How do I get around with this job hunting in the current market?

Been working as a software engineer for a cybersecurity company for the last 3 years. Haven't gotten promoted even once as we are a small company and haven't really made much revenue yet. I am trying to switch to a mid sized company. I have 4 years of work experience in this field and a master's degree. It's been 3 months of applying to 100s of roles and I'm only receiving rejection emails. How do I even make it through the first screening ? It feels like I'm stuck at my current job and I have no direction.

Jobadvisor

That sounds exhausting — three months of silence after putting in real effort would wear anyone down, and "no direction" is a rough place to sit in. Let's fix what's fixable.

The core diagnosis

100s of applications with almost zero responses after months usually isn't bad luck — it's almost always one of two things: your resume isn't surviving the first filter (ATS or human), or you're going in cold with no warm path into the company. The good news is both are fixable without changing who you are as a candidate.

1. Resume — assume it's getting filtered before a human sees it

• Match the language of each job posting. If they say "Kubernetes" and you wrote "container orchestration," the ATS keyword match can fail even though you mean the same thing.
• Keep formatting simple: no tables, text boxes, columns, or graphics. Many ATS parsers mangle these and drop content entirely.
• Lead with impact, not duties: "Reduced false-positive alert rate by 30% by rebuilding the detection pipeline" beats "Responsible for maintaining detection pipeline."
• With 4 years + a master's, make sure you're not accidentally reading as junior (too much focus on coursework/projects) or as overqualified for the roles you're targeting.

2. Stop pure-volume applying — it's working against you

Tailoring 20 resumes to 20 specific roles will outperform blasting 200 generic ones. Recruiters and ATS systems both reward specificity. If you're sending the same resume everywhere, that's likely your biggest lever.

3. Referrals change everything

Cold applications often convert at under 2%. Referred candidates convert dramatically higher because they skip the resume-pile stage entirely. Concretely:

• Find people at target companies on LinkedIn (alumni from your school, former coworkers, people in security roles) and send a short, specific message — not "do you have any openings" but "I saw you work on X, I have Y years in security engineering, would you be open to a quick chat."
• Cybersecurity is a small-ish world — local OWASP/BSides meetups, security Slack/Discord communities, and conferences are genuinely good for this.

4. Lean into the niche, don't hide it

Pure SWE experience is crowded right now, but SWE-with-security-background is a smaller, more in-demand pool. Make sure your resume and LinkedIn headline foreground "software engineer with security focus" rather than reading as a generic dev — that's your differentiator against the flood of other applicants.

5. Track what's working

A simple spreadsheet (company, role, source — cold app vs referral vs recruiter, outcome) will quickly show you patterns, like whether referrals are converting to interviews even while cold apps aren't, which tells you where to spend your time.

If you want, paste in a job description you're targeting and a few resume bullet points — I can give you specific feedback on whether they'd survive an ATS scan and land well with a recruiter.

What’s it like after frequent job changes?

Hi all!
One-sentence summary: I graduated from uni in 2022 and have changed my job twice so far. If I’m not guessing wrong, there will be a third change soon.

My first job lasted for a year and eight months. I quit cuz the office environment was toxic and unbearable.

Then I had a gap for eight months, and got my second job in a different industry. It’s a small office but the people, benefits and atmosphere was sooo good. Couldn’t complain at all. However, there was an unexpected policy change which ruined everything lol. Our company was too fragile to survive it, and shut down. This happened just five months after I joined.

This time I didn’t even have a one-day gap. Got my third job by the end of the same month that we were laid off. I relocated to another city, but the job itself and the team was nice. So it’s acceptable.

Here’s the funny part. It’s been a year and two months since I joined the new company. Days ago I heard that our team (or even 30% of the department) is gonna be fired cuz most of the work we are doing can be replaced by AI. It’s not an official announcement, but we all know it’s going to happen sometime this year. And that means I have to look for a new job agaaaaain.

So here’s my working history:
20 months at my first job - 8 months gap - 5 months at the second job - 14+ months at the third job

Is it normal or common? Sometimes I find it so funny and ironic cuz I got no choice except for the first change. I know everyone’s saying that we should stick to one role or one field and keep building expertise. But things just happened.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? How did you work through it?

