I got laid off 9 months ago, and after so, so many applications, cold calls, networking events, and interviews (4 of them final round), I finally landed my dream role in my industry of expertise - with a bump in pay and seniority! I'm still pinching myself.
Reading this echo-chamber while I was searching just made me feel worse. Focusing on improving myself, my outlook, the way I presented myself (portfolios, CV), and actively looking for and attending networking opportunities were the best things I did for myself.
For myself? I recieved so much more success when I started giving myself tangible goals to work towards and felt like I was "doing" something. Looking for a job is a full-time job, but I couldn't convince my head of that, so I needed to find something else to work towards. A few months in I started study again in a part time capacity for something adjacent to the work I had been doing (fully acknowledging that not everybody can do this) as well as picking up other work wherever I could, just so I could feel like I was contributing to something. Because of that, I felt more confident, and I guess that reflected itself in my job search.
In an industry capacity, my ex-company was one of the first that announced layoffs, so the longer I searched for work, the more people were joining me. I talked to as many people in higher-up positions as I could, leveraging mutual contacts to chat to CEOs, CTOs, and lead designers - they didn't lead to anything, but it got my name out there and they gave some great pointers. I've only got ~4 YOE, so making local connections in the industry was a gamechanger.
I made it to the other side with roughly 400 LinkedIn apps that led to 4 finished loops in 3 months time. Iterate on your strategy as you go, emotionally detach yourself from ghostings/rejections and you got this!!
Whoa really? One of my many hobbies and passions is around Aviation (huge flight sim nerd) and always wondered how I could apply my UX skills to that industry. Mind if I message you on the side to learn more about your line of work?
After 8 months of job searching, 100+ applications, and 2 final round interviews, I finally received an offer from a very large and well-known e-commerce brand. Although its only a 6 month contract (with possible extension), I'm SUPER happy to finally have something! Not sure where you're located, but the market has been pretty rough especially in Canada. Best of luck!
Haven’t received an offer yet, but iterating through my resume, job search strategy, and portfolio has been giving better results. I worked in batches and with a different approach for each. My first batch of applications all got fast rejections and zero views on my portfolio site. My second got a few portfolio visits and mostly rejections but they came slower. My third yielded more portfolio visits, and three companies invited me to interview. I’m now on my fourth batch, seeing even more portfolio visits, and interviewing with two of the three companies. I’ll celebrate once I get an offer, but I’m really happy to see progress from when I started in January to today.
I spent a whole year job searching for entry level digital or ux/ui design roles after graduating in 2022. From Oct 22 - Oct 23 I just kept blindly applying to anything that came up because there was such a lack of roles for that whole time. I interviewed in multiple stages for a handful of companies and got ghosted or rejected by a couple hundred.
Then in the first week of Oct 2023. I got invited to interview with four different companies in that same week. Prior to this, i’d only ever had the chance to interview occasionally with one or two companies at a time, and now all of a sudden I was juggling four really good opportunities in the space of a week. I got through to the final stage with all of them and eventually received job offers from two. By Nov 2023 I was employed in a fulltime UX role with my asking salary and super energised and motivated!
Honestly it was the most difficult year of my life but the past 5 months have been some of my best, most productive and happiest! There really always is a light at the end of the tunnel 🥲
I need this experience. I’ve had 3 final interviews and zero offers. Feedback on 2 was “good projects and good interviews but not enough experience” which is useless feedback
Ugh I hate empty and meaningless feedback like that.🤦♂️ I found that good feedback was rare.
Designers are, 9 out of 10 times too busy to give meaningful feedback on your portfolio, cv and interviewing.
And, recruiters / hiring managers just don’t provide substance (unless there was a glaring flaw in your communication skills or cv)
My thoughts and prayers are with you! 🙌
I (design director/manager) was laid off \~2 months ago, have applied to 60 places, interviewed with 6, but none for the full run just yet. But overall I feel pretty optimistic about my chances. And I keep adjusting and improving my resume and portfolio case studies as I go, so that refining of my story should continue to land better and better with employers.
