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The year is 2014, and Im stuck in Ukraine. I have a particularly antsy mother who wasnt keen on me visiting the country just weeks into Russias attempted invasion, and she is expecting me back home. In Odessahundreds of miles away from the Maidan and the nascent conflictthe worst example of war Id seen was a heated snowball battle between those who wanted to remain Ukrainian and those who wanted to be Russian. The reason Im stuck has nothing to do with Russia: Its bad fog grounding flights at the tin hut airport Im due to fly out of. But with no reliable phone communication back home, I know my family will put two and two together and make five. The problem is allayed when I return to the plush hotel Id been staying at, which was happy to have us pay for another nights lodging, and get on Skype. Im able to call home, explain what happened, and keep them from panicking when I dont step off the plane back in the U.K. as expected. International calls remain prohibitively expensive. And for a generation that doesnt own smartphoneslike my parentsor a country that steadfastly refuses to join the rest of the world on WhatsApp (hello, United States), Skype has proven a lifeline. My use of the platformto call home when stuck in war-torn Ukraine for an extra day, or to check on the status of my sick grandfather in hospital on the sidelines of a conference in the U.S. earlier this yearis very much a first-world problem. But the reality is that the imminent closure of Microsofts digital calling service (which the company attributes to dwindling user numbers and its belief that the same service can be offered through Microsoft Teams) will leave a significant gap for many who depend on it. Im not a Skype power user, but by my own estimation, Ive used the platform at least once a week for the last decade or more. My job as a tech journalist means I frequently call American contacts and sources. The countrys intransigence and refusal, with very few exceptions, to download and install WhatsApp on their cellphones means that unless I want to be hit with eye-watering minute-by-minute charges for calling them for interviews, I need to find an alternative. Since the early 2010s, that alternative has been a rolling Skype subscription to call the U.S.400 minutes per month, landline and cellphones, has proved plenty for me. Shortly, it wont be. Our lives, and our families, are increasingly scattered to the four winds. And in the two decades since its 2003 founding, Skype has helped those families stay connected. Its also helped a good number of people whose jobs involve international interactions do so at a manageable cost. Its notable that mentioning the closure of Skype on a regular roundup of tech news stories I do for a U.K. radio station received the most personal correspondence from listeners. They told me they too were worried about the closure of the service and were seeking out alternatives. Skype has long been unloved, long surpassed by the likes of Zoom andwhisper it quietly, and by tamping down your gag reflexMicrosoft Teams. Indeed, its Teams that Skype is recommending people move to, without realizing it doesnt offer exactly the same experience. But Skype was our little app that could. And its disappearance will be a loss for many beyond just me.
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Welcome to Pressing Questions, Fast Companys workplace advice column. Every week, deputy editor Kathleen Davis, host of The New Way We Work podcast, will answer the biggest and most pressing workplace questions. Q: How do I decide what to take off of my résumé? A: There is much debate about if your résumé really needs to be one page. But regardless of if its one page or two, there are some common elements you can cut to make your résumé easier to read and more effective. Here are a few: Work history thats more than 15 years old This one isnt cut and dry. You shouldnt just delete everything before 2010. But heres what to consider cutting or condensing. If you have been at your last (or current) position for fewer than five years, you can keep a few bullet points under each of your previous jobs dating back 1015 years.But if a role on your résumé is from more than 1015 years ago, your old responsibilities, tasks, and accomplishments are likely not very relevant anymore.The exception is if you are looking to make a career change and you have older relevant job experience. You can list your positions with just title and dates but add a couple of bullet points to the older related experience. Your cover letter (yes, you still should write one) is the best place to connect the dots for the hiring manager on how your older experience is related. Jargon, clichés, and hyperbole You should avoid unnecessary jargon, clichés, and hyperbole in all parts of your job search process, but your résumé is the most crucial place to trim it out. If your résumé is being read by AI, phrases like seasoned solutions-oriented team player wont pass the keyword screens. Those words are similarly meaningless (and might actively work against you) if your résumé is being read by a real person.The best résumés follow the basic rules of good writing. Think of the golden rule of prose: Show, dont tell. An easy way to do this is to replace adjectives with numbers and facts: Instead of dynamic sales professional with a distinguished track record, try Closed over $1 million in new partnerships each quarter. Your objective or summary and your mailing address I dont know who ever thought an objective on a résumé was necessary. Your objective is to get hired, so anything you write here is just throat-clearing wasted space. Some people replace objective with a summary, which, in theory, can be useful for recruiters or AI that’s doing a quick scan. Most often though summaries are also useless because they are filled