It's getting harder to be positive. Can you feel it too?

Every day when I look at my LinkedIn feed, it's one story more tragic than the last. People, intelligent people who until recently were consistently employed, asking... begging, for help.

People who not long ago had enviable, big-title roles at well known companies, who now are living off their dwindling savings, scraping by.

Young people well into the second year of not using the college degree they worked so hard for. Wondering when they'll land their first job.

I can't think of a time when finding a job felt this overwhelming. And broken.

As tempting as it might be, we can't curl up into a ball and hope things will change. We need to keep moving, keep trying, keep learning.

To focus on our achievements, and appreciate them.

For me that's:

Learning to vibe code— It's been extremely frustrating and humbling, but I'm slowly making progress. Sure, yesterday I reverted almost everything I worked on, but today I'll be starting with a bit more knowledge. Baby steps taken each day are slowly growing into miles from where I began.

Writing these posts— At first I was terrified. I'd never really "written" before, definitely never "in public," and now it's something I do regularly, something I look forward to. Something, I've been told, other people look forward to. It's become a way to lift people up while lifting myself up.

Building ZenSearch— It's not the job I was looking for, but it's the one that found me. I've nurtured it from nothing to a legitimate platform for job seekers, supporting thousands of people as they search for their next role. Knowing I'm helping people navigate this messy, terrifying job market is gratifying, more than I anticipated.

𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱. 𝗜 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻'𝘁 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺, 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱. 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗜'𝗺 𝘀𝗼 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗱𝗶𝗱.

What about your achievements?

You've mastered new tools. You've revised (and revised) your resume. You've applied. Maybe you've even vibe coded, written posts, or started a company. Whatever it is. You show up every day and keep moving forward.

That's something to celebrate.

Hopefully, through this experience, you've gained compassion for others, humility, an openness to new ideas, and strength.

That's something to be proud of.

It might feel like you haven't made much progress, but you have.

And that's an achievement to appreciate.

--------- Check us out at ZenSearch.jobs and share our platform with anyone looking for something new. Together, we can make job searching a little more zen.