I've been looking for most of the past year.

My back is against the wall. I've applied to more companies than I can keep track of. I've exhausted my savings. Friends and family have already helped as much as they can. I'm days away from having some life changing situational events happen.

I've recently seen a small uptick in interviews, but over the last year almost nothing has moved past the initial call/zoom meeting.

I managed to pick up a single contract in September but that ended after a month (founder ran out of cash).

I've never seen the job market this bad in the last 15 years, and that's even including the 2007/8 financial crisis.

If anyone has any kind of role, no matter how junior, please contact me asap.

Stories like yours absolutely kill me and I feel so much anger toward the management class that thought it would be a good idea to overhire to such an extent and cut us off like it doesn't matter. I know this is unpopular on HN, but I have never felt more cynical about founders than I have as of late. Almost every founder i've spoken too seems to be drinking from the same jar of koolaid and thinks of workers as dispensable resources that can be let go off in a moments notice. I hate that this is what we've come to.

For what it’s worth, the vast majority of founders, at least in the valley, are not like this.

Elsewhere, I cannot speak. In the valley they exist, but aren’t a majority.

Most founders value their people extremely well, because they want to retain them.

Overhiring during the pandemic was obviously a mistake, but once someone did the options quickly became “die” or “cut,” so they cut.

I didn’t have to lay anyone off, but the company that acquired us had plenty of layoffs. Founders aren’t actually as much the issue as huge companies.

> Almost every founder i've spoken too

I know it does not help but the founder I work for is absolutely not in that train. When world was hiring like crazy he was executing his plan which was driven by sustainability and revenue. So when crisis knocked to our door, not a single dev was laid off, and we actually hired two (unfortunately we are not hiring now..). This guy is a role model for me when it comes to doing business.

The solution from this imbalance is simple: laid off people should become founders. Then they can maximize the profits not hiring people or keep the previous arrangement of hiring as many as possible to grow

Curious which markets you applied to. I assume it's not so bad that you're applying to flip burgers. But is it all Silicon Valley stuff?

Have you tried, say, some cosmetics brand that needs a Shopify site updated?

Gov jobs? I had a friend who was a star at a startup, but couldn't do the crazy hours after an injury, but she still makes decent money and gets a pension at a large organization with low expectations.

Sales engineer jobs? Normally sales jobs are still high demand during a recession and some roles require technical experience.

Also you could try jobs outside your country. Some may not pay as well in cash and may not get the same level of savings, but an experienced engineer could get a job that pays top 5-10% and get a luxurious life compared to the local living expenses. I think Mexico pays quite well, but you can also look to places like India as well.

Still, best of luck in your job search. Honestly, I have reason to believe it may dip worse, so you might want to consider looking into a lower league.

> Gov jobs?

Maybe state/local (though depending on where you are you'll be in for one hell of a paycut), but from what I've seen, federal jobs are the chooisest beggars out there.

What city are you looking for roles in?

I'm in SF but have been looking at anything US based.

Was in the exact same boat but luckily an old coworker gave me a referral and fingers crossed it looks like it may pan out but this economy is the worst I’ve seen in over 10 years.

Placer.ai

https://www.placer.ai/company/we-are-hiring

How many years experience and education? What is your skill set?

10ish years of full stack, mainly js, node, react, etc. Did pure frontend before that and I still keep up. Been running and scaling an api service for a decade.

Where are you located? It's awful here in the UK.

I'm my experience live technical assessments are mostly just luck, especially when interviewers are being overly opinionated about how things should be done. When you're a certain level of seniority anything in your code which isn't a mistake is typically a debatable decision. Formatting, naming, where and when to optimise, what patterns to use and avoid, etc... And there will always be things you miss, that's what code reviews are for at the end of the day.

Just keep looking and try to not let rejections get to you. It's a difficult market for software engineers and employers have all the power right now.

My guess is that in the new year things will pick up a little. We're seeing some positive news on the economic front right now and my guess is that there will be more a bit appetite for investors to start putting capital to work in tech again next year. It's probably not going back to what it was a few years ago, but I think there's a good chance the market will be noticeably less difficult.

I’m in the states.

I think things will pick up in the new year too, I’ve had a few replies telling me to contact them again in January or February so that’s sort of hopeful.

two of my friends in VC say that their respective firms have tons of capital ready to deploy but that their bosses are being extremely choosy. I think right now it’s almost like they’re waiting to see how the new year goes and how AI stuff shakes out.

