Writing
What we have learned about the conversations people find hardest, and why reading about them is not the same as being able to have one. Every piece here ends where the reading stops being useful — at the scenario it prepares you for.
Ace Your Interviews
Claire Morgan · Senior Recruiter· 6 min
How to explain a career gap in an interview
Recruiters do not reject gaps. They reject answers that move. Here is the version that survives being asked twice.
Sarah Park · Hiring Manager· 5 min
How to answer “tell me about yourself”
It is not an icebreaker. It is a test of whether you can choose what matters about your own experience.
Margaret Ellis · VP of People· 6 min
How to negotiate salary when you are above their band
“Can you be flexible?” is a test, not a question. Folding immediately costs you more than the money.
Amina Brooks · Hiring Manager· 5 min
How to answer “why should we hire you?”
The question is a filter, not an invitation to list adjectives. Ten minutes, one outcome, one sharp question back.
- Sarah Park · Hiring Manager
· 4 min
Practise the conversation, not the answer
Rehearsed answers collapse the moment someone interrupts. What actually transfers is handling the turn you did not plan for.
Sell More Effectively
Priya Raman · VP of Operations· 5 min
What to say in the first thirty seconds of a cold call
You are not selling in the first thirty seconds. You are buying the next two minutes, and almost everyone spends them on their own name.
Tom Becker · Head of Engineering· 5 min
How to revive a deal that went quiet
Chasing makes people vaguer. The move that unsticks a silent deal is giving the buyer permission to say no.
James Okafor · Head of Operations· 6 min
How to sell to a buyer who has been burned before
Cynical buyers are not closed. They are carrying a specific bad memory, and the pitch that ignores it confirms it.
Maya Chen · Procurement Lead· 4 min
Why your pitch dies at the objection
The price objection is almost never about price. Sellers who defend the number first lose the room before they find out what it was about.
Handle Difficult Conversations
Julian Reyes · Department Lead· 6 min
How to take criticism without getting defensive
Vague feedback is not a verdict, it is an unfinished sentence. Defending yourself is what stops it ever being finished.
Nadia Haddad · Client Programme Lead· 5 min
How to deliver bad news to a client
The delay is rarely what makes people angry. Being managed is. Lead with the headline and own the cause by name.
Marcus Lindqvist · Senior Engineer· 6 min
How to give difficult feedback to a colleague
Feedback about a person starts an argument. Feedback about a behaviour, with a named cost, ends one.
Emma Laurent · Small Business Owner· 5 min
How to handle an angry customer on the phone
By the fourth call, the fault is not what they are angry about. Nobody has owned it — and an apology is not ownership.
Elena Rossi · Direct Manager· 3 min
How to say no to your manager without damaging the relationship
Pushing back is not refusing. The employees who do it well name the constraint, hold the line, and hand back a decision.