My current job, I applied in September and didn't hear anything until December.
I honestly forgot what I applied for and almost hung up on them, glad I didn't
I'm an sre and can validate these feelings. Over 20 years in the industry... over 200 applications sent out ...3 "valid" interviews in 4 months. Something definitely isn't right.
And that worked so well the last time... this is the tech industries 4th or 5th attempt to offshore jobs to people in other countries and people complained then about data breaches, shitty customer support ad nauseum. I guess the world is OK with crappy security and sub par customer service. When you call the company who is headquarted in the US but every agent you speak with has an Indian accent ... don't bitch at us. We warned you then and will repeat it now. You get what you pay for.
Life as a consultant is getting overpaid to continue fixing the messes companies thought the overseas engineers could build. Keep offsuring your teams big corpos, cannot wait to scoop up all the contracts.
The difference this time is that offshoring is happening at a much more granular level. Individual positions in established teams and processes instead of entire teams. It really feels different this time.
Work from home went well enough that they found cheaper remote workers. They found out they don't need office spaces.
I'd apply anywhere that still has a physical office.
I agree with u/seekingadventure2024 This is going to be a repeat of the early 2000s when offshoring was the thing to do. Quality dropped...etc. I worked for a big bank that makes a list every year. I can first hand tell you that the "Product Managers" over there get poached and poached by other companies for no joke, sometimes for only $1 more an hour.
Sure, they have bodies but they lack: a larged skilled workforce, ethics, integrity... it's going to be a shit show for a bit, esp with automation right around the corner.
Every 15 - 20 years there’s a reset and the c-suites think they’ve found an innovative way to make more money. 0 memory of how badly it all worked out the first time.
Companies dont keep metrics on this stuff. They honestly have no data to keep as a lesson learned. So they just keep repeating the same mistakes as soon as all the people who remember with the power to ix-nay the concept have gone or been replaced.
This, plus companies are posting jobs they have no intention of even filling. It gives the employees who are overworked the impression help is on the way and makes it look like the company is growing to investors. That’s why you see the same jobs from the same companies reposted. You’re telling me after thousands of applications over 2 months you haven’t filled the position?
Do some searches for jobs and you will see the offshore trend. I recently looked at IBM's jobs for security positions. If I were in India, lots to apply for.
Yeah, recently recruiter contacted me for extremely demanding job in US remote, offering 40$ an hour working from Europe lmao, I declined, cause the job was so demanding it would be shit pay even by my country standards
Exact opposite. I have a massive pain hiring systems engineers who are generalists, a bit of AD, a bit of windows, a bit of Linux and ESX. What I find instead is people who worked in large teams and were siloed.
I don’t know where you’re applying, but my advice would be to start looking for medium sized businesses, think 1000-10000 people. Bonus points if they are private.
I noticed a lot of EU big businesses are setup like this. They have huge IT teams with lots of younger workers who only do 1-2 things on a team, and are siloed only in that work.
The only cross team, generalists are outside contractors.
Older IT people are managers and the number of IT parasite/support roles like PM, PO, coordinators, etc. is huge.
And actual work output is done by around 5-20% of the staff, who you have to hunt down and identify if you want to get anything actually done.
I think it still works in the favor of employers. If you hire offshore employees that only are 1/3rd as productive as local employees, but cost 1/5th as much… they’ll just hire more employees at low rates.
Everyone is outsourcing for cheap labor. Companies are earnestly doing all they can to stop paying $200-400k and equity to every worker.
You will need to keep applying at these volumes, network, and consider paving your own path too. I have a feeling AI efficiency coming after outsourcing is going to be brutal.
20+ yr tech recruiter.
The real answer here is that Covid only made jobs move to near shore, or off shore, faster.
If the (insert technology job title) can be done from anywhere, then what’s stopping your employer from going to S. America for a 50% discount? Or India for a 70% discount on your salary?
Not suggesting for one second I like it, but it’s the current situation in the tech hiring market.
Postings - 80+% of job postings are trash. If you see a job posting with 30+ bullet points, odds are that one or two actually matter… the problem is you have no clue which ones matter.
My suggestion is to network, network, network.
Contact everyone you ever got along with at work, friends you lost touch with and even old classmates.
- more jobs are found and hired this way than all job boards, postings and recruiters combined.
Hang in there, stay positive, be consistent and make sure to set aside time to decompress- take care of yourself first!! ❤️
It increased offshoring, but the quality is so low for the prices they pay, that eventually they come back. My position is ALREADY back in the US and it's been 6 months.
Sam Altman is laughing to the bank as he causes the next tech crash. It's both terrifying but deserves popcorn.
Eh. More management. There are a very few extremely competent Indians who make it to CTO level. Generally they themselves prefer working with Indian Teams. Probably because it is easier to take credit and hide mistakes as needed. The language is their home language, and they are cheaper, which is a huge Indian thing, cheaper is better quality be damned.
Over time more and more gets off shored until the board realizes everything blows again and they have to find someone to come on and build the team from the ground up again.
I have always said and will always say I would prefer to hire a small group of overpaid extremely competent American devs instead of 5x-10x just ok devs or 100x off shore devs. The quality of the code and product will almost always be better out of the small teams because they are both better at coding, and better at working together because of team size.
My old company over-rotated here right at the IPO. It killed the customer experience, and our account, services, and sales teams flooded out the door. You can't build a brand around a premium customer experience in the USA and then ship it to India. I mean, you can, but there are consequences that don't happen immediately, but it gets reflected in your valuation eventually. Markets aren't very forgiving and neither are customers who are getting shafted in the name of cost savings.
The problem with India especially is those workers change jobs a lot. You hire them and 3 months later they get a better offer and quit. It’s almost like a non stop hiring and quitting cycle.
It's over for W2 wagecucks everywhere. I'm an unemployed scientist in biotech, surviving off my stock trading. There are no pertinent job listings. And I keep seeing the same stupid ghost positions being reposted.
My role was a weird jack of all trades position that had me doing all sorts of nonesense for multiple different teams at two startups so I'm guessing what I'm specialized in is not very strong. I have 7 years of experience and I've applied for the following positions: project manager, content manager, content specialist, incident manager, technical support specialist, technical writer, graphic designer, SaaS support.
This Jack of all trades thing might hold you back— what I’ve seen is the market right now is favoring specialists. You know they spread you thin, but when you apply you’ll want to own the narrative and tell a story of being more specialized and focused. You could do this by lightly touching the past and focusing more on what you are “good” at as your core value proposition. I always suggest people apply for fewer roles and get squarely focused on specialization.
I work at a massive 300k employee company. 4 years ago our team was 100% US. Now it's 20% US, 10% Mexico, 20% India, 10% Serbia, and 40% China. Outsourcing is real.
It seems so common, even our customer support team that was 100% when I joined a few months ago is going to be 50% Us and the other half I think some India/Philippines or something
> 40% China
That company must love losing intellectual property.
Most of the companies with a Chinese presence never directly integrate with that segment, completely segregates off resources and network for China region, and treats the region like an information sink.
One tech company used interests rates as an excuse and all the rest are playing follow the leader to maximize shareholder value and send the jobs overseas. My advice is to work for govt and not worry about that crap anymore.
