Welcome to Issue #200 of Jobseeking is Hard!

Happy Wednesday!

Issue #200 feels like a good time to talk about why I started writing Jobseeking is Hard in the first place.

A lot of the work I do comes down to helping people understand things about hiring that nobody ever explained to them. Why recruiters make certain decisions. Why being qualified doesn’t always lead to an interview. Why the way you present your experience matters. Why some career moves are much harder than they look from the outside.

Most people learn this stuff when they’re already in the middle of a problem.

They get laid off. They spend months applying without getting anywhere. They realize the career path they chose doesn’t offer the pay, flexibility, stability, or opportunities they expected. Then they’re supposed to figure out hiring while they’re stressed, frustrated, and usually worried about money.

That’s a big reason I started this newsletter.

I wanted to explain what actually happens in hiring in a way that helps people make better decisions before they learn everything the hard way.

200 issues later, that part hasn’t changed.

This week is also personal for another reason: my kid is starting college. And that’s made me think a lot about career guidance.

I didn’t have much useful career guidance when I was in college. I had to figure a lot of it out as I went, and I don’t want young people today to have to do the same thing, especially when some of the consequences are bigger now.

That’s what I want to talk about this week.

I’ll also share a Comprehensive Resume Review client story that feels especially fitting for Issue #200. A few years after we worked together, they reached back out to tell me the support helped during a tough time, and that they’d since found what they described as their dream job.

This week we’re talking about:

• What college students should know before choosing a career

• How a Comprehensive Resume Review helped one client clarify their story and eventually land their dream job

And for Premium subscribers I’m:

• Debunking LinkedIn advice that says jobseekers should use more of the platform to prove their AI expertise

• Answering a Premium subscriber’s question about how involved a parent should be in a college student’s career decisions. I’ll explain how to help them ask better questions, test different paths, and make informed choices without taking over.

Let’s get to it!

WHAT COLLEGE STUDENTS SHOULD KNOW

One of the weird things about college is how early we ask people to make decisions that can affect a huge part of their adult life. You can be 18 years old, have a pretty limited idea of what most jobs actually look like, and still be expected to choose a major, take on debt, and start moving toward a career.

I think students need better information before they make those choices.

Asking what they’re passionate about is fine, but they should also understand what the career actually looks like. What does it pay when you’re starting out? What can it realistically pay later? How hard is it to get into? Are there jobs where you want to live? Does the field require graduate school? Is there a clear path forward, or are there a lot of people fighting over a small number of opportunities?

A lot of this is harder now because the consequences can stick around longer.

College is expensive. Housing is expensive. Student debt can follow someone for years. Entry-level jobs are difficult to get in a lot of fields, and technology is changing what some of those jobs even look like. Work that used to give someone a reliable way into a profession may be getting automated, consolidated, outsourced, or handed to fewer people.

I’m not suggesting students should choose careers based entirely on money. But salary has to be part of the conversation. If a field pays $45,000 starting out and doesn’t move much from there, that’s useful information before someone spends four years preparing for it. If a career can eventually pay well but requires another degree, several years of low-paid training, or living somewhere expensive, they should understand that too.

Security deserves the same level of thought. There’s no perfectly safe career, but some paths give people more options. Some skills transfer easily between industries. Some jobs exist almost everywhere, while others depend heavily on one type of employer, location, or part of the economy. I’d want a student to understand how much room they have to move around if the market changes or they decide 3 years from now that they don’t want to do the same thing anymore.

I also think we’ve leaned too hard on “do what you love” as career advice. Of course I want my kid to enjoy what they do. I want them to find work they care about.

But I also want them to understand that a career has to support the life they want outside of work. You can love something and decide you don’t want to depend on it for your income. You can choose work because you’re good at it, because there’s demand for it, because it gives you financial security, or because the schedule and flexibility let you have the kind of life you want. There are a lot of perfectly good reasons to choose a career that have nothing to do with turning your favorite thing into your job.

Students also need a realistic understanding of how people actually get hired in the fields they’re considering. What do employers expect from entry-level candidates? Are internships basically required? Are there technical skills they should be learning while they’re still in school? What kinds of jobs do people with that degree actually get after graduation?

That information is much more useful when someone is a freshman or sophomore than when graduation is three weeks away and every “entry-level” posting they find seems to want experience they don’t have.

