Stella Layton


Career development 23h
I’ve noticed that someone keeps stealing my food from the office fridge - milk, yogurts, even fruit.
I found out it’s one of the top managers. I don’t think he’s doing it on purpose, he’s a bit absent-minded and probably just takes food as if he were at home. But my salary can’t afford to feed another mouth. How can I tell him to buy or order his own food?
3   

  • Brittany Lowry

    2h

    Put a note on the fridge please don’t eat other people’s food if you did not purchase it !

  • serahina yi

    2h

    Ask more people to put food into the refrigerator. When everyone's interests are violated, everyone can go together to tell him the seriousness of the... matter. more

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Silvia Truitt


Career development 5d

My husband and parents don’t understand me. They ask how I could quit my job as a sous-chef and start working as a cook in a school cafeteria.
But I think this job is more important. When kids enjoy the food and even ask for more, it means a lot to me, more than a good review from a critic or a picky customer. Yes, I make less money, but it makes me feel really good.
Still my family doesn’t get... it.

 more
25   

  • AO Jordan

    4h

    In this role you have countless opportunities each day to support young people and make a difference

  • Gary Bates

    1d

    If your husband and family all misunderstand you, you’re probably the problem.

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Kim Winslowe


Career development 3d
In our department, there’s a girl who gives all the newcomers “funny” nicknames. On my very first day at work, she said she would call me “Piggy Izya.” I immediately replied that I didn’t like it, but the other employees and even the manager laughed at her antics. Now, whenever this girl sees me, she immediately says, “Oink!” I’m already fed up with it. I tried talking to the manager, but she just... laughs.
Please advise me on what to do next. It doesn’t feel normal to work like this.
Thank you!

 more
2   

  • Calvin Mulligan

    7h

    Miss "aren't-I-funny" is out of bounds. Many companies have articulated their vision, core values and corporate practices and published them for all... the world to see. Essentially the company is saying to the world (and its employees), this is who we are and what we stand for as an organization. Take a look at the corporate values your employees claims to live by. Often one of them may be something along the lines of "treating our customers and our employees with dignity and respect." Or perhaps the values statement refers to "working collaboratively with team members.." When you take up your concern with this individual, your boss or HR, you can then demonstrate how the (derogatory) nicknaming is inconsistent with what the organization/department claims it is and falls short of one of the "respect" principle it claims to uphold.

    You cannot be faulted for simply requesting you be addressed civilly by your name.      more

  • Gary Bates

    1d

    H.R.

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Thayer McBratney


Career development 1d
My boss doesn’t like me and often picks on me.
But I just found out that her son is in my mom’s class. Now I’m wondering if I should use this somehow or leave the kid out of it.
Maybe I could just drop a hint to my boss. What do you think?

1   

  • Sati Cabral

    7h

    I’d focus on what are the things you appreciate about your boss, even though she’s unkind. She might be going through something in her personal life... taking it out on you at work. Be friendly and kind, you’ll kill her behavior with your kindness. Eventually making a comment about the child might approximate you two. Focus on how you’d like to feel at work and be treated and the situation might start to transform. If it never gets better, you always have the option to find something else.  more

  • Sati Cabral

    7h

    I’d focus on what are the things you appreciate about your boss, even though she’s unkind. She might be going through something in her personal life... taking it out on you at work. Be friendly and kind, you’ll kill her behavior with your kindness. Eventually making a comment about the child might approximate you two. Focus on how you’d like to feel at work and be treated and the situation might start to transform. If it never gets better, you always have the option to find something else.  more

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Career development

 8h

'She ghosted me': Job candidate asked to come in for an interview, recruiter bails, candidate gives their supervisor a piece of his mind


No one likes being stood up, especially if it's a job interview. In this case, the job candidate was actually contacted by a recruiter from the company, who was interested in him for a potential position and therefore asked if he'd be willing to come in for an interview. Well, he did and the recruiter ended up bailing entirely.

This is arguably worse than being stood up by a date. Sure, the... circumstances are similar: you blocked off a certain amount of time in your schedule, you took the effort to prepare, and you tried to present your best self to the table. Well, if the person standing you up is a date, it's easy to conclude that this person is awful and not worth seeing at all. When the person standing you up is a potential employer, it's harder to stomach. After all, you're still out of a job, so it's hard to feel the relief of having a dodged a bullet.

