Journal

Notes from the studio.

Writing about craft, careers, and the quiet work of being seen. No listicles, no clickbait — just the notes we'd want to read ourselves.

CV writing/14 August 2026/5 min read

What an ATS actually parses, and the five formatting choices that break it

No applicant tracking system scores your CV out of a hundred and rejects you at 74. It turns a file into database rows. Five common design choices make that fail.

CV writing/9 August 2026/5 min read

From duty to outcome: ten CV bullets rewritten in front of you

Nobody is impressed that you were "responsible for" anything. Ten real bullets from real CVs, rewritten line by line, with the reasoning shown each time.

CV writing/3 August 2026/5 min read

Arabic CV, English CV, or both — decide by who opens the file

The language of your CV is not a statement about your identity. It is a guess about the person who will read it, and you can usually make that guess accurately.

Portfolios/29 July 2026/4 min read

Portfolio or CV: what belongs on one and never on the other

A CV argues that you are worth a conversation. A portfolio proves you can do the work. Confusing the two produces a bloated CV and a portfolio nobody finishes.

CV writing/23 July 2026/4 min read

The photo on your CV: keep it in Cairo, cut it for London

Whether a photo helps or hurts is not a matter of taste. It depends entirely on which market opens the file, and the answer flips completely between Riyadh and Dublin.

CV writing/16 July 2026/4 min read

The career-change CV, when your history argues against you

Changing field means every line of your CV is evidence for the wrong case. Here is how to re-order the document so your history stops working against your application.

Egypt & the Gulf/9 July 2026/5 min read

Applying to Gulf employers from Cairo: what actually changes

The CV changes less than people think. What changes is the paperwork, the way the offer is built, and how a recruiter reads the words "currently in Egypt".

Egypt & the Gulf/1 July 2026/4 min read

Naming a number in EGP without underselling yourself

The salary question is not a test of confidence. It is a test of preparation. Here is how to build a number you can defend, and what to say when they ask first.

From the hiring desk/23 June 2026/4 min read

What a hiring manager actually does in your first thirty seconds

A description of the real scan, in order, from someone who has done it to a stack of sixty CVs on a Thursday afternoon. Seven lines decide almost everything.

Portfolios/15 June 2026/4 min read

The freelance portfolio that closes: pricing, packages and proof

A freelance portfolio is a sales page with your work in it. Six pieces, three packages, visible prices, and the one section almost nobody writes.