This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Emily Durham, a 30-year-old author, content creator, podcaster, entrepreneur, and former recruiter who lives in Toronto. It has been edited for length and clarity.
Before becoming Emily The Recruiter, a content creator with nearly one million TikTok followers, I held a variety of recruitment roles for nearly 10 years. I worked at a couple of large banks and some large tech companies, and focused on all career stages.
I noticed that early-career folks weren’t passing interviews or didn’t know how to advocate for higher salaries. I would be on the phone with candidates, offering them a salary, and they’d say, OK, yeah, I’ll take it. I’d then find myself egging them on, trying to get them to negotiate more.
I didn’t have time to prepare each candidate for every interview round the way I wanted to. One day in 2019, I recorded a 30-minute podcast episode on how not to mess up an interview and how to negotiate. Within three weeks, it took off. From there, I posted to my podcast, Clock In with Emily Durham, regularly, and within the same year, to TikTok and Instagram, too.
Between content creation and recruiting, I was working 75 to 80 hours a week and sleeping only four hours a night — I knew something had to give. In 2024, I quit my job to pursue content creation full time.
If I were advising my best friend — or myself — on how to navigate today’s job market, these are the 12 tips I would give.
1. Don’t: Customize your résumé for every job
I would never customize my résumé for every job I’m applying to. I think it’s incredibly dated advice, and it solves the wrong problem. The problem today is that no one’s seeing it. You spend all this time on the “perfect piece of paper,” and Susie from HR won’t be reading it.
Why? Often, people who customize their résumés each time use AI to help, and everyone else does, too. You think it’s standing out, but it’s not. Recruiters can tell your résumé has been touched by AI.
2. Do: Make one solid résumé
Instead, having a résumé you wrote stands out so much more than having a cookie-cutter, perfect résumé that reads like all of the other applicants.
I’d focus on having one really solid résumé. I’d look at the roles I truly want at my ideal companies, then examine the job descriptions and the recurring words. These would include technical skills, leadership, data, and analytics.
Then, I’d cross-reference it with two or three more job descriptions and see how many of those repeat. That’s usually a good indicator of your keywords. If you’re feeling super stuck or overwhelmed, you can also ask AI to validate the keywords you found.
Integrate those keywords into your résumé by making sure that they’re included in how you describe your work. So, instead of saying, “I worked with spreadsheets,” say, “I analyzed data,” and now you actually have those qualifications there.
You would also never catch me dead doing or recommending high-volume AI applications. The day I use an AI scraper to apply for 1,000 jobs a day, I’ll be sick.
3. Don’t: Treat networking like a transaction
After getting my one solid résumé, I’d spend the rest of my time networking on LinkedIn and in person so I’m visible.
One big networking mistake is treating it like a transaction. This can look like reaching out to someone you don’t know and saying something like, “Hey, I’m Emily. I’m looking for a marketing role. Are you hiring? Can you refer me?” People aren’t going to refer you because they don’t know you.
I probably get 100 of these messages a day. Because you think this is good outreach, I’m not going to refer you.
4. Do: Butter people up by asking valuable questions
People need to feel like you’re buttering them up a little before you ask for something from them — that’s how our brains work. Instead, get them on the phone and ask three or four questions about their career. Genuinely learn from them.
Then, at the end of the call, you could say something like, “I’m actually looking for a role. Do you happen to know anyone who is hiring in your company or in your network?” This way, you’re treating it as a relationship rather than a transaction.
Attending in-person events hosted by companies can help. Companies are truly hiring at these events, and a lot of orgs and agencies are hosting their own in-house mixers once a quarter that people can attend.
If you’ve connected with someone once, you want to keep that relationship warm. This could mean sending a nice little check-in email every three to four months to see how they’re doing.
5. Don’t: Overdo, or underdo LinkedIn
One mistake is refusing to post on LinkedIn because you don’t want to be an influencer. You’re not being an influencer when you post on LinkedIn — you’re building your personal brand, and that’s the difference. Not posting or interacting at all won’t help you.
The other mistake is taking it too far. Don’t write AI-slop posts. If I see one more “my wife cheated on me, and here’s what I learned about B2B sales” post — that’s not quite doing what you think it’s going to do.
