The Rules Won't Help You When The Game Is Rigged

It’s very easy to obsess (and then burnout) during a job search. We try hard to get noticed and make a great first impression within a cold and mechanical system that’s stacked against us before we even submit our first application. My advice has always focused on how to protect and empower yourself in the shadow of an inescapable power dynamic. In good times—when job postings are plentiful and you can take your pick or name your price—this power dynamic still exists. In bad times, it’s evident at every step that applying, interviewing, and getting hired is a circus. Either way, the game is rigged. Losing is not an option, but you’re just one of many people in blind competition with each other, at the whim of a faceless organization. What this requires of an individual to succeed (or at least hold the line for many months) is often pitiless or unfair. repressionnap It’s even just breaking through the noise, most of the effort gets shot into the monolithic, deafening silence, and the…