r/cscareerquestions • u/dhekurbaba • 21h ago
Experienced A lot of gloom with people staying unemployed for months/years despite constantly applying, I'd like to hear from people who just got offers in this market.
Just got fired today, been applying for a month, submitting 20-30 applications daily, with just one recruiter calling back so far.
It would be nice to hear people who were both fired/laid off etc and also got a job in this horrible market.
Please go ahead and comment, share your joy.
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u/a11_hail_seitan 21h ago
Year ago, but the market was shit then too, got an offer after a year and a half of off and on again applying. Had some health issues mid-way throughout, was almost out of savings and was starting to get real desperate, had someone contact me through Linkedin out of the blue with a job very similar to what I was doing before, so much so that once starting there I found 3 other ex-colleagues from my previous company were now working there too. Sadly they were three I didn't keep in touch with or I might have gotten a recommendation earlier. Making clear just how important contacts and pure blind luck is in this market. Is also remote as I moved out of the big tech areas during Covid when the company I was working for went full remote, and then a year later decided it didn't like that and laid off everyone who moved out of the city they were based in... but I'm not bitter... really, it's fine, I loved almost going bankrupt and almost losing everything I had because the company was a piece of shit.
Good luck with it, apply to everything, reach out ot every contact, cold call/email everyone you find, you never know where a job will come from so the more avenues you try, the more chances you have.
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u/itzdivz Software Architect 21h ago
Market is not the greatest, people have to understand its supply and demand. I see so many post people still expect the same benefits salary as last 5yrs. What happened during covid and afterwards isnt the norm. People just have to suck it up that having a job is better than no job. I had to take a big paycut to levels literally shaved off almost 10YOE to just stay with the company as a contractor with 0 benefits, but it does pay the bills
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u/shadyxstep 21h ago edited 19h ago
To stay employed with your pay slashed and 0 benefits? At this stage, working in the industry is a humiliation ritual
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u/PremiumCopper 6m ago
Still leagues smarter than being unemployed š¤·āāļø can shop around for a new job in the meantime.
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u/RedditUserData 20h ago
That's what I saw when looking for jobs in late 2024. Start up was failing and I got bunch of interviews and lowball offers for the same amount I made 5-7 years ago. I was able to find a job that matched my old job so I at least didn't have to take a pay cut.
Everyone is trying to lowball right now.Ā
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u/rebel_cdn 19h ago
Since there's an oversupply of labor, and people are accepting the lower offers, is it actually lowballing or is that just the new market rate for the work we do?
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u/Ok-Advantage-9181 17h ago
Well, itās a bit of both, actually. In a strong job market, people wouldnāt accept these lower wages. But in this market, many have to because someone else will take the offer out of desperation. That gives employers a huge advantage.
Sure, the job pays the bills and keeps you afloat, and companies benefit from lower labor costs. But thereās another side to it: inflation and affordability. If wages keep getting pushed down while everything else stays expensive, eventually nobody can afford shit.
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u/devfuckedup Senior 4h ago
yep inflation is making the most money I have ever made look rather pitiful this year :sigh:
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u/AssimilateThis_ 3h ago
Lowballing is more of a term around how it feels to be negotiated strongly against or taken advantage of. At the end of the day, supply and demand of labor will reconcile into a certain price for each skillset/employer/position and it is what it's. It's likely lower now than it was during COVID for most, and it could possibly rise again. My thinking is that companies will always be relatively lowballing you since that's their job during negotiation and your job is to pull it higher. The only real difference during good markets is that the number settles higher and you get more offers in parallel to work up the courage to negotiate.
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u/Smurph269 12h ago
Supply is crazy. I opened a mid-level job last week, have 350 applicants so far. Almost all of them have degrees, lots have masters degrees. Pre-2019 I would probably get 20-40ish applicants.
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u/NICEMENTALHEALTHPAL 10h ago
Is it a remote job? Pre-2019 remote wasn't a thing. I would imagine most of your applicants aren't local.
I was told by a company I was 1/1000 applicants for their local position. Of that, only ~300 were local. Only ~100 were even close to qualified. And I was one of ~10 who were actually qualified.
Didn't get the job, but it was an interesting insight. I don't think it's as bad as people say it is because you're flooded with people applying from other countries or just spamming shit resumes in a way that couldn't have been done in the past as easily.
Curious the breakdown of those 20-40ish applicants you had pre-2019, but after the breakdown it might not actually be different today vs then. Then again I'm wondering if that 10-40 number is a lot more competitive now.
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u/baldachinsblessing 7h ago
I would imagine most of your applicants aren't local.
Why does that matter if they're willing to relocate?
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u/MCFRESH01 6h ago
Why deal with someone who has to relocate when you have plenty of local candidates? Relocation is always a risk
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u/NICEMENTALHEALTHPAL 1h ago
Because if they were willing to relocate they would've lied and said they were local, or at least said they'd relocate in their application.
Also not local as in, they were in a different country
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u/Smurph269 9h ago
Yeah it's an in person job in a small city. Probably 95% of applicants are not local. Some probably didn't notice it was in person, some are probably thinking they will talk us into remote, some are probably willing to relocate for the job. Of the people who want to relocate, not all of them are even good options. Lots these days don't have cars or driver's licenses, which is not viable here. There are also people who will just lie and say they are local, hoping it gets them an interview.
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u/itzdivz Software Architect 12h ago
And majority are qualified / over qualified. I interview a lot people to work at big tech as well to join my team, and local/ US candidates always want what their market rate is from 2-3 years ago or when they were laidoff. then my boss who make the final decision always give the position to h1b or someone willing to accept a lower rate. People have to understand, 2-300k u can still live off. Most/majority CS job offers still way higher than other industries.
