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7 Things No One Told Me About Job Hunting in 2023
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that getting a new job is hard, and harder than ever these days even though supposedly “no one wants to work” anymore.
I started looking for a new job in earnest in early later summer 2022. Clients were slashing budgets, which meant slashing agency headcounts, and I’d already survived three hiring frenzies and eventual layoffs in the three years, and two more layoff rounds would follow in the subsequent six months. I was grateful for the job security, but I’d also been doing the work of 2.5 people for nearly two years with no relief in sight. My job was making me physically ill and deeply impacting my previously well-managed mental health. It was the first time I’ve ever seriously considered quitting a job with no backup in place, and in hindsight, maybe I should have so I could have focused on job hunting like the full-time job it is.
The big tech company layoffs were happening by the tens of thousands right around this time too, which, I must say, was intimidating as hell as a mid-level marketing professional in flyover country. But I didn’t fully realize just how many months, resumes, interviews, ghostings, and rejections I’d have to deal with while I searched. It had never taken me more than a month or two — sometimes just weeks — to score a new gig before. This search took me six months and had me feeling demoralized, dejected and worthless after the just first six weeks.
So in an effort to help those of y’all out there strugging with your current job AND finding a new one, here’s what I learned while applying to more than 300 jobs of all kinds across a wide array of industries between August 2022 and April 2023:
1. Go For Quality Over Quantity.
LinkedIn makes it seem so simple. Just one click and — boom! — you get that dopamine rush that comes with feeling productive and proactive, in charge of your destiny. Strong resume, clear profile, can’t lose…right? I fell into this trap within the first couple of months; every day my goal was to send out five applications and I usually ended up going down a frenzied…
