For eight months, nothing. Then he tried something that felt embarrassing to admit: he pretended he already had options. He walked into every interview as if the company needed to impress him, not the other way around. He stopped over-explaining his answers. Stopped apologising for pauses. Started asking sharper, more specific questions about the role, the team, the roadmap.
One interviewer told him he seemed "very grounded" — recrutier-speak for not desperate. Over the next four months, three companies made offers. The irony was not lost on him. The attitude that actually gets you hired is the one you can only convincingly project once you stop needing the job.