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Job searching can feel like a full-time job in and of itself. Endless networking coffees and cover letter drafts can make it easy to get discouraged. And while its helpful to get support from family, friends, and your significant other, they may not truly grasp the day-to-day grind thats needed to keep the momentum going. In fact, for many, searching for a job is an isolating experience. According to a recent American Staffing Association/Harris Poll Workforce Monitor survey, 72% of Americans say applying for jobs can feel like sending résumés into a black box. And four out of 10 unemployed U.S. job seekers revealed they didnt land a single job interview in a year. This cycle of applying for jobs and not hearing back can lead to frustration, hopelessness and loneliness, says Richard Wahlquist, chief executive officer at the American Staffing Association. One way to keep up a productive job search is to find a job-search partner. Experts say this support can help keep you motivated and feeling supported. Heres how to best work with another job searcher to both secure new roles: 1. Youll gain an extra set of eyes and ears Theres only so many hours in the day and so many networking channels one can explore. So, having a job partnerespecially one searching in the same industrycan double your outreach. They can identify job openings you missed, says Wahlquist. 2. They can help you polish your materials and prep for interviews A job search partner can not only assist with proofreading, but they can also offer you a fresh perspective on your cover letter, and provide suggestions on how to customize your résumé for each position you apply for. Interview prep is also paramount, and Walhquist says a job search partner can provide very helpful roleplay as you practice answering challenging interview questions. These exercises can improve your communication skills and boost your confidence. 3. They can help you stay motivated Knowing that someone depends on your support can be motivating. Theres an extra layer of accountability on days when the last thing you feel like doing is applying for another job, says Wahlquist. How to choose a job search buddy Its a personal decision whether to partner with a job seeker in your same industryand of course depends on who you know who might also be searching for a job at the same time. Here are a few reasons why picking someone in the same field can be helpful: They understand the industry. Jenny Wood, a career-development expert and author of the new book Wild Courage: Go After What You Want and Get It, says picking a person in your field can be a good move, even if youre worried about potential competition. There are hundreds of thousands of jobs out there, says Wood. They only need one and you only need one. There are enough to go around. They can give real feedback. Not only can they help you choose winning résumé keywords and bullet points, an insider can also help you grasp what a solid versus mediocre answer is to an interview question, says Wood. Theyll also better understand what certain role descriptions mean when you are both searching and applying. How to be sure a job search partner adds value Gaining support can only help you on your employment journey. Job seekers who end up with the most options and, eventually, the best jobs are the ones who enlist as many people and resources as possible to support their job searches, says Walhquist. But be sure to keep an eye on the prize of getting a job, and keep the interactions productive. While it may be comforting to constantly touch base with your job search partner, make sure the relationship is not getting in the way of your actual search, says Wahlquist. Sitting in a café with your friend may be fun, but at the end of the day, you have to actually do the work to apply for jobs. How often to check in The frequency of check-ins depends on the individuals involved, says Matthew A. Solit, LMSW, executive clinical director with LifeStance Health. Weekly may work for some, but for others, higher frequency can increase accountability. Its all about what works for you and your accountability partner or partners. Mutually agreed upon communication patterns and a framework for accountability is key to a good working partnership, adds Solit. What to do when one of you gets a job There is a high likelihood that one member of the partnership will be offered a position before the other. And, says Solit, when one member of the team succeeds, everyone succeeds. Its not a race, and its not about winning or losing, says Solit. It is important to continue to support your job-search peers even if you are hired first and to see the mutual commitment to accountability through to the end for both members.
