We need to say this before we stroll into 2026 with the same strategy wearing a new outfit:

If your plan is “apply a lot and be patient,” you’re going to feel invisible again.

Because that’s what we heard all year: “I feel invisible.”

And we worked with 500+ professionals in 2025. The difference wasn’t qualification. It was signal.

The people who landed interviews didn’t get lucky. They got clearer, louder (in the right ways), and more intentional about who actually has the power to say yes.

Here are the 10 standards that created traction in 2025, and what we recommend you take into 2026.

“Open to anything” feels mature. It feels flexible. It feels unbothered.

Hiring teams read it as: unclear, unfocused, risky.

Because the minute your target gets fuzzy, everything downstream gets sloppy:

In 2025, the people who got traction stopped asking the market to interpret them. They picked one target role + one adjacent role and let that decision do the heavy lifting. (That’s not “boxing yourself in.” That’s giving people a clean way to say yes.)

You don’t need more options. You need a sharper signal.

Let’s call it: most networking advice is built for people who like networking.

If you don’t, and your “ask” is basically “keep me in mind,” here’s what you’re really asking someone to do:

In 2025, the people who booked real conversations made it easy to help them.

Not by being intense. By being specific.

Because specificity isn’t aggressive. It’s generous.

When you know your lane, your outreach stops being “checking in” and starts sounding like a leader who understands the business they’re walking into. And that changes everything about the responses you get.

My favorite line we wrote this year (because it’s true and it makes people mad):

“The ATS is the white chocolate of job hunting.”

It exists. People have strong feelings about it. It is not the main character.

Yes, you need to be found. Yes, keywords matter. But in 2025 I watched so many brilliant women treat the ATS like a judge and jury… when it’s really just a filing cabinet with an algorithm.

And here’s what’s brutal: if your résumé is “optimized” but reads like a beige task list, you didn’t win. You just became easier to ignore.

The people who got interviews wrote for the decision-maker’s brain, not the robot’s filters:

The ATS doesn’t “pick” you. A person does. So give the person a reason.

Another favorite line:

“Quick Apply is the kettle corn of job hunting.”

Addictive. Satisfying. Leaves you hungry an hour later.

And 2025 proved something I wish wasn’t true:

You can spend your entire week clicking and still have nothing to show for it besides screenshot fatigue and a bruised ego.

We literally watched the math play out in our own data: over 500 job submissions, about 20 interviews, three offers, one acceptance.

The problem wasn’t effort. It was where the effort lived.

Clicking feels like momentum because it’s measurable. But if you only click, you’re entering the same pile as everyone else who clicked… and then acting surprised when nobody can “see your potential.”

In 2026, stop confusing activity with access.

Here’s what the interview-getters did differently:

They treated the application like a formality… not the strategy.

1–2–1 Rule:
1 application → 2 peers → 1 hiring lead.

Because in a crowded market, the advantage isn’t “more applications.”
It’s: who gets routed to the top of the inbox.

And if you’re thinking, “I can’t find names,” I’m going to say this with love:

Then you don’t understand the room you’re trying to enter yet.

In 2025, the people who got interviews didn’t apply and hope. They applied and entered the building: through the side door, the hallway, and the person who actually knows what the team needs.

That’s not cheating. That’s how hiring actually works.

A résumé that reads like a job description is basically you saying:

“I did… things… near important work… adjacent to impact.”

And then you’re shocked you’re not getting interviews.

Here’s what a recruiter told us straight-up this year: they’re skimming fast—five seconds fast—and they’re looking for content that’s clean, proofread, and “spot on.”

So when your bullets start with Responsible for… you’re forcing the reader to do extra work to locate your value.

In 2025, the people who landed interviews stopped listing duties and started making claims they could defend:

A résumé isn’t a record of employment. It’s an argument.

And “responsible for” is not an argument.

“I don’t have metrics” is usually code for: “I’ve been describing my work like tasks.”

Not everything is revenue. But everything has stakes.

So if you can’t say “$___,” say what you protected or moved:

Receipts aren’t always numbers. Sometimes they’re before/after reality.

And if you can describe the before/after clearly, you’re not “missing metrics.”
You’re sitting on proof. You just haven’t translated it yet.

In 2025, I watched people spend hours perfecting a résumé… and leave LinkedIn looking like a default setting.

Meanwhile, your next opportunity is coming through:

Your headline is not a label. It’s a positioning statement.

And your About section is not your autobiography. It’s your point of view + proof + direction.

This is literally baked into our strategy: turn basic profiles into “magnetic personal billboards,” so you’re not just known, you’re noticed.

If you’re invisible on LinkedIn, you’re relying on luck.
And I’m not building your 2026 on luck.

The people who won in 2025 didn’t wing it.

They didn’t walk into interviews hoping their personality would do the heavy lifting.

They showed up with stories, proof, and a plan. And they treated every interview like a decision was being made, not a favor being granted.

They had their stories ready. Not twenty stories. Not rambling TED Talks.
Tight stories with stakes, decisions, and outcomes.

And they stopped outsourcing their written voice to shortcuts.

We even had a recruiter say it plainly: don’t use AI to write your cover letter for certain high-stakes roles, because executives want to see how you communicate and some will reject candidates if it’s clearly not their writing.

Your interview isn’t a personality contest. It’s a credibility test.

And “potential” is not credibility.

2025 didn’t punish people who weren’t talented.

It punished people who were inconsistent, vague, and waiting to feel confident before they acted.

In 2026, your job search needs to stop being a mood and start being a standard.

Not a perfect schedule. A minimum you can keep even when life is loud:

Because the market doesn’t reward “the most qualified person.”
It rewards the person who’s easiest to understand, easiest to trust, and easiest to route to the final interview.

That’s the game. Now you know it.

You don’t need a prettier résumé. You need a stronger signal.

That’s literally what we do at Get Her Hired: transform your professional story into something decision-makers can’t ignore: on paper, online, and in person.

And if you’re ready for support, here are the three ways to work together (depending on how intense you want this to be):

Want a 2026 job search that actually converts? Book a confidential résumé review here: https://scheduler.zoom.us/getherhired/confidential-introductory-call

If you don't want to receive future editions of Get Her Hired’s Excited to Share Newsletter, please unsubscribe. ⬇️