Work & Careers
The American Resume Is a Different Document From the CV You Have
One page, no photograph, no date of birth, and achievements rather than duties. The conventions are arbitrary but they are strongly…
Nikhil Sarpotdar
Money writer, Chakk De America
Nikhil covers credit files, banking and tax for people starting from a blank record.
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22 articles
Work & Careers
Your Application Is Read by Software Before Any Person Sees It
Most large American employers filter applications through a tracking system first. Understanding what it can and cannot read…
Work & Careers
Networking and the Informational Interview, Explained for People Who Find It Strange
Asking a stranger for half an hour of their time to talk about their job feels presumptuous. Here it is a normal, expected and…
Work & Careers
At-Will Employment and What It Does to How People Behave at Work
The default employment relationship in most American states can be ended by either side at short notice. That single fact shapes an…
Work & Careers
How American Performance Reviews Actually Decide Anything
The conversation with your manager is the visible part of a process that mostly happens in a room you are not in. Knowing the shape…
Money & Credit
What a Credit Score Is Actually Calculated From
The number is not a moral rating and it is not mysterious. It is a statistical estimate built from a handful of factor families…
Money & Credit
Credit Utilisation, and Why Paying in Full Can Still Look Bad
The ratio between what you owe and what you could owe is one of the fastest-moving inputs to a score. Most people misunderstand…
Money & Credit
Why Closing a Credit Card You Never Use Can Cost You
Tidying up unused accounts feels like good housekeeping and frequently makes your file worse. Two separate mechanisms are working…
Money & Credit
How Money Actually Moves in the United States, Cheques Included
The payment system here is a patchwork of old and new rails, and each has different speed, cost and reversibility. The differences…
Money & Credit
Payroll Withholding and the American Habit of Filing Your Own Taxes
Your employer takes an estimate out of every paycheck and you reconcile it once a year yourself. That structure explains both the…
Money & Credit
An Employer Retirement Match Is Deferred Pay, Not a Benefit
The company contribution to a retirement account is compensation you have to claim by participating. Not participating is a pay cut…
Money & Credit
Why a Large American Salary Buys Less Than the Conversion Suggests
Multiplying by the exchange rate produces a number that means almost nothing. The costs that follow a salary here are structurally…
Money & Credit
The Emergency Fund Does More Work Here Than It Did at Home
Short notice periods, expensive healthcare and a thinner public safety net all make cash reserves worth more in the United States…
Money & Credit
Why Americans Put Everything on a Credit Card
Using credit for a coffee looks reckless from a country where cards are for large purchases. The grace period, the protections and…
Work & Careers
Which Kind of Recruiter You Are Talking To, and What They Want
The person contacting you may be paid by the employer, by a staffing firm, or by nobody at all until a placement happens. Their…
Work & Careers
Staffing Firms, Vendors and the Layers Between You and the Client
In parts of the American labour market you are employed by one company, managed by another and paid from a rate agreed by a third.…
Money & Credit
Reading an American Payslip Line by Line
The gap between the salary you agreed and the amount that arrives is made of many separate deductions, several of which you chose…
Money & Credit
Building a First American Budget When Half the Categories Are New
The difficulty is not discipline. It is that several large recurring costs did not exist in your previous life, and none of them…
Money & Credit
Saving Toward a Life That Might Happen in a Different Country
Standard financial planning assumes you know where you will retire. When that is genuinely open, the useful question becomes which…
Money & Credit
Card Rewards Are a Loyalty Product, Not Free Money
Points, cashback and airline miles are marketing costs funded by merchant fees and by people who carry balances. The value is real…
Money & Credit
Running Your Money in Two Countries at the Same Time
Most people arrive with accounts, obligations and family expectations still running in India. Managing both sides is an ongoing…
Money & Credit
Why So Much American Money Advice Does Not Fit Your Situation
The financial guidance that saturates American media assumes a citizen with a fixed address, no family obligations abroad and a…