Jobadvisor

That timeline you laid out — toxic exit, company collapse, now AI-driven layoffs — none of those were really "you bailing." That distinction matters a lot, both for how you should feel about it and for how it reads to an employer once you explain it.

Is it common right now? Genuinely, yes. Tenure has been dropping across the board for younger workers — startups and small companies failing, reorgs, and now AI-driven headcount cuts are hitting plenty of people who did nothing wrong and had no say in the timing. You're not an outlier; you're caught in a pattern a lot of people your age are dealing with right now.

Will it look bad on paper? A recruiter skimming fast might raise an eyebrow at three jobs in under four years. But the moment someone hears the actual story — toxic culture, company shut down, team eliminated by AI — it stops looking like flakiness and starts looking like someone who keeps landing on their feet despite bad luck. The key is controlling that narrative before they have to guess at it.

A few things that'll help when you're job hunting again:

• Have a tight, neutral one-liner for each gap, not an apology. Something like: "My second company shut down due to a regulatory change, and my current team's function is being restructured around AI tooling — neither was performance-related." Said matter-of-factly, with no defensiveness, it reads as confidence, not excuse-making.
• Don't lead with your tenure dates in the interview — lead with what you built/contributed at each stop. The narrative arc should be "here's my growth," not "here's why I left."
• If you get the chance to job hunt before being laid off this time, do it — having the next thing already lined up changes your leverage and your stress level completely. Worth starting to quietly look now if the writing's already on the wall.
• Target roles/companies a notch more stable than what you've had — established companies with multiple revenue lines, not pre-revenue startups or single-policy-dependent businesses. You've had enough exposure to fragile employers for one career.

One thing worth sitting with: you said "everyone says to stick to one role and build expertise," but you have been building something this whole time — you've now navigated a hostile workplace, a sudden shutdown, and a relocation, all while staying employed almost continuously. That's a real, demonstrable skill (adaptability under instability), even if it's not the tidy narrative people expect. It's fair to feel frustrated that you didn't get to choose this path. It's also fair to give yourself credit for how you've handled it.

29M, disabled. Everyone in my life says I won't know how to work effectively even if I obtain my degree in computer information systems. What part-time jobs could I do?

I've lived off of SSDI for the past 3 years, unemployed. My work history is awful, honestly. I've been fired, a lot. I've quit 2 jobs, too.

I've worked in retail, as a cashier and stockboy...didn't really enjoy it, felt meaningless to me. Food service is just a no-go. It's stressful, and whenever I get into a food rush I just freeze. I did a year of casino dealing in 2019. I was just getting decent at it when I had to quit due to disability. Tried getting back into it recently but had my job offer rescinded at the last second for a dumb reason, but I digress.

I found a way to attend college full-time for basically nothing using federal and state grants. I have 2 years of college under my belt from 10 years ago, and I just want to start with an associates degree in computer information systems, and possibly earn a bachelor's from there, or take a cybersecurity course my caseworker recommended to me.

But practically everyone in my life - my mom, stepfather, my cousin, my friend in the tech industry, and my partner - say that a degree is useless if I don't know how to work effectively.

I'm just wondering, what part-time jobs would you recommend for someone who can't drive, can't see out of one eye, and has a shoddy work history? I tried applying for a local bank teller position a couple years ago. Was their second choice after the interview.

Keep in mind, I'm living off of about $9 an hour from SSDI and EBT. If I make more than $10.50/hr full-time, I risk losing my benefits after a year. I could make more hourly part-time, I suppose...

I'd like to say I'm alright with computers, math, etc. I want a job where I can use my mind instead of my body, given the latter is...well, not the best.

Thank you in advance for any useful advice or support.

Jobadvisor

I hear how heavy it is to want to build something for yourself and have nearly everyone close to you predicting you'll fail at it. That's a hard thing to carry into a classroom, let alone a job search. For what it's worth: a rough work history with documented reasons (disability flare-ups, a rescinded offer, jobs that didn't fit your sensory/processing needs) is a very different thing than "doesn't know how to work effectively." Those are specific, fixable mismatches, not a character verdict.

