Right there with you on the diana_king point about that embarrassment sticking with you longer than the job would have. A friend of mine once said he was fluent in Spanish on his resume, got through three rounds of interviews, finally landed the job, and then on day one the team lead started talking to him in Spanish about a client project. He ended up having to come clean two weeks later and they moved him to a different department where he never spoke to clients directly. That moment of shame followed him around that whole office for months, way more than if he had just been honest from the start.

Different grading companies have different reputations for a reason. The big ones like PSA and BGS have been at this for decades and they've built systems to catch fakes and inconsistencies. One bad incident doesn't erase the thousands of correct grades they've done. Most of the horror stories you hear online are from people who got a grade they didn't like, not from actual tampering or fraud. You have to look at the track record as a whole, not cherrypick the worst examples. If you're that worried, stick with the top tier companies and avoid the fly-by-night operations that pop up overnight.

My buddy tried this same thing last year when he was looking for a product manager role in Austin. He went from literally 100 apps a week down to like 8 and got 3 callbacks in two weeks. Did you notice any difference in the types of companies that responded to your targeted apps vs the shotgun ones? Like were they smaller startups or bigger firms that actually took the time to read your tailored resume?

How long before you just started calling him "Joe the $8 hero"?

Wait, you had your iron at 450C? That's insane, I'm surprised you didn't lift the whole pad off the board. @mason_foster68 that must've been gutting to watch that pad just come right up.