I was unemployed for six months in 2023. Some of that duration was self-induced. My wife did not want to relocate across the country and I did not want to go back to being a junior web developer, or senior positions that sounded very junior, as I have 20 years experience. Fortunately, I landed two opportunities unrelated to writing JavaScript at once and I took the lower paying one because it was fully remote.
Here is a list of things not to do:
* Don't waste time using employer online career portals. These only continue to exist to satisfy EEO legal requirements. Most employers don't respond to these.
* Don't pad your resume. Make every line of your resume count as if it were being read by a human. With AI tools now filtering resumes they are getting better at bullshit detection.
Things to do:
* Upload your resume to places like Indeed, Zip Recruiter, Dice.
* Be very specific on your resume. Yes, you should state something about your tech stack in the fewest possible words, but anything related to competences should be expressed in quantifiable terms only. For example you saved the company billions of dollars, or shipped 200 features to production, or reduced execution speed by 50%
* Be clear about your experience and what you are looking for.
* Have external credentials like PMP, CISSP, security clearance, and more. These open doors for you that you currently don't realize are closed to you and likely pay more.
Listing an active US security clearance on your LinkedIn or resume, is a sure fire way to get malicious actors trying to "hire" you; and makes you way more of a target. Especially combined with your technologies, company and time frame worked... It's just realy bad idea.
I'm long-time unemployed, had my last interview in Dec 2025. But what I can tell you is that during my interviews I get a lot of questions regarding numbers like: "how did you get to $X mio ARR, saved Y% on the data ingestion pipeline, or decreased processing algorithm speed by Z mins?"
Don't do that!
Everybody is trying to "quantify" their resume but hiring managers are calling the bluff. It's straight out lying, they smell your BS.
Speaking of lying: I get a lot of input from my peers how to actually make it to the next round of an interview process. Across the board they advised me to inflate my expertise of skill XYZ, if asked. Speaking humbly about yourself is not recommended - quite the contrary: brag, but keep it vague and very brief. I never had to do this in the past but now it's almost required.
Shameless plug: If you have any leads that help me secure a full-time position as Solutions Architect (or the like) you won't be disappointed - I'm a fast learner, taking on the toughest challenges! Now that all my savings are gone, I finally need find some work - maybe with your help? Thank you!
Had a look at your resume: https://resume.kurtisknodel.com/. I'm struggling to figure out what you're good at; is it C#, is it PHP, is it React, or is it something else. I'm suspicious of the 7-years programming exp as well; the freelancing gigs with little specifics seem to do the heavy lifting for that statement.
Are you going for junior dev roles? If you're not getting them, maybe consider applying to tech adjacent roles (IT, customer support at tech companies, etc)?
> I'm struggling to figure out what you're good at
Can it not be all of them? :p
That's one of my big challenges with resumes. People assume I can only be good at one thing and/or assume that I'm lying about my work experience.
I can get _really good_ references from all of my previous employers (because I am legitimately good at everything on my resume), but I never seem to get to that point.
Historically, if I get a technical interview, I get the job every time. The challenge is getting the technical interview.
Make multiple versions of your resume, each of which emphasizes a different aspect of your skillset, and use the one that most closely matches the job description when you apply. When I am really interested in a job, I usually make a new version of my resume just for that one job application. It's not as much work as it sounds, because I just include or exclude different bullet points depending on the main skills required in the job description, so that when the person reviewing my resume reads it, they will say "I'm looking for an experienced C# developer... and this is an experienced C# developer! It's a match!". If I include too much info about my other skills, then they wonder if I'm much of a C# developer at all. It's about reducing what the hiring manager would see as "noise" so that they clearly receive the "signal" that they are looking for.
Also, leverage recruiters - give your resume to as many professional recruiters as you can. They're often better than applying directly now. Also apply at staffing companies, that's a good way in.
Pick a place you want to work at and get any job you qualify to do and once there work your way into the job you want. 2 advantages, you get a paycheck and you prove that you are a good employee. Plus you can continue your search too.We are at a strange time in tech. Companies are being very cautious about who they hire and even if they want to hire anyone at all.
I sent out roughly 1,000 job apps last year and I had maybe a dozen interviews. Expecting worse hit rates this year. For reference, I'm a mid level web dev with 4 y.o.e. I have lots of friends with similar resumes (or better in some cases) who can't get a call back to save their lives. So no, you're definitely not alone. Unless you have a best friend somewhere, or already have a senior title with more than 7 y.o.e., the door seems to be shut.