This candidate did find some satisfaction after he decided to take matters into his own hands. After he waited over ten minutes and sent an email to the recruiter with no reply, he went so far as to contact the recruiter's manager to tell them exactly what happened. He said that the recruiter was representing the company poorly and that they should be ashamed of their lack of organization and follow-through. As someone who also once was ghosted during a job interview, I can say that I admire this author's commitment to speaking his mind, even if the long-term consequences aren't looking so great for him. more

Mary Renshaw


Career development 6d

My dad is ashamed that I’m a housewife. He doesn’t understand that taking care of the family and two kids is a full-time job. My husband supports us, but my dad keeps arguing with me. He wants me to get a job, even as a secretary. I know I have my own family now and I’m not a child but I still don’t want to fight with him.
I don’t know how to explain that I just don’t have the time, energy or... wish to work another 8 hours a day. He’s embarrassed to tell his friends that his daughter is a housewife.

 more
10   

  • Cassandra Childs

    9h

    Hello Listen your Father is worried about your future, you have to think of something to make money for you, never depend on anything or thing,... always have your own  more

    2

  • Edward Adikwuru

    2d

    To start with, getting a job as a Secretary has not been an easy one, anyways. However, tell Dad what exactly you are into and that after awhile you... will get a job. Meanwhile, request for job leads and start filing in your application letter. Someday, you will get one. And Dad's dream will have come through. more

    1
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Career development

 11h

Applying for jobs has never been easier. That's exactly the problem.


"You start to feel terrible about yourself," if no one sees your résumé, a job-market observer said.

After graduating with a master's in computer science last year, Mihir Goyenka spent most days applying for jobs.

His search lasted about eight months. Goyenka estimates that he submitted thousands of applications.

"I got to a point where if I read the company name, I was like, 'Yeah, I've... applied to this company,'" he told Business Insider.

Goyenka tried to follow the advice not to just apply to everything he could find -- what recruiters often call "spray and pray" -- and focus on networking. But, he said, that didn't get him very far.

So, the 24-year-old, who lives in Tempe, Arizona, started going after as many software engineering roles as he could because there was no downside to applying. Ultimately, Goyenka said, it became "a numbers game."

That's how many other people see it, too. Job applications submitted on LinkedIn were up more than 45% year-over-year as of May, according to the company's most recent figures.

It's just one indicator of how difficult the search can be. One thing meant to take some of the sting out of the process -- but that can make it worse -- is the ability to apply to many roles with only a few clicks.

"It's way too easy, and that's not a good thing," tech-industry veteran Jenny Dearborn, who is chief people strategy officer at professional services firm BTS, told Business Insider.

Making it a cinch to apply for a role sounds like a win. Fewer taps and less time. But that convenience brings a trade-off: It can be harder to stand out.

HR departments flooded with résumés can feel compelled to lean on applicant-tracking software. Those systems are designed to help filter out the noise -- like candidates who don't bother reading job descriptions or submissions cranked out by AI. And even if you make it across the digital moat, you still have to go up against everyone else.

Now, as the job market shows signs of slowing, the competition could grow.

Lindsey Zuloaga, chief data scientist at Hirevue, which makes software tools for screening job applicants, told Business Insider that automation is often necessary because of the volume of applications. Without it, a résumé might not get seen at all, she said.

Zuloaga said that even though scanning résumés for keywords matching a job description isn't a great way to evaluate candidates, employers often do it to winnow the field. The biggest hurdle for job seekers, she said, is the sheer competition.

"Every single job you apply for, the numbers are kind of stacked against you," Zuloaga said.

The challenge only gets worse if there are more people gunning for the same role. Zuloaga was recently hiring for a senior data scientist position and even received an application from a real-estate agent. Not qualified, but still required reviewing. About half of the roughly 4,000 applications that came in didn't meet all of the requirements, she said.

Dearborn said that the number of résumés can be so overwhelming -- what she called "a tsunami of digital paperwork" -- that some recruiters tune out applications that took only a few clicks to complete.

A LinkedIn survey conducted in late 2024 across more than a dozen countries found that 37% of job seekers reported applying more but hearing back less.

Serial applying can also be counterproductive if it adds to job seekers' insecurities, said Laura Labovich, who heads an outplacement firm in the Washington, DC, area.

"You start to feel terrible about yourself when likely no human has ever viewed your résumé," she told Business Insider.

