Bonnie Dilber

Yesterday, I saw a Tiktok from a 23 year old who makes $153k a year as an engineer (and a few thousand more each month from his Tiktok), walking through how he spends his money.

That's about 4x what I was making at that age. I was 30 before I even hit 6-figures.

This guy is maxing out his retirement already. I didn't do that for the first time until 2022.

And for a moment, I felt behind.

But then I thought about things I'd done at 23:
-I taught kids how to read and tell time.
-I raised thousands of dollars and packed a bunch of 8-year olds on a bus and took them from Houston to Disney World.
-I helped a teenager with some learning challenges who had a 590 combined on her first attempt at the SAT double her score and get accepted to college.
-I got up in front of 30+ other teachers and facilitated professional development.

I'm not gonna retire on any of that. But I'm not behind either.

My path has just been different.

Every day, I see posts and DMs from people who also see where other people are and feel behind, and they want to make a change. They want to catch up.

But I'd argue that you've probably done a whole bunch of things that others haven't done. Maybe you've learned every single street and shortcut in your city delivering packages, or you've figured out how to help every single person find the perfect glasses for their face shape, or you've quite literally kept the trains running.

You've made people's lives better, or easier, or simply put a smile on their faces.

In a society where money talks, we make people feel like their work and accomplishments don't matter if they aren't rewarded with more money.

But they do.

So don't get caught up in feeling behind. Your path has been different, but that doesn't make it any less important or meaningful.

And I hope that we all continue to advocate for policies that will ensure that people earn a living wage for all of these contributions because no one should feel behind or like they made the wrong choices in life when they are doing impactful work simply because we've chosen not to value that work by paying a living wage.

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If you're looking for that next role, where ever you land is where you need to be, and I hope these resources help! https://lnkd.in/ggasyZAS

The jobs page on LinkedIn isn't the best way to find jobs - searching through posts is!

Posts are great because:
1. You know EXACTLY who to contact to send that networking message (or follow up with if you don't hear back).
2. You know the company is serious about the position if they are talking about the opening in a dedicated post (vs a job posting that's just scraped from job boards).
3. You know it's truly early in the process vs some jobs that are auto-reposted even though they may be close to an offer.

This is actually how I find and share the jobs I highlight in my newsletter or other platforms!

I made a video showing you exactly how to search for jobs - give it a try and let me know if you find some cool opportunities!

Links to other free resources/templates referenced here: https://lnkd.in/ggasyZAS

My biggest piece of advice as we roll into the last 6 weeks of 2024: apply for that job!

Yes, we’ll see a drop in the number of posted jobs, but on the hiring side, we also tend to see fewer applicants.

Often, if a hiring manager posts a job at this time of year, even with all the travel and potential delays and extra work that comes from planning for the next fiscal year, it’s because they are motivated to make a hire!

So if you’re job hunting, it may be tempting to take a break and go back to it in the new year. But there’s a decent chance lots of others are thinking the same thing.

So those who stay engaged and are flexible around interviewing may find that they can go into the new year with what I know so many want for the holidays - a new job!

I don't know who needs to hear this right now, but if your employer needs to make some cuts to the budget, they will let you go no matter how awesome and committed you've been.

So don't let the pressure to be loyal lead you to:
- ignore opportunities that could be a great fit for you.
- turn down conversations with recruiters.
- avoid things like networking or having a resume ready.

Over and over again, I see DMs from people asking me how to get started on LinkedIn because they were just laid off after 7 years and have no idea where to begin, or because their company just got sold and it's the only place they've ever worked.

Times have changed, employers are operating differently, and that means the workforce needs to operate differently too.

Every day, we see evidence of bias in the hiring process. That job posting that's been making the rounds made that pretty explicit (not that there were any doubts around this).

I can't really tell you how to stop it as a jobseeker - that's on companies.

But I can share some tips for fighting bias with your resume:
1. Unless you're applying for a super senior role, list no more than 10 years of work experience.
It's not that relevant, and can result in ageism.

2. Speaking of ageism, there's no need to include graduation years.
Oh and it's fine to include anywhere you studied regardless of degree status.

3. Speaking of dates, there's no need to include months if you've been a “job hopper“. Just use years.

4. Gaps in your resume where you did some freelance work or volunteered or upskilled? That's not a gap - you were working for “Your Name Consulting“. The gap is miraculously gone!

5. And discrimination based on geography is real - no need to put your address! If there are location requirements, list your metro area. They don't need more than that.

