I’ve been without steady employment for over a year now. I’ve only been able to get one temporary job that lasted for a few months, but since then, nothing. I have a degree, years of experience in my field, and certifications. Nobody wants me. I recently applied for a job that I’m very qualified for, that my friend’s dad works at. They sent me an auto reject. If having all the qualifications asked for and then some, years of experience, a degree, certifications, AND a referral isn’t enough, then what the fuck is?
Most recently, I had an absolute unicorn job I interviewed for. It was in my area, transit distance, looking for my level of experience, and since it had an intangible product, was relatively unaffected by the tariffs and shit. I talked to two recruiters for screening, both said I’m an excellent fit. I interviewed two team members, they liked me so much, they advanced me to the final round minutes after the interview. I did the final interview, and it went quite well. I was given an update by the recruiter two days after, there’s just one person left to interview, it’s just between me and that person, and the two guys I interviewed first liked me better, but it’s just down to the hiring manager’s choice. And then I got rejected, because the other guy had more experience than me. WHY THE FUCK DID YOU WASTE MY TIME AND LEAD ME ON LIKE THAT IF YOU WERE JUST GOING TO GO BY YEARS OF EXPERIENCE?
My parents also paid for a career counselor for me, and all she could say was that I seem to be doing nothing wrong, and I just need to wait for an offer to come through. Gee, thanks. That was totally worth $200.
I even apply for the absolutely shittiest of places, paying well under what I’m looking for, but not even they’ll take me. How the fuck am I supposed to get a job if no one wants to hire anymore?
hustle and grind playa and one day the invisible hand of the market will magically give you 10 million dollars /s
honestly the only thing i can think of is get your resume matched with whatever shitfest AI tooling recruiters use these days. having a resume that an AI can pick apart is the first step towards not getting auto rejected.
and don’t give up. as hard and shitty as it is most job listings nowadays are just traps. they already have a candidate in mind they just make the posting out of obligation, they list unnecessary qualifications (from your post you seem like you only applied to jobs that you match the job listing, don’t do that apply even if you don’t check all the tickboxes), the position got filled and the lazy bastard forgot to remove it and my favourite just straight up lying.
and check out the recruiter YouTube channels they got good tips for today’s market (even though most of them are selling bullshit seminars like how to achieve job freedom blah blah blah).
Believe me, I apply for all the stuff, unless it’s like, 10 more years of experience than what I have.
I don’t get angry when I get an auto rejection email, then I re read the description and think “Ah, OK, it makes sense that I got auto rejected there”, which happens often.
I’ve had an idea of, when I see an auto reject email of something I’m well qualified for, to email them to let them know their ATS is broken to manipulate them into giving me feedback, similar to that tip of getting help from reddit by making an alt account and giving an intentionally wrong answer so they feel the need to correct them.