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Наталя ХандусенкоWork
30 December 2025, 11:43
2025-12-30
“There are no 100,500 applications here. This is the result of a conscious search.”
Senior Frontend Engineer summed up how he spent two months looking for a job and received an offer, overcoming competition from almost 200 candidates
Senior Frontend Engineer from Vinnytsia Oleg Dutchenko shared the results of a two-month job search, namely personal notes and statistics. Aitivets had not changed jobs for 11 years, so receiving feedback was especially important for him. But after the third rejection, he stopped perceiving the cliché phrase “we are moving on to a candidate with more relevant experience” as feedback about himself.
Senior Frontend Engineer from Vinnytsia Oleg Dutchenko shared the results of a two-month job search, namely personal notes and statistics. Aitivets had not changed jobs for 11 years, so receiving feedback was especially important for him. But after the third rejection, he stopped perceiving the cliché phrase “we are moving on to a candidate with more relevant experience” as feedback about himself.
Oleg emphasized that it was a conscious job search, meaning he paid attention to vacancies that he was interested in. “At that time, I could afford such a luxury,” the engineer explained. It is for this reason that he sent out a relatively small number of applications during this time.
"Yes, there are no 100,500 applications here. This is the result of a conscious search: selection of companies, roles, formats, conversations, interviews, and rejections," Oleg Dutchenko wrote on LinkedIn.
So, in two months, the IT guy sent 25 applications, most of which were to Ukrainian companies. He also applied with locations in the USA (4 applications), Europe (3), and Australia (1).
Only in two cases did recruiters contact Oleg, the rest of the times he sent the applications himself. 7 applications remained unanswered.
Out of 25 applications, 16 were rejected, the reasons for which were as follows:
"decided to move on with a candidate with more relevant experience" — 7 rejections,
due to residence in Ukraine — 2;
closed vacancies — 3;
hybrid format of work with an office in another city — 1;
lack of relevant experience — 1;
refused himself - 2.
As a result, Oleg attended 4 interviews. But most importantly, he received 1 offer, which he accepted.
The offer was from the company Kasta, where he sent an application himself and was one of 189 candidates.
According to Oleg, the hiring process began with a discussion of the vacancy, then a resume screening. Next, he went through a technical interview, and finally, an interview with management.
Below you can see a screenshot of the search results, but with the names of the companies hidden to avoid any grounds for bias, Oleg wrote.
Source: Senior Frontend Engineer Oleg Dutchenko
At the end of his post, Oleg advised: "If you are searching, don't be nervous, act with a cool head and don't give up."
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