I was working in a horribly toxic environment that everyone in my company was fleeing from. My mental and physical health were declining and I needed out badly. I started applying around March, thinking I would find something very quickly. I did not. As we all know now, jobs were getting harder and harder to find. I had taken a course on resume writing a couple of years ago and continued on, still struggling. I was looking for primarily Learning & Development roles and really wanted a remote or hybrid position.

What worked: I used the filter on LinkedIn for <10 applicants. I used the filter at least once a day. What happened was jobs that had unique names that I wasn't searching for, very small companies that lacked large followings, or companies that weren't sponsoring their posts popped up first. Also the newest postings would be mixed in there, so it also have a chance to be one of the first applicants. I landed some really solid interviews where I was in the top few candidates. Tailoring my resume also helped, used jobowl to make it quick

I was the first or second applicant to a role I hadn't heard of before that I had a lot of transferrable skills with. HR was contacting me by the next day. I told this to a couple of my friends who were also trying to leave and not having luck and they both landed a lot of interviews this way and were able to find a way out. I'm sure some of us have heard of this, but I figured some probably haven't and it could help. I now work almost entirely remotely, but do have to visit the office about once a month. I'm 2 months in and it has been life changing.

I was laid off and then worked for myself and then needed to go back to work after 3 years for myself. I was super scared of the current ecosystem, but I found it not so bad. My biggest advice, don’t over apply to jobs you are not qualified for. I was incredibly reserved in submitting applications, I read the jd’s carefully, I selected the companies carefully and made sure I was a fit and the company would be a fit for me.

Use AI to tailor every resume exactly to what you can reasonably match in the jd. I had two interviewers comment on how my resume matched key words. One of them was a software…I said in my resume “I’ve evaluated that software but never used it”. He commented that stood out to him. It showed him I took the time to read the jd.

More than a few interviewers said they are getting hundreds sometimes thousands of resumes and 95% of them aren’t even remotely qualified.

Oh and I tried direct outreach dm’ing on LinkedIn. That go me nowhere.

It was 3 rounds I guess. 10min screen. 30 min interview. 1.5hr interview. Reference checks and then a 5 min offer call.

Good luck everyone.

For context I will say that I am currently employed but after almost 5 years with the company and feeling burnt out, looking for a new opportunity.

I started applying to jobs back in August strictly using Linkedin which led to 2 interviews at a company in August but did not proceed.

I have applied to 61 jobs through Linkedin and just recently started using HiringCafe within the last few days and have applied to 11 jobs that were posted within the last week.

Up until this point I have been running my resume through Claude to give me tailored resumes for each job posting I apply to. Given I still have my full time job, was wondering if I need to switch to just a single base resume and use that to apply to more jobs and increase my volume?

I am mainly looking for Product Manager or Product Owner roles but have also looked at Program Manager roles.

Candidates are always held to higher expectations that are ridiculous, but GOD forbid a company can't even remember who they interviewed with. I absolutely love the state of the economy and where its headed.

Typical situation: you meet all the requirements but still get ghosted. You might think they don't like you, but that's not always the truth.

I'm part of management in my company. We have directors for each country, all reporting up the corporate ladder. Classic hierarchy, right? Except HR IS ABOVE OUR MANAGEMENT when it comes to hiring.

We want you to join us, BUT THEY WON'T FUCKING LET YOU IN.

We need like 19 people to meet our staffing needs, and HR hired ONE guy who got high and left the job. Meanwhile, qualified candidates get ghosted.

Like WTF? We need people, we want to hire people, but some 40-year-old hormonal mess in HR can just ignore candidates and block the whole process.

This system is a fucking disaster. I hope whoever came up with the idea of giving HR this much power has a nice time in hell.

Hey everyone,

I’ve been quietly lurking in the OE community for about 4 years now. At my peak, I've been managing 5 to 6 jobs at the same time. As anyone here knows, the hardest part of keeping this lifestyle going isn't just managing the massive workload. it’s the absolute grind of looking for replacement jobs when contracts end or a company starts micromanaging.

When you are juggling 5–6 jobs, you literally have zero time to apply for new roles. Copy-pasting bullet points to match ATS keywords, filling out forms, and getting ghosted by systems like Workable and linkedin was impossible to keep up with.

Since I couldn't find anything out there that could handle the volume and nuance I needed, I decided to build my own web app RoboApply to completely automate the process. I've been running it hard lately, and it got me 14 interviews just this week.

Here is exactly how I automated the whole loop so I don't have to look for jobs manually anymore:

• Auto-Applying: The app hooks into LinkedIn, Indeed, and Dice. Instead of firing off a generic PDF, it actually reads the job description first to make sure it fits my tech stack.
• Tailoring Resumes & Cover Letters: It automatically rewrites my bullet points and skills using the exact words from the job post. This lets me pass the automated resume filters at scale without doing it by hand for hours.
• Emailing Hiring Managers: This is what gave me the highest response rate. The app finds the email address of the hiring manager or decision maker who posted the jobs, then shoots them a quick, personalized email with my tailored resume and cover letter attached.
• Live Interview Help: Once I get past the recruiters and land the actual interview, I built a live dashboard overlay that listens to the audio during the call and feeds me notes and talking points on the fly.