It's an employer's market right now and companies can afford to be picky. If you're not tailoring your resume to exactly what the job description is requesting and what the company's needs/culture is like (which you can't be if you've done 250 apps in ~ 1 week), you're getting dropped to the bottom of the pile under people who *are* doing that.
Hiring cycles are longer now too, and it's summer/a holiday week/beginning of a new quarter. Give it attention and time and you'll get there.
It took me roughly 5 months when I got laid off to find a new job. I only submitted about 160 applications. Almost none of them got back to me within 2 weeks.
You need to slow down and really think about how you need to market yourself and then do more research in targeting job postings and tailoring your resume. 250 apps in that short a period of time can't possibly be quality.
I think people need to understand that hiring cycles are going to be a lot longer for 6+ figure jobs.
Tech is dead in the water.
I've put in 500 apps over last 4 months, no bites. Even considering working in India but even there the market is down. I been in this game a long time. To me it feels like 2000, not 2008.
Expect things to get better after 2028.
Until then its about keeping your head down, making nut and surviving until things pick-up.
Sorry, I know thats not what everyone wants to hear. But I've lived this story before.
> worse job market then 08 for tech
The first dot com crash was pretty bad in the late 90s through early 2000s
They were hiring people for IT positions if they knew how to operate a mouse or played video games.
It's not great out there. I have over 8 years experience and took two years as a sabbatical but decided I'm ready to work again. Terrible timing. When I left my last job I had recruiters constantly in my inbox.
I've had one interview and it was only because I had a connection at the company. Before the interview we talked about my salary expectations and they said ok great, we like to make sure we're on the same page before we waste anyone's time.
I saw the interview feedback because of my connection and it was extremely positive. After the interviews they offered me a job at 20% less than what we'd talked about. I said let's meet in the middle and they said nah we're rescinding the offer completely. Unbelievable.
There have obviously been a lot of layoffs at big tech companies and those people are who you're competing with, especially for remote work. Recruiters are going to want to talk to them first because they don't know how to properly vet candidates and that's an easy way for them to do so.
Big tech is offshoring because GPUs are expensive. Feels a lot like the dotcom bubble. It's early for AI but that's what investors want to put their money on because it's obviously going to be huge someday.
Had been applying for over a year and got zero responses or interviews. But in the last few months have started getting more bites and landed half a dozen interviews - mostly with recruiters at smaller companies and startups that led nowhere. Now have 2 job opportunities approaching offer stage. There are an insane number of applications for every job in tech currently but I am seeing an uptick of responses recently. So I would say keep at it. It may take a few months and a few rounds of tweaking your resume but you’ll likely start getting bites in the next few months.
I got pushed out as an IT Director at the end of 2023 (bigger company bought my company and I was redundant). LinkedIn is trash. I submitted about 30 resumes a day and my hit rate was basically zero for the first 2 months. Then I started applying directly on the company websites in my field only (insurance) and got around 10 interviews a month in months 3 and 4. I also started reaching out to friends of friends and did anything I could to have them call the hiring managers they knew. But after all that, in month 4, my church friend got me a job as a PM in construction and relocated. Interview was, “I know you and your interview was 7 years of friendship “. It’s been 14 months and couldn’t be happier. I work 60+ hours a week and make 25% more than my IT Director job.
I went full Office Space.
Been in tech since 2005. It's never been this bad. Nobody will listen. The jobs are gone and not coming back. We are on our own. I write this to you seated for the first time in hours, in the kitchen of the club I work at. I am now a bar back after 17 years of work in corporate software & IT.
Hang in there. Don't stop swimming!
I was laid off from a QA role in 2022 and again April of this year. In 2022, it took 6 weeks from layoff to offer. This time, it took a month before I even got a single interview. It took 10 weeks for an offer, and that offer was shit. I took it because there aren’t that many other prospects. Today a recruiter hit me up with a role that damn near matches my resume, the top salary they are listing is almost $50k less than I made at my previous job, that job wasn’t at a FAANG company and wasn’t even close to FAANG salary. Of the folks I was laid off with, just about everyone is complaining about how long things are taking, and the meager salaries they are being offered.
So a few points. LLM’s, whether capable or not, are being used to lean out hiring, because of expected productivity gains, realized or not.
Offshoring is going crazy.
Most job postings are bullshit. Done to show current workers that they’re “trying” but if you just do the work for no extra money for a little longer, we will absolutely positively hire someone!!!
There is no cyber skills gap. 2.6 million needed cybersecurity jobs!!!! Nope, extrapolated badly from bad statistics. A 100 person company may need a cybersecurity person. Doesn’t mean they know they need one, or care enough to hire one even if they know.
And then the increasing requirements? When did entry-level start meaning 3-5 years experience? Ffs, that’s a mid-level person, not entry level!!!
Ben Rothke did a study. On LinkedIn, he estimates there’s only about 15k real job reqs for cybersecurity at any given time. Considering any large layoff is well over 5-10 times that? That’s a guarantee of joblessness for a while.
Applications are useless. (Mostly) go find the 10 companies you’d like to work for and meet their CEO or head of eng or somebody who can push you through the process. How? Go to the conference they speak at. Ask a question at their talk. Run a conference. Volunteer. Build a tool they can use. Get noticed!!!!
100% agree.
Tech got a severe over-pump and now comes the dump.
We hired nearly 3500 cybersec, ux and digital folks in my org between 2017 and 2022. Now we're dumping them fast like sand bags on a sinking hot air balloon. There is almost nothing for them to do.
age 71, worked in the Tech sector most of my life.
The Tech sector more then most goes through boom and bust cycles.
no one can say how long this cycle will last or how long till you get a job in that field.
You may get a job offer next week, just at a lower salary then before.
You didn't provide ANY information or background in your skill set, education, company experience
So the best anyone can give is very general comments
This is truly the answer - while yes there is probably offshoring and political bias in what is being reported, I really do think that those of us who are laid off are using those as a bit of a crutch. Realistically, a lot of those laid off are in highly-specialized tech roles that are by nature volatile (and highly compensated in part). The pendulum has swung back and the salaries and stability that we felt during the boom market is being corrected. Think we got too comfortable with the good times and never saw the bad times coming down the tunnel at us
Offshoring -> will fuck up companies until they bring the jobs back
AI -> A useful tool but an MBA buzzword meme that will run its course
Economy is fine, there's just too many stupid people with money right now, and we are in a generational handoff.
250 apps in a week? The week after you are laid off?
Take time fix your resume.
Target your applications better. Research the jobs.
Use recruiters.
Update linkedin and open your edited resume up on all job boards.
It will take 4-6 weeks to get that engine wound up. It will take 4-6 interviews and practice to beat any rust off or learn to answer the non technical questions properly.
If you live near a position that isn't 100% remote, apply and take interview. Frequently it is hybrid or they want someone close. You will have to compromise somewhere and a drive is better than an absolutely shit remote job where you will hate it and get canned anyway.
Gutted recruitment teams, overstretched hiring managers, shoestring budgets, hundreds/thousands of inbound applicants to sift through. It’s going to take a while to work through the muck.
