5 ms·

I went for 1,200 jobs but got only two interviews

32 points by spzb 1y ago

stevage 1y ago
That really does sound depressing. I remember when I applied for my first professional job in 2004. I didn't even want the job, I applied out of obligation to get unemployment benefits for another two weeks. So I applied to a senior engineering role, as a grad, and somehow was given an interview. I didn't get the role, but they called me back to say someone else more junior had just quit and offered me her position. Much easier times for new grads. Side note: one of my colleagues there had a new baby. This week I learnt that baby has just had a baby.
- actsasbuffoon 1y ago
  Time really does fly. I’ve been doing this long enough to watch several junior developers become staff engineers.
Spivak 1y ago
Woof, it does genuinely seem that if you "cold apply" to basically any job these days it goes straight to /dev/null. At this point I don't even bother unless I have a foot in the door through some irl networking means. It can be friend of a friend who works there or I met someone at a conference or even just talked at a booth. It doesn't have to be much but not applying through the web form is the only way to get an interview.
Noumenon72 1y ago
I thought the pressure of applying for jobs was too much in 2000 when objectively it was much easier, and just went to work in a plastic factory. After learning programming I've only applied to seven jobs in nine years, and it takes me weeks of procrastination for each one. Just like married people are all glad they don't have to deal with the dating apps today, I'd probably be unemployed again if I went back on the job market. I have endless appreciation for recruiters helping me through the friction parts, and wish there were fixers like that for everybody.
- johnnyanmac 1y ago
  Sadly, the recruiters of today are just going through the motions. Many of them also know there's no jobs but they need to get paid. It's just mush all around.
culopatin 1y ago
This has as much value as an anecdote. The Open University? Is that even good? Idk. Does she have a shit resume? Any projects? We don’t know anything other than “I’m sad and stressed” from her.
- tiew9Vii 1y ago
  It looks like junior developer applies for junior roles, companies don't want juniors, insert "we want at least 10 years experience in [insert latest fad]". Of the two companies she got face time with, one took the chance, is happy with the skills and deemed her competent as passed the three month probation. The job market is broken. Half these companies flex their own egos in the interviews/hiring, make you jump through so many hoops with ridiculous tests detached from the reality of your day to day work. Then if you actually pass and start the job, the standard and quality of work is mediocre at best and you realise what a shit show it actually is.
  - trod1234 1y ago
    > The job market is broken. There's no real job market left, its become so distorted from financial engineering that its basically all collapsing without anyone seeing the objective reality until its too late. > Then if you actually pass and start the job, the standard and quality of work is mediocre at best and you realize what a shit show it actually is. This is what happens when costs exceed pay, and there being no choices in a non-market. The most competent have options and will withdraw when costs exceed pay. They value their minds and sanity more than the work which isn't available. This is why within two years of adverse disruption in industry most workers gets severe brain drain. You normally have intelligent and competent people on a team bringing everyone around them up, but when they leave, you basically get what you see with government work where it gravitates to negative production value because anyone working too much is making everyone else look bad. A lot of this was predicted back in the 1930s by economists.
    - johnnyanmac 1y ago
      s/competent/comfortable. There is some correlation, but The smartest person still needs to pay rent, and these systems are not finding him. Better to be rich and incompetent in times like this.
Dfiesl 1y ago
1200 applications over a period of 18 months is over 2 applications a day for 18 months solid. If thats the case there's no way you're putting in the time needed to A) find jobs that actually excite you; B) reflect on where you can improve after each rejection; C) write really effective cover letters.
- thunderfork 1y ago
  [dead]
- slyall 1y ago
  The "jobs that really excite you" are the ones you apply for in the first week and never hear back from.
  - out-of-ideas 1y ago
    > and never hear back from i would not be surprised if that was the case for a lot of them
  - actsasbuffoon 1y ago
    I prefer to go for companies that win me over rather than ones where I start out excited about them. That’s how it was with my current company. The description from the recruiter had me questioning if I even wanted to talk to this company because they wanted me 2 to 3 days-per-week in an office 3 hours away. I spoke to the SVP of engineering and it was immediately clear that we got along really well and had similar values and priorities. He told me that they would knock the in-office requirement down to once per week because I seemed like such a good fit. They moved from a definite-no to a maybe. I spoke to a lead engineer and he was one of the smartest, most thoughtful people I’ve ever met. He really impressed me with his answers to my questions. I spoke to the senior director of engineering and once again, really good connection. Impressive guy who cared about the same things that I do. They moved from a maybe to kinda-exciting. I spoke to the CEO, and I have to be honest; I’ve had some bad run-ins with executives. I find a lot of them to be terrifyingly clueless. This guy really got it, though. I think he understands exactly how to make this company successful. They had officially become exciting. They made a great offer that was an upgrade on both title and pay, thus becaming the most exciting out of the bunch. After visiting the office twice they told me that my commute was insane, and I should only come in once per month. With that, my only real concern with the company basically became moot. I’m building some really exciting stuff and the entire company is constantly freaking out about my work. I love what I’m doing. I can’t imagine any of the other companies would have been this much fun. And to think, when the recruiter told me about them, I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to talk to them! Keep an open mind and get to know the company before you decide who is or isn’t exciting.
gngoo 1y ago
Is this a community college perhaps? I think we have another problem with this industry moving way too fast for even very well funded colleges to keep up. Let alone a community college. Of course it’s sad, but at the root it feels like we are now preparing CS students for an outdated job market. I don’t know the answer to this. Of course the fundamentals don’t change, but the market is rapidly changing. Who is even hiring juniors except those with impressive projects, from prestigious colleges or with at least 2-3 years of experience? If 2025, would have been my own graduation year, I would have had a bad taste in my mouth believing that LLMs can do everything I spend 4 years in college for. Not knowing that writing code is only a small part of the job (as I lack the experience).
- johnnyanmac 1y ago
  >Who is even hiring juniors except those with impressive projects, from prestigious colleges or with at least 2-3 years of experience? Even those students are sfruggling: https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-degrees-job-berkeley-professor-ai-ubi-2024-10 https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-degrees-job-berkeley-pr... https://www.forbes.com/sites/chriswestfall/2025/01/15/when-harvard-mbas-cant-find-jobs-how-the-job-market-has-changed/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/chriswestfall/2025/01/15/when-h... I do think the market will eventually bounce back. But it's a bloodbath out there right now.
susiecambria 1y ago
I spent 11 years at a small nonprofit in Washington, DC starting in the late 1990s. I was one of two paid staff at the start and as we grew, I was appalled that the ED did not include info updates to those who sent in resumes. At most, we had 50 candidates. So I created a postcard that the administrative assistant would send if we passed on a candidate. (Of course, the admin complained about having to do such b-o-r-i-n-g work when I got all the fun stuff. I was, for a time, the only public policy person. And I had a college degree and Master's. I explained that I did all manner of work from boring, like cleaning out the supply closet because she never did and I used a lot of supplies and needed to find them quickly usually, to "fun," going to meetings outside the office.) When I was looking for a job out of college in 1986, I hated not hearing from companies. That I was the only one of three staff who thought follow-up was important still bothers me to this day.
- johnnyanmac 1y ago
  Now when I graduated in 2017, I simply go in expecting over half my applications to be ignored or get a generic rejection. That's just the way it was, even in a "hot market". I fortunately didn't struggle too much to get my first job. It took 100 applications but I was getting interviews at maybe a 10% rate. I wasn't a great student so I didn't have those cray stories about managing 3 offers from top companies. But I still made do. The market today is completely different, in the worst way possible.