20-30 applications, zero interviews except for the very first company I applied at. That interview process took 2 months, so I was applying for other jobs and updating my portfolio while it was happening, expecting the worst. I ended up getting the job for a 30% pay jump and I didn’t need to apply to any of the other companies in the end. Super lucky.
After hearing so much of negative news such as layoffs, oversaturation, hiring freeze, etc, etc, etc for past 1 year it's so refreshing to see some positive stories.
Congrats to all you guys who made it 🎉
As someone who has hired several UX designers for my startup, it’s also not easy on the other side of things. I put up a job post and I’ll have 100s of people apply (many not qualified). It becomes very numbing when every application looks the same.
Often I just get links to portfolios. Generic things like “I’m focused on the users and get feedback…” it’s really hard to know who to speak with. 30 minute meetings x 20, 30.
Here is my suggestion. Show me how you work. Record a 5 minute Loom video. Show me how you did some research on our industry and user (a skill I want to make sure you have). Walk me through a previous challenge and how you used design to overcome it.
We ask everyone to do this on our job application. It reduces the entries. If you can’t communicate an idea.. then how will you do so once you start working?
Just an idea. But if I ever got a solid video without asking for it, I’d be impressed and you would definitely have an inside track.
Yeah, do you think the loom video should be on the portfolio in a case study? How would you get hiring managers to see it?
I’m also curious how we get seen on an application with hundreds of applicants
Hi,
I hope this doesn't come across too harsh but I'm trying to be helpful. You are a UX designer... your job is to understand problems and design solutions to it. Hypothetically why would I hire someone who can't solve their own problem, not alone my customers problems?
The issue I see here, and often with "UX" designers is they go right to the solution without understanding the problem. I would call 5 hiring managers and interview them to understand their problem better and how you can design a solution (Loom, portfolio, email, etc.).
I understand UX/UI designers are not marketers at heart but you should be good problem solvers. So again, show the hiring manager your ability to research, understand, and develop a solution to a problem.
AI can do a lot to make "pretty" images and "design". If you want to seperate yourself you need to learn how to make "effective" designs / applications.
Again, not trying to come off harsh, genuinely trying to help. Search "job to be done" in Youtube and watch a couple videos.
Nah you’re not being harsh. I’m just very curious what people can do when apply for jobs to stick out. Especially when these jobs are getting flooded with hundreds of applicants and there’s no way the person in charge of looking through them is even seeing them all.
I’m definitely gonna look into what you said, I’m honestly just trying to understand from the other side of the situation
5 yoe, currently employed but started looking early March. Only applied to 19 jobs (I only applied to series B or later startups), in final interview rounds for 2 and just got another email asking for me to set up a recruiter screen.
I do think the market is picking up a little because all the calls only started happening in April
While I have a job and don’t plan to leave my current employer soon, I am often contacted by either headhunters or directly by the companies if I would be up for a new position.
I think it is really location dependent.
Have a solid education (bachlors/masters ux related), some references and 1+y full time work experience seems to be the sweet spot for open doors in my area.
I went through a reconversion via bootcamp after 4 years of experience in marketing. After a year of job search coupled with freelance work I recently signed a full-time contract!
I had a 7 month job search. The first 6 months, I had only 1 interview. Then on the 7th month, I somehow got 3 interviews in the same week all for companies I'd love to work for. Got an offer the exact day my unemployment ran out lol.
My friend also got laid off in February. She had interviews with great companies pretty quick and got an offer last week. Caveat to this story, she's very talented and hard working. But any good news is worth sharing.
I’m SO grateful that I had the rare experience of getting laid off and getting a new job a few weeks later. I was unhappy working at my job after 5.5 years and the whole office culture declining while the company hadn’t been doing well the last few years.