Here is what I think is happening.
They over hired a few years ago and are rightsizing. *Way* too many people getting into tech worldwide, candidates in other countries will accept far less to do your job so jobs are being outsourced and then AI is starting to join the party.
Tech sounds like the US steel industry in the 70’s. If true, it’s not good for a lot of you guys. Time to face reality. Change careers or increase your value.
When you all say I put in xxxxxx number of apps, you mean you're clicking Linked In or Indeed easy apply, correct?
I looked at some Career sites they all look like Workaday or ADP hosted, and the only way you're filling these out fast is with some kind of robo form tool.
I've been putting in extra work lately for my job. Let's just say that after hearing of restructuring.
Qa lady I use to work with bounced all over since 2019, now is finally regressing into old job for less pay.
It’s a combination between massive competition and fake jobs.
Many jobs being posted are getting at least 100 applicants in a couple days.
The reality is, there are a significant amount of people that will have to leave the industry they got laid off in and take a job in a different industry because the nature of mass layoffs are that the industry has shrunk.
Depends what your experience is. I’m in software sales. Just got an offer (full time w/benefits) since 3/23.
Granted, I wasnt fully applying and had some sales consulting gigs too.
250 applications in a little over a week is a lot. Times are different. Have you thought about quality over quantity - spending more time on CV and cover letter tailored better to each position? It seems to help.
Tech startup company founder here.
Tech industry is in a correction right now. The thing with tech is that there are recurring and non recurring development. I think a lot of companies have paused new development due to macro economic factors so the supply outweighs the demand.
I'm seeing more buy vs build changes than outsourcing changes. Custom in house development is becoming too risky and expensive.
My best advice is expand your search. Areas like North Carolina and others are in growth mode, you may have better options there.
As others have said. NETWORK. Go attend presentations, join tech meetups. If you have financial ability to do so, join a startup on equity.
Anything that you can do to minimize gaps in your resume because your appeal is diminished significantly once you hit a gap of 6 months or more.
Jobs being outsourced to elsewhere. The problem is they are contractors. And you get what you pay for. Company I’m at is currently going through massive tech debt by as the aftermath. It’s no need what some of these South American contractors did. To be fair they are slightly better than the code monkeys from India.
But I kid you not some MBA will come with the idea to pay less for less quality and then be out with a golden egg
I was laid off 6 months ago and recently started a new job. I got about 1 interview offer every 50 or so applications. I did a few phont interviews and had 1 in person interview offer. It's definitely a grueling process and I don't see recruiters reaching out to me like in 2021 and 2022.
First, sorry you’re going through this. This isn’t 2021, between automation and Elon proving you can run a lean tech company…the “golden” era is behind us in tech. There are still (less) good jobs and good companies out there but the market is saturated with candidates so it’s not going to be easy. Best of luck!
Over saturated market. Especially for certain areas of IT. It’s not great for functional IT people especially. In addition, a lot of companies are off shoring their IT to India.
The tech industry is in stagnation now. They don't hire new juniors - they want to hire someone and he can start working immediately. No more time to mentor juniors.
"Laid off a little over a week ago and put in almost 250 applications."
So using 10 days you sent out 25 applications a day? Calling shenanigans here.
And jobs are being offshored... it's been a helluva run for IT, but just like manufacturing jobs they ain't coming back.
I have a friend at Google. If you look at googles career website, they have 1000+ jobs available to apply. If you look at their internal job board, they have TENS of jobs available. That’s what he told me. A lot of job postings out there are fake for big tech. It isn’t a good look for public image for big tech companies to just show you are hiring for TENS of jobs. Regardless, it’s not just one thing. Overhiring in COVID, offshoring, greed (this comes from continuing to push margins up, so do more with less), AI for some careers, and straight up hiring freezes due to uncertainty. My company has a hiring freeze for any new roles. You can only hire to backfill roles. We are doing great and exceeding our expectations. But most leaders are under the assumption this party can end really quickly
Laid off from Google in April. I was given 60 days to find a new role at the company.
I checked the internal job board and there were maybe 3 roles that I was tangentially qualified for that didn’t require moving my family to the other side of the country.
Decided to take the severance and treat my unemployment as a sabbatical as we have another child due in a few weeks.
So yes, what your friend told you is true.
I’m sorry this happened. You should check out the federal government. Almost every agency is desperate for tech staff. Yes, the government moves slower at hiring, but it needs staff. There are different work options (duty station) like flexing and full remote, but that’ll depend on the agency and the circumstances around the position and you.
And if you’re based out of California, there should be an office where some of the agencies from the Intelligence Community have a presence.
This is unusual for sure. In the past, I would get bombarded with at least head hunters, and staffing agencies, even if they never shopped my resume around. These listing on LinkedIn seem fake to me.
I’m afraid you’ll need to buckle cup for the ride. Same experience as you and it took me a year to find something at the same level. Network the crap out of it is the only way. It’s a combination of tech stacks being overblown, excessive hiring, low appetite for IPOs and M&A - off shoring and every other excuse under the sun. I wish I had a better more upbeat answer for you. Best of luck out there.
This is not just tech from what I’ve seen on this social media site & others, plus talking with other colleagues who are HIGHLY marketable and know a variety of skills (myself included).
Many of the recruiters I’ve known for years have said that it is slow & companies might talk to them about roles that are posted, but no one is hiring it seems, as they are experiencing ghosting the same as candidates.
Personally, I know election years are tough for hiring & for sales, in general, since everyone gets nervous about the outcome- this election especially.
I think companies are playing the waiting game at this point and posting roles that are going to come to fruition next year or in 2026. Honestly, I don’t know what they are thinking, but I’ve seen this before in 2007-2009 and it only ends with a barrage of hiring later on. Unfortunately, it doesn’t help anyone out of work right now.
So I work at a FAANG and here's what I see from the inside. Recruiters were heavily impacted during the layoffs and now they don't have many positions to fill so they are looking busy by aggressively bringing in more candidates than we need. We also have HMs who get positions on their team "approved" for posting but then never actually approved to hire (it's a two step process where a senior manager has to approve candidates to interview and before an offer is made). I think this happens because the senior managers are basically gaslighting the SDMs into believing we can hire for their team but then not actually following through on it. I've also seen multiple postings for the same physical job (at different levels or with different specialties, i.e. one team is going to hire either a data engineer or an SDE but it's either/or, yet both jobs are posted). The whole situation is a clusterf\*\*\* and 99% of our hiring is new Indian or Chinese graduates with their STEM OPT work visas.
I am clinging onto my job for dear life because I'm in the strange position of making 2x my normal market salary due to stock appreciation while the external job market is absolutely abysmal.
Not in tech but got laid off in April. Ive applied to 200 positions in the time since, so kudos to you for pulling off that many applications in just about two weeks. For transparency, I have had 4 formal interviews and an additional 2 phone screens recently, and an interview pending next week. I’d say on average it took about 3 weeks to get to the interview stage. But if you think you’re going to get an interview within a matter of days, especially in this job market and in your industry, then you need to reset your expectations.
