I am struggling with finding work and having thoughts about whether or not I should keep going or start thinking about switching careers. Any advice/perspective is appreciated.
I am a 40+ year old self-taught software developer. I've been doing front-end/full stack development for most of my 10+ year career. I was also struggling heavily with undiagnosed ADHD and the emotional dysregulation that comes with it for most of my life. I finally discovered it 3+ years ago after around 5 years in therapy and have put in an incredible amount of work since then to learn how to manage it all effectively.
Through this process, I've also come to find a real joy in my work. Now I just need a good job to get my life back on track.
I have been interviewing since December or so and have realized that I do not approach this work in my head the same as engineers that have gone through typical school and career trajectories. Most of my roles have been through recommendations which short-circuited the typical tech interviews or was I hired by non-technical people who only cared about the output, so I have been fortunate in that regard. However, that fortune has become a burden and made it incredibly hard to navigate tech interviews where I am mostly graded on my ability to interview and how homogeneous I am.
In my off time I have been learning new languages, doing coding exercises and working on personal projects to try to display proficiency, but it doesn't seem to matter. I submit applications and receive only form rejection letters, people reach out about work and after a conversation I never hear from them again. When I do get the interview, the questions seem unnatural and designed to garner a specific response rather than have a real conversation.
To top it off, I get exactly zero feedback and have no idea if I'm going through a process with a successful ending or just banging my head against the wall. I'm willing to do take-home coding tests or even a short contract-to-hire period to prove myself, but I'm not even being asked. I think most devs may not be ok with that, and maybe that's partly why, but it's a perfect opportunity for me to overcome concerns during the interview.
Am I on the right track and just experiencing what most people go through? Has anyone else been in a similar situation? Any thoughts or ideas on how to overcome this?
If you got this far, thank you.
From the perspective of a BigCo recruiter, your background doesn't put you into a simple, desirable category - this can be overcome, especially when times are good, but it's harder when expansion isn't happening.
Your options are essentially:
1) keep on getting those recommendations, working for non-tech people, etc like you did before, that can still work and is viable.
2) leetcode, make yourself fit in and conform as a replaceable cog
3) be a team lead / manager, where your experience and focus on the output is seen as an asset
The basic issue is that the market does not value ICs with 10 years of experience, interesting languages, personal projects, etc... those are not _bad_ things, but basically they want leetcode people with a few years of experience, or people to manage those people.
I don't know your whole story, but based on what you wrote here, I think you _are_ on the right track. You're just in a shitty situation because of the market.
In other words, it's not you, it's the market.
Keep applying, keep working, keep looking. Eventually, you'll find something.
Best of luck.
The trick is finding these organizations and also introducing yourself as a different proposition to everyone out there. It would help if you know your stuff very well too. I guess this becomes more of a marketing/networking task than anything else.
You can reach out through Email if you want to carry on the conversation.
You didn't mention it in your post, but are you only looking for remote roles or roles in your city? You might have more luck if you broadened the search geographically, assuming moving is a viable option for you at this time. Also consider roles in more traditional industries like finance, insurance etc. - the work + stack might not be as glamorous and most likely won't pay FAANG level salaries (some hedge funds notwithstanding, perhaps), but it's something to consider.
If you realize that this approach leads to success, why are you trying to do things differently?
When you know of a path that leads to success, and you decide to not travel that path, you shouldn't be surprised when you find yourself on a path that doesn't lead to success.
You already know which path does. Talk to your therapist and try to figure out why you're choosing to not take that path.
> Maybe you should use the off time to create a better resume and hone your interviewing skills instead.
kidding aside though, genuine question, why not dabble in creating side projects that are additional cash flow? just curious.
i mean im mid 20s, at that age i would also get tired of just coding for other people.
ontopic though: yes it is hard to apply for work even for me, right now what i do is freelancing gigs which is contract based.