Job Search 2026: Resume, LinkedIn & Interview Tips to Win

How to Land an Amazing New Job in 2026

In this video, I’m going to walk you through exactly how to secure an exciting new job in 2026. We’re currently facing one of the most challenging job markets in recent decades, but there is still hope ahead. I’ll show you practical ways to navigate this difficult market and make the most of the opportunities that are available.

How to Sell Ourselves in a Resume

In this video, we’re going to cover how to sell ourselves in a resume, how to build an amazing LinkedIn profile. We’re going to talk about applying to jobs the right way so we don’t end up in a black hole. And of course, we will talk about how to prepare for and nail every job interview. And if you follow my instructions, you’re going to get a lot of them.

The Best Dang Job Search Advice on the Internet

I’m Greg Langstaff. I’m a certified resume strategist. I’ve written over 2,500 resumes. I’ve spent over 20,000 hours helping people land jobs and refining these strategies. You are about to get the best dang job search advice on the internet.

Enter to Win a Free Resume Review

And if you stick around to the end of this video, I’m going to tell you how you can enter to win a free resume review from me. So do not leave before the end or you will miss these secret instructions. Now let’s talk résumés.

The First Critical Decision Is the Layout

The first critical decision you need to make when it comes to resumes is the layout. Now, when it comes to choosing our resume template, we want to consider both the AI that is going to be scanning this resume and the human being who’s going to be reading it.

One of These Three Templates

Now, to ensure you get the best of both worlds, I’d highly recommend something like one of these three templates. Now, each of these presents you as a competent professional because they’re very well-designed, they’re visually pleasing, and they also have space specifically designed for you to brand yourself to get the reader excited.

ATS Optimized for 2026

Now, most importantly, these templates are all ATS optimized for 2026. How do I know this? I designed these myself. These templates are available on my website. This one on the left here is available completely for free. I’ve linked to that down below. Go check it out.

The Most Common Resume Mistake I Notice

Want to know the biggest resume mistake I see people making?He mistake is most people are diving straight into the experience without taking the time to brand themselves so they can get the reader excited to actually read the entire resume. Branding ourselves is super easy. I’m going to walk you through exactly how to do it right now.

What Do You Do?What Can You Do? Are You Any Good?

Now, before our professional experience, we should cover three things on our resume. Who are you? What can you do? And are you any good? So, here we’re going to answer who are you with one to three simple professional titles.

Listing Our Top Skills

At the top of the resume, we will literally tell them our core function, what level we’re at, maybe our industry, and perhaps one other strong skill we have. And then here in the key skills section, we’re going to tell them what we can do by listing our top skills. And if you’re not sure what to write here, look through the job postings you’re applying to, see what skills they are asking for.

The Professional Summary

And in the professional summary, most people make the mistake of just listing who they are and what they do again without taking the time to tell the reader that we’re good at what we do. So, we’re going to use the professional summary to tell them exactly that.

Extremely Impressive Accomplishments

So, we want to double down on what job we’ve been doing. We want to share how many years of experience we have. And then we want to share some examples of extremely impressive accomplishments from our career thus far just to get them excited. And remember, this template and many other ATS-optimized templates are available on my website. You can check that out at the link down below.

The Most Important Part of the Resume

The last important piece of résumé advice is the most important part of the resume. This is your bullet points. The key here is very simple, but a lot of people get this wrong. Do not just tell them what you did in every job. We need action-oriented accomplishment bullet points to prove that we were great at the work we did.

This Gets Lots of Job Interviews

So, this is a bad bullet point because it just describes a generic responsibility. Conversely, this is an amazing bullet point because it describes an accomplishment. This gets no job interviews. This gets lots of job interviews.

A Couple Hours Now Will Save You Months

Now, writing good bullet points should take some serious thought. It might take you a couple hours to properly write out all the bullet points you need for your resume, but this effort is so worth it because a couple hours now will save you months of painful job searching.

540 Badass Bullet Points for Your Resume

Now, if you do want to save some time on bullet point writing, I have written a book called 540 Badass Bullet Points for Your Resume. It has hundreds of example bullet points from many different industries that you can copy and paste straight into your resume or use as inspiration. I’ve linked to that book down in the description below. Check it out.

