Getting hired, and staying hired

Notes from the team that works with candidates every day: job search strategy, interview preparation, explaining employment gaps, and what actually happens in your first 90 days.

Getting Hired · September 15, 2026

How to Compare Two Job Offers: The Total Compensation Framework Senior Candidates Actually Need

Most people compare two offers on base salary, sense that something is missing, and decide on a feeling. Here is the full framework: what year one really pays, how RSUs and options differ, what a vesting cliff costs you, how to price the commute, the questions to ask each employer, a scoring worksheet, and the scripts for buying time and declining well.

Sony Aggrawal · 19 min read Read →

Career Restart · September 14, 2026

Job Search After a Layoff: A Canadian Playbook for the First Four Weeks

A layoff is not a career gap, and treating it like one wastes the first three weeks. Here is the Canadian version: the paperwork, the resume line, the spoken answer, and a four week cadence.

Anudithi Saxena · 16 min read Read →

Interview & Resume · September 14, 2026

Technical Assessments and Take Home Tasks: A Senior Engineer's Guide to the Tech Challenge

A brief lands in your inbox on Thursday saying four hours, and the scope is clearly eight. Here is how the reviewing engineer actually reads your submission, how to cap the work, how to ask for a pairing session instead, what to say about AI assistance, and when to walk away without burning the process.

Sumit Saxena · 16 min read Read →

Getting Hired · September 10, 2026

How Campus4tech Supports Candidates Until Placement, and How to Judge Any Staffing Partner

Eleven years of experience and the applications have stopped converting. Here is the honest answer to what a staffing partner adds that you are not already doing, the questions that separate a real one from a bad one, what the partner needs from you, what the first month looks like week by week, and how Campus4tech works with candidates.

SK Chauhan · 14 min read Read →

Getting Hired · September 10, 2026

Background Verification After an Offer: What Gets Checked, What Actually Fails People, and How to Clear It

Background verification does not fail people for having a gap or a short stint. It fails them for a mismatch between what they declared and what the record says, and for going quiet when the agency cannot reach someone. Here is how to pre-empt every mismatch before it becomes a withdrawn offer.

Sony Aggrawal · 17 min read Read →

Getting Hired · September 3, 2026

How to Follow Up After an Interview Without Sounding Desperate

You walked out feeling good, and then nothing happened for nine days. The silence almost never means what you think it means. Here is the internal sequence that causes it, the cadence for breaking it, and nine templates you can send today.

Sumit Saxena · 17 min read Read →

Getting Hired · September 3, 2026

First 90 Days in a New Job: The Plan That Gets You to Day 91 With Real Equity

The first ninety days are not about proving yourself. They are about building trust through specificity. Here is the hiring manager's actual checklist, the three phases that signal competence, and the worked plan that keeps you moving toward retained hire rather than parted ways.

Sony Aggrawal · 19 min read Read →

Getting Hired · September 1, 2026

UAE Salary Negotiation: The Split Between Basic and Allowances Is the Deal

Two UAE offers can pay the same every month and be worth tens of thousands of dirhams apart by the time you leave. The difference is the basic salary line. Here is how to read it, how to move it, and what to say.

Sony Aggrawal · 26 min read Read →

Getting Hired · August 31, 2026

Contract vs Permanent Jobs in the UK: The Decision, With the Arithmetic Shown

The day rate looks enormous until you count the weeks you do not bill. Here is the arithmetic, what inside and outside IR35 really change, and how an agency reads each track.

SK Chauhan · 17 min read Read →

Getting Hired · August 29, 2026

Why Candidates Get Rejected: The Seven Gates, and What Happens at Each

You are not being rejected by a hiring process. You are being rejected at one specific point in it, by one specific person, for a reason nobody sends you. Here is the map.

SK Chauhan · 17 min read Read →

Getting Hired · August 27, 2026

What Recruiters Look For in the First Resume Scan

The first pass on your resume is not an evaluation. It is a sort, done in seconds, against a shortlist deadline. Here is exactly what the recruiter is looking at while it happens.

Sumit Saxena · 16 min read Read →

Interview & Resume · August 24, 2026

The ATS-Friendly Resume Guide for Senior Professionals

Your resume is strong and it still disappears. The problem is usually not your record. It is that the system extracted a scrambled version of it, and the recruiter searched the scrambled version.

Sony Aggrawal · 18 min read Read →

Interview & Resume · August 20, 2026

Scrum Master Interview Guide: What a UK Panel Tests When Everyone in the Room Is Certified

Everyone on the shortlist is certified, so the certificate decides nothing. Here is what a UK Scrum Master panel is really testing, round by round, with the answers that pass.

Sumit Saxena · 32 min read Read →

Interview & Resume · August 20, 2026

Data Analyst Interview Questions: The Guide for Career Changers in Australia

You did the course and the SQL still froze you. Here is the entry level data analyst loop in Australia, the real questions, and the answers that pass.

Anudithi Saxena · 32 min read Read →

Interview & Resume · August 19, 2026

Product Owner Interview Guide: The Questions That Decide It, and the Gap Question You Get First

You know the work. You have just not said it out loud in a while. Here is what each product owner round is really testing, and the answers that pass.

Anudithi Saxena · 30 min read Read →

Interview & Resume · August 18, 2026

DevOps Interview Guide: The Rounds You Actually Face, and Why Career Changers Get Cut in Round Two

The DevOps interview stops testing tools ten minutes in. After that it tests whether you have owned a system. Here is every round, and what passes each one.

