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I've been applying constantly, I've got references, I have previous work experience, I got resume help what can I possibly be doing wrong
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We need to actually admit that laying off and terminating employees is an act of violence.
I tried to frame my layoff this way to everyone I knew while I was unemployed. Suddenly I couldn’t go to the doctor, I was draining my savings to pay rent so I wouldn’t go homeless, and every trip to the grocery store felt like an indulgence. They make you suffer and starve to make their scraps more appealing when you get hired at a shittier job six months later
Six months? Look at Mr. Employable here!
i have always seen it that way even before i became a communist i thought other people did too?
i had an ok paying job pre-covid, full benefits, gym in the office building, i was planning on working there for 5+ years. i didnt even work a year there and then i got laid off before the early pandemic lockdowns and ive struggled to get a consistent job since. gotta love capitalism!!!
All the jobs I find on indeed that align with my skills end up being with fed contractors that require clearance and they may or may not bury that bit of information at the very bottom of the post.
Its maddening.
the last time I was applying for jobs I created a spreadsheet to keep track of all the relevant information. I applied to just shy of 2000 listings. I got 3 phone calls, only one of which led to 3 separate interviews with 12 different people and totaled about 6 hours of my time. they hired internally
jesus christ that's bleak
I think most job listings are fake. For one, I think most companies set up a job posting service and just ignore it until they actually need someone and don't have any candidates from in-person referrals. So the jobs get posted repeatedly or updated every few months and that's it. None of those positions are actually vacant. It's in the interest of job board companies to make it seem like they have a lot of jobs and information. Part of their model is collecting and selling data about jobs markets. So they're incentivized to have ghost listings everywhere because they don't investigate or discount fake listings. It all helps their internal numbers.
I wouldn't be surprised if the government got lazy and started relying on these job listing companies for market data. Which means there's a big bomb of shit data rolling around in stats, convincing people that there is more activity in the market than there is.
This isn't just a theory.
Many, maaaaany companies openly admit to posting fake job listings, ghost jobs, and your explanations of why they do this are pretty much spot on.
https://www.newsweek.com/ghost-jobs-rise-1924351
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20240315-ghost-jobs-digital-job-boards
It is of course difficult to get accurate numbers because of regional / industry variance, which platform are you looking for jobs on, and oh of course those job seeker platforms are highly incentivized to not let their users know how prevalent this is...
But uh yeah, between these 3 fairly recent articles, we've got somewhere between 20% to 60% of companies admitting they post ghost jobs / number of actual job listings that are fake.
Yeah. Its really fucking bad, obviously for job seekers, and also in other ways (which you also correctly surmised) because it makes many metrics other companies and policy planners and econ data all fucked... normally, job openings are... you know, correlated to actual hirings?
Yeah thats all broken now, has been for years.
This phenomenon really kicked in to high gear during and after covid.
In fact, probably a whole lot of the Dems 'the economy is fine actually, stop complaining' rhetoric is because they were too stupid to realize this has been going on and have been relying on bullshit metrics.
Its one thing that they're unrelatable policy nerd wonks who have 0 charisma, can't read the room, nor actually do effective messaging.... its another thing that they are also incompetent data dorks.
(I am an unsociable autist data nerd with a degree in econ and career in data analytics myself... and thus this is personal for me lol)
Youre probably too honest, exaggerate your achivements and straight up lie and say you have more qualifications 🤷
Thats my guess at least
Before I deleted my Indeed account, I had filed over 8200 applications on their platform, got 5 interviews, and got a temp job that lasted for less than 6 months.
Literally hopping on a bike and just spending a month or so repeatedly going into every place in town with a Now Hiring sign in the window and demanding an interview was a better use of my time.
Hate to say it but you have to meet the right people in non-work contexts :/ it’s all a bullshit game and this is a surefire way to be handed a job
Edit Would also like to add that there are very little guardrails in place for people who struggle socially.
Yet another instance of the world fucking you over if you can’t dance right
how do i make one of those people have car trouble in front of my house?
Stinger strips! Eventually one of em is gonna be rich right?
no more half measures walter
A job search is one of the worst things that could befall a person outside of dismemberment.
So it's not just me?
