Kalidas

I'd been working in tech for over a decade before I decided to pursue my master's in the UK.

By the time I started the program, I had 13 years of solid experience, so I thought that would make the job search easier. I was wrong.

In July 2025, I officially started applying. I had a CV packed with every project I'd ever touched, every technology I'd worked with, every detail I thought mattered. It was complete but apparently, it wasn't working.

Out of 500 applications, I got rejected by 400 companies. About 100 moved forward to some stage of screening. Twenty led to actual interviews. Only five made it to the final rounds. For someone with my experience, those numbers didn't make sense. I kept wondering what I was doing wrong.

The frustrating part was that I knew I had the skills. I'd worked across multiple tech stacks, led projects, and solved real problems. But none of that seemed to translate on paper.

I was spending hours manually applying to jobs, tweaking my CV slightly each time, but nothing was really changing. It felt like I was throwing applications into a void.

That's when I joined Unimad. The first thing they did was tear apart my CV. All those years of experience I'd crammed into multiple pages? They helped me condense it into two clean, focused pages with only the most relevant information.

They also helped me build a portfolio that showcased my work visually and optimised my LinkedIn so recruiters could actually find me. Suddenly, my profile wasn't just a list of jobs. It was a clear picture of what I brought to the table.

The preparation I put into interviews changed, too. I stopped trying to mention everything I'd done and started focusing on what the company actually needed. Presentation mattered just as much as experience.

I entered the job market in the first week of July 2025. By November 17th, I had an offer. Looking back, I wish I'd automated more of the application process earlier. The manual effort was draining, and I could've saved time by being smarter about where and how I applied.

My advice to anyone still searching? Have solid technical skills, but don't be rigid. The ability to adapt and learn what the market needs is just as important as your experience.