Job hunting with real data

The data below represents the one-year data of my job-hunting journey in 2018. At that time, I already had three years of experience and a few certifications in the bag to impress hiring managers and existing team members. I started applying to the jobs posted in the Hacker News monthly "Who is hiring?" threads and a few others from Reddit and StackOverflow jobs platform.

Context

I have followed the best practices for building a resume and writing personalized cover letters and streamlined the resume each month bit by bit. I've built UI and API tests for the application I was applying for a few times and sent the production-ready project alongside the resume to give them more context about me.

Statistics

Referring to my Google Sheet job tracker, in 2018, I applied to 148 jobs. I heard back from 49 places, both positive and negative responses. I had 13 interviews, and I got three offers. Based on those numbers, we can see the essential rates:

• Response Rate: 33.10%
• Interview Rate: 8.78%
• Success Rate: 2.02%

I read a similar post on Reddit a while ago, which inspired me to share my story. The numbers are very close, even though the experience is different considering career path and demographic. The response rate is relatively higher because I sent my resumes directly to the hiring people instead of going through the automatic review systems or external recruiters.

Summary

Now that I am on the other side of the table daily, you may not realize that most rejections are related to circumstances out of candidates' control. Most decisions depend on passing requirements, which can vary as time goes on. The best part is that you can still try again as much as you need until you get to the finish line.

If you have lost your job and are starting a new step in your career, don't ever give up. Be resilient, and success will most likely fall into place.

Update:

In February 2023, I conducted a similar experiment by applying to 15 job applications from established remote lists (1, 2). Of these, 4 applications received no responses, while 9 were rejected. I completed test projects for 2 of the applications but was subsequently ghosted.

In conclusion, the job market is influenced by the current market situation. Particularly during a tech downtrend, it becomes even more challenging to secure a job, despite having a higher skill set and successful projects to showcase. This highlights the importance of staying adaptable and persistent, even during unfavorable market conditions.