Feels like it's been more than a minute since my last post. A lot has happened in my life over the past weeks: I searched for a job, travelled to P...
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Julien Avezou has return to DEV! We are so back :D
lets gooooo!! so good to be back!
i'd love to have a little conversation with you about your experience as a senior full-stack dev, would you be up for a quick chat sometime???
Yes let's do it! Sometime next week? Do you have LinkedIn?
Useful writeup, and congratulations on both the job and the wedding. Let me add the view from the other side of the table, since I spend a fair amount of time writing the scoring rubric before anyone is in the room.
On asking for feedback after a rejection: keep doing it, but calibrate your expectations, because in most structured processes the person you are asking is not permitted to answer. The scores exist, they are written down, and they usually cannot leave the building. That is legal exposure rather than rudeness, and it means silence is not a signal about you. The feedback loop you actually control is your own: within an hour of the interview, before the memory smooths itself out, write down the question you answered worst and what a better answer would have contained. Twenty-three of those is a dataset. Twenty-three unanswered emails is not.
On your numbers, 72 applications, 23 rejections, 2 offers: the ratio worth watching is not applications to offers but applications to first human conversation. Those two ratios fail for completely different reasons. A bad application-to-screen ratio is a resume and keyword problem, which is fixable in an afternoon. A good screen rate with a bad interview-to-offer rate is a performance problem, which is fixable but not in an afternoon. Most people I talk to are optimizing the wrong one because they only track the number at the end.
The thing I wish more candidates knew: where the rubric is written in advance, the interview is not a conversation searching for the best person. It is an evidence-collection exercise against criteria that were fixed before your name came up. So answer in a shape the scorer can write down. What the situation was, what you specifically did, what it cost, what changed afterwards. Being impressive in a way that does not map to a criterion scores zero, and the interviewer often cannot tell you that is what happened.
Thanks Naveen! Great insights.
Glad it was useful — and thanks for writing up the process in enough detail that the "other side of the table" view actually had something to respond to.
One thing I would be careful with is treating rejection itself as data.
23 rejections tell us that 23 processes ended without an offer, but they don't necessarily tell us why. The reason could be technical skills, experience, timing, location, budget, another candidate, or even an evaluation that simply wasn't accurate. So I think the useful distinction is between an outcome and an explanation. A rejection is an outcome. Without knowing the cause, we shouldn't automatically turn it into evidence that someone needs to improve.
The feedback you can actually verify is much more valuable than the rejection itself.
I completely agree with you Sina. In my application tracker I added a column 'rejection reason' for this purpose.
The line that hit me: "Rejection does not mean failure. It's part of the numbers game."
I'm not job hunting — I'm two weeks into learning Python and trying to break into technical writing. But I've been running the exact same playbook without realizing it.
I've sent 7 pitches to companies that pay for Python tutorials. Zero replies so far. Four of them were closed doors entirely — "not accepting new authors." Two never responded. One form only had options for other languages.
Reading your post, I realized: 23 rejections and 2 offers is a 91% rejection rate, and you still won. My 7 pitches with 0 replies is nowhere near enough data to conclude anything.
The funnel breakdown is what I'm stealing. "Few responses? Tweak your resume. Screens but no interviews? Rework your positioning." I need to figure out where my funnel is breaking. Are my pitches not landing? Is my portfolio not strong enough? Am I pitching the wrong companies?
Right now I don't know. But your numbers make me realize I need to send way more before I can diagnose anything.
Thanks for writing this. Saving it.
Thanks Sameer! Absolutely, that is the right minset. Keep sending more, pause, evaluate, tweak and send another batch again. Repeat. Good luck!
Thanks for sharing. I am three weeks into my own job search and your interview preparation advice is spot on. Also as an experienced engineer, opportunities and interviews don’t always come as quickly as expected. So learning to handle rejection and keep going is just as important as preparing technically.
Best of luck with your job search! I hope this guide can help you in some way. Let me know how it goes.
Really useful breakdown, especially the focus on treating the job search like a funnel and learning from each rejection. The 72 applications, 23 rejections, and 2 offers also make the advice feel very practical rather than theoretical. The interview preparation and AI screening sections were especially interesting. I’ll definitely check out more developer and career resources on codecan.net as well.
Thanks Leonore, glad you found this resource useful.
Really liked the idea of gamifying the job search - it for sure helps to reduce stress and keeps you motivated. Overall, all the mindset and immediate actions tips are really useful, how you approach the job search can make a huge difference. Congrats on the new job! 🎉
Thanks Marina! :)
Continuous action without the right mindset can be problematic which is why I wanted to introduce a guide that combines both.
Resume Helper I made this a while ago. I find that we all tend to be too scattered in our approaches, so fill it up with your experiences, then it'll compile a CV based on the job description, from your own words (not AI generated, AI curated, there's a difference). Run the red-team check to do an 'ai test' whether your CV will pass automated review and it'll give you questions on any gaps it found, who knows, you likely have the experience, you just didnt remember to write it.
If you score 85+ on your red team, chances are good that you'll be a solid candidate for it.
Otherwise if you wanna read about some tips I discovered while writing an automated recruitment app:
Resume Advice from the soon to be jobless
Nice!
Huge congrats on the new role! Trackers like that are a lifesaver. We actually use similar pipeline tracking at The Printing World for managing new client onboarding and custom packaging specs—keeping data organized really makes all the difference.
Thanks Henry! I agree.
Good points/advice! Just curious, why did you need to go job hunting - were you not completely satisfied with the job you had, looking for something else/better?
Thanks leob! I moved to another country and had to leave my job as there was no possibility to work from abroad. And there was a timing issue for obtaining the work permit. That's why :)
Ah okay, thanks! Must have been a busy time getting all of that done and organized ...
yeah the paperwork and uncertainty were definitely stressful with everything else going on :D
Big changes, nice that it all worked out for you, well done!
@javz , thank you for sharing this. Truly the job hunting process can be a tough one but seeing it as a journey to learn and build one's confidence and abilities makes it a worthwhile journey no matter the differing outcomes. 💪🏼
You are most welcome Blaise! I shared my experience in the hope of inspiring others, thank you for your words.
Congratulations man
thanks Ben!
no problem
So good to see you back!!✨
Thanks Omaima! It feels good to be back!
Welcome back, Julien! So good to see you back and writing again 😀
Thank you Hemapriya! I am very happy to see how active you have been and that your DEV Opportunity Radar has grown into a popular series. I need to take some time to catch up on your latest posts :)