Getting fired pretty much always stinks. But there’s something distinctly humbling about being fired from your gig as a workplace advice columnist.

I know, because it happened to me.

Applying for jobs is a lot like dating: It’s a draining, often-embarrassing process that requires a lot of effort for minimal return that stretches your small talk muscles to the max. Read the situation wrong and you will find yourself locked in a horrendously unpleasant situation that you can’t escape without upending your life, so instead you try to make it work by pretending that certain important things (sex, paid time off) were actually never something you cared about.

Dear Lifehacker, Much of your advice around resumes is all about getting your foot in the door -- past the auto-screeners and the six-second glances. But what if I'm already in the door? I'm being referred for a job, and I'm wondering if you've got any advice for this situation. I figure they'll spend a bit longer looking at it since they're giving me an interview.

Dear Lifehacker, I’ve been having a back and forth with a prospective employer about moving over for a new role. Two interviews later and things have stalled at the reference checking stage because they want a reference from my direct manager at my current role.

As a person who recently lost their job, I’ve quickly had to adapt to a routine of unemployment.

Recruiters spend an average of six seconds reviewing a resume before they make the initial decision on candidates. That means you have to win them over fast. To get a better idea of what makes a resume great, we reached out to Amanda Augustine, career expert at online job-matching service TheLadders. She created an example of an excellent resume and allowed us to share it.

You or I would never do drugs, or attempt to cheat on something as important as a drug test. But perhaps you have a “friend” who is curious about how the tests work. Here’s what your “friend” needs to know.

There's no shortage of resume tips on the internet, but word selection is one area that's often overlooked. Believe it or not, your verb choices can have a serious impact on how your resume is received by prospective hirers - even if the listed skills and achievements remain otherwise unchanged.

This infographic from Eapplicants lists 22 action verbs that have been proven to strengthen resumes, along with a multitude of extra tips.

Looking for a job is difficult under the best of circumstances, and it gets considerably more so when you aren't prepared. Optimistically, we stick with a gig for a while even if we don't love it, neglecting to keep our resumes and other materials prepped if an opportunity comes up that we want to jump at.

While you’re perfecting your resume and cover letter with the hiring manager of your dream company in mind, you may be interested to know that they may never even read your application, because a robot will have discarded it before they had a chance.

You're looking for a new job, so it's time to update the ol' resume. But when you try to describe your last position, you stare off into space thinking, "Wait, what did I do, exactly?" Well, who's better at describing the duties of your role than the employer itself?

August 7 was Black Women’s Equal Pay Day — or the symbolic day that the average black woman reached pay equity with white men in the US this year — and Refinery29 ran a great piece on how three women discovered they were underpaid, and what they did about it.

If you want to secure a decent wage and steady employment, it helps to have a job that's in very high demand. According to the latest Hays Jobs Report, skills relating to finance and information technology are good for your resume in 2018. Here are the top 30 jobs that employers are currently trying to fill.

Dear Lifehacker, I've recently relocated to London for a year or two and am looking to start work. Most of my applications have been via recruiters who have responded with a range of roles. I'm interviewing for a couple of jobs this week but one is about 90 minutes away in another city and the other sounds like good work but the organisation might not be the right cultural fit for me.

Just as companies have to weed out the good candidates from the bad, you need to be able to tell the good companies and positions from the ones that will just waste your time. Here are some red flags in job descriptions and interviews that can warn you about a potentially terrible job.

Job hunting is always an exercise in patience and managed expectations. Whether you're looking for a new gig, trying to get your foot in the door of an unfamiliar industry, or just want to ensure your professional life stays up to date and appealing, there's no doubt you'll have to get on LinkedIn and spruce up that profile. Let's be honest: Your current profile probably isn't cutting it, and needs some work if you want to make a good first impression before you meet face-to-face for an interview.

Dear Lifehacker, I'm thinking of moving on from my current job, but there's a problem. I have some health issues that require a weekly appointment and I currently have my appointment on a Friday afternoon. My current manager has rearranged my work hours slightly so that I can attend this appointment. My question is: if I get an interview for a new job, should I tell them about this at the interview? If so, how do I go about it?

Let's not sugarcoat it: Searching for a job can be awful. It's a little like apartment hunting. Or partner hunting. You have to sift through a lot of unattractive options for one gem in the rough. But there are much better, more effective and sanity-saving ways to find appealing jobs that don't involve refreshing Seek or CareerOne.

Job searches are already a complicated stress-maze of multiple sites, searches and alerts, so you might think it's bad news that you also need to expand your search to social media. But actually, Twitter and Facebook can be a relatively (relatively) pleasant part of the job search process.