When asking for advice on negotiating salary one person mentioned that it was nice to see a success story here. So now that i have officially signed my employment letter i thought i would give the stats on my job search.
I'm not sure if it will give people hope or dispare, but this was my journey. I would like to try to stay anaonymous-ish so i'm not going to be giving too much information about industry type of job, or salary info.
What i will say is i do have a bit of a niche but flexible skillset (at least in Calgary/alberta) and the roles i was looking for are mid to senior roles that fall into Technical non-engimeering. The niche means that i can't just flood resumes out there.
Day let go: Jan 2nd
Applications made: 38
Ghosted applications: 23
Responded "not selected": 7
1st round interviews/HR screens: 8
Second round/in person interviews: 4
No third round interviews.
Informal offers: 2
Formal offer: 1
Return to work date: July 27th
7 months total laid off
Notes on my process:
-the job search was almost a full time job, working ~10 - 4 monday to friday. If i was not searching, applying, or prepping i was working on projects to improve my skillset
- Every resume/application was tailored for the application
-every application included a cover letter
-it takes me an average of about 4 hours to submit an application
-i used AI to a limmited amount "please recommend how i could tailor my tesume for the role listed here" or "please recommend some phrases i could use in a cover letter for this position" everything was still hand typed by me, and double checked along the way.
-all applications were to job postings, i was not contacted by any (real) recruiters on LinkedIn (oh right, i should cancel my linkedIn premium)
-on that note, i don't think LinkedIn Premium gave me any advantages/was worth the cost
-i did not negotiate Salary, but did negotiate extra vacation and benefits to start day 1.
-interview prep was about 1.5 to 2 days worth of work, researching company, people on the interview, preparing my "tell me about yourself" and questions to ask, and annotating the job posting with what stories/experiences would be good responses.
I liked the following youtube channels for advice on the job hunt:
- Life After Layoff
- Self Made Millenial
- Career Growth With Lucy
Hopefully that can help some people, whether it's hope that there are jobs out there, or how i approached my search.