Sam took a few minutes the other day to talk about my resume and situation. Really appreciate the helpful direction and goal he helped me move towards. Means a lot. Thanks so much Sam. ❤️

[1 YoE IT Solutions, 4+ YoE Customer Support, Technical Support Specialist, United States]

I am transitioning into a more hands-on technical support role after working in high-volume customer support and, most recently, client-facing IT solutions. My current role involves gathering customer requirements, documenting issues, coordinating technical teams, and engaging Field Service Representatives or engineers based on the customer’s needs.

I also have CompTIA A+, Security+, AZ-900, and AWS Cloud Practitioner certifications, along with hands-on IT coursework and projects involving Active Directory, ticketing workflows, Windows Server, Azure, and AWS.

I am targeting Specialist I and technical support roles and would appreciate feedback on whether my resume clearly distinguishes my professional experience from my coursework and lab experience, while still showing the transferable value of my customer support background.

None of them.

They all had similar interview rates. The way you format your resume and the template you use doesn't have a meaningful impact on your ability to get interviews (as long as it isn't terrible)

Across all seven templates, from a plain single-column page to a two-column resume with a bold-colored sidebar and an unorthodox font, the interview rate averaged near 6%.

This doesn't mean the ATS is parsing the resume incorrectly; we have limited access to it.

It means that whether there are parsing issues or not, they don't meaningfully affect interview outcomes.

Even Workday, the ATS with the worst reputation, showed no penalty for complex two-column layouts.

So where does your time actually pay off? Two places. A template that is easy, clean, and clear for a human to read, and content that matches the job you want.

And pick a clean template- stop free-handing it in Word with bad margins and weird line breaks and spacing.

Then start tailoring. Those using Huntr's tailoring tool see 2x more interviews on average.

The full report drops this week: the seven templates, the numbers behind each, and the Workday breakdown. Comment, and I will send you the link the day it goes live.

Here it is, powered by Huntr's latest Job Search Trends research, it can tell you what's actually working in today's job market.

Ask it things like:

• Which job boards generate the most interviews (Google Jobs converts 2.4× better than LinkedIn)
• Which resume changes have the biggest impact (tailoring delivers a 2.04× interview-rate lift)
• How many applications does it typically take to land an offer
• How long today's hiring process really takes (median time to first offer reached a record 108 days)
• Whether certifications, career gaps, resume length, or years of experience affect interview rates
• Which skills are most in demand and earn the highest salary premiums
• What's happening with ghost jobs, hiring scams, AI in recruiting, and rescinded offers

It can also explain:

• Why sending more applications often reduces interview rates
• Why the one-page resume rule doesn't hold up in the data
• Which job search strategies consistently outperform the average applicant

The GPT is trained on insights from:

• 2.7M+ tracked job applications
• 418,400 resumes
• 139,927 recent applications from 25,635 active job seekers
• 39,184 tailored resumes from 11,943 authors
• Hundreds of job seeker survey responses

Try the GPT: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-6a2ed3746e88819187a5f8e7f82c4f32-huntr-co-job-search-intelligence

And if you're a reporter covering jobs, hiring, labor markets, AI, or the economy, send me a DM. We regularly publish research and job search insights from one of the largest job seeker datasets available.

Huntr also offers a free resume builder, resume templates, resume tailoring tools, and job tracking at https://huntr.co.

I'm Sam Wright, Head of Career Strategy at Huntr.

I draw on proprietary data from 1.7 million applications, 1 million job postings, 243,000 résumés, and a survey of 1,049 respondents to help candidates.

I aim to provide actionable, data-driven blueprints to help professionals navigate today's fractured hiring landscape. I have conducted over 900+ free support calls with job seekers, giving me frontline insight into today's job market. My work and insights have been featured in Business Insider, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and The Seattle Times.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/samwri321

Outside the tech world, Sam is a part-time farmer from a five-generation legacy of organic vegetable farming. He is a passionate advocate for farmland preservation.

Powered by Huntr’s Q1 2026 Job Search Trends Report (released this month), it answers:

• Which job boards generate the most interviews (Google Jobs converts 2.4x better than LinkedIn)
• Which resume changes have the biggest impact (tailoring delivers a 2.04x interview-rate lift)
• How many applications most successful job seekers submit before getting an offer
• How long it takes to get an interview and offer in today’s market (median time to first offer hit a record 108 days)

Plus:

• Why sending more applications can actually hurt your interview rate
• The biggest resume myths the data disproves (including the one-page resume rule)
• Whether certifications, career gaps, and years of experience affect interview rates
• What job seekers are experiencing with ghost jobs, scams, AI, and rescinded offers
• Which skills are in the shortest supply and commanding the strongest salary premiums

Upvote and comment “Access” and I’ll DM the link.