6. Job titles are internal-facing and they're highly inconsistent from one company to the next; externally, you can align your title to one that makes sense for the roles you're applying for. Maybe your Director title is resulting in you being deemed “overqualified“ for that Manager role - so call yourself a Manager. Maybe your “office manager“ title isn't giving you credit for spending most of your time doing HR work - so apply as an HR Manager.

7. See skills or tools on postings that are unfamiliar to you? Poke around their website, watch some Youtube videos, sign up for a demo. Do you feel familiar with the tool? Pop it on the resume!
It's the company's job to evaluate critical skills in the role - let the interview process determine if yours are strong enough.

You never want to invent skills or experiences you don't have, or lie about your accomplishments.

But all of the things above are simply communicating about your experience in a way that makes sense to your audience.

And it's the company's responsibility to evaluate your skills throughout the hiring process.

Companies are out there working hard to find reasons not to hire great people - don't let these be on that list.

Remote work means you can work from any location you want, whenever you want!

Ummm, not exactly...actually not at all!

These are some of the biggest misconceptions I see. There's an assumption that if a job is remote, it means they can accommodate any time zone, or any location.

Remote work means you don't work from an office. But it doesn't mean that you can live in any country, or even in any state.
Here's why:
1. In order to hire a full-time employee, a company needs to have an entity and be set up to pay taxes and offer benefits in a location. They may not be set up to hire in your location which can be a barrier to hiring you.
2. There's more flexibility around hiring people as contractors but there are limits to how many contractors a company can employ in a location before they are required to form an entity. This is why you may see a company who you know has employees in a certain location say that they can't hire you in that same location.

This can become even more complicated for digital nomads. This can become really complex from a tax and work authorization perspective; as a result, you'll find that many employers limit how long you can work from a location other than your location of record which is why many employers have limits around this.

Finally, remember that just because a company is remote doesn't mean they operate asynchronously or flexibility in terms of work hours.
-A job can be remote but require that you are logged in every single day from 8-5. Or it can be remote and you can log in whenever you want, or there can be some middle group where they ask for a certain number of hours of overlap with your colleagues.
-A company can be remote and tell you to work in your own time zone, or it can be remote but expect you to keep the hours of their home office.
-And there can be differences among certain teams or types of roles. For example, customer-facing roles may have more set hours to ensure coverage for customer support or sales calls or recruiter screens, while those working internally may have more flexibility.

A job can be listed as remote but actually be just as rigid than an in-office job.

So don't make assumptions - ask what hours the team keeps, ask if they support working from other locations, etc. If you're planning to work while traveling, ask BEFORE accepting an offer if this is within their policies. And read the job postings closely - many will give indications around location or policies around how remote work works in that particular company.

Remote work is awesome, but it doesn't necessarily mean an endless level of freedom and flexibility, or that the job is available to any applicant in any location.

So ask questions and make sure you understand how remote work works for that specific company!

I wanted to share some of my work culture red flags today.

It's possible that a company can talk about their culture in these ways and still be a great place to work but I'd suggest doing your research and asking questions if you hear these things!

🚩 “We're a team and family here.“

Families don't regularly evaluate your performance. They can't fire you without warning. They can't let you go when they've mismanaged their funds.

This usually goes one way - you're a family when you need to work late to get some reports done or take on extra unpaid work during a parental leave instead of hiring a temp. You're family when they can't give our raises or promotions even though your department is shrinking while you're responsibilities are increasing.

But will you be family when you can't find childcare and can't come into the office for several months? Will you be family when your rent increases 25% and you're struggling to make ends meet? Will you be family when you're depressed and miss your deadlines for 2 months straight?

You don't need your employer to be your family. You need your employer to compensate you well, give you opportunities for growth, and a safe and supportive work environment.

🚩 “We work hard and play hard here.“

This usually means you're going to work really long hours with high expectations, but it's ok because there's beer and foosball in the break room for when you wrap up at 8 pm.

A lot of companies say this just to show that they are fun and friendly. But it can just as easily be code for trying to use fun perks to hold unreasonable expectations for people.

It can also imply that there are cliques and if you don't “play hard“ or show up to happy hours, you're going to struggle to fit in and progress.

It's great to be friends with colleagues - some of my closest friends are people I met through work. But it's also fine to maintain a separation between your work and personal life. And that shouldn't affect your career prospects.

🚩“We only hire the best and the brightest.“
(Or rock stars, unicorns, whatever).

They may say it differently but the message is the same - this a “prestigious“ place to work.

