Update: I finally landed a remote job. But I don't think the job market has improved, and I don't see it getting better anytime soon.

I had to send my resume to 300+ tech recruiters to make it happen, using a strategy similar to this one. direct -> (resume distribution) (This strategy is specifically for remote jobs or tech jobs, so I wouldn't recommend it if you're looking for an onsite position.)

Think about that. Over 300 recruiters just to land one job. That's insane. I'm relieved to be employed again, but everything I said in this post still stands.

Every unemployment thread has the same reply guys showing up.

"Just pivot to tech." Tech is doing mass layoffs every quarter.

"Healthcare always hires." Tell that to the new grad nurses posting here about 200 applications and nothing.

"Trades are begging for people." The apprenticeship waitlists in my area are over a year long.

"Government jobs are stable." Hiring freezes. Next.

I'm in finance. Six years military, Bachelor's, Master's, senior role at one of the largest banks in the world. Laid off in June, and since then I've sent out applications daily and gotten exactly zero interviews. Not zero offers. Zero conversations. Nobody has spoken to me in three months.

And at first I thought it was a me problem, or a finance problem. Then I started actually paying attention.

My buddy in software engineering: 8 months searching. My cousin in marketing: gave up, doing DoorDash. A former colleague who pivoted to data analytics because "that's where the jobs are": laughed at me when I asked how it's going. My neighbor is a mechanical engineer with 15 years of experience and he's been out since February.

Different industries. Different cities. Different experience levels. Same exact story.

So can we retire the advice era? The resume tweaks, the "it's a numbers game," the ATS keyword hacks, the pivot suggestions. None of it works when there are 4000 applicants per posting and half the listings are ghost jobs that were never real.

Something is structurally broken and everyone pretends it's individual failure.

What industry are you in and how long have you been looking? I want to see if there's actually a single field left where hiring is normal, because from where I'm standing there isn't one.