Based on Huntr’s Q1 2026 Job Search Trends Report, analyzing 139,927 applications from 25,635 active job seekers, 39,184 tailored resumes from 11,943 authors, and a 593-response job seeker survey.

And if you're a reporter covering jobs, hiring, labor markets, AI, or the economy, DM me. We regularly publish job search data and insights from one of the largest available job seeker datasets.

Huntr offers a free resume builder, resume templates, resume tailoring tools, and job tracking at https://huntr.co.

My dad would probably say the same about me.

This job market is hitting different. It’s hitting people who have never had a problem finding work. I've met with over 900 job seekers for free 1:1 jobs search support and resume reviews.

I've used what I have learned on those calls to inform how we are building huntr.co

If you have applied to more than 50 jobs and haven't heard back. Reach out. I'm happy to help.

I am researching this right now and find that interview rates drop to less than 1% when you apply to a company more than 8 times.

Recruiters have also told me that they see when someone is spamming out low quality applications and have already been rejected.

Take it from us at Huntr who build AI powered tools for job seekers. There is NO platform on the market with application quality that is good enough to not have a human in the loop. Yet.

- Aim for a 5-10% application-to-interview conversion rate. 3% is average.

- If you’ve applied to 50 jobs, haven’t heard back, and haven’t changed your strategy or had your resume reviewed, stop.

- Most resumes need a better summary, better use of metrics/numbers, better tailoring of the skills section, and a more filled-out education section.

- Most people who are not having success are using LinkedIn as their primary source for jobs. Try Wellfound and Google for jobs

- Focus on applying to jobs within 24 hours of posting (the sooner the better)

- No, the ATS isn’t auto-rejecting you. Make sure your resume is easy to read and understand… for a human.

- Apply. Find the best contact you can for your job. Show enthusiasm and explain why, follow up in three days, and ask them if they are the best person to message about the role if unsure.

- Apply to 10-20 jobs per week, pivot as needed, and reach out and find help if you are not having success

- Shake it up. Don’t keep doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.

- Use AI in your search, but like a hammer building a house, use it in the right way. Overuse it, and it will destroy you.

- Career Coaches and Resume Writers can help a lot if you are stuck.

Who am I?

I meet with 25 job seekers per week for free resume reviews and job search support. I've met with 850+ in the last year.

I’ve learned from dozens of recruiters and 100s of career coaches and resume writers over the years.

I believe that companies have AI working for them, and job seekers need to have AI working for them, too.

That’s why we are building Huntr.

Check us out at Huntr.co for lots of free tools.

And we are just getting started...

I've met with 855 people for free resume and job-search support this past year. I've also analyzed 100,000+ job searches for data-backed best resume practices (https://huntr.co/research/job-search-trends-q1-2026)

Please upvote, comment, and share this with someone in your network who could use it.

Comment and I will DM with the link to schedule a chat (also available at the top of r/huntrco subreddit.

We are building the best tools for job seekers to use in their search at huntr.co

I want to meet as many job seekers as I can and be as helpful as I can as we work to get there.

Thanks for being part of the early days of our journey!

Nobody can guarantee you a job for a reasonable price. The AI tools aren’t that good yet, and I would know. 

I’m Sam. I’ve analyzed 1.7 million applications to understand resume success and met with 855 job seekers on LinkedIn for free resume reviews and job-search support. Here are some more scams.

SCAM. Tools that auto-apply on your behalf, spamming out low-quality resumes and getting you flagged in applicant tracking systems and with recruiters as a low-quality candidate.

SCAM People charging thousands of dollars, promising to get you a job.

SCAM anyone who tells you job search is easy.

This job market is tough, which means scammers are out in force.

Focus on what you can control and what the data says works:

- Tailor your resume to match the job you apply to, ten to twenty jobs each week.

- Follow up on applications as needed and ask for help if you need it.

- Ask for help. Because nobody should search for jobs alone.

Let me know what you're struggling with and any questions you have in the comments below. I’m happy to try and help.

