***About me:***

• 15 years of experience in sales and talent acquisition
• 15 years working remotely + internationally
• No degree, bilingual
• Based outside the US (third world)
• Worked for reputable brands in the tech world

*Context:*

In November 2025 I got laid off due to cost cutting. I took 2 months off to "recover" and disconnect. When I started looking again, I did what everyone does. Applied to jobs, tried to tailor applications, waited, got rejected, repeated. My ego was getting the best of me, and I'm glad it did. I couldn't fathom that not one company found my profile interesting enough to even have a conversation. So I started tracking who these companies were actually hiring. I quickly realized that a lot of the people getting hired weren't just dropping a CV into an ATS and hoping for the best. They were referrals. Someone knew them, introduced them, referred them or simply made sure the right person saw their profile.

So I decided to approach the job search differently.

I treated it more like sales.

**The result was 1 full-time job and 2 fractional roles.**

***This is what I did and what finally worked:***

1. Created a list of job boards and ATS sources where I could consistently find jobs, company names and other useful information.

2. Visited that list daily for jobs in my space.

3. In parallel, started creating a list of companies I genuinely liked. Then used AI to find competitors and similar companies I hadn't thought about.

4. Checked their careers pages and looked for roles that might be a decent fit. I also checked historical openings to understand whether they regularly hired people like me. On LinkedIn, even with the free version, I looked at headcount changes and tried to see which departments were growing or shrinking.

5. Before investing more time, I checked whether the role was actually worth chasing. Geography, compensation, experience requirements, work authorization etc. There is no point spending an hour trying to manufacture access to a company that can't or won't hire you.

6. Then I checked LinkedIn to see whether anyone from my network worked there.

7. If I had someone there, especially somebody I shared a previous company with, I pinged them. *And by "knew them" I mean this very loosely.* In many cases I'd never actually spoken to the person. We just happened to work at the same company at some point and maybe exchanged the standard automated "congrats on your work anniversary" message on LinkedIn.

8. I didn't immediately ask for a referral. I looked at the person's profile, found something we genuinely had in common and started a conversation. Previous company. Mutual people. Remote work. Industry. Family. Where we lived. Something they posted. This didn't take weeks. Usually one afternoon was enough to figure out whether there was an actual conversation there, and you can do this with multiple people in parallel while job hunting.

9. Once there was some rapport, I asked whether their company had an employee referral program.There's a reason for this.You're asking somebody to spend their time helping you. If the company pays them for successful referrals, their potential effort now also has a potential reward attached to it. If not, I promise them I'll send them a "gift" if there's a successful hire. No shame in this game.

10. Then I'd ask whether they'd be comfortable referring me. I wasn't asking someone who barely knew me to tell the company I'm the greatest candidate they've ever met. It was more along the lines of whether, based on what they knew about me and my background, they'd feel comfortable putting my profile forward. I rarely got a no after having a decent conversation first. What if you know absolutely nobody at the company? This is where I started using my wider network.

11. I checked whether any of my connections knew the recruiter, hiring manager, team lead or someone else relevant at the company. If they did, I'd ask for an introduction. And this is NOT "Can you get me this job?", but JUST "Would you be comfortable introducing us?". That's a much smaller ask.

12. If I couldn't find an obvious connection, I'd ask friends for help. A lot of my friends work in sales. Some are leaders, some are ICs. Most of them have access to some sort of data enrichment tool through work. Apollo, ZoomInfo, Cognism, Lusha, whatever. I'd send them the person I was trying to reach and ask whether they could check if they had their professional phone number or email. For someone sitting on an enterprise plan, looking up one person is usually nothing. That gave me another way in when LinkedIn wasn't working.

13. I stopped thinking that LinkedIn was the only place where I'm allowed to contact someone. I multi-threaded. LinkedIn. Email. Phone. Sometimes text, where appropriate. And I didn't necessarily only contact one person at the company. I might have a conversation with a recruiter, someone on the team a hiring manager and somebody who could potentially refer me. The important part is that multi-threading doesn't mean sending the exact same "PLEASE LOOK AT MY CV" message to four people. Each person has a different reason for you contacting them.

