“Recruiters sometimes contact me, but only for in-office and hybrid positions. They ignore the “remote only” designation on my profile.”

I worked in tech for 13 years after retraining. I specialized in manual QA and documentation, and was highly regarded for my analytical skills. I worked remotely for several years with success.

The last startup I worked at went out of business in December 2025. Since then, I’ve applied to 244 positions and counting. I’ve had 11 initial screenings or interviews, mostly in February and March 2026. I landed one small part-time job, but it was in-office and I wrecked my health trying to work it, which led to the loss of the job.

Recruiters sometimes contact me, but only for in-office and hybrid positions. They ignore the “remote only” designation on my profile. The moment I say I need it, the process goes cold. I quickly realized that applying to hybrid or in-office jobs and negotiating for ADA accommodations is pointless because the remote accommodation is a non-starter.

The competition for remote jobs is so intense that getting one would feel like winning the Powerball. I can’t figure out why my resume keeps getting rejected.

I only apply to positions I would be a strong fit for, and tailor my resume to them. I suspect it’s some combination of being female, in my mid 40s, and having too many short-lived jobs due to layoffs. I genuinely need accommodations which are very unpopular at this point, and the culture has been getting more and more hostile towards such matters.

It’s hard to explain why I can’t just send out a bunch of resumes and land a job. It’s like operating in a parallel universe from what other people are experiencing. I struggled so hard to support myself when I was young because of my disabilities. Retraining and going into tech was a huge success story. Now it’s all gone, and I don’t know what to do.

Local unemployment organizations and vocational rehabilitation services don’t know what to do with me either: the combination of keen intellect and severe physical limitations is out of their wheelhouse, and the types of jobs which my state badly needs aren’t suited to me at all.

At this point I’ve applied for disability, and I feel like it’s because employers just don’t want to be bothered with dealing with people with disabilities, and they have so many candidates and so little oversight that they don’t have to.

I’ve encountered this sort of problem before, where no amount of applications will lead to success. It happened in 2003 after I graduated college. The solution then was to retrain and target something where I would be accepted, rather than trying to fit myself to the standard jobs in my area. Now I’m not sure what to target.

I can’t retrain for a blue-collar job because of my disabilities, and I don’t belong in healthcare.