with meaningless buzzwords (see above). Youre better off formatting your résumé in an easy-to-scan way where your skills and accomplishments are clear.Including your mailing address is a relic of a time when applications were sent via snail mail and is an easy place to streamline. If you’re applying to an in-person job, however, you may still want to include the city you live in. The header space of your résumé should also include your email, phone, website/portfolio link, and one or two professional social media profiles, like LinkedIn. Fancy formatting, your photo, basic skills If you are early in your career and feel like you dont have enough to fill the page, it can be tempting to pad your résumé by adding basic skills like proficient with Microsoft office suite. But skills like that are assumed and adding them can actually make you look less experienced. Dont try to fill the space with colorful large fonts, formatting tricks, or your headshot either. White space is better and a simple format is easier to read, by both humans and applicant tracking systems. If you feel like your résumé is too thin, you may need to expand your definition of experience. (Heres my advice on how to make up for lack of experience on your résumé.)Want more advice on what to cut from your résumé? Here you go: 5 ways to make your résumé more impressive without lying Many job applications are never read by a human. Heres how to make sure your résumé gets seen 5 things you should take off your résumé right now
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If AI lives up to its hype and we can outsource the thinking, planning, and strategy parts of our jobs, do we risk losing the skills that make us human? Research from the Center for Strategic Corporate Foresight and Sustainability found that there is “a significant negative correlation between frequent AI tool usage and critical thinking abilities, mediated by increased cognitive offloading. In other words, use AI too much, and your mental faculties take a nosedive. But theres another way to think about the issue. Could AI actually improve our cognition by freeing up our mental bandwidth for higher-value work? {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/04\/workbetter-logo.png","headline":"Work Better","description":"Thoughts on the future of work, career pivots, and why work shouldn't suck, by Anna Burgess Yang. To learn more visit workbetter.media.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.workbetter.media","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}} Make time for strategic thinking Ive worked at jobs in the past where Ive begged my boss for the budget to purchase technology that would make work better and easier. If technology could do part of my job for me, I could spend more time on other things, things that typically fell to the bottom of the pile because they didnt have an instant, tangible result. Thinking strategically about improvements I could make in my department, for example. I suspect most knowledge workers can relate. We compile reports, attend status meetings, and follow processes with endless tedious tasks. Theres rarely time for higher-level thinking. While technology improvements may have previously been a no, the response to AI has been a resounding yes. Perhaps its the promise of 10x everything but CEOs are enamored with the potential of AI. AI as sparring partner For many people, this poses a threat. For others, it can create an opportunity. Farm out the redundant, tedious tasks to AI so we can focus on work that requires our unique expertise. Take coding, for example. Software can have millions of lines of code, which previously needed to be entered manually. Now, AI can handle much of the repetitive work. Human coders take on the role of orchestrators: the brains behind the operation, guiding AI agents to the correct result. Personally, Ive used AI to expand my existing skills. Im self-employed, so I dont have any colleagues to bounce ideas off of if Im stuck. I was working with an app recently, and couldnt get it to do what I wanted. I turned to ChatGPT and asked for help. ChatGPT gave me incorrect information, which I recognized right away, based on my knowledge of the app. I prodded ChatGPT again, explaining why the previous answer wouldnt work. ChatGPT replied, Youre right! Here are some additional steps you need to take. The instructions were, again, incorrect. However, the incorrect instructions were enough to spark an idea . . . and my idea worked. As a sparring partner, AI let me work through a problem that I otherwise wouldnt have been able to solve on my own (at least not without a significant amount of trial, error, and frustration). My skills havent atrophied because of AI. Quite the opposite: AI takes over some of the boring work, and lets me focus on more creative workthe type of work only a human can do. The right use cases Even if the research currently suggests that AI negatively affects critical thinking abilities, that doesnt have to be your experience. You can find the right use cases to remove the boring and tedious work from your day. Once you do that, use the additional time for impactful work that was always pushed to the back burner. Or spend the time learning something new that could help your career. The people who will experience skill atrophy are those who outsource everything to AIand cant recognize when work needs human oversight, decision-making, and experience. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/04\/workbetter-logo.png","headline":"Work Better","description":"Thoughts on the future of work, career pivots, and why work shouldn't suck, by Anna Burgess Yang. To learn more visit workbetter.media.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.workbetter.media","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}}
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