First, what this often means is that people went to great schools. That's not the best. That's just privilege.

Second, it can often mean that if you're not able to perform quickly and independently at a very high level, you can expect to be let go.

Instead of looking for companies bragging about hiring an elite level of talent, look for companies that brag about how they support and coach employees, how they build diverse workforces, and how they get rid of requirements like degrees and certifications to make access to work more equitable.

At first glance, a lot of these statements seem pretty desireable. But when you hear them, dig in to what they really mean and figure out if it's all just code for “we'll need you to do more with less.“

Most states have laws that puppies cannot be separated from their mothers before 8 weeks.

Most states have no requirement for parental leave.

We are just fine sending someone who just gave birth back to work while their newborn stays with unknown caregivers.

There are just 7 countries in the world that don't offer some form of mandatory leave - 6 small island nations, and 1 global super power.

In the US, we offer 12 weeks of unpaid leave for those who qualify for FMLA...and the frequent layoffs of the last few years have certainly decreased the number of people who quality (given that there are requirements around both tenure in role and company size in order to quality for FMLA).

And that 12 weeks is under the WHO recommended 16 weeks.

There are no such laws and workarounds for dogs. If a dog has puppies, she gets to spend 8 weeks with those puppies.

I don't think it's asking much that human mothers have the same rights as dog mothers.

And almost every other country seems to agree with me on that.

This week, I:
-promoted one team member
-hired another person for my team cause Zapier is 📈
-randomly took 2 days off with short notice, with nothing but support from my colleagues
-got my biannual bonus 🔥
-realized I've made more since joining Zapier than I did in a year at my last job (yay for working for companies who don't set you current salary based on your last one!)
-ate an obscene number of macadamia nuts and hazelnuts
-approved multiple offers that represent compensation increases of 50% or more for people cause we are changing lives over here
-had a male colleague offer to do the more administrative part of a project we've been working on when I had just assumed I would be the one to do (cause this is a real thing for women!)
-removed another handful of connections who supported racist, anti-choice content, or anti-equity content on this platform

It was a good week y'all! Happy Friday!

Raise your hand if you’ve been a victim of a bad recruiter. 🙋🏼‍♀️

🙅🏼‍♀️Messages for jobs that pay half of what I currently make. 
🙅🏼‍♀️Poorly written messages that are clearly copy-pasted to hundreds of people.
🙅🏼‍♀️And of course ghosting.

I recently connected with the folks at Perfect and got to demo their tool, and I am pretty excited by what I saw!

Perfect:
💁🏼‍♀️uses an AI-driven ChatGPT-style interface to allow you to describe what you’re looking for in a candidate and combine that with the job description to source candidates that are a good match.
💁🏼‍♀️uses a quick and intuitive feedback system to help the algorithm produce strong candidates.
💁🏼‍♀️leverages generative AI to draft personalized outreach.

Current users on the platform are averaging 30%+ open rates thanks to the combination of well-matched candidates and outreach - so a better and more efficient experience for recruiters AND candidates.

And for my recruiter friends who are traumatized by terrible user interfaces on your CRMs (IYKYK), I actually had fun setting up my demo account and playing around on the platform! The system is quick, easy to use, intuitive, and allows you to do more with less to meeting the increasing demand on you as a recruiter.

I am so happy to be partnering with Perfect to share this tool with my recruiting colleagues.

Recruiters - I know none of us WANTS to create a bad experience for candidates - but it’s easy to be overwhelmed. Check out Perfect and see if it has the potential to solve some of the challenges your team is facing!

#sponsored #perfectpartner

Well with the news today, this seems like a good time to remind everyone that your can be laid off at any moment.

If this is something you're worried about (and we all should be!) here are a few steps you should take:
1. Record names of stakeholders who could be good references. These can be hard to remember a few months down the road.
2. Screenshot shoutouts or evidence of success and download performance reviews. These can referenced in interviews (and be told motivation).
3. Save metrics and results. You'll want these for your resume and be expected to know them in interviews.
4. Save artifacts of your work. You'll want work samples for your job search

And if you're a manager whose team member is laid off, consider putting together a document that outlines their achievements, results from projects, etc. That way if your former team member didn't manage to save all this before they're cut out of systems, you can help them out without having to ask.

My thoughts are with everyone impacted by the layoffs at Amazon today.

Layoffs are traumatic on so many levels, there's actually research that shows that for some groups, it's more traumatic than a divorce. Our jobs are our identity, our incomes determine how we navigate this world, and our colleagues are part of our community so losing all three of these at the same time can be devastating.

