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

Episode 29 of The Job Search Podcast. Lucas and Luna get specific about the post-interview thank-you note. The conventional wisdom says send one. But most candidates send something generic that gets deleted immediately. Lucas breaks down the data: only 24 percent of thank-you notes actually influence a hiring decision, but the ones that do follow a very specific structure. He shares the one thing...

Lucas and Luna dive into why the resume summary section — that three-line blurb at the top of your resume — might be doing more harm than good. Drawing on a 2025 survey of 500 recruiters by JobScan, they reveal that 72% of recruiters skip the summary entirely if it's generic. Lucas breaks down the three types of summaries that get ignored: vague platitudes, keyword-stuffed blocks, and career objec...

Lucas and Luna dive into the art of negotiating a job offer with concrete market data. Using a real example—a marketing manager role at a mid-sized tech company—they break down how to find salary benchmarks, structure your counter-offer email, and handle the 'we can't go higher' pushback. Lucas shares a specific tactic from a 2025 study by Levels.fyi showing that candidates who cite a specific num...

Hosts Lucas and Luna dig into a counterintuitive resume strategy: signaling a salary range that is below market on purpose. Lucas walks through the data from a 2025 Robert Half survey showing that 42% of hiring managers skip candidates whose salary expectations fall more than 15% below their budget — they assume the candidate won't stay. He contrasts that with an anecdote from a tech recruiter at...

In this episode of The Job Search Podcast, Lucas and Luna dive into the art of asking for a raise using market data. They discuss why many employees leave money on the table, how to research salary benchmarks using sites like Glassdoor, Payscale, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the specific numbers you need to bring to the negotiation table. They break down a real example: a marketing mana...

Lucas and Luna dissect the single most damaging cover letter mistake job seekers make: leading with a list of what they want instead of what they can do for the employer. Using real data from a 2025 recruitment study of 2,000 hiring managers, they reveal that 74% of cover letters fail this one test in the first three sentences. Lucas walks through how to flip the script with a specific company-fir...

Lucas and Luna dig into a surprising piece of data from a 2025 LinkedIn study: resumes that include a single line quantifying impact — like 'Increased revenue by 20% in two quarters' — get 40% more callbacks than those that only list responsibilities. They walk through real before-and-after examples, explain why most applicants leave this line out, and share a simple framework for finding your own...

In this episode of The Job Search Podcast, Lucas and Luna dig into the single most impactful element on your resume: the bullet point. Most job seekers list responsibilities. The ones who get interviews list results with a specific structure. Lucas breaks down a study of 2,000 applications submitted to Fortune 500 companies where candidates who used the 'action verb + metric + outcome' format were...

Getting rejected from a job is painful, but it doesn't have to be the end of the road. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore a counterintuitive strategy: using the rejection itself to open the door for future opportunities. They break down the 'post-rejection follow-up' email — what to say, when to send it, and why it works. Drawing on real recruiter insights and a concrete example from a mid-ca...

Lucas and Luna tackle a career nightmare scenario: what to do when a former boss gives you a bad reference. They break down a real case where a job offer was rescinded after a negative reference call, and walk through a step-by-step strategy for managing references proactively. Lucas shares the three things you should ask every reference before listing them, and Luna reveals a surprising data poin...

Lucas and Luna explore how a side project can transform your resume from a list of duties into a story of initiative. Using the example of a marketing coordinator who built a public newsletter that grew to 5,000 subscribers in six months—and used it to land a senior role at a major agency—they break down the three elements recruiters actually look for in side work: measurable outcomes, transferabl...

Lucas and Luna reveal the single most common resume mistake that keeps qualified candidates from getting a second interview: focusing on responsibilities instead of results. They break down the difference with a real example from a marketing manager resume—how swapping 'managed social media accounts' for 'grew Instagram engagement 40 percent in six months' changes everything. They also discuss why...