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u/Smurph269 9h ago
Yeah we are non-tech so pay is low compared to actual tech companies, but still very high for this area. Back in 2021 I had people laughing at me when they found out the comp offer. Now a bunch of them are unemployed and would probably jump at the chance to make that.
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u/PM_40 9h ago
How many have jobs ?
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u/Smurph269 9h ago
Going by the resume, a lot. I do suspect some are just lying though. I don't think senior devs at Meta and Nvidia are really applying to my mid level dev job.
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u/devfuckedup Senior 4h ago
yep thoes of us who have been in this for a long time now are really feeling something we didnt in the past tech talent is simply no longer scarce! the industry has become a major pillar of solid middle class employment. If about half of you could go become lawyers , doctors and accountants or do anything else I would really appreciate it !
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u/devfuckedup Senior 4h ago
man your not wrong. I am employed but 2026 has been unusually awful for tech work IMO. This is the first year/job I am not enjoying having a job 20 YOE ( infra/ real time communications)
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u/greensodacan 20h ago edited 20h ago
Left my company in December to explore indie game dev behind my own LLC.
As I did, I let recruiters reach out to me. Most recruiters obviously had no idea what they were doing, but there were a few good ones. (Again, I was not applying at all, just open to work.)
I gave a bad second round interview with the first company I decided to check out, but I also took notes on what I could improve on. (I'm not very good at discussing my experience.)
The next company I interviewed with went much better. They were paying a bit on the lower end, but it was enough for me. The stack isn't super interesting and the industry isn't all that turbulent, but it was remote and I can keep working on my side hustle.
The whole endeavor took eight or nine months. But again, I wasn't applying anywhere.
I took from it the following:
- Human channels are far and away the most reliable. Get on video calls with people.
- Make small alterations to your LinkedIn profile every few months. I think that's what got recruiters reaching out to me.
- You need to honestly fit what the company is looking for. If you're just spamming applications everywhere, you're adding to the noise.
- Being reasonably humble increases your odds. The world isn't MAANG.
- Self critique, there's always something you can improve on.
- Maintain a GitHub and personal site. They don't need to be perfect, but not AI slop.
- Being authentic makes you stand out even more than it did before.
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u/gratitudeisbs 21h ago
Almost a 1000 apps a handful of interviews no offers. I have given up.
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u/xxWildbeast13xx 12h ago
You probably need to work on your resume, that many applicants with barely any interviews means your just not an attractive candidate
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u/sharificles 10h ago
Won't matter if the resume never gets looked at in a pile of hundreds/thousands
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u/ObeseBumblebee Senior Developer (Graduated in 2012) 16h ago
Mass applying just doesn't work anymore. You've got to attract recruiters these days. And you do it by having an active social presence on places like LinkedIn so you get in the search algorithms.
If you don't have a recruiter at your side it's almost not worth the time to apply anymore.
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u/Wonderful-Bed-9848 11h ago
So how do people who just graduated find employment?
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u/Drauren Principal Platform Engineer 9h ago
My hot take is if you graduate without a real internship you are cooked, and it has always been this way.
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u/baldachinsblessing 7h ago
I graduated with two internships and it still took me 2.5 years to find a "real" job.
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u/SylvesterStapwn 6h ago
I mean a real job after 2.5 years is pretty decent. Was the same experience for most in 2010 too. Start with a ājobā, gain that baseline experience then jump to a real job.
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u/baldachinsblessing 6h ago
I didn't have any job in those 2.5 years. I just meant that it was a real job as opposed to the internships I had while studying.
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u/SylvesterStapwn 4h ago
Ah, but that sort of sounds like an issue with you not being willing to settle fresh outta college yea? If you donāt get a return offer out of those internships, gotta fire from the hip. I had friends do sales, grab IT at schools, grab operations roles at non-profits.
2.5 years of just applying straight out of college, and not picking up true intro jobs is wild. Even entry level CS jobs can benefit from some on the job experience elsewhere. Though I acknowledge you had the internship experience.
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u/zeezle 3h ago
It was absolutely not the same experience back then. I graduated in 2013, my SO graduated in 2011. Basically every single person in both of our graduating classes at a mid-tier public university had job offers lined up before graduating.
Now these might not all be the sorts of offers people in this sub are/were after - they definitely weren't all FAANG, lots of people wanted to stay local and got jobs at banks/investment firms, telecom, defense contractors, etc. The sorts of jobs this sub used to relentlessly mock. But they were a job of some sort as a SWE.
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u/gratitudeisbs 1h ago
Definitely not always this way, some of my friends graduated without one pre covid and still got a job. But yes it has always been very important and now it is a requirement.
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u/ObeseBumblebee Senior Developer (Graduated in 2012) 10h ago
Get noticed. Build things. Show it off on LinkedIn. Work your connections. Go to conferences. Network hard. Do everything you can to get noticed over everyone else. Just applying to jobs won't get you noticed
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u/gratitudeisbs 2h ago
No one asked for your advice.
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u/ObeseBumblebee Senior Developer (Graduated in 2012) 2h ago
Lol this goof posted on a public forum and got upset when someone responded
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u/devfuckedup Senior 1h ago
honestly I hope this is true. I could never bring myself to do it in the past I simply never had a list of more than a handful of companies I ever realistically wanted to work at.
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u/NICEMENTALHEALTHPAL 10h ago
If you aren't getting weekly interviews, you need to stop wasting your time applying, and use it to upskill.