Yeah I'm like literally throwing my resume into a black hole everyday
Find a recruiter. Just started working with one and she told me that companies (in my industry at least) will work directly with a recruiting company to find talent, because public job postings these days get like hundreds of applicants that might not even be qualified for the job. I am now convinced that this is how most hiring is done and just going around doing a bunch of job applications by hand is a complete waste of time and energy.
This is how I got my current job. They advertised it as temp, but it turned into a full-time contractor job where the company keeps us around for years but refuses to actually hire any of us and give us the standard paid time off and other benefits.
Is it ideal? No. But it beats retail by a long shot.
It’s more like thousands. My small company had two positions posted and got something like 5000 applications in the first week or two. I think it ended at almost 10000.
7 months out here looking for a dev spot, state bennies just ran out. My best recruiter ghosted me and when I tracked them down they broke down and admitted that they can't get anyone hired right now, and everybody's outsourcing for everything more than ever.
I get the feeling even landing a spot isn't much of a guarantee for long at this point.
So today, I did my first day as a substitute teacher (sped para in particular), and hired on with some brown box folks doing delivery driving for the summer. Both different kinds of work than what I've gotten used to; also a lot more effort for half the pay. I'm going to be in a union though!
9 months in, this shit sucks.
I’ve been rejected from places for having a degree. I’ve been rejected from places for not having a masters. I’ve received literally no word from several hundred applications.
I used to keep a spreadsheet of the jobs I applied to but I gave up on that because it was adding a substantial amount of time.
It was already bad and then the NIH cuts meant my entire industry is on fire because the private biomedical industry is a fiction made up as cover for giving a handful of people a ton of government money.
just put on your best shirt and walk on in there, ask for the manager and give him a nice firm handshake, look him in the eye and say "You may not know it yet but I'm exactly what this company needs to go to the top!"
but really idk, seems rough
It's crazy that boomers and silent Gen will unironically still say this shit. I heard it just last week.
Unironically better than filling out an online form and submitting it into the void. Seriously.
Go to career fairs, stalk hiring manager on linkedin, go to their homes.
Submitting resumes online and expecting to hear your name called is almost akin to placing faith in a nonexistant meritocratic system. What, you think someone is going to read your resume and be more impressed by it than the resume of a guy who bullshitted everything or some person, somewhere with 3 phds in your field?
This is very good advice. But I would note that many career fair booths are glorified billboards that tell you to apply online anyway
It took me almost 2 years and about 25 apps a week before I found something and I was fired from my last job. I have a BBA and graduated too of my class and now drive a delivery van for Amazon. I've been told I should have gotten a more worthwhile degree even though mine is in software.
I tend to always get fired for being autistic so I'm sure I'll lose this job in the next year or so but this time we don't have my life savings as a cushion like last time.
Oh, you don’t. There are not enough jobs to go around and there are so few available.
Literally your best bet is to find some rich guy on LinkedIn and just get all buddy-buddy with him and maybe he’ll give you a job out of cronyism.
have you tried putting on your job helmet and squeezing down into a job cannon?
I spent like 3 years on the dole constantly applying for jobs and eventually got one through someone I met while volunteering to fill time. It's very much who you know.
Idk it's insane, and most job application processes are designed to be as humiliating and awful as possible.
"One-way" interviews 
just get a job at your dad's business
I went through a whole-ass final round interview last week. Every step, they clearly all really liked me, even said they thought I was a good fit. I was two of the interviwers' #1 pick. But then they just rejectred me today because someone else had more years of experience. Why did they waste my time going through that process if they were just going to pick someone with more years of experience?
18 months after losing a tech job...
This is the neat part - you dont!
Do your resume in markdown. Many of them are processed by automated systems and stuff made in ms word doesn't render correctly. There are sites online that can check your resume formatting for you for free, Google automated resume parsing or something
Edit: it's called ATS
Also check the recruiter's linked profile page. If the recruiter works for the company directly, it is even better so you can make an extra effort in the application. It just seems to go a lot smoother when the recruiter has a direct line to the manager and knows the business well.
I am not sure why it works so well - I think most applicants don't do this, and so it helps you jump to the front of the queue and make an impression. Many recruiters seem to really like linkedin, so being a linkedin player helps. I and people who I have told this to have had success with this approach.
This kind of thing makes me doom so hard. I really shouldn't start transitioning until I get a full time job (family is probably an issue) and I have no idea how I'm going to do that. No college or qualifications. Fuck my life.
Just borrow some seed capital from your parents and let their home office set up a company for you.