“It’s like playing the lottery”

• Sean Tetpon, 55, has applied for more than 1,000 jobs in the past year without success.

• Tetpon, a former communications manager, was fired in 2019 and again in 2023.

• He suspects age and intense competition in his industry are factors.

Sean Tetpon, 55, held six-figure positions as a communications manager for major companies for years. But after applying for more than 1,000 jobs in the past 12 months, he and his wife have had to cut back on every possible expense – and are considering bankruptcy.

Tetpon has been financially stable for most of his adult life, working at various large companies, though he was laid off in 2019. Between job applications, he drove for Lyft and landed a job in 2021. However, he was fired last September and hasn’t landed anything since.

“When the jobs reports come out and they paint this rosy picture, they don’t reflect what’s been happening in the white-collar job market over the last year,” Tetpon said. “There continue to be layoffs in corporate America, and as a result, for the roles I’m applying for, I see many highly qualified candidates all competing for a finite number of jobs.”

Tetpon suspects that his age and the intense competition of his industry affected his ability to land a job. However, he has not lost hope and remains positive about his job search.

“At first it was disappointing because like everyone else I need a job to support my family and pay my bills, but to give over 1,000 people applying for the same job of work, I get nervous when there are 100 applicants for the same job,” said Tetpon. “But I applied for them anyway because you never know. It’s like playing the lottery.”

layoffs endured

Tetpon was the first in his family to earn a four-year degree, graduating from the University of Idaho with a bachelor’s degree in public communications.

While in college, he landed an internship at IBM, which he turned into a full-time role and a career spanning over 15 years. He became a global communications manager, which paid him six figures. He then returned to several other companies in similar positions.

Despite a high salary, he said he struggled financially for several years because one of his five children had a major heart defect, leading to “steep medical bills”.

Tetpon faced unemployment for the first time in 2019-2021, with its first layoff coming shortly before many companies halted hiring during the pandemic. To keep the money coming in, he worked as an Uber and Lyft driver and freelanced for corporate clients between “burdensome” applications.

The story continues

Tetpon secured a job in 2021, then moved on to another position the following year. However, again, he was unexpectedly fired in September 2023. He was offered a basic severance package, which included a free option to work with a placement agency, which helped boost his CV and interview strategies.

“With every layoff, it was a little bit harder to get back because the job market started to tighten again right around the time I was laid off,” Tetpon said.

Tetpon has fielded more than 1,000 job applications since that layoff. He estimates that it takes almost an hour to apply for a job.

“The initial job search became a full-time job again — seven, eight hours a day to apply for roles,” Tetpon said. “This has come back to bite me mentally because it’s such an exhausting process.”

Of those applications, he had nearly 30 interviews and made it to the final round for three positions. He said he tried to tailor his resume and cover letter for each position and emphasized the features of his portfolio that make him stand out.

Between job applications, Tetpon drives five days a week for Lyft, earning about $3,000 a month. He said he appreciates the flexibility to set his own work hours to prioritize interviews and applications. He’s looking to get back into retail work, even at minimum wage, in positions he enjoys, such as working at a record store.

The dismissal put his family’s financial situation at risk. To make ends meet, he moved into his mother-in-law’s house. He and his wife, a full-time medical technology student on a low income, ditched many subscriptions, bought the cheapest groceries for about $130 a week and cut back on unnecessary expenses. Tetpon still has student debt and loans and is considering bankruptcy as an option. He said he only has 10 percent of what he originally saved in his 401(k) left and fears he may have to work for the rest of his life.

“It’s scary because I’ve been preparing for retirement for a long time, but now that I’ve basically wiped out my savings because of my layoff, I’m now wondering if I’ll be able to retire,” Tetpon said.

Why didn’t he secure a job

Tetpon said there are three reasons he suspects he hasn’t landed a job yet.

The first is how its field of corporate communications is highly competitive and prone to layoffs. He said that even for smaller companies offering much less than he earned, hundreds of people would apply and he would be lucky to get an interview. He said he’s had little luck applying for roles in person in metro Atlanta and has seen fewer opportunities remotely.

Screenshots shared with BI reveal that Tetpon applied for positions receiving nearly 4,000 applications on LinkedIn alone, not counting people who applied directly.

Tetpon said his second reason is that many companies are nervous about the economy and the upcoming election and are very selective about their hiring decisions. He suspects that employers are looking for the perfect candidate who fits every aspect of the job description instead of someone with 80% of the skills but with enthusiasm.

Part of this, he suspects, stems from age. Although he couldn’t prove it in his case, he believes that for some roles, companies will pass over his application because they want to hire younger talent.

“A lot of companies look at someone like me with 25 years of experience in the six-figure range and have to weigh that against someone much younger, maybe even fresh out of college, who might be coming into a much more small,” said Tetpon.

Tetpon’s third reason is the mental struggle to apply daily to the fasts. Recently, he’s been asked if he’s networking enough, applying for the right roles, or spending enough time on applications, which sometimes cloud his efforts.

Still, he said he’s seen employment struggles across the age spectrum. Some of his children are struggling to find their first role, and he’s seen an increase in LinkedIn posts from people of all ages looking for work.

Tetpon said he has learned to tailor resumes for each position, including keywords in job descriptions so applications aren’t immediately rejected. He also became more aggressive about networking, reaching out to his past colleagues and having them submit open roles or issue referrals.

Tetpon added that taking breaks for mental health is key in the job search because job seekers are already “dealing with the psychology of losing a job and a sense of purpose.” He believes he will land somewhere soon, noting that his experience speaks for itself.

“I want to give hope to job seekers based on what I’ve learned this past year because even though it’s tough out there, we can’t give up and I certainly haven’t given up,” Tetpon said. “Eventually the pendulum will swing and they have to be ready to capitalize on that.”

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