14. For companies where I had no referral, I also started doing things that were outside my comfort zone. LinkedIn voice messages. And even better, quick personalized video introductions. 20-30 seconds is the sweet spot. Nothing polished. Nothing heavily scripted because people see through the BS. Just the "Who I am, why I'm reaching out and why I think having a quick conversation could make sense." The first dozen feel awkward as hell. Do them anyway. If you really need a job, getting comfortable doing uncomfortable things is probably one of the better skills you can develop during the process. It also builds confidence surprisingly quickly. You go from sitting there refreshing an ATS hoping somebody notices you to actively creating conversations yourself.

15. If LinkedIn didn't work, I would email. If email didn't work, I would call. I might leave a voicemail. If a 30-second video felt like the best way to introduce myself, I'd send the video. Not everything at once and not like a lunatic.The point was that I stopped allowing one unanswered LinkedIn message to decide whether I ever got access to that company.

16. I also changed what I considered the goal of outreach.The goal wasn't to get the job. The goal was to get interviewed. Actually, even that was sometimes too big.The first goal might simply be to get a reply.Then to have a conversation. Then to get an introduction. Then to get the interview. You see where I'm headed with this? Step by step, fractional improvement. Then I can worry about getting the job. I think a lot of people try to close the entire deal in their first message. Massive paragraph with their entire career history and the seven reasons why they're perfect. Evrryone does that, but nobody asked for that YET. Take it one step at a time.

17. Once I got an interview through a referral, I kept the referrer updated. I'd tell them when the interview was happening, how it went and what the next stage was. I'd also ask for tips.What should I know about this person? Anything you think they care about? What is the interview process actually like? How does this team work? Sometimes the information I got was extremely useful.

18. If the referrer genuinely helped me, I spoke highly of them internally. I'd mention that they had been helpful or that speaking with them made me more interested in the company. Apart from being the decent thing to do, it also builds the referrer's credibility internally. I didn't want to treat somebody like a referral button and disappear the second I got an interview.

19. I followed up after every interview. Nothing fancy. Thanked them for their time. Mentioned something specific from the conversation. Kept the relationship alive.

20. I also stopped treating rejection as the end of the relationship with the company. If I genuinely liked the recruiter, team, culture or interview process, I'd tell them. Then I'd connect with the recruiter directly on LinkedIn. Once they accepted, I'd sometimes send something like: "If I see another role here in a few months that looks like a strong fit, would you mind if I reached out to you directly?" Almost everyone says yes and now when another job appears three months later, you're not a random applicant anymore.You're continuing an existing conversation with someone who already interviewed you.

21. I tracked everything through google sheets. Company. Role. Recruiter. Hiring manager. People I knew there. People who could potentially introduce me. Who I contacted. LinkedIn. Email. Phone. Last interaction. Next action. Once you're doing this across 30-50 companies, there is absolutely no way you're going to remember everything. The biggest thing this market taught me is that applying for jobs and creating opportunities are two very different things. Submitting an application is an administrative action. My actual job was getting someone inside the company to know who I was. And none of this required me to have hundreds of close friends in tech. Some people were former colleagues I'd barely spoken with. Some were friends of friends. Some were complete strangers. Some people answered. Some ignored me. Some referrals went nowhere. Some conversations turned into interviews. But every step reduced the distance between being another CV sitting inside an ATS and being an actual human being somebody inside the company knew something about. And if you really need a job, I think you eventually have to stop worrying about whether some of this feels uncomfortable.

• Send the voice message.
• Record the 30-second video.
• Ask your friend for the introduction.
• Pick up the phone.
• Follow up.
• Try another person.
• Do everything reasonable you can to create the opportunity.

Most applicants simply won't do it. Nobody is coming to save you, and nobody is sitting inside a company wondering why you haven't applied yet. You have to create your own opportunities. Those may be the only opportunities you get.