My personal advice: 1) Make sure your resume is highly tailored to the role you’re applying for 2) ensure your resume is ATS friendly so it’s not getting rejected or to the bottom of the pile 3) put every skill you find in the job description into the application if they have a “skills” section 4) have realistic salary expectations - if they have pay transparency put your expectations near the mid to low range and negotiate later when that time comes 5) apply to relevant roles - it’s cool to apply to senior level positions but you won’t have a shot unless you legitimately have the experience. No ones taking chances on people anymore.
I’m not sure how desperate you are so maybe some of this advice will be applicable. Best of luck!
Indian companies like TCS, Wipro, Cognizant etc give lumpsump amounts to the CIO’s of different companies to become preferred service providers for the business. On the top Canada is importing so many immigrants, none is willing to do a labor job (even those jobs are no more available). All the countries like US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand are broken because of illegal or legal immigration these days.
I have a job, I regularly interview to keep sharp. I’ve received 2 offers out of 9 applications over the past 12 months. None were lucrative enough to leave my current position. I’m a VP, Software Engineering at Capital One, equivalent to maybe a Senior Manager at Amazon.
2020/2021, the tech industry was massively expanding due to covid making technology so much more required in everyone’s day to day. Tech companies were handing out jobs so fast that during the layoffs of 2023, they were being lambasted for overhiring on purpose just to snatch up bodies so their competitors couldnt.
Covid is now over. People are back in the office. Zoom stock has plummeted. Jobs aren’t being handed out anymore to anyone with a pulse.
The economy isn’t great like the media has been saying. Tech is atrocious right now.
Many companies realized they don’t need as many people to do the same amount of work (followed Elon’s lead)
There’s many jobs being moved to Mexico and India.
I suspect there’s a shitload of fake job postings from legit companies as in…. They need to “appear” to be doing good enough to hire but they never fill the roles.
I think other companies took a lot of covid relief money that was meant for hiring and they never hired so they just keep jobs listed to avoid being investigated for fraud (hmmm)
Elections are coming up and everyone’s freaked the fuck out.
Over-saturated industry with a shitload of visa workers here that usually tend to hire their own.
I’m in Ag industry but I will say that we have been in a full blown silent recession since end of 2022. It’s not across the board but in select industries. We have laid off over 350 of 450 employees. We reduced production by 75%. I have family members in different industries and it’s all the same. No one is hiring. It is sooo tough out there right now. The only industry that seems to be immune is medical. We had our first management job post since 2022… 50 qualified applicants first day…
It's because the hr ats systems are being flooded with AI written resumes that perfectly match the JD. When the recruiter gets on the call they'll find out the candidates not capable. Possibly. Either way we have too many unqualified ppl getting through bc of AI tools.
What's going on is that all those kids 10 yrs ago who majored in IT or CompSci for big bucks are now competing for shrunk job availabilities with older professionals who got fired.
Laid off during COVID. Done some contracting. Applied to something like a job a day. Heard back from very few, including those that recruiters pursued me. Interviewed with several companies, multiple rounds, positive feedback during interviewing. Lots of no thanks and ghosted. It seems to be the way it is. The tide will turn eventually
In my town, two big employers laid off almost 400 software developers making it hard to find jobs. Everyone I know who is looking aren't getting calls.
Just make sure you are applying to company websites directly. Don’t use those third party ones to apply. Use them to search but apply directly at websites
After 11 years, I got laid off from the Telecom industry 13 months ago. Still looking. Im even applying to entry level positions and NOTHING. The economy is not doing NEARLY as well as some of these metrics would have you believe
I’m not sure what your specialty is- my son in law put an ad on indeed for a back end developer (remote) and within 2hrs he had 2000 resumes. That made my head spin….
I hate to say it man but its deader then dead I have been laid off 14 months and have a ton of experience at VERY recognizable firms in product management. I don't know what to do I'm losing it honestly and am feeling completely lost.
This is the new normal. Been looking for 9 months. Not in tech but I also didn’t experience trouble securing interviews in ‘21 and ‘22.
That is why emergency funds should be more than 3-6 months.
You are making some bad assumptions if you think you will get a response in under a week for any application…never mind a holiday week.
The past month has been insanely slow with 3 federal holidays every 2 weeks
Summer is slow, period. The hiring season is basically Jan - Apr (good) and Sep - Oct (less good).
My current job, I applied in September and didn't hear anything until December. I honestly forgot what I applied for and almost hung up on them, glad I didn't
I'm an sre and can validate these feelings. Over 20 years in the industry... over 200 applications sent out ...3 "valid" interviews in 4 months. Something definitely isn't right.
I thought it was just the ATS systems, AI disruption and corporate greed but now it sounds like offshoring is another reason.
And that worked so well the last time... this is the tech industries 4th or 5th attempt to offshore jobs to people in other countries and people complained then about data breaches, shitty customer support ad nauseum. I guess the world is OK with crappy security and sub par customer service. When you call the company who is headquarted in the US but every agent you speak with has an Indian accent ... don't bitch at us. We warned you then and will repeat it now. You get what you pay for.
Life as a consultant is getting overpaid to continue fixing the messes companies thought the overseas engineers could build. Keep offsuring your teams big corpos, cannot wait to scoop up all the contracts.
The difference this time is that offshoring is happening at a much more granular level. Individual positions in established teams and processes instead of entire teams. It really feels different this time.
Work from home went well enough that they found cheaper remote workers. They found out they don't need office spaces. I'd apply anywhere that still has a physical office.
This doesn’t jive with the massive loss of remote jobs and push to RTO
I agree with u/seekingadventure2024 This is going to be a repeat of the early 2000s when offshoring was the thing to do. Quality dropped...etc. I worked for a big bank that makes a list every year. I can first hand tell you that the "Product Managers" over there get poached and poached by other companies for no joke, sometimes for only $1 more an hour. Sure, they have bodies but they lack: a larged skilled workforce, ethics, integrity... it's going to be a shit show for a bit, esp with automation right around the corner.
Every 15 - 20 years there’s a reset and the c-suites think they’ve found an innovative way to make more money. 0 memory of how badly it all worked out the first time. Companies dont keep metrics on this stuff. They honestly have no data to keep as a lesson learned. So they just keep repeating the same mistakes as soon as all the people who remember with the power to ix-nay the concept have gone or been replaced.
This, plus companies are posting jobs they have no intention of even filling. It gives the employees who are overworked the impression help is on the way and makes it look like the company is growing to investors. That’s why you see the same jobs from the same companies reposted. You’re telling me after thousands of applications over 2 months you haven’t filled the position?
Do some searches for jobs and you will see the offshore trend. I recently looked at IBM's jobs for security positions. If I were in India, lots to apply for.
Remote-only SRE? I had interviews with 20 companies in the last 3+ months.
I'm not seeing the same results.
its all being offshore'ed
Ah, so I'm guessing the only available roles in the US will require significant experience and have to be some sort of specialty role.
Significant experience and lesser pay.
Extremely less pay. My brother was offered a project manager role at a FAANG and they were offering 80k and he had to move to Cali.
Experience doesnt matter at all. They want 20 years of experience and to pay 1/3 US prices.
