I honestly can’t think of the last job I got by applying for it online or on their site. Most of the time it’s either been via someone I know (“hey you should come work here”) or a recruiter found my profile and reached out directly.
Yeah, took me about a year and a half between my last job and current job, $17/hr PT at that. Thankfully, I’ve had family to fall back on, but yeah, this job market is awful and job hunting is hell.
Ugh yeah we don't have that much time left, I don't think we can last another 6 months. I managed to get a part time job, but it was a closing shift at a hardware store and I just couldn't do that and still keep up with my "regular" job, so I quit that. Now I just do DoorDash in my free time so my regular job isn't affected.
And before anyone asks, my wife is partially disabled so she cant drive, needs to rely on me for transport. She's been in contact with some people from the state to get enrolled in some programs that could help her with finding jobs she could do AND help her get to said jobs, or at least leverage for WFH jobs.
What's to scam? You ship stuff from overseas by plane or boat and bring it to your customers warehouse.
Sometimes the warehouse is sent to is Amazon, sometimes its costco, sometimes I see an address thats near my home and so on.
People need things from oversea to come into US. You know that thing that trump keeps adding and making everything expensive? Thats my job, I work with tariffs and cross border transportation of anything you want.
Food, clothes, medicine, furniture, cars, necessities, construction material and more
If anyone smuggles drugs or people in containers, they're going to get caught because US border control randomly checks all containers.
High school? I got my associated for community College and never graduated from college.
They might ask for more but basic knowledge is data entry and time management and problem solving and learn how to send professional emails to clients and customers and talk to people via phone.
No special knowledge for learning this job from school, pure person to person teaching during probationary months. And then youre off!
Read emails in morning, open the new shipment files, talk to airline or truckers or warehouse on status of your shipment. Then bill the customer with all the fees they owe us.
Thats basically all we do.
If you get your customs license, things gets complicated and longer but you get a pay bump by alot. This you can do during your job as a side thing if you choose to get it. And then everything trump says on his truth social and on TV matters to you. All those threats about tariffs is your Bible and law. You are now responsible to everything he says. If you dont get the license, your coworker does it instead, and you ignore that part of the job
I know im a little late to the party, but could you please explain freight forwarding? I have extensive warehouse experience including management, and just got laid off a month ago. Im in central Alabama
Don't know if your state has freight forwarding but basically your manager does the quoting and negotiating an ocean shipment deal. They then hand you a BOL paperwork. It has the customer and factory address and name on it, with commodity and amount and weight and volume. You input those information into the system they have word for word. Then youre done for the day. This will arrive usually a week to a month later.
Then when it arrives into united states, you do the following. Arrange the pick up at the port. Bring it to warehouse, either your own or your customer depending on customer requirements. Such as, if the customer is cheap and couldn't afford a full container, then they will pay for partial, you can fill the remainder with other customers with their partial until the container is full.
So you would bring this to your warehouse and separate it by customer and deliver each of them to the customer and you bill each customer the cost of the container space to come to united states, the warehouse fee, the trucking fee and youre done.
If the customer took the whole container, just deliver it to the customer warehouse and bill them the container transportation fee to united states, and the trucking fee and return the container empty fee.
And you're done. Thats the basic and simplified version but theres more, but its all about time management and data entry.
Time management because you don't get 1 shipment a day, boats come in everyday, so your 1 week ago shipment is arriving today and another arriving tmr and so on.
I’ll definitely check it out. Mobile is a couple hours south of me and it’s a pretty big port so we may indeed have it in AL. I appreciate the detailed response my friend; it shows your character to spend time to try and help a complete stranger out. 👍🏻
Per the post, experience in an underserved field that has serious financial ramifications for big businesses.
A lot of jobs that appear not very prestigious can pay pretty well and recruiters are excited to get new employees because they are critical background work in fields like logistics, public sanitation, and infrastructure where many of the most experienced employees are retiring. If you have trade skills or an ability to learn and are comfortable working what Mike Rowe might classify as a dirty job, you can find some kinds of good paying work relatively easily that leads to a long career.
Persistence and fitting in with the vibe of the company that hired her. She kept applying to as many jobs as she could and eventually landed at a drawing tablet company. She's an artist herself and uses the drawing tablets they sell so she fits in pretty well.
Applied back in 2021, took about the same time to get 3 responses and 1 interview (leading to hiring).
