“Is my room still available?”

That’s the text a client’s mom got this past spring. Her son—brilliant kid, stellar GPA from a top university—has been job hunting for six months. Zero offers. Soul-crushing rejections. Or dead silence.

But here’s the twist that made this story stick with me: Mom was dealing with the exact same problem. At 54, freshly “restructured” out of her VP role, she was getting the “overqualified” brush-off from every company she approached.

Two generations. Same family. Same brutal reality.

After 40 years in communications, I’ve seen this movie too many times. The job market gets tough, families panic, and everyone starts doing the same thing: polishing resumes, applying to more jobs, networking harder.

It’s like trying to clean a windshield with a dirty rag. You’re just smearing the Brand Garbage around rather than using Brand Windex.

Here’s what’s really happening out there.

New graduates face 5.8% unemployment, the highest since 2021. Job listings down 15%, applications up 30%. Three out of four seniors still don’t have jobs. They’re competing against laid-off professionals with actual experience.

Experienced professionals aren’t faring better. More than 60% of workers over 50 have experienced age discrimination. When they do get hired, they make 41% less than their previous jobs.

Both generations are making the same fundamental mistake: They’re competing on credentials instead of clarity.

The families that win have figured out a different game entirely.

While everyone else defends their circumstances, smart families own their unique value propositions. They understand that hiring managers don’t decode vague qualifications—they hire confidence, clarity, and problem-solving ability.

The secret? When you articulate your value with laser precision, experience becomes somewhat irrelevant. A 22-year-old with clear positioning beats a confused 30-year-old. A 55-year-old who owns his or her expertise outshines a desperate 45-year-old.

Here’s one strategy you can implement immediately.

Stop apologizing for who you are. Start owning what you bring.

New graduates: Transform “Recent Marketing Graduate” into “Emerging Brand Strategist | Data-Driven Creative Problem Solver." You’re not lacking experience. You’re bringing fresh perspective and current knowledge.

Experienced professionals: Replace “flexible on salary” with “Seasoned Operations Executive | Proven Track Record Scaling Teams Through Growth Phases.” Your experience isn’t a liability, it’s insurance against costly mistakes.

Student-athletes: Stop hiding your NCAA achievements. One client, Sarah, positioned her Division 1 captain experience as business leadership: “I helped teammates resolve conflicts and guided them through a difficult COVID season to reach the national championship game.” She connected athletic leadership directly to business value and landed a competitive PR role.

One piece of advice? Use most or all of the 220 characters LinkedIn gives you for your headline to show how you solve problems instead of limiting it to your title and company, or school and major.

Your positioning homework for this week.

1. Audit your LinkedIn headline. Does it apologize for your circumstances or own your value?
2. Create a “value translation sheet.” List three accomplishments and rewrite each to show business impact, not just job duties.
3. Practice the elevator test. Can you explain what you do and why it matters in 30 seconds without using industry jargon? Does it address the pain points you address for employers?

Remember: Clarity trumps credentials every single time.

The bottom line.

That client’s son I mentioned? Three weeks after we fixed his positioning, he had multiple interviews and two offers. His mom landed a consulting role that pays more than her previous job.

The market didn’t get easier. They got clearer.

Your graduate doesn’t need to move back home (although I'm sure they'd be welcome). You don’t need to accept “overqualified” as a death sentence. You both just need better positioning.

Because sometimes the difference between moving backward and moving forward is learning how to tell the right story.

Want the complete playbook? I’ve written the full five-strategy guide that’s helping families prevent boomerang scenarios and revive stalled careers. It includes the positioning frameworks, specific language examples, and step-by-step implementation guide.

​Read the complete guide here →​

The job market is brutal, but it’s not hopeless. When you can cut through the Brand Garbage and communicate your value with crystal clarity, opportunities appear.

Not because the market got easier. Because you got clearer.

Need help translating your family’s experience into compelling positioning? Let’s talk. Your story matters—you just need to learn how to tell it.

