HRNasty 

The persona is no longer anonymous. The work remains the same.

For nearly 15 years, HRNasty operated without a name or face. Not out of fear — out of practicality. When you work in executive HR, you can’t openly publish how promotions are debated, how résumés are filtered, or how internal narratives shape outcomes. Those realities are discussed privately, not publicly.

Now that I’m no longer tied to a single organization — these days, mostly just writing — I can connect the voice to the person. My name is Ringo Nishioka. The perspective is HRNasty.

How This Started

I didn’t set out to write four books. I set out to stop repeating myself.

Fifteen years ago, people kept asking me the same questions — before an interview, before a promotion conversation, before deciding whether to fight a layoff or take the package. I started answering them one at a time. But I’d spent my whole career in SaaS, and the instinct to make things scale and repeat was baked in by then. Answering one person at a time wouldn’t reach the people who needed it. So I wrote it down: short white papers, in my voice, that I’d send someone before we talked. It shortened the conversation and gave them something to sit with first.

Those white papers turned into a weekly blog — capped at 1,000 words, topics all over the map, whatever question had come up that week.

The blog solved the immediate problem. It got people in the door. But a 1,000-word post that helps someone land an interview doesn’t help them get through it. A post about surviving a micromanager doesn’t tell you how to get a raise from that same manager. Every white paper was a patch for one moment — never the whole picture.

Writing the whole picture had been on my list for years. Without a word count boxing me in, four short guides came first — Networking, Cover Letters, Phone Interviews, and the Laid Off Survival Guide, each around 35 pages. Then four full books — Resumes, Interview Questions, Hiring Decisions, and Career Decisions — each 180 to 200 pages, covering the entire arc: what happens before anyone speaks to you, what happens in the room, and what happens to a career in the years after.

Twenty-plus years of watching decisions get made — now in one place, in order, without the gaps.

Why I’m Asking You to Pay for What Used to Be Free

I’ve watched genuinely great people work hard, post strong results, and still not move their careers forward — because nobody taught them how the system on the other side of the table actually works. Schools don’t teach it. Corporate America doesn’t teach it. And when someone understands it, everyone wins: the employee stops burning energy wondering whether they’ll land the client, get the promotion, or survive the next RIF; the candidate moves with more confidence; the company gets someone working with fewer distractions rather than more. That’s the whole reason I do this. It’s my way of giving back.

For most of this blog’s life, that meant sending people here for free and leaving it at that. Charging for the books — I’m still getting used to it. But I’d rather price these fairly and have people actually sit with the material than give it away and watch it go unread, which is exactly what happened the times I tried.

The blog stays free. That’s not changing. What’s different is that the material now also exists as something you can buy outright — the whole arc, cover to cover, in one place.

Definition: “NASTY”

NASTY (’NAS-TĒ) adj.: An unreal maneuver of incredible technique. Usage: “He has a nasty forkball.”

Corporate life requires precision, awareness, and timing. That’s the spirit of the name.

What You’ll Learn Here

• How managers actually make decisions
• How leadership evaluates risk and credibility
• How politics and perception shape outcomes
• How to avoid unintentional career blind spots
• How to position yourself within the system instead of reacting to it

What I Don’t Do

I don’t offer slogans. I don’t sell fairy tales. I don’t pretend corporate life is something it isn’t. I explain the business logic behind decisions you’re rarely meant to see — and trust you to decide how to use that understanding.

Final Note

If you’re looking for encouragement, there are many places to find it. If you’re looking for clarity, welcome.

Questions or comments: Ringo@HRNasty.com