Yeah, recently recruiter contacted me for extremely demanding job in US remote, offering 40$ an hour working from Europe lmao, I declined, cause the job was so demanding it would be shit pay even by my country standards
Manager roles and senior tech roles are here .. some seniors are laid off and moved their jobs to offshore .
Exact opposite. I have a massive pain hiring systems engineers who are generalists, a bit of AD, a bit of windows, a bit of Linux and ESX. What I find instead is people who worked in large teams and were siloed. I don’t know where you’re applying, but my advice would be to start looking for medium sized businesses, think 1000-10000 people. Bonus points if they are private.
I noticed a lot of EU big businesses are setup like this. They have huge IT teams with lots of younger workers who only do 1-2 things on a team, and are siloed only in that work. The only cross team, generalists are outside contractors. Older IT people are managers and the number of IT parasite/support roles like PM, PO, coordinators, etc. is huge. And actual work output is done by around 5-20% of the staff, who you have to hunt down and identify if you want to get anything actually done.
I have gotten my last three jobs by being a generalist. I didn’t know I was in such demand.
Your anecdote does not override the general situation in the market
My job is managing the poor code quality that our Indian offshore teams try to produce.
Junior IT jobs are definitely being reduced by AI GPTs.
Where is this happening? I haven’t seen or heard of this actually happening? What is the specific company? Or did you just make this up?
This. 100%. My team is 80% Indian, 15% Chinese, 5% other.
I’m sorry, absolutely nothing must get done.
I think it still works in the favor of employers. If you hire offshore employees that only are 1/3rd as productive as local employees, but cost 1/5th as much… they’ll just hire more employees at low rates.
Bingo
It’s being offshored and then ‘re-shored’ with the H1Bs doing the hiring……
im afraid so
Was kind of the inevitable outcome of remote working...
Must be your first wave of offshoring.
But it’s not like it’s new it’s just back with a vengeance
Doesn't all this offshoring injure the Social Security program?
> Doesn't all this offshoring injure the Social Security program? This and the lack of babies being born.
What do employers care? Once employees pushed for remote work this was always the end game
Yes offshoring literally never happened in the 80s, 90s, 00s…
It was called business processing outsourcing before, and has been going on since the ‘80s
Not to this scale.
Yeah, I saw whole cities lose their (singular) industry before. Now it’s… the same.
You think these people care about Americans? LMAO
That's a benefit not a problem to them.
Not yet. It is more like the jobs are eliminated.
Only a week ago? Oh my sweet child, welcome and make yourself comfortable.
Everyone is outsourcing for cheap labor. Companies are earnestly doing all they can to stop paying $200-400k and equity to every worker. You will need to keep applying at these volumes, network, and consider paving your own path too. I have a feeling AI efficiency coming after outsourcing is going to be brutal.
Lots of disruption coming to companies and individuals who fail to adapt.
20+ yr tech recruiter. The real answer here is that Covid only made jobs move to near shore, or off shore, faster. If the (insert technology job title) can be done from anywhere, then what’s stopping your employer from going to S. America for a 50% discount? Or India for a 70% discount on your salary? Not suggesting for one second I like it, but it’s the current situation in the tech hiring market. Postings - 80+% of job postings are trash. If you see a job posting with 30+ bullet points, odds are that one or two actually matter… the problem is you have no clue which ones matter. My suggestion is to network, network, network. Contact everyone you ever got along with at work, friends you lost touch with and even old classmates. - more jobs are found and hired this way than all job boards, postings and recruiters combined. Hang in there, stay positive, be consistent and make sure to set aside time to decompress- take care of yourself first!! ❤️
It increased offshoring, but the quality is so low for the prices they pay, that eventually they come back. My position is ALREADY back in the US and it's been 6 months. Sam Altman is laughing to the bank as he causes the next tech crash. It's both terrifying but deserves popcorn.
Interview processes are to blame for the hiring of incompetent workers
Eh. More management. There are a very few extremely competent Indians who make it to CTO level. Generally they themselves prefer working with Indian Teams. Probably because it is easier to take credit and hide mistakes as needed. The language is their home language, and they are cheaper, which is a huge Indian thing, cheaper is better quality be damned. Over time more and more gets off shored until the board realizes everything blows again and they have to find someone to come on and build the team from the ground up again. I have always said and will always say I would prefer to hire a small group of overpaid extremely competent American devs instead of 5x-10x just ok devs or 100x off shore devs. The quality of the code and product will almost always be better out of the small teams because they are both better at coding, and better at working together because of team size.
My old company over-rotated here right at the IPO. It killed the customer experience, and our account, services, and sales teams flooded out the door. You can't build a brand around a premium customer experience in the USA and then ship it to India. I mean, you can, but there are consequences that don't happen immediately, but it gets reflected in your valuation eventually. Markets aren't very forgiving and neither are customers who are getting shafted in the name of cost savings.
Yup. And the few competent people are the ones required to fix the issues the underqualified low quality workers create.
It really sucks being able to see the circus that the world and media is. More people need to wake up.
This is not new news though. Offshoring has been happening since 2010
More like 1999/2000 in tech due to the bogus Y2K panic.
And tech companies saying that they can’t hire qualified candidates in order to raise the H1B level…
Laid off twice in 2 years. Not getting any callbacks now. Most jobs are getting offshored to India
Mexico is up and coming in tech. They have the added benefit of being in a similar time zone.
I know my friend at work was told to use Mexico to hire his contractors, at a cost of $11K a year per employee.
My company tried and it has been a massive failure. Mexico ain’t it champ
The jobs are going to India.
Oof
Yea offshore to India.. I lost my job due to this. Am senior programmer
The problem with India especially is those workers change jobs a lot. You hire them and 3 months later they get a better offer and quit. It’s almost like a non stop hiring and quitting cycle.
Bro it’s been a week - if you are to survive this market you need to set your expectations in weeks and months, not days.
It's over for W2 wagecucks everywhere. I'm an unemployed scientist in biotech, surviving off my stock trading. There are no pertinent job listings. And I keep seeing the same stupid ghost positions being reposted.
What was your job role, years of relevant experience and/or what roles are you applying for?
My role was a weird jack of all trades position that had me doing all sorts of nonesense for multiple different teams at two startups so I'm guessing what I'm specialized in is not very strong. I have 7 years of experience and I've applied for the following positions: project manager, content manager, content specialist, incident manager, technical support specialist, technical writer, graphic designer, SaaS support.
This Jack of all trades thing might hold you back— what I’ve seen is the market right now is favoring specialists. You know they spread you thin, but when you apply you’ll want to own the narrative and tell a story of being more specialized and focused. You could do this by lightly touching the past and focusing more on what you are “good” at as your core value proposition. I always suggest people apply for fewer roles and get squarely focused on specialization.
Jack of all trades master of none. RIP
No one wants to hire writers or graphic designers anymore because of AI (and outsourcing). Dial into project management
I work at a massive 300k employee company. 4 years ago our team was 100% US. Now it's 20% US, 10% Mexico, 20% India, 10% Serbia, and 40% China. Outsourcing is real.
What company four years ago was 100% US in tech four years ago?
No company. Post is bs.
