The post opened with the count: eleven months, hundreds of breakdowns, one offer that was rescinded before it became a job. Finally, employment.
The numbers behind it were unusual. Eighty to a hundred applications produced around forty to fifty interviews, including recruiter and HR screens. Getting the interview was never the problem; passing it was. There was a stretch in the spring when preparation made no difference and every conversation ended the same way. Then September arrived, and with it around thirteen interviews in two weeks — and answers that finally landed.
The offer that ended the search pays twenty thousand less than the job they left. They took it anyway, and said so plainly: grateful, given the market. Their advice to everyone still applying was the thing they had just proved — the time comes. And if anyone wanted help preparing, they were offering.