I had to change the title of this article a little bit because another medium writer beat me to it, but the sentiment remains so let’s get to it.

I do a something I call a “twenty application test” every quarter where I will send out my resume to 20 companies who are hiring designers to see if I can make the cut.

I’m not the kind of person who will send 100 resumes and accept 100 rejections; as someone who was a Freelancer and also a seasoned job-search artist, the sweet spot for me is 20 applications with a resume format change every 5–7 applications.

And the results this quarter are the most shocking for me, because the amount of interviews I got was a big fat zero. A 100% rejection rate from the first screening.

This has never happened before, not even during my junior years, not even a quarter or two ago in recent history.

So I repeated the test with a junior mentee’s resume, and got another big fat zero. What does this all mean?

We’ve all been expecting this, and I’m smiling as I write this because I’ve again managed to successfully predict the market’s doom but here it is:

The UX bubble has finally popped.

Main Points:

1. Current Market Challenges:

• The author experiences a 100% rejection rate from job applications, indicating a downturn in the UX job market.

2. Market Evolution:

• The UX job market has evolved into a referral-based system, where personal connections increasingly dictate job opportunities.

3. Strategic Adjustments:

• Professionals are encouraged to adapt to the changing market by networking effectively and possibly considering a shift towards product design, which focuses more on business impact than traditional UX roles.

4. Employment Strategies:

• The article advises against relying solely on conventional job application methods and suggests building relationships with tech recruiters to improve job prospects.

5. Final Advice:

• Emphasizes the need for resilience and adaptability in navigating the current job landscape, suggesting that success may now require a more pragmatic and less idealistic approach to career management.