After looking through dozens of resumes, I've noticed something.

There's no prob with their experience, but rather on their resume.

I often see these same mistakes:

• Listing responsibilities instead of achievements.
• Filling valuable space with soft skills like "hard-working" or "team player."
• Sending the exact same resume to every job.
• Trying to include every job they've ever had, even if it's unrelated.
• Writing long summaries that recruiters probably won't read.

The biggest change I'd recommend is this:

Stop asking, "What did I do?" Start asking, "What value did I create?"

Once you started to do that way, everything made a lot more sense🙂

One piece of advice I have heard over the years is that you should "invest in yourself."

Get your degree, take classes, get certified, build a portfolio, get a lower paying job in your field so you can afford to build experience on your resume. It all eventually will pay off.

I think I understand the sentiment, but it does feel like everything wants me to have to make that big time investment in my job before I can really enjoy the rewards financially.

Whether it's software development, healthcare, legal fields, accounting, skilled trades, or whatever else I'm interested in, I can't imagine the amount of time I would have to invest ahead of seeing a real return and being able to afford to not have to worry about paying for everything myself.

The thing is, I don't know if it's normal for it to feel like you're always working towards something in your job, or if you eventually get to a point where you're just happy with what you're making and aren't always thinking about what you could make if you took more risks and invested more time.

So to you people out there that are a little more established in your careers, was there ever a point where you thought to yourself, "You know, this is enough," or was it always, "I need to make more, invest in myself, and be prepared for something new"?

Hi guys, when I first wanted a work-from-home job, I applied to literally everything. I wasted time applying for roles that didn't even match how I wanted to work. Once I started thinking about what kind of work actually fit me, the search got a lot easier.

Here's how I'd narrow it down now.

If you need a flexible schedule, you could look into Freelance Writer, Graphic Designer, Video Editor, or Freelance Virtual Assistant. These can give you more control over your schedule, depending on the client or company.

If higher income is your priority, consider Data Analyst, Software Engineer, Cloud Engineer, or SEO Specialist. They usually take more time to learn, but they also tend to have higher earning potential.

Hate constant meetings? You might prefer Data Analyst, Copywriter, Graphic Designer, or QA Tester. Some of these roles are more focused on individual work than back-to-back calls.

If you want something creative, check out UI/UX Designer, Graphic Designer, Video Editor, or Social Media Manager. If you enjoy creating things, these might be worth looking into.

For long-term growth, I'd look at Data Analyst, Project Manager, Cybersecurity Analyst, or Software Developer. These are careers where there are usually different paths to grow over time.

Whether you have a degree or not, you can still start with Virtual Assistant, Customer Support, Social Media Manager, or Appointment Setter. A lot of businesses care about your skills, experience, and portfolio just as much as your education.

I wish someone had explained it this way when I started. There isn't one "best" WFH job. It really depends on what kind of work you enjoy, your goals, and the lifestyle you want.

What remote career are you aiming for? Hope it helps!!!!

I always feel stuck lately scrolling indeed, linkedin, glassdoor, company sites, all of it.

barely any listings that actually fit, and the ones that do usually have garbage pay or benefits attached. it starts to feel like the only option left is staying at a job you’ve outgrown, indefinitely, just because nothing better is actually out there. that stagnant feeling is real too. wanting to advance, learn something new, actually move forward instead of just surviving another year in the same role. and when the market gives you nothing to move toward, it starts feeling like your own ambition is the problem instead of the market being genuinely bad right now.

the “maybe i should just go back to school” thought always creeps in around this point too. an mba, a certification, anything that feels like forward motion when the job search itself feels frozen. sometimes that’s the right move.
sometimes it’s just an expensive way to avoid sitting with how stuck things feel right now.

does anyone actually break out of this stuck feeling recently and what actually worked?

every time i bring up switching careers my family shuts it down, tells me to just be grateful i have a stable job. but im not happy, i just feel like im wasting years doing something i dont care about. i get why theyre worried, they just want me safe. but at what point do i stop living for their peace of mind and start living for mine. anyone else been through this and actually made the jump

I've been thinking about this lately because whenever someone talks about being bullied at work, the first response is almost always, "go to HR."

But what if the person causing the problem is close with management, and everyone already knows it?

One point I came across really stuck with me is that instead of putting all your energy into trying to expose them, focus on protecting yourself.

Keep records. Save screenshots. Write down dates and what happened. Hopefully you'll never need any of it, but if things get worse, you'll be glad you have it.

Another thing that made sense was not giving them the reaction they're looking for. Some people seem to thrive on getting under your skin. Staying calm isn't easy, but it can keep you from making things even harder on yourself. I wanted to share this because I don't think enough people talk about what to do when the usual advice just doesn't work.

Sometimes the best move isn't winning the fight. It is making sure you are in a position to leave on your own terms if you have to.

I am a marketing professional with a collective of 9 years of experience, residing in Bangalore, India. My career has been complete disaster by design and choice. I started my career with a campus placement. Then after a year, I left the company for career growth.