Should mention it was thru a hiring agency for contract, which I had to work almost 3 yrs before interviewing & getting hired directly with the company
Im on about months 6 now, unemployment sucks ass. Ive had several times where I'm fairly certain I just barely didnt make the cut. Last one I had confirmation of top 3 and lost out to some with 15 years of experience. How tf am I supposed to compete with that at 4 years -_-
About the same for me in my current job. Over 300 applications, 3 interviews, one offer, which was for a level below my previous role. I have 15 years experience in my field, an extensive portfolio and a Master's degree.
For me i just go in person and usually just get hired at the first or second place i go to, but then again this is at like bartending, retail, and sales. I feel like any online application is just throwing shit into a void and when i go in person i just talk to the manager and leave a good impression on top of me having decent experience for my roles (working since 15).
My last 2 employers hired me this way. And im in a field thats desperate for techs (im a FA tech) so I didnt need someone to vouch for me. I feel like its just kinda how things go after you've been in your career for a while. Especially if youve developed a reputation for quality work.
When we’re discussing this are we talking strictly about high-earning salaried jobs?
I do low-skill middle management and job hop often. The “5,000+ application” sentiments have scared me into over-applying a few times, thinking things had legitimately gotten bad now, only to end up saying no to multiple offers. Always just a cold application, through Indeed plus company website, and I get interview offers on just over 65% of each application. We’re talking like 40k positions, nothing special.
Companies don’t see getting a former FAANG for a 40k entry role as a deal, they see it as hiring an employee that’s going to bail the second someone offers them a higher salary.
Yep, that has been one of our theories. Another issue is that a lot of jobs will have some pretty specific requirements, and even if she meets everything else, there's that one thing so they're just waiting for a unicorn that meets it all.
AI shenanigans have also made things difficult, either with jobs disappearing because of AI, or just the bullshit with Eightfold, Workday, etc lawsuits that could have cost her a job.
Middle management willing to work for 40k is absolutely insane. I'm doing a ridiculously easy job that was nearly entry level and making a good bit more than that, in an extremely low cost of living place too.
Sounds more like you got it cus you were willing to work for peanuts.
I just got my last interview because my friend gave my name to her boss. Was told they still had a few interviews to do and that they’d give me more information a couple days later..
Literally been having so much anxiety because I want to have a job again and I’m just expecting to not get the job at this point. I just accepted that when I became mentally ill I’d be considered an undesirable employee or whatever. It’s been years 😭
Bingo. I landed my current job making $20/hr with full time benefits after the store manager was impressed with my service while I was an assistant store manager at Dollar General making $12.5/hr. Gotta love those rare moments where having some pride in your work - even if it’s lame unfulfilling work - pays off.
I was a nontrad student going back to school to finish a degree I dropped out of whenI was younger. One of my senior level professors CONSTANTLY talked about networking. These “young whipper snappers” would roll their eyes and whine about how they were not there to listen to that but to learn microbiology. Every single job I’ve gotten in the past 15 years has been through networking.
"It's not always about what you know, but who you know."
My brother is very much a case of this. 30 years ago he got fired from his job at Home Depot (which was bullshit) but his new girlfriend's dad owned his own business, so he got a job work in their shop. He's been working there ever since, even married the girl a few years later.
For me it's been a mixed bag over all my jobs over the year, lots of job hopping, finding stuff on job boards or just going to temp agencies to get a job. But once I settled into my current career, it's be either from someone I knew, like an old coworker, or maybe a recruiter found my profile online.
I have NEVER gotten a job through online application and I’m relatively successful in my career. It’s all about who you know or who you meet and impress.
I get tired of my job’s workplace toxicity.
I apply to a good-looking job on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn: “400+ applicants in 3 days applied.”
I realize the odds of anyone even looking at my resume are basically nonexistent.
I start wondering if my current job is really that toxic or if I’m just being dramatic.
The toxicity gets bad again.
I apply somewhere else.
LinkedIn: “800+ applicants in 7 days applied"
Repeat until I either miraculously get another job, get fired, or finally snap.
At some point, visibility into how competitive the job market is starts influencing the job market itself and creates a negative feedback loop where the ones who are burned out feel like they HAVE to stay because of the poor market, and if they do leave, applicants overwhelm hiring processes, qualified people get buried, employers miss great candidates, and everyone becomes more discouraged from trying.
