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Fifteen years inside LinkedIn, thirty in the industry. In May 2026, at fifty-six, I was laid off.

Then: 217 applications, 12 interviews, 2 second rounds, 0 offers. May 10 to August 10, three months to the day. Twelve out of 217 is roughly one in eighteen — a good rate for cold applications. My materials were working. I lost in the rooms, over and over, for reasons that had nothing to do with whether I could do the work.

The role I took came ten weeks in, through a channel that wasn't the front door.

I teach what the filter reads, what happens in the room after fifty, and the part nobody was honest with me about. The system isn't fair. But it is legible.