I’ve Been Doing the Job for Years, But I Still Can’t Get Hired for It

What it’s really like to change your career direction when your experience is hidden in plain sight.

I’m a WordPress Developer, But SEO is What I’ve Been Doing All Along. If you look at my LinkedIn right now, it says “WordPress Developer & SEO Specialist.”
If you stop reading there, you’ll never know the whole story.

Because for over four years, I haven’t just been building websites.
I’ve been making them rank.
I’ve been obsessing over search visibility, site performance, and every little tweak that makes Google take notice.

Yet here I am with skills, results, and experience in Search Engine Optimization, and still getting ignored when I apply for SEO roles.

How I Got Here

When I started as a WordPress Developer, I thought my job was just about building sites. But very quickly, I learned that a website without traffic is basically a simple page lost on the internet without even be seen by others.

So I started learning SEO, not in a casual “watch one YouTube video” way, but by diving deep:

• Fixing Core Web Vitals, so sites loaded in under 2 seconds.

• Restructuring site architecture to make crawling easier.

• Implementing schema markup and proper meta tags.

• Researching keywords and optimizing content to climb SERPs.

• Keywords search volume, difficulty level of that keyword, and making all kind of SEO strategies.

And I didn’t just do these things, I deliver the results as well:

• Boosted organic traffic.

• Took multiple target keywords from page 4–5 to the first position, top 3 positions.

• Solved indexing issues that had kept pages invisible for months.

• Solving all the technical SEO issues.

• And much more than this, if you are a SEO specialist then you know what I meant by this.

All while my job title said “WordPress Developer.”

The Recruiter Wall

Here’s what happens when I apply for an SEO position:

They see “WordPress Developer” and decide I’m not the right fit before they even look at what I’ve done.

It’s frustrating because I know I can do the job.
I’ve already been doing the job.
The only difference is that I haven’t had the official title.

It’s like trying to join a football team when you’ve been playing for years, but only with your friends, so you don’t have the “club player” badge.

“A powerful reminder that when the system (or recruiters) won’t open doors for us, we have to create our own opportunities.” (By Indeed)

And It’s Not Just Career Switchers Struggling

Even if I were applying for a pure WordPress role right now, it’s not exactly easy.
The job market in 2025 feels like a giant overcrowded waiting room, everyone is qualified, everyone has experience, and everyone is hitting “Apply” at the same time.

• Job postings that used to get 50 applicants now get 500+.

• Roles get filled internally before they even make it to the public listings.

• Automated filters reject résumés before a human ever sees them.

So imagine competing for jobs outside your current title. It’s like playing the game on “hard mode” while blindfolded.

That’s why I’m not just competing with other career switchers, I’m competing with seasoned SEO specialists who have the title and the track record on paper.

Skills and Job Titles

The truth is, recruiters are busy. They look for exact matches:

• “SEO Specialist” with results then call them in.

• “WordPress Developer” means probably not SEO then move on to next one.

I can’t really blame them, they’re scanning hundreds of résumés. But it means people like me, who’ve been doing the work without the title, fall through the cracks.

And yes, I’ve tried customizing my résumé.
I’ve rewritten bullet points to highlight SEO achievements.
I’ve created mini case studies.
But sometimes I still feel invisible.

“Some people around you will not understand your journey. They don’t need to, it’s not for them.” — Paulo Coelho

Why I’m Sharing This

I’m not here to complain, I’m here to ask: Has this happened to you?

Have you had the skills, the proof, the real-world results, but got ignored because your official job title told a different story?

Because I think this is more common than we realize:

• Graphic designers who are also brilliant marketers.

• Teachers who could run corporate training programs.

• Developers who have been doing SEO for years.

We get boxed in by the labels we’re given, even when we’ve already broken out of them in practice.

Where I’m Going From Here

I’ve decided I’m done letting my job title hold me back.
Right now I’m:

• Rewriting my résumé to lead with SEO, not hide it in the “skills” section.

• Building a public portfolio of before-and-after SEO results.

• Asking past clients and colleagues for recommendations that mention SEO directly.

Because at the end of the day, titles are temporary, but the results speak forever.

Now it’s Your Turn to speak

If you’ve made a career choice, how did you get past the recruiter blind spot?
What finally made them take you seriously?
Drop your story in the comments, I’m genuinely curious.

And if you’re a recruiter reading this, maybe next time you see “WordPress Developer,” take a peek at what’s underneath. You might just find your next SEO hire.