Between August 2014 and July 2019 I applied for over 100 jobs.
Like most people, I find job hunting incredibly stressful. Yet, I am also extremely passionate about having a roof over my head, being able to purchase food and other necessities within a capitalist society.
Initially I was not very good at motivating myself to apply for jobs, so I decided to approach it more methodically and document my progress.
Using a simple spreadsheet (google sheets) I tracked the following fields:
Location, Company, URL, Role, Date Applied, 1st Interview...
Depending on whether an interview was active, rejected or awaiting a response, I color coded them green or red.
Below is a chart with the breakdown of the number of jobs I applied for over the years with some more info about the interview process itself.
(Source code for image can be found here)
After completing a 5 month web development bootcamp (Flatiron School) with no college degree to boot, I landed my first freelance contract in 2014 as a data analyst for DemocracyWorks in Brooklyn, New York.
In 2015, I relocated to the Netherlands and shortly after, Berlin, Germany. While moving to Europe was great for my mental health, it disrupted my momentum. I had to rebuild my networks and familiarize myself in a new environment, with different professional norms. I am an EU citizen, so I was really privileged, otherwise my lack of university education let alone a high school diploma would have been an obstacle to obtaining a visa. I was terrified of getting rejected, so I applied for a paltry four jobs in 2015, so it's not surprising that I was rejected from all four. I barely had any feedback loop to learn from. That time, however, was not wasted. I went traveling that year with my savings and also explored other programming languages and technologies. I also got more involved with different meet-ups and slack user groups, in particular Ruby User Group Berlin and WeAllJS
In 2016, again, I barely applied for any jobs (six in total), but I got lucky and was accepted to two of them. One was a short term contract and the other was a longer-term job at a wonderful company called DaWanda where I worked for 18 months until it went bankrupt.
In 2018 I got more bold and applied for 43 jobs, landed screening interviews with 14 of them, and a further 10 secondary/third interviews, before accepting a job at Curated Shopping Group. I also was flown in for interviews on two separate occasions, which I used as an opportunity to visit family. One was at GitHub's Headquarters in San Francisco, and the other interview at a company I am forbidden from naming, due to my Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) 🤷🏻♂️
In 2019, I was fired, two weeks before my probation period ended (usually 6 months in Germany) with two weeks notice so I had to find a job quickly.
In the following 2 months, I applied for another 41 jobs, which resulted in 16 interviews with 12 different companies, before I accepted an offer at a mobility sharing company called ShareNow, which was formed in a merger between Daimler's car2go and BMW's DriveNow.
I am currently working in this office now in the heart of Berlin with a gorgeous view. 
image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Some of my key findings.
A third of all companies got back to me at least for a screening interview. Some took days, others (especially larger companies) took months. On two occasions, I interviewed the same interviewer twice, in two different companies about a year apart!
With the exception of a few larger companies e.g. Babbel, Github and Thoughtbot, all the companies I interviewed made a decision in two interviews or less (not including a screening interview).
Most companies are quite disorganized. Some companies try to filter candidates out with difficult application processes, automated IQ tests and online challenges, while others have buzzword driven interviews. The best ones took the time to read my resume and get to know me as a person.
My shortest interview cycle was 5 days and my longest was 7 months!
I have applied for the same job multiple times and got further in the interview process the second time. In short, don't be afraid to apply for jobs you really want again and again! And remember, to have fun. It's mostly a crap shoot!
What advice do you have and how many jobs have you applied for?
Latest comments (29)
I'm sure if you keep trying you can find a job, 10 years of self taught stuff is very important
Great article! I've been through my own hiring hell and job hunting is a thankless task. There needs to more emphasis on candidate experience and I think that's where a lot of companies fall down: whether it's failing to update you at all on where you sit in the process, to really protracted or obtuse hiring pipelines.
Excellent article, I LOVE the points at the end. I have a short-attention-span (LOL) and summing up the messages at the end is very helpful. It is good to know that 1/3 of your resumes got some at least a phone call, really good to know. I love the spreadsheet idea too. I have done the same but it can get big and unwielding when you have a lot of company info.
Thanks
The funniest thing was the rejection with an explanation like "We couldn't see the enthusiasm in you to work in our company" while I was one of the perfect fits for a job (I had experience in all the items in the job ad), and the saddest thing was that I got rejected at the last step of a 4 step interview, talking with the CEO, who asked "where do you see yourself in 5 years", "how do your colleagues/team members define you" like questions from the beginning.
This is super encouraging.
I'm applying for jobs after a bootcamp now, I cant believe you landed your first job so quickly!
Thanks for sharing your experience! I'm really wondering how Berlin can be good for your mental health and bad for your momentum. I would have assumed it to be the other way around, honestly.
"And remember, to have fun. It's mostly a crapshoot!"
Literally the only way to make it out sane & alive!
Nice research I'm currently Not very good on Dev. Hopefully I'll get better.
Any thoughts on why the number of applications were so much higher in 2018 and 2019? Did you feel the market got more competitive?
No, I just became much more confident, and also more picky in the companies I interviewed with. I genuinely looked for fit, yellow/red flags, as opposed to saying whatever the companies wanted. For example, one finance tech company I interviewed with asked me to do an "aptitude test" and I told them what I truthfully thought about that (racist and pseudo science).
Great advice!
that "no response" category is disheartening. Getting ghosted by most companies was also my experience in easily 100 applications.
Perseverance is key!