What the job market is really costing people.
How long you’ve really been out of work, how many applications, and what it is quietly costing you. Answered anonymously, and counted. The questions you can’t answer honestly on LinkedIn.
“Two years ago I wouldn’t have considered the job I’m currently going to accept an offer for.”
28 people have told us where they stand.
This is testimony, not a survey. Everyone here chose to speak. Read it as the shape of the people who did.
Which of these is you?
Find the people who do what you do, and where they stand.
Financial runway, months before the money runs out — 1 to 3: 33%; 3 to 6: 22%; 6 to 12: 19%; 12+: 26%.
- Staying in tech26%
- Considering leaving41%
- Retraining or applying outside18%
- Already left15%
“My skills are sharper than they have ever been, but no one is interested in hiring me.”
Read this story →“I would never have thought that, with all the great brands I've worked at, teams I've managed, the hands-on work I've done and still do, I would still be networking and applying to jobs.”
Read this story →“Hiring managers, after all these years, still think that UX is just a tool and not a process. So when they don't need the tool anymore, they don't think they need you either.”
Read this story →“Why would anyone want to hire someone their CEO claimed was “replaced by AI”?”
Read this story →“I didn't get into shareholder experience design, I got into user experience design.”
Read this story →“‘I’ll know it when I see it’ isn’t a strategy: it’s lazy, costly, and toxic to modern hiring.”
Read this story →“I’ve been through a lot of reorganizations, mergers, and acquisitions, but I didn’t survive the last one.”
Read this story →“I applied to a position that wanted 15 years of React experience. React is only about 13 years old.”
Read this story →“When recruiters assumed I was still employed, I seemed to be a much more attractive candidate than when I explained that I had left.”
Read this story →“My old team still messages me for advice and I answer every time, because it is the only part of the last year that felt like me.”
Read this story →“I stopped telling people at parties what I do. It is easier to say I am between things.”
Read this story →“They told me I interviewed well and went with someone more junior. The second time, the recruiter said it out loud, then caught herself.”
Read this story →This is hard and humbling. And you are heard.