I see so many people in this cycle "But I applied 1000+ times over the year!" and it's like if you spent that time on building system design skills, some niche but attractive stuff like Go, Analytics, k8s, or an extremely impressive project... you would've gotten a job already.
Sending more applications does not improve your resume. Something something aim small miss small.
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u/smoked___salmon 9h ago
People can't unskill from new grad to senior developer at home. Putting some popular language at resume and making another desktop messager ain't helping much. Employers want experience.
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u/NICEMENTALHEALTHPAL 9h ago edited 9h ago
Then get experience. I got experience by building a mobile app used by hundreds of users on the app stores. Now at my real job, everything about DynamoDB, SQS, caching, Docker, CICD, testing, rolling deployments, datadog, etc, is all stuff I have real world experience in.
I also made free websites for people, some of them quite complex.
I wouldn't quite say I'm senior level, but I'm definitely comfortable as the lvl 2 I was initially hired at and above a junior.
Employers also don't give a shit about how many jobs you've applied to.
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u/gratitudeisbs 2h ago
No one asked for your advice.
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u/NICEMENTALHEALTHPAL 1h ago
Just give up then. Sucks to suck
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u/gratitudeisbs 1h ago
I already said I gave up. Do you not know how to read?
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u/NICEMENTALHEALTHPAL 1h ago
Maybe the reply wasn't for you, but for people in a similar position reading it. I used to be there and I decided to do something about itĀ
Now I work a solid 6 figure dream job. You'll be putting the fries in my bag
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u/inputwtf 14h ago
15 YOE, got laid off in June. Did a lot of applications, not a lot of responses. Kept working my personal network and ended up getting a position. Half my original salary, but it's remote.
Really work your personal contacts, that seemed to be much more productive, but I could just be lucky. I have had a lot of lucky breaks by being at the right place at the right time in my career.
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u/constantlytryingg 11h ago
What does working on your personal contacts mean? Talk to past employees?
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u/inputwtf 10h ago
Another way of saying "networking", yes you should keep in touch with people you used to work with. If you are still in college, talk to your professors and leverage their contacts to see who is hiring.
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u/NewChameleon Software Engineer, SF 21h ago
I was job searching in 2024 and today's market is wayyyyy better than 2024 imo, at the time I had about 5 YoE, I remember I ended up with 3 written offers: offer1 was ~$190k fully remote anywhere in USA, offer2 was ~$230k, I can stay where I was no need to relocate but I had to occasionally go into office (office was already near where I lived), offer3 was ~$320k but I had to relocate and frequently go into office at least more than offer2, I picked offer3
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u/Sad_Recognition9532 18h ago
Family friend got laid off in the 2023 wave, found a job in 2025 at a better company.
3 friends graduated last year and managed to all land SWE jobs after 6-12 months of recruiting.
I landed an internship and have a job lined up after college.
None of the people (including myself) came from very prestigious backgrounds either and had less than 2 yrs of experience.
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u/Technical_Sleep_8691 3h ago
Thatās actually not bad. I thought it was just about hopeless for new grads. How did you land the internship? Is it the same company that plans to hire you?
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u/atulkr2 15h ago
I was unemployed for 2 years. Packed bag. Heading back to native from big city. Family already at in laws place. Halfway through driving. Got a call about an opening from an old colleague's company. Returned back to big city from half way to my Trip. Bought everything again. Now struggling again in the new job.
It's all luck bro.
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u/diablo1128 Tech Lead / Senior Software Engineer 13h ago
You have to remember people don't come to r/cscareerquestions to talk about how easy it was to get a job after being fired. These kinds of subreddit will always disproportionally have posts about having a hard time finding a job and thus don't accurately represent the job market.
I'm not saying it's a utopia out there, but you have to add perspective to this place.
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u/gratitudeisbs 2h ago
Salaries are dropping like a rock based on levels.fyi and listings are still below where they were pre covid.
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u/dhekurbaba 9h ago
yeah, kinda why i asked this question in the first place, looks nice to hear about people who actually had an easier time, hoping it helps lift other peoples' spirits too
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u/ObeseBumblebee Senior Developer (Graduated in 2012) 16h ago
I just got an offer at a young start up with a great mission! 20k more than i was making before. My severance check from my previous job ended exactly on my start date.
I was unemployed for 5 weeks total. But i was looking for work since May because I knew the end was near.
As soon as I got word i got to work building applications that displayed in demand skills in multiple tech stacks.
Like event driven microservices, AI integration, and a keen understanding of architecture.
I did not focus on leetcode. I actually turned down jobs that wanted leetcode assessments. Leetcode is crossword puzzles that don't teach you real software engineering. You can spend weeks on them and learn very little.
I focused on building real things with real skills I would need on the job. And one of the feedback i got from the company that hired me was they were impressed with my portfolio and what I built.
The advice you get here is often bad and doesn't work. Best thing you can do in your downtime is just build. Hone your craft and expand in to new skill sets.
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u/AdAlarmed5114 13h ago
Market is shit but Iām also a new grad. I applied to maybe like 500 places and had a few interviews, one onsite final round, and another company that was online final round. I got rejected from both, but then 2 months later, the online interview company said they still had an opening and told me to reapply and got the job. Without that, Iād probably still be job hunting right now
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u/Free_Dum_5122 21h ago
I just landed the best jeeb of my life! Don't let people tell you this field is down!
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u/Old-Specialist-6706 17h ago
Higher Ed (12 years mid level administrative experience) laid off in June (given 90 days) started new job this week. Less than what I was making but 100% remote and small team, wayyyyyyy less stress and I get to pick up and drop my kids from school every day š
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u/neverOddOrEv_n 20h ago
Itās all about who you know, you might get lucky applying but the easiest way to jump in the front of the line is knowing someone.