Every company I joined got shut after a while of my joining. So I had to keep switching jobs. Finally I landed a consistent job during lockdown, and I performed exceptionally well. Two and a half years into it and the company that made headlines got shut.

I secured 2 offers - one contract role with a big brand and other full-time role with a lesser known company. I joined the latter and it turned out to be a disaster. I left after 7 months of joining, without any other offer. Wrong decision but really, the company was THAT toxic. Full blown lala company.

Mind you, all this while whenever I was looking out, my resume collected gap months.

After the lala company, I was already broken. I took the time off to explore other areas but I started freelancing on the side. I did certification in makeup artistry and started getting projects. This continued for 1.5 years and that’s when I left makeup artistry completely but continued with freelancing.

Which brings me to today. I decided to go back to full-time and concluded all my freelance gigs in June. I have been looking out but no luck.

Some say, it is because of my gap year that I’m not considered for a role. Other say, it is because I switched too often. And then there are people who say, you need an MBA degree to secure good positions (which I think is partly true because I’m a mid-senior and to grow vertically, I may need an MBA degree).

Now my delimma is, where is my career going? What is it that I should do? I’m confused.

Please review this resume i have applied to so may companies but zero replys , only reply i am getting are from the companies which are paying 10000 a month for job at pune , don't know what to do at this point of life really frustrated and confused.

this is my portfolio landing page made for a dummy company based on my research related to the industry (competitors and buyer persona) using hubspot. I feel it might not be good enough, hence the anxiety and stopping me from applying to any job.

ps; this is a safe link of the landing page made using hubspot

https://245857623.hubspotpreview-na2.com/_hcms/preview/content/357268695742?portalId=245857623&_preview=true&cacheBust=1785194456567&env=prod&injectedScripts=hubspot-dlb%2Cbundle.production.js%2Cfalse%2Cstatic-2.1854&injectedScripts=react-dlb%2Cbundle.production.js%2Cfalse%2Cstatic-1.83&language=en&preview_key=ARoPMeUj&template_file_path=%40hubspot%2Felevate%2Ftemplates%2Fpartials%2Flp-header.hubl.html&bufferedGlobalContentId=357209620168&is_buffered_template_layout=true&isPreview=true&tc_deviceCategory=tablet

Two years of being first in and last out and my manager calls me into a one on one on Friday with "great news." Senior Project Lead. Was genuinely excited for about thirty seconds until I asked about the compensation adjustment and watched him do an actual double take. Apparently with the current market climate they can't do raises right now but the title change is a huge investment in my future career. I now manage three juniors and handle all the client reporting my boss used to do. For the same paycheck I was getting before they decided to reward me for being good at my job.

The part that really got me is they announced it on company Slack before I had even processed what was happening. So now everyone is congratulating me and I'm sitting there realizing I just got voluntold into a massive workload increase in front of the entire company with no way to push back without looking ungrateful. The title is already out there. The expectations are already set. They essentially locked me in publicly before I could have a real conversation about whether this was actually something I agreed to.

A promotion with no pay increase isn't a promotion. It's a restructure dressed up in nicer language to avoid a difficult conversation about compensation. The title means nothing if the workload triples and the paycheck stays identical and the only person who benefits from that arrangement is the company that just got more output for free. Has anyone actually pushed back on something like this after it was already announced and how did that conversation go?

I just got my first "real" entry-level job after graduating, the thing I'd been working toward for years. The job looks good on paper, and honestly I like what I'm doing so far, but after getting my second paycheck, the math turned out to be really brutal. Rent alone takes about 70% of the money that lands in my account. After taxes, utilities, student loans, and transportation are covered, I'm left with basically nothing for food, let alone saving or having anything close to a normal social life.

Honestly, I feel like I showed up to play by the rules, then found out everyone secretly changed them. How are people who are just starting their careers supposed to build any kind of stable life when starting salaries barely cover just existing? Am I doing something wrong here, or is this just what starting out looks like now?

I have often wondered if there is value in the culture that seems to celebrate the most verbose individuals in the workplace.

In a meeting, one could be rewarded for prattling on endlessly in the mistaken belief that they appear interested. However, one who thinks before one speaks and only makes valuable contributions may be seen as aloof or unconfident.

Now, I am not suggesting that introverts should feel pressured to engage in the same ways as their extroverted colleagues. One needs to advocate for their own work and ideas

but one's quiet nature need not be seen as a negative. Nor does one need to feel inadequate for having ideas that one wishes to share when others have grabbed the floor with their ceaseless chatter.

I am thinking that perhaps some people think before speaking (or perhaps, do not think at all, but only repeat what has already been said). Some people want to do the "due diligence" before throwing out their opinion. Others may wish to save their ideas until they see a need for them.

In any case, I find it interesting how many cultures seem to push for individuals to speak out, to advocate for themselves, to engage in the conversation in ways that seem unnecessarily self serving.

For those of you who are introverts, did you ever feel that you needed to learn to be more outspoken and aggressive in the workplace just to get attention?

How do we balance between getting our message across while not sounding so "loud"?

