The market is saturated at all levels except senior (5+ years)

Hiring managers want exact experience.

Recruitment is swamped with applications, many of which are using AI to tailor resumes so they appear qualified.

ATS is NOT filtering out your application, it just sorts it: it can be lifo, fifo, or randomly sorted. Recruiters are doing actual filtering: if you aren’t one of the first 10 or so qualified candidates they see, your application is probably never seen (recruiters WILL take shortcuts)

Ghost jobs/Fake listings: they are real and legal. These companies are posting them for tax benefits.

Sort by new. No dude…. that job that was posted a month ago is not still hiring. You want listings that have been posted in the last 3 days to a week. Recruiters will post on Friday and check to find 300 applications on Monday: you wanna apply first incase their ATS is first in first out.

Tailor your resume. Recruiters are not technical. Managers want exact experience. In this market, you HAVE to tailor your resume. Assume everyone in the pipeline is a brainless pattern matching machine: make your experience match the listing. Do it smart, use AI. Make sure you edit it though, recruiters read enough resumes to recognize AI generated ones.

Avoid ghost jobs. I’ll keep it square with yall: 50%+ of LinkedIn and indeed are ghost jobs. Why? Companies subscribe to have their listing’s periodically reposted. It’s part of the business model of the job sites. Now that you know, don’t be dumb about it: AVOID THEM. Use a site like https://hiring.cafe/ that verifies that job listing’s are real (not my site btw).

Apply to local, hybrid, and on-site jobs. Avoid remote. I know you all love your remote jobs. But let me tell you: so does everyone else. The competition for remote jobs is insane because anyone in the world can apply. You might have great skills but at this level of competition, you have a 3% chance of getting a response and only IF you are 100% qualified. Then you can expect an absolutely brutal interview process. Don’t do it.

Apply a ton. Even if you do all of the above, there’s still a luck element. Anything can happen and there are no guarantees. If you have 5+ years experience, expect at least 1 response in every 10 applications. If you have 2-4 years, expect 1 in every 20. If you have <2 years expect 1 in 40 (not kidding, entry level is beyond saturated).

The market is saturated at all levels except senior (5+ years)

Hiring managers want exact experience.

Recruitment is swamped with applications, many of which are using AI to tailor resumes so they appear qualified.

ATS is NOT filtering out your application, it just sorts it: it can be lifo, fifo, or randomly sorted. Recruiters are doing actual filtering: if you aren’t one of the first 10 or so qualified candidates they see, your application is probably never seen (recruiters WILL take shortcuts)

Ghost jobs/Fake listings: they are real and legal. These companies are posting them for tax benefits.

Sort by new. No dude…. that job that was posted a month ago is not still hiring. You want listings that have been posted in the last 3 days to a week. Recruiters will post on Friday and check to find 300 applications on Monday: you wanna apply first incase their ATS is first in first out.

Tailor your resume. Recruiters are not technical. Managers want exact experience. In this market, you HAVE to tailor your resume. Assume everyone in the pipeline is a brainless pattern matching machine: make your experience match the listing. Do it smart, use AI. Make sure you edit it though, recruiters read enough resumes to recognize AI generated ones.

Avoid ghost jobs. I’ll keep it square with yall: 50%+ of LinkedIn and indeed are ghost jobs. Why? Companies subscribe to have their listing’s periodically reposted. It’s part of the business model of the job sites. Now that you know, don’t be dumb about it: AVOID THEM. Use a site like https://hiring.cafe/ that verifies that job listing’s are real (not my site btw).

Apply to local, hybrid, and on-site jobs. Avoid remote. I know you all love your remote jobs. But let me tell you: so does everyone else. The competition for remote jobs is insane because anyone in the world can apply. You might have great skills but at this level of competition, you have a 3% chance of getting a response and only IF you are 100% qualified. Then you can expect an absolutely brutal interview process. Don’t do it.

Apply a ton. Even if you do all of the above, there’s still a luck element. Anything can happen and there are no guarantees. If you have 5+ years experience, expect at least 1 response in every 10 applications. If you have 2-4 years, expect 1 in every 20. If you have <2 years expect 1 in 40 (not kidding, entry level is beyond saturated).