Five months, 400 applications, one interview, and finally the offer

I'll be honest about how rough it got: five months of searching, more than 400 applications across Indeed and LinkedIn, and a single interview to show for it. I started out cautiously optimistic. I had customer service experience, I was applying to remote roles that looked like a good fit, and I assumed something would land within a few weeks. It didn't. I kept a spreadsheet to track everything, and watching the row count pass 100, then 200, then 300 with no callbacks wore me down. I started doubting my resume, my cover letters, the whole approach. I rewrote the resume twice. I even applied to roles a step below my experience just to get any response. Still nothing. Some weeks I'd send 30 or 40 applications and hear back from none of them. The silence got exhausting in its own way. Around the four-and-a-half-month mark, a Customer Service Representative posting on Indeed finally went somewhere. A screening call, then a full interview, the only one in the entire search. I thought it went well, but after months without feedback I honestly couldn't tell anymore. When the offer came in, it was below what I needed for the role to actually work financially. So I countered. I was scared to, because this was my one shot and I didn't want ↓