The Legion
l/legion
2,171 members
About
Welcome to The Legion.
Leadership
Founder of Legion | Product Lead · Singapore, Singapore
Founder of The Legion. Having once been an isolated Catholic, I created this platform to help every Catholic to connect with the global Catholic community no matter where they are in the world, and develop the skills they need to do so.
Take A Leap Of Faith! · San Diego, United States
Encouraging authentic masculinity through Catholicism Co- Organizer of Men's Rosary March in Southern California Founders’ Circle of Catholic Owned Consecrated to St. Joseph 2021
Senior Talent Manager · Austin, United States
Catholic Convert 26 | Texas Lover of Jesus, strawberry banana smoothies, a good book, history, chai lattes, and every random baby I see on the street! I work in the creator space as a talent manager, and am helping build the Tiktok Livestream team at my agency. I love sharing my conversion story + my life on Insta: @aubreykern
The Official Legion Account
IT Help Desk Analyst · Irvine, United States
I love the Lord and Holy Mother Church. based in socal. need more Catholic friends. Interested include theology, apologetics, political and economic theory, philosophy, martial arts, heavy music, and dancing. also, follow me on IG @joseph.f.ramos
Relationship Coach | Marriage & Family Therapy · Mumbai, India
So fun to be here! I’m Judith 👋 Catholic trauma-informed dating coach. Currently in grad school. Writer & Speaker on dating, marriage & womanhood/femininity. Hobby: obsessively taking personality quizzes. Fav saints: All four women doctors of the church; and JPII!
Aerospace Engineering Student (3rd Year) · Greater London, United Kingdom
I am a 3rd year Aerospace Engineering student at QMUL (St Joseph of Cupertino O.P.N.). I have a strong interest in CAD design and have been involved in personal and engineering society projects. I serve as President of the QMUL Catholic Society and am involved in Catholic student life across London, working with parishes and Newman House to support and encourage people to reconnect with their faith.
Recent Posts
@thelegion6dNew course: First time job seekers
We just dropped a new course for those thinking about how to navigate this stage of life. This isn’t the advice your parents will give you. (Unless they happen to be very plugged into today’s job market.) You will find this and other new courses in the **Courses** tab! Be sure to join l/career if you need guidance, or have experience that you can share.
@gabrielstcharles6dFinal Word. Post Your Stuff in the Forum.
You made it to the end. Here's the thing about everything we've covered: reading it is step one. Actually doing it is step two through two hundred. So before you close this course, here's what I want you to do. Go to the Legion forum and post your resume for peer feedback. Not a recruiter. Not your uncle. Actual other people who are in roughly the same spot as you. This community is full of people who've looked at a lot of resumes, including their own, too many times. Fresh eyes will catch things you can't see anymore, because you've been staring at the same document for three weeks. If you've got a cover letter draft, post that too. If you've got a LinkedIn profile you're not sure about, share the link. If you've been ghosted and don't know what went wrong, post the job description and your resume and let people tell you what they see. You don't have to take all the feedback you get. Some of it will be wrong. Some of it will be useful. You decide. But you can't get feedback you don't ask for, and you can't get better in a vacuum. The whole point of Legion is that your vocation isn't just your prayer life. It's also the actual work of building a life in the world. A lot of Catholic content treats professional life like an afterthought. It isn't. Work is where most of us spend most of our waking hours, and doing it well — and getting to do it in the first place — is part of what it means to show up as a Christian in the world. So use the forum. Ask for help. Help someone else while you're at it. Keep applying. Keep tracking. Keep going. You've got this. And when you land the job (and you will), come back and tell us. Somebody three months behind you needs to hear it.