Erin McGoff, who founded and runs the career-education platform AdviceWithErin, said that easy applying is a classic cobra effect: The "fix" just makes things worse. More competition, more résumés for employers to sort through, and more chances for good candidates to get lost.

She said that AI tools promising to make applying to jobs like using Tinder, where a quick swipe shoots a customized résumé to an employer, often only add to the problem.

"It doesn't work because everyone else is doing it, too," McGoff told Business Insider.

Another problem is that, too often, job seekers who don't know anyone at an employer don't have a good way to figure out whether a role is a good fit, said Kiki Leutner, cofounder of SeeTalent.ai. The UK startup is building AI-run tests to mimic job tasks, aiming to better match workers and employers.

"Often you don't have an option to talk to anyone about the job before you submit your CV, which is so crazy," she told Business Insider.

The result, Leutner said, is a "lottery-like scenario" for employers and applicants where neither is aware of what the other can offer. She said that because employers often screen for irrelevant information, people hunting for a role often feel compelled to submit loads of applications to try to get past the software gatekeepers.

Goyenka, the engineering grad, felt that pressure. In March, he found a web developer role in Phoenix on Handshake, a career platform for students and recent graduates. He applied and, a few days later, had a video call with the hiring manager. Not long after, Goyenka got the offer he'd spent months seeking.

If he had to look for another job, Goyenka said he'd try to network even more than he had -- though he said he'd probably still keep hitting submit on plenty of applications, just to boost his chances and feel like he was making progress.

"If you don't apply, what have you done?" Goyenka said. more

Career development

 12h

From Portland to India - Jamaica Observer


Job rejections redirect Jamaican to prestigious technical training programme in South Asia

AFTER graduating from the University of Technology, Jamaica, in 2022 and, for months, facing a string of rejections on his job hunt, Portland native Tharme Coulson landed a role as an application development specialist at Vocational Training Development Institute (VTDI).

That job, he believes, was a big... win after countless disappointments and has allowed him to take his journey a step further -- earning a coveted spot among just 15 individuals from around the world selected to compete in an intensive applied machine learning programme in India.

An alumnus of Happy Grove High School in Portland, Coulson said his love for information technology was born when he witnessed his teacher, Miss Constantine's passion for the subject. Inspired, he carried that flame to the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech, Jamaica) where he pursued a bachelor's degree in information technology.

The son of a carpenter and a housekeeper, Coulson grew up watching his parents Calvin and Lisa Coulson work tirelessly to provide for him and his brother. Determined to rise above the challenges and build a better future, he applied for students' loans and took a job at a call centre to help finance his studies. However, this was an uphill task.

"It's a case where I heard people say going to school and work[ing] is a hell of a thing, and I didn't believe it; but when it started for me, I felt it. [I was] failing courses because I had to be at work..." said Coulson, who also contemplated dropping out of school.

In fact, he almost left the lecture halls to focus full-time on being part of the workforce. However, being the first in his family to attend university, Coulson said he was driven by this and set out to be a changemaker and example for his brother -- showing him that with vision, hard work and perseverance, anything is possible.

He admitted to the Jamaica Observer that he often missed school because of work, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and classes were moved online, juggling both became a little easier. However, the challenges remained.

Coulson failed three courses and had to complete two independent studies to graduate on time. After four years, he received his degree and thought now he'd land a job in his field. Instead, he was met with the harsh reality faced by many young graduates: Rejection after rejection.

He admitted that, while navigating university, he was so focused on surviving that he overlooked a key component of building his personal brand -- networking.

"After graduating, you feel so powerful. You feel like, 'Oh yes, I'm degreed, I'm this and I'm that,' but the work just start. It's résumés against résumés; it's experience against experience. It's who you know against who you know, as what they say, 'links', and then the rejection e-mails. I don't see anybody talking about it, and I don't think it's expounded on enough," he said.

As the rejections continued, Coulson started looking for jobs in other sectors and ended up landing one in insurance. However, determined to get a job in his field, the 25-year-old didn't stop job hunting.

After successfully completing the interview process for a job at an institution in Portland, and being told that an offer letter would soon follow, an excited Coulson resigned his insurance job and moved back to Portland, only to be told that the position was no longer available.

