Guides
Finding work
The board, alerts, Match and the market pages.
Find the employers that sponsor visas
Which employers sponsored last year, by company and role, from our H-1B page. The cap, the registration window, and the one sentence to put in an application.
Get a job at a startup
Where startup roles are posted, what to ask about money before you join, and how to value an equity offer without a spreadsheet you cannot check.
Get a job with no experience
Nobody hires on potential. They hire on proof. Four ways to make proof in eight weeks, and the resume that leads with it.
Good jobs without a degree
Which roles pay well and do not require a bachelor's, how to read a degree line in a posting, and the three routes that replace it: licence, apprenticeship, proof.
How long your job search will take
The median, the long tail, and what moves a search from one to the other. Our employment page has the current figures, by age and by industry.
How to read a job posting
A posting has four parts written by three people. Which lines are the job, which are a wish list, which were written by legal, and how to tell in two minutes.
Job alerts that bring you jobs
One alert per title, a narrow query, a daily cadence, and what to do with the first week of results. Set once, read on Monday.
Spot a job scam before it costs you
Where fake postings come from, why aggregators spread them, the five checks that catch nearly all of them, and what to do if you already sent money or a document.
What remote really means in a posting
Five kinds of remote hide behind one word. How to tell which one a posting means, where the limits are stated, and which industries hire remote most.
Where job listings really come from
Every posting starts in one hiring system. Everything else is a copy with a delay. How the chain works, which copy to trust, and why a listing goes stale.
Where the entry-level jobs are
Why an entry-level posting asks for three years, where the real ones are, which requirements bend, and how to count coursework, projects and part-time work.
Which copy of a posting to apply through
One job, six listings, three apply buttons. How to find the employer's own posting, when a copy is fine, and the two cases where the copy hurts you.
Why you are not getting interviews
The search is a funnel with three stages, and each one fails in its own way. The numbers that tell you which, and the one fix for each.
Your job search after 50
The data on longer searches, the resume changes that help, the ones that look like hiding, the law on age, and the channel that works better with age, not worse.
Your job search plan
The plan most people make lasts one week. This one is built around the drop-off, with a target, three channels, a weekly count and a Friday review.
Your new weekly job search routine
A fixed week with time boxes for searching, tailoring, sending and following up, and a Friday hour that reads four numbers and changes one thing.
Applying
The resume, tailoring, cover letters and the forms.
Apply through Ashby
A one page form on the company's job board, a resume that autofills, custom questions, and a confirmation. Where it differs from Greenhouse and Lever, and what to check before you send.
Apply through Greenhouse
One page, a resume upload that fills the fields, custom questions, the voluntary questions at the end, and the email that confirms it. What to check before you send.
Apply through iCIMS
An account per employer, a multi-step form, a resume parse into profile fields, and a dashboard that shows status. The common errors, and what to check before you send.
Apply through Lever
No account, one page, a resume that fills the fields, the employer's question cards, and what happens after. The common failures, and what to check before you send.
Apply through SmartRecruiters
A resume that prefills the form, screening questions, an optional profile, and a candidate portal that shows status. What to check, and the common fixes.
Apply through Taleo
The oldest form still in wide use: an account per employer, many steps, a parse that fails on anything but plain text, and a session that expires. The fixes, and what to check before you send.
Apply through Workable
A single page with autofill, yes or no screening questions that end an application, an optional profile, and a confirmation. The common fixes, and what to check before you send.
Apply through Workday
An account, five pages, a resume parse that mangles dates, a candidate home that shows status, and the errors everyone hits. The fixes, and what to check before you send.
Buzzwords to cut from your resume
Twenty words that have stopped meaning anything, the plain replacement for each, and the one test that catches every new one.
Can AI apply to jobs for you
What a tool can fill, what it cannot answer, what the employer sees, and the three things a tool that applies for you must show you before it sends anything.
Check a free resume builder first
Most free builders charge at the download. The checks that find out in two minutes: the export, the ownership, the parse, the privacy, the template, the edit, the price.
CV or resume
In most of the world the words mean the same two-page document. In the US and in academia they do not. The difference, the academic CV, and what to send where.
Explain the gap on your resume
A gap is a question, not a verdict. Year-only dates, the one line that answers it on the resume, and the sentence for the interview, by kind of gap.
How far back your resume goes
Fifteen years in detail, everything before in a line. The rules for short roles, the one old role that still matters, and when to leave a date off.
Make your resume readable by an ATS
What a hiring system's parser needs from the file, from the vendors' own documentation. Nine rules, five myths, and the parse check on this site.
One page or two
Where the eye stops, what the second page is for, the three cases that earn it, and how to get a two-page resume onto one without losing the roles.
Pick the right resume format
Three formats, what each one is for, how a parser reads each, and why the functional format reads as hiding to the person after the parser.
Put freelance work on your resume
One heading for the freelance period, your own name or a trading name as the company, the clients as bullets, and the one line that stops it reading as a gap.
Put the right keywords in your resume
The terms a screener searches for come from the posting. How to pull them, where on the resume each one goes, and what keyword match measures and does not.
Show your transferable skills
A three-column method that maps what you did in the old role to what the new one asks for, and the bullet that proves it. The phrase "transferable skills" never appears on the resume.
Tailor your resume in fifteen minutes
Pick the five requirements that matter, change four things, and keep every fact true. The method by hand, then the version that takes one click.
Ten resume mistakes that cost interviews
Ten things that stop a resume at the screen, in the order a screener meets them, each with the fix. Then a proofreading pass that takes five minutes.
What an ATS does with your application
An applicant tracking system stores, sorts and routes applications. What it keeps, how a knockout question works, what a recruiter sees, and the three things it never does.
