Stage 01
Before you apply
Deciding where to spend the effort
7 guides
A field guide to getting hired
The hiring process, described honestly
Practical, unsentimental writing about the hiring process — how postings are written, what screeners actually check, and what happens between the application and the offer. This guide stops at the point of hire; a separate example of post-hire workforce software is available at monitask.com.
Start here
Six stages, in the order they happen
Guides are filed by where you are in the process rather than by job title, because the mechanics of a screening call are much the same whether you are applying to a warehouse or a hospital.
Stage 02
Applying
Résumés, cover letters, and the software in between
9 guides
Stage 03
Screening
The calls and tasks before anyone calls it an interview
5 guides
Stage 04
Interviewing
Structured questions and how to answer them
6 guides
Stage 05
The offer
Reading it, comparing it, negotiating it
7 guides
Stage 06
Starting the job
The first ninety days and what follows
4 guides
Most read
Four to start with
How to read a job posting
A posting is a negotiated document written by three people who disagree. Reading it that way tells you far more than reading it as a list of requirements.
A résumé built to survive a six-second skim
The first read of your résumé is not a read. It is a scan for reasons to stop, performed by someone with forty more to get through before lunch.
The recruiter screen and what it is checking
Twenty-five minutes with someone who cannot hire you but can certainly remove you. It has a checklist, and the checklist is short.
Reading an offer letter properly
The base salary is the number everyone looks at and the least negotiable part of the document. Most of what matters is in the clauses nobody reads twice.
6 stages
The site is organised by where you are in the process, not by job title.
32 guides
Each one written to be read once, before the thing it describes happens.
No accounts
Nothing to sign up for, no applications collected, no data stored.
Also worth reading
Three that come up constantly
Naming transferable skills so a stranger believes them
Career changers are told to lead with transferable skills. The problem is that the phrase describes a claim, and claims without evidence read as padding.
Behavioural questions and the shape of a good answer
Tell me about a time when. The question is scored against a rubric, and knowing the rubric is most of the advantage.
Negotiating when you have no other offer
Most negotiation advice assumes leverage you do not have. Without a competing offer you still have four things, and they are enough for a modest, reliable improvement.
Read the whole thing in order
The guides are written to be read once, before the thing they describe happens. The full index is arranged by stage, shortest first.
Open the index