10 Ways to Lose a Job Offer, Part 1 (Before You Even Walk In)

You didn't lose the offer in the interview. You lost it at 9 p.m. on a Tuesday, when you fired the same tired résumé at your fortieth job posting and called it "applying."

This month, Lauren's teaching you how to lose a job offer in ten ways, so you can go do the exact opposite. And we're starting at the very beginning, with the two own-goals you can score before a single person has even met you.

In Part 1: the Lazy Application (and the one little line on your résumé you need to delete tonight), the seven seconds your résumé actually gets on the first pass, and the Ghost Researcher who walks in not knowing what the company even does. Plus a new framework, the Three Sentence Test, that gets you interview-ready in about fifteen minutes.

This week's mailbag: what to actually do when you're applying to thirty jobs a week and hearing nothing back.

Got a career horror story? Send it in. Lauren reads every one, and yours might end up on the show.

Ready for real help instead of guessing? Book a free thirty-minute consult at careerbloomsolutions.com/free-consultations. Résumés, career, or interviews. You bring the mess, we'll sort it out together.

New episodes every Thursday. Find Lauren at @lonestarflower.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to the Career Bloom podcast, y'all. And we're going to talk about something that I have been waiting for probably years, close to a decade, to talk about. And I'm not even kidding. And it took me some time to put this one together, y'all, because it it's one of those things that when you work in HR and you work as a recruiter or something like that, you kind of get stuck in our language, right? So it's like anything else where you know a lot about one thing. You kind of get stuck in it and you think, well, everybody knows this. It's common sense, right? And then I have realized as of late, especially posting on my social media and things like that, that my HR definition of common sense is not the same definition of common sense to everyone else. And I'm sure you feel that way too, if you're into, you know, um reading or if you're into knitting or if you're into sports or if you're into, you know, a lot of different things, is stuff that's common sense to you about your particular thing is not common sense to everybody else. And so I am gonna focus on something this June, and it's gonna go on for the next couple of podcast episodes, but it's 10 ways to lose a job offer, okay? And we're gonna start with part one, which is before you even walk in the door, okay? Because a lot of y'all are making some like little bitty mistakes that could be fixed and honestly get you the job. So here's something that'll sit with you for a while. But most people who lose a job offer never find out why. And yes, as recruiters and HR managers, we understand that that's frustrating. And honestly, I could do a whole other podcast, and I might. In fact, I'm gonna make a note of that. Uh, a whole other podcast on why we don't get feedback anymore, and we kind of used to, but anyway, let's let's move on before I get stuck on another rant. Um, but a lot of people don't get a single phone call, there's no feedback, there's the ghosting thing that we keep hearing about. And, you know, people are saying, I applied, I talked, I did an interview, I didn't hear back. And full-on ghosting, I'm not okay with, but a lot of times you're just gonna get a very polite email that says I'm moving forward with another candidate, and you're gonna spend the next two weeks replaying what you did wrong in the interview, what was wrong with your application, and wondering kind of what went wrong. And almost every single time, I'm just gonna tell you now, it's something small, it's something fixable, something nobody ever kind of told you to stop doing. And so this month, I'm gonna tell you, okay, there's 10 ways people lose a job offer, and we're gonna go over them one at a time because here's the thing, too, is once you see the mistake, you can't unsee it. You're gonna be like, Yep, I've been doing that this entire time. You'll catch yourself about to do it and then stop, and that's kind of the whole goal, and it's worth more than like a whole pile of new tips or blogs that I could write. And today's gonna be the first two, okay? And they both happen before a single person has ever laid eyes on you. And it kind of sort of makes them like the most important because a lot of people think the race starts in the interview, right? Like everything kind of leading up to that kind of gets cast to the side and it's not super important, and I just need to make it to the interview. And you can lose the entire thing before you even walk in the door. And I really hope that people understand that is you don't have to be in the door to lose the job offer. A lot of people lose it before they even get there. So, way number one that we're gonna talk about, and I'm gonna say this with my whole chest, y'all. So I hope you're paying attention. I say it with my chest, but all the love in the world, I promise. You have a lazy application. It you've taken the application process and been like, how, and not the good lazy, we're like, like they say to hire lazy people, you know, because they'll figure out like the most efficient way to do something. That's my teenagers right now, but I digress. But I need you to be honest with yourself just a little bit, because