Edition #19

You've tailored your resume, written a compelling cover letter highlighting your 10+ years of remote work experience, and you've applied to that perfect "fully remote" position, feeling hopeful.

Then... nothing.

No automated "thanks, but no thanks." (that somehow feels worse than a simple “No”)

Just silence.

Welcome to the future, where finding remote work has become an exercise in screaming into your pillow while the AI bots watch and snicker.

Job seekers have switched to now using AI to write their applications (and not even proof reading it), while many companies use AI to filter them out. It's bot vs. bot, and the real humans are caught in the crossfire. The numbers don't exactly alleviate the frustration either. According to the Greenhouse State of Job Hunting Report (a survey of 2,500 workers across the US, UK, and Germany), 61% of job seekers have been ghosted after an interview, which is up nine percentage points since earlier that same year. And when you don't even make it to the interview? That's when it stings. Your applications are being rejected almost immediately, and all you're left with is disappointment and a generic “We’ll keep you in mind for future roles” email.

You could be the perfect candidate for a remote position, you could have excellent communication skills, a proven track record of self-management, yet you'll never get the chance to prove it because your resume got screened out before you had the chance to show your value.

As if generic rejections weren't demoralizing enough, there's another twist in the remote work job market: ghost jobs. These are positions that companies post that they never had any intention of filling. Greenhouse's own platform data shows shows that between 18-22% of all job listings in any given quarter are ghost jobs. Nearly one in five.

Now why would companies do this? Well sometimes they're keeping options open. Sometimes they're collecting resumes for future needs. Sometimes they're creating the appearance of growth to investors. We can’t know for sure. But what we do know is that they’re assholes.

This means that about one in five applications you send is to a position that never actually existed. You're spending hours customizing your cover letter, researching the company, adjusting your resume, getting yourself hyped up... all for nothing.

Let's go through what it actually feels like to search for remote work in 2026.

You apply to a position at 9 AM. By 9:12 AM, you receive an automated rejection because your resume was scanned in seconds and it was decided you weren't a match - despite the fact that you meet every single requirement listed.

Or worse: You make it through three rounds of interviews and the hiring manager tells you they're "really excited" about bringing you on board. You discuss start dates. Then... radio silence. Two weeks pass. A month. You follow up. And again. Nothing.

According to research compiled from multiple industry studies, poor communication is a top driver of candidate drop-off, with 47% of job seekers citing it as the reason they withdrew from a process entirely - and that's just the people who had the energy to withdraw. Many just get left hanging with no closure at all.

The psychological cost of all this is very real. According to The Interview Guys' State of Job Search 2025 Report, which aggregated data across multiple studies, 72% of job seekers say their job search has negatively affected their mental health, with 79% experiencing anxiety and 66% reporting full burnout from the process.

One job seeker described applying to over 100 positions in four months, only to be rejected by half and ghosted by the rest. All without a single human conversation. His few promising leads all came from getting connected to the right people, at the right time, not applying cold.

I won't sugarcoat the fact that the system, as it currently stands, just isn’t working anymore. But you're not powerless. Here's what I suggest:

1. Treat Networking Like Your Full-Time Job

Most successful remote job placements aren't coming from online applications anymore. They're coming from referrals, connections, and starting conversations.

Join remote work communities. Engage authentically on LinkedIn (not just broadcasting your availability. I mean actually participating in discussions). Reach out to people working at companies you admire. A 15-minute informational interview is worth more than 50 applications that inevitably get chewed up and spat out.

2. Outsmart the Bots (BUT DON’T LIE)

If you can't beat the bots, you need to speak their language:

3. Focus Your Fire

Stop mass-applying. Yes, I know the advice used to be "it's a numbers game." But when people are sending out 100, 200, sometimes 300+ applications just to get a single reply, it's pretty obvious the game is rigged.

Instead, apply to fewer positions where you're genuinely a strong fit. Spend that extra time on meaningful customization and follow-up. Quality absolutely beats quantity in this market.

4. Find the Human Backdoor

When you see a remote position you really want, don't just immediately click "Apply." See if you can find a human being at the company and reach out:

Don’t worry about coming off as aggressive. This is all about strategy. You're trying to get your application in front of actual eyeballs, not just algorithms.

5. Build in Public

For remote work specifically, nothing beats demonstrating your abilities publicly. Start a blog about your field. Share insights on LinkedIn. Contribute to open-source projects. Create content that showcases your expertise.

When you can send a hiring manager a link to your portfolio, your articles, or your projects, you're giving them proof beyond what any resume can show.

We are living through a fundamental shift in how work gets found and filled, and nobody really knows where it's heading.

AI is making it easier to apply (which floods the system), and this influx results in companies incorporating AI to filter through applications (which creates new barriers). Companies are hiring more cautiously. Ghost jobs are proliferating. And through it all, actual qualified humans are stuck waiting for callbacks that never come.

The old advice about “spray and pray”, optimize your resume, be persistent… it just isn't working anymore. Or rather, it's working so well for so many people that it's broken the entire system.

🎯 Fully Remote Jobs (No "Fake Remote" Here):

If you're reading this while in the middle of a remote job search, I see you. I know you’re exhausted and I know how personal it feels when you get ghosted after a great interview, or when you're rejected from a position you know you’re perfect for.

I need you to remember this isn't about your worth. It's about a broken system optimizing for the wrong things, and you're caught in the machinery.

If you would like to find out how to get in front of the actual decision makers at top remote companies, we actually have something special coming up.

On March 6th, we're hosting a private "Meet the Recruiters" Roundtable. It’s an exclusive session where you'll hear directly from hiring managers at companies like Doist, Mixmax, Publitas, HKR and Uberall. You'll learn exactly what they're looking for right now, what turns them off, and how to get on their radar - no bots or resume black holes, just real human conversations with people who actually make hiring decisions.

This event is not open to the general public. It's exclusively for members of the Remote Job Academy, and we're offering it as a time-sensitive bonus for everyone who joins before March 2nd.

So book a free strategy call now and let's see if we're a match for each other!

Stay Rebellious (and human😉),

Michelle & The RR Team

Simplify internal comms with Haystack. Publish updates, maintain approval workflows, and track engagement—all from a single platform designed to reduce chaos and keep employees aligned.

Discover Internal Comms Bliss