LET'S GET GOING

1. How to Simplify Your Day. Josh Spector offers seven things you can do to feel less overwhelmed and get more done.

2. Productivity. Open AI CEO Sam Altman provides some productivity tips, starting with picking the right thing to work on being the most important element of productivity

3. How to Write and Speak to Ensure Others Care. Jay Acunzo offers lessons learned from Roy Kent and Seth Godin.

TWEETS THAT ACTUALLY RULE

Katelyn Bourgoin 🧠 @KateBour The real “secret” with those marketing secrets? It’s basically always: > position strategically > understand your buyers > sell people what they want (I just saved you from 1000s of shitty courses and email funnels. You’re welcome) 9:33 PM • May 8, 2025 5 Retweets 56 Likes Read 31 replies

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HOW CAN I HELP?

A great case study should not be confused with a testimonial. It should focus on the problems you solved for them. Here’s an ungated link to a template that will help you ask the right questions to write more effective case studies. Or you could call someone like me with experience interviewing business leaders and asking the right questions.

RANT OF THE WEEK

I am sick to death of the EM Dash Police on LinkedIn and I am starting to block them from my feed, even if they've provided value in the past. These are the mediocre writers who spend their time being detectives and slamming people who use Chat GPT, Claude, and Perplexity as writing partners. As I sit in my remote office, I know we all need editors. We all need "someone" to bounce ideas off, to help us brainstorm. It's easy to say to your LLM of choice to "write me a story about X." It's more difficult to have a "real conversation" with pushback.

As I commented to a British virtual assistant (and I apologize if this comes across as harsh): "I've been a professional, award-winning writer for 40+ years. You appear to have been in the workforce for about eight years. I'm pretty comfortable with my writing style, some of which includes the "telltale signs" you list above. There's a reason for that: LLMs learn from good writers and bad. I use the em dash, the Oxford comma, word repetition for flow, and American spelling because, well. I live in America.
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My suggestion is that you and the Em Dash Police worry about your own writing and not spam the rest of us with tips everyone else is posting (e.g., Use AI as a starting point and then edit what it produces. Add your own personality, inject real-life experiences or your expert knowledge -- wow!).
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I think the danger for posts like this is they're exhausting, repetitive, and feel like clickbait."

Do you agree?

SOMETHING TO PONDER

Journalist and novelist Carl Hiaasen on setting a high standard (via James Clear): "Always aspire to act in a way that cancels out someone else's cruel or stupid behavior."

PROMPTS ARE QUESTIONS TOO

Following the theme of this week's newsletter, here's a prompt you can use if you want to see how an ATS might view your resume:

You are an expert in both applicant tracking systems (ATS) for HR departments and executive resume writing, with a deep understanding of Marcus Sheridan's Endless Customers philosophy -- a trust-first approach focused on honesty, clarity, and transparency.

Given the attached resume (not tailored to a specific job description), please review and suggest improvements specifically in terms of formatting and overall approach. Do not focus on tailoring to a specific job description. Instead, address:

• Layout and Section Order: How to maximize readability and impact for both ATS and human reviewers
• Keyword and Skills Usage: How to ensure the resume is discoverable and compelling for executive or early-career roles, as appropriate
• Clarity, Conciseness, and Transparency: How clearly and honestly the candidate’s achievements and experience are presented, with suggestions for improvement
• ATS Compatibility: Any formatting issues that could affect parsing (fonts, columns, graphics, etc.)
• Trust and Credibility: Suggestions to build trust and credibility with potential employers, especially for older job seekers and recent graduates
• Common Recruiter Concerns: Identify likely questions or doubts a recruiter might have about the resume and suggest ways to address them

Please provide your feedback in bullet points, using a constructive, supportive, and transparent tone. Include specific, actionable examples wherever possible.

Here are two possible additional follow-up prompts:

1. Be more brutal in your assessment of my resume. Some people criticize these LLMs for being too polite or too political.
2. Here's the job description for a position that interests me. Does this resume align well with the requirements?

I welcome your comments or suggestions for future issues. Drop me a note here. If you found this on LinkedIn or had it forwarded to you, you can subscribe by clicking the button below.