If I may rant for a bit: I do hate how my aspect of the job market can feel like "guess the interview format". If I see a position marked "Unreal Engine Senior Graphics programmer", I have anywhere from

- core graphics programmer knowledge - Unreal engine specific knowledge - c++ general knowledge - fundamental Comp Sci knowledge (data structure concept, heaps, performance) - Software engineering knowledge (GoF software patterns, coding structure, etc.)

Or you know, I could still end up being metaphorically asked (or literally) to invert a binary tree. These aren't theoretical either, I've been quizzed on all these topics the past 3 months.

Like, none of these are hard for me, but if you want a confident, knowledgeable interview where I talk off the cuff about these I'd probably want some prep time. But alas, I was screened out almost every time, for reasons that may or may not even have to do with any of the above. I try not to blame myself and just accept that everyone's having a bad time, but not knowing how else to improve for test, or even WHAT they want to test me on feels discouraging. Why bother continuing to tinker on my renderer if they are just going to leetcode me? Why bother grinding leetcode (which I hate, mind you) if instead I end up in a role that never asks any?

I agree things will pick up in January. In the meantime I'll probably just relax and let interviews come to me.

I'm in London. Today was a low point. I've been slowly expanding the aperture of what I would be open to doing, and haven't been going for volume applications because of my weird background.

The last few rejections have really shaken me because I (to my detriment) get invested. As best I can tell I'm perfect, get a first round interview, excitement builds, then get rejected...

For me a big learning is that your CV and fit ONLY serves to get you into the first round. They do NOT get to the end and then 'add up' everything they know about you, such that being outstanding in terms of relevant experience can offset whatever petty box ticking result they get from the interview. You have to be perfect in the interview. Provide perfect examples of your experiences. Precisely detailed and structured answers. Highlight impressive outcomes.

It simply doesn't matter what you have done, in that interview if you don't bring it you are kicked from the process. It hurts.

I can't help feeling like I am wired wrong if I can't give them what they want.

I am in the US, but otherwise your situation highly resonates with me, and I feel your description could be used to describe my own search.

I've been looking, applying, and interviewing (though not as often as I would like nor expect from my volume of applications) for 8 months. After some recent disappointing news, I am looking to be moving away from software development and systems-at-scale roles, and spending more time and effort at IT support / system administration roles in the future as I can't help but feel the industry just isn't interested in any desire to grow and develop professionally, they just want the perfect applicant that has already used the technologies they need for 2-5 years and won't waste time on anyone else.

It doesn't help my own confidence that I have "FAANG" experience (I'll leave it to the reader to decide which FAANG belongs in quotes), and it hasn't helped my response rate or evaluations.

In any case, it's disapointing, and I feel your struggles. I wish you the best, and hopefully your newfound perspective separating the CV and the interview will help you spend less time and anguish over the less important parts

Appreciate the support jechamt. Good luck on your own journey.

It's undeniable that practice makes for better interviewing - I tend to index way to much on researching the company and industry, and not enough on the tricky art of impressing them by emitting words in the right way!

I have “FAANG” too but as a contractor and I feel like it’s hurt me more than it’s helped because everyone wants to give me super rigorous coding assessments or questions my few month gap.

> if I can't give them what they want

I don't know if it helps or not, but getting rejected does not always mean that you cannot give them what they want. It means that they found someone else who can and chose them. You never know if your rejection was a case of them not liking you at all vs. them being really crushed by having to choose between you and another person, both of whom they really liked.

Not as good as it used to be. I'm a backend developer with around 8 years of experience.

I actually received 2 offers today, the first two in like a month. One is not for me, and I don't think I'm ready for the other one. I'm having a big imposter syndrome lately. I guess I need some time to learn more stuff and collect my thoughts.

If it helps, some of the most successful people I know made their achievements by taking a risk on their current capabilities. It's obvious to say, but the best way to grow is to be in a position where you have a good growth opportunity - and inherently, that means you'll be swimming in a slightly bigger pond than you're comfortable in.

I don't know anything about the specifics of your situation, so definitely discount this advice if it's not applicable - but remember that every high level / successful person had to be, at some point, wholly out of their depth in order to rise to the occasion!

You're right but there's also a survival bias there. I've risked before and it went well but now I don't see it clearly at all.

I've been having big time imposter syndrome lately, too. I haven't received a single offer in any of the interviews I've been doing, either. It's been especially hard to keep that at bay after getting laid off again, but that's how this economy seems to be going for the foreseeable future.

Feel you distortion. It makes you really feel a bit shaken, when you have your internal view of what you can do, what you are good at, and think 'yeah, I'm decent'. And then you interview / apply and the rejection seems to be saying 'you go it wrong bro, WE don't think you are any good!'

It's grim seeing seniors struggling to get jobs. As a junior, I'm eagerly awaiting my cue to start applying again. That is, once the deluge of threads about struggling seniors abates, which has been happening for quite a while and doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon.

I hope you guys make it, because if you can't, that means I definitely can't.

There's been a bit of a tech bubble lately. Salaries got higher than they would have, because a lot of it was fueled by VC and crypto money. People kept the dot com boom in mind back when apps were booming, but not with crypto and FAANG. Nobody wants to take a pay cut, go to a $250k job after a $300k job.

There's still junior roles and with AI coming up, there's plenty of new stuff that many seniors won't touch. I got my ticket into tech back when everyone wanted to do iOS and Windows Phone, and Android was some runt that even BlackBerry users laughed at. Did desktop to mobile redesigns, which led to responsive web work, and just building apps. There's very likely plenty of new jobs which seniors won't take. Heck, there's still a gap in the market for Flutter jobs here - seniors tend to go for native Android/iOS or React Native because they want to take advantage of the 10 years of experience.

Not necessarily true. The types, locations, and pay of roles vary, and HN can create a type of confirmation bias. Boring jobs looking to hire on the lower end can't really be compared with the senior who is used to making $300k with equity.

I mean, I'd be fine with mid-senior level and 120k with basic benefits. But jobs in general are tighter, not just the cream of the crop.

Please do not take the internet so seriously.

You would be a fool to “await your cue” just because of scary stories. As a junior you can start anywhere.

Based on my personal experience, interviewing for senior roles in technology feels much more difficult than the interviews I did for a junior or mid level roles. Interviewing in general, is like a Venn diagram where your experience and the interviewer's experience are the circles and you need to find a way to ensure that the questions being asked end up in the intersection where you both know well enough to showcase your skills.

As the role one is applying for more gets more senior, the larger the circles on both sides become, and it sometimes ends up being too hard to get to that intersection in the short duration of an interview.

That being said, I would recommend to to start applying for jobs, since the interview experience itself would be helpful to understand where you might need to improve.

I'm fully employed as a staff engineer at a midcap company and applied to a handful of job posts on LinkedIn last month just to test the waters. No replies from anyone.

Pretty terrible in LA.

I was laid off two months ago. I haven’t been able to find an internal transfer team. I had two interviews but they both went for other candidates

I have one interview left. No more hits from applications, no more recruiter contacts and no more people I can ask for referrals. I’m burnt out from studying

Now I am being fairly picky at this stage, trying to aim for roles at big tech that can match my previous compensation.

If this last interview falls through I’m going to take a few weeks to focus on my mental and physical health. I’ve gained 10 pounds the past two months and stopped working out. So I’ll start with that. Then when I’m in a better place emotionally I’ll resume and expand my search.

Luckily I’ve been following r/financialindependence since I started working so I have a wealth of savings I can pull from to pay for my life while I find a job

I'm also in LA and having a similar experience. Not much of an AI startup boom. I was hoping on finding something of a hybrid situation after being tired of fully remote.

Southern Europe, software dev with 7 years of experience, have touched backend, frontend, and infrastructure as code on AWS and Azure.

Left my previous job last month, and got a new job just a few days after. Got really bad vibes, and left literally during the first week of having started.

Either I just wasted all my luck on that one opportunity, or that wasn't luck in the first place. Time will tell.

So my search just began again. Since we're at the end of the year I'm not too optimistic on even getting any interviews at all. Being realistic, I'm probably going to get ghosted for a few months and I'm mentally preparing for that.

Has anyone in Europe have a role for me? I am looking to relocate to any place in EU.

I have 2yrs of experience (and lot of experience with Open Source from long before that). I mostly work on Rust,Go,Python and Javascript (also Java). I have worked on Backend(microservices,DB,grpc),Frontend(react and svelte) and bit of devops(had written kubernetes code once).

Try using TJ Alerts[0]. Created it specifically for this use case. It's free. Has a bunch of cool filters and sorts (+ semantic search). Would love to hear your opinion. Will try to make it paid soon.

[0]: https://gettjalerts.com

Some thing to consider is make the tags case insensitive and just better. For example if I am trying to find Typescript roles there are tags for "Typescript", "TypeScript", "typescript", "TypeScript/JavaScript", "JavaScript/TypeScript", "Javascript/Typescript" and it goes on and on.