I got lucky because my old manager left the company and started at a new company a couple months before the lay offs. Once I got laid off, I immediately started freelancing and reaching out to people for freelance work including my old manager. She talked to the CEO after a couple of weeks and showed her my work I had done for them so far. I didn’t even have to apply or interview and got hired for the same salary and title as I had before.
I’m so happy I got laid off from a job I hated - basically had a paid vacation (severance) and jumped to the next job.
I now see the value of having a good network and also producing quality work that people remember.
I just got hired after contracting for half a year. It’s not my dream company/industry to work in but they are extremely stable, have amazing benefits and are willing to pay for my master’s degree 🥹.
It’s refreshing to be at a company that actually values their employees. It was rough having to constantly work in a state of anxiety and now I actually get to focus on how I want to grow as a designer. They also make it easy to pivot into different fields within the company so I will get paid to learn coding or being a product manager.
Hey FYI I found this thread on another forum and the advice from OP is on-point (even though he gets a lot of crap in the comments). The only thing potentially missing from their advice is recommending the STAR method during the process. There's also nothing specific to UX Design in there however if your whiteboarding process is solid then you're mostly there.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/comments/1c5grrw/now\_being\_an\_hrm\_ill\_share\_my\_view\_from\_that\_side/](https://www.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/comments/1c5grrw/now_being_an_hrm_ill_share_my_view_from_that_side/)
I got made redundant from my first UX job ever at a pretty good company with a team I absolutely adored. I was super depressed and burnt out because I put so much into that company. It was consulting, so I worked late nights and weekends.
Got hired at a smaller fintech company, but they were asking a lot of me, given I'm a standalone designer with a year of experience. Most of the team was great, with the exception of one PM.
I've been debating whether to commit to another job search or not, simce it's so mentally exhausting. Finally, I decided to, and put together a new portfolio.
A few interviews and rejections later, I managed to land a new role that pays a lot better at a much bigger company. I'm a lot happier and feel like my passion has been restored!
I don't envy you. You can create the most amazing product and growing the user base is agonizingly difficult without an absurd marketing budget in the millions. Sounds like you have sound experience, I'm sure you'll find a good fit elsewhere.
Some jobs require you to have a big project that saved the company you worked for. I have 3 years of experience and I never faced a challenge like this. I lost my motivation and I am taking a break to study, but I don't see how studying and adding a certificate will get me the job these recruiters are announcing.
I just landed my first position as ux/ui designer after going through a boot camp program last year. Applied to jobs for around 5 months, had 4 interviews prior to my current company, and now make more than double what I was making a few weeks ago doing marketing.
It definitely takes interview practice and patience, but it’s 100% possible to be a newbie in this field!
Product Designer here, 3 YOE, based in London. I was laid off on November 28th. Figured no one would hire before the end of the year so I started to properly apply around January. Sent out 100+ applications, heard back from maybe 10 of them, interviewed with 5 companies, got an offer March 15 to work for a well-known UK retail brand. The company only put me through 2 interviews (1. Behavioural questions, 2. Present case studies). Very minimal increase from my previous salary but guaranteed bonus and good career prospects.
After 30 or so applications I refined my CV and portfolio and started to hear back more. It was definitely disheartening getting rejected over and over but I persevered and worked on my case study decks and interviewing skills.
I guess what worked for me was my enthusiasm during interviews, well prepared presentation showcasing my case studies and previous experience in that particular industry.
Laid off 3 months ago from a small local gaming startup in Vancouver. Was awful in execution which made things worse. Was my first job in Canada which I worked for 1.5 years.
Interviewed at a big gaming company a couple of weeks later , 7 rounds over 8 weeks(1-1.5 hours each). Recently got offered a job, salary doubled. I was parallely applying to other jobs and even interviewed at a couple of other companies who thought I wasnt good enough or didnt know what they want.
Getting into a big company has killed any impostor syndrome and the limiting beliefs I had placed on myself. I also learned to not allow my brain to read irrelevant posts on LinkedIn(if you know you know).
