In August, I was laid off from a company where I had dedicated over six years of my career. It all happened unexpectedly while I was on a short vacation; a colleague reached out to tell me he couldn't find me on Slack. When I checked my phone, I was shocked to see that all my access had been revoked, accompanied by a brief email explaining the situation. Initially, I felt confident in my skills and thought finding a new job would be a breeze, despite being aware of the challenging job market. However, I quickly realized just how tough things are. Since then, I've applied to numerous positions but have yet to receive a single positive response, which has left me feeling lost and unsure of what I might be doing wrong. On top of that, my previous company had started integrating AI into our workflows, which I wasn't particularly fond of. Now, I feel like my technical skills have become a bit rusty, so I'm putting in the effort to polish them up while also trying to adapt to a job market that seems to be rapidly evolving due to AI. Honestly, this entire job search process has turned out to be more exhausting than my actual job was.