Writing
Notes from building jobhunt
Occasional writing about honest job searching, useful documents, interviews, and the systems around them.
Do cover letters still matter?
When a cover letter gets read, when it does not, and why the failure mode of AI-written letters is confident filler with a subtle overclaim inside.
Behavioral interview prep for software engineers, grounded in your real work
Behavioral interviews are evidence interviews. Build an inventory of true stories, match them to who is asking, and keep every verb defensible.
Qualified but not getting interviews? Audit the funnel first
Silence after applications has several causes with different fixes. Check targeting, hard disqualifiers, evidence, parsing, and channel before you rewrite.
Re-entering the job market after a break
A career break needs a plain explanation, current evidence, and a search that does not apologize for a real life.
Interview first: your career, in your own words
A résumé is a compressed witness. A careful interview preserves the detail, uncertainty, and boundaries a truthful search needs.
Clearing the filters without inventing you
Honest résumé tailoring needs a rich factual record first. Relevance can be specific without becoming fiction.
Who makes money off your job search?
Job-search products can price anxiety instead of cost. Ask what the deliverable is, what it costs to provide, and when it ends.
When résumé and career coaching becomes a scam
Career coaching is sold to anxious buyers with weak feedback loops. Here is how to tell scoped help from dependence.
What actually changed in job searching
Online applications got cheaper, noisier, and colder. Referrals, live conversation, and keeping track of the pipeline gained value.
Preparing for a virtual interview
A practical virtual-interview setup: test the room, prepare real stories, and keep live AI out of the call.
The LinkedIn résumé scammers
The canned résumé review, the invented ATS diagnosis, and the warning signs that someone is pricing your anxiety.
What the scanner sees, what the human sees
Applicant tracking systems parse structure. Recruiters skim for relevance. A résumé has to work for both readers.
Fake jobs, fake candidates
Ghost postings and generated applications are making both sides distrust the surface. Here is the part a job seeker can control.
How to keep AI-written job applications grounded in your real experience
A practical look at profiles, red lines, fit analysis, and an advisory claim check that keep generated résumés tied to real experience.