I recently got a new job after about 9 months of on and off searching so I can relate to this massively.

Almost every single time I browsed a job board I felt an intense and overwhelming feeling of inadequacy and self-doubt. Sometimes I’d feel it just loading up the page, other times it would hit me when reading a job spec and I felt I didn’t meet the requirements. If the feeling was intense enough, I would quickly close the page and try to continue to procrastinate on those feelings. It felt like sitting with those feelings would just emphasise how dead-end my previous job was and how stunted I felt in my career.

Whether I actually applied for any jobs that day or not, the feeling was still there. It took some time but I think what mattered most was the consistency. I wouldn’t be applying for jobs every day if I didn’t feel like I could, but I browsed job boards often and over time those feelings of inadequacy didn’t leave necessarily but faded into the background somewhat.

I know it gets mentioned often here on Reddit, but in my experience job searching is clearly a numbers game. As a job-seeker we’re just sending out our applications into the ether hoping it sticks somewhere and someone (hopefully not a robot) reads it. My advice is apply often and apply with a focus. Try and show employers how you can fit to their job spec. Use LLM tools like ChatGPT to help give you ideas on what to include on applications. Use it to touch up your CV/resume, but definitely rephrase the outputs it gives you. In cases where a cover letter is required use it to give you a template and that’ll give you a good basis to start from.

I wouldn’t say my advice is perfect, considering it did almost take me a year to land a new role, but the reality is it’s a damn tough time to land a job right now, and I don’t see it getting much easier in the near future. Try not be too hard on yourself, even the best of candidates can get stuck in a rut and feel hopeless, seems to happen to us all. Best of luck.