I've been out of a job since January and now it's a race to see if my car's brakes fail (because I do delivery gig work to survive) or I get hired in my field first.
I put in 5-10 applications every day and I'm lucky if I get feedback on any of them. I have paid for the professional resume writing services in case the algorithm was screwing me, only to have them give me a resume that is exactly what the resume I wrote myself already says (literally, they just reformatted my existing resume…).
I have had someone give me internal referrals at two different big tech companies, but thanks to the fabricated recession, hiring freezes, and Twitter haemorrhaging talent, I haven't heard anything from those recruiters in months even though I passed several interviews with them. They eliminated the positions I applied for in the middle of the process, so they could call any time but it's unlikely with the state of this economy.
The smaller companies I apply to are all jobs I am perfectly qualified for, even meeting their very specific fancy requirements in some cases, and I still get ghosted or rejected. Usually I just hear nothing at all ever.
I can't even apply to non-tech jobs because I'm considered overqualified. Or underqualified if I don't use my resume. I got turned down to deliver weed and work at Petsmart because I'm overqualified! Fortunately, Doordash is the only reason I'm not homeless right now. I work 6 days a week and would work 7 but if I don't have a rest day, it's not safe to drive. I barely break even every month and all I do is work and sleep and read shit online. And put in job applications.
Once, I got all the way to the third round of interviews at one company and I was killing it and they loved me and I was very convinced I had it in the bag. I finished the third interview with the guy telling me I was moving on, only for the guy above him to reject me outright without even speaking to me because I couldn't show him writing samples from my previous job. Because I guess NDAs don't exist in his world? I'm still salty about that months later lol. It's the closest I have gotten to potentially getting an offer in all this time and that was in June.
This is all after I lost my apartment and my job one after the other at the beginning of the year. I was forced to move because thanks to COVID my apartment raised my rent by 22%, so my friend in another state took me and my cat in. If it wasn't for her, we would be on the street. I feel so hopeless and worthless. I want to work, I am qualified to work, I am basically willing to work for ANYTHING right now because I make $60 a day and gas costs me $50 to fill up my tank every couple of days and I'm very close to what little savings I haven't exhausted running out. No one will hire me and I don't understand why.
My last job worked me like a dog horribly so I know I should look to be paid what I'm worth, but I'm not even being choosy, I just want to survive long enough to find something better. I'm terrified my car will break down or I'll get sick because I will be out of options.
I will say that I got one response on Monday and had to fill out a long written questionnaire for a job and I am hoping that I will hear that I got through to the next round next week, but I've been ghosted or rejected so many times now I can't even muster up the energy to attempt to be hopeful.
TL;DR: They say there's a staffing shortage because no one wants to work, so what's the excuse for not hiring people who are begging to work?