it's just us here, okay? We can we can be cringy and kind of whatever, but when's the last time you actually changed your resume for a specific job? Yes, I'm talking about tailoring your resume, not the cover letter, the resume itself. When was the last time you opened it up and actually like fine-tuned it? Like looked at it compared to the role you're actually applying to. Because here's what I see consistently. Somebody will find a job they're super excited about. We all get excited, and I love that. They get a little like flutter, they're excited, there's little butterflies happening, and then they go, Oh my gosh, I'm so excited for this role. This looks amazing for me. Maybe there's a little background happening, clickety clack on the computer, and they look at the company and they go, Oh my gosh, they have benefits, they have time, whatever it is that you're looking for. And then for some reason, that excitement translates into hitting submit on the same resume that you've had just sitting on your computer for the last two years almost untouched. And I don't understand that. That is like getting invited out to a first date and being like, oh my gosh, I'm so excited, let me throw my sweatpants on. Probably not, is all I'm saying, unless you're going to a pajama party or something crazy. Okay. Because here's what happened is y'all do that, and then you go, oh my gosh, I'm so excited. Exact same resume. It gets fired off, right? The same one you've sent 65 other places. And then you go tell everybody that you applied and you're so excited. And sure, technically you applied the same way when I cook dinner, I microwave a burrito and call it dinner. Something happened, right? There's dinner on my plate, but let's not call it effort.

unknown 5:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Let's, and I need to tell you what happens to that resume on the other side because I've watched it happen, right? So if you don't know, I'm a career coach and an HR consultant. So I literally teach teams how to hire. So I've seen this stack of resumes. I've sat in the room where your whole entire fate gets decided over cold conference room coffee. Okay. And they actually did an eye tracking study. And I actually just pulled this up. I'm gonna go over it. The company ladders ran it, okay? And when they literally wired recruiters up, like stuck stuff on their body to track exactly where their eyes go, right? And there was like a computer, there's lots of stuff involved, and timed to see actually how long we're spending on resumes in the first pass. I want you to guess, just guess how long a recruiter spent on each resume. Okay, you got your guesses, it's seven seconds. Okay, was that what you thought? Because it was 7.4 to be exact, but let's not get hairy. That's the whole audition for you. And in those seven seconds, they're not reading your resume, right? They're scanning. Their eyes moved in a little F shape, okay? Across the top, down the left side, pattern kind of matching for whether you're a fit or you're obviously not. And a generic resume screams, I've already sent this to 40 other people, louder than anything else that's on your resume. And we can smell a copy paste a coming, okay? I can tell. I don't, I can't even really honestly explain it, but I can sense, like if when I as soon as I pull it up, I can tell there's AI happening, there's other things happening, and it's just a no-go for me, man. So now we're gonna stack on the fact that one single posting, right? So when I post a position, it can pull in hundreds, thousands of applicants. I had a job a couple of weeks ago. We had to pull it after day four because it got over 5,000 applications in four days. That is wild to me. And so we're not really reading super carefully and like lovingly in that kind of moment, right? So you're being triaged almost when we just kind of look at your resume. It's like an emergency room compared to like a doctor's office or something when there's more stuff going on. And a generic resume is like somebody who strolled in with a hangnail, just straight to the back of the line. Like I maybe we'll get to you. I doubt it, but we might. Oh, and you know what? Now that I'm thinking about it, can we talk about the line on your resume? Um, that drives me crazy. Okay, and you might know the one if you're listening to me as somebody who works in HR, or just guess what it is. But references available upon request. I need y'all to listen to me and listen to me good. I need y'all to delete that tonight. You can do it right now. I'll wait if you're at home. If you're driving, don't even think about it. Because here's what it is. Okay, it does two bad things when you put references available upon request. One, you're taking up a whole line that you could use to post actual information that I need. And in those seven seconds, remember we're doing very important things quickly. So space is gold, right? On your resume. And I don't I don't need references available upon, I don't want it. And two, it quietly kind of tells me that your resume is older, and that's not to be judged I mean, it is a little bit to be judgy, I'm not gonna lie. Um, but like that's the same for me as seeing like an AOL address. If I see an AOL, I mean the we've we've grown, okay. Let's dust off the resume, all right. And uh here's the other thing with that is of course your references are available upon request. We it's it's basically like a wild held held assumption