The Job Search Podcast with Fexingo: Resumes, Interviews, and Landing the Right Role

In this episode of The Job Search Podcast with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore a counterintuitive career strategy: how a well-framed career break can actually strengthen your resume. They dig into a 2025 LinkedIn study showing that candidates with intentional career breaks lasting 3-12 months received 28% more recruiter messages after returning to the job market. Lucas shares the story of a market...

Episode 53 of The Job Search Podcast digs into exactly how AI resume screening works in 2026 and one concrete fix: a two-sentence summary that survives keyword filters, pattern-matching models, and recruiter skim tests. Lucas breaks down a real example from a marketing manager who rewrote her summary and saw her interview rate jump from 6% to 34%. Luna pushes back on whether summaries are even rea...

Lucas and Luna break down the surprising data behind post-interview thank-you notes and why most candidates blow it. They look at a 2025 study of 500 hiring managers that found 68% would reject a strong candidate who didn't send one, and 42% said a poorly written note actually hurt the applicant. The hosts walk through the three specific elements that make a thank-you note effective, including the...

Getting a rejection email usually feels like the end of the road. But in this episode, Lucas and Luna break down a counterintuitive strategy: how to reply to that 'we went with another candidate' email and potentially reopen the conversation. Using the real example of a marketing manager who turned a rejection into a job offer at a mid-size B2B SaaS company in Q2 2026, they walk through the exact...

Lucas and Luna unpack why traditional resumes fail to predict job success and how work sample tests — real tasks from the actual role — can be up to four times more accurate than interviews. They walk through a concrete example from a marketing manager candidate who submitted a one-page campaign brief instead of a cover letter, and discuss how job seekers can proactively offer a work sample even w...

Episode 49 of The Job Search Podcast. Lucas and Luna break down one of the sneakiest traps in job negotiation: the salary history question. Lucas explains why giving a number first—when you're asked 'What did you make at your last job?'—can cost you five to ten percent of your lifetime earnings, citing a 2019 study from the Journal of Labor Economics that found firms exploit that anchor to offer u...

In this episode of The Job Search Podcast with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna break down the single most dangerous moment in the recruiting process: the 15-minute phone screen. Most candidates treat it as a casual chat, but recruiters use it to eliminate 70 percent of applicants before they ever meet a hiring manager. Using data from a 2025 Greenhouse study of 10,000 screens, Lucas reveals the three spec...

You've found the perfect job posting. You write a thoughtful email to the recruiter. And then... nothing. Silence. In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down why most recruiter cold emails fail and what one specific structural change can boost your reply rate by over 40 percent. They examine a real case from a mid-market tech company where a candidate landed a first-round interview simply by rewri...

Job scams are on the rise. In this episode, Lucas and Luna reveal the telltale signs of fake job postings—from impossible salaries to interview processes that skip video calls. They break down a real-world case: a data-entry listing that promised $85 an hour but asked for a 'processing fee' upfront. Lucas explains why legitimate employers never ask for money, and Luna shares a recruiter's trick fo...

Lucas and Luna dive into a 2025 study from Indeed showing that candidates who accept a counteroffer from their current employer are 60% more likely to leave within six months anyway. They break down why counteroffers feel flattering but usually fail, what the data says about retention, and how to handle the situation if you're tempted. They also share a framework for deciding when a counteroffer m...

Lucas and Luna dig into the single metric that predicts whether your resume will get a call: the 'conversion rate' from application to reply. They break down how a 1 percent rate means you need 100 applications for one callback, why most job seekers overestimate their odds, and how targeting smaller companies can push that rate to 15-20 percent. Using real data from a 2025 job search study, they e...

Lucas and Luna reveal a surprising twist in resume screening: overusing a single keyword from the job description can actually hurt your chances. Drawing on a 2025 study from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, they explain how recruiters flag resumes that stuff in 'synergy' or 'leverage' too many times. Luna shares a real example from a hiring manager at a mid-sized tech firm who...

