Auto Replies, Dead Ends, and 100 Applications Later…

Welcome to my job hunt in the form of a chart.

This past week and a half, I decided to treat my job search like a data-driven marketing campaign. Applications went out like email blasts, responses trickled in like click-throughs, and—surprise—the bounce rate was impressive.

In total, I applied to 100 jobs. Most (65) went through LinkedIn, 32 through Indeed, and 3 through “Other”—which is basically the job-seeking equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle.

From those 100 applications:

• 60 got auto responses so generic they could’ve been written by an AI with a coffee addiction and commitment issues.

• 35 heard the sound of silence (and I don’t mean the Simon & Garfunkel version).

• 5 managed to trigger a human response (real people! actual typing!).

• 4 led to actual conversations.

• 3 fizzled out, either by my realizing the job was no longer listed or I went back into the application systems and saw I was no longer under consideration.

This little Sankey diagram tells a bigger story: job hunting in 2025 is part persistence, part luck, and 100% a masterclass in ghosting. Also, the age-old story of “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” continues - as each of the human responses I received came via connections to hiring managers or people within those companies who were willing to chat.

But I’m not discouraged. I’ve learned to celebrate the small victories—like hearing from a real human or making it past the digital gatekeepers. I’m optimizing the funnel, adjusting my outreach strategy, and trying not to refresh my inbox every 3.2 minutes.

So if you’re hiring (or just want to talk marketing, tech, or how to survive a tsunami of auto-responses), my DMs are open. I’m a free agent, and I’ve got the stats to prove it.