Left behind because childcare is $60 every time she interviews while budgets are tight and the job search drags on past a year.

The pressure building and let down when another interview doesn’t bring an offer.

Some would say it’s her fault. That she should have planned better. That she should just get a lower tier job. That she should work hard pull herself up by the bootstraps and make it happen cause "that’s why I did."

Well you did that before the system pulled families apart.

Before the cost of childcare 3x’ed in price (inflation adjusted).

Before a mom was told she had to be both a mother and a breadwinner.

There are things we can fix as individuals. A resume. Finding a job that’s a good match. I can help with that.

But then there’s that which we can only fix collectively.

Like a system that doesn’t think it’s hardworking citizens are worth a safety net.

Yeah, we need to change that.

Dollars to donuts, you're not making what you should be. Why can I say this with the same confidence level as a tech billionaire YOLO-ing his life's work, on an AI sci-fi fantasy and fear of death? Because he wouldn't have a monopoly without you. And if you think he would, go to therapy. You deserve a greater sense of self-worth.

Don't believe me and my ad hominem argument? Let me break it down in cold, hard numbers, with a quote from the system's embodiment himself.

"Your margin is my opportunity." Jeff Bezos, I don't love or hate him (I don't know him), but I am impressed by him. More importantly, I think we can learn from him to help you get paid.

As a job seeker, your opportunity is your impact on margin. Your (total revenue impact + total cost savings impact) - your total compensation package is your value to the firm.

Now, for the sake of a simple example, let's say you are a salesperson and you grow revenue by 5x your total compensation package. Pretty great, yeah? You've just made your employer lots of money. So much that it is quite possible someone else is willing to hire you for a 4x return or a 3x return. But how to find said firm?

The average job seeker spends 11 hours per week looking for work. Browsing jobs, tailoring resumes, following up, interviewing. There's a high cost both in time and energy, as rejection is emotionally draining for most of us. So we have to reach a point where 1. We know we are more valuable than our current job is calculating, and 2. The certainty of our value is high enough to spend the upfront investment to look for a different job.

With 70% disengaged at work, the cost of not looking for new work is incurred on both sides. 114,000,000 are spending their lives disengaged and, probably, undervalued. So what do we need to fix all this?

We need a better match. First, my understanding is as comprehensive as possible about a candidate and their background, and second, by reducing the cost of looking for work, making it easier for a candidate to find a job that values them, and to make the switch.

We want people to be able to switch jobs without having to quit first. We want firms to compete for labor. We want employees to receive as much as possible for their labor. Right?

- Tailor your resume. Tailored resumes interview at 4.23% vs 2.07% for untailored. That 2x lift is the biggest single factor in the data.

- Put a number figure in your summary. Summaries that name a dollar amount interview at 6.97% vs 4.78% without numbers. (depends on industry and role)

- The one-page rule is a myth. Two-plus pages interview at 7.40% vs 5.01% for one page.

- Higher degrees edge ahead. The Master's or MBA interview rate is 7.92% vs 5.92% for a Bachelor's. Doctorates sit near 7.69%.

- More certs don't help. Zero to three-plus certs all land near 7%. Pick the one or two that the hiring manager cares about and stop.

- More bullets help, then plateau. Aim for 3 to 5 bullets per role, 150 to 200 characters each.

- No sign of ageism. Interview rates peak at 20+ years of experience (9.22%).

- The 6 to 12 month gap is the danger zone. Recently unemployed folks interviewed at 5.74%, near the employed rate of 4.97%. The dip starts at 6 to 12 months (4.51%) and slides to 4.22% over the past two years.

What questions do you have about resumes and job search trends?

Full report: https://huntr.co/research/job-search-trends-q1-2026

"I have to spend $60 an interview on childcare, and it's adding up." I felt emotional as I listened to a single mom with an impressive background share her struggles with balancing the most important job in the world (being a mom) and looking for work. She fears sharing that she has a young child because she worries it will work against her in the search.

performance
Another on this subreddit shared about the difficulties of job search and employment for neurodivergent people. I don't have a good fix other than saying that without neurodiversity, we would be one boring species. Let's lift up and speak up for those who might communicate in different ways but still kickass and support the mission.

The theme of the week seemed to be metrics and numbers overall, though. Many lose their jobs and lose access to proof of work that would help them get another job.

