Put this into practice

TRY · 12 MIN

50 Word Introduction Builder

TAIU

One short introduction, built from evidence you already have.

One short written introduction built from evidence, not adjectives.

TRY · 12 MIN

CV Stress Test

TAIU

Read your CV the way a hiring manager reads it, in under a minute.

Reads a CV the way a hiring manager reads it, in under a minute.

LEARN · FREE SERVICE

National Careers Service

Department for Education

Free, impartial, and more useful than most paid career content.

Free careers advice in England, including skills assessments and a telephone adviser.

READ · BOOK

Working Identity

Herminia Ibarra

Read this if you have been reflecting on the same possible change for two years and have never once tried a small version of it.

Ibarra followed people through major career and identity change and found that almost none of them thought their way to an answer first. They acted first, in small reversible experiments, and their sense of who they were caught up afterwards. It is the strongest available argument against sitting still until you feel certain.

READ · BOOK

Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs

Lauren Rivera

Rivera sat inside hiring committees. What she found about how people actually read a CV is uncomfortable and extremely useful if you are writing one.

READ · RESEARCH

Belief in the Unstructured Interview: The Persistence of an Illusion

Jason Dana, Robyn Dawes and Nathanial Peterson

Interviewers form confident impressions from very little. That cuts both ways, and it is why the evidence on your CV has to do the work your presence cannot.

READ · RESEARCH

Impression Management and Faking in the Employment Interview

Julia Levashina and Michael Campion

Research on how routinely candidates inflate, and how experienced readers detect it. It explains why a vague claim costs you more credibility than a modest one.