Thread - #jobsearch perspective - as an experienced Recruiter I would guesstimate there is an 85% chance that no matter what you do or did during the application and/or interviews you won't get the job. Take comfort & confidence in this. Don't beat yourself up or pity yourself

Start with your resume & application. In my experience if you just apply blindly to a company in which you don't know anyone & didnt network your way into being invited to apply, your chances of being interviewed are slim no matter what you do. The reason for this are as follows:

1st let me add some perspective & context. In my experience the employers & jobs that actually interview u "blindly" not knowing u at all/no connection/no referral from friends etc & especially those that hire u after that, u don't want those jobs or employers anyway! Trust me!

the caveat for that is companies that interview you in such a great & courteous way that let's you interview them as much as they interview you to the point that by the time it gets to the offer you feel they are your friends at that point & you do know them reasonably well

Back to the issue re resume & application. As @Adam_Karpiak mentioned, my ~85% guesstimate is too kind. Here is why - a very high percentage of jobs, no one got the job or no one externally at least. ~33% of posted jobs are canceled, put on hold, changed, or filled internally.

Warning 33% is another guesstimate from experience. Probably closer to 50% of non evergreen job postings not filled by anyone. Smaller the company & the less certain of their budget the higher this % will be. Take comfort & confidence that odds r nobody will or did get the job

unfortunately, it gets worse re your odds as a "blind" applicant for a job posting. There is probably a 25% chance minimum that even if someone is hired for the job , the employer had that person in mind before you even applied. Employers don't take down postings until its filled

we r social beings. U can interview w. em 10X, but both sides r still taking a leap of faith re hiring u.
For any decent job posted there is someone out there who already worked w. a member of the team or a trusted partner who vouches for the job candidate. Can't compete w. that

Thus, u can take comfort & confidence knowing that even if you apply perfectly & interview perfectly they may just go with another candidate who someone at the employer or trusted partner already worked with in the past & can vouch for em from personal direct experience.

this happened to 1 of my candidates. He got an interview & crushed it & the hiring mgr loved him. Problem was the #2 on the team previously worked for same company. Once #2 confirmed that the employer was a good source for talent, he referred his friend & hired that guy instead

Leaving all of the above behind, lets go back to your resume. Even if it is a real job & truly is open to "competitive bidding" from jobseekers like you, you will still have to overcome all biases from the hiring mgr & recruiter. Both conscious & unconscious bias. I'll elaborate

Sometimes it could just be as simple as if u are not coming from a certain group of target employers the company likes to poach from they may not even look at you any further upon seeing those employers absent from your resume. Nothing you can do. Its not fair. But that's reality

u can get world class resume coaching from @Adam_Karpiak etc & u should to make sure u put your best resume foot forward. But u should take comfort & confidence knowing many times no matter what u do to your resume, it won't work bc u didn't work @ the targeted employers.

there are numerous other examples of unconcious & concious bias that jobseekers need to overcome. But that would be a distraction from this thread. Just know & take comfort in knowing that bias is additional headwind you will face when applying for jobs "blindly" w/on networking