Writing
Practical writing on preparing for interviews, why good CVs get filtered out before a human reads them, and the engineering behind an interviewer that stays quiet while you think.
Fifty-eight per cent of companies now screen applications with AI, up from thirty-five per cent a year ago. That changes what a CV is for, and it is not the thing most advice still optimises.
ReadForty-five per cent of HR professionals admit their company posts roles it has no intention of filling. If you have been through four rounds and heard nothing, the problem may not be your answers.
ReadThe last two minutes of an interview are the only part you control completely. Most candidates hand them back. One question changes what the room thinks you are.
ReadSilent rehearsal feels like preparation and is not. Reading your answer builds recognition; saying it builds retrieval. The interview only ever tests the second one, and the gap between them is where good candidates lose.
ReadYou get one bit of information back — yes or no — three weeks late, with nothing attached to tell you which part went wrong. That is not a hiring problem. It is why twenty applications teaches you nothing.
ReadMost advice argues about which side should say a number first. The expensive mistake happens earlier, when you answer a scoping question as though it were a test of nerve.
ReadPast a certain length the interviewer stops assessing what you know and starts assessing whether you can tell what matters. Almost nobody finds out where that line sits until it has already cost them.
Read"Do you have any questions for us?" is not the polite exit. It is the last thing they will remember, it is the only part of the hour you control completely, and most people answer it by saying no.
ReadIt is the only question you are guaranteed to be asked, it is scored before you realise scoring has started, and almost everyone answers it by narrating their CV backwards.
ReadThe same CV that reads as complete and professional in Dubai marks you as an outsider in Chicago. Here is what each market actually expects, and why nobody ever tells you.
ReadKnowing something and being able to say it under pressure are different skills. We train the first obsessively and the second never — then wonder why it collapses the one time it's tested.
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