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Ask HN: How do you stay motivated when hunting for a job?

by tombert on 5/30/25, 3:57 PM with 29 comments

For reasons that are economic and personal, I've had and lost many jobs as a software person. I am in the job hunt again.

In this hunt, I think I've applied to about six hundred places thus far, and have gotten about a dozen interviews, and all of those have turned into rejections. I think it's largely due to 2023 being a horrible year for me that ended with me having to change jobs three times, which looks bad.

While I know that it's not personal, it's just business, it's hard to not start taking these things personally and develop a bit of an inferiority complex. I don't think humans are meant to spend months at a time trying to prove themselves to other humans constantly. It has started making me a little depressed.

What do people here do to avoid getting depressed upon waking up to dozens of rejections every morning?

  • by TheMongoose on 5/30/25, 4:03 PM

    Anecdotally even folks with great resumes listing recent FAANG experience are having a hard time landing roles currently. They've also coined the silly term "The Great Hesitation" for the market currently where everyone is "waiting to see" instead of hiring.

    Mostly I channel my depression and anxiety into spite which I then use to fuel other endeavors.

    If working for the stupidest, most short sighted, group of humans that we have yet developed through decades of corporate nonsense is no longer the way to have steady employment then it's time to find something else.

  • by austin-cheney on 6/1/25, 1:03 AM

    It has been 2 years since I was laid off. I was upset to lose a job but looking for the next job was even more depressing. JavaScript employment is such a race to the bottom. In hindsight I really don’t miss JavaScript employment even though I absolutely love writing applications in the language.

    Fortunately a corporate recruiter found me at this incredible small employer. I was able to get out of the JavaScript nonsense and do something else. I was unemployed for 6 months and now love my current employer. I would never trade my current situation for a much higher paying job in JavaScript.

  • by aluviaio on 6/3/25, 11:22 AM

    I am sorry that you have to wake up to rejections every morning... When I type 'every morning' or see you say 'every morning', I am rejoicing over that, because it means we are still alive every morning! Is that an amazing thing? We still wake up to another new day, I think that is the best thing! What is the point of holding a job if I am dead? We have an English saying - "There is no point in being the wealthiest man in the graveyard." So, friend, celebrate that we are still waking up in the morning.

    And our whole being shouldn't be defined by whether we have a job or not, how long it takes us to get a job, etc. I understand it is easy for me to say because I am not in your shoes. But stay positive, my friend! Life is seasonal, which means you won't always stay in the same season. We are in Spring, Summer is just around the corner, hold in there!

  • by vouaobrasil on 5/30/25, 4:09 PM

    > What do people here do to avoid getting depressed upon waking up to dozens of rejections every morning?

    One of the things I did was apply to less jobs. I know it sounds paradoxical, but I realized I was applying for dozens of jobs that weren't really a great fit for me just because I needed a job. And I even interviewed at a place I was fairly certain would reject me after the interview. Gotta keep a cool head and rule out the ones that aren't a decent fit – and you'll get less rejections, too.

  • by AllenRen on 6/2/25, 10:56 AM

    I chose to be an independent developer and published my own product website: https://kontextflux.com

  • by luke7711 on 6/3/25, 8:24 AM

    Get realistic, take a small job and keep upgrading your skills at home. Try to understand what you are missing that companies want. Unfortunately no one is going to tell you. Maybe you need to focus on an adjacent area that has open opportunities.

  • by creer on 5/30/25, 10:05 PM

    I suggest mixing projects and deliberately splitting time between the various demands but also opportunities: (a) answering job postings but only a half share of that: I feel the normal job pipeline is seriously disfunctional, (b) seriously working a network: people you have already been in contact with and others met at presentations, trade shows, HN, anywhere - current contacts and ongoing network development, (c) working on a personal project - whether business or hobby, (d) working out, (e) enjoying the time off for whatever it is that you do - because the thing is, we rarely get to enjoy large slices of leisure time.

    Because like you say, spending months on just courting depression - is not good. Deliberating splitting time gives you something to look forward to in the morning - and time for stuff that realistically you don't get to do otherwise. Not enough anyway.