Feel whatever you feel, don't feel pressure to make a post or figure out what's next.

That said, when it IS time to figure out what's next, hope this list helps:

1. Zapier is hiring!
We currently have TONS of openings in engineering, and a many others across the rest of the company (including several openings on our People team!) We're 100% remote, and a fantastic place to work.
I'll drop a referral link in comments.

2. For those interested in startups, VC boards are a great place to find openings that won't make it onto a place like LinkedIn. I will drop this list below as well to make them easier to find.

3. When you make your post announcing your layoff, turning on the "open to work" banner can help push it out as and algorithm seems to favor these posts. You WILL be inundated with bots and offers from resume writers/career coaches, but it may be worth the trade off of getting support from your network. (You can always turn the banner off, and back on to repeat this effect as needed).

4. The job market isn't awesome right now, there's no sugar coating that.
But the narrative you'll hear on LinkedIn won't necessarily be yours because the people who post about the job market day in and day out don't represent the workforce as a whole - and often engaging heavily with those in negative spaces will turn your feed into stories of failure.
The reality is that people get hired every day, people are getting multiple offers, we lose candidates to competing offers, etc. and those people are sharing their success stories every day!
Don't let the narrative around you cause you to become overly negative, lose hope, or take unproductive actions (like mass applying, quantity>quality, etc.).

So sorry to everyone going through this - whether you're at Amazon, or one of the hundreds of thousands of others who have been laid off in the last few months, I know its a really tough time particularly in this job market, but I hope this helps.

Here's an unpopular reality of this job market: it's not the time for a career pivot or even landing a stretch role in corporate or tech for most of us.

One of the things I've seen over and over again is that people have a tough time figuring out if they are truly qualified for a role - in the eyes of the employer.

Most companies aren't looking for, "I can do the job with some training" or "I have transferable skills" or "I've done pieces of this work in my current role". They're looking for people who have pretty much done the exact job they are hiring for.

I shared this prompt you can put into your favorite AI assistant in a comment and got positive feedback so I wanted to share it with all of you:
⚡ I want you to act as a hyper-selective career advisor who only recommends jobs I’m at least 95% qualified for. I’ll paste a job description and then share my resume.
Your task: 1. Score my fit (0-100%) based strictly on required qualifications, preferred qualifications, and responsibilities.
2. List exact gaps between me and the role. Be blunt if I’m missing even one core qualification or years of experience, note it clearly.
3. If my score is below 95%, tell me not to apply and explain why.
4. If my score is 95% or higher, tell me yes, apply, and summarize what makes me an exceptional fit in 3–5 bullet points I can use in my cover letter.
5. Give me a recommendation without any fluff. ⚡

Give it a try, and let me know if it gives you any interesting insights!

P.S. Just to be clear, you probably CAN do a lot of the jobs you apply for with some training - I'm not questioning that or looking to be convinced of that. I'm simply stating that many employers in tech/corporate are less flexible right now given the market!

Today is my 4-year Zapiversary!!

4 years ago, I made the move from education into tech when I joined Zapier, and it's been the best 4 years of my career! I work with the smartest, nicest people, I have had countless opportunities to learn and grow, and I still have yet to experience the dreaded Sunday scaries.

This is my 3rd time hitting the 4-year mark and is usually the point when I'm antsy and ready to move on and find something new. The cool thing here is that instead, I'm thinking about how I can keep learning in the space I'm in. It's pretty rare to find that in a workplace, and believe me when I say I know how lucky I am!

In honor of this milestone, let me share 4 reasons you might want to join us:
1. We're 100% remote.
This means that we tend to be relatively asynchronous and offer our employees a lot of trust and flexibility as long as they are performing.

2. We have a cool product - AI orchestration.
Your job is about helping workplaces become more efficient so people can spend their days on more interesting, high-impact work. Like that's cool y'all!!

3. We have flexible PTO.
That means you can take whatever holidays are relevant to your religion or country, and you'll find a lot of flexibility to accommodate your lifestyle. We have a lot of parents at Zapier, and I think this (along with remote work!) is a big factor there.

4. We see the values in action all the time.
I've never worked somewhere where I see the core values actually play out in practice. A big one is transparency - we can access just about any Slack channel to peak at what's going on, we get regular financial updates, etc. So if the values on the website align with how you like to work, the culture will probably be a good match.

