In the past two months I've applied to 94 jobs.
Because of my career path and titles, each individual application usually includes several “working” skills questions, which require research and crafted writing to provide unique examples of how I would approach different scenarios for that specific company, taking anything from 30 minutes to over an hour to complete. This is all in addition to completely refilling out my entire resume's worth of information for each company's proprietary job application form [why even ask to include a resume to begin with, if I have to add it all again later?]. This means I've spent nearly 100 hours, when I can spare the time over the past two months, hopefully applying to anything I can find that fits my skills.
And what do I get for all that effort?
I've had 3 people actually respond: 1 who declined after they decided to change the job location, 1 who responded with some shady unprofessional email and ghosted after I asked more questions and 1 who I currently have a call with Friday [but I already feel like it's another dead end].
91 of my applications, with all those hours of effort and hope invested, went nowhere. Those companies used an AI screen or keyword search and I didn't have the “magic” formula of terms. And yes, I've changed my resume and optimized it for keywords over and over. I've changed my cover letter, using 3 different base letters for different career paths and customizing for each company.
With a university degree, a fully clean background, and over a decade of experience, I am not hirable, apparently.
But tell me again how many places are hiring these days…
