Tag Archives: Tips

Practical advice, guidance, and strategies for personal, professional, or creative improvement.

#3 Something’s been missing on LinkedIn

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Language mismatch when searching for jobs on LinkedIn

Have you ever come across amazing open positions on LinkedIn that made you scan the description with growing enthusiasm, only to find out, towards the end, that the language requirements were a total mismatch with your skills? If not, lucky you—because for me, it happens most of the time.
Now, some recruiting teams are smart enough to display the language requirements in the title. It’s pretty simple if you think about it—just add (EN, ES, IT, DE…) in parentheses. Done. Pretty intuitive, right?

For some reason, recruiters seem to overlook that language skills are probably the most important requirement they should communicate alongside the role. But I get it—maybe they want to keep the title clean, free from potentially confusing abbreviations, or they want to respect the information hierarchy of the overall description. Well, in that case, they could make sure the requirements block is the first thing covered in the job description, and that the first bullet point is related to language skills—it’ll be the first thing everybody sees. Not only would this make it easier for applicants to sift through the thousands of jobs out there, but recruiters would save a lot of time scanning through mismatched applications (which they’d probably stop receiving) from people who didn’t get to the bottom of their long job description.
But even if a few proactive recruiters work around this LinkedIn limitation, until this practice becomes widespread (which may never happen), it’s still a problem.

Hoping for a LinkedIn language filter

About a year ago, I sent feedback to LinkedIn pointing out this issue. I even created a quick mockup on Figma to show them what I had in mind—totally unnecessary, I know, but I had fun pretending to be a product designer at LinkedIn. They sent me a nice response, and that was the end of the story.
I don’t have the audacity to expect my email to be taken seriously when they likely have a huge number of things to fix, and since they manage a complex database with literally billions of users, I guess any new feature release can take months or even years.
Nevertheless, I want to leave this reflection here as a testimony to the hard times job seekers and recruiters endure due to language skill misunderstandings! And irony aside, let’s shout out loud that a kickass language filter in the LinkedIn app would be a mega game changer and speed up hiring processes all over the world.

#2 Saving energy while job searching

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The harsh reality of layoffs

In my early days as a professional, working summer gigs as a student, I didn’t have to look for a job—jobs came my way. First, I worked in the family business, then for a family friend, and later for a friend of a friend, and so on.
When I decided to move abroad, leaving Italy for Spain without a secure job, I was scared, but I knew everything would be okay. I was a fresh graduate with over ten years of working experience in hospitality and fluent in three languages—I had set myself up for a solid career start. In fact, everything went smoothly, and my experiences were amazing. I worked on great products, for companies with cultures and values that resonated with me, surrounded by colleagues far smarter than I was. As a result, I learned a ton in a very short time.
So, when I found myself caught in a layoff last year, I was confident I would find another job relatively quickly. I considered that this time might be a little trickier, given the global crises, but I never imagined that one year later—after nearly three hundred applications and several interviews—I would still be unemployed.

Common patterns during the job search process

Speaking with friends, former colleagues, and acquaintances who have gone through similar situations, we recognized a few common patterns during unemployment. First, it’s a process with clear phases. Second, you learn a lot. Third, after doing it wrong for a while, you start doing it right, getting more callbacks, interviews, and hopefully, at some point, landing a job.
However, there’s something I learned recently that would have helped me a lot in the early stages of this process—especially in preserving my mental health and stamina. That lesson is to calm down, temper my enthusiasm, and accept that setbacks are part of the journey.
Whenever I had a job interview lined up, I would overreact, get very excited about the company, dive headfirst into preparation, and visualize amazing outcomes for myself. I’m not saying this is wrong—it’s actually very good, especially when it’s a genuine reaction. My enthusiasm helped me navigate interviews effortlessly, without anxiety, and with tons of motivation and passion. But it also meant that rejections hurt more. Every rejection spiraled me into endless doubts about my skills, personality, qualifications, and experience.

Lessons in endurance while job hunting

Now, I’m trying to approach things more coolly, keeping it real, avoiding daydreaming about future scenarios, and not taking outcomes as rejections of who I am. Because the truth is, with every setback, we learn something. We get better, more comfortable with the uncertainties and challenges of being unemployed.
Job searching is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s important to approach the process with a balance of enthusiasm and realism, conserving our energy for the long haul. By accepting that setbacks are inevitable and focusing on what we can learn from each experience, we preserve our mental well-being and stay motivated for the opportunities ahead. After all, finding a job isn’t just about landing the right position; it’s also about becoming more resilient and prepared for whatever comes your way.