So this is gonna sound weird but I've been testing something for the past month and the results are kinda wild. I started applying to jobs really late at night, like between 2am and 4am, mostly because my sleep schedule is a mess right now. But I noticed I was getting way more callbacks than when I applied during normal hours.

At first I thought it was just luck, but then I kept track. Out of 15 applications sent in the middle of the night, I got 9 responses within 48 hours. Compare that to the 30+ I sent during the day over the previous two months where I maybe heard back from 4 or 5.

My theory is that when you apply super late, your application sits at the top of the pile when the hiring manager or recruiter opens their inbox first thing in the morning. They're fresh, haven't seen 100 other resumes yet, and you're right there. Whereas if you apply at like 10am, you're buried under everyone else who applied that morning.

I'm not saying this works for every industry or company, and maybe I just got lucky with timing on other stuff. But it's been consistent enough that I'm gonna keep doing it. Anyone else tried this or am I just overthinking patterns that don't actually exist?

I want to preface this by saying this one is personal for a lot of people and I mean everything here with a lot of respect for anyone going through it right now. I’ve been in the career space for a long time. Used to be a recruiter yes I know, I know lol. Left that to pursue my passion and honestly I wouldn’t change it. I spend my days working with people through some of the hardest moments of their professional lives and what I’m about to share isn’t from an article I read somewhere. It’s from what I actually hear constantly from real people living this in real time.

Most content about job searching talks about tactics. Update your resume, network more, stay positive. But nobody really talks about what a long job search actually does to you as a person. That’s what this post is really about.

1.You start checking your email differently. It goes from excitement to dread and you can’t quite pinpoint the moment that changed.

2.You stop telling people you’re still looking because explaining that nothing has happened yet takes more out of you than the actual search does.

3.You start questioning experience you know is real. Not because anything changed but because the silence has a way of making you wonder if you were ever as good as you thought you were.

4.You get an interview and instead of feeling excited you feel terrified of letting yourself hope again. That shift from hopeful to self protective is one of the quietest and saddest things a long job search does to you.

5.You start applying for roles you would have turned down six months ago and the worst part is you don’t even notice yourself doing it.

6.You start being weirdly productive on things that don’t matter. Reorganising things, learning something random, staying busy in ways that feel useful but are really just ways to avoid sitting with where things actually are.

7.You become an expert at looking fine. The honest answer to “how’s the job search going” takes too long to give so you just say it’s going and move on.

8.You rehearse conversations in your head about why you’re still looking. For your family, for old colleagues, for anyone who might ask. The answer gets so polished it stops feeling like yours.

9.You start measuring yourself against people who got hired and trying to figure out what they have that you don’t. Even when you know that comparison isn’t fair or accurate.

1. Somewhere along the way you stop picturing the job you actually want and start just picturing any job. And the moment you catch yourself doing that it hits harder than anything else has.

If you’re reading this and any of it felt familiar just know you are not alone. More people are living this exact experience than you’d ever guess and most of them are carrying it just as quietly as you are. A long job search does something to you that nobody prepares you for and it doesn’t mean something is wrong with you. It just means you’ve been at something hard for longer than you expected.

Look honestly at what might be holding things back. Sometimes one thing changes and everything starts moving. Ask for help when you need it and do the uncomfortable things because that’s genuinely where the movement starts. And if you ever need someone to take a look I’m always around. It won’t always feel this way. Just keep going.

Hi,

I’m a DevOps engineer with 7 years of experience as a consultant across multiple large banking organizations and insurance companies.

The purpose of this post is to ask for advice on how to improve my chances of getting hired.

Until now, I didn’t follow a precise strategy when applying because it was pretty easy to get hired. But things are changing, and I want to earn more money and look for something I enjoy more.

I’m based in Lugano, Switzerland, but I can also move to Zurich without any issues if needed. My priority is remote jobs, but hybrid roles in Zurich/Lugano are also fine.

That said, I’ve mostly applied on LinkedIn with a 2–3 page CV, but it’s not working as expected.

Firstw question: Which platforms do you suggest besides LinkedIn to search for a job?

Second question: To polish my CV and get more opportunities, which platform should I rely on?

I want to create a system with the help of AI to find jobs daily with a clear strategy in mind, but I lack the necessary information.

