👋 Hello Friends!

Welcome to Never Finished — the newsletter for professionals who are done applying to 200+ jobs and getting ghosted.

Each week, I share 3 short ideas to help you land interviews on demand — no résumé roulette required.

Let’s get you moving again.

Most people think hiring starts with evaluation.

Skills.
Experience.
Fit.

It doesn’t.

Hiring starts with sorting.

Before comparison.
Before judgment.

There’s a quieter step.

“Where does this person go?”

That’s the decision being made
in the first few seconds.

And this is where the extra line does damage.

Because that line tries to do two jobs.

It explains more.
But it signals less.

I see this constantly.

People add lines like:

• “Worked cross-functionally with multiple teams”
• “Interested in strategy and execution roles”

None of these are wrong.

They’re just not sortable.

I once watched a recruiter screen 60 profiles in one sitting.

She wasn’t rude.
She wasn’t careless.

She was fast.

Clear profiles moved forward in seconds.
Unclear ones slowed her down.

And slowed profiles didn’t get “more time.”

They got skipped.

Not rejected.

Skipped.

That’s the danger zone.

Here’s the shift you need to make:

You are not writing to be understood.

You are writing to be placed.

That’s uncomfortable.

Because it means letting go of completeness.

You don’t get credit for everything you can do.

You get credit for what you make easy to recognize.

The strongest profiles I see all do one thing.

They pick a lane.

Not forever.
Not for their entire career.

For the next hiring decision.

They don’t list every project they were near.
They don’t stack skills “just in case.”

They answer one silent question:

“What would we hire this person for—right now?”

That answer shows up everywhere.
The headline.
The first bullet.
The examples.

No guessing required.

And when the answer is obvious,
the resume doesn’t need defending.

It moves.

I worked with a candidate last year.

Seven years of experience.
Three different functions.
Solid companies.

His headline tried to hold all of it.

He believed narrowing would limit options.

It did the opposite.

We cut his profile to one direction.

Not the weak lines.
The impressive ones.
The ones that made him feel safe.

That’s the cost of clarity.

Two weeks later—
interviews came back.

Same person.
Same background.

Different outcome.

Because now the system knew
exactly where to place him.

This is how you protect yourself before you apply.

Not after the ghosting starts.
Before the damage is done.

Not your dream future.
Not your backup role.

The box a recruiter should confidently place you in
without thinking twice.

If someone had to tag your profile in three words,
what would they write?

That’s the box.

🧠 Try this:
Finish this sentence without editing it:
“If a recruiter had to place me today, it would be as a ___.”

If you add “or,” stop.
You’re not ready yet.

Most resumes show proximity.

“I worked with…”
“I supported…”
“I collaborated on…”

That reads like noise to a sorting system.

Sorting looks for ownership.

What were you on the hook for?
What failed if you didn’t deliver?

🧠 Try this:
Take one bullet and rewrite it starting with:
“I was responsible for…”

If it suddenly feels sharper—
that’s the signal working.

This is where most people flinch.

Because some lines are impressive.
But dangerous.

If a line suggests a different role,
it introduces hesitation.

And hesitation kills sorting speed.

🧠 Try this:
Read each line and ask:
“Does this help someone place me faster?”

If the answer is no—
delete it.

Even if it’s true.
Even if you like it.

This is critical.

Once you apply across multiple roles
with mixed signals—

That version of you sticks.

Edits later don’t reset perception.

You can’t outrun early confusion.

🧠 Try this:
Pause applications for 48 hours.
Fix the profile.
Then apply.

That pause can save you months.

Confusion doesn’t look like failure.
It looks like silence.

If this made you rethink a line on your resume—

Good.

That’s the point.

Reply to this email with the exact line
you’re unsure about.

I’ll tell you if it helps you get sorted—
or if it’s the reason you’re being skipped.

Or forward this to one friend
who keeps adding lines
and keeps hearing nothing back.

Your resume isn’t failing you.

Your positioning is.

Keep going. You’re Never Finished.

— Ajay