Karpiak Consulting

This Wednesday at 12 PM ET, I’m joining Nexford University for Inside Hiring: The New Rules of Getting Hired in 2026 to talk about what REALLY goes on behind the scenes in hiring. Resumes, ATS myths, LinkedIn, AI, interviews, approaching recruiters, outdated job search advice, and what actually works. It's free! Registration link in the Linktree in my bio.

"Worked closely with executive leadership." Okay. Doing what? Attending meetings? Presenting recommendations? Securing funding? Influencing major business decisions? I've worked with senior-level professionals who were responsible for important executive initiatives, but their resumes barely explained their involvement. Those details can make a huge difference when you're applying for leadership positions.

The other thing I always want to know is whether someone is getting interviews through referrals or recruiter outreach but getting nowhere with direct applications. That can be useful information when evaluating their search. I want to understand what was different about those opportunities, how they got into the process, and whether they're applying to comparable positions on their own.

100 applications and no interviews? I'd have a lot of questions. What kinds of jobs are you applying for? How closely does your experience match? Are you pursuing several different functions because your background overlaps with all of them? I've spoken with jobseekers whose application numbers looked terrible until we started discussing the actual positions. There's a lot you can learn about a job search by looking beyond the number of applications.

*spends an hour tailoring resume and completing application* *rejected 90 seconds later*

Check your kids’ Halloween candy carefully! Someone tried to hide a Workday job application in this one.

Someone spends 10 years at a company, earns three promotions, and takes on significantly more responsibility. Their resume shows one job title for the entire decade. I've seen this more often than you'd think. Those promotions can tell recruiters a lot about how the company valued someone's performance and potential. And sometimes the reasons behind those promotions are even more interesting than the title changes themselves.

"Increased revenue by 15%." Okay. Was that good? "Well, the goal was 5%." THERE IT IS. Recruiters don't know the targets your company set or what successful performance looked like. I've reviewed plenty of resumes where the most impressive part of an accomplishment only came out AFTER I started asking questions.

a very popular costume this year

Don’t leave off integral resume selling points! Managing 100 employees tells me something about the size of the organization, but what happened while you were leading them? Did you build the department, develop managers, improve performance, or take over a struggling team? Those details can tell me quite a bit about your leadership abilities…and they're often overlooked.

a haunted house, but every room makes you record a 3-minute video explaining why you’re passionate about working there

You can have a beautifully written resume that's professionally formatted, full of metrics, and loaded with keywords... ...and still have a terrible resume. I've reviewed plenty of resumes that looked impressive until I started asking questions and discovered the strongest accomplishments weren't even included. There's a lot more to selling your experience than making your resume look good.

I've reviewed executive resumes that mention managing hundreds of employees, overseeing eight departments, and controlling $30M budgets. Impressive responsibilities. But sometimes I finish reading and have no idea how successful the person was at any of them. At the executive level, your competition probably has impressive titles too. Recruiters need to understand what you've accomplished with the responsibility you were given.