When you can change a job title
When a title can be translated, when it cannot be touched, what a background check compares, and the one format that lets you do both.
Where certifications go on your resume
Which certifications a reader notices, where on the page each kind goes, how to write one that is in progress or expired, and the ones to leave off.
Which skills go on your resume
Pick the skills from the posting, group them, say them in the posting's words, and put the evidence in a bullet. Why one line sometimes beats three columns.
Write a cover letter in four paragraphs
Four short paragraphs, under 250 words, written for the one person who reads it after the resume passed. An example, and the three openings that work.
Write a resume summary that gets read
Three sentences at the top of the page: what you do, what you are known for, what you want next. Six examples, from a first job to a director, none of them results-driven.
Write bullets that prove it
Verb, scope, result. Why most bullets stop after the verb, where the number comes from when you do not have one, and what the ATS score on this site checks for.
Write your resume section by section
Seven sections, the order a screener reads them in, what goes in each, one worked example, and the three checks before you send it anywhere.
Your career change resume
The summary that explains the move in one sentence, the bullets translated into the new field's words, a short skills block on top, and the order that makes the old career the reason.
Your first cover letter
Evidence without a job history: the project, the course, the part-time work. A four paragraph shape, a template, and a full example for a first role.
Your first resume
An education-first layout, projects and volunteering written as roles, a skills list with evidence, and the one page it fits on. A full example at the end.
Your resume after graduation
The year after graduation has its own layout: education up top with the project that matters, internships as roles, and a summary that says what you want to do first.
Your technical resume
How to group a stack so a non-engineer can read it, present projects with the stack and the result, link code that is worth opening, and write impact a screener understands.
After you apply
Tracking, follow-ups, interviews, offers and pay.
Answer any tell me about a time question
The four-part shape for a story in an interview, why the result needs a number, how long each part takes, the five stories that cover most questions, and two worked examples.
Answer the salary question
Where the number comes from, how to give a range that does not cap you, what to say at the screen and in the form, and the places where the law makes them tell you first.
Decide on the offer
What to read in the letter, how to value bonus and equity, the five questions that predict whether you will be glad in a year, how long to take, and how to accept or decline well.
Did the interview go well
The signs that mean something, the signs that mean nothing, why you cannot tell from the room, and what to do in the week after instead of reading the tea leaves.
Follow up without being a pest
When to follow up, who to write to, the three-sentence email, the one after an interview, and the point where a follow-up turns into a nuisance.
How long until you hear back
The timelines by stage and by employer size, what silence means at each point, when to follow up, and when to move the application to closed and stop waiting.
How many jobs to apply for each week
The number that comes out of the arithmetic, why volume fails, the hour each tailored application costs, and the weekly target that produces interviews.
Negotiate the offer
Why nearly every offer has room, the one ask that works, the script for the call, what to trade when the base will not move, and the two mistakes that lose an offer.
Run a mock interview that helps
Why saying answers out loud changes them, how to run a mock with a friend or alone in forty minutes, what to grade, and how to use the recording.
The thank-you email that gets read
Sent the same day, four sentences, one of which is specific to the conversation. A template, a full example, the panel version, and the mistakes that undo it.
The twelve questions you will be asked
The twelve questions that come up in nearly every interview, what each one is really asking, the shape of a good answer, and which of your five stories answers it.
Three questions to ask them
Twenty questions that only this company can answer, grouped by what you need to know, which three to pick, and the ones that cost you the room.
Track every application you send
What to record for every application, which four numbers tell you what to change, and a free tracker that keeps them for you.
What a background check looks at
What employers verify, who runs it, how long it takes, what fails it, what the law gives you when it does, and what to tell them first.
What to do after a rejection
The three kinds of rejection and what each one tells you, the one email worth sending, the ask for feedback that sometimes works, and how to keep the row from stopping the search.
Why you want to work here
The question is a reading test. One fact about the company, one about the work, and one about you, in forty seconds. Where to find the facts, and the answers that fail.
Your interview prep checklist
The four hours before an interview, in order: the posting, the company, your five stories, the questions you will ask, and the logistics that go wrong.
Your phone screen and your video interview
What a phone screen asks and how long it lasts, the video setup that takes ten minutes, the failures that happen in the first minute, and the one-page notes to keep off camera.
Your strength and your weakness
One real strength with a number, one real weakness with what you do about it, the answers that fail, and six examples of each that pass.
Your tell me about yourself answer
The question that opens most interviews is not about you. It is about whether you can talk for ninety seconds without a map. Here is the map.
Working
Changing careers, leaving a job, and the parts in between.
Change careers without starting over
The bridge role, the one skill that carries, the eight-week proof, the resume that leads with it, and where the market data says the next field is hiring.
Contract or full time
The arithmetic that compares a day rate to a salary, what the employer is buying in each, the hidden costs on both sides, and who each one suits.
Explain why you left
One sentence for a layoff, three sentences for a firing, what never to say, how the background check sees it, and how to practise the answer until it is boring.
How long to stay in a job
The two-year floor and why it exists, when leaving early is right, the pattern that reads as a flag, the pattern that reads as growth, and what the data says people do.
Quit your job well
The order of operations, the two-paragraph letter, the conversation with your manager, the counteroffer, the notice period, and how to leave so the door stays open.
See the layoff coming
The twelve signals, from the public ones in the filings and the funding data to the private ones in the calendar, and what to do in the ninety days before the announcement.
The jobs AI is least likely to take
What the data shows about which roles are shrinking and which are not, the three things that make a job hard to automate, and how to move your own work toward them.
Your job search after a layoff
The first week, the money, the one sentence about the layoff, the resume updated while the numbers are fresh, and how to run the search when the whole sector was cut at once.