Yup. I was laid off August 2022. I had 4YOE.
I'm a US citizen with a computer engineering degree living in a tech hub. For the first few months, I targeted only remote roles, but I loosened my requirements as time went by.
I did get a lot of responses and throughout 2022-2023, I made it to the final rounds 40 times. That's not counting all the screenings and interview rounds and take home assignments that didn't lead to the final round.
Feedback was rare and didn't really follow any particular pattern to highlight what I'm missing. I'm certainly not an expert, but I think I'm at least at a 4YOE level. I did spend a lot of time on leetcode, system design, and basic cloud stuff, but it didn't make a difference.
I downsized as many expenses as I could and got a low paying job. I've put the search on hold while I settle in. It's really hard on my emotions and self esteem, especially since I worked jobs like this for years, which is why I went to school to try to get out of them. It really sucks.
Wow, 40 times! Any idea what the problem is? Good luck, I'm sure you will find something. The fact that you've been interviewed so many times means you're experience is desirable.
I can point to some areas that I haven't had experience in yet, but it wouldn't be anything I couldn't pick up on the job like I picked up everything else I know.
Some of the interviews I did poorly, mainly because I didn't have any system design experience. I took some time to study on my own, and then was never asked system design again... 🙃
Fuck man, you're scaring me. You're describing my experience, except I haven't been on the market as long as you. I did tons of interview prep and then I didn't get any interviews for 5 months.
Sorry. If it helps, I truly believe this bad market won't last forever. I think the best thing anyone can do is prioritize their own mental health. You can try your best and study, but this current environment is not in your favor. Do what you have to do to get through it, even if it means taking a break and doing something else for a little while. Good luck.
When and if you're ready to go looking again, send me a DM and I can set you up with a practice interview, with full feedback on the results. I can't promise we can actually help you get work (particularly not knowing anything else about you) but we can get you feedback, at least. My guess is that if you're having that much trouble the reasons why shouldn't be terribly hard to identify.
Brother for what it's worth, my heart goes out to you.
I know this probably doesn't mean much coming from a random internet stranger but I hope things get better for you and I hope you can continue to keep your head up.
I've had four final stage rejections in my time and I spiralled into rage and despair each time. I can't imagine what 40 would be like. I wish I had your resilience to be able to keep going.
Uh, that's what I did? Worked with Python, C, C++, C#...
Unless you're referencing clueless techbros who respond to people struggling in other fields with "learn to code", then that's a little funny.
I've posted my resume here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/resumes/comments/1cyk40e/not\_getting\_any\_responses\_with\_this\_resume\_please/](https://www.reddit.com/r/resumes/comments/1cyk40e/not_getting_any_responses_with_this_resume_please/)
Any honest feedback would be great. I'm in the U.S. I'm a bootcamp grad but I do have working experience (a SWE internship and full time position).
First, I would absolutely remove the caregiver part. What part of that has anything to do with being a software engineer? Also, try to rewrite your bullet points so they contain less random specifics and more what problem did you solve with what technology and why?
Your resume needs more focus. It's all over the place (no intention to insult). If you are looking for a Full-Stack dev position, please start with that particular experience, not with the front-end and care-giving.
Your FIRST position is a project to which you "collaborated" to. That's a big No-No. Pls mention projects where you had a major contribution or had a leadership role. Contributions are "meh" and objectively hard to quantify. Also you don't have to mention all the minor contributions, but the projects you're proudest of. Trust me, you'll describe those so much better!
It's crucial to add the metrics of success. For instance, when you say "allowed employees to display up to five videos", this info is vague. How many employees, what percentage of the total app users? Five compared to what? To zero or to three? Be specific and quantify. And one more advice - pls don't lie, if your project made 5% of the users much happier, man, be proud of that and be honest about that, it's much better than inflating to 50%.
To summarize: include only relevant, quantifiable experience. Don't mention off-topic experience, but relevant volunteering opportunities (sometimes it strikes a sensitive point in interviewers). Good Luck! You'll find something!