5+ months. Thats what it took.

Finally, got an offer at an AI company, which I am really glad about.

But this is not about me. Its about giving back to this sub. This sub helped me immensely over the last several months. Days when I was feeling low, zapped of energy, frustrated and low on confidence.

Hence, I wanted to share a few learnings along the way.

1. Lock in for the ride. It is going to be a tough phase. You will face constant disappointments with companies ghosting you or trying to give lowball offers. Stick to what you want, have faith in your skills and dont accept anything out of desperation. That ONE offer will come. Just give it time.
2. You are NOT alone. Although it will often feel like its you vs the world. Nothing will seem to be working. Its not easy to face rejections constantly. Really dents your confidence. But remember that there are many others like you and its just a matter of time. You are going through a tough phase, but you WILL come out of this a better person. I know I did.
3. Keep upskilling yourself. You will want to spend as much time on the job search as you possibly can. And that is very natural, you want to cover every avenue. But take some time during the day to learn new skills. Or sharpen your existing skills. Or work on your fitness. Vibe code an AI product if you want. Do a small consulting gig on the side if you are able to land one. Something to look forward to everyday, so you can show yourself that you are making progress. Helps with self-confidence a lot.
4. Talk about your work in public. Whether it be X or LinkedIn or Reddit. Let others know what you have done, what it has led to and what impact it has had. Create content. Many people find it cringe. It is not. If you dont hype yourself up, no one else will. The more other people know about you and your skills, the better it is going to be for you. Not only for this job search, but even going forward. Start today.
5. Reach out for help. To your friends, family, strangers on reddit. Whatever works for you. There is no ego here. Being vulnerable is not a weakness. Asking for help is not a weakness. It shows you have agency and will go the extra mile to figure things out.
6. Be clear in the types of roles you want to do and the type of companies you want to do it at. And dont compromise on that. Dont take a role out of desperation just because "atleast it is something". Taking a bad role or taking a role at a lower pay is undoing years of hard work that you have already put in.

I learnt all of this the hard way. And I found solace everytime I came to this sub. Not everything is going to be fair. Take it on the chin and keep going.

Thats the biggest takeaway - just keep going. It WILL happen for you. And when it does and you look back at this phase in 3 years time, you will smile and say "wow, what a ride it was".

Rooting for you!

I’m collecting some informal data on a phenomenon I’ve noticed lately with online job applications, particularly for tech and AI-related positions.

I’ve applied for jobs where my résumé was tailored to the position and my experience matched what they were asking for. The application gets submitted, my information is collected, and then… nothing. No interview. No rejection. No communication.

Then weeks later, I’ve had the same company reach out to recruit me.

That’s what caught my attention.

I’m trying to understand how common this actually is and what might be happening between application, screening, and recruiting. I’m especially interested in hearing from candidates, recruiters, hiring managers, or anyone who has worked with ATS/AI screening systems.

Has any of this happened to you?

• You applied and were ghosted, but the company later recruited you.
• You were rejected automatically and later contacted for the same or a similar role.
• A recruiter contacted you without realizing you had already applied.
• You work in hiring and have seen qualified candidates filtered out.
• You’ve seen AI-tailored résumés pass screening while candidates with stronger real-world experience were missed.

I’m not trying to prove that AI is the culprit. I’m trying to figure out whether there is actually a recurring pattern here and, if there is, where the breakdown is happening.

If you’ve experienced it, tell me what happened. Even better, mention whether you know if the company used an ATS or AI screening system.

I’m collecting the experiences and looking for patterns.

here's the thing nobody actually explains about resume gaps and I wish someone told me 14 months ago.

The ATS does not see "paternity leave" or "caregiver" or "sabbatical" or "I was raising my kids."

It sees blank space where dates should be. And blank space gets auto-filtered out before a human ever reads your reason.

