It won’t change your luck, but it will make you more prepared when it comes ‘round.

If you don’t know Bradford, find that kind of person in your personal/professional network who can deeply consider your job search, from extensive hiring experience, and ask them for an hour of their day to talk things through.

If you’ve ever worked with Bradford, or had a deep conversation with him, I bet he’s happy to extend the same favor to you.

He gave me great feedback on making an impression on interviewers and how to stand out at every stage. I got good ideas on how to answer “what’s your salary range?” confidently but without letting myself down.

That mutual, Bradford Fults if you know him, took more than an hour, no strings attached, out of his day to listen to holistically consider my whole process.

A pal suggested I talk to a mutual friend who knows more, from experience, about most things than most folks do. A systematic and intense thinker who could help me troubleshoot my efforts.

For a while, I thought debriefing myself, on what went well and what could go better, was sufficiently rigorous. But, I was sometimes easy on myself or a bit lazy. Figuring out improvements that would have the most impact, and acting upon them, is tricky on one’s own.

Our society has made some short-sighted decisions that are all manifesting suddenly. Eroded social safety nets, AI slop, and questionable approaches to growing the economic pie are all hitting at once.

It sucks to experience it out in the cold, instead of under a warm blanket.

If you’re still out there looking, remind yourself that the situation you find yourself in, the parts that feel real bad, are not your fault.

If you have an opportunity, sing a job seeker’s praises to the hiring manager! The best interviews I had came this way.

How to help someone (still) looking:

Keep in touch, even if you don’t have a warm opportunity. It keeps the lonelies/dismals away. A 15-minute text/chat conversation could be the highlight of the day for the job seeker.

More than half of my interview rejections were after the first recruiter/hiring manager screen. This despite feeling like that was my strongest phase!

Goes to show, paying attention to how you’re failing to convert opportunities is crucial.

My search, by the numbers:
213 applications,
46% explicitly rejected,
38% rejected by ghosting (never talked to a human).

Of the 33 times I talked to humans, I was only ghosted after speaking with humans once.

Spend more time on practice, less time on cold applications.

Out-of-network applications are the part of the whole process that is the most broken, for recruiters and applicants.

Opportunities are so hard to come by (I did ~1.5 legit interview cycles per month), you have to make the most of them.

Practicing at coding, design, or behavioral screens will make you feel better. You’re putting circumstances back under your control, even if only a little bit.