#306 - How 58 Applications Turned Into 16 Interviews: (Beating the Tech Job Market Game)

If you're curious about Bryan's strategy, you can apply to work with him here: 👉 Application form.

The tech job market is brutal right now. Everyone knows it.

People are sending hundreds of applications, getting ghosted, and wondering what the hell is actually going on behind the scenes of hiring.

So in this episode I sat down with Bryan, someone I met on LinkedIn and later met up with in Reno, and he shared something that honestly blew my mind.

Last year he did what most people do:

Around 250 applications over 8 months… and almost no interviews.

This year he completely changed his approach.

Instead of blasting applications everywhere, he used a targeted strategy and applied to only 58 roles.

That turned into 16 interviews across 9 companies and multiple final rounds.

Yeah… that got my attention.

In this conversation we talk about what he’s seeing on the front lines of the hiring market, including:

• Why most resumes never get seen

• What hiring managers are actually filtering for

• The mistake developers make in behavioral interviews

• Why STAR stories matter way more than people think

• The reality of DSA interviews and why speed matters

• Why applying to the “right level” can dramatically increase your chances

• And why job searching is really a game of probability

If you’ve been applying to jobs and feel like everything is disappearing into a black hole, this episode should help you understand how the hiring game actually works right now.

And honestly, Brian’s story proves something important:

You don’t need hundreds of companies to say yes.

You just need one