{"id":6,"date":"2026-04-02T03:52:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T03:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chernay.net\/the-road\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T03:57:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T03:57:41","slug":"the-road","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/chernay.net\/?page_id=6","title":{"rendered":"The Road"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p style=\"font-size:1.1em;color:#888;\">The unemployment journal. Unfiltered. Started January 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Here&rsquo;s the thing nobody tells you about job hunting as a senior professional: it&rsquo;s a full-time job that pays nothing and occasionally makes you question every decision you&rsquo;ve ever made. I&rsquo;m 30+ years into a tech career and I&rsquo;m getting ghosted by recruiters fresh out of college. It&rsquo;s a trip.<\/p>\n<p>So I&rsquo;m writing it down. Not because I need the therapy (okay, maybe a little), but because I think there are a lot of people on this same road who aren&rsquo;t talking about it. Let&rsquo;s talk about it.<\/p>\n<h3>The Numbers (Updated Regularly)<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Job search started:<\/strong> January 2026<\/li>\n<li><strong>Applications submitted:<\/strong> More than I want to count<\/li>\n<li><strong>Interviews that went somewhere:<\/strong> A few good ones<\/li>\n<li><strong>Rejections that stung:<\/strong> All of them, honestly<\/li>\n<li><strong>Times I considered just going all-in on crypto:<\/strong> Daily<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>What I&rsquo;m Looking For<\/h3>\n<p>Technical Program Manager. Developer Relations. Content strategy with technical depth. AI\/automation roles where someone who actually builds things would be an asset. Remote or San Diego. I speak both human and engineer &mdash; that combination is rarer than it sounds.<\/p>\n<h3>What I&rsquo;ve Learned So Far<\/h3>\n<p>The job market rewards persistence more than perfection. LinkedIn is a full contact sport. Everyone says they want &ldquo;senior leadership&rdquo; until they see the salary expectations. Coffee helps. Poker helps more. The dogs are excellent co-workers.<\/p>\n<p>More entries coming. Check back, or <a href=\"\/crypto-lab\">subscribe to the newsletter<\/a> where I occasionally let this bleed in.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:dsc@cnsplanet.net\">Have a role that might fit? Let&rsquo;s talk.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The unemployment journal. Unfiltered. Started January 2026. Here&rsquo;s the thing nobody tells you about job hunting as a senior professional: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chernay.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chernay.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chernay.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chernay.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chernay.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19,"href":"https:\/\/chernay.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6\/revisions\/19"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chernay.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}