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About Us

Career advice from someone who's actually done the hiring

About Not just a gig

Career advice from someone who's actually done the hiring

I'm Nicole Smith. For over two decades, I sat on the other side of the hiring table.

I started my career at Enterprise, where I spent nearly 16 years working my way from Loss Control Manager to Regional Risk Manager. I managed risk across 50+ locations, led teams of supervisors and specialists, handled $280 million in assets, and partnered with regional vice presidents to develop hiring strategies and training programs. I've personally conducted hundreds of interviews, reviewed thousands of applications, and made hiring decisions that shaped entire teams.

I also chaired the Women's Momentum Program and Diversity Leadership initiative at Enterprise, which gave me a front-row seat to the conversations companies have internally about who they hire, how they hire, and what they actually look for (versus what they say they look for in the job posting).

I graduated from UCLA with a degree in Sociology, which sounds unrelated until you realize that hiring is fundamentally about understanding people. What motivates them. What holds them back. What makes one person thrive in a role while another person with the exact same résumé struggles.

That perspective is what I bring to Not Just a Gig.
The Mission

The Hiring Process Is Broken: I'm Trying to Fix It

Let me be real with you. The job market right now is a mess.          

AI is writing people's résumés. AI is screening people's résumés. Candidates are getting ghosted after interviews. Companies are posting jobs they've already filled internally. Everyone is frustrated and nobody seems to be doing anything about it.          

Most career advice sites are either written by people who've never actually hired anyone, or they're so generic that the advice could apply to literally any human on the planet. "Be authentic." "Tailor your résumé." "Network more." OK, but what does that actually look like at 11 PM when you're staring at your fifteenth application of the day?      
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That's why I built Not Just a Gig. This isn't a job board with a blog attached to it. This is career guidance from someone who's sat in the interview room, reviewed the applications, debated candidates with hiring teams, and made the final call. I know what gets someone hired because I've been the person doing the hiring.