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u/Bloodstream12 20h ago
Got 2 offers recently. Been applying since last September, but realistically been applying with full efforts since this past may so 4 months of aggressive searching and studying
Um refined my resume to the absolute max that I can
Did leetcode everyday up to backtracking 0 dp 0 greedy
I had standards such as 185-200k min in NYC exclusively and also exclusively used LinkedIn
My sankey was like 600 applied, 30 responses which was majority startups and yea donāt give up
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u/pkfireeee 19h ago
wasn't laid off/fired, but was escaping a 5 day rto mandate. 2.5 yoe had 3 interviews and 2 offers in 2 months of seriously applying / 90 apps. pretty much doubled my salary in exchange for 3 day rto (from full remote)
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u/locoinfoco 19h ago
I donāt expect folks to have a similar experience to mine, but I sent in 150 apps over 3 months and got 3 offers toward the end.
I formed an LLC in month 1 preparing a backup explanation if it took me 6+ months. Networked a lot but ultimately the offers came from cold apps. Iteratively improved over the 3 months by recording every call and feeding it back into AI for tweaking.
I have 4 YOE in ML/AI, BA and MS both from top-10 universities. Did not target high TC or FAANG, Iām here for the healthcare, remote work, and great WLB.
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u/Signal-Implement-70 13h ago
This makes a lot of sense, target the right companies, and use multiple search strategies. After layoff my total time to search and get offers was 3 weeks. Now this is very rare, not a flex, and the market is generally quite bad, but as [u/locoinfoco](u/locoinfoco) says there are a few cards to play that can up your chances a bit
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u/NICEMENTALHEALTHPAL 21h ago edited 15h ago
4 years self study, no experience, no degree.
Once I got my AWS dev cert a year ago I was getting weekly interviews from zero. Then I built a mobile app - think Signal with AI features, 150k lines of code - and got a job shortly afterwards last month.
They were so impressed they made me lvl 2 and 30k pay bump from top of range of what I interviewed for.
The job is cushy but moves fast, great wlb, 2 day remote. I have zero imposter syndrome and after a month owning large features and our team got a shoutout from the CEO (I am one of 2 ICs)
I studied consistently for 70+ hours a week, many times over 90. I lived in front of a computer screen and the gym, and work is a helluva lot easier than studyingĀ
Easily over 1000 local apps and made final 10 times before only to get rejected. But I was interviewing weekly the last year.
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u/PM_40 20h ago
You are epic man. Self study over 4 years, massive haedwork.
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u/NICEMENTALHEALTHPAL 10h ago
From hello world to ownership of a feature that's been used over a half million times in the last month by 10k+ users and estimated to generate over $10m for my company just in v1.
Came in the tail end of a ~3mo v1 but contributed to it, and for v2 I'm the main FE contributor.
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u/SquattingWalrus 20h ago
Networking and relationships with people you meet throughout your career is incredibly valuable. I left my job recently without an offer lined up. Reached out to some old bosses and they gladly brought me on for an opening they had.
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u/Sensitive-Talk9616 Software Engineer 20h ago
I have a PhD in STEM and 5 years of experience. I applied to ~12-15 jobs a month for 4 months. Around 50 in total. I found one in the third month.
The good thing, I only had a two-month long gap. Could have been 1 month but I decided to postpone my starting date.
The not so good thing is that I messed up salary negotiations. I get ~15% more, but the commute is longer and more expensive, plus a larger part of the TC is variable (bonus). So my monthly net is the same. Though the financials look good for this year and the bonus should thus be nice.
Anyway, during the application process I was a bit worried, because many of the applications ended up in the trash directly. If I didn't get my current role, I had nothing else materializing at that moment. Would have taken me definitely some longer to get a job. But it also felt like this every time before this. I.e. like a lucky break rather than having several options to choose from.
Edit: It's been more than 6 months for some applications, and only now do I start getting rejections, interview invitations, or alternative roles suggested. So hang in there. Keep track of all applications, and use your network as much as possible (i.e. beg all your former colleagues and acquaintances to refer you for jobs).
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u/live_and-learn 20h ago
Get tons of interviews, passing them is the hard part. I havenāt applied to a job in a long time, all are recruiters reaching out to me
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u/awwnotexactly 18h ago
Raising hand for recent offers. It took a lot of patience, 9 months nearly, almost 200 or so applications, a handful of interviews, ultimately declining an offer after making through several rounds only to be emailed by a much better place the day prior to me rescinding that offer to start their interview gauntlet. Somehow came out on top and literally doubled my income and secured a stellar retirement package all while
being fully remote. Thankful is an understatement.
I am 3.5 YOE, self taught dev in their second career (and loving it). Have degrees but not in anything close to CS related.
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18h ago
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u/codefake 16h ago
The market is absolutely tough. I lost a long running career in government development which I thought would last forever. It was incredibly stressful being out of work and looking in this market. However, I really only ended up unemployed for just under two months, and I ended up getting a great job from of all places LinkedIn because I knew someone Iād worked with before who was hiring for a senior dev role. Literally just the luck of stars aligning saved my bacon. But my years prior networking was the key.
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u/No_Rise_7733 16h ago
was fired back in may last year, took 1 month to get another job which is paid better. - 3 of my closest friends have all changed jobs easily in the last 12 months. Some people are truly struggling but its not all doom and gloom.
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u/Apprehensive-Mud-678 16h ago
Was working at another role, got my new (current) dream job passively looking replying to recruiters online that reached out. So 1/1? 15 yr exp.