now, right? So I we know that we can get them from you, so we're good. We're good there. You can take it off. And and I am gonna quit grapping and hollering and actually help because I'm not here to be ugly. I'm I'm actually here to help you fix it. Like my goal in life is to help people get in the right positions, right? So here's the thing a non-lazy application is actually so much less work than your brain is telling you that it is, okay? Because some people I'm like immediately we start talking about redoing their resume when I'm working with clients and they go, Oh, this is gonna be so much work. And it's not as much as you think because you're not rewriting the whole thing every single time, right? You're basically doing three little things. One, and this is probably the most important, and a lot of y'all seem to skip it. We're gonna read the actual posting. And I don't mean like skim it. I want you to actually read it and pull out specific words that they've used. The real skills, the phrases they repeat it, those are really important when we build them, and the manager might say four times, I need this person to lead a team or be organized, and they kind of keep saying things. We will intentionally kind of use those things multiple times in the job description to really kind of push through the type of thing that we're looking for. And then you have to make sure that those words show up on your resume, not similar words, those words. And here's the other thing they have to genuinely be somewhat true. Like, I have seen so many other um content creators, influencers, what do you want, whatever you want to call them, and they'll post and they go, just lie on your resume, just lie, it's fine, just lie. Um, don't lie. We're gonna catch you, okay? Not every time. Some companies genuinely don't do any sort of background on your resume. But I have worked for so many companies and I train with so many companies that they run an education check. They're gonna call your past positions. So you can make up little white lies, okay, but genuinely true when I say that means can you actually do that thing? Like given enough time and space, reasonably can you do that skill? Could you take a couple of classes online before this job starts and be where I kind of need you to be, right? Because it's and it's not lying, it's translating. So if you haven't done like that exact thing, but you know that you have very similar skills. So, like let's say that you've organized and you've kind of ran some teams and you kind of integrated those new people into a position, right? But the new position is calling for like mentoring, like those are the words they're using, mentoring and kind of on the job training, things like that. You have done that before. So translating isn't lying. And and maybe I need to make a whole nother episode on kind of the difference because a lot of people get lost on the translating, but it's not lying. If you have the core skill of which they're asking, go ahead and put that on there. You just need to speak their language back to them. Because just like you may be a little bit confused in how to translate your skills to how they word it, they may be a little bit confused when you send a resume over with only how you worded it and they're looking for how they worded it. You see what I'm saying? So a lot of things can get lost in translation. So it's usually just best to read the actual job posting. Like I said, actually read it, pull out those keywords. Look at them like almost like if you're of the younger persuasion, um, like hashtags, right? Or what you would Google search if you were looking for something. You really gotta make sure that that resume matches that job description. Because again, you get seven seconds, okay? Seven seconds real quick, fast to make sure that your resume matches that job. And then two, okay, I want you to reorder. I want you to drag the most relevant thing you've ever done to the top where the eyes actually land, like right in our seven seconds when I'm looking, instead of leaving it buried somewhere under 2012 that has nothing to do with this job. So when we talk about that, when we start at the top and look at your resume and like your summary section, the amount of people that I've had to, like I'm coaching them, right? And we're going through their resume and they're going, Oh, I really want this, you know, marketing position, running these social media teams, and I'm reading their resume. And the only thing they have listed marketing social media is like, you know, they got an award or they did these really cool things, but it's all down at the bottom. And I'm like, you had your summary section and your skills section right up there at the top to tell me these highly relevant things, but you've got those highly relevant skills just buried, just I have to look for them. I am not Sherlock Holmes in my way through your resume to make sure that you fit this position. I'm just not doing it. So you have reorder things. Let's keep relevant first, okay? And then it actually translates a little bit to, and I go more in depth about this in the blog, but um, which is at careerblom solutions.com slash blog. You can go check it out. I'm gonna do everything that I'm talking about today will be listed on there by the time this podcast goes live. Um, way more kind of in depth. But two, okay, when you um do the reordering and things like that, that actually goes into your bullet