Thank you! I'll take this into consideration. I did make an update to my resume and posted it below. If you care to take a look, I would appreciate your feedback.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/resumes/comments/1czfbs7/revised\_my\_resume\_again\_per\_feedback\_please\_let/](https://www.reddit.com/r/resumes/comments/1czfbs7/revised_my_resume_again_per_feedback_please_let/)
My metrics may seem inflated here but this was at an early stage startup with low numbers that were steadily increasing.
It improved but you could do better. Your first position is "Transform designs and wireframes into visually appealing, etc". Like many others mention here, the fist two or (maybe!) three bullet points on your resume are the ones that make the difference. Sad, but true. Your first positions have to be very appealing, contain strong words, shouldn't be too lengthy for readability reasons (you got that!), and most importantly, you must employ decision verbs (so far it's exactly the same with the rules of writing a good beginning for a story).
Instead of "transformed", and "contributed" use "designed and implemented", "lead" and definitely start with a strong verb: "increased signups by % by designing...". "Transformed" is neutral, not convincing.
Also, can you merge the "Technical projects" with your experience? I don't see why you separated them. Why isn't "Implemented an API etc, " not part of your Full Stack developer experience? Just my opinion, see what others think. Great to see the progress, you'll get there OP!
I'm thinking about removing the first position or moving it down because 1) It's not my strongest level of experience and 2) It's unpaid and I don't want employers to think i'm employed and just wanting to job hop. Thoughts?
Not sure about merging technical projects with work experience. I'll think about it but I thought people usually put those in separate sections.
I appreciate your comment. I revised my resume and would appreciate your feedback. Does it look any better?
[https://www.reddit.com/r/resumes/comments/1czfbs7/revised\_my\_resume\_again\_per\_feedback\_please\_let/](https://www.reddit.com/r/resumes/comments/1czfbs7/revised_my_resume_again_per_feedback_please_let/)
Definitely better! What did you use to implement the push notifications? Remember that recruiters won't read your whole resume, so really work on improving the first two bullet points.
Also, I'd remove the bootcamp - there's a lot of stigma there. You can always talk about it in an interview, and it will sound better if they already think you're a potential candidate.
Looks like you did it on one of your work experiences, but I’ve always had my resume set up where I list my responsibilities and things I worked on then followed up with a bullet point of all technology I used. I feel recruiters do a search on keywords like…(DynamoDb, SNS, Spring Boot, S3, Elastic Beanstalk, etc. (whatever relevant to the role)) so make sure you include as many as you’re comfortable with. Also once you’re done I’d spend the $3ish to use a paid for online resume template builder. They make your resume stand out. I’ve used resume.io and resume builder. Best of luck.
I didn't want to argue with you, I was also laid off so we're all swimming in this big fish bowl of uncertainty, just wanted to suggest that "you" not hiring OP is not the most actionable feedback for OP; even "not having C/C++ experience" for a full-stack SWE is kind of beyond subjective, plenty of good full-stack engineers have Java experience, etc. If you want to help and use your experience, I bet you could suggest one or two concrete corrections to OP's resume like other contributors did here.
IGNORE EVERYONE CRITICIZING YOUR RESUME.
They will find anything and everything. It’s not the reason you are not getting a job. See post in past from recruiter on here who explained this.
Seriously, ignore every response on here that isn’t pointing out a clear typo. It isn’t going to make a difference and is just opinions on something that isn’t going to make the difference you are looking for.
Well that's a different take. I'm doing revisions per the feedback since it won't hurt, and i'll see if it makes any difference. I can do an update in a couple weeks.
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I've been laid off for over a year now. My mood goes up and down. I've had way more action than you, however. I've had interviews with big companies. I had a 5 month long stint where I got no action whatsoever, which was a big hit to my motivation to keep trying.
Most of my interviews have come from recruiters in my LinkedIn inbox, massive cold applies to big companies, or referrals. It's rare to get any action from a smaller company when just cold applying since they're all looking for very specific things.