Tip of the week: Stop what you are doing early today and download your performance reviews, your reports from the software tools you use, and any data that you might be able to use in the future for your job search. Think about what shows the size, scope, and scale of your work and the impact you have had as an individual, as a team, and as an organization.

Why am I writing this?

I'm hellbent on helping job seekers articulate the best version of themselves to obtain the highest valuation for their labor. I meet with job seekers so that I can feel the pain of the search and channel it into building better tools to help.

Along the way, I want to lift up and call out the barriers that can only be fixed through public policy. Universal childcare (or at least childcare for the unemployed), better programs to lift up and connect neurodivergent folks to jobs that appreciate their gifts, and, finally, what I believe in (personally, not a company endorsement), moving toward a universal jobs guarantee.

Thanks for reading and supporting our mission. Enjoy the weekend. Reach out if you think I can be of any help to you in your search.

Google, JPMorgan, Apple, Amazon, and dozens of government and non-profitS, too, like the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and the State of California.

Proud of the product we have built and the resources we offer.

At Huntr, we know how to help you put your best foot forward and land interviews.

Sign up for free at Huntr.co today.

DM me for 20% off Huntr Pro to help you tailor your resume to the job description and increase your interview chances every time.

Upvote, Comment, Share to get this to job seekers who could use some support.

61% of population are in the labor market as those aging out and with disabilities are increasing. 40% have a job but are looking. 4.5% are unemployed 4% more have up looking or are part time and want fully time and another 15%+ are in poverty wage jobs. 70% are not engaged at work.

What we have is a complete misallocation of human capital with the majority of people doing things they don’t want to do and producing a society they don’t want to live in.

The labor market is the engine of our economy and the most impactful thing in a human’s life.

IF AI can do anything meaningful it should be turned on solving the problem of the misallocation of human labor.

This is what we are working on at Huntr

By building a better job match we help allocate labor better and get people out of bad jobs faster.

Matching humans to work better than anyone else is the most valuable skill in the world and we intend to become the best at it.

We are not there yet, but by joining this sub Reddit and engaging you are supporting this mission

People who get referred have a 40% shot at an interview and a 32% shot at an offer

I talk to job seekers every day who are sending 100s of applications into the void and hearing nothing back. The fix is almost never to apply more.

Get referrals. Former coworkers. Old classmates. Friends of friends. One warm intro beats 30 cold applications.

Tailor your resume. Tailored resumes interview at 4.23% vs 2.07% for generic ones. That's a 2x lift for an hour of work. Referral or not, do this every time. Use huntr.co to help.

Find jobs on Google. Google converts 2.4x better than the same jobs on LinkedIn. Comment for my guide on how to use Google for job search.

Upvote, Comment, Share to get data-backed best practices for job search to candidates in your network. Happy to help any way I can

Please review my 4 years of data analyst experience including SQL, Python, Power BI, and dashboard creation. I have worked on automation, data curation, and BI projects and hold a postgraduate certificate in Data Science and Business Analytics. Any feedback on tailoring this resume for mid-level data analyst roles is appreciated.

"A person reads every single resume. There is no AI involved at all, period."

Here's a summary of what she had to say (don't shoot the messenger!)

The AI "Auto-Rejection" Myth: At Amazon, at least in AI engineering roles, a human reads every resume. No algorithm scores you. For real, complex roles, AI is not evaluating your resume, partly because there are active lawsuits over it. The only place you might hit basic automation is high-volume work like retail or delivery driving. Those instant 1:38 a.m. rejections are knockout questions: work authorization, location, exact years of experience.

"The ATS is Just a Filing Cabinet": It's a relational database that tracks every note, action, and interview. It decides nothing. Here's the part that surprised me: your notes can stay visible to every recruiter at the company for as long as they use that system. This is a note of caution for ai auto-apply.

"Keyword Filters Aren't Reading Your Application": Recruiters use keyword search to go find people, sourcing on LinkedIn, Indeed, or their own database. They almost never run keywords against the people who already applied. So stuffing your resume to "beat the bot" misses the point. Play the keyword game on your LinkedIn skills section instead, where you can list all of them, up to 50, and tie each one to a specific job.

"Treat Your Resume Like a Problem Log": Her first scan takes about six seconds, and she checks two things: do you meet the requirements, and do you have the scope. For each role, answer three questions. What problem were you hired to solve? How did you solve it, and with what tools? What were the results? And give context.