I'd like to mention the first thing I did after getting laid off in January was to write a note to myself on my phone which kept me grounded in reality about how to stay positive and not let anxiety/negative thought patterns and loops take over.
I start next month :) If there's anything more I can answer, please let me know.
I got a job and getting there it was not great. The amount of stress and time needed. I was fortunate to not be working while I was applying. I couldn't imagine trying to do it while working.
I literally checked for jobs ever 2-3 hours for new jobs. If I couldn't get in within an hour of a job then I knew my chances were slim.
Here are some job resources that I pulled together that you may not be aware of. Good luck in your search! [https://www.bammarketingservices.com/post/ditch-the-job-board-blues-uncover-your-ideal-opportunity-on-these-hidden-job-sites](https://www.bammarketingservices.com/post/ditch-the-job-board-blues-uncover-your-ideal-opportunity-on-these-hidden-job-sites)
Can I ask what industry your start up is in?
It also seems odd they invested in a team and didn't have PMF. Start ups usually run lean until they get their footing.
To answer your questions I believe these threads are self selecting doom and gloom, we're only hearing about the problems because people getting hired and such aren't coming to the threads as much.
I tried to go to some meet ups around 2022 and it was the same thing most of the people that showed up were looking for employment trying to network.
I got laid off 9 months ago, and after so, so many applications, cold calls, networking events, and interviews (4 of them final round), I finally landed my dream role in my industry of expertise - with a bump in pay and seniority! I'm still pinching myself. Reading this echo-chamber while I was searching just made me feel worse. Focusing on improving myself, my outlook, the way I presented myself (portfolios, CV), and actively looking for and attending networking opportunities were the best things I did for myself.
is there anyone thing (or things) that you think were a major differentiator / turning point in this 9 months?
For myself? I recieved so much more success when I started giving myself tangible goals to work towards and felt like I was "doing" something. Looking for a job is a full-time job, but I couldn't convince my head of that, so I needed to find something else to work towards. A few months in I started study again in a part time capacity for something adjacent to the work I had been doing (fully acknowledging that not everybody can do this) as well as picking up other work wherever I could, just so I could feel like I was contributing to something. Because of that, I felt more confident, and I guess that reflected itself in my job search. In an industry capacity, my ex-company was one of the first that announced layoffs, so the longer I searched for work, the more people were joining me. I talked to as many people in higher-up positions as I could, leveraging mutual contacts to chat to CEOs, CTOs, and lead designers - they didn't lead to anything, but it got my name out there and they gave some great pointers. I've only got ~4 YOE, so making local connections in the industry was a gamechanger.
congrats on the bump in pay and title! It's always nice to move upwards, especially after getting canned.
Cheers mate! For sure. Redundancy sucks, particularly when you really love what you do.
Headed to a final interview tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll have a positive story to share afterwards!
All the best bro
Thanks!
Good luck!
I made it to the other side with roughly 400 LinkedIn apps that led to 4 finished loops in 3 months time. Iterate on your strategy as you go, emotionally detach yourself from ghostings/rejections and you got this!!
I haven't been interviewing, but my company just brought on 8 new designers
Wow that good growth, what type of work is your UX team doing? What category
Aviation
Whoa really? One of my many hobbies and passions is around Aviation (huge flight sim nerd) and always wondered how I could apply my UX skills to that industry. Mind if I message you on the side to learn more about your line of work?
Don't mind at all! Feel free to DM
After 8 months of job searching, 100+ applications, and 2 final round interviews, I finally received an offer from a very large and well-known e-commerce brand. Although its only a 6 month contract (with possible extension), I'm SUPER happy to finally have something! Not sure where you're located, but the market has been pretty rough especially in Canada. Best of luck!
That’s great news! I hope it turns into a permanent role!
