Blog
One question per post, answered in the first paragraph. These are the questions people search for on the way to a job — how long a resume should be, what to say when they ask about salary, what to do in the week after a layoff, how to ask for a referral — and each post ends by saying what this site does about it, including the many times the answer is that you do not need us.
100 applications, no interviews: what to check, in order
Five things cause silence and only one of them is your resume. How to tell which is happening to you before you spend a week rewriting the wrong thing.
Reviewed 13 Aug 2026
How long should a resume be?
One page under ten years, two beyond it, and one page for every fresher. The cases where that rule bites, and how to cut in the order that costs you least.
Reviewed 13 Aug 2026
Does an ATS read tables, text boxes and headers?
Element by element: what survives extraction, what comes out scrambled, and the one that can make your phone number disappear completely. Plus the ten-second check.
Reviewed 13 Aug 2026
What is a good ATS score? (No ATS gives you one)
No applicant tracking system scores your resume out of 100 — every score you have seen came from a checker. What the number is worth, and our full rubric with its weights.
Reviewed 13 Aug 2026
How to tailor a resume to a job description in 15 minutes
Tailoring is editing, not rewriting: the summary, the order of your bullets, and the words you use for work you already did. The six-step version, and what not to do.
Reviewed 13 Aug 2026
Resume keywords: where they actually come from
There is no universal list, and the pages selling you 500 words are selling a shortcut that does not exist. How to find the terms for one posting and where to put them.
Reviewed 13 Aug 2026
How to explain an employment gap on your resume
Name it in one line, date it honestly, move on. What to write for a layoff, caregiving, health or study, the two-sentence interview answer, and what never to try.
Reviewed 13 Aug 2026
Job hopping and short stints on a resume
One short role is invisible; three is a pattern. How to format contracts, layoffs and a role that ended in probation so the timeline answers the question by itself.
Reviewed 13 Aug 2026
Can recruiters tell if your resume was written by AI?
Sometimes, and not with a detector. The six tells that actually give it away, why each one is bad writing regardless, and the rule that keeps AI useful on a resume.
Reviewed 13 Aug 2026
Should you put a photo on your resume?
No for the US, UK, Canada and most Indian corporate roles; yes for Germany, Japan and much of continental Europe. Why the downside is asymmetric, and what breaks if you do.
Reviewed 13 Aug 2026
What is an ATS parse rate? (and who actually calculates it)
The percentage came from the checker that showed it to you, not from an applicant tracking system. What is really being measured, and the copy-paste test that answers it for free.
Reviewed 14 Aug 2026
The ten interview questions you will actually be asked
Not fifty. Ten questions testing four things, plus the HR round as it is run in India: notice period, expected CTC, and the ones freshers get asked about their own resume.
Reviewed 14 Aug 2026
How to answer “tell me about yourself”
Ninety seconds, three parts: what you do now, the experience that maps to this job, and why you are in the room. The fresher version, and the five things to leave out.
Reviewed 14 Aug 2026
The STAR method, and why it belongs in the room not on the page
Situation, Task, Action, Result — with the weights that matter and the six story themes worth preparing. Plus why a resume bullet should be Action and Result only.
Reviewed 14 Aug 2026
Questions to ask the interviewer (three, not thirty)
Three questions that get concrete answers, matched to whoever is in the room, and the four that quietly cost you something. Never say “no, I think you covered it”.
Reviewed 14 Aug 2026
Answering the salary expectations question
Deflect once, then give a researched range floored at what you want. Includes the expected-CTC box on an Indian application form, which is a different problem with no conversation in it.
Reviewed 14 Aug 2026
The thank-you email after an interview
Within 24 hours, under eight lines, one piece of new evidence. A version you can send, the rules that keep it from reading as a template, and when to stop following up.
Reviewed 14 Aug 2026
Laid off: what to do in the first two weeks
Paperwork, runway and ten messages come before the resume. The week-one checklist including PF, gratuity and full-and-final, and the two things people get wrong immediately.
Reviewed 14 Aug 2026
How to tell people you were laid off
One sentence in an interview, a LinkedIn post that gets you intros, and twenty individual messages that do the actual work. What the length of the explanation signals.
Reviewed 14 Aug 2026
Ghost jobs, stale postings and outright scams
Why a real company lists a role it is not filling, the weak signals a posting is dead, and the six things that mean a listing is fraud. No employer ever asks you to pay.
Reviewed 14 Aug 2026
How long does a job search take?
Three to six months is ordinary, and most of the elapsed time is not yours. Where it actually goes, and how to tell whether the length means something by which stage fails.
Reviewed 14 Aug 2026
Where to actually apply: job boards, ranked by what they are for
Search wide, apply narrow — most sites re-list postings they scraped. What LinkedIn, Naukri, aggregators and ATS-native boards are each good at, and the ten-hour split that works.
Reviewed 14 Aug 2026
How to ask for a referral (three messages you can send)
For someone you worked with, a loose connection, and a stranger. Name the role, attach the resume, give them the two lines to paste, and give them an out — once.
Reviewed 14 Aug 2026
Cold emailing the hiring manager
Six sentences: who you are, one piece of evidence that maps to their problem, one specific ask. How to find the right person, and the five things that sink these.
Reviewed 14 Aug 2026
A LinkedIn profile recruiters can actually find
The profile has two jobs — be retrieved by a keyword search, then survive a five-second glance. The five fields that matter, and why the photo answer is the opposite of the resume one.
Reviewed 14 Aug 2026
Do you still need a cover letter?
Usually no, and decisively yes in five situations — career change being the big one. Under 250 words, four paragraphs, and why a generic letter is worse than none at all.
Reviewed 14 Aug 2026
Notice period and resigning properly in India
Never resign before the offer is signed. The 30/60/90-day contract question, the four ways to shorten it, and the six documents to leave with — the relieving letter above all.
Reviewed 14 Aug 2026
Looking for how resume parsing actually works, measured rather than assumed? The guides cover what an ATS extracts from a PDF, which formatting survives, and what a fresher resume needs.