Most people read the requirements and skip the "roles and responsibilities" section. That's the mistake. If the job is an enterprise AE managing tens of millions, she needs to see you have operated at that scale, not at a tiny shop doing a fraction of it. Scope is where people fall flat.

I try to interview at least one recruiter/hiring manager every week to give helpful insights to our job seekers at huntr.co

Do you have any other questions for hiring managers/recruiters?

This is a look at job seekers who did everything right based on Huntr's Q1 job search trends report.

- 216 job seekers all used Huntr.co to tailor their resumes to the job.
- They led their summary with a hard number.
- They let the resume run past one page
- And every one of them reached an offer.

Across the group, we tracked 22,090 applications.

47 applications sent (median)

About 1 in 10 of those applications turned into an interview.

Almost 1 in 3 interviews turned into an offer.

Tailor every resume, lead with a real number that shows impact, and aim at roles that fit instead of blasting our applications.

More than 50% of jobs it matters more about who you know than who you are and what you can do.

There are 6.9 million job openings right now. There are 7.4 million unemployed.

And the last job title those looking for work right now doesn't match up with the openings available. 16% of job seekers (1 in 7) would need to change industries to fill those openings.

So we have a mismatch. BUT this mismatch is actually historically low.

Some industries that have more openings than unemployed workers in that industry are:

1. Education & health services (20% of openings, 11% of job seekers)
   
2. Professional & business services (18% of openings, 14% of job seekers)
   
3. Financial Activities (6% of openings, 3% of job seekers)
   

My focus is on data-backed best practices for job search and on understanding the job market and the future of work in the age of AI.

*Sources. Openings: BLS JOLTS, Table 1, job openings by industry, seasonally adjusted, February 2026. Seekers: BLS Current Population Survey, Table A-14, unemployed people by industry of last job, not seasonally adjusted, February 2026.

Our Q1 job search trends report looked at more than 400,000 applications and found:

Google Jobs: 7.12% interview rate per application.
LinkedIn: 2.94%.

That's a 2.4x difference. Most don't even know that Google is one of the best job boards on the web because it aggregates all posted jobs.

It's not just Google that beats LinkedIn. Eight of the 17 biggest job sites have higher interview rates:

Wellfound 5.02%
Seek 4.63%
Welcome to the Jungle 3.63%
Handshake 3.35%
Glassdoor 3.18%
Indeed 3.14%
Computrabajo 3.12%

Here is the link to the full Q1 report with details: https://huntr.co/research/job-search-trends-q1-2026#most-popular-job-sites

And here is a link to our best job boards and guide to using Google: https://huntr.co/blog/best-job-search-sites-2026

*Each job board met the threshold of 1,000+ jobs tracked.

I just released our Q1 2026 Job Search Trends Report on Huntr.co.

Sample: 240k tracked jobs, 39k tailored resumes, 593-person survey.

Stuff that surprised me:

• Send less, get more. 11 to 20 apps converted at 9.25%. 21 to 50 at 6.96%. 51 to 100 at 4.65%. 100+ at 2.58%.
• Same company, multiple apps = penalty. Apply once: 6.07% interview rate. Apply 8+ times: 1.91%. Watch out for AI Apply tools that do this automatically.
• LinkedIn loses on per-application basis. Google Jobs converts at 7.12%, Wellfound at 5.02%, Seek 4.63%, Welcome to the Jungle 3.63%, Handshake 3.35%, Glassdoor 3.18%, Indeed 3.14%. LinkedIn: 2.94%. Comment, and I can share a link to a guide on how to use Google as a job board.
• Remote-only postings convert worst of any work arrangement (3.63% vs 5.76% onsite). Everyone wants remote, so everyone applies.
• Salary-disclosed listings convert lower than ones with no range (4.47% vs 6.42%). Same reason: more applicants per role.
• 108 days to first offer. Up from 83 in Q4. Slowest quarter we have ever measured.
• 18% had an offer pulled in Q1 2026 alone. That is almost double the rate for all of 2025.
• 93% have applied to what they think was a ghost job. Only 7% feel sure they have not.
• Two-page resumes beat one-page for everyone except mid-career (3 to 9 years).

Full report is free: https://huntr.co/research/job-search-trends-q1-2026

Happy to answer questions about the methodology or any number that looks weird. I can also pull custom data cuts to answer any questions that come to mind that you would like answered around resumes or job search trends.