Any struggling unemployed here?
I definitely messed up and didn't find a new job before the previous one ended. I initially had some interviews but, now with the tariffs and worsening job market situation, I'm getting more worried with each passing day. My inbox has been very quiet with no interview requests and I'm afraid that I might be unemployed for a long time. I'm definitely disappointed that I put myself in this situation.
I'm also losing motivation to submit apps and some days I don't even look at job boards. I can certainly see why some people just give up.
It’s tough out there, but don’t let the situation define you. Based on the most helpful WSO content, here are some actionable steps and advice to help you regain momentum:
Treat Job Hunting Like a Job: Dedicate specific hours each day to your job search. Organize your research on employers, make networking calls, and practice interview questions. Hold yourself accountable—this structure can help you stay motivated.
Network Strategically: Informational interviews can be a game-changer. Reach out to alumni or industry professionals for advice, not just job leads. Build relationships, and when the time comes to apply, you’ll have a stronger connection to the company or hiring manager.
Set Up Alerts: Use platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed to set up daily job alerts. This ensures you don’t miss opportunities and saves time scrolling through endless postings.
Maintain a Routine: Establish a daily routine to keep your spirits up. Even if it’s just spending mornings applying for jobs and afternoons on hobbies or self-improvement, having structure can make a big difference.
Upskill and Stay Active: Use this time to explore interests or build new skills. Whether it’s taking a course, learning a language, or volunteering, these activities can make you more well-rounded and keep your energy positive.
Stay Social: Spend time with friends and family. Being around people who uplift you can help maintain your confidence and positivity, which will reflect in your interviews.
Focus on the Long Game: Remember, unemployment isn’t a reflection of your worth. Stay positive, keep pushing, and remind yourself that the best is yet to come. As one WSO user put it, “You gotta keep your sense of humor and smile through all this BS.”
Lastly, don’t hesitate to file for unemployment benefits if you’re eligible. It’s a resource you’ve earned and can provide some financial relief while you focus on your next steps. Keep pushing, and don’t give up—you’ve got this!
Sources: Navigating the Unemployment Terrain, Looking for Perspectives on Unemployment, 9+ months of unemployment and feeling cursed…, Navigating the Unemployment Terrain, Unemployed and living in parents' basement, losing hope
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Hey man I’m in a similar situation but all we can do is keep going and stay positive. From what I’ve been seeing it’s a tough time for more than just us and things will get better as long as we put our best efforts forward and don’t give up. Sometimes great things take time but stay persistent
any update on your end?
Same boat. Time to grind mba
Do MBA's hire people who have been let go/not ideal work experience? I'm talking about a decent school atleast upto M15
Yeah sure but you have to have good recommendations and some people who are let go do not have them.
I’ve been unemployed since graduating 2 years ago. I had good internships, great resume, great recommendations, etc.
Aside from a few sets of interviews at the Fed, I have been ghosted for 100% of applications (>1,000) over the last year.
Luckily, I thought ahead and saw this coming. I am only 2 semesters away from pivoting into a new industry.
I submit applications occasionally but I don’t even expect to get rejection emails anymore. Every job has 1,000 applicants by the first 24 hours. And because I have no “experience,” I am effectively unemployable.
I only go on WSO occasionally to find posts like yours. Normally, I’d say something uplifting, but honestly, I’d seriously consider a backup plan.
The finance job market is dying and there’s nothing that will bring it back. Corporations have been doing mass layoffs by the 10,000s since 2022 when the stock market was at all time highs and when corporate profits were setting historical records.
Tariffs have nothing to do with it. The fact is, with the development of AI, corporations have already realized they have no use of us. Learn a skill that can’t be easily automated by ChatGPT.
Sorry for the depressing comment but I feel like this needs to be said.
what are you studying now? Better job prospects there?
Personally, moving to the medical field. Better on my conscience anyway. If that fails, I’m not against learning a trade or joining the military.
Gotta let go of the ego and the prestige. But I was never a target school kid anyway. I didn’t quite fit in with the Wall Street types. I’m better off with regular people
By your logic, wouldn't the Finance industry be dead after the GFC? However, roles came back eventually.
Incorrect. GFC was cyclical. This is structural. As I said, tariffs had nothing to do with the layoffs over the last 3 years. They have everything to do with AI. Pull up dates of first rounds of tech/finance/corporate layoffs and compare them to the date ChatGPT dropped. Not a correlation; a causation.