We're not perfect. Remote work isn't for everyone. Things change quickly. The expectations are high. AI-forward cultures aren't a good match for everyone.

But if you think we ARE a good fit, then weekends are a great time to submit those apps!

The Venn Diagram of "mission-driven jobs" and "underpaid jobs is a big circle.

Back when I worked in education, it was the norm to hide salary ranges until the final stages. At one employer, even as a hiring manager, I had no idea what the compensation was for the roles I was hiring for - I would be given a non-negotiable number by our comp team at the end of a process.

At another, executives would say that we shouldn't discuss salaries because we wanted people who were mission-driven.

We often talk about certain jobs (usually female-dominated ones) as a calling. This usually means the job involves working with children or people in need - teaching, nursing, social work, non-profit work, childcare.

There's also the perception that these are fields where people don't work as much, or as hard.
How many times have you heard arguments that teachers aren't paid much but their schedule matches their kids and they get summers off? (Neither of these are entirely true by the way).
Or that nurses have more flexibility since they only work 3-4 days a week?

First, we justify the lower pay by attacking the rigor of the work.
And then we talk about how "lucky" people are to do work that has an impact on their community or helps people.

People will even say things like, "after I retire, I might go back and teach".

My jaw still drops seeing salaries for entry level talent in tech that is 2-3x what I was making as an entry level teacher. And only one of those people is responsible for the safety, well-being, and future of 20-30 children a year while the other is coding some feature on an app that, while cool, is unlikely to change the world (though it will create a lot of shareholder value). It certainly says something about our priorities as a society.

I left the classroom for the more administrative/"corporate" side of education because I wanted an easier lifestyle and more money (and I got that). And I left education altogether because I wanted an even easier lifestyle and even more money (and I got that). I've had 60 hour weeks in tech like I had regularly back in education, but those 60 hours hit different when you're responding to emails on the couch vs on your feet teaching kids to read.

Next time you catch yourself telling someone how "lucky" they are to have an impactful job, bite your tongue, and instead, advocate and vote for things like higher teacher pay, lower classroom sizes, bonds that fund improvements to infrastructure, common sense gun control laws that will make schools safer for teachers and their students, universal pre-k, childcare subsidies, national family leave policies, expanding public service loan forgiveness accessibility, and more that will make the lives of those doing low-paid, mission-driven work easier and safer.

Or TL; DR: pay people doing "mission-driven work" more.

Taking advantage of that flexible PTO policy to go spend a long weekend at Disneyland before Talent Connect next week!!

Entertain me on this flight by making my comments sound like a corporate meeting.

I'll circle back on next steps once I land.

PS We are in fact hiring, A LOT, so if you'd like to join me in a workplace where you are encouraged to use your PTO, apply today!!

With the acceleration in recent layoffs, apparently "low hire, low fire" is over.

I don't know that we'll ever live in a space where we have job stability again, and about half of Americans don't have the savings to navigate a $1000 unexpected expense, let alone 6+ months of unemployment.

So here are a few steps you might consider taking in this environment:

1. Tighten up your finances.
Are you paying for apps, streaming services, or memberships fees you barely use?
I'm the queen of this - why am I paying for the YMCA, Planet Fitness, and Peloton?! Why do I have 2 credit cards with high membership fees and duplicative benefits?
I'm sure most of us could find a few hundred to a few thousand here - and instead of spending it, toss that into HYSA and you'll be building a bit more cushion.

2. Increase your income now.
I've always had side hustles - babysitting, tutoring, consulting/coaching and the last few years, social media. Two of those are things that I can convert into full-time employment which gives me lots of options, and the confidence that I can easily replace my full-time income.
I don't want to pretend that this is easy or realistic for everyone, but there's probably SOMETHING you can do now that will help you build a cushion in the short-term and have a head start should you find yourself unemployed in the future.
(I have a list of things I've done over the years that I'll drop in comments on this front!)

3. Realistically assess things at work
If you're in a role with lots of other people doing the same work (like recruiting, sales, customer support, etc.), those layoffs may consider things like performance or tenure in deciding who to cut. If you've been on a PIP or have struggled to meet goals, you could be at greater risk.
If you're working on a project that has had limited success and could be cut, your role could be impacted too.
If you do work that's repetitive and prime for replacement by automation/AI, you could be at risk too.
There's really no way to predict, but I know many people who weren't really surprised by their layoffs because of indicators like these so if you fall in this camp, you might take steps to protect yourself.