Sumit Saxena · 29 min read Read →

Interview & Resume · August 16, 2026

QA Automation Interview Guide: The Questions That Separate Script Writers From Engineers

Automation interviews are software engineering interviews wearing a QA hat. Here is what each layer tests, and the answers that get you to the offer.

Anudithi Saxena · 34 min read Read →

Interview & Resume · August 15, 2026

Business Analyst Interview Questions: What the Panel Is Really Asking You

Every business analyst question is testing a second question underneath it. Here is what each round is actually measuring, and the answers that pass.

Sony Aggrawal · 33 min read Read →

Six stacked layers of a Workday interview on a pale background, tenant and release, org structures, business processes, security, your module, reports and integrations, with the security layer highlighted in navy

Interview & Resume · August 13, 2026

Workday Interview Guide: The Questions That Prove You Worked in a Real Tenant

Workday interviews are built to detect people who have never had tenant access. Here is what each layer tests, and the answers that sound like real configuration.

Anudithi Saxena · 37 min read Read →

Three interview questions on the navy right side, explain PSU TRU and LDG, did you build it or use it, what do you check first, each linked across a divide to the answer that passes on the pale left side

Interview & Resume · August 12, 2026

Oracle HCM Interview Guide: The Questions You Are Actually Asked, and How to Answer Them

Four different people interview you for an Oracle HCM role, and each one is checking something different. Here are the questions, the model answers and the traps.

Sumit Saxena · 29 min read Read →

A board of nineteen numbered tiles with three highlighted, and a final tile marked with a tick

Career Restart · August 10, 2026

Common Mistakes After a Career Break: Why Your Restart Has Stalled, and the Fix for Each One

A diagnostic guide for restarts that have stalled: match your symptom to the mistake causing it, then fix that one thing.

Sony Aggrawal · 27 min read Read →

An abstract career path that pauses for a long flat stretch and then climbs again through four numbered stages

Career Restart · August 8, 2026

Can You Get a Job After a 10 Year Career Gap? Yes, and Here Is Exactly How

A ten year gap is not a disqualification. It is a story you have not learned to tell yet, and a set of signals you have not yet rebuilt. Both are fixable.

Anudithi Saxena · 28 min read Read →

An abstract career path arcing from one continent marker to another, then continuing through four numbered stages

Career Restart · August 8, 2026

Returning to India from the US: How to Land the Right Job Instead of the First One

Your US experience is worth a great deal in India, but only to some employers and only if you present it in the local currency of levels, CTC and proof.

SK Chauhan · 33 min read Read →

An abstract career path that breaks at a relocation point and rebuilds through four numbered stages toward a new city marker

Career Restart · August 7, 2026

Restarting Your Career After Relocation: The Sequence That Gets You Hired in a New City

Relocation does not erase your experience. It erases your proximity, your proof and your network. Rebuild those three in order and the search restarts.

Sumit Saxena · 27 min read Read →

An abstract career path that dips and then climbs in four numbered stages, drawn over a grid of connected technology nodes

Career Restart · August 6, 2026

Restarting an IT Career After 40: The Rebuild That Actually Works

Pick the level, cut the resume to twelve years, close the stack gap, then change the channel. The four moves that restart a stalled tech search after 40.

Anudithi Saxena · 28 min read Read →

An abstract ninety day timeline divided into five numbered phases that step upward from left to right, beside a cluster of connected company nodes

Getting Hired · August 5, 2026

How to Get a Job in Dubai in 2026: The 90 Day Plan for Senior Roles

Five phases over ninety days: target list, findability, referrals, rehearsed answers, then the package. Run in order, most stalled searches restart.

SK Chauhan · 19 min read Read →

An abstract diagram showing one broad requirement splitting into five smaller labelled concerns, four of which connect through to an open doorway

Getting Hired · August 5, 2026

"UAE Experience Required": What Employers Actually Mean, and How to Get Hired Without It

The requirement is a proxy for five specific worries. Answer four of them on the page and the fifth stops mattering.

Sony Aggrawal · 17 min read Read →

An abstract CV page beside a horizontal career timeline with a clearly labelled break section and a rising line after it

Career Restart · August 5, 2026

Your CV After a Maternity Break: What to Put on the Page, Line by Line

A line by line rebuild of your CV after maternity leave, with the exact break entry, before and after bullets, and three worked examples.

Anudithi Saxena · 22 min read Read →

Career Restart · August 4, 2026

Your LinkedIn Profile After a Career Break: What Recruiters Actually Search For

A section by section rebuild of your LinkedIn profile after a break, written from the recruiter's side of the search box.

Sumit Saxena · 22 min read Read →

A career path that runs level, breaks into a dashed gap, then climbs back through five rising stages

Career Restart · August 3, 2026

Restarting Your Career After a Gap: A Practical Plan That Actually Ends in a Job

A six-phase plan for getting back into work after a break: what to do first, what to skip, and the week most people quit.

Sony Aggrawal · 13 min read Read →

A route showing what happens to an application: you apply, keyword screen, screening call, submission, client review, with a faint branch dropping away to no response

August 3, 2026

What Actually Happens to Your Resume After You Apply

Most candidates never see the machinery between clicking apply and getting a call. Understanding the submission process changes how you apply, follow up, and work with recruiters.

Sumit Saxena · 4 min read Read →

Three stacked bands showing the three sentence answer to a question about an employment gap: what the break was for, that it is finished, and what you have done since

August 2, 2026

How to Explain an Employment Gap Without Losing the Interview

A gap on your CV is not the problem most candidates think it is. What matters is how you frame it, where you place it, and what you say when the question comes.

Anudithi Saxena · 2 min read Read →