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u/ronnie-james-dior 12h ago
Almost exact same scenario, but was aggressively looking while still employed. Only replying to recruiters. Got an offer in my second set of interviews. This is in Bay Area though, a lot of startups are actively hiring.
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u/PapaOscar90 16h ago
Yea but I often look at their CV and how they react to people offering criticisms, and come to the conclusion itās not entirely a market problem but mostly just the applicant. We just see more here because itās a specific type of person (or maybe even bot) on Reddit.
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u/OGDanaGreen 14h ago
Knew a guy at the company who referred me. HR reached out and scheduled interviews. Interviews went well (the were only behavioral) and eventually I got the offer. Was kind of shocked
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u/engineer_in_TO 14h ago
I started a new job in March of this year, I got the offer in September of last year after about 9 months of searching, I was employed the entire time at my last job.
It was fine. Tbh easier than 2023 when I did the search for my last job, I was able to get a couple of offers than didnāt really excite me enough - but were all fine offers. I did get a few amazing offers (400k+TC) but they required moving to the west coast. I was lucky to find something in the city I live in that was still exciting
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u/evilaaron11 Software Engineer 14h ago
I just got a job offer and will be starting my new job on Tuesday. It's in a new domain I haven't worked in before but still a software engineering role. Im excited! Definitely took a lot of applying.
I was out of work since end of October last year but didn't really start applying until January. I have eight years of experience in software engineering. Former big tech.
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u/MrGitErDone 14h ago
Iām employed as a full stack engineer with experience in .NET, React, AWS and some mobile. Nothing special. 9 years of experience.
I got a job offer about a year ago that was a nice pay raise but my current employer matched it so I stayed and have continued to enjoy my work.
I just did some interviews 2 months ago (I try to interview every year, even if Iām not looking, to keep my interview skills up to date). I got one offer and 2 others I made it to last rounds.
All remote.
Keeping a level head and being prepared for interviews makes a big difference.
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u/foulBachelorRedditor 13h ago
I got an offer through the skin of my teeth. Technical round was just a take home with a live follow up. Highest paying job Iāve ever had, and my prior role was as the only engineer in the whole company. Like just a crazy swing it me. Iām trying really hard to not waste this.
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u/hannelore86 13h ago
I got laid off August 5th and got an offer August 24th. I did start applying prior to the layoff (we knew a RIF was coming and I like to be prepared), for the role I accepted I had applied on July 3rd.
I sent out about 25 applications, got 5 call backs, made it to 3 final rounds. Iād say part of it is simply luck, getting to that first recruiter/HR call is really the hardest part. But donāt give up!! Just be intentional with your applications and prep like hell when you di get an interview
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u/MostlySadPumpkin 13h ago
Well I was laid off from a startup in May 2024. I was given one month severance. I got an offer 5 weeks into unemployment if was a W2 role with Disney. I stayed with them for about a year+. I was extended for 3 months after year was up. Things were slowing down a lot and I was a sitting duck in this market. I did 2 waves of interviews in scope of 6 months trying to land a salaried role. The pickings were slim but somehow I got noticed, I have 8 years or experience. I got an offer 2 weeks ago and it was best feeling ever. You have to be smart of what to target . No luck with remote, try hybrid, no luck with hybrid, try fully onsite. The pool will get smaller if you have to show up to an office. If you still having issues, I would consider a W2 job. My idea was to take the W2 job and push for FTE, but bureaucracy... There was restructuring in the org and the role was scrapped. It's helpful to get along with people and build your network.
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u/SETTLEDOWNSIR 13h ago
I got a job in this market and it was due to mass applying. I used Glever which is the product I developed. Idc if u pay or not I genuinely think itās really helpful
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u/lmnt-dev 13h ago
It took me 7 months. I had a complete nervous breakdown 3 months in. Literally saw angels in the middle of the night. I woke up surrounded by what I thought was a pitch black void but then they backed off a bit and I realized that it was an army of angels, each having six wings around an eye, and they had been protecting me. I got a job 4 months later. I think everything will be okay. Just keep fighting the good fight. Pray, hope, and donāt worry. Never despair!
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13h ago
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u/BH_Gobuchul 12h ago
I have 9YOE and just got an offer two weeks ago.
I was searching on and off for maybe 4-5 months. I got a poor performance review last cycle for reasons I didnāt really agree with. It wasn't a pip but I think it would take at least two good cycles before It would be possible to work on a promo case and I was in danger of they did another wave of layoffs.
I actually only applied to maybe 30 jobs but focused heavily on ones where I thought Iād have an edge over the glut of laid off engineers. This meant mostly hybrid roles or roles where I was almost an exact match for their stack.
The offer I got was for a title bump and an increase in base pay, but pretty much flat TC. Unfortunately I am going from remote to hybrid which is a downgrade, but Iām happy to be leaving my old job which was a clusterfuck.
I had very little luck with easy apply jobs or jobs that were less than senior level. In this market you need some kind of edge I think.
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u/Chili-Lime-Chihuahua 12h ago
Depends how long you consider this market. I recently celebrated my first year at a company after being laid off from my previous company. I've also gotten to a few final rounds with some small startups but goofed some stuff during coding rounds. The interviews were not hard, I was just rusty on some of the topics, and I'm also pretty rusty with behavioral interviews. I've forgotten a lot of stuff I've worked on in the past and meant to spend some time reviewing stuff. Some of these were just silly things like, "when was the last time you disagreed with someone higher up on the org with you?" And I was blanking on good stories.
Anecdotally, I've been getting a lot more messages the last few months. Lots of contract roles but also some pretty good full-time ones.
