Career Glossary

Work style where decisions happen in writing, not meetings. Critical for remote and global teams.

Applicant Tracking System — software recruiters use to filter, rank and store CVs.

A CV format that parses cleanly in Applicant Tracking Systems (single column, standard fonts, no images).

Your fixed annual cash compensation, before bonus and equity.

"Tell me about a time…" interview style. Past behaviour predicts future behaviour.

Search syntax recruiters use (AND, OR, NOT, "quotes") to find candidates on LinkedIn or job boards.

Period before any equity vests. Quit before the cliff, get nothing. Standard cliff is 12 months.

A revised offer made after you push back on the initial one. Always negotiate — first offer is rarely best.

Process by which an ATS converts your CV file into structured fields like name, skills, dates.

In US, "resume" = 1–2 pages, tailored. "CV" = long academic record. In EU/UK, "CV" = both.

30-second self-introduction: who you are, what you do, what you're looking for, one proof point.

Numeric vector representations of text. Power semantic search and RAG.

Service that legally employs you on behalf of a foreign company. Lets you work remote across borders.

Ownership in the company via stock options or RSUs. Can dwarf base salary at senior levels.

Mix of office and remote. Often 2–3 days in office. Clarify the policy before signing.

Cramming job-description keywords into your CV unnaturally to game the ATS. Backfires with humans.

Foundation model trained on massive text corpora. Powers ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.

DevOps for machine learning: deploying, monitoring and retraining models in production.

A professional not actively job-hunting but open to the right opportunity.

Craft of writing instructions that get reliable, specific outputs from LLMs.

Technique that grounds LLM answers in your own documents via vector search.

Company built around remote work: async by default, no HQ-bias, distributed leadership.

Restricted Stock Units — company shares granted on a vesting schedule (typically 4 years, 1 year cliff).

One-time cash payment when you join, often clawed back if you leave within 12–24 months.

Proactive recruiting — finding passive candidates who haven't applied, usually via LinkedIn or GitHub.

Interview answer framework: Situation, Task, Action, Result. Used for behavioural questions.

Open-ended interview where you architect a system (e.g. design Twitter). Common at senior+ levels.

Coding or strategy task done on your own time. Typical scope: 4–8 hours, often paid for senior roles.

First technical evaluation, usually 45–60 min: live coding, system design or take-home.

Base salary + bonus + equity + benefits. The number that actually matters.

Schedule by which equity becomes yours. Standard: 4 years with 1-year cliff (25% after year 1, then monthly).