Job Searching in 2025

 What to expect when you haven’t job-searched in years.

If you haven’t looked for a job in a long time, the market you remember doesn’t exist anymore. The landscape shifted: more competition, slower hiring, bigger applicant pools, and a surprising amount of manual resume screening despite all the AI hype. People who treat the 2025 job search like it’s still 2015 get blindsided.

This guide is direct on purpose. Not inspirational. Not sugar-coated. If you understand the reality upfront, you’ll avoid months of unnecessary frustration.

1. If you’re planning to take a 6–8 week break before job hunting… think again.

A lot of people say, “I’m going to decompress for a couple months, then look.”

Here’s the catch:

It now commonly takes 5–10 months to land a role.

Not always. But enough cases that you need to assume it.
If you take two months off before you even start applying, you’ve just added two months to an already long search.

The new rule is simple:

Start the process early, even if you don’t fully engage right away.

You can pace your effort — but don’t delay initiating it.

2. It’s a volume game. Not a “wait for the perfect fit” game.

Hiring teams still manually scan resumes. AI isn’t doing the first pass. Humans are. That means:

• If you aren’t in the first bucket reviewed, you’re invisible.
• Hiring slows or stops once they find their “shortlist.”
• “Apply only to the companies you care about” is a feel-good strategy but a terrible results strategy.

Your goal:

5–10 solid applications per week.

Not always possible? Fine — adjust:

• Slow week: 3–7
• Heavy week: 6–12
• Big week with lots of openings: apply to all 15

Consistency beats perfection. Volume creates opportunity. Sitting around waiting for “the perfect role at the perfect company” leads to extended unemployment — especially when you don’t know who the hiring manager or team culture will actually be once you're inside.

3. AI is mandatory now — but you are still the pilot.

AI won’t replace your effort. It multiplies it.

But only if you use it deliberately.

A. Save the prompts that work.

When you get a great resume output, save that prompt. When results start slipping, refine it — or ask AI to help critique and improve it.

B. Scrutinize the output.

AI makes mistakes. It invents responsibilities. It merges unrelated experiences. If something looks wrong, fix it. Bad output is usually a prompt problem, not an AI problem.

C. Create a “super resume library.”

This is the single most powerful job-search tactic in 2025.

Feed the AI:

• A 4–6 page master resume
• Every role
• Every accomplishment
• Metrics
• Skills
• Your SOAR stories
• Extra context it can draw from

Then have the AI generate custom 2–3 page resumes for each application.

D. Start a new chat for each job.

This matters.

• Name the chat after the company + role
• Generate resume + cover letter in that chat
• When you get an interview, return to that exact chat

That’s where all the context lives.
If you lose it, reload the job description + resume you submitted + your library, and the AI can rebuild the context.

4. One master resume. Infinite customized versions.

Maintaining multiple independent resumes is chaos. You will forget what’s in which one. You’ll contradict yourself later. You’ll lose track.

Use one massive master repository and generate customized variants per application.

Your job is to ensure every submitted resume is:

• Clean
• Scannable
• Structured
• Written in the same vocabulary as the job description

If your resume is dense or hard to follow, reviewers will skip it in under 15 seconds. Hiring teams don’t decode your history for you.

5. You must track everything. Seriously — everything.

Because AI is customizing each resume, no two versions are identical. Bullet phrasing changes. Skills shift. Achievements move.

That means:

You need to know exactly what you submitted when the interview arrives.

Track:

• Job title
• Company
• Date applied
• Job posting URL
• Resume version used
• Cover letter version
• Notes on what was customized
• Application status

If an interviewer references something in your resume and you don’t remember it, they will assume carelessness — or dishonesty. Avoid that trap.

6. Job boards: use them all — but LinkedIn is still the center of gravity.

A surprising number of people say:

“LinkedIn is terrible now. Too many applicants. Look elsewhere.”

That’s usually said by people who haven’t actually been job searching in 2024–2025.

Here’s the real picture:

LinkedIn is still the best job board by a mile.

Not because it’s perfect, but because:

• It has the most postings
• It has the most active recruiters
• It has the highest recency
• It has the widest distribution

In 2019, Google Jobs was phenomenal.
Today? Many listings are outdated, duplicated, or weeks behind LinkedIn’s feed.

LinkedIn may feel crowded, but at least it reflects reality.
Skipping it is self-sabotage.

But don’t rely on one site.

During my search, I monitored ten sites:

• LinkedIn
• Indeed
• ZipRecruiter
• Glassdoor
• Wellfound
• RemoteOK
• Dice (if you’re technical)
• Company career pages directly
• Industry Slack/Discord groups
• Recruiter-shared postings

LinkedIn led the pack.
The others filled in the cracks.

Don’t exclude anything.
Just recognize LinkedIn has the widest reach.

About paid job boards:

I didn’t pay for any.
I’m skeptical that they meaningfully outperform manual searching + AI resume targeting. Be wary of sites promising “tailored matches that learn from your feedback.” If they really learned, you wouldn’t still get irrelevant jobs after two weeks.

Recruiters still matter — but with realistic expectations.

Recruiters don’t exist to place you.
They exist to fill roles their clients hire them for.

So yes — build relationships with them.
But treat recruiters the same way you treat job boards:

Part of the mix, not the strategy.

7. Networking matters — but it can’t be your engine.

Some people think networking is the key to everything.

Networking absolutely helps — but not enough to replace volume applying.

There simply aren’t enough events, coffees, or meetups to generate the exposure that dozens of applications create.

Use networking strategically:

• Keep business cards on hand
• Add a QR code linking to your LinkedIn
• Stay active online
• Share thoughtful content
• Reach out to people in your field
• Reconnect with former colleagues

Networking is a multiplier — not the core.

8. SOAR stories are still essential — and now they power your AI too.

SOAR = Situation, Obstacle, Action, Result.

Write 10 of them. Minimum.

They help you:

• Prep for behavioral interviews
• Feed AI with rich examples
• Recall specific accomplishments under pressure
• Answer a wide range of questions without scrambling

Many stories can be reused across multiple question types.
The exercise alone sharpens your memory and confidence.

9. Interview prep is mostly virtual now, but expectations haven’t changed.

Most interviews are:

• Zoom
• Teams
• Google Meet
• Or recorded video platforms

The fundamentals matter:

• Good lighting
• Quiet environment
• Camera at eye level
• A decent mic (even a $30 mic is a huge upgrade)
• Water nearby
• Clean background
• Good posture
• Test everything before the call
• Don’t be late

And above all:

Be yourself.

With large applicant pools, teams choose based on fit as much as capability. You can’t fake what you don’t know — and you don’t know their internal culture expectations. Authenticity wins or it doesn’t — but pretending always loses.

Use the original AI chat from your application to prep:

• Have AI generate role-specific interview questions
• Have it help you answer based on your experience
• Have it refine the phrasing
• Have it tailor answers to the job description

This is where AI becomes your secret weapon.

10. Treat job searching like a long-term project, not a panic-driven sprint.

Some weeks you’ll have momentum. Others you won’t.
Some weeks will be dry. Others will give you a burst of openings.
That’s normal.

Adapt your pace:

• Light week? Do 3–7
• Heavy week? Do 6–12
• Big discovery week with 15 openings? Apply to all 15

Burnout is real.
Set goals, but stay flexible.
And don’t expect “motivation” to magically carry you — treat this like a project with phases, not a crisis you must solve immediately.

The job market is tougher than it used to be — but it’s navigable with the right strategy and a steady rhythm.