I’d also want them thinking about what happens if the first plan doesn’t work. Careers change. People change. Industries change. If they decide later that they want to do something else, are the skills transferable? Are there adjacent jobs they could move into? Would changing direction require another degree or starting over at a much lower level?

None of this is about scaring a college student into picking the safest possible major. It’s about giving them a realistic picture of the options before they start investing years of time and money into one of them.

My kid is starting college, and I know I’m not going to choose their career for them. I wouldn’t want to. What I do want is for them to have better information than I had. Mostly, I don’t want them to feel lost. I’ve talked to too many people who get several years into a career and realize nobody ever explained what the path was actually going to look like.

College students are going to make their own decisions, but they should be making them with a much clearer idea of what those choices could mean.

Have a topic you want me to cover in an upcoming issue? Reply or email [email protected] and tell me what you want to know!

SHAMELESS PLUG

If your job search needs a little more help, Karpiak Consulting offers resume and LinkedIn services, as well as job search strategy coaching.

Who knows...maybe you’ll find your dream job like this client 🤷‍♂️

So how did I help this Comprehensive Resume Review client?

This one feels especially appropriate for Issue #200.

A few years ago, I worked with a client who was finishing school and trying to make sense of a background that included a lot of different experience. The resume had good material, but the reader had to do too much work to understand what connected it all.

I recommended adding a summary, giving more context around the companies and responsibilities, strengthening some of the lower-impact language, making leadership easier to see, and adding technical skills that weren’t appearing anywhere on the resume.

Then the client actually went and did the work. The revised resume was much easier to understand. It gave the experience more context, made the strongest skills more visible, and did a better job explaining what the client could bring to an employer.

A few weeks ago, they reached back out with a note that stuck with me:

They also told me they’d been able to stabilize, bring together their education, experience, and talents, and had finally landed what they described as their dream job.

That’s the stuff I care about.

A resume review is obviously about the resume, but the person on the other side of it is usually dealing with a lot more than bullet points and formatting. They may be trying to figure out where they fit, how everything they’ve done connects, or whether there’s actually a path forward.

Sometimes the value of the work doesn’t show up immediately. Sometimes you hear from someone years later and find out they’re in a much better place. That’s a pretty good reminder of why I still like doing this work after all these years.

If you're not getting the response you expected from your resume and want an honest assessment of why, our services can help. 

Curious what the process has been like for other clients? Check out our testimonials here!

PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER QUESTION

“My daughter is starting college and has no idea what she wants to do yet. I don’t want to push her into a career she’ll hate, but I also don’t want her to pick something without understanding what the jobs, salary, or long-term options actually look like. How much should I be involved?”

Check out the Premium Section below for my answer! Not a Premium Subscriber? Upgrade here: www.JobseekingIsHard.com/upgrade

Why upgrade? For less than $0.63/day, you get:

• Subscriber-Only Discounts: Get exclusive promo codes for Karpiak Consulting services, available only to Premium subscribers. Whether you're updating your resume, need a LinkedIn profile review, or want expert help tailoring your applications, these occasional discounts make expert support more accessible.

• Extra Tips & Advice: Gain exclusive insights, strategies, and advice from a recruiter with over 20 years of experience in the field. Discover what hiring managers truly value and how to stand out at every step of your job search.

• Access to Previous Issues: Explore a library of knowledge with all 100+ past issues of the newsletter. Each edition is packed with proven strategies, practical advice, and real-world jobseeking stories to give you an edge in today’s competitive job market. From resume tips to handling tough interview questions, you’ll find answers to every challenge.

• Exclusive Q&A: Have questions about your job search? Premium subscribers can ask Adam directly! Questions will be featured in upcoming issues, with detailed answers tailored to real-world scenarios, ensuring you get the guidance you need.

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Jobseekers, have a great rest of your week, and good luck with those applications!

-Adam

PS!! If you're enjoying the newsletter, let people know! Forward it, post it on social, tag me, whatever...the bigger the discussion, the better! The idea is to help as many people as possible!

About Adam- Recognized as a leading voice on hiring and workplace trends, Adam has been recruiting and providing career advice since 2003, developing high-trust relationships based on honesty with companies and jobseekers. A highly sought-after speaker, he has appeared in numerous outlets, including Bloomberg News, Business Insider, LinkedIn, and CNNMoney. You can find out more about Adam's resume and coaching services here.

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