points as well. Like when you go to write your like work experience and you go to write your bullet points, when you do that, I I don't know why. Some people will do five, six bullet points, five, six bullet points on the next one, five, six bullet points on the next one. And as they're doing it, it's like the very last bullet point that they list is like the most highly sought-after skill that I need for this job. And so that's what I mean by like reorder it. Let's make sure we're we're prioritizing the things that you want me to see and that I want to see, okay? And then three, all right, we're gonna delete anything that doesn't serve this role. We're gonna make room for relevance, all right? So again, if I'm going through your resume and I have to find your buried skills, I'm already gonna be frustrated because you're applying as, you know, a foreman at this shop, but your resume, the last time you you have all your foreman skills certifications, they're buried. And then I'm looking through your resume, and I see, you know, you worked at an ice cream shop when you were 14, or I see that, you know, for you took some time off to take care of your kids and got a real estate license, and you're applying, you know, to something completely different that has nothing to do with this. So you don't want to waste space. So I really want you to make sure you're making room and highly relevant things are present first. And that's really the whole thing. Okay, you're gonna do those three things, and I'll go back over in a little bit. One, read the actual posting, really read it, pull those keywords out of it, make sure that your resume and that job description, same language, right? And then two, reorder. I want your relevance first. Tell me the important things first, right? Like tell me the things I really need to know. And then three, delete anything that doesn't belong there. I would rather have a shorter, cleaner resume than a longer one that I'm not gonna read because I can already tell that I don't need to know that you took basket weeping lessons when you were 16, okay, to be a CFO here. I don't need that. So, like I said, that's the whole thing. And I know you're tired of doing this like night after night after night, especially like after a whole day of applying, but here's the math. So I need you to brace yourself a little bit because I do research the data behind these things. Study after study has landed in the same place, okay? People who tailor their resume get roughly double the callbacks of people who don't. I'm gonna say that one more time. Double. So 30 lazy applications and 15 real ones aren't giving you 45 chances, okay? The 30 lazy ones are like evaporating into the void. All right, we're not even looking at them. And they only feel like progress, and I'm gonna say this with like the utmost love, I promise. But it only feels like progress to you to lazy apply because it makes the number of your applications like go up in your tracker. Like in your head, you're thinking, oh, well, I applied to 10 jobs today. But if you lazy applied to eight of them and actually gave it your all on two of them, I don't know how to tell you this. You only applied to two. You only applied to two. You you flicked into the void the other ones. Okay, so I had a client, and I'm gonna protect her a little bit. So we're just gonna call her Maya, all right? She was applying to 30 jobs a week and getting absolutely nothing back. Okay, she reached out and she was like, Hey, Lauren, I need your help. I've been applying to all these jobs and I just don't understand. It was just crickets for her, right? Like, she was like, apply, apply, apply, apply, apply, crickets. She was tired, discouraged, and convinced the whole market was broken and rigged and hopeless and everything was awful. Okay, and like I don't mean to laugh about that, but it was just she was going through it, y'all, going through it. And we can laugh now because she's fixed now, all right? And I looked at what she was doing. I sat down with her and I said, Okay, wild idea. Like, stay with me here, Maya. What if you just applied to five? But you actually meant all five. And she looked at me kind of like I had three heads, where you're gonna get that look from people where they're like, what? Where it's a little bit of like, excuse me, but it's also a little bit of like, huh? Going on because but she was desperate, right? So I kind of walked her through those three different kind of rules and all the kind of different things, and she tried it. Five real applications instead of 30 lazy ones. And wouldn't you know it? Two interviews in 11 days. The market wasn't broken necessarily. Her strategy needed work, all right? And while that can't be the case for every single person, because it highly does depend on industry, market, years of experience, certification, things of that nature, it's a lot more people than you would think. And and a lot of people sit there and I think they think, like, oh, well, that's not me because you know, I'm actually applying. So maybe just think about it before you next apply is are you doing that? And here's another one that I have to tell you because I was actually just thinking about it, because this story kind of lives in like my soul. This one kind of comes from a recruiter friend, so it happens to be on like my side of the desk a little bit, but somehow it makes it like work. I don't know. You tell me, all right. She's hiring