I’m curious if it’s just me or not. I’m an SE with 10+ years of experience, mostly in full-stack with a wide variety of languages and stacks, and my last title was at the “staff” level. I’m almost 40 years old; not sure if age discrimination is much of a thing (my interviewers have been mostly around my age or younger). I’ve been looking for a job for months. I’ve been applying to just about every job posting where my skills match on LinkedIn, Indeed, and ZipRecruiter (mostly just the Easy Apply option lately, so I can send more applications out). I’ve even been applying to positions that just require 2+ years of experience; I’d take any job (except defense or big tech). I’ve probably sent something like 400 applications out at this point. I’ve gotten a few interviews, and think I did OK, but I guess not good enough since I was still rejected. Is this normal?
The last time I was looking for a job (2021), I only sent 20 applications out, and landed a job on my first interview. I also tried Upwork for a couple weeks, but wasn’t able to land any contracts. I think everyone there is either looking for very cheap devs in the developing world or rockstars with tons of contracting experience and large portfolios.
In my country the consultant company i work at shifted to only going for hiring experience / senior people once interest rates went up 2023-2024. The economy being worse reduces investments, and naturally consultants are less desired during those times. So we didn’t even meet hiring goals for 2024, we barely grew. I think expectations are a bit better this year though, if that is a indication that also applies to your country/place.
It’s a strong contrast to where I, with Master degree in non-tech areas, got a developer job shortly after university at this company. Things were pretty desperate “hire, hire, hire” back then. It also helps that my country is less bad on interviews and such compared to the US.