I applied to over 600 jobs before pulling off my career switch. Here’s how I did it.

Royal Siu, who lives near Los Angeles, quit his job as a pharmacist in 2023 with hopes of moving to a different part of the healthcare industry. The 29-year-old eventually landed a new role, which he started in April. Siu’s search took nearly 18 months and involved applying to hundreds of jobs. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.

In my old job as a pharmacist, I was robbed at gunpoint. After that, I committed to moving into the biotech or pharmaceutical industry, which is where I’d always wanted to go anyway.

I graduated with my PharmD during COVID, so there really weren’t too many possibilities. When the robbery occurred, I had some years of working in the pharmacy under my belt, so I thought, let me go ahead and make the switch.

At the end of September 2023, I quit my job. For the first few weeks, I relaxed and saw some friends. After that, I started my deep dive into the application process. I wanted to keep a job application tracker so that at the end, I could see how the overall journey was.

My goal was to also use the tracker to see where I was slipping up, where my faults were, and how I could improve. I asked mentors and friends to look at my résumé and review my LinkedIn because I was doing a professional reset.

I tried to network. I even reached out to my girlfriend’s dad’s cousin’s husband, who worked at a company I was interested in. I did an informational interview with him, and he offered to reach out to people at his company.

Around the time I’d done about 100 applications, I was like, “Oh, this is actually a lot more difficult than I thought it would be.”

It took 536 days and 688 applications, but I’m glad to say I finally made it and got a job.

Completely blindsided

It wasn’t always easy. I had 236 rejections and didn’t get a response or got ghosted on 449 of the applications. I had 15 screening calls with HR and 18 referrals for various jobs. I think one or two of those referrals got me to a screening.

For application 594, I got an offer. It was for a company here in Southern California to be a quality-assurance technician. At the end of the first interview, they said they wanted to hire me. I had to do some paperwork and a drug test. I got a call back saying the drug test was good, and I had to give them my Social Security card. I suggested starting a week and a half later. A representative from the company said they would talk to the hiring manager and that I should hear back in a few days.

I waited, but I didn’t hear anything. I called and then called again a few days later, and I was told they had given the position to another person. I was completely blindsided.

I’d already told my family I got the job, and I wanted to get clarity about what had happened. The thing the company told me was that they wanted someone to start earlier. I thought, “Why didn’t they just tell me, ‘Can you start on X day instead?'”

After that happened, I took a little bit of a breather because I’d been in this cycle for such a long period. So, I took about two weeks off from applying. After that, I knew I still needed to find a job. Lingering in the back of my mind was the idea, “OK, this has to happen. I know that this is a setback, but I can’t take more breaks.”

The thing that helped me keep going through all of this was a mixture of friends, family, and my girlfriend — the support group that I had. Also, I knew I had student loans to pay, things I want to do, and ideally, I want to retire by the time I’m in my early 40s. My girlfriend, Chelsea, and I have had this conversation, and she’s on her way to retiring shortly before she’s 40. So, essentially, we’ll be DINKs. I’ll be turning 30 in July.

A few breakdowns

I did have moments of doubt. I talked to Chelsea about it repeatedly. I said, “Hey, it’s already been X amount of time, Y amount of applications.” At that point, I was 400, 500, 600 in, and there was still no end in sight. At what point do I go back to being a pharmacist?

I have had a few breakdowns to get through this entire thing. When I started my search, I didn’t know if it was going to take two months or something longer. That uncertainty and those setbacks really took a mental toll.

When I got the offer for the job I ultimately took, I got a call on a Friday from the hiring manager and I immediately said yes.

I felt a mixture of relief and satisfaction knowing that I got to this point and that it was in the industry that I wanted to go into. To get out of pharmacy, it was worth it to go through this. But if I wanted to pivot into something else, I don’t know if I have that in me.

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