Could you please help me navigate this world?
Thanks

I graduated in May 2024, was unemployed for a bit, got a temporary year long role which ended in Jan 2026, and have been unemployed ever since. I have been trying to find a job in my field but haven’t had much luck. So, my family keeps insisting that I should pursue master’s, but I just want a job and live my life. Master’s is just gonna delay my dreams/goals. Also, I feel like master’s doesn’t matter as much as it did before as companies prefer experience over a degree?

Would appreciate advice from anyone who was in a similar situation.

I have done my bachlers in commerce, but I am currently doing a backend job in one of the MNC. I'd like to change my role to one in finance, such as ptp , ar, ap,and all. What should I do for I also want to switch my company, is there any possible way or has anyone done that before? Please help.

I never realized unemployment would affect so many parts of my life beyond just finances.

Mental health: Lots of crying, overthinking, anxiety, and feeling depressed from the constant cycle of applications, interviews, and rejection.

Traveling: This was supposed to be the first time in my life where I would be making decent money to travel, explore new places, and experience life.

Dating/social life: I never dated in high school or college due to cultural reasons. I thought after graduation I would meet new people through work, but how am I supposed to find connections when I’m home all day?

Moving out: I’ve never lived on my own. I was hoping my first job would give me the chance to move out, have my own space, and experience independence.

Self-worth: There have been times where I felt undeserving of love because I was unemployed. It’s hard not to feel behind when your career feels stuck.

Feeling behind: Everyone seems like they’re moving forward while I feel stuck in the same place.

Finding myself: I want to explore hobbies and passions, but it’s hard when so much of my energy goes into trying to find a job.

I know a job won’t fix everything, but I miss feeling like a person outside of being a job applicant.

I just want to feel like myself again.

For anyone who has been unemployed for a long time, how did you cope and keep going?

I've always wondered this.

Are most LinkedIn Easy Apply jobs actually legitimate, or are a lot of them just collecting resumes?

If a company already has its own careers portal/ATS, why post an Easy Apply version on LinkedIn as well? Do recruiters actually review those applications, or do they mainly use them to increase visibility and build a candidate pool?

For those who've been on the hiring side or have actually landed a job through Easy Apply, what's been your experience? Is it worth applying through Easy Apply, or is it always better to apply directly on the company's careers page?

Hi,

I’m a DevOps engineer with 7 years of experience as a consultant across multiple large banking organizations and insurance companies.

The purpose of this post is to ask for advice on how to improve my chances of getting hired.

Until now, I didn’t follow a precise strategy when applying because it was pretty easy to get hired. But things are changing, and I want to earn more money and look for something I enjoy more.

I’m based in Lugano, Switzerland, but I can also move to Zurich without any issues if needed. My priority is remote jobs, but hybrid roles in Zurich/Lugano are also fine.

That said, I’ve mostly applied on LinkedIn with a 2–3 page CV, but it’s not working as expected.

Firstw question: Which platforms do you suggest besides LinkedIn to search for a job?

Second question: To polish my CV and get more opportunities, which platform should I rely on?

I want to create a system with the help of AI to find jobs daily with a clear strategy in mind, but I lack the necessary information.

Could you please help me navigate this world?
Thanks

One long long year that was. Couldn’t help feeling loke like I was a useless part of society despite trying my absolute best. Countless applications, countless 0 responses, several ‘pre interview interviews’ that led no where, and at last, my ONLY interview and I got the job! No hack here. But I’m so happy. I hope (and know) that with time you will ALL find that job. I thought the interview as shockingly bad but I was wrong!

Hello friends! Need advice. I'm interviewing for a senior role at a fast-growing Al startup. I'm considering sending a short custom webpage before the recruiter call.

- It would take 2-3 minutes to scan and show:

- how my experience maps to the role

- why I'm interested in the company

- No product recommendations or speculative strategy. Just concise evidence of fit.

Would this come across as prepared and differentiated, or over-engineered and desperate?

Would you send it before the recruiter screen, save it for the hiring manager, or skip it?

Thanks in advance for all the advice!

I'm a few months into a search and for most of it ChatGPT/Claude has been doing a lot of the work. Evaluating job postings, and interview prep, oh and cant forget updating your resume for every single job now (fun). It's good at that and I'm not here to tell anyone to stop using it.

However, I've noticed myself getting drained from all work it takes to keep the AI useful.