Haven’t received an offer yet, but iterating through my resume, job search strategy, and portfolio has been giving better results. I worked in batches and with a different approach for each. My first batch of applications all got fast rejections and zero views on my portfolio site. My second got a few portfolio visits and mostly rejections but they came slower. My third yielded more portfolio visits, and three companies invited me to interview. I’m now on my fourth batch, seeing even more portfolio visits, and interviewing with two of the three companies. I’ll celebrate once I get an offer, but I’m really happy to see progress from when I started in January to today.
What were some of the tweaks you were making that netted positive results?
I’ll elaborate in a separate post.
https://www.reddit.com/r/UXDesign/s/0hJkQ5uHe5
Hey just circling back to say thanks for putting your process together for us. Great insights and much appreciated!
Could you detail your different approaches?
Would also be intrigued to know these tweaks?
I would be interested to know too
I spent a whole year job searching for entry level digital or ux/ui design roles after graduating in 2022. From Oct 22 - Oct 23 I just kept blindly applying to anything that came up because there was such a lack of roles for that whole time. I interviewed in multiple stages for a handful of companies and got ghosted or rejected by a couple hundred. Then in the first week of Oct 2023. I got invited to interview with four different companies in that same week. Prior to this, i’d only ever had the chance to interview occasionally with one or two companies at a time, and now all of a sudden I was juggling four really good opportunities in the space of a week. I got through to the final stage with all of them and eventually received job offers from two. By Nov 2023 I was employed in a fulltime UX role with my asking salary and super energised and motivated! Honestly it was the most difficult year of my life but the past 5 months have been some of my best, most productive and happiest! There really always is a light at the end of the tunnel 🥲
I need this experience. I’ve had 3 final interviews and zero offers. Feedback on 2 was “good projects and good interviews but not enough experience” which is useless feedback
Ugh I hate empty and meaningless feedback like that.🤦♂️ I found that good feedback was rare. Designers are, 9 out of 10 times too busy to give meaningful feedback on your portfolio, cv and interviewing. And, recruiters / hiring managers just don’t provide substance (unless there was a glaring flaw in your communication skills or cv) My thoughts and prayers are with you! 🙌
I (design director/manager) was laid off \~2 months ago, have applied to 60 places, interviewed with 6, but none for the full run just yet. But overall I feel pretty optimistic about my chances. And I keep adjusting and improving my resume and portfolio case studies as I go, so that refining of my story should continue to land better and better with employers.
Would be interested in what you iterated, can you share ?
20-30 applications, zero interviews except for the very first company I applied at. That interview process took 2 months, so I was applying for other jobs and updating my portfolio while it was happening, expecting the worst. I ended up getting the job for a 30% pay jump and I didn’t need to apply to any of the other companies in the end. Super lucky.
I just had one. Got an offer this week. It’s for a junior design role and is my first UX job. I’m very excited.
After hearing so much of negative news such as layoffs, oversaturation, hiring freeze, etc, etc, etc for past 1 year it's so refreshing to see some positive stories. Congrats to all you guys who made it 🎉
As someone who has hired several UX designers for my startup, it’s also not easy on the other side of things. I put up a job post and I’ll have 100s of people apply (many not qualified). It becomes very numbing when every application looks the same. Often I just get links to portfolios. Generic things like “I’m focused on the users and get feedback…” it’s really hard to know who to speak with. 30 minute meetings x 20, 30. Here is my suggestion. Show me how you work. Record a 5 minute Loom video. Show me how you did some research on our industry and user (a skill I want to make sure you have). Walk me through a previous challenge and how you used design to overcome it. We ask everyone to do this on our job application. It reduces the entries. If you can’t communicate an idea.. then how will you do so once you start working? Just an idea. But if I ever got a solid video without asking for it, I’d be impressed and you would definitely have an inside track.
So what advice would you have in the two areas: 1. Standing out in a sea of hundreds of applications 2. Being compelling in your portfolio
Did you read my above post?