4. Always be networking and always be applying.
I've had 4 legit (and 400 fake) recruiters/hiring managers reach out to me in the last 2 months, and all 4 got a meeting. Yes, I'm happily employed, but that could change tomorrow so I'm always open and worst case, I expand my network, and make an intro for a friend looking for their next role.

5. Build community before you need it.
Check in on your friends, drop off a meal for someone in need, ask if you can pick up groceries for that neighbor that's under the weather, have a coffee chat with a former colleague, make an intro for a job to someone you know is looking.
Make those deposits now, and those folks will be more likely to show up for you when you need them.

Every recruiter I know wants you to get hired.

We want you to get hired for altruistic reasons - it's fun seeing people land opportunities, it helps the companies we work for be successful.

We want you to get hired for selfish reasons - it helps us be successful at our jobs, it means less work for us because we can close out a role on our headcount plan.

But every recruiter I know wants people to get hired, and we're rooting for the people we move forward.

We do not move you forward if we don't think you genuinely have a shot at landing the role, and if we move you forward, we're ready to make a case for you.

All that said, we:
- can't interview every single remotely qualified applicant when we have a huge volume of applicants
- can't force hiring managers to hire people they don't see as a match
- don't control business decisions that result in roles evolving or being cancelled
- aren't able to make decisions that go against company policies (like flexing on location or level or compensation)

We're doing our best like everyone else. Every TA team I know is exploring AI solutions and automations and new tech stacks and adjustments to their staffing models to try to evolve to meet the new demands that come with being flooded with AI-generated apps, candidate fraud, evolving expectations from jobseekers, and a difficult market where the there isn't always alignment between the skills of the workforce and the skills our employers want.

But I don't know anyone who works in recruiting that wants anything other than to get people hired as quickly as possible. I don't know anyone who works in recruiting that enjoys seeing people get rejected.

So every recruiter I know is rooting for the candidates they're working with and doing the best they can!

I saw a post that said that success is contagious and you just need to surround yourself with successful people. So here is a non-exhaustive list of my achievements this week:

1. Finished an entire container of Laneige lip mask that I've been working on for a solid 2 years.
2. Unpacked my suitcase within 24 hours of getting home.
3. Finally listened to Life of a Showgirl end to end and found a solid 4 songs I like.
4. Remembered to buy a new container of milk before I ran out.
5. Paired 100% of the socks that came out of the dryer

Now some of you are probably feeling intimidated when you read this list. Maybe you've been at it for 3 years and your Laneige still looks new. And that's OK! This is a no judgement zone, we're all on our own journey.

I used to think people posted on LinkedIn just to brag and promote themselves, but now I realize it's an act of service - they share their successes to spark our own success.

And personally, just looking at my list for the week, I know it's working. And now that you've seen this post, hopefully you feel inspired and find more success too.

Feel free to drop your achievements below - we know you're not bragging, you're just helping spread success.

/s

I most definitely work to live, not live to work.

That doesn't mean I don't love my job.
It doesn't mean I don't work hard or take my job seriously.

But one of the things I really like about my work is that it gives me the opportunity to enjoy life.

I would like my job a lot less if it didn't offer me flexiblility and great compensation to enjoy my life.

Normalize talking about compensation, benefits, work life balance, and PTO early in hiring processes. Just because people care about their personal priorities doesn't mean they won't also take their work seriously!

I promise I do (but I also greatly enjoy stepping away and having no idea what's going on at the office for a few weeks.)

I know so many people are facing unemployment right now, and one piece of advice people will give you is to "network. But where do you begin?

Well here are some ideas!

1. Join relevant communities
I’m going to plug Twill, a free community for tech talent where you can make (and receive!) referrals for jobs. And if your referrals get hired, you get paid!
I found Twill because we’re using them for some of our roles at Zapier so I can vouch for the community being legit.
They are selective in membership, but I do have a referral link (go to the “visit website” above!

But there are lots more - my fellow folks in the talent space might consider the People Geek community by Culture Amp. Product folks should be in Lenny Rachitsky's community. Executives might benefit from Whispered.

2. Lean on your non-professional networks
Your college roommate’s best friend or that nice woman who always waves at you while you walk your dog could be hiring for a role you’re perfect for you.

But your friends and family have no idea what you even do. So let them know - and be specific - you are looking of referrals and introductions for XYZ job titles in XYZ industries.

You can also lean on online communities - for example, I’m in a “moms in tech” group, and that’s probably a place I would post if I were looking!