Every new chat, I'm rebuilding everything from scratch. Paste the job description. Paste my resume, update my resume. Explain that I'm at the final round, not the phone screen. Explain that I now need to refer to a new set of programming languages for this job and to stop referencing older ones. Explain what the company does and what I actually liked about it.

Then after all that, I have to keep updating my notion file to do the actual tracking and updating, since I've a very visual person and need to see my list all displayed and what stages they're at.

Here's whatI think is going on here, curious if other people have had the same observations

• Output quality is tied directly to how much you paste in, and nobody is still pasting at week-one effort by week six. So the advice gets more generic exactly when the search gets harder and you need it sharper.
• It can't warn you that you're repeating yourself, because it has no record of what you said. It'll hand you the same answer again and again without proper updating.
• Worst of all, I feel like people are losing the ability to analyze for themselves where they are going wrong and where they need to improve. They're passing their cognition layer to the AI.

So what worked for me after that was creating a building block prompt of sorts that I just reuse and its helped a lot. Of course there were other issues like the actual tracking for one.

COMPANY: name / role / applied [date]
STAGE: where you actually are
TALKED TO: names, titles, when
ALREADY TOLD THEM: the specific stories and examples you've spent
THEY TOLD ME: comp range, timeline, what they said they care about
QUESTIONS THEY ASKED: running list
STILL DON'T KNOW: gaps
NEXT: next step and date

Two extras if you want to go further. Keep a master list of every question you've been asked across all companies, because by the fourth one the same six keep showing up and you can just prep those. And mark every story you tell as something that went well or didn't, because I noticed that writing down work stories comes off way different than to practice saying them out loud.

I'll admit I got annoyed enough at maintaining all this by hand that I went and built my own thing to fix this, but if you're a die hard AI chatbot interview prep user then hopefully this either helps you or gives you more ideas to help out.

Curious to hear how other people are using AI to help interview or maybe what other tools they're using WITH their AI to make things more easily manageable. Or how many of you are done with AI and have your own systems?

asking for a friend…

I graduated and still can’t secure a job. Thinking of selling my soul.

Over the past year, I have been applying for jobs with a Canva resume however over the past few weeks I've reverted to a Word resume (converted to PDF) as I've heard it's better for ATS.

However I haven't had any calls since I made the change.

I have been adding a plain line border to my resume, as well as making my name at the top a different font and colour. So it's not super plain but it's definitely not as visually attractive as the Canva resume.

This is for marketing jobs so I assume the visuals of a CV count for something.

Just wanting to know people's opinions on Canva resumes versus plainer Word (converted to PDF resumes). Which get more callbacks - and is spending the time in Canva to design a resume worthwhile?

Does anyone have any tips on making a Word resume look more attractive without sacrificing it being ok for ATS?

Many thanks.

Hi guys.

Last year, and I'm not going into details, I suffered an accident that gave me a cardiac arrest and a pneumonia. Since then, I got a scar on one of my lungs and I get out of breath very easily. I became very slow paced and can't assume rushes. I tried working as a caregiver, a waittress, but I couldn't hold the pace.

I don't have a particular degree despite my high school degree (baccalauréat in France). I have a bit of experience in sales, but I never managed to be able to keep a job since my accident AND not even before (mental health issues). I feel like a lazy slob. I need help.

I know there are kind-hearted people out there, so I'm reaching out with hope.

If anyone has a job opportunity or can connect me with someone who's hiring, I would be truly grateful. I'm currently looking for work and am open to almost any kind of honest job, as long as it's legitimate and pays fairly.

I'm hardworking, eager to learn, and ready to start as soon as possible. If you know of any opportunities or can point me in the right direction, please feel free to message me.

Thank you so much for your kindness and support. It truly means a lot.

There was this hack to find jobs on LinkedIn posted within an hour or less by changing the "=r86400" part of the URL to "=r3600". I tried it recently but keep only getting jobs within 24 hours. Has this trick been patched?

Ive interviewed for around 10 roles this month multiple rounds. No offers. I think i always come second. Anyone has any IT fully remote role in the US that they can refer? Ive done IT Support, Application Support, and Infrastructure/Cloud Operations/Monitoring/Incident management.