Instead, keep it simple. We don’t need to be revolutionizing space.
6. Do: Keep your LinkedIn updated
As a job seeker, I’d be posting on LinkedIn once a week. It can be as simple as resharing articles that are relevant to your industry.
Twice a week, I would comment on posts from companies I want to work at or from people who work there. Besides having a complete profile, posting like that is enough to push you into the algorithm, so you become a bit more relevant.
I don’t think you need to be an influencer to get recognized, but I do think having content you can share about the value of your work online really matters. Whether that’s LinkedIn, GitHub for engineers, or a portfolio for UX designers, people need to be able to interact with the work you’ve done and the brand you’ve built.
10 years ago, I’d say you don’t have to post on LinkedIn, but today it’s kind of required.
7. Don’t: Give companies an excuse to not hire you
In a market where candidates get taken advantage of, employers should be held accountable. We see it in the uptick in ghosting, lowball offers, and candidates getting case studies that clearly ask them to work for free. It’s valid that you want to express yourself, but doing it on LinkedIn is something to be cautious of.
Other recruiters — especially recruiters who, frankly, might not be great at their jobs — might be scared to reach out to you because they’re scared to be put on blast.
Instead, I’d go to a website like Glassdoor or Fishbowl, since those sites are anonymous but still have the same impact. That stuff genuinely impacts how a company is perceived, but it protects you a little bit more. You can also reach out to that company’s generic careers email if you’d like to give direct feedback.
Be careful on LinkedIn. The reality is, in an era when companies are finding every excuse not to give us a chance, you don’t want to give them another reason.
8. Do: Ask the interviewer about their weekend
Don’t skip small talk. Some people get right into business when the recruiter asks, how are you? They say, ‘good,’ and keep it moving.
At the end of the day, people want to hire people that they want to work with, so instead use small talk as an opportunity to ask them a few questions. Such as “What did you do this weekend?” You’re easier to remember and harder to ghost when you do this.
9. Don’t: Forget the basics
If you’re not prepared for the basic questions, that’s a problem. You know you’re going to get asked: “Tell me about yourself,” “Why do you want to work here?” and “Why are you looking for a job?” Those are guaranteed.
People’s attention spans are about a minute and a half per answer. If you’re giving two-, three-, or four-minute interview answers, you’ve already lost them.
Using lots of filler words, or pretending that you have the answers when you don’t, is a mistake. Keep it short instead.
10. Do: Be freeflowing, no scripts
One of the biggest ones I see more and more in the age of AI is people reading off scripts, especially in virtual interviews, where you’ve got your notes, and it’s clear you’re reading. Interviews are conversations, not interrogations.
You want to show that you have the skills and cultural alignment, and you can only do that by being a person — well-prepared but free-flowing, not scripted.
11. Don’t: Overly use the word ‘we’
Avoid overly using the word “we” instead of “I.” When you’re asked about the quality of your work, and you say, “We did this” or “our team did that,” it can sound great because you’re being inclusive, but recruiters want to hear what you did.
They’re hiring you, not the whole team. If everything is through the lens of “we,” they may assume you didn’t have a big role. You need balance — maybe 30% “we,” but the rest should be specific about your individual contributions. If you can’t say that clearly, the recruiter will assume it wasn’t much.
12. Do: Turn off social media when needed
Don’t fall into doomscrolling. We talk about social media doomscrolling all the time, but LinkedIn doomscrolling is real, too.
When you’re in the job search, it’s OK to not open LinkedIn beyond what you need to build your brand. A lot of what you’re seeing is intense highlight reels, and we don’t actually know how people are performing at work.
I would urge people to disconnect during their job search process. It’s also OK to mute keywords like “job hunting” on TikTok, because seeing someone on day 1,000 of job hunting can add to anxiety unnecessarily.
If today were day one of my job search
I would structure my job search in shifts. For example, Mondays are for applying, Tuesdays are for reaching out on LinkedIn, and Wednesdays are for attending networking events.
Treating it like shift work helps prevent burnout, because even if you do everything right, it can still take time. You have to preserve your sanity.
