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I have landed a new job recently and during the job search I also did statistics.

For context I am 30 year old french, had my one and only job for 6 years doing PHP (sf2, postgres, redis, solr, rest), I have a 2 year degree where in europe most people have a 3 to 5 year degree.

Here is my statistics to applying to ads on indeed:

France: - application: 40 - noreply: 20 - phone screen: 7 - interview: 3 - landed: 1

Luxembourg (french speaking): - application: 18 - noreply: 9 - phone screen: 5 - interview: 1 - landed: 1

Remote (europe): - application: 7 - noreply: 5 - interview: 0

Spain(5)/Portugal(2)/Uk(2)/Switzerland(1): - application: 10 - noreply: 1 - phone screen: 5 - interview: 3 - landed: 0

My takes over are:

- Cover letter doesn't increase my chances of having a reply.

- Changing my CV after the feedback of a recruiter (he asked me to lie by omission) didn't improved my chances.

- I don't apply to company I recognize the name. If I do lots of people do too therefor there is a lots of better candidates than me and the company can afford to run me through many interviews.

- I don't apply to company that do more than 1 interview, they have too much time on their hands to find a reason not to hire me.

- I don't apply to company that specifically ask for a 3 to 5 years degree even if I fit the rest of the requirements.

This last job search (the one that landed my first job 7 years ago wasn't a bliss either) made me feel extremely under-confident in my capacity to grow my career even having a job.



Unsolicited advice: apply to companies who require a longer degree. After a couple years what you studied doesn't matter any more, experience is king.




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