Category:
E-Commerce
Catfishing. Once a trend confined to the realm of online dating. Now, like other relationship phenomena including ghosting, career cushioning, and quiet quitting, its infiltrated the workplace. This is bad for employers and employees alike. Corporate catfishing is when employers make false or misleading claims about their working culture in job ads or interviews in a bid to attract top talent, and its a big issue. Research shows that 70% of hiring managers have lied to candidates during hiring processes. A separate study also found that 72% of workers have experienced shift shock, where the reality of a new job doesnt live up to what you were sold. The reason its happening is simple. Companies want to attract the best talent to fill skills gaps and drive performance. Yet presently, employers and employees have conflicting preferences over ideal working environments. The return-to-office movement is a prime example. In fact, our data shows that demand for fully remote jobs rose by 10% across last year, and by the end of 2024, almost two-thirds of workers sought remote roles. Yet, only 4% of employers advertised fully remote roles last year. The lack of remote roles on offer is unsurprising given that weve recently seen a spate of return-to-office mandates issued by companies including Amazon and JP Morgan. In comes corporate catfishing: a half-baked solution some companies use when they cannot (or will not) offer what workers want. Maybe the hiring manager lies about how often employees are expected to show up to the office, or tells an applicant that the company is deeply committed to environmental efforts, when its actually been scaling back on its sustainability goals. Like with all lies, the truth will eventually come back to bite them. While corporate catfishing may widen your talent pool, theres no guarantee that this pool will be filled with the right talent. Workers are looking for certain working setups for a reason. For example, they could be looking for a remote role because they have a health condition that makes it tricky to go into the office every day, or need working hours that they can flex around the school run. Job seekers lured in under false pretenses are likely to be a poor cultural fit for the companys working environment. Plus, if workers do fall for corporate catfishing and are hired, they certainly wont trust or feel loyal to that employer once they discover the truth of the working environment. This wont be good for staff retention and could be costly for businesses, given that replacing a single employee can cost up to twice their annual salary. Theres also the reputational risks to consider. Smart job seekers will do a deep dive and look at online reviews from former employees before they accept roles. When the secret gets out (and it always does), the companys reputation for lying to candidates will likely impact job offer acceptance rates and deter future prospects. Businesses will be far better off if theyre transparent about their benefits and working environments from the outset. But the smartest employers wont stop there. More than ever, workers care not only about where they work, but how, when, and who they work for. So if employers really want to build job seekers’ trust and set themselves apart in the war for top talent, they need to go one step further. They need to build a strong, genuine employer brand, which actively showcases everything from the companys working setup and benefits to its mission and values. To do this, employers should identify three core themes, which encapsulate the companys unique value as an employer (be that a commitment to diversity and inclusion or an industry-leading vacation allowance). More than three, and your core identity can get lost in the noise. Sticking to these themes will help keep messaging feeling authentic and consistent across job ads, the companys website, and social media. Having guidelines around tone of voice can complement this well, too. Showing, not just telling, workers what its really like to work for the company also helps build job-seekers trust in the employer brand. So, share pictures from team days and events on the companys social media. Featuring posts from employees from all levels of the businesses, where they share their typical work day or professional achievements facilitated by company training programs or mentorship, can be a great way to do this. The content will feel more authentic to job seekers when it comes from their peers. You should also post about things which reflect the companys core values on LinkedIn. This helps demonstrate to job seekers that the values the company shouts about really are embedded into its DNA. For instance, if sustainability is important to you, you could post about another companys new climate initiative. We already have enough catfishing to dodge in the dating world. Its time for employers to leave false promises behind and put transparency first. Theres someone out there for everyone, and getting more candid about workplace culture means everyone winsboth workers and employers can find their ideal match.