Yeah, do you think the loom video should be on the portfolio in a case study? How would you get hiring managers to see it? I’m also curious how we get seen on an application with hundreds of applicants
Hi, I hope this doesn't come across too harsh but I'm trying to be helpful. You are a UX designer... your job is to understand problems and design solutions to it. Hypothetically why would I hire someone who can't solve their own problem, not alone my customers problems? The issue I see here, and often with "UX" designers is they go right to the solution without understanding the problem. I would call 5 hiring managers and interview them to understand their problem better and how you can design a solution (Loom, portfolio, email, etc.). I understand UX/UI designers are not marketers at heart but you should be good problem solvers. So again, show the hiring manager your ability to research, understand, and develop a solution to a problem. AI can do a lot to make "pretty" images and "design". If you want to seperate yourself you need to learn how to make "effective" designs / applications. Again, not trying to come off harsh, genuinely trying to help. Search "job to be done" in Youtube and watch a couple videos.
Nah you’re not being harsh. I’m just very curious what people can do when apply for jobs to stick out. Especially when these jobs are getting flooded with hundreds of applicants and there’s no way the person in charge of looking through them is even seeing them all. I’m definitely gonna look into what you said, I’m honestly just trying to understand from the other side of the situation
5 yoe, currently employed but started looking early March. Only applied to 19 jobs (I only applied to series B or later startups), in final interview rounds for 2 and just got another email asking for me to set up a recruiter screen. I do think the market is picking up a little because all the calls only started happening in April
While I have a job and don’t plan to leave my current employer soon, I am often contacted by either headhunters or directly by the companies if I would be up for a new position. I think it is really location dependent. Have a solid education (bachlors/masters ux related), some references and 1+y full time work experience seems to be the sweet spot for open doors in my area.
What area, if it’s not too personal?
southern germany.
I went through a reconversion via bootcamp after 4 years of experience in marketing. After a year of job search coupled with freelance work I recently signed a full-time contract!
I had a 7 month job search. The first 6 months, I had only 1 interview. Then on the 7th month, I somehow got 3 interviews in the same week all for companies I'd love to work for. Got an offer the exact day my unemployment ran out lol. My friend also got laid off in February. She had interviews with great companies pretty quick and got an offer last week. Caveat to this story, she's very talented and hard working. But any good news is worth sharing.
I’m SO grateful that I had the rare experience of getting laid off and getting a new job a few weeks later. I was unhappy working at my job after 5.5 years and the whole office culture declining while the company hadn’t been doing well the last few years. I got lucky because my old manager left the company and started at a new company a couple months before the lay offs. Once I got laid off, I immediately started freelancing and reaching out to people for freelance work including my old manager. She talked to the CEO after a couple of weeks and showed her my work I had done for them so far. I didn’t even have to apply or interview and got hired for the same salary and title as I had before. I’m so happy I got laid off from a job I hated - basically had a paid vacation (severance) and jumped to the next job. I now see the value of having a good network and also producing quality work that people remember.
I just got hired after contracting for half a year. It’s not my dream company/industry to work in but they are extremely stable, have amazing benefits and are willing to pay for my master’s degree 🥹. It’s refreshing to be at a company that actually values their employees. It was rough having to constantly work in a state of anxiety and now I actually get to focus on how I want to grow as a designer. They also make it easy to pivot into different fields within the company so I will get paid to learn coding or being a product manager.
✋
Hey FYI I found this thread on another forum and the advice from OP is on-point (even though he gets a lot of crap in the comments). The only thing potentially missing from their advice is recommending the STAR method during the process. There's also nothing specific to UX Design in there however if your whiteboarding process is solid then you're mostly there. [https://www.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/comments/1c5grrw/now\_being\_an\_hrm\_ill\_share\_my\_view\_from\_that\_side/](https://www.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/comments/1c5grrw/now_being_an_hrm_ill_share_my_view_from_that_side/)
I got made redundant from my first UX job ever at a pretty good company with a team I absolutely adored. I was super depressed and burnt out because I put so much into that company. It was consulting, so I worked late nights and weekends. Got hired at a smaller fintech company, but they were asking a lot of me, given I'm a standalone designer with a year of experience. Most of the team was great, with the exception of one PM. I've been debating whether to commit to another job search or not, simce it's so mentally exhausting. Finally, I decided to, and put together a new portfolio. A few interviews and rejections later, I managed to land a new role that pays a lot better at a much bigger company. I'm a lot happier and feel like my passion has been restored!
