Woman Who’s Worked For Fortune 500 Companies Shares How She Can’t Find A Job Despite Having 10 Years Of Experience
The current job market is messy.
Companies in the service sector hire fast enough—even three years after the pandemic began, hospitality businesses remain far from their 2020 employment rates, and there are currently over 2 million unfilled positions in the industry.
But if we look at tech, we see waves of layoffs. Just days ago, Amazon said it is planning to let go of another 9,000 employees in divisions like advertising operations and cloud computing (which are among its most profitable) and on March 14, Mark Zuckerberg announced Meta is preparing to kick out 10,000 of its staff, warning in a memo about “the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years.”
But these are just numbers. Statistics. And they’re hard to visualize. To better understand the situation, we need to look at the people behind them.
Meet digital creator Wesley Anna, who is trying and struggling to find a new place to work at
Image credits: itswesleyanna
In one of her recent TikTok videos, designer and content creator Wesley Anna (@itswesleyanna) showed how her job search is going after she was laid off.
The senior-level specialist explained that despite having a decade of experience (three of which were with a Fortune 500 company, and another one was with a few big tech brands, including SoftBank and Dropbox), she has yet to receive an offer. Even though she sent out 100 applications.
“Are you curious about how the job market is doing right now? Well, let me show you.”
Image credits: itswesleyanna
“This is my job tracker in Notion, and I’ve hidden all the roles for obvious reasons.”
Image credits: itswesleyanna
“There are a hundred positions listed here. I’ve applied for a hundred jobs.”
Image credits: itswesleyanna
“I’m not entry-level, I’m not even mid-level. I am a senior designer. I have 10 years of experience.”
Image credits: itswesleyanna
“Three of those years were with a Fortune 500 company. Another one of those years was working with big tech brands like SoftBank and Dropbox, and yet, still I wake up to emails like this every single day.”
Image credits: itswesleyanna
After learning about her experiences, you might be wondering how Wesley Anna affords to stay unemployed for all this time. In fact, it’s a question she gets asked a lot.
“There’s a few answers to this,” the woman said in another TikTok.
“I live in the US and I made a high salary before getting laid off and those checks were pretty substantial… I have savings. I am a very big believer in keeping a six-months emergency fund in the bank at all times for times like this.”
Wesley Anna added that she also moved back home after she lost her job and is now living with her family again. “[It is] an absolute privilege and something I’m grateful for every day,” she explained.
Another reason is the passive income that she makes from her online content, most notably her YouTube channel and Notion templates.
Plus, Wesley Anna’s boyfriend still has a full-time job and he’s able to cover a larger part of living expenses. “To balance out [his] contributions, I am doing more household stuff, like taking care of his dog and doing all of the cooking,” she said.
Wesley Anna admitted she grew up with “a pretty toxic sense of self-reliance” but she said she’s been working on healing herself over the last few years and has learned that “it’s okay to lean on others and ask for help. It doesn’t make you weak.”
“In the end, we all have things that are in our favor and things that aren’t, and it’s up to us and no one else to make the best of our resources.”
The popularity of Wesley Anna’s video — which has been viewed 365K times in just a few days — shows that her story is part of a bigger narrative
@itswesleyanna Replying to @ekklee1 job market update 😔✌🏼 #jobhunting #layoffs #unemployed #unemployment ♬ original sound – Wesley Anna
Many factors influence how long it takes a person to find a job. According to Indeed, the #1 job site in the world with over 300M unique visitors every month (that also commented on Wesley Anna’s video), some of the most important are:
- Economic conditions;
- Location;
- Experience;
- Flexibility;
- Length of unemployment;
- Quality of materials;
- Job search methods;
- Professional network;
- Other professional and personal commitments.
Because of the variance, it’s important to set realistic goals and avoid getting quickly demotivated.
Indeed also said that people who want to find a job faster should consider the following steps:
- Proofread your general resume and cover letter;
- Update your social media;
- Send out applications regularly;
- Contact companies directly;
- Adjust your expectations;
- Ask for feedback;
- Improve your skills.
“On average, it takes about 3-6 months from start to finish to get a job,” said FlexJobs career coach, Cidnye Work. “That means it could take as many as 10-20 applications to get one interview. And, on top of that, it can take 10-15 interviews to get one job offer.”