Category:
E-Commerce
Work is full of potential rejection. Ask a colleague for a favor, and they may refuse. Apply for a job, and you may not get it. Seek a promotion, and you may be passed over. Submit a proposal to a client, and it may not be accepted. One key part of success is to be willing to learn from these failures, rather than to be paralyzed by them. Yet, you may find it hard to get over a rejection. Before you can learn anything from a failure, you first have to get beyond the emotions associated with rejection. Dealing with rejection sensitivity The first question you have to ask is whether a particular rejection is bothering you, or whether rejection in general is a problem. A long line of research suggests that some people have a high level of rejection sensitivity. There is even a measure of rejection sensitivity called the Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire. This measure asks you to consider a variety of situations in which you ask for something from another person. You rate both the level of anxiety or concern you might experience in that situation as well as the degree to which you expect someone would accept or reject your request. People high in rejection sensitivity get quite anxious when faced with the possibility of rejection and may also expect that their requests will be rejected. Rejection sensitivity may be a reaction people develop to feelings of rejection by key loved ones when growing up. If you generally have anxiety about rejection, then it can hamper you in the workplace. You may avoid asking for things you need or pursuing new opportunities. You may also react with fear or anger when you feel like others are rejecting you. You might also take criticism of a project or your performance as a personal rejection rather than as feedback that provides an opportunity for you to improve. If you’re sensitive to rejection in general, then you have ingrained a set of habits that probably will not go away on their own. This sensitivity is going to affect both your work and personal life, and so it’s worth addressing. A good therapist can be a valuable part of the process of understanding the source of your anxiety and expectation of rejection and help you to develop strategies to help you handle future situations more effectively. Dealing with a specific painful rejection Even if youre not a rejection-sensitive person, you may still find a particular rejection at work hard to handle. Perhaps you had a trusted friend or colleague who has now turned your back on you. Maybe a longtime client has decided to work with someone else. You might have applied for a job that you really wanted and lost out to another candidate. Of course, nobody should expected to get over a rejection immediately. Rejection stings, and that pain can last for a while. Sleep is an important part of your ability to deal with difficult emotions, so getting several good nights’ sleep can help you move past a painful rejection. If there’s a specific rejection that stays with you, it probably reflects a significant loss for you that is worth understanding. You might be prone to avoid thinking about rejections, but it can be helpful to write about them. That writing can help you to get the thoughts outside of yourself, which can be healing. In addition, it may help you to understand the source of the loss. Perhaps you feel betrayed by someone you trusted. It might be that the rejection affects something that is part of your self-concept. The rejection might feel like it is closing off a career or life path that you were invested in. If writing about the rejection doesnt help, you might benefit from working with a counselor or therapist. Career success ultimately requires that you put yourself in situations in which you could face rejection. Not only that, it’s virtually impossible to do anything of significance without being rejected often. That means you must develop strategies to learn to accept rejections, to analyze them so that you learn how to be more effective in the future, and to continue to try difficult things that might lead to additional rejections in the future.
Category:
E-Commerce
Rumors of a Tumblr comeback have been bubbling for a couple of yearsthink a pair of Doc Martens here, a splash of pastel hair dye there. Now, Gen Z is embracing the platform as a refuge from an internet saturated with influencers and algorithm fatigue. Launched in 2007, just ahead of Instagrams 2010 debut, Tumblr, with its blog-style format, encouraged users to craft personal aesthetics and immerse themselves in niche communitieswhere American Apparel tennis skirts, oversize flannels, and black wire chokers once reigned supreme. At its peak in early 2014, the platform had more than 100 million users and was often mentioned in the same breath as Facebook and other rising social media giants. But Tumblr struggled to monetize, even after Yahoos $1.1 billion acquisition in 2013. As competitors leaned into the creator economy with sponsored posts and digital storefronts, Tumblr faded into millennial nostalgia. Thanks to Gen Z, the site has found new life. As of 2025, Gen Z makes up 50% of Tumblrs active monthly users and accounts for 60% of new sign-ups, according to data shared with Business Insiders Amanda Hoover, who recently reported on the platforms resurgence. User numbers spiked in January during the near-ban of TikTok and jumped again last year when Brazil temporarily banned X. In response, Tumblr users launched dedicated communities to archive and share their favorite TikToks. Meanwhile, progressives disillusioned with the political shifts of Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are fleeing Facebook and X in favor of Tumblrs more independent, chaotic charm. To keep up with the momentum, Tumblr introduced Reddit-style Communities in December, letting users connect over shared interests like photography and video games. In January, it debuted Tumblr TVa TikTok-like feature that serves as both a GIF search engine and a short-form video platform. But perhaps Tumblrs greatest strength is that it isnt TikTok or Facebook. Currently the 10th most popular social platform in the U.S., according to analytics firm Similarweb, Tumblr is dwarfed by giants like Instagram and X. For its users, though, thats part of the appeal.