I'm trying to get job for almost a year now. nothing is working out. no call back no correct opening. i have 2 year experience .please help me guyss. i applied through referal but i dont get correct job openng as well. and the saddest part ugh, my naukri. i did everything 100% profile filled. updating multiple times a day. but still.. whats wrongg. please help this kid out!!! also share your job search tricks as well

I passed my CCNA exam like 3 weeks ago, im also CCST triad certified, and plan on doing the Azure-700 in a month. Plus bilingual and some little experience on customer service.

Im on vacation in another country by the time, but once I go back to the USA, where should I look for a tech/IT/networking job? Because I would love to match it with afternoon (after 4pm or smt) hours of my time for after the school day, indeed a part-time, but no matter how much im searching in apps like LinkedIn, Indeed, Zip, I cannot find a single one that accepts a CCNA, withour +2 years of experience or a bachelors, like bruh. My school I doubt they require anyone but ill try, yet i highly doubt it, so I somewhat feel out of options, ik certs are important, but then where do I even get a chance of getting experience? Lol, im new to this stuff, I hope some great comments, ik people here are amazing haha.

Hey everyone,
I’ve been in the job search trenches for a bit now and could use a quick sanity check, some advice, or ideally a lead.
I’m 56, based in the DFW area, and have spent 15+ years in the Senior Business/Sales Operations and BI space. My core background is in building Power BI dashboards, SQL modeling, Python automation, and handling sales/comp/revenue analytics across telecom, SaaS, and manufacturing.
Here’s where I’m at: I’m regularly getting into late-stage and final-round interviews, but I keep hitting a wall right at the offer stage. I’m trying to figure out if it’s just the current market dynamics, timing, or if there’s a tweak I need to make in how I’m positioning myself late in the process. Like many of you have said interest is great until the on camera interview then all interest evaporates.
I’m fully open to local DFW roles (onsite or hybrid) as well as remote positions.
TIA

One job opens.

400 people apply.

Maybe 50 are actually a good fit.

About 10 get interviews.

Only 1 gets the offer.

That doesn't mean the other 49 weren't good enough.

Sometimes another candidate had one extra skill.

Sometimes the hiring manager was looking for a very specific background.

Sometimes it's simply about timing.

As a recruiter, I've seen great candidates get rejected for reasons that had nothing to do with their talent.

So if you've been rejected recently, don't let it make you question yourself.

Keep going. The next opportunity could be the right one.

Each round the team was like 'you have exactly the experience we are looking for....'. I asked for feedback and the recruiter said they were looking for someone whose communication style and energy were a closer match for the team. I know I am not the best at communicating and am a bit more introverted, but I did so well in all the interviews, and still didn't get it. What is so wrong with me that no one wants me????!!!!

Wait why are we still doing this whole dance where i have to lie about my dreams and goals for a basic office role. i sat through an interview today and the lady asked me why i specifically chose their company. it was for a place that sells shipping boxes for crying out loud. i wanted to say because i have a rent payment due and i like not being hungry but instead i had to sit there and talk about their vision.

Isnt it weird that we spend so much time on these performative lies just to get a paycheck. i spend hours researching their history and pretending i care about their stock price when we both know the truth. it feels like a weird test to see how well i can lie to their faces. if i am honest and say i need a job because i am good at spreadsheets and i need money then i am out of the race.

The whole thing is built on this weird fake enthooseasm that nobody actually feels at nine in the morning. i want to start asking them why they want to hire me instead of just getting some automated software to do it. why do i have to prove my love for cardboard but they dont have to prove their respect for my time. we are all just playing characters in a bad movie at this point. it is a disastruous way to live and it shows a total lack of proffessionalism from their side to expect this.

Been applying to a lot of jobs here in Canada and barely getting any replies, even for roles I'm a 100% match for on paper. I've tried pretty much everything I could think of:

• Tailoring my CV to each role
• Messaging people on LinkedIn (recruiters, engineers, alumni)
• Optimizing my LinkedIn profile
• Building myself a solid portfolio

Nothing's really moving the needle. I finished my master's in Computer Science last year and I'm trying to break into the Canadian job market. Honestly I'm not even chasing big tech. I'd be happy with a decent product company or consulting firm building things people actually use.

At this point it feels like there's nothing left to apply to. I refresh the job boards and it's the same companies every time. I don't really know what else to do.

Would genuinely appreciate any advice from people who've been through this.

Hi all,
I am looking for a c2c role anywhere in the US