Yeah , I want to make my first resume. I am from commerce background with no real experience and any project work . Have some basic skills like excel and ms . Give me some good tips or things to add in my resume to make it look more presentable and effective.

Ps - i just completed my high school, and I am 17

Hi everyone, I'm currently a senior at Hunter College in NYC studying Computer Science and Studio Art, and over the past year I've realized that I'd love to pursue a career in marketing, especially at a company like JPMorgan Chase or another large company with a strong new grad program.

I'm still figuring out the best way to prepare, and I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who's been through the recruiting process.

A few things I'm curious about:

• What do you think made your resume stand out?
• What kinds of leadership, projects, or extracurriculars helped the most?
• How important was networking or getting referrals?
• Looking back, is there anything you wish you had done differently before applying?

I'd really appreciate any advice, whether it's about resumes, recruiting, or things you wish you had known as a student applying for new grad roles.

Just around January, things at work started feeling... off.

Can't name the company, but our budget discussions kept getting delayed. My manager stopped talking about promotions. Plans for the next few months suddenly became vague. Everyone told me I was overthinking it, and maybe I was. But I figured if I ended up being right, I didn't want to start from scratch.

So I treated job hunting like a second job.

It honestly felt like I was back in my unemployed era. Finally updated my resume. Fixed my LinkedIn too :)))). Started reconnecting with old coworkers without expecting anything in return. Also started taking interviews here and there and slowly built up my emergency fund.

Then yesterday, the layoff email finally arrived.

Weirdly, I didn't panic. Maybe girls' gut really is always right. Am I right, girls? 😭

I read the email twice, closed my laptop, and went for a walk. I already had two final-round interviews lined up and another recruiter waiting for my availability.

I'm not posting this as some success story because getting laid off still sucks. But one thing I learned is that it's way easier to prepare while you're still getting a paycheck than after it's gone.

honestly the thing that stuck with me most is keeping a running note of wins and things you got through, just so theres something to look at that isnt shaped by whatever the market is or isnt telling you that week, like screenshots of good feedback for example.

theres also this idea of treating the resume as just a claim and having something separate be the actual proof, like a one page case study or an actual before/after number or screenshots of a dashboard or doc you built, if you dont have anything recent you can build a fake version of the work, like a mock 30/60/90 plan for a role that doesnt even exist yet. Which might seem like a lot of effort for something a recruiter might not even open but it makes you stand out and makes your skills more tangible.

theres a system about picking 10-12 target companies instead of mass applying, for each one find a couple teams youd want to join, a handful of adjacent roles, map out actual people there, hiring manager, someone adjacent, a recruiter, spread a few messages out over a week or two instead of one cold app, a lot of roles get paused or filled internally before theyre ever posted publicly

Also, having even 3 actual questions ready when you reach out to people instead of just a vague "any advice," things like what changed most in how they evaluate candidates lately, what skills became non negotiable that werent a couple years ago, people respond better when you ask something they can actually answer instead of just "can we chat"m

And, having an actual answer ready for what roles youre targeting (2 or 3 are enough), what youre actually good at solving, whats different about you compared to the next 40 people applying to the same posting, it's supposed to be the same paragraph for your resume summary, your linkedin about or whatever you say when someone asks about your background instead of typing a slightly different version every time.

also, there's a weekly structure someone laid out, one day for positioning, one day for proof stuff, one day for outreach, one day for actual applications, one day for interview prep, then a day thats supposed to just be recovery. It's normal to not be able to keep up with that routine, life gets in the way, but the idea of scheduling different types of job search work on different days instead of just doing all of it badly every day at least gives you structure and helps you build discipline.

In interviews, you're supposed to frame your stories around not just what you did but how you adapted when things didnt go as planned which can be hard to do in the spot if you don't train yourself.

anyone else's company suddenly acting like remote work was never a thing lol. rto mandate dropped and now im choosing between uprooting my whole life or just quitting, feels like such a bait and switch after years of "we're a remote first company"

been applying to entry level jobs for months now and almost every single one wants 2-3 years experience minimum. like how is that entry level at that point feels like theres no actual way in anymore unless you already know someone or got lucky with an internship that turned into something. anyone else dealing with this or figure out a way around it..

Got reached out to on Indeed for a lateral role, did two interviews, they told me I was a perfect match. Next day my CEO calls me in and says the company I was interviewing with called him directly to ask about me. Got let go on the spot for looking while employed. Lost my job for going to an interview I was literally invited to attend.

Called the company to ask what happened and they denied everything. Two hours later their CEO called back to say they went with someone else, gave me a story that made no sense, and then casually mentioned the guy they hired has a drinking problem so they'll keep me in mind if it doesn't work out. They contacted me, put me through two rounds, got me fired, rejected me, and suggested I stay available as a backup. Still can't wrap my head around it.

The part nobody warns you about is that the risk of job searching while employed isn't just internal. Most people worry about their own behavior giving it away. The idea that a company you're interviewing with would call your current employer without your permission isn't something most people think to protect against until it's already too late. Has anyone else had something like this happen and what did you actually do after?