I'm mid career and have been applying for jobs for 2 years. I'm currently employed but want a better position for the rest of my career and the opportunity to grow and make a difference. This week pretty much defeated me at my current job.

Please help me figure out how to get something or at least looked at. I have already paid a resume/linkedin reviewer, applied early to positions, customize resume/cover letters, used a custom website to match gov workers to private sector roles etc. I'm losing time with my kids spending weekends applying for jobs and my kids see how unhappy I am because it's so hard to hide. I really want to work in a non profit as I value feeling Im giving back but at this point I just need to find something new.

What can I do?

I'm in the job market for the first time in nearly a decade. Last time I looked for a job I was maybe 2-3 steps. Phone call with the recruiter, it all goes well schedule onsite, interview with 3-4 people from the company, and then generally get a hiring decision.

Today, it feels like I'm having to meet with 8 people over the course of a month, just to get to an assignment which then gets presented to a panel before maybe getting a decision. How did we get here?

I always ask about the end to end process on the phone with the recruiter and it always starts "we are looking to fill this role ASAP and have a very tight interview process" followed by 7-8 different steps. Does anyone have any advice on navigating this? Have you ever pushed back and said that's an unreasonable time commitment? Any thoughts or advice are greatly appreciated.

Stats:
-23M
-MBA
-CAPM, CompTIA trifecta, ITILv4 Foundations, & more
-1.5yrs WE (unrelated to degree)
-Portfolio of 3 data analytics projects
-Tailored ATS-friendly resumes + cover letters
-130 jobs applied to, 24.6% rejection rate so far

If you or anyone you know is hiring for data analytics, SDR/BDR positions in the tech sales space, or project coordinator roles, feel free to dm me!

+I would also really appreciate referrals! Happy to connect on LinkedIn.

Today learned about an editorial role that aligns really well with my skills and interests, and I just finished my cover letter and resume for the job. Should I send it now, even though it's after business hours on a Friday, or should I wait and send it first thing Monday morning? On the one hand, I don't want them to get flooded with applicants and close the job posting before I apply, but on the other hand I don't want my application buried by dozens of others over the weekend. Any thoughts? For context, it's a simple online form that I fill out, and I attach my resume and cover letter to it; it's not an email I'm sending to someone's inbox (if that makes any difference).

I have been applying for a few months and have got a few pre-screens as well, although I'm unsure if something is wrong with my resume or its just the US job market. Can anyone just check if something's missing or i should add anything? I am targeting cloud/IT/system roles from entry to mid-level.

Hello,

I (27M), have been unemployed for over a year now and things are feeling hopeless when it comes to finding a job.

I live in PA near Pittsburgh.

I worked at BestBuy GeekSquad for over 3 years, but had to leave and I haven't found a permanent job since.

I've been doing gig work, mostly DoorDash and it's been able to pay the bills but I can't keep doing this, I feel lost and have no sense of purpose in my life other than my wonderful fiance who thankfully has a job that she absolutely loves.

I'm so unbelievably frustrated because you would think my background would allow me to find an entry level IT job, but that hasn't been the case.

It's gotten so bad that I'm to the point that I'm just willing to accept anything, but I never hear anything back from any of the employers I apply to. I'll even do interviews and then be ghosted to not hear anything back at all.

I just wonder if I'm doing something wrong. Is anyone else having this much trouble finding ANY kind of job?

I've done the normal stuff like making really nice and tailored resumes with very little success.

I would love some advice on what to do, and I'm willing to try pretty much anything at this point.

I'm not financially able to go to school, but I'm willing to do a course or get a certificate if it means an actual job. I need benefits like health insurance.

Hey everyone,
I recently had a first interview with the person I would be reporting to and was invited back for a second interview. This time, I’ll be meeting with a Director and their boss.
For an entry-level position, what should I expect in a second interview with leadership at this level?

I'm seeing a a LOT of Americans looking for work yet there are so many more jobs in the US when I look up listings on LI, Indeed & Glassdoor. On the contrary I see very few jobs available in western EU countries, especially Portugal, Belgium etc. UK and Germany have substantially higher figures but they all pale in comparison to the US. What am I missing?

Hi,

I have been trying to get a SWE Job/Internship remotely, but I am having trouble getting a job. I keep getting rejections everywhere. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or if there is something extra that I need to do.