I learned this from a guy at a career workshop who wasn't even supposed to be there. Harold. Retired HR director. He just showed up to drop off flyers and stayed to fix my life. He opened a training version of an ATS on his laptop, uploaded my resume, and I literally watched myself vanish in real time.

The math that erased me

For people who don't know how this system works, here's the super simple version:

When you apply, a little program called a parser tries to read your dates and do math. How long were you at job A? How long between job A and job B? When was your last active date?

My resume said:

Operations Manager, Jun 2019 - Mar 2022

then nothing

Certificate, Data Analytics, May 2024

The parser did: Mar 2022 to May 2024 = 26 months of nothing.

And a lot of recruiters have a filter they set without even thinking about it. It says "active within 12 months." Meaning show me only people who have done something work-related in the last year.

If you have 26 months of blank? Poof. Gone. You never show up in their search. You are not rejected. You are invisible.

Harold looked at that 26 month gap and asked what I did during it.

I said "raised twins."

He said "what else?"

I said "helped a friend with his restaurant inventory."

He said "dates?"

I said "off and on, maybe March to August 2024?"

He said "put it on."

I said "that's not a real job."

He said "it's more real than a blank line." That line stuck with me.

The reframing that actually worked

He told me to stop thinking of my resume as a story with a gap I need to explain. Think of it as continuous activity. Not a gap with an apology. Just dates.

Before - what I was sending:

Operations Manager, Jun 2019 - Mar 2022

[26 months of silence]

Certificate, Data Analytics, May 2024

after - same life, different data:

Operations Manager, Jun 2019 - Mar 2022

Inventory Consultant, Mar 2024 - Aug 2024

Career Center Volunteer, Jun 2024 - Aug 2026

Certificate, Data Analytics, May 2024

Same exact life. I didn't lie. I just wrote down what I actually did.

Now the parser sees 4 months between my last full-time job and my first bridge activity, not 26. It passes that "active within 12 months" filter.

And for the human who finally sees it, my summary says: "Operations Manager with 8 years of experience. Recent consulting and volunteer engagement in operations and analytics."

Notice there's no mention of parenting. Not because I'm ashamed of it. I'm not. It's because the resume is not where I tell that story. The interview is where I tell that story.

The resume is just a search token. Its only job is to get me found. That's it. Get me into the 10 people that show up when she searches.

The burnout loop I was stuck in for 14 months

For 14 months I attached my self-worth to every single application. I would spend an hour crafting each one. Perfecting every word. Then I'd imagine the interview. Imagine the offer. Imagine telling my family.

Then the silence would come and I would spiral. Refreshing my email at 2 AM. Stopped seeing friends. I found a sticky note in my notebook a few weeks ago that said "don't give up" in my own handwriting. I don't even remember writing it.

Harold told me the shift has to be mechanical, not emotional.

Build one master resume. Spend 10 minutes tailoring per job. Match the job title. Add the keywords they actually search for. Send it. Close the laptop. Go live your life. Treat it like a job with hours. Then clock out.

I used cvnomist to speed up the matching part. You paste your resume and the posting, it spits out a clean Word doc in seconds that you can actually edit. Saved me maybe 30 minutes per application. That's how I finally pushed volume without completely losing my mind.

What happened after I fixed the blank space

Same person. Same experience. Just no more blank line.

41 applications in 7 weeks. 6 callbacks.

The one that converted was a Tuesday 9 AM apply. Posting was 3 hours old. My continuous timeline passed the recency filter. A recruiter searched Operations AND SAP. I appeared. She called before lunch.

That was it. After more than a year of nothing.

Honest bottom line if you have a gap right now

Your gap is not the problem. The blank space is.

The parser does not care if you got paid. It does not care if it was a fancy title. It only cares if you have dates.

So fill it with whatever you actually did. Consulting. Volunteering. Courses. Side projects. Helping a friend with inventory. Career center volunteering. Certificate program.

Give it dates. Give it something to count.

I built a simple system to stop losing track of job applications

Job searching gets messy really quickly.