Finance jobs will not come back. Drivers are as follows:
1. Labor supply has shifted out. Anyone else noticed education inflation? The M.S. is the new B.A. If this trend follows, PhD will be next. Don’t even get me started on CFA, FRM, etc.
2. Labor demand has permanently shifted in. SWE’s may have taken some of the demand. But a large portion has been or will be deleted. AGI development will make the vast majority of corporate jobs obsolete — and banks know this. Operations and trading will surely be automated. Maybe bankers/VC/PE guys will be ok but headcount will still drop. Also, data analytics/science is not only over saturated with M.S. & PhDs, but also can and will be directly replaced by AI/automation. Which brings me to my next point
3. Investing trends inherently involve automation. Passive investing. ETFs. Algo trading. Who’s dumb enough to invest with an active manager unless it’s citadel or its peers? Financial literature shows the optimal strategy is to hold the market. To the retail and institutional investors alike, ETFs have taken over. Unless you’re a math prodigy destined for D.E. Shaw or alike, trading and investing is being automated, there’s no use for you. PIMCO FI trader tells me up front: trade support teams won’t be needed in a few years. They’re automating their own job anyway. And headcount at quant funds will drop too, as scripts and AI replace all but the best traders and engineers.
What is the result? Less jobs, lower pay. Guys already embedded in the industry will probably have 10 years or maybe longer.
But to anyone with less than 5 years experience, market is closed. Time to pivot industries.
Keep at it man, as others said, there's a lot of labour in supply right now with little demand
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I'm in the same boat, got laid off last June and have been looking/struggling landing interviews. For reference I'm in the northeast. I have a masters in quantitative finance you would think I could get something. I did b4 val my first year, covid headcount reduction, then I joined a trading MO role at MF PE then got let go there. I'm trying to get TA/portfolio roles. I have a family business I put on my resume to cover the gap, but I honestly don't know what else to do. I've been networking, cold linkedin connecting w people and trying to get referrals that way. I have 3 years total work experience pretty much. I'd rather not do middle office kind of gigs again bc I don't want to be pigeonholed but idk if I don't have a choice anymore. I feel like the worsening market isn't helping either. People tell me I have a solid resume but that obviously hasn't led to anywhere. I have so much to offer in roles that actually add value but unable to get shot at it. It's not a good feeling. Happy to chat more in messages if it helps you.
Hey, I just wanted to say I hear you — and I’ve been there, too. I also found myself in a tough spot recently when I didn’t line up a new role before my previous one ended. At first, there were a few interviews, but lately? Crickets. With the tariffs and how weird the job market’s been getting, it’s definitely shaken my confidence and motivation. Some days, I don’t even check job boards — and honestly, I get why some people just tap out.
But something that’s helped me keep going is shifting my focus toward remote opportunities — especially virtual assistant (VA) work. It’s not a magic fix, but it is a way to stay productive, earn, and keep building skills while the full-time market rebounds.
There are companies and platforms specifically looking for remote help — and some are actually growing because of the cost-saving appeal of outsourcing. If you're organized, reliable, and good with communication, VA work can be a solid way to stay in the game and maybe even open up longer-term doors.
So if you’re in that space of feeling stuck, just know you’re not alone — and there are alternative paths that still lead forward.
how are you doing, any job update?
A lot of people going through this, not just you. Are you networking?
Yeah. But thank god I voted trump and owned the libs
I'm 32. I'm 20 months unemployed since working FT last, and will be 11 years out of undergrad as of June. It's absolutely frustrating, especially when I network with individuals to try and target roles that they'll claim are "too junior" for me despite me insisting I do not care. I've made it "far" in maybe 3 interview processes, and each time have lost it to people younger than me but they have more "direct" experience.
I'm in NYC, so best "market" to be in but I've been striking out. Despite going to a target, networking with alumni of my school has been an absolute waste of time. Like legitimately - none of those interview processes came about due to an alum helping, with two of those three me getting help from a random person I reached out to on LinkedIn. Asidfe from that, I've had multiple people in my alumni network I reached out to who "offered to help" but its been crickets since, and these are people I have (supposedly) built decent rapport with before.
