10 Things I Learned Applying to 200 Positions in 1 Year

Published on May 22, 2025, filed under misc (feed). (Share this on Mastodon or Bluesky?)

I recently joined the engineering team at PandaDoc. You can’t believe how excited I am! 🐼

But if you know me, or if you know my profile, you may wonder, “wait, didn’t you leave Miro about a year ago?” And you’d be right—I left Miro to move with my partner to Spain.

So what happened? Did I take a sabbatical?

No—I was working nearly around the clock, experimenting, developing, studying, and writing, deliberately investing in two priority topics (AI and HR), preparing and publishing three new books, and optimizing and extending my web projects (especially Frontend Dogma). But that’s not the point.

I was also applying to and speaking with companies.

200 (196, to be precise).

As one of many of “those stories” (I should have bookmarked eerily similar experiences I’ve read about over the course of the last year!), here’s what I observed and learned.

Yes, The Market Is Bad
The Experience Is Often Bad, Too
1. No-Reply Emails Hurt Companies
2. Some Companies Have Bad Manners

Yes, The Market Is Bad

It’s Really Bad

In my around 25 years in our field I’ve never seen anything like what has been going on for the last one or two years. It seems all around bad, even for those who hire.

We could look into the reasons for this (a major one is massively increased AI spending, and in general I believe companies have become more socially irresponsible, even reckless), but that’s not changing reality.

It is so extreme, it nearly has two upsides:

One, for anyone who can get through a drought like this, it’s as extreme as to be hilarious. The market is as defunct as not to know how to use opportunities to recruit great talent and experience.

Two, and that’s something for all of us to keep in mind, there’s so much talent available right now, there may not have been a better opportunity to team up and start a business together with other highly qualified peers.

Timing Matters

Now, something more tangible. Anyone out there looking right now, timing is of the essence. You need to get your CV in early. If you see a position, apply right away, not later that day or the next.

For me, this was a key in two regards:

One, not to get dragged into mind games. (Fortunately, this was not my problem during the entire time.) When you understand that your late timing means your CV might not even get looked at, it’s easy to understand why you get a negative, perhaps even no response. What would you do if you have 100+ CVs on your desk—how many would you end up reviewing?

Two, to influence the search favorably. I had sometimes applied a bit later during a day, because, say, I saw a position while I was on the road. Applying immediately felt like it noticeably led to more responses.

If You Moved Countries, Understand the Local Market

One reason I was on the market in the first place was that I had moved countries. Completely new to Spain, however, meant that I had little understanding of that market, no matter that I never limited myself to just one country.

If you’re in the same situation, it behooves to understand that market. Notably, what are the salary bands for your position(s)? How do supply and demand look like? How is the culture both in terms of hiring as well as within the organization?

It took me a bit to understand this need and the situation. And I’m still suspecting that I’d have had to make more concessions for a Spanish company, given that most sectors, including IT, seem to be stingy and unempathetic (seem—I might err).

If You Can, Expand Your Geographical Scope

Related to the local market is the scope overall. Generally speaking, the wider our scope, the more options there are. When there are few options, widening the scope is therefore another option we have to increase the odds in our favor.

While I had not limited my scope to Spain, it did take this deliberation to significantly expand it not only to Europe, but also (pre-Trump) U.S. Clearly, that led to more application and also more invites.

Now this is only an option if you’re prepared for it in terms of remote work, travel needs, maybe even relocating. What was interesting and counter-intuitive in my experience was that I actually ran into a number of companies, including PandaDoc, which did allow me to stay where I was but wouldn’t have come up on my radar if it hadn’t been for an expansion of scope.

Challenge Your CV

It’s a good idea between any jobs, but especially in this current market situation, to review and optimize your CV.

In my case, I asked three people for advice, a recruiter and two former colleagues. The feedback was quite mixed until I also asked one of my former managers, now a director at Google. They were so kind to team up and comment on several rounds of improvements.

