Many senior people tell nobody they are looking. They don't tell their peers they want to leave. They don't tell old colleagues they are out of work. They don't post. They don't comment. They don't ask for an introduction. Then they do the one thing nobody sees. They send another application. I call it the quiet search. If this is you, the free UNDENIABLE Bootcamp is open for registration. Register free Why it happens Ask them, and you hear the same lines. "I don't want to look desperate."...
9 days ago • 2 min read
A CMO I will call Peter was six months into his search when we spoke. He had sent out seventy-six applications and had two interviews, both of which stalled halfway through. Every day looked the same. He opened the portals, applied, refreshed the inbox, and applied again. On our first call he said: "I just don't understand why nobody replies." Here was a man whose whole job was figuring out where the right people are and how to get in front of them. And yet, he had never used that knowledge...
16 days ago • 3 min read
If you are reading this in the weeks after a senior role ended, this is for you. It is a map of the five stages you are about to move through, in the order they arrive, and what to do at each one before it costs you the next role. I have sat with enough senior people through this to know the stages are not personal. They happen to almost everyone. Knowing they are coming is most of the work. Stage one: shame You update the headline to Open to Work and you feel the whole platform watching you...
18 days ago • 4 min read
The strangest hiring process in any company is the one where HR hires HR. If you are a senior HR professional who has been through one lately, you already know the feeling I am about to describe, and you have probably never said it out loud. The profession that designs the interview is the profession that behaves worst inside it. I have been on both sides of that sentence. The junior who interviews the senior Here is a scene most senior HR people will recognise. A Head of HR role. First-round...
22 days ago • 6 min read
If you look like every other candidate, you get treated like every other candidate. In this market, that means ignored. Whether you are the introvert who dreads the outreach or the extrovert who fires off messages without a second thought, the rule is the same: blend in, and you disappear. I have been arguing for going around the traditional job application process for years, and this is exactly why. Two candidates, same company Two candidates approached the same company in the same month. I...
22 days ago • 2 min read
You applied at 22:40. The rejection landed at 22:43. No recruiter read your CV in three minutes, and you know it. The law already lets you demand answers. Your feed spent the week getting the EU AI Act deadline wrong while missing this entirely. The fines reach 35 million euros. The rules changed in June. Here is what actually applies today, for the people who hire and the people who get hired. What changed in June The EU AI Act was written with 2 August 2026 as the big date. From that day,...
22 days ago • 4 min read
The Open-To-Work green ring can help recruiters find you. LInkedIn said. It can also affect the offer you receive. Apparently, switching it on can roughly double recuiter messages. And personally, I understand why someone would use it to signal availability.But... The shortlist Meeting I have seen what happens when that profile comes up in a shortlist meeting. And before you get upset, no one was told to judge the ring, and no one said they were doing it. Someone would see it around the...
22 days ago • 2 min read
The decision was made before the interview ended. I know this because I was in the room. The candidate had fifteen years of experience. She had done the job at a larger company, with a bigger team, in a harder market. She answered every question cleanly. She asked good ones back. Afterwards, the hiring manager said: I'm not sure she's a culture fit. I asked what he meant. He said: I just don't think she'd gel with the team. I asked which part of the interview gave him that impression. He...
22 days ago • 5 min read
There is a move being run on senior candidates right now, and it needs a name. I call it the late lowball. I have now watched it happen to more than one senior person I work with, in the same month. It wears the costume of transparency but it's damn sure the opposite of it. What changed this year Pay Transparency arrived in Europe. Companies are now expected to show salary information on their vacancies, and many have started publishing ranges. On the surface, this looks like progress, and in...
22 days ago • 3 min read