Three, Two, One, Go

Now, I want to talk about cover letters, but cover letters are very boring. So, we’re going to make this a fun challenge. I’m going to give myself 20 seconds to tell you everything you need to know about how to write an amazing customized cover letter. Let’s do this. Three, two, one, go.

A Modern 2026 Cover Letter

So, this is a modern 2026 cover letter. For the intro and closing sections, you can use exactly what I wrote here. Just make sure you plug in the job title, the company name, the industry, and then in the middle, we do not use paragraphs.

Keep This to One Page

We are going to use bullet points, our best bullet points from our resume, illustrating our top skills, which we’ll list on the left, and then rewrite those bullet points in first person on the right. And for crying out loud, keep this to one page. Woo! Did it. That was a rush.

Prepopulated Cover Letter Templates

Now, if you want to save yourself some time on cover letter writing, I have prepopulated cover letter templates linked down in the description below. Go check them out. All right, let’s talk about your LinkedIn profile.

The LinkedIn Profile Picture

Now, we’re going to start with the LinkedIn profile picture because, let’s be honest, no matter what all these companies say, they are judging us based on how we look. Now, a good LinkedIn profile photo checks all of these boxes. We are smiling. We are looking at the camera. We are alone in the picture.

Ask a Friend to Take a Picture of You

We’re dressed professionally. It’s not a selfie. There is no distracting background, and we have decent lighting.If your LinkedIn profile picture doesn’t meet all of these requirements, don’t worry. Just put on a professional-looking outfit, grab your phone, stand by a window with plenty of natural daylight, and ask a friend to take a clear photo of you.

A Well-Written About Me Section

It’s also important to continue that same strong brand that we’re building here on LinkedIn. So for this headline piece, I recommend using very similar content to what you have in your resume.It’s equally important to include a clear and engaging About Me section.

What Do You Enjoy Doing Beyond Your Work?

For this, the structure I recommend is paragraph one, what do you do and are you good at it? And feel free to borrow a lot of this from your resume’s professional summary section. Just write it in first person. Paragraph two, what do you like about what you do? In paragraph three, what do you like to do outside of work?

Same Job Title, Same Company Name, Same Dates

Now, when it comes to the experience and education sections of our LinkedIn, it is very important that the key details here match our resume exactly. I’m talking same job title, same company name, same dates, same degree name, everything.

Duplicating What We Wrote in Our Resume

Also, for the description section of each of your jobs, it is my philosophy that we work so hard to figure out how to best sell ourselves in our resume that we are best served by just duplicating what we wrote in our resume. Again, here in our LinkedIn, in the description about each job.

Up to 100 Skills in Our LinkedIn Skills Section

Finally, when it comes to the skills section of our LinkedIn profile, as of last year, we can now add up to 100 skills into our LinkedIn skills section. So, the way to find out what skills you should include, take a close look at the job postings you’re interested in, see what skills are they mentioning.

My Free Badass LinkedIn Profile Checklist

What tasks do they want you to do? What software or equipment do you need to use? What industry terminology are they using? Add all of those things that are relevant to you to your skills section. And if you want to make sure your LinkedIn profile is 100% amazing, check out my free Badass LinkedIn Profile Checklist. I have a link to that down in the description.

My Free LinkedIn Profile Course

And if you’re watching this after January 21st, 2026, check out my free LinkedIn profile course here on YouTube. It’s a full course. I’ll link it up here as soon as it’s ready. And if it has not been released yet, make sure you subscribe now so you don’t miss it.

Which Job Boards Should We Be Using?

Now, let’s talk about applying to jobs, and then we’ll finish off with interviews. So, the first question here is which job boards should we be using?What you should understand is that companies put a lot of effort into finding talented candidates, and they’re aware that many qualified job seekers regularly browse the leading job platforms.

LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor

I’m talking LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor. So, I’d recommend going to those first as most job postings are posted on one or all of those platforms. Also, there are a lot of job boards that are specific to individual industries, and I can’t list them all here, but honestly, a quick Google search will help you find what job boards are most relevant to your industry. So, have a look and bookmark a few of those.

