700 applications, 20 interviews, dipping into investments to pay the mortgage: Reddit's response to a year of job hunting
A post on Reddit’s r/jobs narrated their experience being laid off on August 8, 2025, their second layoff in three years. Since then: 700 applications, the 700th submitted the day of the post.
Twenty interviews. Eight that never progressed past HR. Fourteen rejections. Five that ended in silence. One role that was withdrawn after five calls and interviews with the firm.
Three months of severance, exhausted. Unemployment insurance, exhausted. Now paying the mortgage from investments. Possibly facing the sale of their home.
“I’ve tried networking as much as I possibly can. Everyone knows I’m unemployed,” they wrote. “All I want is a job that I have experience in. I hate this.”
The post is not asking for tips. It is asking to be heard. Reddit responded with a mix of practical suggestions and solidarity.
What Reddit said
Several commenters addressed the ageism dimension that runs beneath the surface of many long-term job searches for experienced workers. “Don’t disclose when you graduated and only post the last 15 years of experience, not 30,” one advised. They also raised the question of whether roles outside the original poster’s career field were worth considering.
One commenter offered simple solidarity from someone who had lived a version of the same experience: “I was looking for a job last year at 53, and it’s [expletive] out there. Good luck in your search.”
The most meaningful response in the thread came from someone who had been through three years of underemployment and unemployment in a dying industry before landing a good role this year. “Please try to take some pride in the fact you’ve had 20 interviews, and keep grinding,” they wrote, adding that they too had applied to hundreds and hundreds of jobs before anything landed.
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One commenter focused on the immediate financial pressure, offering several practical options: taking on part-time work while continuing to search, renting a room or two in the home to generate income, or renting the house out entirely while moving in temporarily with family.
For anyone carrying something similar right now, it is worth finding at least one person to talk to. Not for job search tips, but for the part that may be hard to say out loud.
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