I Surveyed 100 People Who Landed Jobs in This Market, Here’s What Actually Works

The job market is brutal right now.
Even high-performers are getting ghosted.
The old playbook doesn’t work anymore — but what does?

To figure that out, I did what product people do best: I talked to users.

I surveyed 100 people in my network who successfully landed jobs in the current market. These weren’t random LinkedIn anecdotes — these were real individuals who got actual offers in the past few months.

(And yes, I got 94 responses and bugged six more to round it off.)

What emerged was a clear picture of what’s working — and what isn’t. I’ll take you through the four strategies people used, starting from least effective to most successful.

Let’s dive in.

The Traditional Method: 11 Hires

Drop a resume.
Hope for the best.
Repeat 100 times.

This is the default approach most people start with: find a job posting, apply cold, and wait.

It’s easy to understand why it’s still used. It’s simple. It doesn’t require any networking, outreach, or creativity. Just hit “Apply” and move on.