“Cracked The Code”: US Woman Who Got Laid Off Thrice Shares Job Search Tip

A woman who has suffered three layoffs said that she has “cracked the code” to job applications. Giovanna Ventola from South Carolina, United States, understands the gruelling task of job hunting, having been laid off three times in three years, but she has since learnt a life-changing technique.

She recently shared a video on TikTok, which has amassed over a million views, and mentioned that people should apply for jobs on Monday and then check again on Friday at ad repostings. She told Newsweek, “I’ve been laid off three times in the past three years. I worked in the commercial real estate industry and it has just completely changed since COVID. This last time has been the hardest. The job market is drastically different than it even was a year ago.”

“It’s taken a huge toll on my mental health and this time I really wanted to find the power in my search and take control of the way I was handling my professional future. It’s really hard to grow when you keep getting cut down,” she said.

Ms Ventola realised that she did not “need a job to grow”. The 34-year-old continued, “I can find a way to use this time to develop skills for myself. Hopefully that benefits a future employer someday or I learn enough to become that future employer.”

She was first laid off in November 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Ms Ventola lost her job a second time when the firm filed for bankruptcy. The third time was extremely shocking. She lost her job right before the holidays, along with other workers who had just been with the company for 90 days.

Notably, she founded the Rhize professional Slack network in March 2024 to facilitate the sharing of advice among job seekers. During one such discussion, a former HR executive shared advice to plan the week for someone unemployed with a lot of time at hand. According to the recruiter, her weekly schedule was publishing a job advertisement on Monday, accepting submissions until Tuesday morning, and then beginning the applicant review process that same day.

She told the TikToker that she checked all the resumes personally and on Wednesday and Thursday, she would call the qualified candidates to set up interviews for the next week. In case when she would not get enough applications, she would repost her job ad on Friday.

Currently, the recruiter organises her week according to this formula- she applies for positions aggressively on Monday through Tuesday morning, avoids receiving any applications on Wednesday and Thursday, and on Friday, she goes over job listings that have been reposted.

Ms Ventola said on TikTok, “I have not heard such tangible advice in the three layoffs, in the three years that I’ve been going through this where it’s like yeah, this is how you should structure your day. We just cracked some code of like scheduling and managing our own calendar and I think when you can manage your own calendar and your time and you feel like you’re doing real work and you’re productive your mental health just goes up.”