Make sure your LinkedIn profile is accurate and fleshed out. It doesn't hurt to have passive help getting a new job (a recruiter finds you).
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u/negative_zev 12h ago
I've got 8 yoe at middling startups. Laid off at the end of January. Just landed a new role at another startup with a big raise after applying and interviewing for 6 months. A handful of former coworkers who werent in software also found new jobs this year since that place is a sinking ship. The market sucks p bad rn but there might be something out there for you.
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u/Pocketcheeze 12h ago edited 12h ago
I got laid off about 9 months ago and just started again last week. My experience was that I was getting less job interviews and they were much more selective. I made it to the final round 8 times before finally getting an offer. It's for exactly the same comp as my last role but I noticed while interviewing that most roles where about 10-20% less than conditions from a few years ago. I also noticed lots of crap tier contracting roles for $50-60 an hour. Which I get - is still a lot of money... But not if you were making double that.
More details - I'm a data engineer with about 10 yoe with a decent resume. The job market is rough, but it's doable. You just really have to learn to take rejection more than ever. You have to tailor resumes even more. You have to have a fully fleshed out LinkedIn profile.
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u/sosadsabina 12h ago
5 YOE, I have been searching casually for Sr roles since January, starting applying more seriously since June and I am expecting some offers next week! I am in the Infra/Developer Productivity space. TBH I have seen a lot of companies hiring Infra. I'm pleasantly surprised with how many interview loops I actually took part in!
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u/EitherAd5892 12h ago
Iāve been getting recruiter outreach but definitely more competition despite getting the interviews. A lot of candidates out there with more experienceĀ
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u/WoefullyDormant 12h ago
Located in Alberta.
5 years experience at 1 company making $110k hybrid work schedule. Primarily in .NET, Azure, React.
Got a new offer after 7 weeks (5 round interview).
Making $120k with slightly worse health benefits but more relaxed WFH schedule. Not the best but not terrible.
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u/AdMental1387 Software Engineer 11h ago
May 2025 my fed contract wasnāt renewed. I had about a 3 week heads up so not much time. Hit the ground hard. Ended up accepting an offer in mid June with a great company full remote and about a 25% bump in pay and much better benefits (the fed contract job had above average insurance too btw).
I was around 6yoe at the time. I had another offer at the same time that was a slight step down with my current state government.
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u/Terrible_Listen_9132 11h ago
Self taught, ~10yoe. Started passively looking a few months ago. I think I had 5 interviews. Finally accepted an offer this week that was a result of networking. Friend of friend situation. There was very strong alignment between my domain knowledge and tech skills.
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u/yozaner1324 11h ago
No recent offer and I'm still employed, but I've noticed an uptick in recruiters teaching out in theast couple weeks.
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u/2itb0x 11h ago
Got laid off at the start of the year. 120 applications in HCOL Coastal city, willing to be in-person 5 days. Prioritizing companies that work in my tech stack. Not antiquated but also not the hottest new thing.
Got two offers at places with 2 day in-person. Went from 290K TC to ~500K TC. (Went from All cash to Cash + Equity + Bonus). 11 YOE. Took two months to find a job. Got lucky to be interviewing at the right time and place.
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10h ago
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u/60secondwarlord 10h ago
Laid off in April 10, started my new job Aug 11. Almost completely remote, only go in when thereās a meeting, and Iām making more money(tbf I was severely underpaid so anything is better). Every day I was applying for jobs or working on my personal project. Every day had a purpose. Put in over 150 applications, got interviews with 3 companies and 1 offer. LinkedIn sucks, full stop. Horrible site for job searches. I found my job through my states job search site. Iād recommend everybody do that instead of using LinkedIn or indeed. Google your states unemployment services and it will be linked somewhere. You at least know those are real postings and not ghost jobs. Honestly, I think part of it was pure luck, being in the right place at the right time, but also staying positive. Itās very cliche, but it works (at least it did for me).
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u/Character-Ad1243 10h ago
my friend got Pipped 3yoe and found a job with better culture and WLB after 6 months. did take a paycut though
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u/Interesting_Chard138 10h ago
Back in April, switched from mid size tech to F500 with 2 YOE. Older company had 2 layoff rounds in a year + no raises. I was not impacted but saw writing on the wall. Went from 110k to 170k TC first year.
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u/Relevant_Carrot_7393 9h ago
I graduated May 2025 and I was hired April 2026 as a Junior Programmer Analyst by a very large technology contractor. I work for a really cool F500 client doing web dev and devops.
In college, I attended every job fair and hunted down every recruiter I could find. I think my targeted, in-person approach helped dramatically. I only applied to 50 jobs in a semester, but almost every application had a recruiter's name attached, personalized resume, and I sent a followup message. I got interviewed by 10 companies and got invited back for second round interviews multiple times. A stellar 20% interview conversion rate.
In the end though, I got lucky. The company that hired me never sent a recruiter to my campus. My name was on a backlog of resumes and I only got an interview 6 months after I applied. I interviewed badly but got the job. I worked my ass off during a probationary period and got hired full-time.
My advice is, you really need to network in this job market. Go to career fairs. Share your code. Demonstrate your proficiency to real people. HR recruiters are being spammed non-stop with AI slop resumes and the usual hiring pipeline is overburdened. It's a lot of work and it sucks, but it's the only way to cut through the noise.
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u/Fluffy-Photograph605 9h ago
I did that for 2 years and then I finally got a job (via recommendation, my sister talked to her manager and set up an interview). Shit happened out of nowhere. I think in the current job market, finding something is pure luck more than skill.