So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that people have a lot to say about it
I have a Master’s Degree and decades of experience, and lost my last job to the pandemic. A few months of sparse interviews after, I had a birthday. The moment my age had a 6 in front of it, even that little bit of interest in employing me totally dried up. I neither look or act like someone in their 60s, and have better health, both physical and mental, and more energy that a lot of people a lot younger than me. I’ve got a good 20+ working years left in me, and have no plans to retire anytime soon. I come from a family that has had multiple relatives who lived to over 100, even back when that was very unusual. Why should I spend 1/3 of a long life in retirement, trying to make do on a dwindling income? But no one will even look at my resume, except my husband. He’s starting a new business and I’m running his office, though not drawing a salary until the business grows to a specific point we calculated we can afford it. F*****g sucks to face rampant ageism in an age when the nature of work is becoming more open to diversity—-age is part of diversity, you know.
Same. MS in Finance, BS's in Accounting and Economics. I found it happened when I had passed 50. Suddenly the headhunters that called constantly stopped. I will get an interviews and right after they figure out how old I am, I get the "No Thank You" email. I haven't had more than a week unemployed since I was 15. I've been looking for more than 2 years now.
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Too many in graphic design, the companies are probably looking for a lower paying employee, and, it makes you wonder what's in this ladies background. Are the companies seeing red flags in all her videos? Wondering if she will become a nightmare at work? Talk to HR folks, and even the leftist ones will tell you that SJW stuff, putting pronouns on your resume, etc, will get it blown off.
Don't know why you're getting downvotes. This doesn't sound like your personal mentality, just ideas which are I'm seeing out there as well. Upvote for you
Load More Replies... Working in the design world, I see this a lot. I've got 20 years under my belt, and would LOVE to have someone like her with 10 years experience (if they're good) on my team. Unfortunately I'm not the one picking/paying employees and the jobs always seem to go to the lowest price. Problem is lowest price = lowest quality = extra time on spent on the job and that doesn't really equate to savings.
That ol' dried-up, chestnut, "Pay peanuts 🥜; Get monkeys. 🐒 " springs to mind. Most short-sighted business strategy, ever.
Load More Replies...
I suspect AI will make it even harder for these types of professionals
How about me? 30 years' experience, 5 degrees, over 100 applications last year alone. Nada.
I'm a self employed (freelancer) sw developer with 15 years of experience, including an intermediate statistics course from a well known US university and a database specialist certificate from one of the bigges tech companies. Before that I managed countrywide IT resellers and retail networks, admininstrated $50M government sales, and the like. Now I plan to leave the freelancer field ('environment changed'), and sent out 27 applications in 2 years to international organizations and NGOs like the UN, and have 2 rejections and 25 institutes that never responded. I'm not in trouble, I have my own business that makes money (but less and less fun). But since I saw a posting with the dream job I ever wanted to do and I know I would perfectly match, and got no response, I hate all the HR teams who can't even send out at least an automated response: thanks, but no thanks. To be honest, I don't even want to work in a workplace where people who apply to them are so disregarded.
If I found a prospective employee whining on tiktok I would not hire them either. Especially in the tech field - security is so important that someone putting all their personal info, and all their contacts' info at risk like that would be a huge red flag.
A friend is an ophthalmologist in another country. He has several different offices/stores and hires 70 employees. During the pandemic, employees' hours were reduced to 6 per day, but he kept paying them for 8. Now he's trying to get them to return to 8 hours and they are refusing. He's decided to drastically reduce his staff. My point is that I think a lot of these companies are responding to the new employee attitudes toward work by pushing people out and not letting new ones in.
because graphic design isn’t a particularly specialised or essential skill set. And they’re a dime a dozen.
Good designers with experience aren't dime a dozen, but unfortunately people who call themselves designers are. They may not be great, but they're cheap. And employers want cheap.
Load More Replies...
I'm not old enough to even work yet and im terrified of the future because im scared i wont be able to make money to live.
Start learning a trade NOW. Learn a trade that is needed, you wont always make big money but you will be comfortable. Forget college. Learn a trade with the plan of starting your own company in that field.
Load More Replies...
If you are applying in the same market area where you got laid off, then yeah, you are going to have a hard time finding a job. You are competing against a bunch of other laid-off "expert whatevers". Consider moving to a new city.
Or learn skills that are relevant to the current market and in demand rather than get degrees that are quickest and easiest.
Load More Replies...
Sounds like a struggling actress in LA in the 80's. Graphic Designer is just another wet-dream-job, a hard and difficult job I reckon, but everyone with a pencil thinks he's an artist.
Exactly. Most choose this "career" because it is easy. For too long BS jobs were plentiful.
Load More Replies...