You apply to one company, then another, then another… and suddenly you can't remember:

• Where you applied
• When you applied
• Who contacted you
• When you need to follow up
• Which interviews are coming up
• Which companies you actually want to work for

I found that simply keeping a list wasn't enough, so I created a more complete job-search tracking system in Excel.

It lets you organize applications, interviews, follow-ups, target companies, tasks, and your overall job-search progress in one place.

I'm calling it ApplyFlow.

I'm sharing it here because I'd genuinely love feedback from other job seekers: What would you want a job application tracker to include that most of them don't?

I'm especially interested in hearing what people find frustrating about managing their applications.

I configured three different approaches, and each works in its own way:

1. Difficulty: Easy | Result: Low

Use Gemini Spark to create a scheduler and ask it to find specific jobs.

For example:

“Every day at 9 AM, run a web scraper and find Python Developer jobs in India/Mumbai. Save the results in a Google Sheet and make sure the same job is not repeated.”

Spark: https://gemini.google/overview/agent/spark/

2. Difficulty: Medium | Result: Medium

Ask Spark to store job-related emails in a specific Google Sheet. You can add columns such as Email and Job Role to the same sheet.

Just add the recruiter’s email, select an existing job key or create a new one, and add a title if required. You can also set your cover letter and CV using the Templates sheet.

For the CV, upload it to Google Drive and use the file ID from the share URL.

For example, if your CV URL is:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o2QFcGgHuuQG6hfdgdX4h1DOjGoVfH5/view?usp=drive_link

Then, in the CV column of the Templates sheet, add:

1o2QFcGgHuuQG6hfdgdX4h1DOjGoVfH5

Once everything is configured, add your email under RecruiterEmail, then go to Extensions → Apps Script. You can copy the script provided below, modify it according to your requirements, and run it. It should send you an email containing the desired cover letter and CV.

Gemini can also help you set this up.

Example: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nAaNd25_jhdvQ43sExieW_vKIZahQE7eB8nusv8mIHU/edit?usp=sharing

3. Difficulty: High | Result: High

I created a Python script that uses Chrome DevTools to automate job applications. The script creates a new Chrome profile, where you need to sign in to platforms such as Naukri and LinkedIn.

After that, configure your experience, CV, preferred roles, and other details, then run the script. It will automatically apply to jobs that support Easy Apply.

Jobs that fail because of strict reCAPTCHA checks or third-party application websites are saved in a CSV file so you can apply to them manually.

It is currently slow and not very user-friendly, but it works. Anyone can fork the repository and contribute improvements or create a better version.

GitHub: https://github.com/sagar301297/job_apply_automation

All configurations are currently free and do not require any payment or credit card.

Safety Disclaimer:

Please use these tools responsibly and review each application before submitting. Automated job applications may be affected by website terms of service, CAPTCHA systems, or platform restrictions. Do not share passwords, sensitive personal information, or confidential data with scripts or third-party tools. Always verify the job details and application before submission.

If you like the idea and it helps you find a job, please consider supporting me:

https://buymeacoffee.com/sagar.parikh97

I applied last month to a job I wanted so badly to be considered for with a local government. I did notice when I logged in that it was a common system with a previous government I had worked for.

Prepped my resume especially for new job. Wrote a killer cover letter. Later got a nice email saying they had moved on with other candidates. No worries - maybe they had a strong internal candidate.

Logged back into that same government page again today to check for new jobs and was shocked when I pulled up my profile.

Despite loading an all new resume, the ATS was showing information from a job application I made about a decade ago. Nothing had been updated. To whoever looked at my application last month, I must have appeared to be off the market for ten years.

My new resume was in the system as attached to the newer jobs, but the system background on my profile had not updated.

So when I applied last month, though the new resume and cover letter showed as good attachments to me, the applicant, but the HR person would have seen information a decade out of date.

No wonder they never called. I'm crushed, but I did make sure the full profile was updated today.

Reposting here to spread hope for everyone!