32 points by spzb 1y ago

That really does sound depressing. I remember when I applied for my first professional job in 2004. I didn't even want the job, I applied out of obligation to get unemployment benefits for another two weeks. So I applied to a senior engineering role, as a grad, and somehow was given an interview. I didn't get the role, but they called me back to say someone else more junior had just quit and offered me her position. Much easier times for new grads. Side note: one of my colleagues there had a new baby. This week I learnt that baby has just had a baby.

actsasbuffoon 1y ago
Time really does fly. I’ve been doing this long enough to watch several junior developers become staff engineers.

Spivak 1y ago

Woof, it does genuinely seem that if you "cold apply" to basically any job these days it goes straight to /dev/null. At this point I don't even bother unless I have a foot in the door through some irl networking means. It can be friend of a friend who works there or I met someone at a conference or even just talked at a booth. It doesn't have to be much but not applying through the web form is the only way to get an interview.

Noumenon72 1y ago

I thought the pressure of applying for jobs was too much in 2000 when objectively it was much easier, and just went to work in a plastic factory. After learning programming I've only applied to seven jobs in nine years, and it takes me weeks of procrastination for each one. Just like married people are all glad they don't have to deal with the dating apps today, I'd probably be unemployed again if I went back on the job market. I have endless appreciation for recruiters helping me through the friction parts, and wish there were fixers like that for everybody.

johnnyanmac 1y ago
Sadly, the recruiters of today are just going through the motions. Many of them also know there's no jobs but they need to get paid. It's just mush all around.

culopatin 1y ago

This has as much value as an anecdote. The Open University? Is that even good? Idk. Does she have a shit resume? Any projects? We don’t know anything other than “I’m sad and stressed” from her.

tiew9Vii 1y ago
It looks like junior developer applies for junior roles, companies don't want juniors, insert "we want at least 10 years experience in [insert latest fad]". Of the two companies she got face time with, one took the chance, is happy with the skills and deemed her competent as passed the three month probation. The job market is broken. Half these companies flex their own egos in the interviews/hiring, make you jump through so many hoops with ridiculous tests detached from the reality of your day to day work. Then if you actually pass and start the job, the standard and quality of work is mediocre at best and you realise what a shit show it actually is.
- trod1234 1y ago
  > The job market is broken. There's no real job market left, its become so distorted from financial engineering that its basically all collapsing without anyone seeing the objective reality until its too late. > Then if you actually pass and start the job, the standard and quality of work is mediocre at best and you realize what a shit show it actually is. This is what happens when costs exceed pay, and there being no choices in a non-market. The most competent have options and will withdraw when costs exceed pay. They value their minds and sanity more than the work which isn't available. This is why within two years of adverse disruption in industry most workers gets severe brain drain. You normally have intelligent and competent people on a team bringing everyone around them up, but when they leave, you basically get what you see with government work where it gravitates to negative production value because anyone working too much is making everyone else look bad. A lot of this was predicted back in the 1930s by economists.
  - johnnyanmac 1y ago
    s/competent/comfortable. There is some correlation, but The smartest person still needs to pay rent, and these systems are not finding him. Better to be rich and incompetent in times like this.