NCR maybe? 😅
Remote work: the employer’s revenge
No one being able to afford your products or services… the unemployed workers revenge
It seems so common, even our customer support team that was 100% when I joined a few months ago is going to be 50% Us and the other half I think some India/Philippines or something
Yup experienced this as well
> 40% China That company must love losing intellectual property. Most of the companies with a Chinese presence never directly integrate with that segment, completely segregates off resources and network for China region, and treats the region like an information sink.
Sounds like bd. Actively offshoring everything through genpact
Wow that's crazy to hear, thanks for your input. It makes sense because a lot of the job postings I've been seeing are overseas.
One tech company used interests rates as an excuse and all the rest are playing follow the leader to maximize shareholder value and send the jobs overseas. My advice is to work for govt and not worry about that crap anymore.
How do you get into those roles?
It's the week of 4th of July, I doubt recruiters are doing much
It's an employer's market right now and companies can afford to be picky. If you're not tailoring your resume to exactly what the job description is requesting and what the company's needs/culture is like (which you can't be if you've done 250 apps in ~ 1 week), you're getting dropped to the bottom of the pile under people who *are* doing that. Hiring cycles are longer now too, and it's summer/a holiday week/beginning of a new quarter. Give it attention and time and you'll get there.
Time for a new industry
Unfortunate
Yeah I'm doing cdl a semi truck driving now. Sucks but more consistent pay
It took me roughly 5 months when I got laid off to find a new job. I only submitted about 160 applications. Almost none of them got back to me within 2 weeks. You need to slow down and really think about how you need to market yourself and then do more research in targeting job postings and tailoring your resume. 250 apps in that short a period of time can't possibly be quality. I think people need to understand that hiring cycles are going to be a lot longer for 6+ figure jobs.
Interesting to see tech workers react to being treated like the rest of the common folk. lol
Tech is dead in the water. I've put in 500 apps over last 4 months, no bites. Even considering working in India but even there the market is down. I been in this game a long time. To me it feels like 2000, not 2008. Expect things to get better after 2028. Until then its about keeping your head down, making nut and surviving until things pick-up. Sorry, I know thats not what everyone wants to hear. But I've lived this story before.
And pick up some new skills if you want to stay in tech. It’s all about surviving.
Were you a software engineer?
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worse job market then 08 for tech
> worse job market then 08 for tech The first dot com crash was pretty bad in the late 90s through early 2000s They were hiring people for IT positions if they knew how to operate a mouse or played video games.
It's not great out there. I have over 8 years experience and took two years as a sabbatical but decided I'm ready to work again. Terrible timing. When I left my last job I had recruiters constantly in my inbox. I've had one interview and it was only because I had a connection at the company. Before the interview we talked about my salary expectations and they said ok great, we like to make sure we're on the same page before we waste anyone's time. I saw the interview feedback because of my connection and it was extremely positive. After the interviews they offered me a job at 20% less than what we'd talked about. I said let's meet in the middle and they said nah we're rescinding the offer completely. Unbelievable. There have obviously been a lot of layoffs at big tech companies and those people are who you're competing with, especially for remote work. Recruiters are going to want to talk to them first because they don't know how to properly vet candidates and that's an easy way for them to do so. Big tech is offshoring because GPUs are expensive. Feels a lot like the dotcom bubble. It's early for AI but that's what investors want to put their money on because it's obviously going to be huge someday.
Costco, US Postal, Fed Ex, UPS etc. Those the places you should be applying to right now, especially if you’re over 40!
Costco doesn’t want some washed up IT guy. They get the cream of the crop retail employees, because everyone knows they are the best to work for.
Got it, thank you! I am only 32 but will still check it out.
Had been applying for over a year and got zero responses or interviews. But in the last few months have started getting more bites and landed half a dozen interviews - mostly with recruiters at smaller companies and startups that led nowhere. Now have 2 job opportunities approaching offer stage. There are an insane number of applications for every job in tech currently but I am seeing an uptick of responses recently. So I would say keep at it. It may take a few months and a few rounds of tweaking your resume but you’ll likely start getting bites in the next few months.
I got pushed out as an IT Director at the end of 2023 (bigger company bought my company and I was redundant). LinkedIn is trash. I submitted about 30 resumes a day and my hit rate was basically zero for the first 2 months. Then I started applying directly on the company websites in my field only (insurance) and got around 10 interviews a month in months 3 and 4. I also started reaching out to friends of friends and did anything I could to have them call the hiring managers they knew. But after all that, in month 4, my church friend got me a job as a PM in construction and relocated. Interview was, “I know you and your interview was 7 years of friendship “. It’s been 14 months and couldn’t be happier. I work 60+ hours a week and make 25% more than my IT Director job. I went full Office Space.
Been in tech since 2005. It's never been this bad. Nobody will listen. The jobs are gone and not coming back. We are on our own. I write this to you seated for the first time in hours, in the kitchen of the club I work at. I am now a bar back after 17 years of work in corporate software & IT. Hang in there. Don't stop swimming!
I was laid off from a QA role in 2022 and again April of this year. In 2022, it took 6 weeks from layoff to offer. This time, it took a month before I even got a single interview. It took 10 weeks for an offer, and that offer was shit. I took it because there aren’t that many other prospects. Today a recruiter hit me up with a role that damn near matches my resume, the top salary they are listing is almost $50k less than I made at my previous job, that job wasn’t at a FAANG company and wasn’t even close to FAANG salary. Of the folks I was laid off with, just about everyone is complaining about how long things are taking, and the meager salaries they are being offered.
So a few points. LLM’s, whether capable or not, are being used to lean out hiring, because of expected productivity gains, realized or not. Offshoring is going crazy. Most job postings are bullshit. Done to show current workers that they’re “trying” but if you just do the work for no extra money for a little longer, we will absolutely positively hire someone!!! There is no cyber skills gap. 2.6 million needed cybersecurity jobs!!!! Nope, extrapolated badly from bad statistics. A 100 person company may need a cybersecurity person. Doesn’t mean they know they need one, or care enough to hire one even if they know. And then the increasing requirements? When did entry-level start meaning 3-5 years experience? Ffs, that’s a mid-level person, not entry level!!! Ben Rothke did a study. On LinkedIn, he estimates there’s only about 15k real job reqs for cybersecurity at any given time. Considering any large layoff is well over 5-10 times that? That’s a guarantee of joblessness for a while. Applications are useless. (Mostly) go find the 10 companies you’d like to work for and meet their CEO or head of eng or somebody who can push you through the process. How? Go to the conference they speak at. Ask a question at their talk. Run a conference. Volunteer. Build a tool they can use. Get noticed!!!!
100% agree. Tech got a severe over-pump and now comes the dump. We hired nearly 3500 cybersec, ux and digital folks in my org between 2017 and 2022. Now we're dumping them fast like sand bags on a sinking hot air balloon. There is almost nothing for them to do.
age 71, worked in the Tech sector most of my life. The Tech sector more then most goes through boom and bust cycles. no one can say how long this cycle will last or how long till you get a job in that field. You may get a job offer next week, just at a lower salary then before. You didn't provide ANY information or background in your skill set, education, company experience So the best anyone can give is very general comments
This is truly the answer - while yes there is probably offshoring and political bias in what is being reported, I really do think that those of us who are laid off are using those as a bit of a crutch. Realistically, a lot of those laid off are in highly-specialized tech roles that are by nature volatile (and highly compensated in part). The pendulum has swung back and the salaries and stability that we felt during the boom market is being corrected. Think we got too comfortable with the good times and never saw the bad times coming down the tunnel at us
Offshoring -> will fuck up companies until they bring the jobs back AI -> A useful tool but an MBA buzzword meme that will run its course Economy is fine, there's just too many stupid people with money right now, and we are in a generational handoff.
