Most job seekers think they need to beat the ATS.

Optimize the résumé. Match the keywords. Play the system.

That's the wrong goal.

You don't beat the ATS.

👉 You stay out of it.

Because the applicant trashing system is not designed to hire you.

It's designed to filter you out.

And when you rely on it, you're putting yourself in a low-probability game.

Most people aren't even reviewed.

Not rejected.

Invisible.

What does dear ole' Coach Andy always say…

Companies don't hire people.
Systems really don't hire people.
People hire people.

Why do you think while you're doing your best Resume Pez Dispenser imitation with the ATS, companies spend their time hiring through referrals, recruiters, and direct outreach?

Even if you're perfect, the system flattens you like a job-candidate pancake.

Keywords. Titles. Dates.

That's all it sees.

Not your judgment. Not your leadership. Not your ability to solve problems.

I know applying feels productive.

But it's not progress.

It's just activity.

The people who get hired?

They don't sit in the system.

They get to the people.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Let's talk about something most candidates completely miss in interviews.

👉 The questions they ask.

I'm not talking about whether you ask questions.

Most people know they should.

I'm talking about how you ask them.

Because here's generally what happens…

You wait until the end.
You ask something safe.
Something generic.

"Can you tell me about the culture?"
"What's the work-life balance like?"

[Insert buzzer sound here like the one your Coach Andy makes on Thursdays at Live Office Hours.]

And now you don't get another interview let alone an offer.

And you think you're doing the right thing.

But you're not helping yourself at all.

You're actually signaling the exact opposite of what you want.

You're signaling that you don't really understand the job.

Because strong candidates don't ask questions to gather basic information.

They ask questions to show they already understand what matters.

👉 They use questions as proof.

[Insert kaboom sound here. 💥]

That's the diff.

When you do this well, your questions stop sounding like curiosity and start sounding like experience.

That's when the interviewer starts thinking This person gets it.

That's what I'm breaking down in today's Tuesday Tips lesson.

I'll show you how to ask questions that position you as someone who already knows the job, not someone trying to figure it out.

👉 Listen to Ask Interview Questions That Prove You Know the Job!

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Let's talk about something that sets people back.

Career mistakes.

Not obvious ones.

Ones that look like progress.

Work hard. Stay loyal. Do a good job.

The kind of unnoticeable acts that don't cost you a bad day.

They cost you years.

Years of time. Income. Momentum you never get back.

And it happens because people are pointed in the wrong direction.

Not because they aren't capable.

That's what we're fixing today.

This week's Tuesday Tips is not just a list.

It's a full-on hour of how careers actually work.

I walk you through 26 of the costliest mistakes across five critical areas:

· Career Design, where most people drift instead of choosing a lane.

· Career Growth, why people build the wrong skills or don't build them at all.

· On-the-Job, how doing "enough" keeps you stuck.

· Job Search, where most people completely misplay the game.

· Networking, the mistakes that keep opportunities out of reach.

And more importantly that pointing out these mistakes, I'll teach you how to fix them so you can stop losing time and start making big-time progress.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Let's talk about the thing that's sitting in the back of a lot of people's minds right now…

"Is AI going to take my job?"

I get it.

You're seeing layoffs.
You're hearing nonstop noise about automation.

But here's the problem…

Most people are asking the wrong question.

They're thinking about AI like it's coming to take a fixed number of jobs.

That's not how this works.

Every major wave of technology does two things at the same time:

It eliminates certain roles in the short term.
And it expands the total number of opportunities over time.

The real issue isn't "Will AI take my job?"

It's…

👉 Is what you do easily replaceable at the source?

Because if it is… yeah, you've got a problem.

But if you understand where AI actually can't compete, you're not just safe…

You're in a better position than ever.

That's what I'm breaking down in today's Tuesday Tips lesson.

I'll show you how to think about this the right way and, more importantly, where to focus so you stay valuable no matter what changes.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

There is no faster accelerator in your career than communication.

And there is no bigger drag.

Think about it.

You have skills.
Experience.
Judgment.
Ideas that could help your team, your company, and your customers.

But between everything you know and the value you deliver sits one thing:

Communication.

It's the wrapper around everything you know.

It either broadcasts your value or it traps it inside.

Most professionals think their communication problem is clarity.

It usually isn't.

It's process.

When someone asks for an update, a proposal, or a recommendation, most people open a blank page and start writing.

While they're writing, they're also…

• figuring out what they want to say.
• organizing the information.
• editing the sentences.

All at the same time!

That's the mistake.

Great communication isn't winged.

It's constructed.

In today's Tuesday Tips lesson, I'm going to show you the exact system I use to create every form of communication I produce.

These steps helped me write this newsletter, the talk I'm giving you at Live Office Hours on Thursday, and even my books like Signal Strength.

Once you see it, you'll never approach an email, presentation, proposal, or conversation the same way again.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

One of the biggest mistakes job seekers make in interviews is trying to sell their skills.

They walk through their résumé.
They explain what they know.
They talk about tools and responsibilities.

They assume the employer will connect the dots.

But employers are not hiring skills.

They are hiring value.

Skills are just the ingredients.

Value is the outcome.

Two candidates can have the same skills.

Why does one get the offer and the other doesn't?

💥 Because one person explains what their skills do for the business, while the other only explains what they know how to do.

And those are very different conversations.

When you focus on skills, you sound like every other candidate.

When you focus on value, you sound like the person who can solve the company's problems. (Another 💥 right here.)

That shift changes everything.

In today's Tuesday Tips lesson, I'll show you how to make that shift so your experience connects the way it should in interviews.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Happy St. Patrick's Day. ☘️

If you're counting on luck in your job search, we need to talk.

Let me say something that might sting a little.

Your skills aren't the reason you're not getting offers.

And they're definitely not the reason you'll get one.

Most job seekers think interviews are about listing what they know.

"I'm certified in…"
"I've done Agile…"
"I've led teams…"
"I implemented…"

That's a menu.

Employers don't buy menus.

They buy outcomes.

They buy transformation.

They buy the feeling that when you walk in the door, their problem walks out.

(Not to break up the speed at which you're reading this, but you can't imagine how long it took me to come up with the previous line you just read. 🤣)

Where was I?

Right…

When you talk about your past like a list of features, they have to work too hard to connect the dots.

When you tell a story about a real problem, what was at stake, what you drove, and what changed because of you…

They do the connecting for you.

Everything becomes a deduction.

"If she pulled that off, she can handle this."

That's how hiring decisions are made.

Not by credentials.
Not by platforms.
Not by how many buzzwords you can stack into a sentence.

In today's Tuesday Tips, I show you how to stop selling skills and start selling impact.

Because skills don't win interviews.

This does.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

There is at least one moment in a job interview you can count on.

Whether it happens literally or figuratively, it's this:

"Tell me about your accomplishments."

What do many people do when they hear this?

They panic.

Not because they don't have wins.

But because they don't know how to talk about them without feeling awkward, arrogant, or self-promotional.

And that's where offers disappear.

Whether you're interviewing for a new role or discussing your impact with your current employer, one thing matters more than anything else:

Can you clearly explain what you've accomplished and why it mattered?

If you can't, the interviewer fills in the blanks for you.

And they usually get it wrong.

That's why today's lesson is focused on how to share your wins without sounding like you're bragging.

This lesson will help you talk about your achievements in a way that sounds confident and credible, not self-important.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy