CSCareerQuestions

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.

I'm a 25 yo British guy. I landed my first job as a dev in 2022 for a consultancy with a 1 year international placement, it was good but a few months after returning, the whole cohort was laid off due to corporate politics between the offices in the two countries. After 7 months of searching, I got my second job working for a small pensions fintech startup, it was fine but I didn't find it all that fulfilling. After 9 months of working there, the CEO pulled me into a meeting and said they'd made a mistake hiring me and they needed a more senior developer who could help steer the company from a business perspective too, so I was once again laid off.

That was in January, since then I've had 2 interviews, both of which have gone nowhere. The vibe of every position that's matched my CV has basically been the same sort of work- pretty mundane web dev roles and I can see myself being pulled into a cycle of mundane work then being laid off. I've wanted to be a developer for as long as I can remember, I started writing code when I was 12, studied CS throughout school so I could go to uni and do it for my degree - but now, I feel so disillusioned with the whole industry, where do I go from here? Does it get better? How do I find a job that actually feels fulfilling?

Sorry for the ramble, it's 4am and I just happened to stumble across this community while scrolling. Thought it might be worth an ask.

TLDR; been laid off twice in about 2 and a half years, feeling pretty disillusioned with everything, where do I go from here?

I know this seems like a very obvious question. But I mean with regards to job searches. Even internships seem to require a variety of skills these days. I'm interested in both web development and just recently have considered data analysis. Should I work on tutorials and personal projects for a single skill or framework at a time? Or make small projects across a wide variety of things so I can put those skills on my resume?

Hi, I recently got laid off from my current role, and I don't have a lot of time left to find another job. Find jobs that fit my work experience and applying to them takes a lot of time away from prepping for interviews. So I was thinking of hiring some 3rd party company that applies for jobs on your behalf based on the criteria you provide them. However, I am not familiar with these types of company and don't know which ones are legit and which are just taking your money and wasting it and giving back nothing in return. If anyone knows of a company that they think is legit and doesn't cost way too much, that would be helpful. I've read about some that also customize your resume to fit the role before applying, although I am not sure if this is a good or a bad thing. I live in the US and would prefer US based company but if there's a legit non US company, I am open to looking into them as well.

Does being in Hawaii automatically disqualify me from 95% of tech jobs?

Has anyone successfully found a job using LinkedIn's 'Easy Apply' options?

applied internally to a role thatd be a nice pay pump. its a data role with a strong emphasis on python and sql skills. i studied my ass off on data concepts anticipating questions like "how would you start solving xyz problem" or "how would you find business insights on zyx" and the first question is "whats the difference between a dict and a list in python?" or hell, even a leetcode-like question. i like to think im decent at USING python and sql, but not having used them in a current role in ~2 years, these google-search-esque questions threw me off guard. i fumbled making up answers for a few but some i straight up had to say i have no fkn clue. so todays been a bit of a demeaning experience! has anyone else ever had an interview where they asked questions like that?

edit: thanks to yall for being supportive, this is the kindest comment section ive had. im still recovering from the embarrassment of these guys thinking I probably lied about having these skills lol. part of my difficulty is that ive been on a rotation program at work and have spent almost the last year on a cyber analyst position and it didnt hit me how much I forgot to code! so now I'm applying to some cyber roles too, wish me luck!!

Hello all! I've been a Software Developer for almost 15 years now, and after staying at my last few companies for only 2 years each, I'm starting to think about the possibility of becoming a freelancer/contractor. I'm looking for more flexibility in my work and getting out of parts of the corporate culture that I have grown to dislike.

I'm in a good place financially, and so I'm looking to see if it's a possibility. I speak English and German fluently, and have primarily a background in webservice and FE development, though I can also do quite a bit of Rust and have dabbled in Android apps a bit. I also have some experience with medical software. I think my biggest issues right now are business model development / pricing and finding customers.

Does anyone know of any good resources? I find quite a bit online, but a lot seems geared towards being self-employed generally, and not to the software industry itself. I'd be looking for either good websites or books, or general starting points for research.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or advice!

I have been a software engineer of off highway farm equipment for most of my life. I have like 15 years of it. I have just lost the ability to care about it anymore.

I have explored all the things that interest me and now it seems like everything is just turning the crank to completion. A very boring/slow turning with deadline pressure. I am doing less development and more code reviews because I have become a more senor developer.

My position in the company is pretty good and I could probably ride it out until I die or the company picks up on the fact that my output has dropped due to the lack of caring. But that eats at my soul and it isn't fair to my coworkers.

If money wasn't an issue, I would jump to game development but I hear that doesn't pay well or treat their employees well either. I suppose I could start my own company...