"That put me at a point in time where I was like, 'I don't feel like a graduate. I feel like that big F [failure]...This is where religion came into play, because you're like, 'God, I'm praying. Am I not praying enough? What's happening?' " he questioned.

With his students' loan hanging over his head and very little funds saved, Coulson moved back to Kingston. As luck would have it, he ended up with a job from which he was fired, which, he said, destroyed his mental health.

"I went back home and I'm like, 'How much more? How much more can I go through?' I sat at home for a month and relaxed, and God sent me an opportunity. I think this is the biggest opportunity of my career as an IT [information technology] person and as a young person. God sent me the VTDI, [job]" he told the Sunday Observer.

The young man shared that VTDI served as a training ground that facilitated dialogue with experienced individuals in his field and presented opportunities for him to grow. Coulson took advantage of those opportunities and was promoted twice within two years.

He said he moved from providing user support in 2023 to being a system administrator within months. Six months after that promotion, an application development specialist position became vacant and he was the only person qualified to fill the gap.

"It's a big win, not just for me but I think for my friends. I want to motivate people that when it seems like it's getting rough, never give up," he said.

The 25-year-old added that while at VTDI, he focused on networking and attending conferences that would encourage this, always showing up as his best self. Through his hard work, Coulson said he was able to assist his mother financially so she could go back to school; she's since successfully completed her studies to become a geriatric nurse.

He added that through VTDI, he learnt about the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme in the South Asian country, which offers full scholarships for international capacity building. He submitted an application under the applied machine learning programme and was accepted to the one-month programme that runs from August to September. He's the only Jamaican that's part of the specific programme, and is joined by people from from countries like Tanzania, Ethiopia, Peru, Kenya, and Honduras.

"I think without prayer I wouldn't reach where I am now, and I feel like I have not succeeded [in being] where I need to be yet. I want to know that if tomorrow I die, I leave the world with an impact...and leave people saying, 'Tharme created this; Tharme fixed this problem.' When I'm finished with my studies, I hope to reach the level of a PhD where I can solve a real-world problem -- I think that's my ultimate goal in life," he told the Sunday

Observer.

Coulson shared that, currently, he is also pursuing a postgraduate degree in education and training, with plans to become a cultural ambassador.

He encouraged young people, particularly those in rural Jamaica, to network and take advantage of the programmes and scholarships that are geared towards helping them succeed.

"Everything is on the Internet. A click of a button can give you the information that you need, so stop doubting yourself and put that foot forward. If it's a case where sometimes you doubt yourself, sometimes I doubted myself every day, and I was like, 'Boy, I can't do this,' but just make that step that you're afraid to make," said Coulson. more

Career development

 22h

Last year, I was between jobs.


Last year, I was between jobs. My inbox was full of polite rejections. The tech market felt frozen, and I didn't know how to stand out anymore.

One night, I had an idea: instead of sending out another résumé, why not build something small -- something that showed what I could do right now?

I picked a problem I cared about: keeping track of mental health resources for students. I didn't have... funding, a team, or much free time, but I did have a laptop and access to a free AI API.

I spent a weekend designing a lightweight chatbot that could recommend verified resources based on a few simple questions. It wasn't perfect -- sometimes it got stuck, sometimes it guessed wrong -- but it worked just enough to be useful.

I wrote a short post about it, shared the link, and went back to job hunting.

Within a week, recruiters started messaging me. Not because my bot was revolutionary, but because it showed initiative. It proved I could identify a need, design a solution, and ship it -- all without waiting for permission.

In the next two weeks, I had three interviews. In the next month, three offers.

Here's what I learned:

You don't need to wait for the "perfect" idea. Shipping something small is often enough.

Showing your skills beats describing them.

Even a rough AI prototype can make a résumé feel alive.

That weekend project didn't just get me hired. It reminded me that sometimes, the fastest way to find a job in tech isn't to ask for one -- it's to build something that makes people want to hire you. more

Career development

 23h

Why You Never Hear Back from Aggressive Indian Recruiters: The H-1B Visa Scam Explained | The Gateway Pundit | by Antonio Graceffo


Recently, several Indians in the U.S. were charged with H-1B visa fraud involving shell companies created to game the lottery system. In one scheme, three Indian-origin men ran a staffing firm called Nanosemantics that submitted petitions for jobs that didn't exist.