@gabrielstcharles6dHandling Rejection and Ghosting
This is the hardest chapter to write, because there's no trick that makes this part not hurt. You will get rejected. A lot. You will also get ghosted, which is worse in a way, because at least a rejection tells you where you stand. Ghosting leaves you waiting for a reply that was never coming. The volume of "no" you're going to receive is hard to describe in advance. It's not two or three. It's sometimes dozens. Sometimes more. Some will be from companies you thought you had a real shot at. Some will come after you already did three rounds of interviews and started getting excited. A few will come after you'd already told your family it looked promising. It's brutal. All of it. **Here's what I've learned about surviving this part:** - **Rejection is usually not about you.** It's about fit, timing, internal politics, budget freezes, the person they interviewed right after you, a thousand things you can't see. Stop reading it as a verdict on your worth. - **Volume is your friend.** The only way not to be crushed by any one rejection is to have enough things in the pipeline that no single one matters too much. If your whole search is pinned on one company, every delay feels catastrophic. If you have 15 applications out, any one of them going cold is a Tuesday. - **Don't apply and wait.** Apply and move on. The moment you hit submit, mentally file it under "who knows" and keep applying elsewhere. Treat any good news later as a bonus, not an expectation. - **Ghosting is also rejection.** If two weeks have passed with no reply to a follow-up, it's a no. Grieve it briefly and move on. Don't keep checking your inbox at midnight. - **Don't internalize the silence as proof you're unworthy.** The market is genuinely broken right now. Companies ghost people with twenty years of experience. You're not the exception. One more thing. You can't control whether they reply. You can't control whether they pick you. You can control whether you keep going. The ones who make it aren't the ones who were obviously the best. They're the ones who kept applying after the fiftieth rejection. The ones who kept fixing their resume, kept asking for feedback, kept showing up. That can be you. But it's a choice. Every morning, a choice.
@gabrielstcharles6dSalary. Make Them Fall in Love First.
Salary negotiation is its own art. But for your first job, here's the only rule you really need: **Make them fall in love with you before you talk numbers.** When an application or a recruiter asks you for your expected salary upfront, before any interview, before any real conversation, do not anchor yourself. Give a very wide range. Or say it depends on the full package. Or ask what the range for the role is. Deflect the question politely until later in the process. Why? Because if you name a number that's too high before they've decided they want you, they'll just move on to someone cheaper. And if you name one that's too low, you've left money on the table. I'll tell you a story because this is a mistake I actually made. I had what would have been a great first role. Good work, good team, good field. When they asked my salary expectations early, I anchored high — higher than I would've actually been happy to take. They went with someone else. I later found out my number was the reason. If I'd just deflected with "happy to discuss once I understand the role better," I'd have had the offer. Instead I lost the opportunity entirely. **For your first job, the rules are:** 1. Get them to want you first. All the way. 2. Don't name a specific number until they've essentially told you they want to make an offer. 3. When it's finally time to talk money, research what the role actually pays (Glassdoor, Levels.fyi, LinkedIn salary data). Aim for the middle to upper end of that range. 4. Once you have an offer, it's often worth trying to negotiate up 5 to 10 percent. Most people don't. "Is there any flexibility on the base?" is a fine line to use. 5. Don't price yourself out of your first job. A slightly lower first-job salary that gets you on the ladder is worth more than the perfect salary you never actually get because you pushed too hard. Your second job is when you really start earning what you're worth. Your first job is when you earn the right to have a second job. Have you actually looked up salary data for roles in your field? If not, go do it now. Come back and share a range that surprised you, high or low.
@gabrielstcharles6dIn-Person Interviews
Most first-round interviews are remote now, but some companies still do in-person, especially for final rounds. Here's the thing about in-person: the bar is lower than you think, because most people underdo it. You don't have to wear a three-piece suit to stand out. You just have to look like you cared. **Dress:** - Business casual is the modern default. Collared shirt, clean pants, closed shoes. Blazer optional depending on the industry. - Finance, law, consulting: lean more formal. Suit, tie. - Tech, creative, startup: you can dress down slightly but still look put together. No hoodies. - When in doubt, dress one level up from what they wear day to day. Slightly overdressed reads as respectful. Underdressed reads as lazy. **Grooming:** - Hair neat - Shaved or beard trimmed - Nails clean - Light on cologne or perfume. Some people are sensitive to it. - Shoes actually shined or at least clean (people notice more than they say) **Logistics:** - Arrive 10 to 15 minutes early to the building. 5 minutes early to the actual office. - Have a printed copy of your resume, even though they already have it. - Know where you're going before the day. Don't figure out the parking for the first time at 9:55am for a 10am interview. - Phone on silent. Not vibrate. Silent. **The soft stuff:** - Firm handshake, eye contact, a real smile - Be nice to the receptionist, or whoever greets you. They sometimes get asked. More than one hire has been lost because the candidate was rude to the front desk. - If they offer water, take the water. Gives you something to do with your hands. The actual interview itself — the questions, the frameworks, the hard stuff — is a whole course. This chapter is just about showing up the right way. If you look the part, arrive on time, and treat everyone well, you've cleared a bar a surprising number of people don't clear.
