Hugo Herrera for BI
In the fall of 2020, I found myself in unfamiliar territory: I was looking for a new job. In theory, it was something I should have known a lot about as an economics reporter. But in practice, I was lost. Because I had stumbled into a great job right out of college, and stayed with that company for a decade, I was blissfully unaware of how soul-crushing it was to be a job seeker in 21st-century corporate America.
I threw myself into the task. I meticulously researched employers. I applied to a dozen openings. I tailored my CV to match each job description. I wrote heartfelt paragraphs about why each role was perfect for me. Yet all I got back was a raft of canned rejection emails — or worse, silence. I was floored that I didn't advance to a single interview. This is terrible, I thought. How does anyone do this? I might as well have been sending my applications out into the ether.