In another, recruiter Kandi Srinivasa Reddy formed 13 shell companies and filed over 3,000 registrations for just 288 workers,... charging desperate Indians thousands of dollars to become "employees" of fake firms with the promise of American jobs.

But the scam didn't just defraud Indians. It also exploited Americans. To satisfy legal requirements, these shell companies had to demonstrate "good faith" efforts to hire U.S. workers first. That meant posting ads, contacting and interviewing Americans, and documenting rejections with plausible explanations.

This is why so many Americans report being aggressively contacted by Indian recruiters about jobs they never hear back from. Unwittingly, they're providing the paper trail that enables visa fraud while the jobs are reserved for pre-selected foreign workers.

Anyone who has searched for a job online has probably encountered these recruiters demanding résumés, cover letters, and personal details without providing clear information about the job or benefits. In time, you learn to skip over postings with Indian-sounding names.

Indians dominate the H-1B visa program. In fiscal year 2023, 73 percent of approved H-1B workers were born in India, and between October 2022 and September 2023, Indian nationals received 72.3 percent of all visas issued.

Between April and September 2024, out of 130,000 H-1B visas granted, about 20 percent went to Indian-origin companies, with Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services leading.

Nearly 400,000 applications were approved that year, two-thirds renewals and one-third new. USCIS, however, raised concerns about fraud in the registration system: for FY 2024, there were more multiple registrations (408,891) than single ones (350,103), the first time this had ever happened.

After reforms were introduced, registrations dropped to 343,981 in FY 2026, a 26.9 percent decline compared with the previous year, suggesting that fraud prevention measures are taking effect.

Job seekers in the United States have long reported troubling patterns with Indian recruiters. Many describe being contacted by firms like Indotronix or Tanisha Systems, only to find that "nine out of ten" job requirements sent to them had nothing to do with their actual skills.

Despite submitting résumés, they never received interview requests or legitimate offers. Some workers discovered that the companies did not even exist.

Others noted recruiters often asked for unnecessary personal details, immigration status, driver's licenses, even partial Social Security numbers, while sending emails riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes. For many, the result is the same: information is harvested, but no job ever materializes.

The mechanics of the scam are clear. Recruiters gather résumés from U.S. workers to create the appearance of a hiring process, fulfilling the legal requirement that companies demonstrate a good faith effort to recruit Americans before turning to foreign workers under the H-1B or PERM labor certification process.

In practice, companies manipulate recruitment by posting jobs in obscure newspapers with tiny circulation, requiring outdated methods like mailing paper résumés, withholding key details from descriptions, or exaggerating the complexity of roles to make them appear as "specialty occupations" under H-1B criteria.

These tactics ensure few Americans apply, allowing corporate lawyers to argue that no suitable candidates were available.

Some companies even conduct sham interviews, rejecting applicants for pretextual reasons to show that "no qualified Americans applied." Meanwhile, the real hiring process is already underway for preselected foreign workers.

The Department of Justice has reached settlements with major tech companies for discriminatory practices.

Apple was found to have failed to advertise PERM positions on its external website and required paper applications for roles that normally accepted online submissions, reducing applications from Americans while maintaining the appearance of compliance.

Similarly, a jury recently found that Cognizant had intentionally discriminated against non-Indian workers and was abusing the H-1B visa process. One executive testified that he was fired in 2016 after refusing to continue signing hundreds of fraudulent invitation letters for jobs that didn't exist.

Outsourcing loopholes make the problem worse. The Department of Labor treats contractor hires differently from direct hires, allowing firms like HCL and other Indian outsourcing giants to sidestep wage and worker protections.

Banks, telecoms, and large corporations rely on these firms, which funnel thousands of foreign workers into U.S. jobs through staffing arrangements that crowd out Americans.

Recent analysis has shown that nearly two-thirds of foreign workers hired through these outsourcing models come from companies like Tata Consultancy Services.

Federal agencies now acknowledge these abuses are systematic. The DOJ's Civil Rights Division has set up reporting channels for discriminatory job ads preferring visa workers over Americans.

The Department of Labor has begun prioritizing investigations and publicizing enforcement against violators. Between 2020 and 2023, Bloomberg estimates that one in six H-1B visas was issued through multiple fraudulent registrations, underscoring the need for reform.

Apart from the DOJ, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and other government departments have taken steps to combat these scams, but they persist. Fake job advertisements continue to clog the employment pipeline, leaving qualified Americans jobless. more