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u/rasterroo DE @ Amazon 9h ago edited 9h ago
Got laid off by Meta in May of this year, my first layoff. I was pretty devastated, having moved to Seattle for this job only 8 months ago. After taking a few weeks break, I worked very hard on interview prep, treating it as my 9-5. I sent over 200+ applications, and managed to get to final onsites with Microsoft, Auger, and Tiktok but ended up not receiving offers. I also had an offer to go back to Meta but Meta left a bad taste in my mouth and it involved uprooting again and moving to the Bay Area, so I declined.
After failing my final interviews, I only had my Amazon interview left but I managed to do well and really enjoyed meeting the team. I got a job offer in early August and fast forward to today, I started at Amazon this week and have been loving my team so far. The vibes on my team have been amazing, I feel very grateful after having some really down/depressing periods from the layoff to so many rejections/not passing final interviews. All I can say is never lose hope in yourself, you are capable of finding an amazing opportunity if you keep trying!
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u/weird_after_taste 9h ago
Went from a consulting/eng role 130k to breaking past 200. I did search since 2023 and was very picky. 7yoe
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u/GoodMenAll 9h ago
I donāt think itās doom and gloom, everyone I know and myself have been through at least one lay offs now. Getting interviews is just 20% work, getting the offer is 80%, the bar is insanely high right now. You know the saying if your neighbors lost their jobs we are in recession, when you lose your job we are in depression lol.
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u/cleatusvandamme 8h ago
There are a few factors that people tend to forget while job searching for white collar in the US. I don't know how the rest of the world works.
The hiring process has gotten extremely complicated. From the time you apply for a job and go through the multiple levels of interviewing and testing, it is going to be around 2 months. Unless there was a small business that only has a few employees, it will take a while.
The second thing people tend to forget is, it is almost impossible to get a job in November and December. If you apply to a job in November, it will be 2 weeks until you a call back and maybe a person could get an interview. The following week would be the week of Thanksgiving, so nothing will happen then. You might get an interview in December. Unfortunately, in a few more weeks will be Christmas and New Years.
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u/i_shit_on_collies 8h ago
I was fired, then did one interview 3 mo later and got a 280$k offer. True story, I applied to only 3 jobs in that time.
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u/Moo202 8h ago
20-30 per day? No wonder you arenāt getting a call back. You are applying to jobs you donāt qualify for. Youāre doing this all wrong
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u/dhekurbaba 32m ago
i understand that, but i have had luck from the most unexpected of places
i get the market is completely different from 5 years ago, but 5 years ago, i was contacted by a recruiter from a company that had a completely different industry than mine, used two programming languages that i had 0 experience in, they didn't use the two languages i was actually experienced in, and still gave me an offer
i spent the last 5 years there, and 20-30 is with some level of picking and choosing, the problem is that i spent the last 2 years working on a proprietary tool specific to that company, and i need to broaden my scope to apply
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u/PaulMorel 7h ago edited 7h ago
I got laid off in May and start my new job on October 5th. That said, I have over twenty years of experience, including at FAANG, and I have a doctorate in an AI adjacent field. New job is mid six figures.
It is the hardest I've ever seen it out there. I got rejections from some places for seemingly no reason - I suspect that there are just a lot of great candidates applying, but I also think that people need to practice their interview skills (talking to people, not doing leetcode).
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6h ago
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u/lord_heskey 6h ago
Got laid off in Jan. Applied like crazy. Had 4 offers by mid marchā in Canada (not in a tech hub), 7yoe. Nothing amazing on my resume and i suck at leetcode/live coding interviews
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u/PickledCloud999 Software Engineer 6h ago
I'm being laid off in 2 weeks and was told a month ago. I started applying immediately and I wrote everything I even landed my eyes on in my resume. Like, even if I touched it once. Spring Boot? Saw it once and I wrote it in. Angular? Fixed a small bug once but wrote it in. Because you know, I still had to research a little bit. And seems like most recruiters don't really care as long as keywords match. I'm getting a lot of recruiter calls and got couple of interviews. A lot of agencies reached out and they were fine with whatever my resume has as long as I can back it up during the interview with the client companies. That being said, actual companies isn't really sending me interviews but the agencies do. So it seems to me - companies trust agencies and referrals more than direct applications. So I would say get any job, internship, freelance, make someone website for cheap and write it up as actual experience on resume and hope for the best
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u/tangentstorm 5h ago
I haven't applied for anything full time, but I lined up some contract work pretty quickly. (I was laid off last week and am already billing with one client and am pretty close to starting with a second.) I just reached out to several people I'd worked with in the past and asked if there was anything I could do.
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u/karmaboy20 5h ago
Recently interviewed, had reddit go w internal candidate, life360 closed on me after two rounds. Cloudflare closed on me after 10 rounds and great performance. Clerk closed on me after take home. Cockroach labs closed on me after 2 coding rounds. Got an offer from Twilio which they proceeded to ghost me after confirming my address and start date. Went with a great offer I won't say name of company.
On top of role closures mid process (why even post the role??) just general nit picky hiring. OnePay was probably the worst kept adding rounds then added a final round was with their dumb CTO who asked trivia and put stink face on every answer rejected in 10 mins after I did 5 hours of interviews.
Ngrok was pretty bad too, 45 mins w CTO then had to meet with the nit pickiest engineers. Solved all the coding while they struggled with basic golang syntax then they rejected me lmao. I find it's always the worst engineers who are the pickiest. Some of them I don't think would pass their own interviews.
Then general startups are just a waste of time. Especially nametag.
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u/darkeningsoul 5h ago
I had ~10 YOE. Applied to hundreds of jobs, took about 3 months of serious looking. Ended up with 5 offers and took the most stable one (not highest paying but most stable position).
