Hi! I’m Peter, CEO of Kickresume, and these career-related stories caught my attention this month — and might catch yours too.
Today’s story: You’re not falling behind. I mean it.
Handpicked remote job paying in $$$: Remote roles edition!
Random piece of career advice that actually works: The easiest way to track & organize your job applications (video)
Surprise at the end: FREE access to Kickresume Premium for 7 days!
A quick confession before we start: I think I’ve developed a nervous tic.
Every time I finally learn a new AI thing, like a tool, a trick, a “this is how you’re supposed to prompt now” I get about a week of feeling clever before I find out it’s already obsolete.
Then I learn a new thing. Which is, of course, obsolete by the time I’ve finished learning it.
And don’t even get me started on all the things I didn’t know were obsolete when I started learning them.
And I’ve been really in my head about this lately.
If you’ve felt this too, I have good news, slightly unsettling news, and great news.
The good news: it’s not just you.
The unsettling news: it’s pretty much everyone, and there are now actual scientists studying it.
The great news: you’re not actually falling behind.
They say misery loves company. And when it comes to feeling left behind by AI, you have company.
An almost unsettling amount of it.
How do I know? Because enough people feel this way that scientists got involved.
And nothing confirms a problem is real quite like academics deciding it’s worth their time.
Here’s a few of them, describing the exact thing you’ve been feeling:
From a 2025 paper published in journal Telematics and Informatics: “...individuals’ fear of missing out on the benefits of AI technology and being rendered obsolete by others or by society…”
From the same paper: “FOMO around AI may drive individuals to engage in complex behaviors such as obsessive focus on acquiring AI skills or overzealous use of AI technologies.”
From a 2026 Queen’s University study: “The GenAI movement is also transforming professional norms, demanding continuous adaptation…”
From a 2025 study by researchers at Oregon State University: “GenAI adoption heightens burnout by increasing job demands…”
And by the way, one survey found 45% of developers feel exactly this, like their skills are becoming obsolete.
The people who, if anyone, should feel like they’re the ones ahead.
Now, by all accounts, this should probably make me feel depressed. Everyone walking around convinced they’re the slow ones.
But honestly, I find it kind of comforting.
Because if this many people feel behind, it kind of cancels itself out, doesn’t it?
If all of us feel like we’re falling behind, then none of us actually are. Being behind only means something if there’s someone ahead. And it turns out there’s a good chance there isn’t.
Now, I know it’s an easy thing to say and a harder thing to believe.
So let me stop being philosophical and show you why it’s actually true.
The best resume has the right skills, not all of them.
Because for employers, a tailored resume looks like you read the job description, and a generic one looks like you didn’t.
Which is why we built Resume Tailoring. It customizes your resume for any job ad you’re applying to based on your real experience and the job description:
matching keywords,
emphasizing relevant experience and skills,
making sure you pass the ATS.
That means more interviews, more opportunities, and better offers.
So let’s rewind a couple of years.
When GPT-3 first came out, people genuinely believed it was about to replace them. Me included.
Looking back now, it’s kind of crazy…
Because the way you interact with it today, how you set up context, and how you use it looks almost nothing like it did in the beginning.
So, let’s be honest, was anything we did during that time actually useful? Not really. Every clever hack from that time is now completely useless.
Still, at the time it felt urgent. That unless you were frantically keeping up with every new tool, hack, and technique, you’d fall behind for good.
But look at you, you’re fine! (Probably.)
And all that is only a half of it.
The other half is that the people pushing this panic aren’t exactly doing it for your benefit or out of the kindness of their heart.
Have you noticed the scariest AI predictions almost always come from the people selling AI?
Like Jensen Huang, the CEO of the company that makes the chips that power this entire AI madness. He famously said that “you’re not going to lose your job to an AI, but you’re going to lose your job to somebody who uses AI.”
Wonderful advice from a man who profits every time you take it.
Then there’s everyone else whose fortune depends on the world getting hooked on AI, like Altman, Amodei, Zuckerberg, or Musk.
They all have said their own versions of: “If you don’t use enough AI... you’ll be left behiiiind...rot in the permanent underclass… foreveeerr!!!”
And it’s not only the people running AI companies.
Plenty of everyday opportunists have figured out that your panic is good for business.
The guy selling you a $49 “future-proof your career in 30 days” masterclass in whatever this week’s must-have skill happens to be.
Or the LinkedIn hype bro being super helpful with posts like “Are you still looking into MCP, RAG? Too bad, the train has moved on to skills and loop engineering”
Which, by next week, he’ll be telling you is hopelessly outdated and swapping it out for a fresh set of letters that make you feel behind again.
Now, am I telling you to stop learning new things and be lazy for a change?
Looking back at what I wrote, I’ll admit it kind of sounds like it.
But no.
So here’s what I’m personally taking from all this. And what you’re welcome to take too.
I’m going to keep learning. Just not because someone scared me into it. I’ll do it because something’s actually useful to me, or because I’m curious.
And I’m not going to chase every new AI thing the internet loses its mind over on any given Thursday.
I’m taking my weekends, too. The models will still be there on Monday. (Probably a new one, but still.)
Because if something is actually worth knowing, it isn’t going anywhere. It’ll still be there when I get to it.
And next time something makes me feel like I’m falling behind, I’ll check who’s saying it, and whether they just so happen to have something to sell me.
That’s the one thing I’m holding onto: the feeling of falling behind isn’t the same as actually falling behind.
So I’m not falling behind. And neither are you.
A small but useful update to this section: these jobs now live on our own job board.
Which means you can apply directly from the Kickresume app and prepare for the interview there too.
#1 Technical Account Manager at Philips
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#2 Contracts Specialist at Cherokee Federal
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#4 Product Manager, Discounts & Promotions at Airbnb
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IIf you happen to be both panicking about falling behind AND job hunting at the same time… then somehow I’ve written the perfect newsletter for exactly one person.
And it’s you! (What a coincidence.)
Because we finally got the AI everyone wished for at the start: the kind that just does the boring, necessary stuff.
And that’s exactly what the Job Application Tracker does.
It keeps your whole job hunt in one place, instead of scattered across six spreadsheets and your memory, and it finds the right ads, saves the good ones, and tracks your progress from start to finish.
For free.
Just have a look.
If you’ve scrolled this far, you deserve something nice. How about this?
Kickresume Premium is FREE for 7 days for you!
Just click the link, sign up with any email, and your premium will be active right away.
There are hundreds of open roles at the top tech companies right now. Your resume should probably be ready for them.
Catch you later!
Peter
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