Finding a Tech Job Is Still a Nightmare
Finding a Tech Job Is Still a Nightmare
Tech companies have laid off more than 400,000 people in the last two years. Competition for the jobs that remain is getting more and more desperate.
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In my experience, good candidates (including interns/juniors) are still landing the roles. Hiring in tech/design/product is tough because there's a deluge of applicants who've either coasted during the boom, or been sold a lie by an educational institution.
You can spot the ones who apply for 40 jobs a week, and those who've used chatGPT a mile off, and they're usually the worst candidates, with long, bland, unfocused resumes.
LinkedIn is full of my worst ex-colleagues bemoaning the lack of opportunities, like they're entitled to it.
Please tell me if I'm being unfair. Maybe I should be less cynical.
You are being unfair. I have been searching for 6+ months for a position in IT, had 2 companies that paid $40k+/yr, 1st one didn't pan out, 2nd one is in progress. Countless $15-20k/yr offers though. I am in Europe looking for remote only positions in any form of tech support, python programming but preferrably linux server/desktop support. I don't use AI, all applications are written by me. My CV is 2 pages, modern theme. 10 years experience.
I'm probably in an echo chamber. I hope that 2nd application goes well for you.
I don’t believe you are in a bubble. My experience matches with your initial assertion. We just recently hired for 3 SRE roles.
Hundreds of applicants in a 24 hour window.
We had people using some kind of LLM tool during interviews, obviously so. Others were sharing the same resume with only slight modifications, and plenty of folks who couldn’t pass the screening call or a very simple tech interview.
We also had wildly unprofessional candidates who were no-shows, or had profane/NSFW desktops or couldn’t even use a terminal - for an SRE role.
So no, you’re not alone. The great candidates get hired, headhunted even.
The same resumes as each other? Did they just copy an example online resume?
Name was different, resume exactly the same. It was probably a scam or the folks applying were scammed in someway. Someone on our team told us stories of scummy “we’ll get you a tech job” services in their country and this “copied resume” phenomenon was par for the course.
That's my experience too. Just absolutely to brag, but I wasn't actively applying in the last 10 years, I was always headhunted.
I mean not personally as if everybody knows in the industry that Golem is the shit, but as in when I get bored after 2-3 years at my current job and I want a nicer salary bump, I start to answer some of the more interesting LinkedIn messages and usually in about a month I land something new.I've been wondering about this. Is it reasonable to ask those recruiters through the linkedin chat about salary before wasting time on the phone with anyone? I've been thinking about answering some of those messages lately like you mentioned you did.
Absolutely fine to politely ask for a salary range, in my experience. I've never found they hide it, but the ranges can be broad.
Thank you! I hope so too.
Where in Europe? Depending on the country the IT job markets are wildly different.
I am based in Romania but looking for WFH jobs globally, so I wouldn't think the specific job markets would make much difference.
I’ve been saying for years that the market is saturated with too many people with too many expectations. Universities are out of touch with the actual job market and need to stop recruiting so many people into CS or engineering programs.
Unfortunately it seems there are no consequences for the universities, and it's not hard to make those qualifications seem both alluring and lucrative.
There's got to be a way to hold them to account for the countless graduates who don't end up finding industry positions.
It’s the job of universities to recruit and train people. They are offering the degrees people want. Not sure why they should be punished for that. It’s really the students and families going in with unrealistic expectations that is an issue here.
Blaming young adults and families is unfair. Many institutions need to be held to account for advertising outcomes which don't materialise for their students.
You're right in my experience, I graduated highschool in 2016 and I remember how hard they pushed comp sci as some sort of magic success bullet. I thought I was terrible at math and kids who I knew weren't much better were choosing it as a major. I genuinely think in 10 years we're going to find out guidance councilers were being paid kick backs by colleges à la the pharma industry.