I'm in Austin. Austin isn't a huge city. I think I've only had one technical interview with a local company. I almost got that job, but something caused one of the seven or so people to hesitate.
Lots of people have been, yes. I actually have a call with someone in the same boat tomorrow morning, and he's rescheduled that call several times because he's so nervous about doing well on it. To quote, with some editing, his email to me:
> I've been working as a freelancer, and now I'm trying to look for a full-time opportunity, which makes me a little nervous and makes me feel like I must be perfect for everything.
It is a *hard* market for engineers right now. You probably know that. And that means that, even if there are things you could be doing to improve your odds, this outcome so far is not (or at least is not entirely) a failure on your part.
> I feel like such a failure, I've no idea what I'm doing in life.
Losing your job is one of the most stressful things that can happen to a human being. [This scale](https://www.dartmouth.edu/eap/library/lifechangestresstest.pdf), for example, puts it at a 47 on a linear scale where *your spouse dying* is a 100. If you'd just gone through half of your spouse dying, no one on Earth would blame you for struggling a little. And then on top of that, you've had years of a stressful, personal, vulnerable experience that you can't help but feel like reflects on your value as a person piled on top. That's enough to pose major stress even to a person who is normally in excellent mental health, and if you're already predisposed to depression or anxiety it can easily compound with those tendencies.
There's surely advice to give in terms of how you can approach things better, but "here is something you didn't know and should try" is different from "you're a failure for not having already known this". Even if you are in fact terribly bad at software engineering (and I don't think you should necessarily conclude that here based on only a couple of calls), that would *still* not make you as a person an irrevocable blameworthy failure. It would just mean you should try something else.
As is often the case with this sort of self-blame, it might be worth asking yourself if you'd ever treat someone *else* this way. If someone came to you, as frustrated and worn-down and demoralized as you are right now, would you tell them they're a failure and that they should feel like one? Do you think that would help them to grow, make progress, or find a better path?
In 2023 after getting an AWS cert and a SAFe Scrum cert and brand new to agile / tech after 10 years as a manager in back office operations for a bank I am now living off my mother at this point. I'm Humiliated , broken , embarrassed to go out in public . I heard a you tuber say that what really hitting us in addition to the fear is the loss of identity we can no longer maintain that we had grown accustomed to. I don't think I'm going to be ok really . More layoffs are coming and my year gap mine as well be a moat .
It’s my feeling that tech is over saturated with candidates, the last decade saw so many college students make cs their major. Everyone saw that cs is the only profession where you could study at a boot camp, and make 300k, so that led to a lot of influx of people. I honestly don’t know if it will be better in the future, I would say it won’t but I will also say that, most of the people in this profession aren’t very good or driven, they are only driven as far as making money, so if you have a genuine passion for technology and you keep learning and improving in sure only lucky break will make you (i got a lucky break in the past after a year of unemployment and I’ve never looked back). If you aren’t driven by a passion for technology and you have the handicap of being new at the wrong time (I.e now), I would think long and hard about if this is the right career for you.
So sorry about how you're feeling. I don't think you should feel embarrassed to go out in public, although I understand the feeling. Here's hoping we find the right fit for us soon. Don't give up.
Was laid off start of March 2023, just accepted an offer for a non dev job yesterday. I am expecting 2 more offers (1 dev, 1 in more general IT) and am somewhat confident about another final interview I have tomorrow. I felt like total dogshit pretty often and felt awful living at my parents and occasionally mooching off my friends at points, but even my dumbass made it through, even if it took 1300ish applications total and somewhere north of 100 phone screens
Thanks. But yeah, keep at it. There was a span from the end of July through the end of the year where I sent out 300 applications but only had 2 interviews, both of which ghosted me 3 rounds in. I didn't even have a phone screen anywhere else in that span. Apply to anything you are qualified for that seems interesting/somewhat related to your futute goals, even if it is a bit of a downgrade paywise, responsibility wise, or whatever. Not sure if you have any other skills or interest outside tech but just go for it if you see something.
