Guide
Job search articles
Short, practical pieces on choosing better roles, tailoring with evidence, and keeping a job search sane.
Why Your CV Gets Rejected in Seconds (and How to Survive the Skim)
You spent a weekend perfecting your CV. Someone — or something — rejected it in less time than it takes to read this sentence. That's not an insult to your c...
Read article → GuideStop Applying to 100 Jobs. Do This Instead.
There's a popular theory of job hunting that goes: it's a numbers game, so send as many applications as possible. Fire off fifty a week, something will stick.
Read article → Guide"I Don't Have Numbers": How to Quantify Achievements When You Weren't Counting
Every CV guide says the same thing: quantify your achievements. Don't say you improved sales — say you grew them 32% in a year. Great advice, if you happen t...
Read article → GuideThe Hidden Job Market Is Real — Here's How to Actually Reach It
You've heard the claim: most jobs are never advertised. The exact percentage varies with whoever's telling the story, and the truth is nobody measures it rel...
Read article → GuideCareer Gaps, Job Hops and Other "Red Flags" — and How to Reframe Them Honestly
Somewhere in your career history, there's a thing you dread explaining. The eighteenmonth gap. The job that lasted five months. The sideways move that looks...
Read article → GuideShould You Even Apply? How to Score a Job's Fit Before You Waste an Evening
Here's a question almost nobody asks before starting an application: is this job actually worth applying for?
Read article → GuideYour CV Is a List of Interview Questions. Have You Read It That Way?
Most candidates prepare for interviews by googling "common interview questions" and rehearsing answers about strengths, weaknesses, and where they see themse...
Read article → GuideJob Search Burnout Is a Process Problem. Run Your Search Like a Project.
Around week six, most job searches hit the same wall. The early energy is gone. Applications have vanished into silence. Rejection emails — when they come at...
Read article → GuideDo Cover Letters Still Matter? Yes — Just Not the Way You Were Taught
Ask ten recruiters whether they read cover letters and you'll get a genuinely split room. Some never open them. Some read them only for borderline candidates...
Read article → GuideThe LinkedIn Profile That Works While You Sleep
There are two job searches running at any time. The one you do — finding adverts, sending applications — and the one done to you: recruiters searching their...
Read article → GuideSalary Negotiation for People Who Hate Negotiating
Somewhere between "we'd like to make you an offer" and "I accept," most candidates leave money on the table. Not because they negotiated badly — because they...
Read article → GuideUsing AI in Your Job Search Without Sounding Like Everyone Else's Robot
Here's the paradox of the AIera job search. The tools have never made it easier to produce a polished CV and a fluent cover letter — and recruiters have neve...
Read article → GuideReferences: The Final Hurdle Almost Nobody Prepares For
You've survived the CV sift, three interviews and a presentation. The offer is "subject to references." And now, for the first time in the entire process, th...
Read article → GuideChanging Careers? Stop Apologising and Start Translating
Every career changer writes the same first draft. It opens with an apology dressed as enthusiasm — "although my background is in hospitality, I am a fast lea...
Read article → GuideHow to Read a Job Advert (They're Not Written in English)
A job advert looks like a description of a job. It's actually three documents wearing one coat: a wish list written by a hiring manager on a busy afternoon,...
Read article → GuideGhost Jobs, Fake Recruiters and Scams: A Job Hunter's Field Guide
Some of the silence in your job search isn't about you. A meaningful slice of what's posted on job boards was never going to hire anyone — adverts for roles...
Read article → Guide"Any Questions for Us?" Is a Trick Question. Here's How to Pass It.
Every interview ends the same way. The panel closes its notes, someone smiles, and out comes the ritual line: "So — do you have any questions for us?"
Read article → GuideAfter the Interview: The 48 Hours Most Candidates Waste
The interview ends, you exhale in the car park, and the job search enters its strangest phase: the wait. Most candidates spend it doing exactly two things —...
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