I was unemployed for six months in 2023. Some of that duration was self-induced. My wife did not want to relocate across the country and I did not want to go back to being a junior web developer, or senior positions that sounded very junior, as I have 20 years experience. Fortunately, I landed two opportunities unrelated to writing JavaScript at once and I took the lower paying one because it was fully remote.
Here is a list of things not to do:
* Don't waste time using employer online career portals. These only continue to exist to satisfy EEO legal requirements. Most employers don't respond to these.
* Don't pad your resume. Make every line of your resume count as if it were being read by a human. With AI tools now filtering resumes they are getting better at bullshit detection.
Things to do:
* Upload your resume to places like Indeed, Zip Recruiter, Dice.
* Be very specific on your resume. Yes, you should state something about your tech stack in the fewest possible words, but anything related to competences should be expressed in quantifiable terms only. For example you saved the company billions of dollars, or shipped 200 features to production, or reduced execution speed by 50%
* Be clear about your experience and what you are looking for.
* Have external credentials like PMP, CISSP, security clearance, and more. These open doors for you that you currently don't realize are closed to you and likely pay more.
Listing an active US security clearance on your LinkedIn or resume, is a sure fire way to get malicious actors trying to "hire" you; and makes you way more of a target. Especially combined with your technologies, company and time frame worked... It's just realy bad idea.
No, just no.
I'm long-time unemployed, had my last interview in Dec 2025. But what I can tell you is that during my interviews I get a lot of questions regarding numbers like: "how did you get to $X mio ARR, saved Y% on the data ingestion pipeline, or decreased processing algorithm speed by Z mins?"
Don't do that!
Everybody is trying to "quantify" their resume but hiring managers are calling the bluff. It's straight out lying, they smell your BS.
Speaking of lying: I get a lot of input from my peers how to actually make it to the next round of an interview process. Across the board they advised me to inflate my expertise of skill XYZ, if asked. Speaking humbly about yourself is not recommended - quite the contrary: brag, but keep it vague and very brief. I never had to do this in the past but now it's almost required.
Shameless plug: If you have any leads that help me secure a full-time position as Solutions Architect (or the like) you won't be disappointed - I'm a fast learner, taking on the toughest challenges! Now that all my savings are gone, I finally need find some work - maybe with your help? Thank you!
> production, or reduced execution speed by 50%
Hopefully that's "reduced execution time" :)
Had a look at your resume: https://resume.kurtisknodel.com/. I'm struggling to figure out what you're good at; is it C#, is it PHP, is it React, or is it something else. I'm suspicious of the 7-years programming exp as well; the freelancing gigs with little specifics seem to do the heavy lifting for that statement.
Are you going for junior dev roles? If you're not getting them, maybe consider applying to tech adjacent roles (IT, customer support at tech companies, etc)?
Hey, thanks for taking a look!
> I'm struggling to figure out what you're good at
Can it not be all of them? :p
That's one of my big challenges with resumes. People assume I can only be good at one thing and/or assume that I'm lying about my work experience.
I can get _really good_ references from all of my previous employers (because I am legitimately good at everything on my resume), but I never seem to get to that point.
Historically, if I get a technical interview, I get the job every time. The challenge is getting the technical interview.
Make multiple versions of your resume, each of which emphasizes a different aspect of your skillset, and use the one that most closely matches the job description when you apply. When I am really interested in a job, I usually make a new version of my resume just for that one job application. It's not as much work as it sounds, because I just include or exclude different bullet points depending on the main skills required in the job description, so that when the person reviewing my resume reads it, they will say "I'm looking for an experienced C# developer... and this is an experienced C# developer! It's a match!". If I include too much info about my other skills, then they wonder if I'm much of a C# developer at all. It's about reducing what the hiring manager would see as "noise" so that they clearly receive the "signal" that they are looking for.
Also, leverage recruiters - give your resume to as many professional recruiters as you can. They're often better than applying directly now. Also apply at staffing companies, that's a good way in.
Pick a place you want to work at and get any job you qualify to do and once there work your way into the job you want. 2 advantages, you get a paycheck and you prove that you are a good employee. Plus you can continue your search too.We are at a strange time in tech. Companies are being very cautious about who they hire and even if they want to hire anyone at all.
Decent advice!
I sent out roughly 1,000 job apps last year and I had maybe a dozen interviews. Expecting worse hit rates this year. For reference, I'm a mid level web dev with 4 y.o.e. I have lots of friends with similar resumes (or better in some cases) who can't get a call back to save their lives. So no, you're definitely not alone. Unless you have a best friend somewhere, or already have a senior title with more than 7 y.o.e., the door seems to be shut.
But hey, keep on paddling! We'll get there.
Maybe the padding is what’s being passed up!