Feeling quite disheartened about job search, any advice?

When I am in situations like this, I try to focus on the process, not the outcome.

Find joy in applying for new jobs, learning about system design and algorithms, or doing practice interviews.

If you follow the process, you will find that job.

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On a side note, I would encourage you to not lower your pay or communicate you will accept lower pay, because its a signal to employers that you're desperate, no one wants you, and they too should be cautious to hire you. As one of my old favorite managers once told me, "when I gave you that offer, I wanted you to walk in on your first day smiling"

The market did get tougher. It's not you. That means that you have to put considerably more effort, or a different kind of effort, to land a job.

Think about landing the job as a numbers game. There are a bunch of steps, connected into a pipeline. Roughly, it's 1. find offers 2. apply 3. prescreen 4. interviews 5. offer

At each step of the pipeline, you will have fewer and fewer offers that will remain. Your goal is to bring one through the whole pipeline.

Think about the pass rate. Say you got 3 offers, but two were bad, and you accepted one. That's 33% pass rate.

You got invited for interviews at 20 firms, and three ended in offers. That's a 15% pass rate.

You were sent 30 pre-screening questionnaires, and got 20 interview invites. 66% pass rate.

You applied to 100 jobs, and got 30 pre-screening questionnaires. 30% pass rate.

These numbers are made up. You can work on any step of the pipeline and try to do things differently to see if it improves your pass rate.

In your case, are you not getting enough interviews? Or are you getting tons of interviews but are not getting any offers (or are not getting invited to a 2nd interview).

If it's the first, maybe you need to devote attention to your resume, cover letter, LinkedIn profile.

If it's the latter, maybe better interview prep or coaching will help.

It's a numbers game. You have to keep trying, but also tweak the steps along the way.

If you have any concrete questions or would like some help, my contact info is in my profile.

I have 25 YoE and talking to walls too. My only suggestion is to ask everyone to review your resume. If that doesn't work, start lying. The last time I was looking for work, I applied to over 600 positions. I've been off work 2 weeks and I'm nearing 200.

Came across this the other day, good resources hidden in links: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IUUwdEw0RjTftvJv3LTA-7XI... (such as this: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a_l8V-R7i5UOJiCV_QUqK167...)

The tech job market is indeed brutal right now. Until recently I was in the same boat as you, applying for lots of jobs and hearing nothing back. For context, I am an early graybeard, I've been coding since the late 1990s. Until ~2020 I never had trouble finding a job--then it suddenly went from falling off a log to nigh impossible.

Rather than repeat some of the advice already given, I suggest you cultivate at least one uncommon niche skill. Doing so adds keywords to your resume that don't appear on all of the others, and demonstrates the ability and willingness to learn new things. It's also possible that there is some employer out there who really needs work in that niche, and they're struggling to find matching applicants.

One potential niche is legacy code. I landed my current position because I know Perl, and this employer has a lot of legacy code. I also found some traction with ColdFusion. If you can't stomach learning old-timey stuff like that, maybe learn how to build browser extensions, or Wordpress plugins. Those aren't super rare skills, but they're not as common these days as React or Angular. You don't have to master anything, just offer a running start.

Also: Don't be afraid to be slightly silly on your resume. The people who have to review those things see a lot of very boring stuff, and something with a little personality can stand out.

Good luck.

I don't know where you are in the EU but some places have a lot of jobs and its hard to hire people. I would consider doing this because you never know how it will turn out - you might end up getting a job overseas but spending months at home working remotely every year once they get to trust you.

Other people have said its a numbers game and they're right. You have to apply and again and somehow keep your spirits up. I hate it when I'm finding a job - I always feel like shit and that I'm worthless. Then I get something and I feel worthwhile again - it's all in one's own head and there's a skill I need to get better at about managing those feelings.

I think the key is to be slightly arrogant in your own eyes. Believe in yourself for no reason at all. "I know python but I'm not a great expert" BZZT....WRONG ANSWER "I know java" BING!!! RIGHT ANSWER. There's an element of projecting a confident and go-getter attitude. You can learn whatever you don't know, you can fix what you lack it's not a problem.

Another issue is that people are looking for different things and you can reword your CV to hook them. I've lost offers because I didn't sell myself on the right aspects of my experience before. You can learn something topical and put that on your CV if you find out that it's a hot item in your general field. e.g. if you do webapps then do you know react or is there something else that's a ticklist item with recruiters and companies?

I think it's also easier to get jobs with smaller companies - they've less budget and less staff and are probably more desperate. If you're not fullstack then do some basic fullstack example site and teach yourself enough to be just about useful.

