." "I want to challenge myself."These lines are not wrong. They are just empty.Tannen's emphasis on preparation exposes how quickly employers now discount generic enthusiasm. Passion that is not anchored to the specific business, product, or role sounds rehearsed, not sincere. It tells the interviewer you prepared for interviews, not for this interview.Curiosity only counts when it has a direction.Many candidates can describe what they want to do. Fewer can explain why the role they are applying for exists inside the company.When asked about responsibilities, candidates often repeat the job description or talk about skills they hope to gain. What employers listen for instead is whether the candidate understands the problem the role is meant to solve. A failure to do so quietly signals surface-level preparation.Walking in without that understanding suggests you have not thought seriously about what you are signing up for.Lack of questions is not politeness. It is passivity.Equally revealing are questions that sound interchangeable: "What does success look like?" or "What is the culture like?" These are acceptable starting points, but when they are the only questions asked, they reveal a candidate who has not engaged deeply enough to go further.In the CNBC interview, Tannen adds that preparation is not limited to reading up about the company. It also means walking into the interview with questions of your own, along with confidence, enthusiasm for the role and a clear sense of what you hope to achieve by taking it.Tannen's insistence on questions underscores a shift: Employers now read questions as evidence of preparation. No questions -- or default ones -- signal that the candidate is waiting to be impressed rather than choosing deliberately.Candidates often frame interviews as extraction exercises: What they will learn, how they will grow, where this role might take them. When candidates speak only in terms of personal gain, they appear casual about contribution. Employers are not allergic to ambition. They are wary of asymmetry.Preparation shows up when a candidate has thought about reciprocity.Confidence without context is increasingly easy to spot.Candidates who speak fluently but inaccurately, or confidently but vaguely, trigger the very red flag Tannen describes. In an age of polished communication, confidence alone is no longer proof of readiness. Employers are looking for grounded assurance and confidence that rests on understanding. Charm cannot compensate for not knowing where you are.Perhaps the clearest cue of casualness is when an interview feels scripted. Candidates move mechanically from one answer to the next, rarely responding to the room, the interviewer, or the company's specifics.In his CNBC interview, Tanne shared the example of an intern who spoke about building her own brand. It stood out precisely because it was conversational, contextual and rooted in curiosity. She was not performing an interview; she was engaging with a business. That difference is immediately apparent to employers. more

David Cole

Career development

2d

I like learning new things, even though I have a job. I found a three-month course to level up my skills, but here’s the problem - I’d need to leave work an hour early twice a week. My boss is totally against it and won’t let me.
I just don’t get it, wouldn’t he want his employees to get better at their jobs? Is there any law that makes employers let people go to training?

3

Tisha Richardson
1d
Could you come in an hour earlier on the days that you need to leave early?
ELIPHASC CHISHA
1d
ELIPHASC CHISHA0m
You are all right.
In as much as the job is priority, career growth is also important.
I had a similar situation, but I asked and... told him that I will not be going out for lunch on those two days to cover for the last hour, of which he agreed.
So try that, who knows? more