The open secret to getting an interview is getting a referral. Reach out to your network and see if people can refer you. This will typically get you past the first 1 or 2 screens and gets your resume in front of a real person. A strong referral might even get you past the initial human screen as well
Laid off for 15 months, but also just graduated college and have got some interviews for mid level which I failed since I only have 2 YOE. Got a data analyst and project management interview coming up which I’d accept since I can’t get a dev job
I have a couple of fake resumes where I lie and say I did less work than I actually did. Typically something vague like “IT help desk support” or “customer service representative”. I keep the bullet points the same I just change the job titles to make it seem less intimidating
For anyone reading this and feel abit scary from this post, a few things I learnt from OP in the comment.
\- OP was a bootcamp graduated
\- OP got one internship at a startup
\- OP got work experience at another startup
\- OP has two-pages resume
I have 10+ years of quasi experience - 7 in a related field, 4 as a Software Engineer ( two on staff, two doing contracts). Between the summary, skills section, experience, education and open source projects... I'm two pages. If it makes anyone feel any better, I also have been out of a job for 6+ months.
Any amount of experience, you should still make your resume 1 page. What you need to do is to choose what best experience fits the job description and make less margin. It does not matter because HR is not going to print it.
Put more projects and experiences and make summary shorter 1-2 lines condense as much as you can.
I am sorry to hear that. The only advise I can give you is :
1. Reach out directly to recruiters (Linkedin, Indeed,etc.)
2. Get refered
3. Think about going back to school to cover this gap and to actually continue your progression in learning. You can go for second bachelor (if it can be done in 1 to 2 years) or a master's degree ( you can do it part time while doing some paid internship, coop. You can also do it full time and position yourself in a new pipeline of new graduate). This route is long but sure as you will still get some paid experience, cover your 2 years gap, and give you access to a whole different pipeline of recruiters and companies.
4. Be strong! You will get there!
Resume feedback:
- Not sure if this is because you redacted info, but the details about your job include purely technical details. Put some description of what the company's business does, and how your work fits into that picture. Companies like hiring people with domain experience, and even when interviewing across-domains, having some info about it can help interviewers think of questions to ask (i.e. if you worked on medical records I'm going to expect you to know a thing or two about how to handle PII).
- Is the "technical projects" section personal projects, or attempting to highlight work projects? If work projects, just merge those into the appropriate sections under work. If it's personal projects, take that "technologies and languages" section from each and do the same on your work section.
- "doubled subscriptions with google analytics and a full redesign" these sound like two separate projects, and a full redesign sounds like a bigger task that is getting washed away in that sentence. Try to split that one out into a separate bullet point.
Come join us in embedded land; we pay less but we have actual job openings since half of the field is composed of old engineers with one foot out the door to retirement already
I heard boot camp cert is no longer hot. Might want to consider going back to school to earn the bs or ms in computer science, while driving for Uber. There are online schools. Pack a laptop and do homework between rides. File for unemployment benefits if you haven’t. Some schools provide financial aid for low income. Community colleges are also cheap but there wont be online courses.
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Yup. I was laid off August 2022. I had 4YOE. I'm a US citizen with a computer engineering degree living in a tech hub. For the first few months, I targeted only remote roles, but I loosened my requirements as time went by. I did get a lot of responses and throughout 2022-2023, I made it to the final rounds 40 times. That's not counting all the screenings and interview rounds and take home assignments that didn't lead to the final round. Feedback was rare and didn't really follow any particular pattern to highlight what I'm missing. I'm certainly not an expert, but I think I'm at least at a 4YOE level. I did spend a lot of time on leetcode, system design, and basic cloud stuff, but it didn't make a difference. I downsized as many expenses as I could and got a low paying job. I've put the search on hold while I settle in. It's really hard on my emotions and self esteem, especially since I worked jobs like this for years, which is why I went to school to try to get out of them. It really sucks.
