Your Mom Says You’re Amazing.

The Market Does Not. Because It Looks Differently.

Despite all your efforts, a good job somehow fails to register the fact of your existence.

Why?

1. Keywords are destiny.

Have the wrong ones? Exile.
Is your job title slightly off? That’s the end.

2. Naturally, you respond by stuffing your application with an unholy number of acronyms and buzzwords.

Surely this time the recruiter will notice.

Alas.

One day, your resume lands in the hands of an actual human.

They look.
They squint.
They whisper:
“WTF?”

3. Of course, it isn’t your fault.

Blame the 1973 oil crisis.
The government.
Capitalism.
Mercury in retrograde.
And, in general, everyone lies.

4. Remember: sometimes a banana is just a banana.

You are objectively impressive.
The role is a perfect match.
And still—silence.

Most likely, you are:

  • too expensive,

  • too senior,

  • expensive and underqualified,

  • inexpensive and overqualified,

  • inexpensive and underqualified,

  • too ambitious,

  • not ambitious enough,

  • blond,

  • or dark-haired.

Even if you manage to locate the actual hiring manager, they will redirect you… back to the online application.

And there it is.

The ATS.

A mystical software entity that scans, sorts, and delivers judgment upon your career. If your resume displeases the ATS, rest assured: no human eye will ever see it.

Soon you will receive an automatically polite yet final rejection, often labeled with the acronym PFO, which loosely translates as: “Please F*ck Off.”

When you fail because you are “too much,” the one who gets through is the one who is “simple.”

In other words, when someone as impressive as you stumbles, the guy from point four finally gets a chance.

Yet my mom says I’m amazing!

Now, seriously.

The market reads you differently than you assume. That is precisely why it discounts your value.

Most professionals evaluate themselves from a user’s perspective: Is it convenient? Does it look good? Does it pass ATS?

Senior and executive markets read differently—from a position of power. And they do not punish misunderstanding of this difference with rejection. They punish it with silence, role level, and money.

The problem is not the tools.

  • The problem is authorship.

  • AI accelerates production.

  • Optimization helps you pass the filter.

  • Multiple CV versions are basic hygiene.

But the market does not pay for speed or compliance. It pays for non-substitutability, control, and the consequences of decisions.

You adapt instead of setting the frame. You optimize form because you do not control the narrative.

You talk about tools because you do not hold the position. You try to please the system instead of forcing the system to account for you.

Senior markets do not hire those who adapt well. They hire those the system adapts to.

The hard truth:

You are not being rejected.
You are being politely not considered.

As long as you think in terms of “convenient,” “simple,” and “ATS-friendly,” you will remain one step below those who think in terms of leverage, inevitability, and price.

This is not a matter of taste.
It is a matter of level.

See how the market reads you—with us.

Yours,

9-to-6

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