Why You, Why Me, Why Now: The Mindset and Moves to Land That First Job, from Networking to Cover Letters, Resumes, and Interviews

A clear, accessible, and fun guide on everything it takes to land a job.

Searching for a job can be hard and demoralizing work. In Why You, Why Me, Why Now, Rachel Toor delivers some good news. The most important thing is within your control--a mindset that shows you know the goals of the organization you want to work for and that you’re ready and eager to contribute. Toor provides, with compassion and enthusiasm, strategies to make it easy for hiring managers to say ＂yes.＂ Through useful and funny anecdotes, she offers advice from professionals across industries and focuses on the attitude applicants can adopt to find success. Revealing traits employers seek, Toor shows how to craft winning cover letters, ways to tailor resumes for each job, and practical tips to get past AI screening. She also explains how to use LinkedIn and gives tips on preparing for interviews. Throughout, the book features Toor’s notes on writing well to help in landing a first job and beyond. Encouraging, entertaining, and blunt, this is a job-search guide like no other.

Rachel Toor, professor of creative writing at Eastern Washington University in Spokane is the author of six books of nonfiction, including Write Your Way In: Crafting an Unforgettable Admissions Essay, Admissions Confidential: An Insider’s Account of the Elite College Selection Process, and a young adult novel. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Runner’s World, Glamour, and many other publications.