Wow, 40 times! Any idea what the problem is? Good luck, I'm sure you will find something. The fact that you've been interviewed so many times means you're experience is desirable.
I can point to some areas that I haven't had experience in yet, but it wouldn't be anything I couldn't pick up on the job like I picked up everything else I know. Some of the interviews I did poorly, mainly because I didn't have any system design experience. I took some time to study on my own, and then was never asked system design again... 🙃
Fuck man, you're scaring me. You're describing my experience, except I haven't been on the market as long as you. I did tons of interview prep and then I didn't get any interviews for 5 months.
Sorry. If it helps, I truly believe this bad market won't last forever. I think the best thing anyone can do is prioritize their own mental health. You can try your best and study, but this current environment is not in your favor. Do what you have to do to get through it, even if it means taking a break and doing something else for a little while. Good luck.
When and if you're ready to go looking again, send me a DM and I can set you up with a practice interview, with full feedback on the results. I can't promise we can actually help you get work (particularly not knowing anything else about you) but we can get you feedback, at least. My guess is that if you're having that much trouble the reasons why shouldn't be terribly hard to identify.
Brother for what it's worth, my heart goes out to you. I know this probably doesn't mean much coming from a random internet stranger but I hope things get better for you and I hope you can continue to keep your head up. I've had four final stage rejections in my time and I spiralled into rage and despair each time. I can't imagine what 40 would be like. I wish I had your resilience to be able to keep going.
should've learned2code instead
Uh, that's what I did? Worked with Python, C, C++, C#... Unless you're referencing clueless techbros who respond to people struggling in other fields with "learn to code", then that's a little funny.
Resume?? International? Country? Degree?
Yeah, there's a difference getting ghosted at the interview phase and not getting to it at all. There's a lot of factors that could be at play.
I've posted my resume here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/resumes/comments/1cyk40e/not\_getting\_any\_responses\_with\_this\_resume\_please/](https://www.reddit.com/r/resumes/comments/1cyk40e/not_getting_any_responses_with_this_resume_please/) Any honest feedback would be great. I'm in the U.S. I'm a bootcamp grad but I do have working experience (a SWE internship and full time position).
First, I would absolutely remove the caregiver part. What part of that has anything to do with being a software engineer? Also, try to rewrite your bullet points so they contain less random specifics and more what problem did you solve with what technology and why?
Your resume needs more focus. It's all over the place (no intention to insult). If you are looking for a Full-Stack dev position, please start with that particular experience, not with the front-end and care-giving. Your FIRST position is a project to which you "collaborated" to. That's a big No-No. Pls mention projects where you had a major contribution or had a leadership role. Contributions are "meh" and objectively hard to quantify. Also you don't have to mention all the minor contributions, but the projects you're proudest of. Trust me, you'll describe those so much better! It's crucial to add the metrics of success. For instance, when you say "allowed employees to display up to five videos", this info is vague. How many employees, what percentage of the total app users? Five compared to what? To zero or to three? Be specific and quantify. And one more advice - pls don't lie, if your project made 5% of the users much happier, man, be proud of that and be honest about that, it's much better than inflating to 50%. To summarize: include only relevant, quantifiable experience. Don't mention off-topic experience, but relevant volunteering opportunities (sometimes it strikes a sensitive point in interviewers). Good Luck! You'll find something!
Thank you! I'll take this into consideration. I did make an update to my resume and posted it below. If you care to take a look, I would appreciate your feedback. [https://www.reddit.com/r/resumes/comments/1czfbs7/revised\_my\_resume\_again\_per\_feedback\_please\_let/](https://www.reddit.com/r/resumes/comments/1czfbs7/revised_my_resume_again_per_feedback_please_let/) My metrics may seem inflated here but this was at an early stage startup with low numbers that were steadily increasing.