It's not just you, I'm in a similar boat (also in EU). The market has been quite bad in the last few months. Used to get at least a few calls from the HN hiring posts, but got absolutely nothing in the last 3-4 months. Same for LinkedIn, used to get at least 2+ interview calls every week. Now almost nothing :/ I'm not even picky when it comes to the requirements, don't mind working from office or learning something new (or obscure) for the job.

Every job post on LinkedIn seems to have hundreds of applicants, reminds me of the time I used to apply for jobs in India.

I run a daily email/newsletter that emails you the latest remote dev jobs (nothing outdated, and anything from backend to ML). It’s all free so if you or anyone here is interested, you can sign up here: https://bloomberry.com/remote-jobs/

I built this to scratch my own itch when I was looking for a new job, and everyone I knew wanted something like this, so I’ve just kept it getting for people who are looking for remote engineering jobs :)

Have you tried any indirect hunting tactics? Going to a tech meet-up and seeing who's hiring? Talking to people in the sector can also put your mind at ease when you relate to people with similar problems.

Might also be worth looking at University job boards if there's any Uni's in your town. I worked an academia job part time because it was all I could find, but I learned a lot and the work felt great compared to most office jobs. Might be a good stop gap for you, as they tend to be fixed term contracts I think.

The job market is ass right now.

My stupid advice is... give up something.

Give up remote, give up working on same tech stack, give up high salary. I got through the slog of interviews and got something that's not ideal but hey it's a job.

But damn was it all so torturous.

How about physical office jobs in your area? Have you applied to those? Remote is tough these days but willing to butt in the seat for 8 hours with a 2 hours commute might put food on your plate and buy you time.

throwaway.

we stopped hiring remote workers after experiencing massive amounts of employment fraud (multiple jobs, lying about who they were) and extremely low quality candidates despite good offers

If anyone needs help with their resume - I built rezi and will be happy to give lifetime upgraded accounts at no cost

Crypto firms are hiring like crazy right now for software engineering positions. Whatever you think about the space, its a solid paycheck until something else comes along.

Don't feel bad about taking time to give yourself more energy in the long run. Go for a walk or jog. Do something you enjoy to help recharge your batteries.

If you plan to continue spending time on personal projects or CV, maybe change your scenery and go to a nice cafe or similar. Maybe coworking spaces or new environments will unlock opportunities to network in ways you haven't thought of.

Keep your mind focused on the end goal and consider each step a learning opportunity.

Also, take this time to do things you might not have had the time to do before: learn a new programming language or tech stack or write that blog post you've been sitting on; you never know what doors this type of thing could open for you.

Best of luck!

Hey, I'm in the Netherlands. We don't hire remotely, so you'd need to move here if you're not here already. I don't know if I can help, but my company is doing well. Feel free to email me for more info.

It's hard man. I don't know if anyone here can realistically give you useful advice or much comfort because if you've been employable for years and are only now struggling it suggests it's not you, but that the job market has changed.

The job market for developers is really bad right now, and honestly it's hard for me to see it improving much any time soon. The industry is so saturated with talent these days that I can't imagine there ever being the same kind of demand that we've seen in the past.

Really all you can do is keep applying and try your best to understand where your limitations are. I think web development is particularly bad right now because the web development ecosystem is very accessible so there's a lot of talent concentrating there. When I got into web development you had to first learn how to configure a webserver and set up DNS, etc. Today you can just spin up a website with a single command. You can create a basic React website in an afternoon.

I guess what I'm saying is that I don't think you should try to compete in web development skills. Instead you should try to compete by highlighting other skills that complement your experience. For example, do you have experience with accessibility? Do you have experience with any devops tools? Do you have experience leading teams? These things can set you apart from all of the other profiles which say "webdeveloper with 10 years experience".

Don't give up! The job market is tough, but I'm sure there are jobs out there that would be a good fit for you. For example, check LinkedIn for job postings. It's just much harder to land a job these days, but I think it's temporary until companies realize they need to hire again.

Some tips: Reach out to recruiters who have contacted you in the past. Sign up for online CV databases. Use your network and contact former colleagues to see if their companies are hiring. Work on a side project that excites you and makes you proud to change your mindset, or take an online course. Try to get excited about the challenge instead of thinking about giving up. I just watched a YCombinator video which, among other things, talks about not giving up too soon: https://youtu.be/al-15mMAS18.

Also, try to get feedback when you're rejected. Are you showing genuine interest in the job? Do you ask insightful questions, and do you submit take-home assignments without bugs?

I feel your pain. I've been working on https://customizedresumes.com which might help you. It takes your existing resume and uses AI to tailor it perfectly for each job description you are applying to, giving you a better chance at getting an interview. I'd love to hear your feedback.

