[p1esk]

There are what seems to be weekly Ask HN posts about how someone can’t get an interview in months of trying and a bunch of people reply confirming that “things are bad right now”.

If I was laid off and been sending my resume out for the last six months without any success I’d not be picky.

[toomuchtodo]

Indeed, and you shouldn't be picky when you can't afford to be. But! You should also be networking and looking for your next job on day 1 at your current job. Reputation and network gets you hired, and throwing resumes into the abyss is suboptimal. If you do not have a list of former and current colleagues you could reach out to today and be confident that they could either refer you into a role or connect you to someone who can, I highly recommend fixing that over the long term. This also enables you to consistently negotiate from a position of power (another gig is your BATNA).

This is not to say you won't get hired by applying through a website career page, LinkedIn, an ATS, whatever, but having a strong network will always win vs pipeline luck. Some people are just not good at interviewing, and some are simply not a fit for the role.

[vuln]

There’s also monthly “who is hiring” and “who wants to be hired” these post typically have hundreds of comments. I don’t sit on the site all day but I haven’t seen the regularity of posts you’re speaking of.