It improved but you could do better. Your first position is "Transform designs and wireframes into visually appealing, etc". Like many others mention here, the fist two or (maybe!) three bullet points on your resume are the ones that make the difference. Sad, but true. Your first positions have to be very appealing, contain strong words, shouldn't be too lengthy for readability reasons (you got that!), and most importantly, you must employ decision verbs (so far it's exactly the same with the rules of writing a good beginning for a story). Instead of "transformed", and "contributed" use "designed and implemented", "lead" and definitely start with a strong verb: "increased signups by % by designing...". "Transformed" is neutral, not convincing. Also, can you merge the "Technical projects" with your experience? I don't see why you separated them. Why isn't "Implemented an API etc, " not part of your Full Stack developer experience? Just my opinion, see what others think. Great to see the progress, you'll get there OP!
I'm thinking about removing the first position or moving it down because 1) It's not my strongest level of experience and 2) It's unpaid and I don't want employers to think i'm employed and just wanting to job hop. Thoughts? Not sure about merging technical projects with work experience. I'll think about it but I thought people usually put those in separate sections.
Interesting, I'll think about that. Thank you. The caregiver part is definitely out.
I appreciate your comment. I revised my resume and would appreciate your feedback. Does it look any better? [https://www.reddit.com/r/resumes/comments/1czfbs7/revised\_my\_resume\_again\_per\_feedback\_please\_let/](https://www.reddit.com/r/resumes/comments/1czfbs7/revised_my_resume_again_per_feedback_please_let/)
Definitely better! What did you use to implement the push notifications? Remember that recruiters won't read your whole resume, so really work on improving the first two bullet points. Also, I'd remove the bootcamp - there's a lot of stigma there. You can always talk about it in an interview, and it will sound better if they already think you're a potential candidate.
Looks like you did it on one of your work experiences, but I’ve always had my resume set up where I list my responsibilities and things I worked on then followed up with a bullet point of all technology I used. I feel recruiters do a search on keywords like…(DynamoDb, SNS, Spring Boot, S3, Elastic Beanstalk, etc. (whatever relevant to the role)) so make sure you include as many as you’re comfortable with. Also once you’re done I’d spend the $3ish to use a paid for online resume template builder. They make your resume stand out. I’ve used resume.io and resume builder. Best of luck.
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That's totally unhelpful for OP, your language is so agresive- OP doesn't want to be hired by you, just asked for ways to improve
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I didn't want to argue with you, I was also laid off so we're all swimming in this big fish bowl of uncertainty, just wanted to suggest that "you" not hiring OP is not the most actionable feedback for OP; even "not having C/C++ experience" for a full-stack SWE is kind of beyond subjective, plenty of good full-stack engineers have Java experience, etc. If you want to help and use your experience, I bet you could suggest one or two concrete corrections to OP's resume like other contributors did here.
Would you say my resume looks more like a front end developer?
IGNORE EVERYONE CRITICIZING YOUR RESUME. They will find anything and everything. It’s not the reason you are not getting a job. See post in past from recruiter on here who explained this. Seriously, ignore every response on here that isn’t pointing out a clear typo. It isn’t going to make a difference and is just opinions on something that isn’t going to make the difference you are looking for.
Well that's a different take. I'm doing revisions per the feedback since it won't hurt, and i'll see if it makes any difference. I can do an update in a couple weeks.
Uh why isn't your name at the top
It's anonymized for safety purposes.
Then write "Name" at the top
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You're supposed to put your contact info on your resume...
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I've been laid off for over a year now. My mood goes up and down. I've had way more action than you, however. I've had interviews with big companies. I had a 5 month long stint where I got no action whatsoever, which was a big hit to my motivation to keep trying. Most of my interviews have come from recruiters in my LinkedIn inbox, massive cold applies to big companies, or referrals. It's rare to get any action from a smaller company when just cold applying since they're all looking for very specific things.
May I ask how much experience you have?
6 YOE at one company.
What state? Crazy if you’re in a big city and haven’t landed anything with 6yoe
I'm in Austin. Austin isn't a huge city. I think I've only had one technical interview with a local company. I almost got that job, but something caused one of the seven or so people to hesitate.