The job market is terrible right now, a lot of people competings for few job openings. My wife has also been looking for a junior FE role for almost a year and still no luck. You just have to push through, keep applying to as many jobs as you can find, it’s a numbers game in the end. I’m actually building a tool that can scrape job listings from ~15 sites. If it finds anything new then it sends a notification so that you can apply as soon as possible. If anyone wants to give it a try https://first2apply.com/

If you haven't already, set up a profile on upwork. The barrier to entry is a lot lower on short term projects, so you are more likely to find some work to keep your finances from depleting too quickly.

It will also give you a boost of confidence, an opportunity to build social proof about your work, and it may even end up scoring you a longer term engagement.

Good luck!

Lower your expectations with regards to finding a remote position. I know you came here for comfort, but it seems to me that you are better served by hard truths. Working remotely, you are competing with the whole world. People in lower-income countries will be cheaper and not necessarily worse than you. Use your location as an advantage.

I feel you. I've been there a couple of months ago. Luckily it turned around and I got two offers in one week after months of nothing. I have 10 years of fullstack experience and some tech lead experience. The job market feels hard now. Few years ago it took me a few weeks to fill my calendar with interviews...

I was jobhunting for most of 2023 and only had an offer in October. The struggle is real, just keep doing it.

I live in the US:

In 2020-2021 I spent 20 weeks looking, and applied for 57 jobs.

> I've probably spent more than a month on take-home assignments

I (usually) won't do a take home that I suspect will take me more than 3 hours. Basically, if I have to "learn" to use some kind of framework / pattern in order to do the takehome, I punt. (Unless I want to learn to use the framework / pattern.)

The imbalance of time with long take homes assignments is perverse, because the people evaluating your take home only invest a few minutes into evaluating it: Long take homes are only worth doing once you've had a lot of contact with the company, and there's some kind of payment in return for work. (IE, Duck Duck Go does a good interview and then pays a reasonable rate for the take home.)

With 8 years of experience, you might know quite some people in a position to hire. Call every single one of them, and if they're probably not hiring, ask them for 1-2 phone numbers of people they know who might be looking to expand their teams.

Do not sound "desperate" like this in your job interviews (no offense) because an employer will not hire you to solve your problems, but to solve his problems. And do not have a "begging attitude" because you offer your services (skills). Your eventual employer is your client (client of your competence).

> but even still with low expectations I'm not getting many replies.

Do not sell your skills cheap. If you have low expectations, seek for less qualified jobs while applying for what you feel you are meant for.

Many people went through more or less tough a situation. So do not panic. It is ok to go from failure to failure until the final success.

The term for the market is "hellscape" :|

I have 20+ YOE, aced a take-home technical, had good rapport with team lead... but they didn't move forward with hiring me.

Take care of yourself! Go outside! Get a hobby! Mental health is so important. Tomorrow morning I'm meeting my buddy to drink too much coffee and swap stories before coming home to work on my business card for next week's multi-day job conference. It's... a lot.

The National Labs are most definitely hiring for all STEM roles.

https://nationallabs.org/work-here/careers/

I just looked at Berkeley and they have 60 openings with the word “software” in the title. https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/search/4993486

If I may ask: are you in a remote location?

Some employers claim to be remote-first but favor employees who are close to one of their physical offices.

Where in Europe are you, are you applying to job in your country? Are you applying to jobs where you are a native speaker?

If you haven't already, perhaps try applying for non-engineering positions with adequate pay and of such nature that your SWE experience is useful. I think soft skills / industry specific knowledge will become only more valuable on the long run, as AI will eventually reduce work required for writing basic CRUD apps.

Get your CV/resume reviewed by friends/former colleagues or hell even here on HN. I have seen some ... let's say "wacky" CVs.

It feels like though the market is somewhat in the doldrums now - I have no direct experience of current conditions but at my BigCo (deliberately not naming) hiring is basically stopped, even for backfill/attrition. Seems like companies are kinda spooked at the moment and not really hiring, and letting headcount naturally shrink.

Have you considered contract work? If companies are not hiring FTEs, they may still be looking for temporary contract work as that is lower risk for them.

Good luck.

Market is though and it will stay that way until we go back to ZIRP.

We stopped using recruiters and just do personal referrals.

Churn is low because nobody can find another job, albeit a few people still manage.

Feel free to reach out at f99k at proton me

> negative side of the remote job market right now

Have you considered non-remote jobs and relocating? maybe that'll be good enough and give you time to find to build up your resume and find a remote position.

I'm not in Europe, but at least in India, I hear a lot of news of layoffs.

I left the field but my friends tell me the market is brutal.

So maybe it's not you.

Similar boat. I'm looking in other industries.

Market is totally brutal right now.

Move to USA/Canada.

why is this on front page of HN? we all know what this is

Why do you want to work in tech so bad? Just get a different type of job and code on the side.

> have 8 YoE (mostly web apps)

This sounds like a red flag for me.