Let me get you accurate numbers on the SSDI income question first, since that decision should be based on real limits, not guesses.A few of the people in your life aren't entirely wrong that work history matters — but "you won't know how to work effectively" is a guess about your future, not a fact about it. The honest version is: your past jobs were bad fits (high-pressure food service rush, environments that didn't work with your situation), not proof you can't hold a role that's actually suited to you. Those are different problems with different solutions.

On the income limit — here's the real math

For 2026, the SSDI Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA) limit is $1,690 per month for non-blind SSDI recipients — that works out to roughly $9.75/hr at 40 hrs/week, or more room if you're working part-time hours. You also get a Trial Work Period where you can earn above that for nine months (not necessarily consecutive, over a 5-year window) without losing benefits at all, plus deductions for disability-related work expenses (assistive tech, etc.) that can lower your "countable" earnings below the line even if your paycheck is higher. The $10.50/hr full-time number you mentioned tracks roughly with the old SGA threshold, so it's worth re-checking your specific numbers — this stuff has a lot of moving parts (IRWE deductions, blind vs. non-blind thresholds, SSI vs SSDI rules) that really do require a real person, not guesswork. I'd strongly recommend contacting a WIPA counselor (Work Incentives Planning and Assistance) — it's a free federal program that exists specifically to map out your personal numbers before you take a job, so you're not flying blind on this. Your caseworker should be able to refer you, or you can look up "WIPA" + your state.

Two resources that exist exactly for your situation

• State Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) services — free, and specifically for people on SSDI/SSI trying to get into work or school. They can fund assistive tech, job coaching, even help cover school costs, and connect you with employers who are specifically receptive to disability hires.
• Ticket to Work (SSA program) — connects you with employment networks that help navigate exactly the benefits-cliff anxiety you're describing.

Part-time work that fits what you've described

Given: no driving, vision in one eye, prior freeze-up in high-pressure rushes, and a preference for mind-over-body work —

• Remote/chat-based tier-1 IT helpdesk or tech support — much lower sensory pressure than phone-based work, self-paced between tickets, and directly relevant to a CIS degree.
• Data entry / transcription — quiet, no driving, self-paced, low social pressure.
• Online proctoring or content moderation — remote, structured, computer-based.
• Campus jobs once you're enrolled: computer lab assistant, IT help desk, library aide, or peer tutor for math/intro CS — these are often built for student schedules, low-stress by design, and look great alongside your degree on a resume.
• Bookkeeping/data work for small businesses (even via freelance platforms) if you're comfortable with spreadsheets — low pressure, asynchronous, mind-based.

The casino dealing and bank teller near-misses tell me you're not actually "bad at jobs" — you're bad at jobs with constant face-to-face rush pressure. That's useful information, not a condemnation. A computer-based, asynchronous role is a genuinely different environment, and your degree path is pointed exactly at that.

Same (uncommon) first and last name as an adult actress. What do I do?

So unfortunately my first and last name are shared by a pornstar. It’s also a pretty distinct name, not a “Jane Smith” situation. She’s recently risen in popularity, and this has gone from being unfortunate but a little funny, to “oh shit the first three pages of results when you google my name are just this.”.

We’re obviously different people if you’ve seen my face, but she’s another 20-something woman, and so I don’t think it’s immediately going to be obvious that I’m not her. I’ve also been asked about it by family friends, so I know people are seeing this.

Might be a dumb question, but can I just go by my middle name professionally? Will that be an issue for paperwork later on (transcripts, references, etc)?

Jobadvisor

Not a dumb question at all — that's a genuinely awkward situation, and "professional googleability" is now just part of having a name, whether that's fair or not.

Going by your middle name — yes, this works, and it's common

Plenty of people go by a middle name, a nickname, or even just an initial professionally for reasons that have nothing to do with this kind of problem (too common a first name, hard to pronounce, family naming conventions, etc.). You don't need anyone's permission to introduce yourself, build a LinkedIn, or put a different first name on your resume than what's on your birth certificate.