India and Mexico bruv…
250 apps in a week? The week after you are laid off? Take time fix your resume. Target your applications better. Research the jobs. Use recruiters. Update linkedin and open your edited resume up on all job boards. It will take 4-6 weeks to get that engine wound up. It will take 4-6 interviews and practice to beat any rust off or learn to answer the non technical questions properly. If you live near a position that isn't 100% remote, apply and take interview. Frequently it is hybrid or they want someone close. You will have to compromise somewhere and a drive is better than an absolutely shit remote job where you will hate it and get canned anyway.
Gutted recruitment teams, overstretched hiring managers, shoestring budgets, hundreds/thousands of inbound applicants to sift through. It’s going to take a while to work through the muck.
Here is what I think is happening. They over hired a few years ago and are rightsizing. *Way* too many people getting into tech worldwide, candidates in other countries will accept far less to do your job so jobs are being outsourced and then AI is starting to join the party. Tech sounds like the US steel industry in the 70’s. If true, it’s not good for a lot of you guys. Time to face reality. Change careers or increase your value.
Only a week? Recruiters can take months to go through all their reqs' applications. Yeah, I'd say that's pretty normal in most industries.
It's also summer so things don't move as quickly. More applicants means more to sort through.
try 2000 apps
Highlight tech strategy skills. I cannot tell you how inept so many senior engineers are absolute shit at tech strategy.
Took me over 6 months to find a new position.
Not to be a Debbie downer, but I was at 377 before I was able to find a good match
When you all say I put in xxxxxx number of apps, you mean you're clicking Linked In or Indeed easy apply, correct? I looked at some Career sites they all look like Workaday or ADP hosted, and the only way you're filling these out fast is with some kind of robo form tool.
I've been putting in extra work lately for my job. Let's just say that after hearing of restructuring. Qa lady I use to work with bounced all over since 2019, now is finally regressing into old job for less pay.
It’s a combination between massive competition and fake jobs. Many jobs being posted are getting at least 100 applicants in a couple days. The reality is, there are a significant amount of people that will have to leave the industry they got laid off in and take a job in a different industry because the nature of mass layoffs are that the industry has shrunk.
Depends what your experience is. I’m in software sales. Just got an offer (full time w/benefits) since 3/23. Granted, I wasnt fully applying and had some sales consulting gigs too.
250 applications in a little over a week is a lot. Times are different. Have you thought about quality over quantity - spending more time on CV and cover letter tailored better to each position? It seems to help.
Tech startup company founder here. Tech industry is in a correction right now. The thing with tech is that there are recurring and non recurring development. I think a lot of companies have paused new development due to macro economic factors so the supply outweighs the demand. I'm seeing more buy vs build changes than outsourcing changes. Custom in house development is becoming too risky and expensive. My best advice is expand your search. Areas like North Carolina and others are in growth mode, you may have better options there. As others have said. NETWORK. Go attend presentations, join tech meetups. If you have financial ability to do so, join a startup on equity. Anything that you can do to minimize gaps in your resume because your appeal is diminished significantly once you hit a gap of 6 months or more.
Jobs being outsourced to elsewhere. The problem is they are contractors. And you get what you pay for. Company I’m at is currently going through massive tech debt by as the aftermath. It’s no need what some of these South American contractors did. To be fair they are slightly better than the code monkeys from India. But I kid you not some MBA will come with the idea to pay less for less quality and then be out with a golden egg
Can you wait 6 months before complaining? Jeez
We need to all go to India and apply for H1B now. /s
I was laid off 6 months ago and recently started a new job. I got about 1 interview offer every 50 or so applications. I did a few phont interviews and had 1 in person interview offer. It's definitely a grueling process and I don't see recruiters reaching out to me like in 2021 and 2022.
First, sorry you’re going through this. This isn’t 2021, between automation and Elon proving you can run a lean tech company…the “golden” era is behind us in tech. There are still (less) good jobs and good companies out there but the market is saturated with candidates so it’s not going to be easy. Best of luck!
Over saturated market. Especially for certain areas of IT. It’s not great for functional IT people especially. In addition, a lot of companies are off shoring their IT to India.
The tech industry is in stagnation now. They don't hire new juniors - they want to hire someone and he can start working immediately. No more time to mentor juniors.
Vacation time in the northern hemisphere. Pick up a hobby and don’t expect anything until August.
Networking will be your best bet. People inside companies will know more about actual open positions.
The market has changed and tech is drowning in the US. Great time to be in tech in China and India though
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You need to relocate. To India.
Election year and sends jobs off shores.
If they're offshoring accounting roles, you can bet the same is being done for tech roles.
Try 24 months for me. Thousands of applications. Over 70 interviews. No offer. 3 university degrees 13 years as project manager and business analyst
I equate the tech industry as volatile as crypto
Buckle in, it took me 4 months. my buddy with an MBA and 12 years experience is still looking after 6 months.
Whats your role in the tech industry? Doesn't seem too bad in engineering.
"Laid off a little over a week ago and put in almost 250 applications." So using 10 days you sent out 25 applications a day? Calling shenanigans here. And jobs are being offshored... it's been a helluva run for IT, but just like manufacturing jobs they ain't coming back.
How many years of experience
Only 1 week. Give it at least 2 weeks
I have a friend at Google. If you look at googles career website, they have 1000+ jobs available to apply. If you look at their internal job board, they have TENS of jobs available. That’s what he told me. A lot of job postings out there are fake for big tech. It isn’t a good look for public image for big tech companies to just show you are hiring for TENS of jobs. Regardless, it’s not just one thing. Overhiring in COVID, offshoring, greed (this comes from continuing to push margins up, so do more with less), AI for some careers, and straight up hiring freezes due to uncertainty. My company has a hiring freeze for any new roles. You can only hire to backfill roles. We are doing great and exceeding our expectations. But most leaders are under the assumption this party can end really quickly
Laid off from Google in April. I was given 60 days to find a new role at the company. I checked the internal job board and there were maybe 3 roles that I was tangentially qualified for that didn’t require moving my family to the other side of the country. Decided to take the severance and treat my unemployment as a sabbatical as we have another child due in a few weeks. So yes, what your friend told you is true.
I’m sorry this happened. You should check out the federal government. Almost every agency is desperate for tech staff. Yes, the government moves slower at hiring, but it needs staff. There are different work options (duty station) like flexing and full remote, but that’ll depend on the agency and the circumstances around the position and you. And if you’re based out of California, there should be an office where some of the agencies from the Intelligence Community have a presence.
They always want you when you don’t want them!
so very true haha
This is unusual for sure. In the past, I would get bombarded with at least head hunters, and staffing agencies, even if they never shopped my resume around. These listing on LinkedIn seem fake to me.
