If your search feels harder than it should, you are not imagining it. Several trends have compounded at once, and most of them are structural rather than personal. Naming them helps you spend your energy where it still pays off.
Volume, and the one-click trap
Easy applying cuts both ways. When applying takes one click, popular roles collect hundreds of applications in hours — so recruiters spend even less time on each one, and your odds per application fall. The convenience that helps you also floods the people you are trying to reach.
AI on both sides
Candidates now use AI to mass-produce applications, and employers respond with more automated screening. The result is an arms race that rewards volume over fit and makes generic applications nearly invisible. Standing out increasingly means being specific in ways a template cannot fake.
Longer, more cautious processes
Hiring has slowed and grown more risk-averse: more interview rounds, more sign-offs, more roles that stay open for months. That is exhausting for candidates and easy to read as personal rejection when it is usually organizational caution.
What still works
The counter-move has not changed much: apply to fewer roles with more care, tailor each resume to the specific posting, and use real connections wherever you have them. A smaller number of genuinely targeted, evidence-rich applications still beats a hundred generic ones — by a wide margin.