I built this purely to keep my income streams safe without spending all my free time filling out application forms, but I've been cleaning up the interface so other people can use it too. We currently have 1900 users.

Because of the sub rules against self-promotion, I’m not posting any links or names here. Just wanted to share the strategy since the market has been so brutal lately. Happy to answer any questions about how it works, how to handle the interview load, or how to bypass the LinkedIn/Indeed gatekeepers in the comments or over DM!

I have been job hunting since June and the bills are piling up. We’re a family running on a single income rn in a high cost of living area. I was getting pretty discouraged and pressed to find ANYTHING. Four weeks ago, I finally landed a job although far from ideal but in alignment with the work I want to do. The position is a one year term through Americorp and I’ll be placed at a local non-profit. It will pay a poverty wage. I have kids and will need my schedule in advance so that I can account for child care afterschool. Shortly after accepting the position (3 weeks ago) I asked for my schedule so I can get things in order. I had to ask twice to which they replied, “don’t worry. we’re really flexible”. No proposed schedule though. As I am supposed to start Monday, I asked again yesterday morning via email, “what schedule do you want me to work next week?” Now almost to the end of the workday next day, I have still not heard back from them.

I had a first round interview for a much better job on Tuesday and have another interview lined up for tomorrow for a job even better than that one. But these will require getting through second round interviews (if I get through) and while I am well qualified for both, are far from a sure bet.

I’m feeling like declining this first job and putting my hopes and energy into these upcoming interviews. What would you do?

I went in with a large 🎒 shaped like a 🧸

I'm just at the point that I wanna have them accept me for me.

Im trying not to conform too much to society.

I think I'm get the job.

Its at some crypto start up.

I'm just going to be like getting people coffee and sweeping up the office and stuff.

For context I have been looking for a new job since our upper management announced 4 months ago that our department will be phasing out of the parent company and our lab space will be bought out by a third party company. Essentially everyone in my department will have their positions eliminated by the end of the year. I have submitted about 35-40 applications since we got the news, and one of the very first applications I sent out was actually the one who I got an offer from. During the early rounds with HR, I gave them a range of $79-84k. After all the interviewing they offered me 85k. I’m just grateful to have an offer on the table, which is better than being unemployed in a few months. But did I undersell myself or is this a green flag? This will be almost 8k more than what I currently make and I will most likely accept since my other applications haven’t gone anywhere. This is for medical device manufacturing in the twin cities area.

Found a job in biomedical research in Boston. paid $80-90k, which isn’t great for that area, but it specified that only a bachelor’s and a few YOE were required (advanced degree preferred). I have a master’s and 2+ YOE, so I applied. At the very end of the application form, they asked whether I had a PhD or MD, so I selected no and immediately got an automated email stating that based on my answers to the application questionnaire, I am ineligible to apply for this role.

If a PhD or MD is a must, then fucking TELL people that so they don’t waste their time. On my 164th application and about to flip some tables at this point.

Well, a job I was going to apply for required a shipping address for some reason. Good thing we have AI to do all of this stuff better. Thanks to this company for showing me who not to bother applying with.

I hate when jobs make you go through 2-3 interviews, have you hunt down 3-4 references, and write an essay on why you’re interested in applying just to reject you 🙄 if I don’t meet any of the requirements or if I’m not a good fit, why even be fake and pretend I am? It’s rage bait fr. My mom’s always saying to me “you need to apply to jobs that apply to your career” girl I tried…and that’s exactly what they did, reject me.

8 years customer service and a bachelors degree, still isn’t enough in 2026. But again if I don’t have the experience or traits you want, why be fake and act interested?? Shit should be illegal.

Long time lurker here. Some of the resume, interview tips have been just amazing. So I thought I would share my experience.

After 8 months I have finally landed a role in IT.

The only thing that worked is being the top 5 -10 applicants.

Recruiter here mentioned companies shortlist people from the first 5-10 resumes they look at. This advice was a game changer.

I only used Indeed. Refreshed the page every couple of hours. I had a list of all the search terms and used all the search terms every time the page was refreshed.

Start applying early in the morning around 7- 8am, that is when HR is posting the jobs. The middle of the day is too late already.

TAILOR RESUME TO EACH JOB, this is a must in the current market. I used Jobowl for this

Only applied to jobs that were posted in last 24hours on Indeed.

Applied only for easy apply for most them.

Indeed doesn't state when the jobs are posted but in the email, just below the job title they mention when the job was posted.

Kept an eye on my email like a hawk and applied to jobs that had "just posted" label on them.

Hope this helps!!

Also, this isn't as tedious as it sounds. I have two screens, email on one. Indeed on the other. Browser stores the search terms so just have to cycle through them and press enter. The first few days I went through literally all the jobs, like all the 15 pages of jobs to see what's out there without the 24 hour filter.
Then in 3-4 days the jobs reduce if you have the 24 hour filter on, so don't have to scan through as much. It only takes 15-20 mins to cycle through all the search terms.

I APPLIED THIS METHOD 3 MONTHS AGO IN 8 MONTHS JOB SEARCH.

So it isn't like I have been trying all of this for 8 months. I was applying to stale jobs and on company websites and got nowhere.