for a marketing role at the moment. She opens an application from someone who on paper is incredible, right? Great experience, clean resume, the whole package. She's excited, opens the cover letter. It's gorgeous, right? And for us, that means well-written, specific, pass and passionate, all about how this candidate has admired the company for years, how the mission lines up perfectly with her values, how she valued their work for a long time, you know, all those things that we tell you to write in those cover letters. There's just one tiny problem, right? There's one tiny problem when she was telling me about this story, and I was thinking, oh my God, she's got a good applicant. Why'd she call me? Right? I'm the queen of the drama and the tea. I mean, you can call me when you have good applicants, but what's going on here? And she said, Well, it's the wrong company. And I said, What do you what do you mean it's the wrong company? And I think you all know what I'm about to say. But the whole gorgeous corporate love letter was addressed to a different company, a competitor, actually. She had written one genuinely good cover letter, but the problem was she was mass applying it everywhere, and I guess forgot to change the name. So this poor brilliant woman professed her deep lifelong soulmate-level devotion to a company she wasn't even applying to in a letter she sent straight to the company's rival. So she must have put it together really well for the company that she like titled it to, and then sent it out to everybody else. And I've seen this a lot. A lot of people get company names wrong, all sorts of stuff wrong. And I can tell you, years ago, I probably would have taken the time to call someone and kind of call them out and see if they want to write a different one, but we just don't have time for that in this current job market. And here's the part about it that kind of haunts me is Because my friend said the rest of it was strong enough that if the cover letter had just said the right name, right? Or honestly, it just said nothing at all, she would have gotten the interview. The lazy copy paste. It just it was a thing. It reached out and yanked her out of the running. Just a lazy copy paste. The laziness from it. So that's the lazy application in its final most dramatic form, right? Is two seconds. If she would have taken the additional two seconds to realize she'd been mass applying or, you know, just kind of applied to this position with the wrong information, she would have gotten an interview. Um the shortcut doesn't just skip a bonus round, right? It can cost you an the entire thing. So, like, like I said before, it the laziness happens or kind of the nonchalantness happens before you ever get into the interview. So a lot of people think, well, the interview is just, you know, once I get in the interview, I'm fine. No, we're judging you for everything before. Before that, I'm so sorry to say. And you gotta read your stuff before you send it out. Like out loud is actually what I recommend to people. And maybe that's just a how I learn thing, but read it out loud. Read your resume out loud and see what it sounds like. If you sound like you're like, what am I saying right now? You may need to change it. And also maybe say that company out loud, like a little prayer, right? Like 10 seconds. It could have saved her interview offer. Okay. And now we're gonna move on to way number two. All right, the one that gets you a little later, right when you started to relax, right? The ghost researcher. That's what we're gonna call it. Don't worry, I'm gonna explain. So let's say you nail the application. You tailored it, deleted the reference line, said the right company name, gold star for you. Now you've got the interview. And this is exactly where people exhale because they think the hard part's over, right? Like you're done, right? So you set in the application and you tailored and you did everything and you followed up and you sent beautiful emails and you picked out your outfit. And then you go, okay, I'm ready for that interview. Mm-mm. That exhale is exactly where way two gets you. Okay. So way one's kind of the lazy applying. The ghost researcher walks in knowing basically nothing about the company that they're actually interviewing that with. And before I move on, I just want that to sit with you for a minute. Like you've gone into a company to interview, and interviews are supposed to be two-way streets. So they're asking you questions, you're asking them questions. You walk into that room and they you know nothing and nothing in the year 2026. Okay, we have Google. All right, we have AI. We have, even if you don't even like it, like we have so many things that and social media, we have so many things that tell you so many things about these companies, and it is baffling to me. It's straight up baffling when I go into there and you know, I'm gonna go interview somebody. First of all, big red flags when somebody's like, what was this position again? Anyway, that's a whole nother story, but it is mind-boggling to me when I go to interview somebody and I'm like, you know, hey, here's the position, and they know nothing. Anyway, I digress, y'all. Because I don't need you to memorize the earning report. I mean, they genuinely can't tell you what the company does anyway, but so when I ask, and I will, what do you know about our company? What made you want to work here? And then I watch their soul leave