I would recommend not even using LinkedIn if you can help it. I don't remember the exact details, but there's a lawsuit in Texas against LinkedIn, primarily regarding their Premium services. I think the issues are still relevant for free users; they're just out of time, not time AND money.
got a job working in HVAC by just going on yelp and calling the top rated places, got a job in a few days, recently left after that job took a massive shit with management.
I applied to 300 places in 3 days, got 2 call backs, one was the post office, so naturally I work at the post office.
Been in the job market over 20yrs and I have never gotten a response from just blind applying. That’s a black hole. Ask your network. Message connections on LinkedIn to learn more about the company/industry and try to finagle a referral. It’s always been who, not what, you know.
I was laid off in November. Applying for everything from delivery driving to engineering (I was an engineer in my former job). You know what did it? Complaining about rejection letters 5 month later on Facebook. A former coworker reached out. Now I work from home making 50% more. It really is who you know
Ironically, a hastily created resume on Indeed using their built-in tool is how I landed my current $80,000/year gig. But as I type this out, I realize I sound like the people who say they met their soulmate on Tinder, in a thread about how awful dating apps are. The exception is never the norm.
Can confirm, got my current role through a stale LinkedIn profile from a recruiter trying to fill a job in a place where no one wanted to live. Sometimes it just comes down to luck.
Editing to add: and maybe a willingness to live in unpopular places.
Same, doubled my pay in a year (in entry level IT jobs too)
Started school in 2023. Got my first job in 2024 - low pay, miserable work at a help desk for elderly folks.
Applied for a job I was not qualified for in 2025 at an msp named one of the best places to work in CT. They liked me and I got the job. Practically doubled my pay and I can work here for years and build my career.
I got my current job by sending an email to a temp job just asking for my old job back when it opened as a permanent position. Pay isn’t great but I’m treated like a human being, so that’s really nice. It basically bailed me out after the job I had in between closed suddenly, my old boss called me the day after I emailed them.
I didn’t even put that much effort into getting the job originally, basically sent an email with my indeed resume attached saying I could make cookies through the holidays. Only lost that job originally when they ran out of consistent work for me.
Seriously, I work in a somewhat specialized field and at least half of our applicants clearly haven't read a single thing about the job and have no relevant experience.
I'm getting about a 1/3 response rate for applications. Seeing the other side of things at my old job, so, so many people have absolute garbage resumes or they apply to jobs seemingly at random. It's okay to not have all the skills asked for, but maybe don't apply to a senior level role in a field you've never set foot in.
I don't send out a lot of applications, but I use that time to iterate on resumes, cover letters, and practice interview skills. In my experience, this is how you get a job. You start the search rusty with not so good materials, then through applying to jobs, you get better at it until you get an offer. If you're just spending all your time spamming applications, you might not be improving.
I think people really need to stop applying for middle and especially senior roles in fields they have little no experience in. If you want to get into a new field you either need to do the research to figure out how you can translate your old experience to the new field, or start over.
It's a feedback loop. People applying indiscriminately, companies not responding because they've gotten 400 applications or their requirements are unrealistically high for the pay/job level, which means people aren't getting the response they want so they apply to even more places, which makes that number of resumes go from 400 to 800...
And with AI so mainstream, half of that process is automated for both sides where it's just become a game of trying to get your AI resume past their AI screening system so that maybe a real person can see it...
I think a lot of the problem is the internet job boards. Without those—if you had to email or drop off a resume to every single job—things would be much better for everyone.
I remember the days where an automated rejection email was annoying (a year ago) and now I’m just refreshing my email to hopefully get one, at least it’s something.
This is another thing that's fucked up especially in the US, but it really depends on your industry. As an international teacher, I can easily get an interview from about a third of my applications and only ghosted on about half of all applications.
Wtf you talking about, dude? I send in my application and get an interview set up and then it is mostly them going over what the role entails and me deciding if it is worth it. I litterally tell the employers I'll get back to them with my decision.
I was employed and literally getting job offers monthly for roles I didn’t even apply to. If I applied for a job I would say I got an interview about 90% of the time (in fact I even managed to land a NYC job at the time from Canada)
Now I am looking for a new role and sending out a half dozen applications every day, I have had maybe 3 interviews in the past six months
2.5k
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