If companies hire at all, they want the cheapest possible workers. That is juniors or those with minimum, if any, experience.
Its happy. Its about time all the b******t jobs paying 80k+ go away and never return.
Load More Replies...
Tech industries are laying off people. Times are not good now for applying for a job, isn't that just it, and nothing personal in this? In normal times, I would say if you send 100s of applications then there's either something to fix in your CV or in the selection of jobs you apply for. I don't at all believe in carpet bomb with applications. It doesn't work so that you get a job because you feel you are deserving it based on all the effort you put in applying. The tighter the job market, the more precise you need to match the job. I've heard the advice to have friends look at the CV to see if something needs to be improved. I personally do put a short paragraph in top (not a cover letter, because it may get lost), specifically highlighting *only* the parts of my experience that matches *precisely* this particular job (I couldn't custom write like this if I wrote hundreds of applications). The rest of the CV is kept the same. I write around 10-15 applications.
...in the hope it may help somebody. But BP users live all over the world and have different jobs, so it's not one-size-fits-all!
Load More Replies...
I kept getting hit with "you're overqualified, I don't think you'd be happy in this role" c**p. All because I no longer practice as an RN. I like healthcare, just not the stress I was under as a trauma/ER nurse. I stopped for several years, then moved to another state and was told it would take at least a year of clinical, along with about a year or so of continuing education and possibly having to take the NCLEX again. I can't afford to not work right now. So, I took a smaller role in administration with a great hospital system and now work closely with doctors/providers making about what I made as a starting RN. But I had to practically beg them to give me a chance. It's not that they weren't great, they all are, and prove it everyday, and I guess I can see it from their perspective, but man! I just wanted to be able to use my degree to the best of my ability AND afford food!!!
You can't complain. If you applied for a 1000 jobs and they don't need your particular service, why is that their fault? I did 5 years laying slabs I wouldn't moan if a 1000 office jobs didn't need my service. Basically moaning you can't find a job. Wishing the best but you might need to find a regulate job until your skill is needed by a company.
Hey man, you speak too much common sense, people gonna hate you for it! The time of b******t office jobs that were created for the sole purpose of hiring affirmative action box checkers, is over.
Load More Replies... I have a Master’s Degree and decades of experience, and lost my last job to the pandemic. A few months of sparse interviews after, I had a birthday. The moment my age had a 6 in front of it, even that little bit of interest in employing me totally dried up. I neither look or act like someone in their 60s, and have better health, both physical and mental, and more energy that a lot of people a lot younger than me. I’ve got a good 20+ working years left in me, and have no plans to retire anytime soon. I come from a family that has had multiple relatives who lived to over 100, even back when that was very unusual. Why should I spend 1/3 of a long life in retirement, trying to make do on a dwindling income? But no one will even look at my resume, except my husband. He’s starting a new business and I’m running his office, though not drawing a salary until the business grows to a specific point we calculated we can afford it. F*****g sucks to face rampant ageism in an age when the nature of work is becoming more open to diversity—-age is part of diversity, you know.
Same. MS in Finance, BS's in Accounting and Economics. I found it happened when I had passed 50. Suddenly the headhunters that called constantly stopped. I will get an interviews and right after they figure out how old I am, I get the "No Thank You" email. I haven't had more than a week unemployed since I was 15. I've been looking for more than 2 years now.
Load More Replies... Too many in graphic design, the companies are probably looking for a lower paying employee, and, it makes you wonder what's in this ladies background. Are the companies seeing red flags in all her videos? Wondering if she will become a nightmare at work? Talk to HR folks, and even the leftist ones will tell you that SJW stuff, putting pronouns on your resume, etc, will get it blown off.
Don't know why you're getting downvotes. This doesn't sound like your personal mentality, just ideas which are I'm seeing out there as well. Upvote for you
Load More Replies... Working in the design world, I see this a lot. I've got 20 years under my belt, and would LOVE to have someone like her with 10 years experience (if they're good) on my team. Unfortunately I'm not the one picking/paying employees and the jobs always seem to go to the lowest price. Problem is lowest price = lowest quality = extra time on spent on the job and that doesn't really equate to savings.
That ol' dried-up, chestnut, "Pay peanuts 🥜; Get monkeys. 🐒 " springs to mind. Most short-sighted business strategy, ever.
Load More Replies... I suspect AI will make it even harder for these types of professionals
How about me? 30 years' experience, 5 degrees, over 100 applications last year alone. Nada.