3. Get active and involved
I once hired someone who said they were looking for a job at an improv rehearsal. A friend of mine got a job after someone she babysat for referred her.

So during this period of unemployment, consider getting more involved in your community. This could mean attending meet-ups, volunteering, etc.

Those networks can pay off down the road. If you’re not seeing natural opportunities, make them! Post in your community group that you’d love to organize a meetup at a local coffee shop and see who shows up.

And for a final reminder: if you're employed right now, you can still do all of these things, and it will only make your search easier once you do find yourself needing employment.

P.S. I am also going to plug my newsletter Landed! because I share roles that people in my network are hiring for each week, and happy to make introductions, and I also answer reader questions each week, offer networking chats, etc. :)

Happy Halloween! 🎃

May the only ghosts you see today be the ones knocking at your door!

P.S. If you HAVE been a ghost, maybe choose today to close the loop. 👻

Our power has been out since 5 last night due to some big storms in the area.

We'll probably have to toss a couple hundred dollars worth of groceries but fortunately, we're in a position to handle that.

But I know for many who are living paycheck to paycheck, just the loss of food could be devastating. There are many losing SNAP benefits and for those folks, this could be even harder to bounce back from.

Beyond that, there are people around me who had trees fall on their homes, water damage, etc. Even with insurance, people typically spend thousands to bounce back from these sorts of events.

Studies have shown that anout 40% of Americans don't have an emergency savings or budget to cover even an unexpected expense of $1000.

Couple of things employers could do to help offset the stress:
1. Paying a living wage that allows people to live comfortably and still have enough for an emergency.

2. Financial assistance during emergencies - one that Zapier offers for example is a fund to offset expenses employees incur from events like these. It's not gonna cover everything but can offer a bit of assistance and help employees feel valued.

3. Flexible PTO policies. They'll probably get our power back on today but if they don't, I can take tomorrow off without losing out on a paycheck or giving up a precious day from a small bank. I know that unlimited PTO plans get a lot of criticism but I am forever grateful for mine!

PS if anyone in the Seattle/tacoma/olympia area is affected by the storms and currently out of work or underemployed with children, please feel free to DM me and I'll see if I can help.

Love getting to hang out with internet friends IRL at LinkedIn Talent Solutions Talent Connect in San Diego this week!!
Mike Peditto Brandon Jeffs
#talentconnect

So hey, if you're reading this, I just wanted you to know that:
- putting invites on my calendar repeatedly
- sending me emails pitching your product because I commented on a post from your competitor
- or messaging me with criticisms

...is never going to help you make a sale. Never.

It's actually creepy and puts you on the fast track to my block list.

I'm sure it's really hard to be in sales, but don't do these things.

Only 40% of Americans have "quality jobs"...no wonder even those who are employed seem so negative and disengaged!

Gallup looks at 5 factors to define a quality job:
- Financial well-being (compensation that's 3x FPL, PTO, and stability)
- Workplace culture and safety (physical and psychological safety)
- Growth and development (training, pathways to promotion, etc.)
- Agency and voice (influence over things like culture, tech adoption, etc)
- Work structure and autonomy (clear schedules, flexibility, etc.)

This seems fairly baseline to be honest - I don't think it's asking too much for employers to pay a living wage, ask their workforce their opinions, provide on-the-job training annually.

And yet 60% of the workforce is not in jobs that meet this criteria.

Everyone should care about this y'all because there's a strong correlation between quality jobs and quality lives. Those reporting that they're in quality jobs also report being healthier, happier, and more satisfied with their lives.

That's obviously not a surprise and if I had to guess, the financial factor is a big one because we can say, "money doesn't buy happiness" all we want, but it's pretty hard to be happy when you're worried about having your car repossessed or putting dinner on the table. And it makes no sense to me that someone could be working a full-time job and feeling that stress.

So it's really a win-win for employers to work towards creating more quality jobs. Happy employees who are happy with their lives will be more productive, more focused, have more of an impact on your business and create that shareholder value every company is chasing.

Something I've observed on this platform that I don't think most employers are aware of: a large portion of the workforce is angry. They feel left behind and unvalued by hiring processes, layoffs, instability that leaves them unsure where they stand and unable to plan and prepare for the future. I've seen that sentiment and negativity towards employers grow over the last 3.5 years that I've been active here, and I think it will only continue to expand and lead to more distrust.

If I were an executive, I would address this now while there's still time to improve conditions for the workforce rather than waiting until it's negatively impacting your workforce.

Micromanagement, higher expectations, and threats aren't going to drive performance.

