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🥳 Wrapped is here, Jobseekers!

Snuggle up! This is the Wrapped for the ambitious and the unhired: an unfiltered look at your year in the job-search trenches. We've sifted through 51 weeks of newsletter deep-dives, crunched the soul-stirring stats, and served up the highs, lows, and "what just happened" moments like a united picket line taking back their talent, skill by skill.

Ready to see which executives made the naughty list? Let's turn the volume up to eleven and reclaim your time, your worth, and your next move.

• 2025 By The Numbers

• Top Job Market Themes This Year

• Biggest Mic Drops (the “wait… WHAT?” moments)

• The 5 Best Tips on Repeat

• Top Hits of the Year

• 2026, What’s Next

2025 By The Numbers

A data-driven breakdown of your year on the frontlines. 

• You consumed all 51 issues with the focus of a seasoned analyst. Dedication, acknowledged.

• Together, we decoded over 500 layoff announcements, transforming headlines into actionable intelligence.

• We deployed 150+ essential tools, from AI résumé engines to connection strategies designed for genuine impact.

• You integrated 32 of our templates, from compelling outreach to résumés built for visibility, elevating your assets with precision.

And let's not forget the 17+ hours you invested in reading survival guides, turning your pity party into a power move.

The verdict? You navigated this market with the savvy of an insider. We know, because we're right here with you slinging you the "secrets" and this is the proof.

Top Job Market Themes This Year

Time to do the year-end cut like a ruthless editor. 2025 wasn’t a “career journey,” it was a survival season with a couple of boss-level upgrades.

1) Resilience and mental health became part of the job search

Layoffs didn’t just hit finances, they hit your nervous system. So we treated recovery like a real phase, shared practical coping tools (including somatic-style resets), and focused on getting you back to steady. The vibe: you’re allowed to pause, and you decide when pause becomes momentum.

2) AI and upskilling stopped being “nice to have”

AI was the loud roommate of 2025, and job posts increasingly rewarded people who could use it to ship faster. So we pushed courses, toolkits, and proof-building (tiny projects, quick demos, real outputs) to make you a “human + AI” operator in your lane.

3) Networking stayed undefeated, and community became the cheat code

Cold applying felt extra brutal, while real roles kept moving through relationships. So we kept hammering the reps: reconnect with former teammates, ask for warm intros, show up in community, trade leads, and keep it consistent.

4) Real talk on layoffs, ghost jobs, and the economy

The stats didn’t match the vibe, and ghost jobs wasted a lot of time. We tried to be the flashlight: what’s real, where hiring signals exist, what’s shifting, and how to stay flexible without getting wrecked.

Biggest Mic Drops (the “wait… WHAT?” moments)

1. Ghost jobs are real. Some postings exist to collect resumes, test salary bands, or create the illusion of growth. The practical takeaway: treat repeated reposts and stale listings as a yellow flag, and bias toward roles where you can find a real hiring manager, an active team, or any fresh signal that the seat is actually being filled.

2. The “functional unemployment” gut-check: ~24.3% underemployed or underpaid. This one explains the whiplash between “official stats” and how everyone feels. A lot of people are technically employed but underpaid, underutilized, or stuck in roles that don’t match their level. Translation: competition stays intense even when headlines say things are “fine,” so you need positioning and proof, not just volume.

3. Boomerang hires surged. A big slice of hiring went to people returning to former employers, especially in info-tech. That’s not nostalgia, it’s risk management. It’s cheaper and safer to rehire someone who already knows the systems and culture. Translation: your past isn’t behind you, it’s a pipeline. Old teams, old managers, old cross-functional partners, all fair game.

4. “Your resume is dead” energy. Not literally, but the resume alone stopped being the main event. Proof beat claims. The people who stood out had receipts: a small portfolio, a quick Loom walkthrough, quantified outcomes, or clear examples of using AI to ship faster and smarter. The move became: show impact, don’t just describe it.

✅ The 5 Best Tips on Repeat

1. Protect your nervous system: Sleep, movement, and real human support keep you stable enough to do good work. Treat recovery like job-search infrastructure, not a bonus.

2. Network daily: Small reps beat big bursts. A few thoughtful reach-outs and follow-ups each day builds momentum and surfaces hidden roles.

3. Embrace AI fluency: Human + AI is the new baseline. Use it to tailor faster, prep smarter, and create proof of output, not just claims.

4. Stay flexible: Contract, fractional, and adjacent roles can be smart bridges. Optimize for learning, proximity, and wins you can point to.

5. Own your narrative: Layoffs and gaps aren’t shameful, they’re explainable. Keep your story crisp, confident, and forward-looking.

Top Posts of the Year

The posts that slapped hardest, buzzing the community like viral drama. These issues were 🔥 

1. Your Resume is Dead. Your AI Portfolio Just Got You the Job. October's savage wake-up: Ditch bullet points for AI impact flexes. Steps to build and broadcast. Readers revamped LinkedIn and scored interviews. Sass: Old résumé? Snooze. AI portfolio? Instant legend status.

2. Somatic Reset For Your Laid Off Nervous System. November's wellness warrior: Layoffs = primal threat; breathwork to the rescue. Free workshop vibes. Sass: Newsletter hug for your holiday freakout because even badasses need a reset.

3. We're Closer to the Great Depression Than You Think. June's truth bomb: 24% hidden joblessness dissected, with survival hacks (network, save, skill). Community debates ensued. Sass: Doomscrolling with a plan.tough love for your denial phase.

4. Boomerang Boom: Your Former Employer Wants You Back. June's redemption arc: Boomerangs rising, five-step comeback guide. Readers reconnected and landed gigs. Sass: Ex-employer glow-up? Full-circle flex. Bridges unburned pay dividends.

5. The Job Market is Giving Haunted House. December's spooky finale: Ghost jobs exposed, smart moves amid the madness. Sass: Eerie market? Navigate like a ghostbuster. 2025's chaotic curtain call.

2026, Here We Come 🥳 

2025 was a brutal stress test, and you made it through with sharper instincts and better tools. Offboard was in your corner the whole way: translating chaos into signal, and keeping you moving when the market tried to stall you out.

Now it’s 2026. New cycle, new leverage. AI is still booming, boomerang hires are real, and your network is stronger than it was a year ago. Keep what works, drop what doesn’t, and walk into the new year focused, steady, and ready to ship.

Happy New Year. Let’s build something good.