A Script You Can Use to Apply via Email

Now, when you’re not applying to jobs through the traditional job board route, maybe you’re applying to a smaller company, they may ask you to apply to the job via email. These emails can be extremely awkward if you don’t know what to say. So, here is a script you can use if you ever have to apply to a job via email.

You Can Use It Word for Word

So, this is a script I recommend you use. And as you can see, we are starting by stating our intention, uh, to apply for the job. We’re mentioning that we feel like we would be a good fit and just giving them a little taste of what’s to come in our resume. It’s that easy. Take a screenshot of this. You can use it word for word.

Nine Must-Have Emails for Your Job Search

For more emails that you might need while job searching, I wrote a free ebook. It’s called Nine Must-Have Emails for Your Job Search. It covers this. It covers things like what to say to check in when you haven’t heard back after applying to a job or what content to include in your thank you email after an interview. I’ve linked to that down in the description below. Go check it out. It’s free.

Your Dream Job

Now, if you are about to apply to your dream job, there are two additional steps I would recommend to go above and beyond. The first is tailoring your resume a little bit to better fit the job description. The second is sending a nice message to the hiring manager.

Tweak Your Resume for a Specific Job

Now, to tweak your resume for a specific job you’re applying to, take a close look at the requirements of each job. Make sure that the skills, the terminology that they’re mentioning appear in your resume in our skills or areas of expertise section. And also try to talk about each of those at least once in your bullet points.

Send the Hiring Manager a Nice Message

For a full walkthrough on how to tailor your resume for a specific job in just 5 minutes, check out this video here on YouTube I created to walk you through that exact process. It’s also super beneficial to send the hiring manager a nice message to let them know you applied to a job.

How You Find the Hiring Manager’s Contact Information

Here’s how you can locate the hiring manager’s contact details and what you should say when reaching out. To identify the right hiring manager, search for the job title and company name on LinkedIn, and add the word “hiring” to your search.

Then, filter by posts. This is going to bring up anytime someone has posted that they’re hiring for this job, and that’s usually something the hiring manager does.

Congratulations, You Got Invited to an Interview

Then add the hiring manager on LinkedIn and send them a nice message like this to let them know you are excited to have applied. Finally, if you get invited to an interview, congratulations. Only about 2% to 5% of people who apply to a job will ever get an interview. So, this is a huge accomplishment.

Turn This Great Step Forward into a Job Offer

Now, I’ll guide you through the steps you need to take to turn this positive move into an actual job offer. I’ll show you how to anticipate the questions you’re likely to face during an interview and how to organize your responses so you can answer each one with confidence.

A Straightforward Three-Step Method

So, when it comes to predicting job interview questions, it’s a simple three-step process. First, we’re going to make a list of all the job responsibilities we’re seeing in the job description. As we mentioned, these include job tasks, software, equipment, industry terminology.

The “Tell Us About a Time” Method

Then we’re going to turn each of these items on this list into a question using the “tell us about a time” method. That’s going to look something like this. And then finally, we’re just going to make some shorthand bullet points to give us a prompt as to how we might answer those questions using an actual story from our career like this.

The STAR Method

Then we’re going to practice answering those questions using the STAR method. Stands for situation. What job were you in when this story occurred? Task, what was the problem you had to solve or the opportunity you were working towards? Actions, what is every step you took to achieve your goal? And results, what was it that indicated that you were successful at this project or solving this problem?

101 Job Interview Questions and How to Answer Them Perfectly

Now, if you want a list of 101 of the most popular job interview questions and how to answer them, check out my ebook, 101 Job Interview Questions and How to Answer Them Perfectly. I’ve linked to that down in the description of this video as well. And I’ve also created a free job interview prep course here on YouTube. I’ve linked that up here so you can check that out as well.

Quite a Journey

Well, that was quite a journey, and I’ve given you now a high-level overview on every step of the process of landing a great new job for 2026. Now, if you want more detailed support on any of these topics, check out my YouTube channel. I have covered every one of these pieces in a lot more detail. I’d be happy to see you over there.

Looking for a New Job in 2026

And to enter to win a free resume review from me, like this video, subscribe to my channel, and leave a comment letting me know if you’re looking for a new job in 2026.

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