But paying people well, creating a positive workplace culture, helping them grow in their work, asking them their opinions, and trusting them to do good work probably will!

Y'all recruiters don't care if you use AI to write your resume or support you in an interview process.

They DO care about:
- identifying and rejecting fraudulent candidates/bots
- finding the best talent in their applicant pools
- managing an efficient hiring process

When most are telling you not to use AI, what they actually mean is that a bunch of vague, generic achievements like, "delivered all projects 15% ahead of schedule and 25% under budget" is just not helpful - we have no idea what projects, the scale and scope of said projects, etc.

We also know that this is the kind of statement you get when you have AI create a resume for a project manager, because if you actually gave AI strong examples of your impact and simply asked it to format it into a resume, it would make a statement like, "“Led a cross-functional team of 12 to implement a Salesforce across sales, marketing, and customer success, reducing manual data entry by 60% and increasing lead conversion by 18% within six months.” (Yes, I had AI write this for me).

So when you deliver generic statements identical to what we see on 128 other resumes, it also makes us think you likely don't have the relevant experience for the role.

"But you can just call us and ask for more info!" Sure, we could. But if we have 25 other candidates who provided strong examples, it doesn't make much sense to call up the weaker applicants.

Same with interviews - if you can use AI in interviews effectively, great! But pausing after every question and then reading off the screen is simply not going to beat out the candidate who can speak to their experiences more fluidly in a natural conversation.

So a few tips for using AI in ways that aren't going to cause issues for you:
1. Share all your experiences with AI, have it ask you questions, and then have it use that to craft a strong resume.

2. Humanize the writing. I saw one applicant who when using AI to complete their app, said something like, "Here's what my AI assistant has to say about my ability to XYZ". That simple statement made it clear a human was at work (not a bot applier) and provided a bit of human touch without much time/effort.

3. Use AI to prep vs script your responses.
AI is great for anticipating questions, and using the experiences you've shared to give you talking points. Do that BEFORE the interview. Then in the interview, you can easily reference your notes while still carrying on a conversation.

So again, I don't think the majority of recruiters and hiring managers care if you use AI, and many may actually see it as a positive - if you're using it well.

The issue is that many are using AI in ways that simply make them a weaker applicant, and that's why they're being rejected.

OK LinkedIn, I want to hear your thoughts on AI interviews!

At Zapier, we've been using BrightHire to record and transcribe interviews for the past 2.5 years and we love it! Having videos from interviews has allowed us to share candidates with multiple hiring managers, provide feedback to interviewers, and dig into question marks around a candidate with actual evidence which helps us calibrate more objectively. (Interestingly, it's also how we've caught fraud, but that's for another day).

Brighthire just launched an AI interviewer - it's one I got to demo over the past few weeks.

Here's what I liked:
1. It's an opportunity to efficiently "talk" to more candidates.
A recruiter can reasonably talk to 15-20 candidates a week, maybe 30-40 for high volume roles. An AI recruiter can theoretically increase that number to hundreds or more. This means more shots for people to explain what they bring to the table.

2. The experience felt structured and objective.
When I gave partial answers, the AI highlighted areas I hadn't answered fully giving me the opportunity to add more information.
On the flip side, it doesn't use video so it's not considering things like what a candidate is wearing, eye contact, etc. And it doesn't consider inputs beyond the scorecard so it's not considering things like hobbies or other subjective criteria.

3. It offers speed and flexibility for candidates.
You can complete the interview in any location, and at any time which means you're not losing time on scheduling, waiting a few days for a recruiter to be available, etc.

Here's what's top of mind:
1. Candidate experience.
While the AI interviewer does have options to share a bit about the company and answer questions, I know it may not feel as personalized or detailed as talking to a human.

2. Losing great candidates.
I know some people see this as impersonal and may not want to engage. Giving options (like you can either schedule with a recruiter, or do an AI interview) could offset that concern, but would also reduce the number of people you can invite.

3. Higher rates of rejection.
Getting to interview more people is great, but if there's only one position, then you still end up rejecting most of them so do you really need to interview more people? I tend to think an AI interviewer makes the most sense for companies with high application volume, and with a large number of openings.

So would love to hear from you all:
- RECRUITERS: Have you used these tools? Would you use them? What else should I be weighing?
- CANDIDATES: Have you done an AI interview, and how was your experience? How would you feel about trying out an AI interview? What would help you be more open/comfortable with it? What other considerations are there for you in deciding to try this out?