Comment by taurath

I just finished a multi-year career break and was able to navigate the market and land 2 offers - every company is dealing with a massive deluge of fake applicants. The front door is poisoned right now - do not funnel your job search through it.

You need to prove you're a real person now - the first way is to get a referral from someone you worked with in the past. Literally anyone - if you're not reaching out to everyone at any company that even may be hiring for a role you want, you should be.

Another way is to be posting somewhat regularly, having some online presence, showing your looking for work, are a person, and have a positive mindset.

Your resume should be tailored for the role, but not generated by AI (it'll get flagged) - spend less time messing with your resume though and more time networking. If you as you say have been in the industry 25 years, there absolutely will be someone who will give you referrals.

Companies are hiring, but the way you and I have gotten roles in the last decade+ is mostly shut.