alt Hacker NewsI don't work in software but left my old job in 2021. Was unemployed for 2 years by choice. Finally decided to get a job in 2023. I applied to two jobs, got both of them right away and picked the one that sounded better. Fast forward to summer 2025. Tired of this job and wanted to do something else. Applied to 50 jobs in 2025 and nothing but crickets. Not even a single response let alone an interview. I am pretty sure my time doing knowledge work is coming to an end. Remote? No way I ever get a remote job again after this. I am just so average. I am mostly trying to get in really good shape for when I have to do some kind of work that involves not sitting at a desk all day.
You only applied for 50 jobs in a year?
I was looking for a job in 2023 - a standard C#/JS/Python development job where they wanted AWS experience. At the time according to my resume, I had 10 years of experience (many more years of experience. But not one cares about my programming in C on mainframes in the 90s) including 2 leading AWS architecture at a startup and 3.5 working directly at AWS (full time consulting division).
After being Amazoned for shits and giggles I randomly applied for hundreds of jobs that I was qualified for - I heard crickets. I never do this and I didn’t expect much to come from it.
I did her multiple offers in a couple of weeks via my network and targeted outreach to recruiters where I was an industry expert in a niche of AWS that’s popular. But not many people have experience with.
On another note, the mid size company I work for sent around 300 offers last year and we had an offer/application rate of 0.4%.
Every opening for any remote job gets literally hundreds of applications within 24 hours. It’s almost impossible to stand out from the crowd.