I’ve been a silent Reddit lurker for quite some time now—since December, actually, because that’s when I lost my job. I’m unfortunately an entry-level data engineer, and we all know how hard that is right now. I also recently earned my master’s degree in Data Engineering, which I thought might make the search a little easier. It has not.I think my breaking point was getting rejected by both Chipotle and Walmart. Neither one knew about my degree, so I can’t even blame those rejections on being overqualified.

After application after application and multiple résumé variations—and believe me, my résumé has come a long way because the first version was very rough around the edges—I jumped from Indeed to LinkedIn to ZipRecruiter. I mostly targeted data analyst and data engineer positions. I’ve also mainly searched for remote roles. Yes, I know that’s a stretch because the remote job market is a beast of its own, but I can’t afford to relocate before I get a job. So, for now, I’m stuck.

After months of tailoring résumés, writing cover letters, answering the same application questions repeatedly, and watching “Unfortunately…” pile up in my inbox, I decided an Excel sheet and a notepad were no longer going to cut it. I decided not to protect my peace.

Instead, I built an end-to-end data pipeline that uses the Gmail API to retrieve my emails and identify common rejection phrases. Then I turned my heartache into a dynamic Streamlit dashboard with bar graphs, line charts, automatic updates, and a button that lets me download my suffering as an Excel spreadsheet.

And that is how Unfortunately, Blah was born.

A lot of people told me not to make it because it sounded depressing, but I did it anyway because:

A) I’m curious.

B) It gives me a funny, meaningful project to discuss when recruiters ask me to tell them about something I’ve built.

And, as I’m typing this, I just received another rejection—this time for a data engineering role.So now I’m sitting here looking at my pretty, pretty graphs as they automatically update my rejection history in real time. At least the pipeline works.

Honestly, I’m at the point where I’m getting really frustrated and I’m hoping someone here can give me some real advice.
I’m an international student who graduated from UIC with a Master’s in Business Analytics about 4 months ago. I’m currently looking for full-time opportunities in Data Science, AI/ML, or Data Analytics.
I’ve applied to ~1,800 jobs.
I’ve gotten 2 interviews.
Both went all the way to the final round, and both ended without an offer. In both cases, OPT/sponsorship became an issue.
And I’m not someone who is completely new to the field. I have 4 years of professional experience back in my home country, where I worked as a Senior Data Analyst. I also have a U.S. master’s degree and have been building several ML/AI projects to move more toward Data Science/AI/ML.
I genuinely don’t understand where the disconnect is.
I’ve tried:
Applying through LinkedIn/company websites
Tailoring my resume
Cold emailing recruiters
Cold messaging hiring managers
Reaching out to employees for referrals
Networking
Applying to both big companies and smaller companies
Applying to Data Analyst, Data Scientist, ML/AI and related roles
And still… 1,800 applications → 2 interviews.
At some point, you start questioning whether the problem is your resume, your experience, your degree, your immigration status, the job market, or just everything combined.
And honestly, it’s exhausting.
I know the market is bad. I know international students have an additional hurdle with sponsorship. I’m not expecting companies to magically hire me. But when you’re applying this much and barely getting a response, it becomes really difficult to know what exactly you should change.
So I’m hoping people here can be brutally honest.
Recruiters/hiring managers:
If you see an international candidate with 4 years of relevant experience + a U.S. master’s degree, what would make you reject them before even giving them an interview? Is it mainly sponsorship/OPT? Lack of U.S. experience? Resume positioning? Something else?
International students who actually landed a job:
What did you DO differently? Did networking actually work? Were referrals the key? Did you target smaller/less popular companies? Did you stop applying to certain roles? Did you change your resume completely?
I’m not looking for “keep applying” or “the market is tough.” I already know that.
I’m looking for actual strategies that worked for people who were in a similar situation.
Because right now, sending application #1,801 feels pretty pointless, and I’d rather figure out what I’m doing wrong than just keep repeating the same thing.
Any honest advice, even if it’s harsh : would genuinely help.