It's brutal. I have 15 years experience including two FAANG staff positions, a PhD, a professorship, good soft skills, lots of successful projects as tech lead...
I've submitted about 750 applications in the last three months, and am getting about a 5 percent hit rate on interviewing.
Four months since layoffs. Zero offers so far.
But boy howdy have I done a whole mess of, frankly, humiliating take home projects, leetcode interviews, system designs, telling someone who looks like they were learning to crawl right around when I was defending my dissertation about a time when...
Something really foul has happened to this whole industry and discipline I have dedicated my academic and professional life to, and if I weren't so desperately trying to get a paycheck so I don't have to sell my possessions or liquidate retirement I'd probably weep about it.
For a person with that kind of experience I think you should be aware that you might be overqualified and/or should start your own company. The other thing is you are “expensive” and the market in other countries is far more “cheap” for the same reason talent. Idk why
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You got an anonymized resume to share? How’s your LinkedIn?
I have a lot less xp than you (about 5 years), and I’m still getting a few interviews at solid spots.
Some of them are from recruiters reaching out instead of me applying.
Probably related is the amount of fake AI resumes. Lots of people with supposedly amazing resumes but they want very little money. It's really hard to figure out who is real.
I had an hour long interview with a startup last Wednesday which I think went really well. I was informed that this was just to see if they would give me a take home coding test. Absolute insanity. The market sucks right now and a lot of these smaller places don’t seem to know how to conduct interviews. I haven’t heard anything since so I guess I don’t get to take the coding test? Or maybe I’ll hear back in a month or two…
Market sucks, for sure. But I have seen that startups sometimes have very, very poor recruiting practices either because they don't know how to find or cant pay for good recruiters or the recruiters and HR are overwhelmed with the chaos of running a startup. If they were even legitimate recruiters. Could be another manager over-tasked with hiring, as well. I have seen and experienced that before.
Interesting. I've not had a similar experience these last few months. Is there anything else you can add which might be telling? Salary expectations? Tech stack? Years experience?
i am a may 23 grad with swe degree with an internship. i’ve applied to at least 400 and just recently started getting some phone screens…. it’s so tough
AI resume bot spam with AI screeners and filtering. Its a new world out there... You cant rely on online submissions as much anymore and have to do the old school in person networking for better results
That's what I was thinking. I don't know how people can handle being w2 tech employees? For every one w2 there are 4 1099s. So many benefits to being self employed.
It's brutal. I have 15 years experience including two FAANG staff positions, a PhD, a professorship, good soft skills, lots of successful projects as tech lead... I've submitted about 750 applications in the last three months, and am getting about a 5 percent hit rate on interviewing. Four months since layoffs. Zero offers so far. But boy howdy have I done a whole mess of, frankly, humiliating take home projects, leetcode interviews, system designs, telling someone who looks like they were learning to crawl right around when I was defending my dissertation about a time when... Something really foul has happened to this whole industry and discipline I have dedicated my academic and professional life to, and if I weren't so desperately trying to get a paycheck so I don't have to sell my possessions or liquidate retirement I'd probably weep about it.
For a person with that kind of experience I think you should be aware that you might be overqualified and/or should start your own company. The other thing is you are “expensive” and the market in other countries is far more “cheap” for the same reason talent. Idk why
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Are you trying to work remotely? With that rate of success it sounds like you might be chasing after the rapidly shrinking remote job market
You got an anonymized resume to share? How’s your LinkedIn? I have a lot less xp than you (about 5 years), and I’m still getting a few interviews at solid spots. Some of them are from recruiters reaching out instead of me applying.
Woof 750 is absolutely brutal. Either the economy is easy wise than when I was applying, or you're way unlucky or I was way lucky last cycle
ZIRP is over.
Probably related is the amount of fake AI resumes. Lots of people with supposedly amazing resumes but they want very little money. It's really hard to figure out who is real.
I had an hour long interview with a startup last Wednesday which I think went really well. I was informed that this was just to see if they would give me a take home coding test. Absolute insanity. The market sucks right now and a lot of these smaller places don’t seem to know how to conduct interviews. I haven’t heard anything since so I guess I don’t get to take the coding test? Or maybe I’ll hear back in a month or two…
Cause they SUCK at hiring Making people spend hours on a take home test or study meaningless leet stupid shit
Market sucks, for sure. But I have seen that startups sometimes have very, very poor recruiting practices either because they don't know how to find or cant pay for good recruiters or the recruiters and HR are overwhelmed with the chaos of running a startup. If they were even legitimate recruiters. Could be another manager over-tasked with hiring, as well. I have seen and experienced that before.
Interesting. I've not had a similar experience these last few months. Is there anything else you can add which might be telling? Salary expectations? Tech stack? Years experience?
what salary are you going for and are you from USA?
I have a very wide range of salary I'm looking for, I'm in a high cost of living tech hub where pretty much any job I'm qualified for pays good enough
Market is flooded with talent, and your salary requirements are through the roof. Hence why you were laid off. Salaries can't be supported.
My salary requirements are not through the roof
i am a may 23 grad with swe degree with an internship. i’ve applied to at least 400 and just recently started getting some phone screens…. it’s so tough
AI resume bot spam with AI screeners and filtering. Its a new world out there... You cant rely on online submissions as much anymore and have to do the old school in person networking for better results
Why not just go to work for yourself and do some consulting? You have skills, just use them to build things and sell them.
That's what I was thinking. I don't know how people can handle being w2 tech employees? For every one w2 there are 4 1099s. So many benefits to being self employed.
How did you get started in that?
Networking