The job market can be unforgiving. It will wear you down, test your resolve, and force you to confront parts of yourself you didn’t know were there. And while everyone feels that pressure in their own way, I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t felt exceptionally stacked against me at times.
Yesterday I ran my resume through an AI model against a role I’m qualified for.
The output told me the compensation I should be targeting:
• Minimum: $118,000
• Target: $138,400
• Stretch: $145,000–$150,000
Yet I can’t even get in the room for an interview.
What makes it harder is knowing what I bring to the table. I’m a USGA‑verified professional golfer, an off‑clock golf content creator, and someone with 13 years in tech across recruiting, sales, SAP, custom software development, and infrastructure. The only vertical I haven’t touched is telecom.
I’m also actively fundraising for the U.S. Open Championship on May 4th, 2026, which somehow gets interpreted as a distraction instead of evidence of discipline, pressure management, and elite performance.
When the job market shut its doors, I pivoted. I helped a company with the #1 skincare product on Amazon run a 10,000‑affiliate program through Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and into 2026. I built systems, revived dormant channels, and turned chaos into revenue. That’s not theory. That’s execution.
And still, the silence from recruiters is louder than ever. It’s frustrating because I was trained by some of the best. I know what great recruiting looks like. I know what responsiveness and respect look like. I know what it means to treat candidates like humans, not filters.
There’s a story I keep coming back to. March 28, 1990 Stacey King, a rookie who sat the bench for the Chicago Bulls, once went 0–4 in 17 minutes during a game where Michael Jordan scored 69 points. After the win, reporters asked him how he felt about the night.
His answer was perfect: “I will always remember tonight as the night that Michael Jordan and I combined for 70 points.”
That’s the mindset I’m choosing.
Find the angle. Keep the humor. Stay in the fight.
Because sometimes resilience is the only stat that matters.
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