@gabrielstcharles6dRemote Interview Setup
Most first-round interviews now are remote. Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, whatever. People underestimate how much the setup matters. Two candidates with identical qualifications will come across completely differently if one looks like a news anchor and the other looks like a hostage video. **Lighting:** - Face a window. Don't sit with one behind you. - If your natural light is bad, get a cheap ring light. $20 online. Single best career investment you'll make this year. - Goal: your face is clearly lit. Not shadowy. Not blown out. **Audio:** - Do not use your laptop mic unless you absolutely have to. Laptop mics are bad. - AirPods or any decent earbuds are a massive upgrade. - A cheap USB mic is an even bigger one. - Do a test recording before the interview. Listen to yourself. If you sound muffled or echoey, fix it. **Camera:** - Camera at eye level. Stack books under your laptop if you have to. - Not looking up your nose. Not looking down at your chin. Eye level. **Background:** - A clean wall. A bookshelf. A tidy room. - Not your unmade bed. - Not a door people are walking in and out of. - If in doubt, use a subtle blur. Not a fake beach scene. **Clothes:** - Dress like you would if this was in person. Even though they'll only see your shoulders up, wear real pants. It changes how you feel, and therefore how you come across. **Connection:** - Test it the day before. - If your wifi is shaky, plug in via ethernet or pick the spot closest to the router. - Have your phone ready as a backup in case everything breaks. One last thing: **log on five minutes early.** Not one minute. Five. It gives you buffer for tech issues and lets you settle. Showing up flustered at 1:00:47 for a 1pm interview is a bad start. What's one small upgrade you could make to your remote interview setup this week for under $30? Commit to it in the comments.
@gabrielstcharles6dIt's All About Getting the Interview
Everything we've done so far has one purpose: get you in front of a human. Once you're in an interview, the game changes entirely. You're not competing with 400 other applications anymore. You're competing with maybe four other people they liked enough to call. Your odds just went from roughly 1 in 100 to roughly 1 in 5 or better. That's the whole reason this course is focused on the application process. Interview prep is a whole other skill set, and a whole other course. But you can't interview well if you can't get interviews in the first place. So the mindset for this entire phase is simple: **everything I'm doing right now is to get the interview.** - Is this resume getting past the screen? Is it getting the interview? - Is this cover letter getting read? Is it getting the interview? - Is this follow-up helping or hurting? Is it getting the interview? If the answer to "is this getting me the interview" is no, fix it or drop it. This also means your measure of success during this phase shouldn't be "did I get the job yet." It should be "am I getting more interviews over time." If you're not getting interviews at all, something upstream is broken. If you're getting interviews but not offers, the problem is downstream — that's an interview skills thing, not an application thing. Track it. Adjust. Keep moving.
