Back in 2020, Broadly cut half its workforce (including me) due to COVID’s impact on the SMB market. At the time, I had recently moved from the Head of Professional Services to a new data-focused role on the Growth Team. Unfortunately, my role switch could not have come at a worse time. I was back on the job market at the height of the pandemic, without enough Data Analytics experience to land a similar role.

I had to look at my professional experience and honestly evaluate how I could provide value to a new company given the ultra-competitive job market. After 3 months, 256 applications, and 9 interviews, and one job offer, here’s what I learned.

1. You will get ghosted, and you can’t take it personally. Some recruiters, whether they care or not, don’t have the bandwidth to effectively manage their stack of applicants. I was ghosted after 4 rounds of interviews for a Support Engineer role at a fintech startup. Am I happy about that? Nope. Am I surprised given the stories I’ve read on LinkedIn and Reddit? Bigger nope. Related note – of the 256 roles I applied to, I only received 86 rejection emails. 
2. Looking for work IS work – sometimes clichés are true. Find a way to commit a block of time every weekday to the job search, but please respect the weekend for your mental health, otherwise YOU WILL burn out. Be kind to yourself – looking for work is more mentally and emotionally demanding than work you get paid for. Please don’t spend 40 hours a week on the job search. Again, YOU WILL burn out. I actually DID burn out after about 3 months of job searching, because I ignored how much stress I was putting myself through. 
3. Maintain a spreadsheet of where you’ve applied, including the job description URL, job title, and the date of the last steps you took on the role (application, interview, rejection, etc.). You will forget where you have applied after 100+ applications.
4. Don’t be afraid to return to basics. This is probably the most controversial bit of advice I’m giving here, but I think it’s worth sharing. In a pandemic or recession job market it’s critical to look at lateral moves in your career/salary, IF your new role is with a company that has plenty of funding/runway and a healthy work/life balance.
5. Ask about a startup’s runway. Ask every startup company you interview with about their revenue, runway, and headcount. If they don’t talk about it, you don’t want to be there. Also, if a company recently secured a new round of funding, bring that up on the interview (assuming you’re not talking to an external recruiter).
6. Don’t waste time on excessive manual data entry. If a company asks for a cover letter, resume, and manual data entry of your job history and education history, walk away. In my view, it demonstrates a lack or respect to job applicants, and rigid and outdated operations and the company.
7. Sometimes a boilerplate cover letter is enough. Edit your cover letter to call out the company name, call out the role you’re interested in, and call out one thing you like about the company, and move on to the next application. To some degree, looking for work is a numbers game. Save your mental energy for the top 10% or roles you’re excited about, and pump your creativity into those cover letters.
8. Every interaction is an opportunity. If you talk to someone, send them a follow up email thanking them for their time. If you get an email from a real person, even a rejection, send them a quick thank you note. We all hate being ghosted, reflect that in your interactions.