Dfiesl 1y ago

1200 applications over a period of 18 months is over 2 applications a day for 18 months solid. If thats the case there's no way you're putting in the time needed to A) find jobs that actually excite you; B) reflect on where you can improve after each rejection; C) write really effective cover letters.

thunderfork 1y ago
[dead]
slyall 1y ago
The "jobs that really excite you" are the ones you apply for in the first week and never hear back from.
- out-of-ideas 1y ago
  > and never hear back from i would not be surprised if that was the case for a lot of them
- actsasbuffoon 1y ago
  I prefer to go for companies that win me over rather than ones where I start out excited about them. That’s how it was with my current company. The description from the recruiter had me questioning if I even wanted to talk to this company because they wanted me 2 to 3 days-per-week in an office 3 hours away. I spoke to the SVP of engineering and it was immediately clear that we got along really well and had similar values and priorities. He told me that they would knock the in-office requirement down to once per week because I seemed like such a good fit. They moved from a definite-no to a maybe. I spoke to a lead engineer and he was one of the smartest, most thoughtful people I’ve ever met. He really impressed me with his answers to my questions. I spoke to the senior director of engineering and once again, really good connection. Impressive guy who cared about the same things that I do. They moved from a maybe to kinda-exciting. I spoke to the CEO, and I have to be honest; I’ve had some bad run-ins with executives. I find a lot of them to be terrifyingly clueless. This guy really got it, though. I think he understands exactly how to make this company successful. They had officially become exciting. They made a great offer that was an upgrade on both title and pay, thus becaming the most exciting out of the bunch. After visiting the office twice they told me that my commute was insane, and I should only come in once per month. With that, my only real concern with the company basically became moot. I’m building some really exciting stuff and the entire company is constantly freaking out about my work. I love what I’m doing. I can’t imagine any of the other companies would have been this much fun. And to think, when the recruiter told me about them, I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to talk to them! Keep an open mind and get to know the company before you decide who is or isn’t exciting.

gngoo 1y ago

Is this a community college perhaps? I think we have another problem with this industry moving way too fast for even very well funded colleges to keep up. Let alone a community college. Of course it’s sad, but at the root it feels like we are now preparing CS students for an outdated job market. I don’t know the answer to this. Of course the fundamentals don’t change, but the market is rapidly changing. Who is even hiring juniors except those with impressive projects, from prestigious colleges or with at least 2-3 years of experience? If 2025, would have been my own graduation year, I would have had a bad taste in my mouth believing that LLMs can do everything I spend 4 years in college for. Not knowing that writing code is only a small part of the job (as I lack the experience).

johnnyanmac 1y ago
>Who is even hiring juniors except those with impressive projects, from prestigious colleges or with at least 2-3 years of experience? Even those students are sfruggling: https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-degrees-job-berkeley-professor-ai-ubi-2024-10 https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-degrees-job-berkeley-pr... https://www.forbes.com/sites/chriswestfall/2025/01/15/when-harvard-mbas-cant-find-jobs-how-the-job-market-has-changed/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/chriswestfall/2025/01/15/when-h... I do think the market will eventually bounce back. But it's a bloodbath out there right now.

susiecambria 1y ago

I spent 11 years at a small nonprofit in Washington, DC starting in the late 1990s. I was one of two paid staff at the start and as we grew, I was appalled that the ED did not include info updates to those who sent in resumes. At most, we had 50 candidates. So I created a postcard that the administrative assistant would send if we passed on a candidate. (Of course, the admin complained about having to do such b-o-r-i-n-g work when I got all the fun stuff. I was, for a time, the only public policy person. And I had a college degree and Master's. I explained that I did all manner of work from boring, like cleaning out the supply closet because she never did and I used a lot of supplies and needed to find them quickly usually, to "fun," going to meetings outside the office.) When I was looking for a job out of college in 1986, I hated not hearing from companies. That I was the only one of three staff who thought follow-up was important still bothers me to this day.

johnnyanmac 1y ago
Now when I graduated in 2017, I simply go in expecting over half my applications to be ignored or get a generic rejection. That's just the way it was, even in a "hot market". I fortunately didn't struggle too much to get my first job. It took 100 applications but I was getting interviews at maybe a 10% rate. I wasn't a great student so I didn't have those cray stories about managing 3 offers from top companies. But I still made do. The market today is completely different, in the worst way possible.