I have a wife and we plan to have one kid if that is possible for us.

Burnout is a possibility, but if that is what this is, I am not sure what to do about it.

So here is what I think my options are. I am open to other suggestions:

1. Stay where I am.
2. Pivot hard to management where I am.
3. Try to find a new job within Embedded Systems
4. Try to do Game Development.
5. Drop everything, become a philosopher like Diogenes of Sinope

Thanks for your consideration.

So I'm getting my associates this semester, technically under compsci. Can't really do much with an associates though, and I need a job in the mean time, so I've been studying CompTIA certs (A+, NET+, and soon I'll be taking a course for Sec+).

Except, I don't really know where to go from there. Like, sure I get my associates, then these certificates, and start my bachelor's, except I'm lost in the sauce about anything after that. If I'm honest, I don't even really know what I could do or what options are available to me with a CS degree. My relevant skills so far are basically none; I mean I grew up around computers and I've installed Linux mint on my daily laptop, but it's not like I know how to do much other than surface level or just above surface level stuff. I don't even really know how to code.

I guess, I'm just kinda lost. I don't really know what to do and I'd like some answers but don't even know where to start looking for them. Does anyone have any advice?

I know this is a really vague question, I'm hoping for some open discussion

For some background, I currently have 2.5 years of professional work experience, and I work for a large defense contractor doing devops.

My approach to ethicality so far was basically, I need to start somewhere before I can be picky. I got hired at a large defense contractor out of college, and now that I've hit the 2 year mark for work experience, I have some flexibility in my next job when I decide to do that.

If money wasn't a problem, I'd love to use my degree to do good for the world, or at least work for an industry I don't think is evil. And truthfully, even the lower end of CS jobs still pay better than the higher end of many other degrees.

But right now I'm looking at job offers, and it seems like if I move to a tech, medical, or financial company, I could likely see a salary increase of 30-50%, which would be huge for me as I'm young and have debts to pay off (though much less than others, I'm pretty privileged).

At the same time, if I took a tech job working for my city, I found a position that I am perfectly qualified for but it's a 10% cut from my current salary which I already believe to be a bit too low.

Just curious to see how everyone else has made these decisions. It's very tempting to follow the money and take the highest paying job, but I'd love to work somewhere I'm genuinely proud of.

Im kinda broke and I want to make some money but just can't find any ways. I live in a remote area so there are no jobs. I don't mean making thousands of dollars but a few just to buy a new Cod or some Nikes. I ain't doing any gay shit or sending my pictures!

Have deep experience in 3 different job fields and, in 2 years, learn 5 languages.

I'm a software developer (desktop/enterprise) working full-time. I made a lateral move to this position without a CS degree. The tech stack in the workplace is niche, down to the language, consequently limiting my marketability. Here and there I picked up some experience with some industry-standard languages on the job (Java, Python, C++, SQL), but in very limited scope. It's been several years, I'm in my late 30s and in a spot.

I did not expect to be rejected in competitions for years, at 2nd and 3rd interviews, but here we are. Now the market is tougher, and employers have their pickings of candidates experienced with popular technologies. I may be completely screwed, but now racing to save my career.

I have a choice to make. From best to worst, as I imagine:

a) focus on accruing more FOSS contribution experience, highlight this everywhere (including blog/homepage), then network aggressively. How much, I have no idea. Banking on the idea that demonstrated experience trumps everything, and that dinky personal projects like CS graduates do won't impress, particularly not from an intermediate developer.

b) develop a "big" project e.g. saas, idk. This could require way more time than I'd like, and I don't want to do it. I still would.

c-1) Pivot to IT. I could grind out certs in the former case in a few months time. Less ideal than coding. Were the market as competitive as it is for software, I'd be placing myself in the same situation, making it a waste of time.

c-2) do this for devops instead (Docker, Kubernetes certs). As I understand it, these are usually senior positions (internal promotions?), so coming in as an outsider without the tech stack exp may not fly.

d) write often, share it, pivot to what may value communication skills like technical sales.

Some wisdom and an extra pair of eyes would be much appreciated. Am I missing something? I'm trying to check boxes to appear like an obvious asset. Maybe broadcasting more will boost trustworthiness, I don't have a good read on what tracks the most outside of worksplace experience.

I also picked up an AWS cert, for what little that's worth.

Thanks

I'm still in my learning phase and I make many small projects as I learn. Is putting all of them on Github a good idea, if I want to put it on my resume in the future, or would having too many repositories on Github a bad thing?

