Man applied for jobs 517 times in Singapore but only got 3 interviews

SINGAPORE: On the subreddit r/askSingapore, a job seeker who appeared to have given up hope of finding work asked his fellow unemployed Singaporean Redditors how their job applications were progressing.

One man’s response in the comments section stunned many when he said he had applied for jobs 517 times. The man provided a breakdown of his application count, stating that he has submitted 60 applications to JobStreet, 42 to eFinancial, 30 to Glassdoor, and 385 to MyCareersFuture. However, despite numerous applications, the man has only had three interviews thus far.

A few Redditors cheered the man on his job-hunting journey, with one individual commenting, “Jia you, Jia you! You can do it”.

Aside from the man, a few others stated that their job search had not yielded any promising results.

One individual said, “Been 6 months. No progression. No interviews. No idea what to apply for. I try to keep pace at like 3 job applications a day but I can’t find stuff I qualify for and don’t know how to search for things that might work out for me. On my 5th resume rework.”

While another individual shared his own story, saying, “Jobless since Oct 2023… Been better since mid of Jan having 0-3interview each week, had a couple of interviews with the feeling of Yes I nailed it (3rounds of interviews with an office tour and was told next would be negotiating salary package with HR) ended up with no call back at all, checked with connection within the company was told there is still a chance but it has been almost a month already.”

One individual who’s had 13 interviews in January and 12 interviews in February since he lost his job also said that only “3 interviews progressed beyond first interview (2 pending 2nd interview, 1 pending ref check). jiayou OP, tough market times.”

Meanwhile, another individual advised anyone seeking to find work to use LinkedIn, adding, “Get in touch with some recruiters from LinkedIn and they probably already have a bunch of vacancies in their hands to be filled.

Set it up, aim for 500+ connections, and your profile will look great. Get the one-month free Premium subscription and collect as many relevant certificates as possible, and your profile will seem like a beast, ready for action.” 

In similar news, a software engineer earlier this month also took to social media to share his job-hunting woes, saying that he has applied to hundreds of jobs but only received less than 10 callbacks.

“How do you cope with the pain of unemployment and rejection?” the man asked on an online forum.

Read more: Software engineer unemployed for 4 months applied to hundreds of jobs but only received less than 10 callbacks