A clear, accessible, and fun guide on everything it takes to land a job. Searching for a job can be hard and demoralizing work. In Why You, Why Me, Why Now , Rachel Toor delivers some good news. The most important thing is within your control—a mindset that shows you know the goals of the organization you want to work for and that you’re ready and eager to contribute. Toor provides, with compassion and enthusiasm, strategies to make it easy for hiring managers to say “yes.” Through useful and funny anecdotes, she offers advice from professionals across industries and focuses on the attitude applicants can adopt to find success. Revealing traits employers seek, Toor shows how to craft winning cover letters, ways to tailor resumes for each job, and practical tips to get past AI screening. She also explains how to use LinkedIn and gives tips on preparing for interviews. Throughout, the book features Toor’s notes on writing well to help in landing a first job and beyond. Encouraging, entertaining, and blunt, this is a job-search guide like no other. “I wish I could deliver a copy of this enlightening book to everyone applying for a position at our company before they hit the submit button.”   -- Ken Goldstein, Chairman & CEO, ThriftBooks Global “Toor offers an insightful—and fun!—guide to how to ‘match’ with an employer for your first job.  I recommend this book to any student preparing for the world of work.” -- Pericles Lewis, Dean of Yale College “Jam-packed with frank wisdom and specific tips for anyone seeking a first job, with sage advice throughout that will help everyone seeking a new position at any stage in their career, Toor’s book tells you what every hiring manager wishes you already knew.” -- Will Schwalbe, author of "The End of Your Life Book Club" “All college seniors entering the job market should read this book. It contains page after page of potentially life-altering job search ideas and tips people don’t know and won’t think of on their own.” -- Ellen Jovin, founder of the Grammar Table and author of Rebel with a Clause: Tales and Tips from a Roving Grammarian “Toor gives new ways to think about how we present ourselves to the professional world. For those looking to land a great job her advice is fresh, empowering, and dare I say fun.” -- Brandon Busteed, Global Head of Learn-Work Innovation, Kaplan “What sets Toor’s book apart is the combination of extensive research with the unique insights of someone who knows firsthand the great talents of many students. Funny, down-to-earth, and empathetic, she shows how difficult it is to stand out in the job search process. A must read.” -- Felix V. Matos Rodriguez, Chancellor of the City University of New York Rachel Toor , professor of creative writing at Eastern Washington University in Spokane is the author of six books of nonfiction, including Write Your Way In: Crafting an Unforgettable Admissions Essay , Admissions Confidential: An Insider’s Account of the Elite College Selection Process , and a young adult novel. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Runner’s World, Glamour , and many other publications.    When my students want me to serve as a job reference, I ask them to show me their cover letters and resumes.   These documents often make me want to weep.   On the page, the intelligent, creative, and talented people I know come off as cocky, self-centered, and just plain unlikable.   How can that be?   When it comes to applying for jobs, my students seem to forget everything I’ve taught them.   So I remind them to use the skills they’ve learned in my creative writing courses to sound more like themselves, to be conversational, and to rely on old- fashioned storytelling in their application materials. I repeat what I say in class: If you can craft a clear, concise, authentic narrative that shows the best, most vulnerable version of yourself in a way that engages the reader, you’ll have the keys to the kingdom. I assure them—often first-gen college students whose parents worried they were wasting time and money studying creative writing—that what they learned in my classes is the most important skill set they could have acquired in college, no matter what profession they want to pursue.   My goal in this book is to teach you some of those same transferable moves and tricks and to nurture a mindset that will assist you in nabbing a first “real” job. Applying for jobs now is both easier and harder than it’s ever been. Everyone has access to an abundance of information about industries, careers, organizations, friends, strangers—and, with a few clicks, the ability to find embarrassing photos and ill-considered social media rants.   For some time, large organizations have used artificial intelligence “bots” to screen application materials. I will help you tailor what you submit so you won’t be automatically rejected. But the role of AI keeps expanding. AI software can now write your cov