@gabrielstcharles6dThe Tracking Sheet
If you're applying to more than five jobs, you need a system. If you're applying to twenty or more, you needed it yesterday. I use Excel, but Google Sheets or Notion or a plain doc works too. What matters is that you have **one single place** where you track what you've applied to and what happened. **Here's the minimum set of columns:** | Column | What goes in it | |---|---| | Date Applied | When you sent the application | | Company | Company name | | Role | Exact job title | | Source | Where you found it (LinkedIn, referral, company site, etc.) | | Resume Version | Which tailored version of your resume you sent | | Status | Applied / Following up / Interview / Rejected / Offered / Ghosted | | Follow-up Date | When you plan to follow up, if at all | | Contact | Recruiter or hiring manager name + email, if you have them | | Notes | Anything useful (weird interview question, salary mentioned, etc.) | **Why this matters:** - You'll know when it's time to follow up without having to remember. - You'll know if the same company keeps posting and ghosting everyone. - You'll know which resume version you sent, so the interview conversation matches what's on the page. - You'll know what your own stats look like. How many applications to get an interview, how many interviews to get an offer. That last part is underrated. If you've sent 50 applications and gotten 0 interviews, that tells you something specific (your resume or your targeting is off). If you've sent 50 applications and gotten 10 interviews but 0 offers, that tells you something different (your interview game is the issue). Without data, you're just guessing and feeling bad. Review the sheet once a week. See what's working. Adjust.
@gabrielstcharles6dFollowing Up Without Being Annoying
You sent the application. A week goes by. Silence. Should you follow up? Usually, yes. But there's a way that helps and a way that hurts. **Helpful follow-up:** - **One short email, 7 to 10 days after applying.** Not two days. Not a month. One week-ish. - **Address it to a real person if you can find one.** The hiring manager, the recruiter, the head of the team. LinkedIn and the company website are your friends. - **Three sentences, max.** "Hi [Name], I applied for the [Role] position last week and wanted to reiterate how interested I am. I think my experience in X would be a real fit. Happy to share more if helpful. Thanks for considering me." - **Then stop.** One follow-up. Not two. Not "just checking in again." **Annoying follow-up:** - Multiple emails to the same person in a week - Direct-messaging the CEO on LinkedIn - Showing up at their office (yes, people still do this, no, it doesn't work anymore) - Sending "did you get my last email?" every three days Here's the hard truth. Most of the time, silence means no. Hiring managers are slammed and just don't reply to every application. If you don't hear back within two weeks of a follow-up, move on. Keep applying elsewhere. Don't take silence personally, even though it feels personal. It's usually not about you specifically. It's volume. They got 400 applications and yours just didn't rise to the top this time. One positive use of follow-up: after an interview. Always, always send a thank-you note within 24 hours of an interview. Short. "Thanks for your time, enjoyed talking about X, excited about the role." That one's not optional.
@gabrielstcharles6dCover Letters
I know. Nobody likes writing them. A lot of advice online will tell you cover letters are dead. They're not. Here's what's actually true in 2026: - If the application doesn't ask for one, don't include one. Nobody will read it. - If the application asks for one, even if it says "optional," write one. "Optional" is how they screen out the people who can't be bothered. Assume everyone serious is submitting one. If you skip it, you're losing to everyone who didn't. **The purpose of a cover letter is not to repeat your resume. The purpose is to:** 1. Show you can write like a normal human being 2. Connect one specific thing in the job description to one specific thing about you 3. Bait them into an interview That's it. Don't overcomplicate it. **A structure that works:** **Paragraph 1:** Why you're writing. Name the role. Mention one thing that genuinely interested you about it. Not "I was excited to see this opportunity." Something real. "The part of the job description that caught me was X, because [specific reason from your actual background]." **Paragraph 2:** A concrete example. One story, one experience from your background that shows you'd do well in this role. Specific. Not a list of traits. **Paragraph 3:** A closing line that invites a conversation. Not "I hope to hear from you soon." Something like, "Happy to get on a short call if it'd be useful. I'd love to talk more about how I could help with X." Keep it under 250 words. Three short paragraphs. Read it out loud before you send. If any line sounds like it was generated by a machine or a 1998 career counselor, rewrite it. One non-negotiable: make it sound like you. If you're someone who talks normally, the letter should sound normal. If you're a little dry and witty, let that come through. The whole point is that the person reading it thinks, "huh, this one sounds like an actual person." Yes, you can use AI to help draft it. But rewrite the AI's draft in your own voice before sending. If you send what ChatGPT spits out word-for-word, the person reading will clock it immediately.
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