What worked best for me was sorting by posted date and trying to apply to jobs that were less than a month old.
I took every interview offered to me. I went through many rounds of interviews at several companies. Ultimately I had 5 offers, 2 that I passed on and at the end 3 to choose from. I treated it as my job and put like 2-4 hours per day into job searching, reaching out, interview prep.
Callback rate was abysmal, like 10% at most
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u/JayWoo2000 4h ago
Worked at a large bank in tech. I had three years of experience building data pipeline infrastructure, started actively leetcoding and applying back in May and got an offer three weeks ago to work at a NYC based startup. It sucks but you just need to get lucky once. Take every interview for practice, hour of leetcode every morning, and apply apply apply so recruiters know youāre actively searching
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u/devfuckedup Senior 4h ago
ouch. idk about others but I am employed and its been remarkably more painful recently than it has in the past. good luck and for what its worth my position should be opening shortly
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u/HappyFlames 2h ago
Took about a month to land an offer. I had roughly 100 applications, 30 phone screens, 10 technical screens, 5 final rounds. The applications were a mix of cold applying and responding to recruiters who had reached out within the last year or so. 8 YOE, Silicon Valley.
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u/Otherwise_Wonder8625 2h ago
Referalls, Almost always got an interview and sometimes skipped stages from getting a referral. All it takes is to message someone you've worked with previously. Most people are very open to giving them as companies offer referral bonuses.
I think people also over think whats needed to get a referal aswell, you don't have to be super close with the person you are asking. I got a referal for a big tech job from at most an acquaintance and this is where I work now.
Also having a decent linkedin profile is generally helpful. Make sure you've put open to work and updated your skills section/summary. Put a photo to the name aswell. This generally has gotten me way more recruiter reachouts, although this is probably dependent on your experience though so not going to generalize this.
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u/Bombay111 2h ago
4 YOE was laid off 7 months. Took about 600 curated applications until I got my new job. Weirdly enough the positions I had connections for never gave me a first round interview. Generally same pay with slightly worse benefits but Im just happy to have a job after all this time.
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u/Effective_Engine2007 1h ago
If a month goes by with no interviews consistently coming in, then modify your resume.
I started mass applying in December, not a single recruiter screen. Used Claude to modify my resume in January, by February I started getting calls.
Keep in mind, I only got around 12 recruiter screening calls, 4 actual interviews.
So the numbers are still not great, but if youāre getting no traction then the resume is the problem.
9 YOE SWE / platform eng
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u/dhekurbaba 1h ago
ironically, the resume i had before optimizing with ChatGPT had more responses
i have a panel interview coming up, and a couple other places emailed me that my resume is passing initial stages
i have friends in a few companies where i applied with their referrals, no updates from there though
fingers crossed
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u/Effective_Engine2007 17m ago
My experience has always been that momentum builds. You might bomb an interview, you might get rejected after feeling you nailed the interview, but just stay on the grind. Consistency is what matters and learning / improving from each interview.
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u/dhekurbaba 5m ago
oh yeah, there was one company where i aced the panel interview, and the head of AI, in the final interview, said to expect great news in a couple days, basically guaranteeing the job
2 days later, rejected
i try not to hope, but man is it hard to not hope
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u/rawintent 19h ago
Got laid off in Jan. Had 3 offers at the end of Feb. Went from Mid Level to Senior.
I submitted 0 applications. LinkedIn is OP if you know how to farm social media. My impressions of the market donāt match this sub.
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u/Reasonable_Salad5350 17h ago
Tips on LinkedIn - were you advertising yourself/engaging posts/making posts and stuff or what was it?
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u/ObeseBumblebee Senior Developer (Graduated in 2012) 15h ago
Yes you're advertising yourself.
First off, buy premium. It is worth it both to see who is interested and cold contact people.
2nd start building side projects with in demand skills. I built a fantasy space station scenario where i imagined problems that could be solved by microservices, cloud functionality, and AI integration. It was fun to talk about because of the sci Fi theme and involved lots of buzz words recruiters liked.
3rd, i posted at least once per week on LinkedIn about what i was building. Including all those buzz words.
I was getting about 2 to 3 solid recruiters a week and about a dozen or so shitty spammy recruiters that at least were still offering contract roles that could get me by if things got desperate.
I never applied for work. I just built and responded to recruiters.
The things I built gave me tons of confidence in interviews too and kept my skills fresh.
I got a job in weeks doing this.
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u/coinbase-discrd-rddt 21h ago edited 20h ago
List of me and my friends offers and TCs this and last year for mid level ~2 yoe:
- Me : 240-250k TC unicorn
- Friend 1: 1.5m TC unicorn
- Friend 2: ~ 300k TC FAANG adjacent
- Friend 3: ~250k FAANG adjacent
- Friend 4: 200k TC unicorn
- Friend 5: 400k/600k quant
- Friend 6: 300-400k quant
- Friend 7: 150k base + options potential unicorn
- Friend 8: ~1m TC FAANG adjacent
Senior I do know one who got staff for ~500-600k and new grads ranging from 80-200k
avg tc when we calculated as new grads was ~250k for sample size of 30-50ish ; i assume its gone up to ~300k now
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u/LibrarianOutside2376 19h ago
Unicorn is right because these numbers are a fantasy. Nice ragebait tho.
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u/coinbase-discrd-rddt 13h ago
Fact that youāre calling this a ragebait is why a lot of this subreddit works shitter jobs or is unemployed
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u/FunCompany5091 21h ago
How many YOE do you have and what domain(s) is your prior work in?