13 Weeks of Unemployment
It's been 13 weeks since my first day of unemployment. This easily makes this my longest period of involuntary unemployment since I started working. My longest period of voluntary unemployment was my first semester of college, so in a another month or so we'll pass that.
Thus far, I've:
- Applied for 48 different jobs. Of those, 25 have formally rejected me and another 16 haven't said anything for over a month and are probably lost causes.
- Had 9 interviews with 5 different companies. Four of those were HR screeners; one of those let me determine I wasn't interested and the other three led me to at least one subsequent interview. In one case I got to a third interview. The interview at the fifth company was in person with the CEO, who made me an offer I rejected for benefit reasons (it had essentially none and the pay didn't make up the difference or I would have taken it). I have one additional interview scheduled as of this writing, which is another HR screener.
- All of the interviews I had were either because the company's HR person reached out to me directly, or because I had a direct contact at the company or with the company who helped my application. For those applications where I didn't know anybody at the company, I haven't gotten a single interview yet. Of course, I've also had plenty of applications where I knew someone at the company that haven't resulted in an interview either, but it does seem to indicate that I should keep focus on the places where I know people.
- I've talked to a dozen recruiters, exactly one of whom has brought me an opportunity, which I wasn't qualified for.
So overall, things haven't been going super great for me personally. On the plus side, many of my laid off former coworkers have found gigs, so it's not like nobody is hiring at all.
Thus far, I've:
- Applied for 48 different jobs. Of those, 25 have formally rejected me and another 16 haven't said anything for over a month and are probably lost causes.
- Had 9 interviews with 5 different companies. Four of those were HR screeners; one of those let me determine I wasn't interested and the other three led me to at least one subsequent interview. In one case I got to a third interview. The interview at the fifth company was in person with the CEO, who made me an offer I rejected for benefit reasons (it had essentially none and the pay didn't make up the difference or I would have taken it). I have one additional interview scheduled as of this writing, which is another HR screener.
- All of the interviews I had were either because the company's HR person reached out to me directly, or because I had a direct contact at the company or with the company who helped my application. For those applications where I didn't know anybody at the company, I haven't gotten a single interview yet. Of course, I've also had plenty of applications where I knew someone at the company that haven't resulted in an interview either, but it does seem to indicate that I should keep focus on the places where I know people.
- I've talked to a dozen recruiters, exactly one of whom has brought me an opportunity, which I wasn't qualified for.
So overall, things haven't been going super great for me personally. On the plus side, many of my laid off former coworkers have found gigs, so it's not like nobody is hiring at all.