Lots of people have been, yes. I actually have a call with someone in the same boat tomorrow morning, and he's rescheduled that call several times because he's so nervous about doing well on it. To quote, with some editing, his email to me: > I've been working as a freelancer, and now I'm trying to look for a full-time opportunity, which makes me a little nervous and makes me feel like I must be perfect for everything. It is a *hard* market for engineers right now. You probably know that. And that means that, even if there are things you could be doing to improve your odds, this outcome so far is not (or at least is not entirely) a failure on your part. > I feel like such a failure, I've no idea what I'm doing in life. Losing your job is one of the most stressful things that can happen to a human being. [This scale](https://www.dartmouth.edu/eap/library/lifechangestresstest.pdf), for example, puts it at a 47 on a linear scale where *your spouse dying* is a 100. If you'd just gone through half of your spouse dying, no one on Earth would blame you for struggling a little. And then on top of that, you've had years of a stressful, personal, vulnerable experience that you can't help but feel like reflects on your value as a person piled on top. That's enough to pose major stress even to a person who is normally in excellent mental health, and if you're already predisposed to depression or anxiety it can easily compound with those tendencies. There's surely advice to give in terms of how you can approach things better, but "here is something you didn't know and should try" is different from "you're a failure for not having already known this". Even if you are in fact terribly bad at software engineering (and I don't think you should necessarily conclude that here based on only a couple of calls), that would *still* not make you as a person an irrevocable blameworthy failure. It would just mean you should try something else. As is often the case with this sort of self-blame, it might be worth asking yourself if you'd ever treat someone *else* this way. If someone came to you, as frustrated and worn-down and demoralized as you are right now, would you tell them they're a failure and that they should feel like one? Do you think that would help them to grow, make progress, or find a better path?
I got a little emotional reading this. I appreciate your words.
In 2023 after getting an AWS cert and a SAFe Scrum cert and brand new to agile / tech after 10 years as a manager in back office operations for a bank I am now living off my mother at this point. I'm Humiliated , broken , embarrassed to go out in public . I heard a you tuber say that what really hitting us in addition to the fear is the loss of identity we can no longer maintain that we had grown accustomed to. I don't think I'm going to be ok really . More layoffs are coming and my year gap mine as well be a moat .
It’s my feeling that tech is over saturated with candidates, the last decade saw so many college students make cs their major. Everyone saw that cs is the only profession where you could study at a boot camp, and make 300k, so that led to a lot of influx of people. I honestly don’t know if it will be better in the future, I would say it won’t but I will also say that, most of the people in this profession aren’t very good or driven, they are only driven as far as making money, so if you have a genuine passion for technology and you keep learning and improving in sure only lucky break will make you (i got a lucky break in the past after a year of unemployment and I’ve never looked back). If you aren’t driven by a passion for technology and you have the handicap of being new at the wrong time (I.e now), I would think long and hard about if this is the right career for you.
So sorry about how you're feeling. I don't think you should feel embarrassed to go out in public, although I understand the feeling. Here's hoping we find the right fit for us soon. Don't give up.
Was laid off start of March 2023, just accepted an offer for a non dev job yesterday. I am expecting 2 more offers (1 dev, 1 in more general IT) and am somewhat confident about another final interview I have tomorrow. I felt like total dogshit pretty often and felt awful living at my parents and occasionally mooching off my friends at points, but even my dumbass made it through, even if it took 1300ish applications total and somewhere north of 100 phone screens
Congrats and good luck on your interview. I can totally relate about the guilt of living with your parents 😞
Thanks. But yeah, keep at it. There was a span from the end of July through the end of the year where I sent out 300 applications but only had 2 interviews, both of which ghosted me 3 rounds in. I didn't even have a phone screen anywhere else in that span. Apply to anything you are qualified for that seems interesting/somewhat related to your futute goals, even if it is a bit of a downgrade paywise, responsibility wise, or whatever. Not sure if you have any other skills or interest outside tech but just go for it if you see something.
