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We regret to inform you that, although your application has undeniable qualities, you have not been selected for the next step of the process. It’s you against hundreds of other guys, and we’re not even really hiring. We never opened your application. We’ll keep your information for any other job position that could match your CV. You’ll never hear from us again.

Get up, don’t give up. Don’t feel the shame that creeps on the ceiling when the lights go out. Don’t give into it. Keep applying. Send your CV, send your cover letter, tailor it to our job offer that has nothing to do with the job itself. Smile like the Devil when you get an interview, when you get turned down once again. Keep going. Maybe something will work out down the line, if you apply some more. It’s only a few hundreds away, I’m sure.

We’re happy to receive your application! We’ll never reply to it. Thank you for showing interest! You’ll never hear from us, like ghosts in the wind. But create an account. Change your password. No, not that one. It has to have caps and number. Oh, and a special character. Add in all of your personal data so you can receive even more spam calls and emails when we get breached. Because we will get breached, we always do. Click on the verification link you received ten seconds ago. Fill in our personality test, so that when we ghost you, you’ll think it’s because of who you are, to your core.

Apply. Apply again. Apply again and again. Get rejected. It’s your fault, it’s a skills market and yours don’t match. Of course we won’t reply to you. We want to up skill our workers, our collaborators, our employees, we want performance and efficiency. We want robots and machines with interchangeable parts that we can skill and scale however we want. We want to siphon and suck whatever you have to offer, whatever everyone else has to offer, and to make it ours, to the very last drop. But we don’t want you.

Upload your CV to our platform, then copy and paste all of the information into text boxes. The algorithm has misread your CV, and we will read none of it. Take half an hour to do so, on each application, though. And write a whole new cover letter for each position. Make it personal, but not too much. Be motivated, but not too eager. Don’t act like you’re actually looking for a job, because that’s moral failure.

Get up in the morning. Get up, or you lose. Lift heavy things. Run around. Stretch. Move your body to remember that you are human first, an employee second. Everything will work out fine. Everything will keep getting worse. Read books. Stare at the walls. Get a little bit more insomniac with each passing week.

Open your mailbox. A new exciting offer. You need ten years of experience for a junior position. We won’t pay you, but it’s a great opportunity! Scale up, perform more, sell things and solutions nobody needs. Make yourself bigger and bigger, louder and louder. You don’t even have to say anything interesting. You just have to make sure you are seen clicking away on your keyboard. Close your mailbox. Delete spam.

Look at yourself in the mirror. Remember you are human first. It’s not that complicated, you’re just deadlocked and sealed inside your mind.It’s not hopeless; you just need to shift yourself. You are kind and smart. You get to read and write a little more. Stare into space. Eat your fingernails raw. Go for a run. Sweat it out.

Unlock your phone and lock it again. Your screen time is off the roof. Check your email. Bite the tears back. It’s okay, it’s alright. Delete the spam. Apply to other things. Cast a wider, larger net. Try not to demean yourself. Do not debase yourself. Don’t look too eager, don’t look for a job. It’s not a sin. It’s not humiliating, it’s just designed to be a humiliating process.

Sit with the discomfort. Sit with the repeated failures. Watch the rain patter on your face. Listen to soft jazz and find the remnant bubbles of peace living inside of you. Feel your heart beating. Sit with the softness of your body that only knows how to love, stare at the patchiness of your skin, wonder at the silent mechanic of your working organs. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Feel the air irrigate your blood, circulate your heart, puff up your lungs. Look at your reflection and don’t blame it for things it cannot control. Regroup. Find yourself in new things. Take the risk.

Break yourself down to an atomic level. Don’t let your tears over-salt your food. Find gentleness in the bones you never realised you had. Build yourself back up from the tiny core that won’t break inside of you.

Stare at the wall again. Feel and think nothing. Breathe in and out. Wax on, wax off. Remember. You are human first. This process is not. You are human first. You are human.