In this episode of The Job Search Podcast, Lucas and Luna dig into a surprising finding from a 2025 survey of 500 recruiters: the section of your resume they look at first isn't your name, your current job, or your education. It's your professional summary — that three-line blurb at the top. But most job seekers get it wrong: they write generic mission statements or skip it entirely. Lucas walks t...

Most job seekers load their resumes with soft skills like 'communication' and 'teamwork' — but recruiters are scanning for a specific competency that almost nobody writes down: the ability to translate between technical and non-technical stakeholders. Lucas and Luna dig into why this 'translator skill' is the hidden red thread across high-growth roles, from product managers to data scientists to m...

Lucas and Luna tackle a common but tricky career challenge: how to write a resume when you're changing industries or job functions. They break down the 'functional vs. chronological' debate with real data from a recruiting study of 200 hiring managers, then walk through a specific case: a teacher transitioning into corporate learning and development. Lucas explains why skill-based summaries and a...

In this episode of The Job Search Podcast, Lucas and Luna discuss how your resume font choice can shape a recruiter's first impression. They break down why fonts like Times New Roman signal 'outdated,' while clean sans-serifs like Calibri or Helvetica suggest professionalism. They also cover the surprising case of Arial vs. Calibri, and why a font size below 10.5 points can get your resume skipped...

Lucas and Luna dive into the hidden power of professional references—specifically, the difference between a reference who can confirm your bullet points and one who can speak to your impact. They break down a 2025 survey from the Society for Human Resource Management showing that 87 percent of HR managers have rejected a candidate because of a reference call that didn't match the resume. Lucas exp...

In this episode of The Job Search Podcast, Lucas and Luna reveal the surprising truth about Applicant Tracking Systems and why most resumes that pass the ATS filter still fail with human recruiters. They break down a 2025 study from a major job platform showing that 87% of resumes with perfect keyword matches were rejected within 30 seconds by a real reader. The problem: keyword stuffing creates a...

Most career advice says to fill every resume gap with something — a class, a freelance project, volunteer work. But Lucas and Luna dig into data from a 2025 LinkedIn study of 2 million profiles showing that gaps of six months or less have zero statistical impact on callback rates. The real problem is how candidates describe the gap. They break down the three worst phrases to use, the one frame tha...

Lucas and Luna dive into the underrated power of informational interviews—conversations that aren't job interviews but can open doors better than any resume. They break down a real-world case: a marketing manager who landed a senior role at HubSpot after six informational chats, none of which were formal interviews. The hosts share the exact framework: how to find the right people, what to ask (an...

Lucas and Luna explore why more professionals are ditching traditional resumes for career portfolios — collections of real work, case studies, and measurable outcomes. They break down the specific format that landed a marketing manager at HubSpot a senior director role without a single interview about her job history. Lucas walks through the five-section structure that recruiters actually open, an...

Lucas and Luna explore a striking finding from LinkedIn's 2026 Workforce Report: professionals who demonstrate 'cross-functional fluency' — the ability to translate between departments like engineering, marketing, and sales — are 3.2 times more likely to be promoted or hired into a new role within 18 months. They break down what this skill actually looks like in practice, using the example of a mi...

In this episode of The Job Search Podcast, Lucas and Luna dig into a tiny detail that can tank your resume before a single word is read: the font. Lucas shares a study from a Fortune 200 company that found resumes in certain typefaces got 40% fewer callbacks. They break down which fonts signal professionalism, which scream 'I used the default,' and why a recruiter at JPMorgan once tossed a resume...

Lucas and Luna break down the single biggest reason resumes get discarded before a human even finishes the first paragraph. Using real data from a 2025 eye-tracking study of 200 recruiters, Lucas explains why most candidates lead with a summary that actively hurts their chances, and what to replace it with. They discuss the 'F pattern' of resume scanning, the difference between a mission statement...

Lucas and Luna reveal why the wrong keywords on your resume are secretly killing your chances—and how applicant tracking systems actually scan for skills. They break down a real case: a marketing manager who applied to 200 jobs and got zero interviews until she swapped her formatting and keyword strategy. Lucas shares the three types of resume keywords that matter most: hard skills, soft skills, a...