In this episode of The Job Search Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore the growing trend of career portfolios — curated collections of your work, projects, and impact that go beyond a traditional resume. They break down why a portfolio can be a game-changer for job seekers in 2026, especially in fields like marketing, design, and product management. Lucas shares a concrete example: a candidate who land...

In this episode of The Job Search Podcast with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into the single most predictive metric in a job search: application-to-interview conversion rate. They share why most job seekers focus on the wrong numbers—like total applications sent—and how tracking your conversion rate can reveal exactly where your resume or targeting is falling short. Using real data from a 2025 stud...

In this episode of The Job Search Podcast, Lucas and Luna dive into the job search conversion rate — a simple metric that measures how many applications it takes you to land an interview and how many interviews to get an offer. They explain why tracking this number can reveal weaknesses in your strategy, whether it's your resume, your networking, or your interview skills. Using real data from the...

Lucas and Luna explore how to reframe a layoff as a strategic career pivot, using the real-world example of marketing manager Jenna Chen who turned a 2025 tech layoff into a product management role at a SaaS company. They break down the three-step framework: audit your transferable skills, build a narrative portfolio, and target growth industries. Specific advice on resume rewrites, networking scr...

Episode 38 of The Job Search Podcast breaks down the hidden leverage in relocation packages. Lucas and Luna walk through a real case: a logistics coordinator offered $5,000 to move from Phoenix to Denver, and how she turned it into $18,000 plus a temporary housing stipend. They cover the three components every relocation offer has (moving expenses, temporary housing, and a lump sum), why the first...

Lucas and Luna unpack the hidden negotiation that happens during your annual performance review. Most employees treat the review as a backward-looking report card, but Lucas argues it's actually the single best moment to lay groundwork for a promotion or raise — if you come prepared with the right data. They walk through a real example: how a mid-level marketing manager at a regional bank used a c...

Episode 36 of The Job Search Podcast. Lucas and Luna explore a career negotiation that rarely gets covered: asking your current employer to change your job title before you update your resume. They break down the story of a marketing coordinator at a midsize tech firm who successfully negotiated a title upgrade from 'Marketing Coordinator' to 'Marketing Operations Manager' without changing teams o...

Everyone talks about listing achievements on your resume, but one underrated skill—structuring a problem clearly—can make recruiters call you first. Lucas and Luna examine why 'problem articulation' is the unlisted skill that hiring managers notice immediately, using the example of a supply chain analyst who reframed her resume around the specific problems she solved. They discuss how to identify...

Lucas and Luna unpack a surprising LinkedIn experiment where a recruiter tested 200 resumes by removing every applicant's name and education section. The result? A 40% higher callback rate for candidates whose resumes focused entirely on measurable outcomes. They walk through why recruiters mentally 'name-blind' your resume anyway, how to front-load impact metrics before a recruiter even reads you...

In this episode of The Job Search Podcast, Lucas and Luna challenge the conventional wisdom about resume gaps. Most career advice tells you to hide or explain every month of unemployment. But a 2025 study of 2,000 hiring managers found that gaps under six months are ignored by 73 percent of recruiters. The real red flag? Gaps over eighteen months. Lucas breaks down the data, explains why short gap...

Lucas and Luna discuss a counterintuitive strategy for negotiating a signing bonus after the recruiter has already declined. Using real examples from a tech sales negotiation in Q2 2026, they walk through the 'split-the-difference' technique, the importance of anchoring with market data, and how to reframe the bonus as a retention tool. Listeners learn one concrete script for reopening the convers...

Episode 31 of The Job Search Podcast tackles the often-overlooked art of negotiating a remote work stipend. Lucas and Luna break down why companies like Twitter and Google set the precedent for home office allowances, and share a concrete script for asking during the offer stage. They discuss how to frame the request as a productivity investment rather than a perk, and reveal the specific data poi...

What do you do when the company offers a starting salary you can live with but refuses to budge on the signing bonus? In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down a real negotiation tactic that works when the door seems closed. They walk through a specific case: a senior marketing manager who got a $15,000 signing bonus after being told 'no bonus policy' by HR at a mid-size SaaS firm. Lucas explains...