As of October 2022, my company has come to the conclusion that Covid-Era economics weren't the new norm (even though they knew/ were told better) and started rolling out corrective action in terms of headcount (to reduce it aka “we overhired during covid”). At first it was just headcount actions, then it was Pay cuts, then it was benefits cuts a few months later all the while promising those would return at some time in the future (in which state who knows).
My journey started in January when I decided that I needed to find a job somewhere else and not even necessarily for more money, or a promotion. I just needed to get out of this morose and borderline toxicity that was sweltering up in the company. I was lucky enough to retain my job during all of these headcount reductions meaning that I had an income but the mental stress, toxicity and overall negativity was starting to weight down upon me, my family and my friends. I was just not enjoying…living… basically. Not suicidal just felt like a loss of purpose in accomplishing the things I was excited about before.
I started with polishing my resume, hitting up my network, applying maybe ~5 jobs a day that were exact fit on my qualifications. March 2023 comes around and I got 1 interview from all of the applications. I knew the job market was not great for my field and industry (Tech) but I thought maybe its because I needed to do more than I was doing. The interview did not materialize an offer, I was in fact ghosted after taking their Competency tests, never got a hit back after reaching out a few times. I had some industry friends of mine review and help me add additional polish on my resume and changed my daily goal for 5 job apps to 15 job apps a day if I could. I even started approaching roles withing the same type but lesser qual and roles that were slightly outside of my qualification.
I passed 500+ job applications a few days ago for the year and while its not my daily goal of 15 job apps on average, it still felt like a lot of job apps, cover letters, dealing with all the various online different tools to apply, etc…
I have gotten zero Interviews since that first one earlier in the year. I have gotten maybe roughly 30% with an email explaining in some robotic way that I was not picked and other candidates were etc… but for the majority of all of my job applications very few ever replied with with a rejection notice. Some even rejected me within hours of the job application. It honestly felt that I was submitting my resume to shredders. It felt like these job reqs were posted but not actually being filled. I have seen the same job get posted or has been posted for weeks. I have also seen job postings get taken down within a day of being posted. I have seen jobs that say remote but the description indicates otherwise. I have seen jobs listed as $X but the description says $Y.
The whole experience feels demoralizing and honestly unsure what steps I can do with my current resume. I probably would have to gain new certifications, maybe go back to school, or even explore a whole new industry. My friends and family believe that my 12 years of service in my current company is the reason why I get passed on so much on these applications but that makes me feel worst since its not something I can fix until I leave.
TLDR: 500 plus job applications for 1 Interview and very few even rejection emails. Whole thing feels pointless and demoralizing.