I'm feeling really discouraged. I recently lost my job, and I'm just getting silence from the long list of jobs I've applied for. I keep seeing others saying they've been looking for jobs for months or over a year. I'm trying not to get ahead of myself, but it feels bleak out here.

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Hey, I was in a similar position last year. The agency I was working at went into liquidation (it was not pretty), and I was out of work for nearly six months. I applied for 150+ jobs, heard back from less than half, and ended up interviewing for even fewer.

At one point, I was applying so quickly that I started losing track of what I had even applied for. Honestly, I was in a panic. Looking back, if I had made the right connections sooner, it would have been a lot less stressful.

What really made a difference was networking. I saw a job on LinkedIn, connected directly with the job poster, and messaged them to say I was interested. The three times I did that, I got an interview, and I was offered all three roles.

It showed me how important it is to build relationships, whether with Creative Directors, hiring managers, or recruiters. You just have to keep going and not let rejection get to you. The right job will come along. You have got this.

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To be honest, overall it was still tough. Out of 150 plus roles I applied for (trust me, I counted lol), I ended up with around 14 to 15 interviews total over the whole period. I had a few second rounds, but most of the rest were either ghosting or generic rejection emails. I also tried reaching out directly to HR, other designers and recruiters and got very little back from that. Where I did see a much higher hit rate was when I applied and then connected directly with the job poster or hiring manager and dropped them a short message to say I was very interested in the role. I only really started doing that properly towards the end of my search, and I honestly wish I had done it much sooner. I cannot say it 100 percent works, but it definitely helped me. That, and a bit of luck. The role I have now, I applied, connected and messaged the recruiter directly and heard back that day saying he wanted to set up an interview for the following day.

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I was laid off in october and havent gotten a single interview since then. Im currently reworking my portfolio for lack of anything better to do with my time. Ive been doing contract work for AI training companies to try to keep my head above water, it’s really a very tough market right now.

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If you need assistance in understanding every right and wrong, I can help you show some clarity.... let me know if you would like to connect

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Same here, furloughed two weeks before Christmas.

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I feel ya. Ive been looking actively for over a year now.

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I was let go 6 months ago, and have given up on Tech. Even with two decades of experience and a long history of successful projects I've only gotten a couple of interviews. The competition for what few jobs are out there is insane and every job gets 100+ applications, most from well qualified applicants. Add to that the constant layoff announcements and news about Design Teams getting slashed, which further increases the number of people looking for work. This is the worst I've ever seen (worse than the 2000 .com bubble, the 2010 tech downturn, or the Pandemic layoffs) because it feels like this time it could be permanent.

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