I started a new job three weeks ago after months in the depths of a job hunt. When we returned from our year abroad on February 1st, I had the relief of having the contract job I was doing while abroad, but getting a full-time job with full benefits, and specifically, parental leave, was a top priority for me.

While still in Bologna, our last long-stay of our year of travel, I began my job search, throwing myself into resume updates, daily LinkedIn scrolling, constant applying, occasional networking conversations, consistent interviewing, and no job offers.

I took a break from aggressively defaulting to opening LinkedIn and applying to anything in the realm of worthwhile as we were going into the holidays. I let “winter break” be a last carefree international frolic - roadtripping around northern Italy, a quick three days back in Paris, two weeks in the UK, five days in Morocco, and two weeks in Japan.

But when we arrived back in the Bay Area, I went into high gear trying to find a job while being eleven weeks pregnant, and suddenly paying almost twice as much for rent compared to what I spent before we left the Bay Area.

I applied to somewhere in the realm of 70 jobs over four concentrated months (not counting December and January when my job hunt took a back seat to travel), and was ranging around 2-5 interviews per week. I was close to offers at two other companies when I accepted the job I started three weeks ago, but didn’t actually receive any other offers.

I applied to stretch roles where I met 75% of the job requirements. I applied to roles that were a copy and paste of responsibilities I had held previously. I received internal referrals and I used LinkedIn Easy Apply. I played with ChatGPT to hone my resume and cover letters. I networked and revisited previous professional relationships. I accepted that I’d likely have to go back to working in an office majority of the time. I adapted my salary expectations. I broadened my industry searches and company sizes.

In the end, the job I landed was one I had applied to on LinkedIn without a reference in early November. It was the one I had been the most excited about ever since starting the interview process in early December. It had one of the highest compensation rates of those I had actually made it to interviews for. It was the one with the most genuine people I had met over many many Zoom and Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls. It was the one with some of the best benefits and almost the longest parental leave policy, available to all employees from day one.

Three weeks in, I am happy with my job, my team, my manager, and the company.

So how did I do it? How did I actually get an offer, and a good one, in this job market?

Why did this interview process, albeit the lengthiest, lead to an offer, and all of the others did not?

I’ve written about the 3-Step Process before, a process I use to help clients learn from their past experiences and apply those learnings to their current challenges:

1. What worked well in that experience?

2. Why did it work well? What specifically about you made it work?

3. How can you use your [strength, resource, gift from the above answer] to achieve your current goal?

But, I think, sometimes the realities we find ourselves in cannot be captured in a process or formula. Sure, there are things about me and this job and the people at the company aligning well, etc etc etc. But in the job hunt world today, where talented people are reaching, clawing, pleading for leads that will turn into offers, I don’t think a formula exists.

We are just trying trying trying, hoping, waiting, working until something shifts, the offer eventually comes, we make it out on the other side, maybe after months, maybe after years. Sometimes genuinely happy with the way things have worked out, other times accepting that “good enough” is good enough for now.

No formula, no magic number, just the resolve to keep trying.

I’ve been hearing similar sentiments echoed by my fellow job hunters and recent job landers. No one has claimed to have done X and had that lead to a job. LinkedIn influencers, maybe, but people who are telling you the truth to your face, not in my experience.

(If you found the formula that works for all, then please do let me know so I can share with the oh so many people who I’ve talked to who are still on the job hunt.)

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Accepting this lack of control, this inability to follow the rules and recommendations and come out successful, is tough. It’s tiring. It’s hard to stay motivated. It just sucks.

But we have to keep trying, don’t we? When we know we can’t go on with the current state - whether that current state is a job that doesn’t provide the compensation or benefits you need, a job that makes you miserable, or no job at all and no one else to depend on financially.

This isn’t the first time I have felt the desperation in the job hunt. Life is long, so it probably won’t be the last time, either. And the next time I’m in a similar position, I will remind myself to keep trying - not trying the same thing and expecting a different outcome, but trying with all the tools available to me until something comes to fruition.