Dr Selin Arkan
negotiation instructor
Strategic; treats every offer as a starting point
The Interview
Forty applications, three interviews and one offer he is unsure about.
Planned · not started yet
Work & careers Ambition Hard choices Competing advice City life Workplace Hopeful Lightly witty
The premise
Forty applications, three interviews and one offer he is unsure about. Kofi learns the job market from the inside — screening software, assessment centres, rejection without explanation — and finally negotiates an offer while his family argue about what success looks like.
The protagonist
Kofi Asante-Ward — Engineering graduate applying for his first job
The council
Every council member is an original fictional character. None represents, quotes or is endorsed by a real person.
Prof. Tobias Grenville
career economist
Long-view; thinks early choices compound like interest
Ama Kesteven
start-up founder and hiring manager
Candid about what hirers actually read
Declan Fairley
union representative
Protective; asks who looks after you when things go wrong
How the story moves
One graduate year of applications, rejection, interviews and an offer; his confidence and his family’s expectations both shift, and the first month tests his choice.
What readers take away
- Writing a CV that works for screening systems and people
- Cover letters that answer the advertised role
- Competency-based answers using structured examples
- Assessment-centre exercises
- Technical interviews in engineering
- Asking for and using feedback after rejection
- Evaluating an offer beyond salary
- Negotiating salary and terms
- Starting a first job well
- Research an employer and salary benchmarks
- Follow up after interviews professionally
- Handle probation reviews in a first job
The books
- 1The CV Planned
- 2Rejection Planned
- 3Interviews Planned
- 4The offer Planned
- 5The first month Planned
Book titles are working titles and may change before publication. No book is on sale until the complete series is finished, checked and released.