their entire body because I and they'll go, uh well, uh, I know the industry, um, and you seem like a really great company. When I tell you that if one more person says to me, it just seems like a great company, okay. Well, that doesn't tell me that's not an answer, that's like a hostage statement. Like, and it does. It looks like you've been taken hostage, and I'm asking you about your your the people holding you. Like you're like, oh my god, they're so great. Like, and I get it, okay. I do before you jump down my throat and come from a comment section. You're applying to a lot of places. I get that they blur together, but here's what the blank stare tells the person across the table, and it's kind of brutal. It tells them you're not actually excited about this job. Keyword, this job, okay? You're excited about a job, any job. And theirs just happens to be the one that's in front of you today. And nobody wants to feel like a backup plan. I don't care the desperation in the market at the moment, all those kind of things where people go, well, it's just you don't understand what people are going through and they don't really care. But it just the nature that we have as people, nobody wants to be a backup plan. Not in dating, not in friendships, and definitely not right before I hand you a salary. Okay. So there are still minimum requirements in the interview process. And here's the fix, and I'm gonna give it a name because you know I love a good framework. Okay, I love a good title for things. Um, we're gonna call it the three-sentence test. Before any interview, you need to be able to say three sentences out loud from memory, no notes, no peeking. Okay. One, what does the company actually do in plain English? Not their tagline. I've had people try that before too. What do they make, sell, provide, and to who? Okay, what do they do? What is the purpose of them existing? And then two, who do they serve? Who's on the other end of what they do? You should be able to figure out who their customer, clients, patients, audience, whatever it is. Okay. And then three, and this is the important one, why you? People skip this part. They need to tell me what a great company we have, or oh, I know that you have clients that do this, and they've kind of done number one and number two, and then they go, they skip the why you, right? Why does this specific company doing this specific thing, right, actually make sense for you and what you're good at? So, like when you're gonna explain to me, you know, number one, what does the company actually do? What are they making? What are they selling? What are they doing? And then number two, who's on the other end of that? Who's receiving the things that they're doing? But you're gonna skip the most important part, which is tell me how you play into that as an applicant. Why do you want to be here doing those things? And that's it. And if you can't say those three things out loud right now about the company you're gonna interview with, you're not ready to walk in yet. You got homework to do. And here's the beautiful part though, is again, this fix takes about as long as the last one. It's 15 minutes. Their website, their LinkedIn, one recent article. The same 15 minutes that separates the candidate who feels like a genuine fan from the one who feels like uh they've got some substance. Okay, like the person that's not gonna freeze in front of me and be like, What did she just say? Did she just ask me what this company does? Yeah, I did. And what it does in the actual room is like it works kind of like magic, really. Like it's a big deciding factor. And I'm not just saying that because it sounds good for a podcast. The second you can speak to what they do and who they serve, and the the whole energy of interviews will shift. They're like, Oh, I've seen people literally sit up more in their seats and go, oh, you stop sounding like someone who needs a job and you start sounding like someone who chose this one. Do you see where like the difference is there? You're no longer just like begging for a position and being like, well, I just need a paycheck and remember, jobs are two-way streets. You're contributing, we're contributing, you get a salary, we get your skills. Like it's the whole thing is a back and forth, right? So if you want to begin that back and forth with actual information, chef's kiss, okay? So you ask kind of sharper questions too. You connect your experience to the real actual problems. You go for from a resume with a pulse to a person they can actually like picture on their team. Okay. Like we're more interested. We're gonna ask those sharper questions, we're gonna do those things because we're like, oh, you care. So just don't forget the three sentence tests, what do they do? Who do they serve? Why you? Sticky note, sticky note that every single time. All right, be prepared. And this connects right to a message I got this week. Um, and I love my messages, so y'all keep them coming. You can uh DM me on TikTok at Lone Starflower, or you can email me at careerbloomsolutions.com. But I I love them so much. But this one comes from someone we'll call Renee because remember, I keep most of them anonymous unless you tell me not to. And she is in the thick of it, y'all. So y'all pay attention. She said everybody keeps telling me to tailor every single application and research every company, but I'm applying to 20 or so jobs a week, but uh because I need something fast, and I