I'm a self employed (freelancer) sw developer with 15 years of experience, including an intermediate statistics course from a well known US university and a database specialist certificate from one of the bigges tech companies. Before that I managed countrywide IT resellers and retail networks, admininstrated $50M government sales, and the like. Now I plan to leave the freelancer field ('environment changed'), and sent out 27 applications in 2 years to international organizations and NGOs like the UN, and have 2 rejections and 25 institutes that never responded. I'm not in trouble, I have my own business that makes money (but less and less fun). But since I saw a posting with the dream job I ever wanted to do and I know I would perfectly match, and got no response, I hate all the HR teams who can't even send out at least an automated response: thanks, but no thanks. To be honest, I don't even want to work in a workplace where people who apply to them are so disregarded.
If I found a prospective employee whining on tiktok I would not hire them either. Especially in the tech field - security is so important that someone putting all their personal info, and all their contacts' info at risk like that would be a huge red flag.
A friend is an ophthalmologist in another country. He has several different offices/stores and hires 70 employees. During the pandemic, employees' hours were reduced to 6 per day, but he kept paying them for 8. Now he's trying to get them to return to 8 hours and they are refusing. He's decided to drastically reduce his staff. My point is that I think a lot of these companies are responding to the new employee attitudes toward work by pushing people out and not letting new ones in.
because graphic design isn’t a particularly specialised or essential skill set. And they’re a dime a dozen.
Good designers with experience aren't dime a dozen, but unfortunately people who call themselves designers are. They may not be great, but they're cheap. And employers want cheap.
Load More Replies... I'm not old enough to even work yet and im terrified of the future because im scared i wont be able to make money to live.
Start learning a trade NOW. Learn a trade that is needed, you wont always make big money but you will be comfortable. Forget college. Learn a trade with the plan of starting your own company in that field.
Load More Replies... If you are applying in the same market area where you got laid off, then yeah, you are going to have a hard time finding a job. You are competing against a bunch of other laid-off "expert whatevers". Consider moving to a new city.
Or learn skills that are relevant to the current market and in demand rather than get degrees that are quickest and easiest.
Load More Replies... Sounds like a struggling actress in LA in the 80's. Graphic Designer is just another wet-dream-job, a hard and difficult job I reckon, but everyone with a pencil thinks he's an artist.
Exactly. Most choose this "career" because it is easy. For too long BS jobs were plentiful.
Load More Replies... If companies hire at all, they want the cheapest possible workers. That is juniors or those with minimum, if any, experience.
Its happy. Its about time all the b******t jobs paying 80k+ go away and never return.
Load More Replies... Tech industries are laying off people. Times are not good now for applying for a job, isn't that just it, and nothing personal in this? In normal times, I would say if you send 100s of applications then there's either something to fix in your CV or in the selection of jobs you apply for. I don't at all believe in carpet bomb with applications. It doesn't work so that you get a job because you feel you are deserving it based on all the effort you put in applying. The tighter the job market, the more precise you need to match the job. I've heard the advice to have friends look at the CV to see if something needs to be improved. I personally do put a short paragraph in top (not a cover letter, because it may get lost), specifically highlighting *only* the parts of my experience that matches *precisely* this particular job (I couldn't custom write like this if I wrote hundreds of applications). The rest of the CV is kept the same. I write around 10-15 applications.
...in the hope it may help somebody. But BP users live all over the world and have different jobs, so it's not one-size-fits-all!
Load More Replies... I kept getting hit with "you're overqualified, I don't think you'd be happy in this role" c**p. All because I no longer practice as an RN. I like healthcare, just not the stress I was under as a trauma/ER nurse. I stopped for several years, then moved to another state and was told it would take at least a year of clinical, along with about a year or so of continuing education and possibly having to take the NCLEX again. I can't afford to not work right now. So, I took a smaller role in administration with a great hospital system and now work closely with doctors/providers making about what I made as a starting RN. But I had to practically beg them to give me a chance. It's not that they weren't great, they all are, and prove it everyday, and I guess I can see it from their perspective, but man! I just wanted to be able to use my degree to the best of my ability AND afford food!!!
You can't complain. If you applied for a 1000 jobs and they don't need your particular service, why is that their fault? I did 5 years laying slabs I wouldn't moan if a 1000 office jobs didn't need my service. Basically moaning you can't find a job. Wishing the best but you might need to find a regulate job until your skill is needed by a company.
Hey man, you speak too much common sense, people gonna hate you for it! The time of b******t office jobs that were created for the sole purpose of hiring affirmative action box checkers, is over.
Load More Replies...
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