I figure I'd write this for anyone feeling down and to give my personal experience.
I live in DC, and recently left my job due to ethical concerns regarding upper management. I was a store manager making a decent salary, however some business changes altered what my take-home was and I ended up making a lot less, missing the majority of my bills. The decision to leave was difficult, but I was determined to get another job in 2-3 weeks in my niche industry (sales-oriented)--my fiance' disagreed that time-frame was realistic, but I was determined regardless because I know my worth. Stupid decision? Probably, but I already had some opportunities in the pipeline and didn't think it'd take much longer. I left September 15, applied for approx. ~65 positions; each one I researched extensively, wrote extremely high quality, tailored cover letters and resumes' to, and read every single Glassdoor review/interview question for all positions. I interviewed with about 10 different companies and made it to final rounds in several, and accepted an offer at the end of October to start November 12th. I fully believed in myself to get a position in my original 3 week estimate, but of course, reality is different, but the optimism and determination I had only helped my process anyway.
I focused heavily on high quality applications rather than the mediocre shotgun approach, and generally worked from 8AM-6PM with virtually no breaks to sift through 4-5 job sites for what seemed out of the box. Creating quality CL's and passing assessments, personality tests, and other requirements take a lot of time, and that's even before I got a phone call. I used LinkedIn constantly and reached out to unique folks within a company I was looking to get into, whether HR, Sales Managers and even Presidents if they have an open profile if it's a regional company and not a large international firm. I spent 2 straight days working on my resume' to make it perfect and well worded, and made sure I had exact employment dates and the like.
I personally have to go far above and beyond because I lack a degree of any sort--and I live in one of the most highly educated areas of the US, so getting a job without a BA at minimum is borderline impossible, even for retail positions. Because of this, I got pretty skilled at making myself stand out of the crowd and thinking of unique ways to approach getting a job, because I have to. The funny thing about my whole experience is, the company whom offer I accepted and who I had the best experience with, never had a job listing. I Googled the industry in my area and focused on companies that had a truly high quality product, and found a company that impressed me. I called them, asked if they were hiring, and was able to grab an email of the manager--whom I promptly emailed, and received a response back a week later and began interviews. They offered me double what I was making as a base salary, and a year grace period of prospecting before I opt into commission on top of salary. It's in a perfect location and the hours are 9-5 compared to the 7AM-9PM retail hours I was working before, an industry I'm passionate about, and is better in arguably every way. The interview process was fairly difficult and long, having to speak with: Manager, Director, VP, President, then Manager, assessments, and offer.
Important: If there's a job that you seem perfect for, and that you can perform, but requires education you don't have, apply anyway.
Also: Confidence. A company needs you, plain and simple. Don't overthink it -- there's no reason to be nervous in an interview, they have to sell you the job just as much if not more than you have to sell yourself.
Another Thing: Make sure you practice interview questions extensively. Difficult ones. Google "difficult interview questions" and create objectively good answers (get second opinions) for as many as you can stand that could even remotely apply to the position you're applying for. Sometimes I would look at interview questions for a company on Glassdoor for business development, and when I got into the interview, they asked questions that people listed under project management. Be as well rounded as possible, and prepare for follow-up questions if you answer one particularly well (or bad.)
Several of my offers were from positions that read "Min. BA Required." or something similar -- yeah, okay. We all know companies put that on there to filter away as much mediocrity as possible, but in my experience companies are more focused on gaining employees who are willing to learn, can work well in teams, and fit into the culture of the business. Turnover is expensive, and I know that coming from a company that had the highest turnover in my industry AFAIK. As long as you can perform the job to a competent extent and can argue that you can bring something different or unique to the table, it's easy to get interviews for things you may seem way under-qualified for. I do it all the time. So for all of you who are wearing down, keep your head up and realize no matter how effective and efficient you can be, it takes time. You'll eventually land the job you want; don't take anything personally. Do everything and anything you can to stand out to the company you're applying for and make use of every networking avenue you can. Maybe learn some basic sales principles if you're not at all familiar -- why? Because regardless of what industry you're in, getting your dream job requires a lot of selling, so you might as well get used to it.
If anyone wants a fresh opinion of resumes' or CL's, PM me and I'll give insight if I can. I'm not a professional by any means, but I do have a unique perspective about these sort of things just from my background. I hope I gave something of use to someone in my wall of text, sorry for that.