just don't have the time for all that. So, what do I actually do? Here's the thing, Renee. First thing I want you to do is take a big breath. Okay, get you a little coffee, get you a little something. I see you in this, and the pressure is very real, and you're not lazy, you're just scared, and those are two different things, okay? When you need a job, the math feels obvious. More applications, more chances, right? So if I really, really need a job and I'm desperate, 100 sounds way better than 25, right? It just does. So you spray your application out there and then you pray, right? Like that's the method that a lot of people use as they kind of go, Oh, I'm panicked, and then the walls are closing in, and I need a job and I can't do things, so I'm just gonna hit, hit, hit, hit, hit that apply button. And that is a is a reaction that a lot of people have. And I'm not saying it never works because it honestly it can, but hear me in this 30 rushed applications and three or three real ones don't add up to 33. Okay. The rushed ones, like I said before, Renee, are going into a void. That they're the lazy applications that we're not considering. So now you're stressed out and wasting your opportunity. They feel like work when you do that. Like it is a job to look for a job, don't get me wrong, but your tracker fills up, right, with all these apply, apply, apply, apply, apply, and it feels productive. But the needle itself on how well you're doing isn't really moving. So here's your permission slip, Renee, if you need it. Because I'm sure right now in desperation, it feels like the more, the merrier, right? Like I'm just gonna apply to a thousand places and that's gonna make me feel better. I'm just worried it's not gonna achieve your goal. So here's your permission slip from an HR recruiter, whoever. You're allowed to apply to fewer, okay? It does not, you don't have to justify with a number. Pick the five or six you actually want and you're qualified for and pour your energy into those. Tailor those, run the three-sentence test on those. Quality is not the slow option, okay? It actually is the fast one. It just doesn't feel like it the first couple days while you're learning these skills. And Renee, if you still need some more help, I do offer free consultations, okay? So if you go to Curriculum Solutions.com, there's a free consultation kind of services section where you can go and we can chat for like 30 minutes and I can help you get more on track or we can go over some more stuff in depth, um, kind of stuff like that, just to see if I can help. And I wish you the best of luck in the meantime, and I know you're gonna get something awesome really soon. And for everyone, before you get back to your day, one tiny thing to actually do because a podcast you can just nod along to and then forget about is a waste of a perfectly good like lunch break or car ride or whatever jog, whatever it is that you're doing, okay. Tonight, the second you get some free time, I want you to open up your resume. And actually, even if you're still employed, okay, and I want you to find a job. So if you're unemployed, find a job that you're actually going to apply to. If you're employed, this is just for practice, all right? So keep both in mind. But I want you to find just one job. And I want you to run it through everything that we talked about today. Like sentence tests, would you know anything about the company as well, just for fun? But but kind of run it through, right? Do you know how to find the keywords? Do you know how to do the the thing? Did you pull in their actual words? Is it of is all your relevant stuff at the top? Can you pass the three-sentence test after a little bit of research, right? And while you're in there, just real quick, just for me, right? Just delete the references available upon request. I know I already said it three times, but just for me, just personally. Um, and then text a friend, tell him you did it so it counts, right? That's your homework. One application and do it like you mean it with your hog chest, all right? And next Thursday, we will walk through the front door of the interview itself. And oh, we are gonna get into it. We're gonna go over the things that you think are making you look good, but that but might actually be setting you on fire just a little bit, so you don't want to miss it. And if this helped you, I would just ask that you share it. Send it to a friend who's grinding through a job search right now and getting nowhere, or send it to someone that you know still has references available upon request on their resume, and you know exactly who that is, and then come find me. I'm on TikTok and Instagram and everything at Lone Star Flower, and please send me your horror stories, your questions, everything. I try my best to always read through every single one and keep and they do end up on the show if I can. And if you are tired of doing all this by yourself and you just want someone to look at your actual resume or just run you through just real quick your interview strategy or help you figure out your next career move, that's what I'm here for. Okay. 30 minute consult, no charge, no weird sales pitch you didn't ask for. Um, I've never really been good at the sales part, just the helping part. And the link um is on my website, so careerbloom solutions.com. And your career is not gonna bloom by accident. You have to water it. Now go fix that resume, and I'll see y'all next Thursday.