Rethinking one-page résumé

The job seeker’s gospel commands that a résumé fit on a single page. It’s time to rethink that tenet as artificial intelligence screens more job applications. A one-pager is designed to highlight your credentials for busy hiring managers who won’t take time to read a second page anyway. But there’s no need to cater to a human glance if a bot is going to read your submission instantaneously. In fact, a longer résumé can increase the odds of getting through an initial review by giving you more space for the relevant words and phrases AI is trained to spot. A word of caution: Don’t get carried away. Some software can tell when you’re playing keyword bingo. Plus, a person will probably look at your résumé if you get past the bot. Recruiters say they’re generally willing to read multiple pages from an experienced candidate who made it through the AI screen, but four or five is pushing it.

(Adapted from “It’s Time To Rethink The One-Page Résumé,” by Callum Borchers, published on July 16, 2025, by the Wall Street Journal)

Buying someone else’s vacation

Founded in 2016, SpareFare, an eBay-like marketplace pairs unfortunate travellers looking to sell nonrefundable trips, flights and hotel nights they can’t use to bargain hunters who take over the reservation. SpareFare and competitors like Roomer, Plans Change and Transfer Travel let people buy trips from others who would otherwise watch them go unused. The sites earn commission (12pc in SpareFare’s case) on the transaction with the rest going to the seller, and they avoid scams by holding funds from the seller until after the trip. For buyers, discounts usually land between 20pc and 30pc off the original price; travellers willing to wait until the last 48 hours before departure can score even better deals since many of the sellers are cancelling their plans last-minute but looking to recoup at least some of their costs. Retirees and remote workers, with their flexible schedules, make up SpareFare’s core customers.

(Adapted from “Now You Can Travel For Less By Buying Someone Else’s Vacation,” by Mark Ellwood, published on July 11, 2025, by the Wall Street Journal)

Xiaomi’s ascendency

Xiaomi’s rise over the past few years has been vertiginous. Only Apple and Samsung sell more smartphones worldwide. Ever since he co-founded Xiaomi in 2010, Lei Jun, the chief executive of the Chinese tech giant, has pulled off feat after feat of salesmanship. A decade ago, he earned a Guinness World Record for selling 2.1m smartphones online in 24 hours. These days, though, he is not just flogging cheap phones. Last month, Xiaomi sold more than 200,000 of its first electric SUV, the YU7, within three minutes of bringing it onto the market. With its carmaking success, Xiaomi has pulled off a feat that eluded Apple, which ditched plans to make its own EV after burning billions of dollars on the effort over a decade.

(Adapted from “China’s Smartphone Champion Has Triumphed Where Apple Failed,” published on July 21, 2025, by The Economist)

Reborn dolls as babies

Kelli Maple tenderly sets her bundle of joy, Naomi, into a Nuna car seat and drives her to the mall. When they arrive, Maple, 23, places little Naomi, dressed in a onesie and hair bow, into a high-end stroller (complete with a portable sound machine, stuffed animal and a pacifier). Giggling, Maple and Naomi shop for tiny clothes. Most passersby would mistake them for a typical mother and daughter. But Naomi is not real. She’s a lifelike ‘reborn doll’. Highly realistic baby dolls have become a global phenomenon, with collectors shelling out for luxury baby gear and doting on their ‘reborns’ as if they were human children. Reborn dolls are collectable dolls that can run up to $10,000 apiece and have been around since the early 2000s, but have exploded into a global phenomenon in recent years.

(Adapted from “Why People Are Buying $8,000 Lifelike Baby Dolls,” by Rory Satran, published on July 23, 2025, by the Wall Street Journal)

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, July 28th, 2025