The Job Market is Brutal. Now What?
The job market right now? It’s a knife fight in a phone booth.
Even A-players are getting ghosted. Ivy League MBAs are sending résumés into black holes. Engineers with glowing GitHub repos are refreshing inboxes like they’re waiting on a crush to text back.
The old playbook is a polished résumé, keyword-stuffed LinkedIn, a stiff cover letter. It doesn’t just fail. It makes you look like you’re running Windows 95 in a ChatGPT world.
So what works?
The Brutality of Now
Let’s call it what it is: this market is Darwinian. Employers hold the cards, and they’re playing poker with house money. They know there are ten of you for every one job. They know they can ghost you and still get a hundred more applicants tomorrow.
High performers used to be exempt. Not anymore. Today, you can have a killer track record and still hear crickets. Why? Because talent is abundant. Visibility is scarce. And attention not ability is the real currency.
Why the Old Playbook is Dead
The résumé was designed for the 20th century a one-page obituary of where you’ve been, not where you’re going. In an age where algorithms screen résumés before humans do, “tailoring your CV” is code for “optimizing for a bot.”
Networking used to mean grabbing coffee. Now, everyone’s “networking” is liking a post on LinkedIn and hoping it leads to a DM. It won’t.
The cover letter? Dead. Recruiters read them as often as they read the terms and conditions on iTunes.
What Actually Works Now
The market has changed. The playbook has to change. Here are three things that cut through the noise:
1. Ship, Don’t Show
Don’t tell me you’re great — show me the receipts.
If you’re a designer, I should see your work before I see your résumé. If you’re an engineer, I should stumble on your GitHub before your LinkedIn. If you’re a marketer, I should have already seen your campaign in my feed.
In 2025, your portfolio is your application. The market rewards people who create and ship in public. A half-baked blog post, a simple app, a scrappy case study — it beats “responsible for driving outcomes” on a résumé every time.
2. Own a Room (Digital or Physical)
The loudest person doesn’t win. The most compelling does. Visibility is the force multiplier. In a brutal market, hiding behind “my work speaks for itself” is career malpractice.
Host a webinar. Post sharp takes on LinkedIn. Teach a 30-minute session to juniors in your field. Visibility isn’t bragging — it’s survival. If nobody knows you exist, you don’t exist.
3. Build Relationships, Not Transactions
Stop treating networking like speed-dating for jobs. Real connection isn’t, “Hey, can you refer me?” It’s: “Here’s something useful for you.” The candidates who win aren’t just talented — they’re remembered.
And being remembered means you invested when you didn’t need anything. You sent the article. You gave feedback. You made an intro. That equity compounds.
The Psychology of Rejection
Here’s the kicker: even if you do everything right, you’ll still get ghosted. The brutal truth is that rejection is the baseline now. You can’t avoid it, but you can outlast it.
That’s not a bug. It’s the game. The winners aren’t the most talented; they’re the most resilient. They keep showing up. They keep creating, connecting, and compounding, long after others tap out.
The Fink Kick in the Ass
So, stop whining about the broken system. The system has always been broken. In 2008, MBAs were applying to Starbucks. In 2000, engineers were working at RadioShack. Today, the ghosting feels personal, but it’s just math.
The question isn’t, “Why is it so brutal?” The question is, “What are you going to do about it?”
- Ship something this week.
- Make someone remember you today.
- Refuse to let a ghost dictate your future.
Because here’s the truth: nobody’s coming to save you. Not a recruiter. Not LinkedIn’s algorithm. Not your résumé.
It’s you. Your grit. Your visibility. Your willingness to keep punching when the market wants you on the floor.
The old playbook is dead. The new one? Write it yourself.
Let’s go.
Hi, I’m Brian Fink, the author of Talk Tech To Me. If you like how I write, pick up your copy today!