Where it does and doesn't create friction

• References/letters: No issue — just ask whoever's writing them to use whatever name you're presenting professionally. They're writing it for you, on your behalf.
• Resume, LinkedIn, email signature, business cards: Totally up to you, no paperwork involved.
• Transcripts/diplomas: These will have your legal name and you generally can't change that retroactively without a formal legal name change through your school's registrar (and even then, older transcripts may stay as-is). This isn't usually a dealbreaker — employers are used to seeing a "preferred name" that differs slightly from a legal document, especially with middle names, nicknames, or anglicized names. It's a one-line "oh I go by my middle name" conversation, not a red flag.
• Background checks, payroll/HR systems, I-9, tax forms: These will always require your full legal name — there's no way around that, and most employers' HR systems are explicitly built to have a "preferred name" field for everyday use and a separate legal name field for compliance stuff. So the mismatch is expected infrastructure, not something you're hiding.

The bigger lever: crowd out the search results

Since the actress is presumably using just her stage name without much else attached to it in a "real person" way, you can out-compete those results over time by building a visible professional footprint under your name — an active LinkedIn, a personal portfolio site, published work, GitHub if relevant, conference talks, etc. Google tends to favor results with engagement and authority, so a few well-maintained professional profiles can genuinely push those results down, especially combined with going by your middle name in those same places (search engines treat "First Middle Last" and "Middle Last" somewhat differently, which helps further).

If someone asks you about it directly

A light, low-stakes line works better than getting flustered: "Yeah, unfortunately I share a name with someone in a very different line of work — not me!" said with a shrug usually ends the conversation. People generally aren't trying to embarrass you; they're just confused for a second, same as you'd be.

The nuclear option

A formal legal name change is possible if this keeps being a real problem for you (job searches, dating apps, whatever), but it's a bigger step — court filing, updating every ID/account, etc. I'd treat it as a last resort rather than a first move; the middle-name + SEO approach solves most of the practical problem without that overhead.

As someone with several mental issues, what jobs should I look into?

To start, I will give a bit of context of my situation. I am 40 years old and have several issues affecting my ability to work. I do currently work about 15 hours a week doing phone service, but I don't believe i'm going to be able to handle it for very much longer. I have CPTSD, ADHD, General Anxiety Disorder, Depression, and possibly undiagnosed Autism, though am high functioning. I am a survivor of repeated sexual assault and a survivor of gang violence targeting. Despite all of these things I am not considered disabled, even though I am completely and utterly crippled by these issues to the point that if my stress levels go too high I will black out, have flashbacks, or simply break down mentally. I can not afford to have the tests done or to go through the process to get disability as I don't have the money or support network to get these things taken care of.

I need a job that is slow paced, relaxed, and is not stressful. My entire life I have never been able to work more than 20 hours a week. I have never made more than 20,000$ in a year due to this. I am absolutely drowning. I spend each day wishing I were dead, simply because I can not handle the way our society is set up, where everything is fast paced and complicated.

I have skills in several different areas, but tend to switch jobs often because staying in any one place too long causes me extreme emotional distress. I have worked in food service, mental health care, handyman positions, vending specialties, retail, phone service (answering service), computer repair, vending machine repair, line work, record keeping, and several other things over the years.

I also have skills in 3d modeling and animation, as well as 2d design and animation. I have extensive experience in music production and play 7 instruments, and also have extensive experience with Ableton Live. I was at one point Cisco Certified for networking. I was bonded by the state for mental healthcare services. I have worked as a repair technician, trainer, and even worked up to a foreman position at one point within the same company.

I have never been fired from any position, and am a hard worker . . . but I can not handle stress at all. What can I do to actually make a living for myself?

I have been thinking of looking into voice acting as I do have a very distinct voice, am quite used to script reading, and am quite good when it comes to timing.

Any advice or assistance is appreciated. Thank you.

Jobadvisor

I hear how completely exhausting and overwhelming this is, and I want to validate how incredibly hard you are working just to survive right now. Living with that level of trauma, hypervigilance, and neurodivergence while trying to force yourself into a fast-paced corporate mold is like trying to run a marathon with a broken leg. It makes total sense that you are drowning and burnt out.

The fact that you have never been fired, have risen to a foreman position, and possess an incredibly diverse creative and technical skill set speaks volumes about your resilience and intelligence. The problem isn't your work ethic; it's the environment.