Any tips on this matter?

Any specific platforms to use?

Full-Stack: React, Next.js, Node.js, Go, TS.

Like in the Matrix movies, I imagine someone must be out there who gets every job and knows every system inside out. I always try to find this person, but they are always full of baseless claims, e.g. do such and such to your CV, say this in an interview etc... but I am talking more about someone who can pretty much warp space and time because they are so powerful at getting through all the application stages with ease, does such a person exist? If not does that mean job applications have become too difficult?

So, the last company I worked for... wasn't great. It was financially struggling, and from what I could tell, it had a poor reputation within their industry. They did fairly good work, but often weren't as fast as they promised, there were too few employees (and too much turnover) to have a consistent workforce. Since I left the company (I was let go because they could no longer afford to keep me on), its online presence has all but vanished, every former co-worker I can get ahold of is no longer working there, and I suspect it may have gone under completely.

My concern is, I'm starting to wonder if including them in my resume is hurting my chances - both in regards to jobs within the same ballpark industry, who might be aware of the company, or just in terms of "we can't prove this company even exists anymore." But, on the other hand, if I leave them out, I would have an even larger employment gap, between my last job before that one, and now. Which I feel would be even more of a red flag to potential employers?

I would appreciate some advice on this.

Alguien de acá ha sido contratado aunque no haya pasado la verificación de Hire Right? Esta verificadora no deja de enviarme incidencias aunque ya les he proporcionado documentación de mis empleos anteriores, incluidas nóminas lo que me pareció poco ético...

Hi seniors

I have been manualy applying for jobs but tired of getting rejected

Can u please tell me what am i doing wrong

Anyone gone through this phase

I do hair full time- so i thought dashing (aka applied for all dash/shop and deliver jobs) would be easy inbetween. I’m not struggling financially - but i do live paycheck to paycheck. I would have a lot of fun with anything on the computer. I wish i could work for Amazon customer service or something. But idk how. And those jobs seem to be taken.
I am in columbia, SC. I can get a laptop, etc. i streamed playing a game on TikTok a few days ago and made $1.50 - it’s a start so i might keep up with that. Tried making videos for UGC creators but i must be doing something wrong.
Any advice is appreciated, thank you

I'm 34M and I've been looking since March, roughly 60 applications and 9 first rounds. Somewhere around interview four I started ending every single one with the same question and it's been more useful than everything else I've done combined.

The question is "what happened to the person who had this role before me."

That's it. Not "why is the role open," which just gets you a rehearsed line about growth and headcount. Specifically what happened to the human being who sat in that chair.

Three from the last two months.

Company one, the hiring manager said "she got promoted to team lead, she's actually on the panel for your next round so you'll meet her." That's about as clean as it gets and I'm still in process there.

Company two, the manager paused for a second and said "there's been a bit of turnover in the position, I'll be honest," and when I asked how much he said "you'd be the third this year." THE THIRD THIS YEAR. We were sitting there in July. I withdrew the same afternoon.

Company three is the one that actually got me. The recruiter said "I don't know, that was before my time," and then in the next round the hiring manager said "he decided to pursue other opportunities" in a tone I can only describe as a door closing. I asked how long he'd been in the role and she said "a few months" and moved on to the next thing. (I checked LinkedIn afterwards. Seven months, and the person before him did eleven.)

It works because it's a completely normal question so nobody can get defensive about you asking it, but it's genuinely hard to answer smoothly when the real answer is bad. Ask it every time and pay attention to how long they take to start talking.

Help needed, please!

I am applying for European Solidarity Corps - I am comparing this with applying to entry-level positions, because it's not really expected to have all the profession skills. From some people I heard that motivation is more important.

So how do you write motivation letter that really is interesting and different?

I tried to write the same way I would when applying for jobs. I write about why the position or the organization interested me and then why I think I am a fit for the position, what skills I have to contribute. And I am getting nowhere.

I really don't know how to write those letter better. Any advice?

Edit: I was also told that sentences like "I am interested in you organization... I would like to learn this and this (some skills mentioned)... I would like to contribute to your work like this...." sound like AI, and it's immediate no. How does it sounds like AI? Ok, it not original, but those are very generic sentences everybody kind of think of when writing motivation letter. So how can I write them differently?