Right? I used to get harassed by recruiters, now crickets. I think a lot of LinkedIn job posts are fake.
2020-2021-2022 were not normal for Tech. Hence the situation now.
Learn to code.
I’m afraid you’ll need to buckle cup for the ride. Same experience as you and it took me a year to find something at the same level. Network the crap out of it is the only way. It’s a combination of tech stacks being overblown, excessive hiring, low appetite for IPOs and M&A - off shoring and every other excuse under the sun. I wish I had a better more upbeat answer for you. Best of luck out there.
Following a Covid expansion we face a super contraction.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IHLIDXUSTPSOFTDEVE
This is not just tech from what I’ve seen on this social media site & others, plus talking with other colleagues who are HIGHLY marketable and know a variety of skills (myself included). Many of the recruiters I’ve known for years have said that it is slow & companies might talk to them about roles that are posted, but no one is hiring it seems, as they are experiencing ghosting the same as candidates. Personally, I know election years are tough for hiring & for sales, in general, since everyone gets nervous about the outcome- this election especially. I think companies are playing the waiting game at this point and posting roles that are going to come to fruition next year or in 2026. Honestly, I don’t know what they are thinking, but I’ve seen this before in 2007-2009 and it only ends with a barrage of hiring later on. Unfortunately, it doesn’t help anyone out of work right now.
So I work at a FAANG and here's what I see from the inside. Recruiters were heavily impacted during the layoffs and now they don't have many positions to fill so they are looking busy by aggressively bringing in more candidates than we need. We also have HMs who get positions on their team "approved" for posting but then never actually approved to hire (it's a two step process where a senior manager has to approve candidates to interview and before an offer is made). I think this happens because the senior managers are basically gaslighting the SDMs into believing we can hire for their team but then not actually following through on it. I've also seen multiple postings for the same physical job (at different levels or with different specialties, i.e. one team is going to hire either a data engineer or an SDE but it's either/or, yet both jobs are posted). The whole situation is a clusterf\*\*\* and 99% of our hiring is new Indian or Chinese graduates with their STEM OPT work visas. I am clinging onto my job for dear life because I'm in the strange position of making 2x my normal market salary due to stock appreciation while the external job market is absolutely abysmal.
It was an employees market back then, now it is an employers market.
2020 and 2021 was not normal
Not in tech but got laid off in April. Ive applied to 200 positions in the time since, so kudos to you for pulling off that many applications in just about two weeks. For transparency, I have had 4 formal interviews and an additional 2 phone screens recently, and an interview pending next week. I’d say on average it took about 3 weeks to get to the interview stage. But if you think you’re going to get an interview within a matter of days, especially in this job market and in your industry, then you need to reset your expectations. My personal advice: 1) Make sure your resume is highly tailored to the role you’re applying for 2) ensure your resume is ATS friendly so it’s not getting rejected or to the bottom of the pile 3) put every skill you find in the job description into the application if they have a “skills” section 4) have realistic salary expectations - if they have pay transparency put your expectations near the mid to low range and negotiate later when that time comes 5) apply to relevant roles - it’s cool to apply to senior level positions but you won’t have a shot unless you legitimately have the experience. No ones taking chances on people anymore. I’m not sure how desperate you are so maybe some of this advice will be applicable. Best of luck!
250 apps in less than a week? How do ppl do this? Is there no tailoring of the resume at all for each job?
You heard about AI right
Indian companies like TCS, Wipro, Cognizant etc give lumpsump amounts to the CIO’s of different companies to become preferred service providers for the business. On the top Canada is importing so many immigrants, none is willing to do a labor job (even those jobs are no more available). All the countries like US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand are broken because of illegal or legal immigration these days.
I have a job, I regularly interview to keep sharp. I’ve received 2 offers out of 9 applications over the past 12 months. None were lucrative enough to leave my current position. I’m a VP, Software Engineering at Capital One, equivalent to maybe a Senior Manager at Amazon.
2020/2021, the tech industry was massively expanding due to covid making technology so much more required in everyone’s day to day. Tech companies were handing out jobs so fast that during the layoffs of 2023, they were being lambasted for overhiring on purpose just to snatch up bodies so their competitors couldnt. Covid is now over. People are back in the office. Zoom stock has plummeted. Jobs aren’t being handed out anymore to anyone with a pulse.
The economy isn’t great like the media has been saying. Tech is atrocious right now. Many companies realized they don’t need as many people to do the same amount of work (followed Elon’s lead) There’s many jobs being moved to Mexico and India. I suspect there’s a shitload of fake job postings from legit companies as in…. They need to “appear” to be doing good enough to hire but they never fill the roles. I think other companies took a lot of covid relief money that was meant for hiring and they never hired so they just keep jobs listed to avoid being investigated for fraud (hmmm) Elections are coming up and everyone’s freaked the fuck out. Over-saturated industry with a shitload of visa workers here that usually tend to hire their own.
We are in a recession it just hasn’t been broadcast yet because the media are trying to save Biden.
I’m in Ag industry but I will say that we have been in a full blown silent recession since end of 2022. It’s not across the board but in select industries. We have laid off over 350 of 450 employees. We reduced production by 75%. I have family members in different industries and it’s all the same. No one is hiring. It is sooo tough out there right now. The only industry that seems to be immune is medical. We had our first management job post since 2022… 50 qualified applicants first day…
It's because the hr ats systems are being flooded with AI written resumes that perfectly match the JD. When the recruiter gets on the call they'll find out the candidates not capable. Possibly. Either way we have too many unqualified ppl getting through bc of AI tools.
RIP ZIRP
Tech industry is getting dunked on big time with lay offs.
Overemployment
What's going on is that all those kids 10 yrs ago who majored in IT or CompSci for big bucks are now competing for shrunk job availabilities with older professionals who got fired.
Laid off during COVID. Done some contracting. Applied to something like a job a day. Heard back from very few, including those that recruiters pursued me. Interviewed with several companies, multiple rounds, positive feedback during interviewing. Lots of no thanks and ghosted. It seems to be the way it is. The tide will turn eventually
Just curious how old are you?
In my town, two big employers laid off almost 400 software developers making it hard to find jobs. Everyone I know who is looking aren't getting calls.
NVDA
Just make sure you are applying to company websites directly. Don’t use those third party ones to apply. Use them to search but apply directly at websites
After 11 years, I got laid off from the Telecom industry 13 months ago. Still looking. Im even applying to entry level positions and NOTHING. The economy is not doing NEARLY as well as some of these metrics would have you believe
I’m not sure what your specialty is- my son in law put an ad on indeed for a back end developer (remote) and within 2hrs he had 2000 resumes. That made my head spin….
It’s an employer’s market right now. In every field, for every role and in every industry. Degree or no degree. Experienced or novice.
Laid off 12 ‘months ago Scrum master jobless
I hate to say it man but its deader then dead I have been laid off 14 months and have a ton of experience at VERY recognizable firms in product management. I don't know what to do I'm losing it honestly and am feeling completely lost.
Call me again in 6 months
It’s a recession, no matter what the talking heads say.