For the record, I have experience in FI research, junior PM at a mutual fund and ran my very own small investment partnership for years. I always thought that my experience would set me up well for going back into investment research on the sell side, investor relations at a fund or company or joining a startup HF that was "desperate for that first hire." I've had interviews in sellside research, investor relations at the company level and fund level, and they've gone nowhere. I know I lost out at the first two to candidates with less years of experience than me, but more directly "applicable" experience.
It's why I have a growing interest in hearing about what former HF PMs did after "blowing up" - while my investment partnership didn't "blow up" (I simply wanted to go back to work FT before I completely "aged out"), it feels like I am in a similar spot of someone who just won't be able to get "back in" to industry.
Hey @brianklk, I really feel you on this — the job market is tough right now, and it’s completely normal to feel overwhelmed or discouraged. Just know you're not alone.
If you’re open to exploring remote or outsourcing opportunities, there are platforms and services that help connect people with companies looking to outsource roles. One I came across recently focuses on helping startups build remote teams with affordable global talent — might be worth checking out if you're exploring non-traditional roles.
Stay strong and take small steps each day. Even one application or connection can shift things.
Hey could you DM me about this?
Hey OP, how is the market looking for you now? I was struggling mid-April also, sent a number of follow ups to many people in my network, which I am cringing at now. Have things started to turn around for you?
About to hit 18 months. Simple headcount reduction, last in first out, etc. My role was niche (Agency Trading on the origination side) and it has def put me in a tough spot. I got the job fresh out of undergrad in 2022, (non-target, but elite university in the northeast) had it for a year and a half until one day we were told WFH next day and i was out of a job by 10 AM. Have had over 30 total interviews, was the runner up at least 3 or 4 times, just nothing has stuck. This isn't something i'd ever wish on anyone, and unless you've been through it, you can have sympathy but you won't understand.
In the meantime, i've taken up part time job at a family restaurant, volunteer with my church, and up-skill where I can. But, as other comments have mentioned, the burnout gets very real. Some days feel like it's impossible to keep going at this, but this is the career I want and enjoyed what I was doing.
To those out there that are also struggling: you are seen, and you are heard. Keep pushing, get creative, do what you can, but also take care of yourself. I hope there comes a day where we all look back at this period in our lives and see how resilient we were, how much we grew, and how much we overcame.
This is so inspiring! Def made my day It’s been such an isolating experience
I commented here 2 months ago. I had an interview for my dream job and they chose someone internally. This process took a couple months. Completely devasted. 1 year and 1 month since I was let go. I honestly don't know what to do. Can't get interviews without referrals or if I do I get ghosted. I'm stuck in this loop.
What do you tell people you were doing n the meantime and how do you get interviews?
I just say what I wrote here, part time gig at a family business to pay bills, up-skilling, figuring out my next steps. They just want to know you were doing something other than slamming beers on your couch waiting for the phone to ring. In terms of getting interviews, it's been slower lately, which definitely can be attributed to tariffs and overall uncertainty - firms don't expand / hire much when there's uncertainty and rates are still high. Some managers care about the resume gap, others understand layoffs happen and it's a tough market. I'm definitely still stressing, but after you take so many punches, you become tougher (just like you, I also lost out on multiple good opportunities to internal candidates). Hang in there.
In the exact same spot…
I don’t even know what to do anymore
There is no feedback loop. It’s a vicious cycle despite having relevant experience. My confidence is also at an all time low because of this
I resonate with this as well. 1 year plus of being unemployed and this shit does not end. I've been applying like crazy had a final round for my dream job and they went internal. I'm legit broken
Pretty rough all around, including in Europe. I transitioned from a T2 Consultancy to a Corporate role. Whilst the process itself didn't take long (2-3 months total), it took a huge amount of effort - I'm talking over 100 applications, around 50 networking calls and dozens of interviews before landing on a single offer. I wasn't even going for Junior roles, this was mid-high management.
I know this doesn’t contribute much and neither does it help but if anyone wants to talk / rant / need words of encouragement my DMs are open or comment and I’ll DM you. I was in a similarish position not too long ago but never gave up and found the other side.
I’m not a religious person but one phrase that stuck with me is God gives his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers. Everyone will come out of this stronger with an opportunity that was worth the wait.
hi, thank you for this. wondering if we could possibly chat for some advice? thank you
Thanks for this. Would love to chat as well
I’d love to chat as well
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