Category:
E-Commerce
The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. A beautiful object, expertly designed, can bring you joy throughout your busy day, unless you are unable to use it because of a permanent, temporary, or situational disability. How does design fail or succeed in creating an inclusive experience for all? As CEO of Michael Graves Design, I am deeply committed to advancing the functionality and accessibility of everyday products, with a special focus on enhancing the lives of those with disabilities. Our mission is to improve quality of life beyond aesthetics, addressing real-world challenges faced by individuals with temporary or permanent disabilities. What drives this commitment? A profound conviction in the transformative power of design to simplify daily tasks and infuse them with dignity and delight. Imagine if every aspect of your daily routine, from waking up to going to bed, was designed with your needs in mind. Activities of daily living (ADLs) such as eating, bathing, dressing, and moving around are foundational to our independence. Yet, for individuals facing temporary or permanent disabilities, these essential tasks can pose significant challenges. This also happens due to situational disabilities that we all experience as we go through our day: full hands, loud environments, low lighting, etc. Design can address these challenges head on, transforming everyday activities into seamless experiences, while enabling us to target the widest audience possible. Focus on consumer experiences over tasks This design philosophy empowers brands to tackle everyday challenges by transforming routine tasks into seamless experiences for consumers. We’re eager to share our approach, helping you broaden your reach and enhance how you connect with the widest audience possible. Take, for example, our latest collaboration with Pottery Barn. We introduced bedroom furniture that embodies our design for all ethos. At first glance, the furniture collections looks like any other Pottery Barn furniture in its catalogue, relaying an aspirational lifestyle that resonates so well with consumers. But a closer look reveals how dignity has been woven into each piece. Beds come with integrated armrests for easier mobility, and nightstands feature enhancements to store CPAP machines and prevent items from tumbling offjust a few of the many simple, yet profound modifications that make independence both accessible and delightful. The twist here is that while these novel functional enhancements were designed around the needs of those with various disabilities, they were designed to be attractive and useful to everybody. A true embodiment of universal design, equal measure is given to the emotional and functional desires of consumers, essential to design for all. This product development strategy is underpinned by decades of research into the needs and preferences of aging adults and those with disabilities. This is not just designit’s empathy in action. You must be able to identify real-world problems that need solving, guided by a deep understanding of what people truly desire. Our roadmap is centered on the various ADLs, which are crucial for independent living. The future of design The future of design must be proactive, not reactive. The brands that take this approach will be the leaders of the future. What challenges lie ahead? How can design continue to evolve to meet the unmet needs of our society? To do this successfully, design must merge todays common expertise in the emotionally driven aspects of a product’s personality and purpose with the less incorporated ability to include and translate various ability levels as creative constraints in the product development process. In short, new products must be alluring, but push their usefulness to a broader audience. We believe the future is in the merging of these two approaches. To have a pioneering brand today, you need to exceed customers expectations for enhanced independence, empowering them with the dignity we all deserve. This is the true power of thoughtful design. It goes beyond making daily tasks possible; its about transforming how theyre experienced. Anyone living with a disability knows that interruption, modification, and adaptation become part of the daily habits and rituals. Designing with dignity in mind means designing habits and rituals that can be enjoyed for the long term, through shifting conditions. As we look forward, we must ask ourselves how our work as designers and creators of experiences can continue to break barriers and open doors for all members of society. Challenge yourself to think beyond human-centered design and instead widen your aperture to focus on society-centered design. Let’s not just design for some; lets design for every body, and make every interaction with our products a reaffirmation of our shared humanity. Ben Wintner is CEO of Michael Graves Design.
Category:
E-Commerce
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