One lesson for me was that my previous CV had still been heavily influenced by my IC work. In management, other impressions count, including what results I accomplished with my teams. The current version—linking not to show off, but for transparency and as a mutual learning opportunity—leaves out some career detail (the perks of getting older), and makes this clearer.

Work on Your Skill Set

At any time, it’s useful for us to invest and extend our skill set. Being between positions is an excellent time to do so. That’s even more important during a time in which the market is bad.

I chose to invest in two areas—AI and HR. On the AI side, I focused on testing various AI tools (and wrote about some of this work, as with sharing AI tips and some sample projects), and I worked through material for an HR certification (which I didn’t get to complete, but which was still useful). Elaborating further would not add much value, so I’m likewise sharing this just to give an idea.

Don’t Sell Yourself Under Value

It may be tempting to give in and to lower your bar and expectations, or to reconcile it too much with what you learned about your local market (because some adjustments may be needed and fair).

The point is to be clear about who you are, the value you add, and not to become desparate. You’re not turning any tables when you do that.

To stick with my story, I got close to this. I thought about IC roles, I thought about lowering my salary expectations to Spanish levels (which look near-predatory to me). After a few weeks of including IC positions in my search, I dropped that, and I never lowered my salary expectations to a degree where I felt like I better started a business instead.

Try Not to Change Your Career

Extending the previous point, don’t get as far as even questioning your career—unless you’ve wanted to do so for a long time, and feel ready to take that step and make it stick.

The Experience Is Often Bad, Too

When you’re applying to 200 companies and end up having dozens of interviews, you also get to know a lot of companies and their application processes.

Originally, I didn‘t set out to focus on this part, but I do want to call out two things:

No-Reply Emails Hurt Companies

Many companies don’t reply at all (being flooded with applications, I’m not upset about that), and most that do reply, reply via “no-reply” email.

I believe this hurts everyone more than it’s useful.

For no-reply companies, they appear not only impersonal, but actively indifferent. Yes, they may not be interested in speaking more with the candidate. But, let’s assume, it’s a human being they’re dealing with. I believe both not replying and no-reply responding are bad marketing.

Worse, companies miss making a contribution to the field that ultimately benefits them, too. By making themselves available (and vulnerable!) to rejected candidates, they provide a feedback opportunity both for the candidate and themselves. That allows the candidate to learn, the company to learn, and it benefits the field in that it adds a little more humanness to it.

Is that effect large and coming with significant ROI? I think that’s missing the point. The effect is likely larger than thought, because it will have unquantifiable extra effects, like when candidates take friendly and open company conduct as an example to display similar. And ROI is not everything—yes, this needs more detail, but if we do everything for money, well, who are we, or who do we become.

Some Companies Have Bad Manners

My negative highlight was a Dutch IT hardware management company who was so disrespectful of my time and my preferences, I walked away shortly after handing in a 5-hour tech and management homework. While I could never find out if their recruiter misrepresented their company and also myself, it was the CTO of the company, and my possible future boss, who ultimately raised multiple red flags. I suppose this can also turn into advice: If something doesn’t feel right, especially around your potential boss, walk away. You’re not going to fix this on the job.

To conclude:

The companies out there would do well being more personal and acting more responsibly again.

For anyone in the market, like I was, persevere. Take the situation serious, brush up your CV and your skills, do work on a contingency plan, but focus on your strengths and the value you add. You are awesome—and time is going to help you be even more awesome.

As for me, I’m grateful. Fortunately, we could afford a drought, and as mentioned, I used the time well. I like to think of times like these as phases, and another one just started for me, with my work at PandaDoc. It will be similar for you—all the best!

About Me

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m a web developer, manager, and author. I’ve been working as a technical lead and engineering manager for companies you’ve never heard of and companies you use every day, I’m an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.

I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also in other areas like philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my experiences and views. (I value you being critical, interpreting charitably, and giving feedback.)