I cannot find a job
Author: Stefan Waldvogel
Never give up, try to find a new way
The first thing what you have to know is: You are not alone. I get a lot of messages and hear very hard stories. Cybersecurity is a hype, but the hype does not reflect the reality for real entry-level jobs.
Many people apply over and over… and got rejected over and over or worse things happen. This is hard, and it attacks the own confidence.
I cannot change this, but if you feel like this, try to talk to people. Open a meetup, a zoom meeting or a discord and meet people. Sharing is caring, and you will make new friends during your way. Do not stop, keep going.
You applied for 3 to 6 months without success? Maybe you applied for something that was not possible (e.g. the level does not match). Maybe you can move to a different city?
Analyze your situation (to find alternatives):
Many people apply over and over… and got rejected over and over or worse things happen. This is hard, and it attacks the own confidence.
I cannot change this, but if you feel like this, try to talk to people. Open a meetup, a zoom meeting or a discord and meet people. Sharing is caring, and you will make new friends during your way. Do not stop, keep going.
You applied for 3 to 6 months without success? Maybe you applied for something that was not possible (e.g. the level does not match). Maybe you can move to a different city?
Analyze your situation (to find alternatives):
Try to find more options for your skills and compare them. I did this over a year ago and things changed, but you can do it if you do not get a job. Ask friends about their opinion, double-check everything. Maybe your resume has a wrong number in it or a huge spelling mistake? Use your zoom meeting friends to double-check everything.
Do not stop learning, go on! Try again! Add more skills, you have the time.
How much afford do you need to get a job?
This is something most applicants completely underestimate. If you start your career in Cybersecurity and you do not have a strong background, it will take time.
On LinkedIn, you get a good feeling about the actual situation. A story behind a success story could look like this:
Hired... and kicked out after one day.
Sending 15 to 20 resumes a day.
Feedback: 10 to 15% (mostly automated)
Interview: <5%
Writing 400 resumes to get a job is a long way, but sometimes it needs 1000 applications or more.
How can you avoid such a marathon?
It is my opinion: Success is related to luck, hard work, time, and networking.
At the moment, I applied for a single job and invested weeks for a chance. I created this website, did advanced networking and got a personal referral, talked to people, can do name dropping, did the assessment with extra steps, and much more.
This single application has the same power as hundreds of applications. I do not know if I get the job, but I will get an interview for sure.
If you fight for a job for months without success, you might need to change your strategy. If you apply for 200 jobs a week, networking as the most powerful part does not work because you cannot build relationships with so many people.
The American way is: You spend 2 hours or less on one application. The success rate is under 1%.
My advice is: Try to increase this number, this is not difficult but it will cost you time to tailor the resume and build a network. Is it worth it? Let us do the math and play with numbers. Let us say you want a 10% success rate, how much time can or should you spend on one application?
Before:
400 applications = getting the job (this is more or less a random number, but we need one)
10% is about 40 applications = ~two days in work, that is 16 hours.
My situation:
I invested 2 full weeks (>100 hours) in a company, and I have a rate of 100% to get an interview and maybe >75% to get the job.
Sounds awesome, right? But there is a catch! I planned this over a year ago, and added knowledge did networking, and much more. Even if it works, it took me >15 months to get the job. The good news is: Most likely, you are in a much better situation, because I am an immigrant, new in this country, arrived without friends, and my English is not perfect.
Still, job hunting is complicated and the best preparation might fail. Companies in the US, do not care much about the negative impacts due to a bad hiring process.
But if it works for me, it will work for you, too. It is just a matter of hard work and time.
Do not stop learning, go on! Try again! Add more skills, you have the time.
How much afford do you need to get a job?
This is something most applicants completely underestimate. If you start your career in Cybersecurity and you do not have a strong background, it will take time.
On LinkedIn, you get a good feeling about the actual situation. A story behind a success story could look like this:
Hired... and kicked out after one day.
Sending 15 to 20 resumes a day.
Feedback: 10 to 15% (mostly automated)
Interview: <5%
Writing 400 resumes to get a job is a long way, but sometimes it needs 1000 applications or more.
How can you avoid such a marathon?
It is my opinion: Success is related to luck, hard work, time, and networking.
- Luck is luck... there is not much that you can do to change it.
- Hard work: If you add knowledge (hands-on) every day, your value goes up every day and you get more and more useful for a potential company. Without hard work, you need luck, but that might not work.
- Having time is important: If you do not have time to study, you cannot improve yourself and you cannot increase your value for an employer.
- Networking: Knowing the right people is the key and luck is a part of it. If you interact with 100 people, you do not know the outcome in 3 or 12 months.
At the moment, I applied for a single job and invested weeks for a chance. I created this website, did advanced networking and got a personal referral, talked to people, can do name dropping, did the assessment with extra steps, and much more.
This single application has the same power as hundreds of applications. I do not know if I get the job, but I will get an interview for sure.
If you fight for a job for months without success, you might need to change your strategy. If you apply for 200 jobs a week, networking as the most powerful part does not work because you cannot build relationships with so many people.
The American way is: You spend 2 hours or less on one application. The success rate is under 1%.
My advice is: Try to increase this number, this is not difficult but it will cost you time to tailor the resume and build a network. Is it worth it? Let us do the math and play with numbers. Let us say you want a 10% success rate, how much time can or should you spend on one application?
Before:
400 applications = getting the job (this is more or less a random number, but we need one)
10% is about 40 applications = ~two days in work, that is 16 hours.
My situation:
I invested 2 full weeks (>100 hours) in a company, and I have a rate of 100% to get an interview and maybe >75% to get the job.
Sounds awesome, right? But there is a catch! I planned this over a year ago, and added knowledge did networking, and much more. Even if it works, it took me >15 months to get the job. The good news is: Most likely, you are in a much better situation, because I am an immigrant, new in this country, arrived without friends, and my English is not perfect.
Still, job hunting is complicated and the best preparation might fail. Companies in the US, do not care much about the negative impacts due to a bad hiring process.
But if it works for me, it will work for you, too. It is just a matter of hard work and time.
© 2021. This work is licensed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license