data scientist brain here, couldn't not track everything. laid off in april 2026, accepted an offer 11 weeks later. here's the full funnel.
applications by source: linkedin easy apply: 44 applications, 3 phone screens (6.8%) company career sites (direct): 28 applications, 8 phone screens (28.6%) referrals: 9 applications, 7 phone screens (77.8%) recruiter inbound: 6 outreaches, 5 phone screens (83.3%)
not a surprise that referrals and inbound dominate. the surprise was how badly easy apply performed. i used it for convenience early on and it was nearly worthless.
stage-to-stage conversion: application to phone screen: 26.7% (skewed heavily by source) phone screen to technical: 68% technical to onsite: 52% onsite to offer: 33%
the weakest point was onsite to offer. i failed two onsites before i started doing more systematic post-mortems. the pattern: my SQL and stats rounds were fine, my case study rounds were weak. i spent weeks 7-8 specifically reworking how i present model selection decisions to non-technical stakeholders. that changed things.
time spent per week: applications: 8-10 hours prep: 12-15 hours (heaviest in weeks 5-8) networking/coffee chats: 3-5 hours
total offers: 2, one DS senior role at a fintech, one at a mid-size healthcare SaaS. comp difference was meaningful (~$22k TC difference). took the lower TC offer for the team and scope, don't regret it so far.
one honest thing: week 6 was brutal. every active process had stalled or ghosted. if you're in week 6 and wondering if something is wrong with you, it might just be the timing. two of my best processes restarted in week 7 with no explanation.