Six months later and I am still without a job.
How have those of you with disabilities overcome the difficulties in this market?
I'm totally lost and don't know how to proceed.
I've rewritten my resume and do get interviews
There were 4 instances where I went through the entire process and they ended up hiring another one of the candidates
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abraham-mathew-21221b29/
You know this I’m sure. But most people don’t know that CP affects different people differently. I have left hemiparesis CP that really only affects my left hand and very slightly my left foot - i walk with a slight limp. But properly conditioned, I’ve run a 10 minute mile up to a 10k.
I’ve been working professionally since 1996 across 10 jobs from everything from startups, to boring enterprise jobs to BigTech and full time for consulting companies. My last three jobs have been remote as have been the interviews. No one had the slightest clue about my having CP since going remote.
Why do you think it’s your CP and not just the market sucking for everyone right now?
Why do you have that you are “physically disabled” on you LinkedIn profile? Don’t do that. You are giving people a reason to discriminate against you unlawfully.
Second point: if you are just blindly submitting your resume to job sites/ATS’s you have already lost. I’m very credentialed in my field and I heard crickets from fire bombing my resume in 2023 and last year when I was looking for a job back to back. But that was my plan C while I was going through the interview processes based on my network and a targeted outreach where I had the exact set of skills and specialized experience that were looking for and responding to inbound recruiters.
But if your skillset is generic, you have to lean on your network, every open req gets hundreds of applications within a couple of days - LinkedIn shows you.
Please don’t tell me you are one of the “allies” making sure we engage in “right speak”.
There has to be a hand-in-glove fit to the team for these roles to be effective, which means interviews often get delayed because someone key can't be there... then later, another key person is out, and the cycle turns into a crisis and finally interviews happen and the role gets filled.
But, as you know, AI has seriously cut into your niche and hiring has been very minimal for over a year in data-related roles. Non-data people can do so much more with the help of an AI that can read CSV output from common data sources that I'm seeing people get more benefit from directly being able to work with the sources themselves and ask questions rather than get a report made from the BI team.
I would consider widening your search into other domains, adding AI to your workflow and make it front-and-center.
I clicked on your LinkedIn profile and you are wearing the most casual outfit I have ever seen on a LinkedIn profile, so I would consider finding or taking a photograph that looks like a typical job seeker. I would then remove any recent activity from my profile: without logging in, your first post is about difficulties you are facing and the third is a "hot take" that some companies would not appreciate. I'd cut all personal information that wouldn't get me hired.
Lastly, I'd make a more memorable and higher resolution main graphic. Right now, if this is an example of the quality of your work output, it is very blurry on my 15" laptop and doesn't give a great impression in that regard. None of this is a complaint or attack - I heard your desire for input and am sharing my feedback as a person who has been in hiring roles for 2 decades.
But not seeing that profile myself, and assuming you don’t look like dogshit, the rest of the above advice definitely rings true. “Difficulties” and “hot takes” sound like the profile directs someone’s first impression of you in a sour direction. With LI it’s all about conformity and optimism.
It matters for people like OP who are already at a disadvantage. Yes this may not matter to many who are privileged to have a great job and do great work and their employer may not care. But when you are asking to be hired by another company and they don't know how great you are, you need to be presentable in a professional setting.
Overall, we need to stop normalizing being too casual in professional setting. Yes, even as Software Engineers. If all things are equal, I will always pick someone who cares about looking professional for work than not.
Then you say you didn't see the profile. Why bother typing all that without even bothering to click? Do you opine on everything you hear other people talking about without looking.
There is essentially no downside to taking a more professional photo. There is absolutely potential downside to having too casual of a photo (even if it's a silly truth)
All this is to say, GenAI is booming but there's competing factors going on for businesses to hire.
Also a different take, look for contract jobs. As with (1) above, my company isn't hiring FT but they're open to contractors.
I wish you luck.
I think once IRS section 174 is overturned the market will get better.
Unless you're interested in applying your statistics knowledge to the military industrial complex or AI market, I'd probably recommend diversifying a bit. My honest $0.02.
What I’m saying here is that (a) your time in the market isn’t absurd for this current economy, and (b) it’s also not provably due to your disability so don’t go blaming that without proof or you’ll talk yourself into giving up. Shits HARD right now man just keep trying and focus hard on networking and referrals. It seems the only way to get a job right now
You can also try pivoting to something adjacent like data engineering and I've read a few people had luck by focusing a lot of time/energy on companies they like as opposed to specific positions/roles, but I'm not sure how well that would work because I've never tried it.
Also, it helps, in my experience, to be incredibly up front. "This is my diagnosis. This is the prognosis. Here are my achievements." You shouldn't have to reveal anything, and certainly no one can ask, but it breaks the ice.
I don't the interviews are going bad... it's just super competitive so companies have so many options on who to hire
Yes, it is this and not likely related to your abilities or disabilities so much as the natural flow and quality of the interview.
Having interviewed a lot of people, some candidates really make an awesome impression and stand out. If we don't have one of those stand-out, hire-them-now candidates, we don't hire. So I would work on being the person they can't wait to send an offer to -- in addition to skillset, this most often comes down to charm, a sense of "getting it" or clicking with the overall role/company, reading the room, and excellent natural back-and-forth, which is super hard over video calls.
The key here is numbers. In a tough market, you probably need 10 interviews to get hired. Figure out what got you those first few interviews and lean in and make many more happen. You'll find the people you click with and your experience of going to multiple interviews will give you great practice in the meantime.
Same thing as a person with a social-emotional disability - get screwed. I'm being pushed out of an early career role even though I'm overqualified and producing similar numbers as my peers. I'll end up working at Walmart. Good luck.
If you have the skills, please do your best to keep applying them at a new job
It's really important not to let this wear you down and defeat you. You're worth it
Network did not get me enough interviews. I think this was fatal. Resume blasting is useless but I only kept doing it to not feel the despair of "doing nothing" each day, that was the only purpose. Menial jobs in-person just tell me to apply online
I got rejected from Walmart and related jobs (stocking/janitorial/cashier) even hiding/dumbing down all my tech experience. And it's been going on for months
Paid too much for therapy and insurance.
I now believe the market has concluded that they aren't looking for someone with my skills, too generic or something. Too intelligent for minimum wage, not skilled enough for industry. I work on certs but I figure what's the point if it isn't the difference between interview or no interview, a literal phone screen (setting aside an actual offer). It costs money and I'm following in the footsteps of an industry that offers me no path forward to survival. I have specifically been rejected on the basis of my employment gap regardless of explanation, all the shit I've attempted to make up for it. It's meaningless punishment for already being unemployable
Persistence is the key, but at some point you just gotta admit to yourself that enough is enough and no amount of screaming at a wall will change reality. I needed a win at some point, but I didn't get anything, zero. Lamenting the death of my career daily. This is not a feeling you can medicate or counsel away. Have all but accepted that homelessness is approaching for me and I'll soon have to downsize my life goals
This is exactly the same approach anyone else should take. Good luck.