Phone service is notoriously high-stress, unpredictable, and overstimulating—especially for someone with trauma and anxiety. Getting away from live, real-time customer interaction needs to be your top priority. Let’s look at some low-stress, slow-paced career paths that leverage your actual strengths while protecting your nervous system.

1. The Creative & Independent Route

Given your extensive skills in 3D/2D animation, music production, and Ableton Live, transitioning to asynchronous, project-based freelance work might give you the control you need.

• Asset Creation for Marketplaces: Instead of working for demanding clients with tight deadlines, you can create and sell digital assets on your own time.

  • What to do: Create 3D models for game developers (TurboSquid, Unity Asset Store), design 2D graphics/motion templates (Envato Market), or produce royalty-free ambient music, beats, or sound effects loops (AudioJungle, Splice).

  • Why it works: Zero live interaction. You work when your nervous system allows it. Once the asset is built and uploaded, it can generate passive income.

• Audio Editing / Podcast Production:

  • What to do: Clean up audio files, remove background noise, match levels, and arrange intro/outro music for podcasters or independent video creators using your Ableton skills.

  • Why it works: Podcasters usually send raw files via Google Drive or Dropbox. You edit them on your own schedule and send them back. Communication is strictly via email or text.

• Voice Acting & Narration:

  • You mentioned this, and it is a highly viable path given your audio production setup and distinct voice.

  • Where to look: Instead of high-pressure commercial work, look into Audiobook Narration (via ACX for Amazon/Audible).

  • Why it works: You can record and edit in your own home studio. The pacing is dictated by you, and reading books can be a much more grounding, quiet, and linear task than handling angry phone customers.

2. The Tech & Repair Route (Low-Interaction)

You have a background in computer/vending repair and were once Cisco certified. Technical roles that focus on objects rather than people are generally much lower stress.

• Bench Technician / Electronics Repair:

  • What to do: Working in the back room of a local computer repair shop, e-waste recycling center, or independent electronics shop fixing devices.

  • Why it works: You are given a stack of broken items, you sit at a workbench with your headphones on, and you fix them at a steady pace. There is minimal to no customer contact.

• Night-Shift Data Center Technician:

  • What to do: Monitoring servers, replacing faulty hard drives or cables, and ensuring the physical infrastructure stays online.

  • Why it works: Night shifts in data centers are incredibly quiet, slow-paced, and populated by very few people. It leverages your networking background without the high-pressure stress of corporate IT helpdesks.

3. The "Slow-Paced" Local Route

If you need a local, W-2 job that doesn't require building a freelance business from scratch, look for environments that are inherently quiet.

• Night Auditor at a Small Hotel:

  • What to do: Checking in the occasional late guest, running the end-of-day computer reports, and locking up.

  • Why it works: The vast majority of an 8-hour night audit shift involves sitting in a quiet lobby by yourself. You can often bring a laptop and work on your animation or music projects while getting paid hourly.

• Data Entry / Digital Archiving:

  • What to do: Transferring physical records to digital systems or organizing files for local government, medical offices, or libraries (leveraging your record-keeping skills).

  • Why it works: It is highly repetitive, predictable, and doesn't change rapidly.

Actionable Next Steps

Because your nervous system is pushed to its absolute limit, trying to completely reinvent your career today will only cause more panic. Let's break this down into micro-steps:

1. Audit Your Energy: Since you can handle about 15–20 hours a week, aim for a hybrid model. Keep your current job for a few more weeks if you must, but dedicate just 2 to 3 hours a week to setting up an alternative.

2. Test the Voice Acting/Audio Path: Set up a profile on ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange). Search for short, public-domain books or small projects to audition for. Since you already know Ableton, your barrier to entry is much lower than most beginners because you already know how to master audio.

3. Look into Local Resources: Even without money for formal disability testing, look for local Vocational Rehabilitation (Voc Rehab) programs in your state or area. These are free, government-funded programs designed specifically to help individuals with mental or physical barriers find sustainable, adapted employment. They can sometimes fund training, help with job placement, or provide counselors who understand neurodivergence and trauma.

Please hang in there. You are a highly skilled person who is simply trapped in the wrong working environment. There are quiet corners of the economy where you can thrive without having to compromise your safety or sanity.