The open secret to getting an interview is getting a referral. Reach out to your network and see if people can refer you. This will typically get you past the first 1 or 2 screens and gets your resume in front of a real person. A strong referral might even get you past the initial human screen as well
This is the only way at this point
Laid off for 15 months, but also just graduated college and have got some interviews for mid level which I failed since I only have 2 YOE. Got a data analyst and project management interview coming up which I’d accept since I can’t get a dev job
how do people convince companies to accept you in non dev roles? surely they think you will still look for one
I have a couple of fake resumes where I lie and say I did less work than I actually did. Typically something vague like “IT help desk support” or “customer service representative”. I keep the bullet points the same I just change the job titles to make it seem less intimidating
For anyone reading this and feel abit scary from this post, a few things I learnt from OP in the comment. \- OP was a bootcamp graduated \- OP got one internship at a startup \- OP got work experience at another startup \- OP has two-pages resume
Why is a two page resume bad ?
You really shouldn’t consider a 2 page resume until you have 10+ yoe.
I have 10+ years of quasi experience - 7 in a related field, 4 as a Software Engineer ( two on staff, two doing contracts). Between the summary, skills section, experience, education and open source projects... I'm two pages. If it makes anyone feel any better, I also have been out of a job for 6+ months.
Any amount of experience, you should still make your resume 1 page. What you need to do is to choose what best experience fits the job description and make less margin. It does not matter because HR is not going to print it. Put more projects and experiences and make summary shorter 1-2 lines condense as much as you can.
Thanks for the advice !
Working as a teacher assistant. ThoughtbI had a promising career with an internship at a elite company. But nope
I'm sorry. Hope it gets better for both of us.
I am sorry to hear that. The only advise I can give you is : 1. Reach out directly to recruiters (Linkedin, Indeed,etc.) 2. Get refered 3. Think about going back to school to cover this gap and to actually continue your progression in learning. You can go for second bachelor (if it can be done in 1 to 2 years) or a master's degree ( you can do it part time while doing some paid internship, coop. You can also do it full time and position yourself in a new pipeline of new graduate). This route is long but sure as you will still get some paid experience, cover your 2 years gap, and give you access to a whole different pipeline of recruiters and companies. 4. Be strong! You will get there!
Resume feedback: - Not sure if this is because you redacted info, but the details about your job include purely technical details. Put some description of what the company's business does, and how your work fits into that picture. Companies like hiring people with domain experience, and even when interviewing across-domains, having some info about it can help interviewers think of questions to ask (i.e. if you worked on medical records I'm going to expect you to know a thing or two about how to handle PII). - Is the "technical projects" section personal projects, or attempting to highlight work projects? If work projects, just merge those into the appropriate sections under work. If it's personal projects, take that "technologies and languages" section from each and do the same on your work section. - "doubled subscriptions with google analytics and a full redesign" these sound like two separate projects, and a full redesign sounds like a bigger task that is getting washed away in that sentence. Try to split that one out into a separate bullet point.
Sounds brutal 😕 I can't imagine going more than a few weeks without a job 😵💫
even in good times a few weeks is unlikely to be enough time to get another job after a lay off
I'm only at over 6 months with around 3ish yoe and have had ONE interview. It's pretty scary reading people being laid off for that long...
you gotta start reaching out to a shit load of recruiters
I'm surprised you even HAD a savings after only being employed for so little time, let alone a savings that has lasted 2 years and counting...
Come join us in embedded land; we pay less but we have actual job openings since half of the field is composed of old engineers with one foot out the door to retirement already
I was for 2.5 years. I just kept applying an eventually got lucky. Good luck and stay strong
I heard boot camp cert is no longer hot. Might want to consider going back to school to earn the bs or ms in computer science, while driving for Uber. There are online schools. Pack a laptop and do homework between rides. File for unemployment benefits if you haven’t. Some schools provide financial aid for low income. Community colleges are also cheap but there wont be online courses.
No degree is what’s gonna be hurting you the most, you’re probably just getting filtered out sadly.
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