I finally got an offer🎉🎉 If you're in the trenches right now, this one's for you.

[u/sssuperstark]

Seven months ago the startup I'd been at for 3 years shut down. Not just my role, the whole company. Everyone laid off in one meeting.

I figured I'd land something in a couple of months. I was wrong.

The numbers, because I tracked everything:

• 587 applications, each with a tailored resume
• 3 companies where I made it to interviews
• 5 rounds with them in total
• 0 offers

Getting rejected after 5 rounds is a special kind of pain. You've done the take-home, you've met the team, you've already pictured yourself there. And then you get "we've decided to move forward with another candidate."

What made it worse: I'm on a freelance visa. No job means no visa, which means leaving the country. So on top of the usual job search misery, I had a countdown clock on my whole life here. I was maybe a month away from booking a one-way flight home.

By month 6 I'd stopped believing it would happen. I was still applying, but on autopilot.

Then two days ago, an offer. One email and it was over.

I'm not here to sell you a system. I don't have one. I got lucky at the end. I just want to say this to whoever needs it:

Rejections are not a verdict on you. This market is brutal, and the number of no's you've collected says almost nothing about your worth. A month ago I would have told you I was unemployable.

If you're at 200, 400, 600 applications and feeling insane, you're not. You're doing the thing. Keep doing the thing.

I hope every one of you gets this exact email soon.

edit: Bunch of people asked, so: I only really use it as a job tracker, which is the free part. The rest (resume stuff, cover letters, auto-tailoring from a posting link) is paid and I've never touched it. Probably not the best tracker out there tbh, I just got used to it and stuck with it.