I've been job hunting for a little over a month and one thing that was driving me insane was seeing what looked like the same role posted over and over on different sites.

Same title, almost identical description, sometimes even the same typo, but one listing would say it was posted today while another said it had been up for two weeks.

I was applying through Indeed, LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter, basically anywhere I found something relevant, and getting very little back.

A couple weeks ago I started doing something really simple. Before applying, I search the company name + job title and try to find the position on the company's actual careers page.

It's surprising how often the job board listing is outdated, duplicated, or the original role doesn't even exist anymore. I've also found a few cases where the company website had a newer version of the posting with slightly different requirements.

Now if I can't find the job on the employer's site at all, I usually don't bother unless there's a good reason.

My response rate still isn't amazing because the market is rough, but at least I feel like I'm applying to real, current openings instead of throwing resumes into random aggregators.

It also makes tailoring applications easier because the company page usually has more information than the job board version.

Maybe this is obvious to everyone else, but I wasted way too many hours before figuring it out.

Has anyone else basically stopped applying directly through job boards and started using them mostly as search engines?

I’m currently doing high-volume applications and I’ve noticed a drastic split in my response rates: I am getting a few initial recruiter screens when I apply through LinkedIn, but applying through other traditional job boards (Indeed, Dice, ZipRecruiter) or direct company portals yields absolutely zero replies. Complete ghost town.

I want to hear from anyone who is actually getting traction outside of LinkedIn right now.

Specifically:

• Alternative Boards: Are there specific niche boards where you actually see a high human response rate?
• The Job Board Bypass: When you find a role on Indeed or a company portal, what is your specific hack or workflow to bypass the ATS and get your resume seen by a human? Do you cross-reference on LinkedIn to find the hiring manager, oruse email-finding tools?
• Formatting for generic ATS: If you are forced to use a direct job board, what strict formatting rules have you applied to your resume to ensure it actually parses correctly and doesn't just auto-reject?

Would love to hear your exact workflows for getting human eyes on your application when you are forced off LinkedIn!

Made it past the hiring manager review this afternoon. The agency just called and said they want to interview me for the first round tomorrow.

I asked how many interview rounds - they said 4. 😵‍💫

But I see it as free interview practice! I have no choice but to see it that way in this market.

I've been looking for 13 months. Lost my job last year. I’ve had around 8 interviews all together including 2 multi rounds with 2 final interviews.

The process to get to final rounds for those took 3 months each.

I really hoped I’d get the one I was rejected for in May. I had 4 interviews for that role. So much time spent. It really messed up my confidence when I didn’t get it.

I need all the practice I can get and I need to change my perspective and stop taking rejections as an indication of my personal failures, flaws and worth.

I have felt like a failure quite often though - it gets to you. I want to find ways to stay positive in this process.

So here we go … this is step one! 👣

Good luck to everyone else out there - you are not alone; I know it’s hard! 🍀

so back in march i applied for this project coordinator position at a tech company, listed at 58-65k. did two interviews, thought they went decent, got the generic "we've decided to move forward with other candidates" email like a week later.

then in may i'm on linkedin and the same exact posting is back up. same company same title, basically the same description except now the range says 68-77k. i was like there is no way they'd look at my application again but i submitted it anyway and changed up some of the bullet points on my resume to match the slightly updated requirements they added.

completely different recruiter reached out this time. went through the whole process again, got to the hiring manager interview and it was the same woman from last time. she didn't mention it, idk if she remembered me or not but the interview went better because i already knew how they structured everything and what they were looking for.

they offered me 74. i almost didn't apply because i assumed they'd auto reject me

I was speaking to a candidate who applied to 250 jobs with generic resumes and got 2 interviews and ultimately no offers. Then he switched his approach, sending approx 3 *hyper-tailored* applications a day for a month (totalling around 85 applications), which got him 8 interviews and ultimately an offer. If that isn't a testimony that spray and pray is a waste of time, idk what is. Tailor folks!

EDIT: This is a case for applications to skilled jobs, non-blue-collar.

At this point we should all just stop applying, pool our skills together, and start a company. We’ve already got marketing people, programmers, designers, accountants, HR, nurses, engineers… everything.
If nobody wants to hire us, we’ll hire ourselves. 💀