This has been a problem i saw from the day i deployed the app. This will be a major focus for the next round of fixes! thanks for mentioning this.

Can't seem to filter/search by Role. Also a lot of dead/expired positions.

ooh, haven't done considered filtering by role. will think about it. for now you can search by tech you know best.

have to work on the dead positions, you are totally right.

Just checked this out, I'll give it a shot for sure.

Have you considered a Federal job? Low pay compared to the private sector but tons of benefits and high quality of life. https://www.usajobs.gov/

It's below average. I am not really hard-pressed to make a job change, but I have been interviewing a bit over the past few months. If you are really in need of a job I would study up on system design, behavioral interview patterns and a bit of leetcode-style programming problems.

From my experience, employers are being very very picky. I have been through full rounds at a couple of places with positive feedback, but they have all gone with other candidates. It seems like if you misstep once during a single interview round, your chances fall dramatically.

Full transparency: I have not put in a lot of time preparing for these interviews, probably explains a lot xD

I feel you on the point about missteps. It boggles my mind that negligible things like 'not quite enough detail in an answer' is enough to offset my years of highly relevant experience, obvious enthusiasm, and solid CV and get me rejected out of the process.

I would love to meet the candidates that beat me to these roles. I tell myself they are simply me, but more polished and more FAANG. So I never stood a chance.

Can I ask where are you based? Generally speaking I haven't really encountered with leetcode or design pattern type of questions, but I was mostly interviewed by Tier 1 and 2 [1] companies, and for junior-mid positions, and I live in Denmark.

[1]: https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/software-engineering-sala...

I am in the Eastern USA. Looking at remote positions mostly (USA). I have yet to have an interview loop that did not involve both system design and some "leetcode"-style code questions.

None have been as complex or bad as some make them out to be, but all have the potential to trip you up depending on the day.

Make sure to leave Glassdoor reviews for them. I feel like these “picky” places have nefarious intentions by being so quick to dismiss candidates. They are probably trying to overwork their current staff but make it seem like help is on the way or resume farming for market data. Being clueless about hiring is another potential reason but there’s no excuse for the level of circus monkeying they’re expecting unless they’re just pretentious.

I've been interviewing a lot lately (naturally) and I've had a similar experience. I keep getting really good initial feedback on my resume, make it through several rounds of interviews with more good feedback, and then come out the other side with "We're reprioritizing our 2024 plans" or some version on that theme.

I finally found work a month ago, and of course as soon as I got a job I got a dump of emails from places I applied to in the fucking spring/summer either with a generic rejection (not sure why I generic ATS rejection requires months) or a "oops sorry we're not actually hiring anyone for this role anymore" message.

I think the macro economic environment has really spooked companies over the past 18months when it comes to adjusting headcount. Hopefully 2024 will be better?

I am lucky enough to still have a decent position. I have real sympathy for all those who have been laid off in the past year, it's gotta be tough.

Laid off twice in 12 months. I hate life.

That said, My domain (games) does do leetcode style BS but fortunately haven't had to come across system design questions. Think that veers too far from games architecture to really matter unless you're looking for a backend role.

Could one say at this point that a bubble is popping in tech? Fewer people than ever seem to be talking about starting up projects around here. Move and more talk about job-hunting. Can’t tell if it’s just me becoming disillusioned…

With my few years in med-edu-tech start-up experience as a PM, I recently came across an unexpected opportunity to go back into film production. Low-pay but high-prestige apprenticeship back-to-square-one sort of situation, but I’m just young enough to still pass off as a viable junior.

nah, it's the economy. You're not going to want to take risks starting up stuff and you'll get more frustrated job seekers (like me) when money is looking tight.

Hard to tell if the bubble has bursted right now, gotta wait until the economy recovers. But something tells me the FAANG companies aren't gonna go bust all of a sudden over this.

> Today I got technical feedback on an assessment (making a gRPC server in Rust)

Did you interview at Helsing? Pretty sure that their test was something like this.

It was not Helsing, sorry. The challenge was to build a zero-knowledge implementation from scratch as an auth/login server. I was able to get it working, but I spent a non-trivial amount of time on it, which is the real story of my job search lately. It's a part-time job just to keep up with code challenges while I'm applying this often for work.

Anyone interested in contributing to a new search engine while you look around for a role josh@sirch.org

I got an "offer" recently, but they expected a 2 weeks trial period, and 10-12 hour days.

not too great. not a single response. like throwing job apps into a blackhole.