I have a degree in information systems which was a mix between business and IT. While I in my initial job search was really close on heading in the direction of becoming a developer, I instead landed a role as a business systems analyst as well as working with digital transformation. So basically I'm in the land between IT and the business. I do some super light programming for the platform I'm responsible for but I feel like it's the kind of stuff you could learn in a day. I know some basic Java, Python and C# but not really enough that I'd see me landing a job that isn't a trainee developer position or a job for newly-grads where the company doesn't expect you to know anything at first.

While I don't mind the social and more business-oriented aspects of the job, I'm kinda lamenting the fact that I didn't enter into some trainee/junior dev job to sharpen up my programming skills and become a fully-fledged developer. I'd love to work fully remote and to be more flexible, e.g., not as bound to meetings and stuff which I currently am, or become a freelancer. Has anyone made a similar transition from digital transformation/adjacent areas to becoming a developer? Or am I just thinking too narrowly on what my options in this field are? Maybe there are many opportunities for fully-remote work in digital transformation, business system analysis and what not that I'm not seeing...?

As stated in the title. I've worked in IT for over 15 years despite having no related degree.

I've been closing tickets nonstop at my current company for almost 10 years. After several restructurings and shuffling of higher posts, it has become clear to me that while this employer isn't the worst out there, I will never be internally promoted or have my job duties changed if I don't leave.

Worse, ever since Covid I've started falling out of love with IT and computers in general. I used to be stoked to learn about all the new developments in tech, nowadays, not so much - the only "innovation" I've seen in the last 10 years was companies trying to make absolutely everything a fucking subscription model. Now I honestly don't know nor care what's in the newest tech stack, how security has evolved,... I just want my shit to work and not having to worry about everything under the hood.

So getting another helpdesk- or related job seems out of the question for mental health reasons.

What would be another niche or industry where someone with an analytical mind and a greatly developed loathing for corporate mooching could find their spot in the coming two decades or so?

I've long since accepted that I'll never be able to climb any ladders anywhere since I never had the right contacts or stayed long enough, so it would likewise have to be something I could mentally and physically endure being in the bottom rungs of for the aforementioned duration.

A lot of new CS grads have been noting that is really hard to get a job. I’ve personally been contacted by a couple people, including outside of Twitter, about the difficulty of finding a job. I’m sure if you’re reading this that you’ve heard some stories, too.

Here I will attempt to provide some insights as to what is going on. Basically, a massive confluence of factors has contributed to it being harder to get a job in tech, both on the demand and supply side of the market. I will cover all of these factors below.

...

It’s not just computer science majors either, but related majors have also surged in popularity. Basically, computer science majors have peaked in total and have near-peaked in proportion; when including CS-adjacent majors they are at an all-time peak in both totals and proportions; and humanities majors are at all-time proportional lows.

...

It should be clear when we talk about why getting a tech job is harder, we are not talking about there being some sort of tech recession; the numbers do not back that narrative up. When we talk about getting a tech job being harder, we’re talking about a higher difficulty of finding tech jobs specifically for new CS grads, which is not something that can be observed in the BLS employment data. (Anecdotally, the market still seems good for experienced software developers.)

...

People talk about AI in hiring like it is replacing engineers’ jobs. That is not happening right now, it simply is not and anyone saying that is bullshitting you. I also think it probably won’t happen for an incredibly long time (probably well after you retire, if ever), and I’ll explain why later.

Please mention the number of people in the startup, as it experiences probably vastly differ based on size

I currently work as a Junior Web Developer at a medium-sized company and enjoy my job. However, after taking a Distributed Systems course at university, I developed a growing interest in the infrastructure side of technology.

In my search for infrastructure roles, I’ve noticed that cloud-related positions dominate the listings, especially for someone at my experience level. I’m considering a switch to this field but need some clarity to ensure it’s the right decision.

First, regarding certifications, I’m aware there are many options for different experience levels. However, I find the preparation for these certifications to be a hassle. I prefer learning by building projects at my own pace rather than through lengthy theory texts or video courses. Additionally, exams tend to cause me a lot of anxiety. How essential are certifications in this field? Can I pursue a career without them or with only a few to kick-start my early career?

Second, as I said before, I'm very interested in the infrastructure part and... I don't know if I want to stay my whole life working on Cloud, I'm afraid that if I enter this field I'll get stuck with only a few ecosystems (like AWS or Azure), ideally I'd like to work with actual computers rather than with cloud, so would it be possible to make a switch from Cloud to on-prem infrastructure in the future?

Curious to see as it seems to be a trend lately

I'm a fullstack web dev with 7 years of experience, and been casually searching for the past year or so, but most applications don't go anywhere, when I've had no problems with resumes in the past.

How have your experiences been, anyone having any better luck?