I’m in an interesting position because I’m fine, but my wife has struggled to find work. I personally have no problem finding work, she applies and applies and seems to get nowhere.

The main difference comes down to networking. Frustrating for me, because I see what’s she’s doing wrong, but can’t lecture her on a style that doesn’t come natural to her.

Basically I don’t ever apply for jobs, yet I find work. She applies through the normal path and never gets called for an interview.

What’s my magic trick? Nothing really slimy, or even pushy, but 100% focused on informal relationships instead of formal channels of work.

I just spend a lot of time connecting with colleagues, catching up with them, and just trying to be friends. I’m not trying to milk them for work. The lunch I have isn’t transactional. We literally barely talk about work.

But because we enjoy hanging out, we find ways to work together. We brainstorm about each others careers. We just both want to be helpful. Opportunities pop up naturally to collaborate and I’ve never wanted for work.

I don’t know how to teach that. It’s somewhat about my temperament. It’s a skill developed over decades.

Still I strongly recommend you practice it. Or at least just try to hang out and make friends with colleagues. The rest comes naturally.

Almost certainly the roles my wife is applying for are not actually open roles, they’re roles made with someone in mind. Or filled by someone better at the relational side than the technical skills.

I was not actively applying but it ended up being a bit under a month from layoff to offers.

Not unemployed at the current time, but my longest was close to 2 years. It helped that I was consulting to pay bills, which also gave me the power to be selective. My advice is that the hardest part of an extended search is saying no to the wrong opportunities when you just want a job.

I've been looking for almost two years, though not very actively at first. I had to focus on my health, and job hunting took more energy than I had

Two months ago, a local company reached out on LinkedIn. They help with the search. I'm not good at selling myself, so I gave it a shot.

They fixed my CV and LinkedIn, and started finding roles for me. Since then, I've had more interviews.

The market feels over-automated now. Too much noise, too many filters, too much AI. It's exhausting.