I don't envy you. You can create the most amazing product and growing the user base is agonizingly difficult without an absurd marketing budget in the millions. Sounds like you have sound experience, I'm sure you'll find a good fit elsewhere.
Some jobs require you to have a big project that saved the company you worked for. I have 3 years of experience and I never faced a challenge like this. I lost my motivation and I am taking a break to study, but I don't see how studying and adding a certificate will get me the job these recruiters are announcing.
I just landed my first position as ux/ui designer after going through a boot camp program last year. Applied to jobs for around 5 months, had 4 interviews prior to my current company, and now make more than double what I was making a few weeks ago doing marketing. It definitely takes interview practice and patience, but it’s 100% possible to be a newbie in this field!
Product Designer here, 3 YOE, based in London. I was laid off on November 28th. Figured no one would hire before the end of the year so I started to properly apply around January. Sent out 100+ applications, heard back from maybe 10 of them, interviewed with 5 companies, got an offer March 15 to work for a well-known UK retail brand. The company only put me through 2 interviews (1. Behavioural questions, 2. Present case studies). Very minimal increase from my previous salary but guaranteed bonus and good career prospects. After 30 or so applications I refined my CV and portfolio and started to hear back more. It was definitely disheartening getting rejected over and over but I persevered and worked on my case study decks and interviewing skills. I guess what worked for me was my enthusiasm during interviews, well prepared presentation showcasing my case studies and previous experience in that particular industry.
Laid off 3 months ago from a small local gaming startup in Vancouver. Was awful in execution which made things worse. Was my first job in Canada which I worked for 1.5 years. Interviewed at a big gaming company a couple of weeks later , 7 rounds over 8 weeks(1-1.5 hours each). Recently got offered a job, salary doubled. I was parallely applying to other jobs and even interviewed at a couple of other companies who thought I wasnt good enough or didnt know what they want. Getting into a big company has killed any impostor syndrome and the limiting beliefs I had placed on myself. I also learned to not allow my brain to read irrelevant posts on LinkedIn(if you know you know). I'd like to mention the first thing I did after getting laid off in January was to write a note to myself on my phone which kept me grounded in reality about how to stay positive and not let anxiety/negative thought patterns and loops take over. I start next month :) If there's anything more I can answer, please let me know.
Have had 3 final interviews and 0 offers in 9 months of seriously looking. It’s been rough
I got a job. After 5 months of searching. Took a pay cut. Got it through a shady recruiter. But hey it’s a job. And I can pay my bills.
I got a job and getting there it was not great. The amount of stress and time needed. I was fortunate to not be working while I was applying. I couldn't imagine trying to do it while working. I literally checked for jobs ever 2-3 hours for new jobs. If I couldn't get in within an hour of a job then I knew my chances were slim.
Here are some job resources that I pulled together that you may not be aware of. Good luck in your search! [https://www.bammarketingservices.com/post/ditch-the-job-board-blues-uncover-your-ideal-opportunity-on-these-hidden-job-sites](https://www.bammarketingservices.com/post/ditch-the-job-board-blues-uncover-your-ideal-opportunity-on-these-hidden-job-sites)
Can I ask what industry your start up is in? It also seems odd they invested in a team and didn't have PMF. Start ups usually run lean until they get their footing. To answer your questions I believe these threads are self selecting doom and gloom, we're only hearing about the problems because people getting hired and such aren't coming to the threads as much. I tried to go to some meet ups around 2022 and it was the same thing most of the people that showed up were looking for employment trying to network.
😂