this post was submitted on 02 May 2025
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Extremely hard even for a experienced engineers to find a job? (lemm.ee)
submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/cs_career_questions
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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.

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[–] BehindTheBarrier 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

for CS ive been hearing for the last 10years, both in my school when i visited quite often after graduation, and from other extended family members. yea it has the same issue as biotech.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 days ago (1 children)

About 15 years experience. I normally have a new job within a month or 2 of looking.

This time it took me 6 months, a pay cut and applying to everything under the sun daily to get anywhere. It’s not just you the job market is ass right now.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

Yeah; took me a full year (granted, half your experience but still); once the husband joined me in applying to jobs around the clock did I start to make any headway (and that was still another 4 months). It was brutal.

[–] onlinepersona 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Is this the US talking? I still have recruiters contacting me, not as often as before but still getting messages on LinkedIn (European here).

The market here seems to be buzzing if you are willing to move. There are pages and pages of devops, sysadmin, software developer, software architect,... . On one website j searched "sysadmin" and it found 10k jobs across Europe! They also seemed up to date when I was checking them out.

Most well paying jobs are in West and North Europe, they also have quite interesting jobs, even in opensource companies. Italy and Greece can't seem to be desperate for people, but their wages are trash. They don't seem to be doing much interesting stuff either. Just run of the mill stuff.

But yeah, Europe looks busy busy busy at the moment and very acceptable for people willing to move.

Anti Commercial-AI license

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Any US companies eager to hire new CS grads?

[–] catch22 5 points 2 days ago (3 children)

US citizen here living in Spain. Any good tips on how to get a job in the EU if I don't have residency? (I'm here with my wife who is on a student visa) I have had a few recruiters reach out, and some good interest when I have pinged some companies on linkedin but no one is able to sponsor a work visa. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong country.

[–] namingthingsiseasy 1 points 1 day ago

Spain seems to have a digital nomad visa option that seems pretty easy to obtain: https://movingtospain.com/spain-digital-nomad-visa/

However, it seems that you need to have a job for at least 3 months before applying from a company outside Spain. Maybe you would have to obtain a job for a short period outside Spain and then obtain the visa to move back in. Another potential difficulty is that your employer would have to be willing to keep you employed in another country and possibly pay you in a different currency. There are contracting firms that can help with this, but it's not guaranteed and ultimately your employer could just say no and let you go. Still, it's a possible avenue.

Also worth looking into whether your wife's student visa allows you to work, but I'm guessing that you probably looked into it already and it doesn't. But just mentioning it in case you haven't already thought about it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I got sponsored recently through the EU Blue Card program. It's generally targeted at what would be considered 'high-skilled individuals', which may or may not be applicable to your situation.

Although it's an EU program, each country gets to set their own requirements and these can vary quite a bit. Might be worth looking into, since if you qualify it is almost always much easier than other paths.

[–] catch22 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

interesting, thanks for the tip. I'll check into this, did you seek out companies that offered this specifically? Or did a company happen to offer it after you applied for the position?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

To be honest, I wasn't fully aware of it at the time and had been targeting a different country-specific program. For this other program I had checked that I fulfilled the requirements and put something like "eligible for program" on my CV. This seemed to help, since I got a lot of responses and we generally discussed this aspect in interviews.

Ultimately though, after getting a job offer, my current company found out about the Blue Card program and we decided together that it was the easiest path. For my country (Austria) the requirement was basically that you had a job offer which paid over the national average, which is pretty typical in tech.

I think a lot of companies aren't aware of all of the different options, so making them aware of these can't hurt!

[–] onlinepersona 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Sorry, I'm European myself, so it's not in the same situation and I have no experience with it. Most of my non-EU colleagues got here through student visas, then got a job, and just stayed. Others started out in large companies abroad and relocated with those companies. The only US American I know here was relocated by their company.

A quick search found https://relocate.me/ Maybe they can help you?

Good luck!

Anti Commercial-AI license

[–] catch22 3 points 2 days ago

cool site, thx!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 days ago

Job market has been kinda brutal since about 2022 when all the tech layoffs began. Now I think companies are jumpy about the economy. Recession is looming and most is the non-big tech companies are looking at increased costs, decreased sales, and IT is a cost center.

I was really fortunate 6 weeks ago and got hired by another team at the same company. Last year I was out of work for 5 months looking for that job.

I'm sure it's just a temporary rough spot in the market. Computers and internet aren't going anywhere. But how long it lasts is anyone's guess. Wouldn't shock me if it lasts until the end of Trump's term—assuming it ends.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago

I’m 56 with decades of experience. At this stage if I were to lose my job I will just throw in the towel. I am fortunate enough to have put money away religiously on my 401K so if it comes to it I’ll just pair down spending and live off my savings.

I have no plans to ever write a resume in my life.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

I've given up. Will probably be homeless again 🤷‍♀️ such is life

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It’s gotten really easy to slap together an AI cover letter specifically for the job. There’s a lot of uncertainty about the economy.

In 2023 I’d send out maybe 5-10 a day and it took me 9 months. It was tough.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I have done that a few times, but editing it so it doesn't sound like AI, and to remove characters AI likes to use that aren't on standard keyboards (like the em dash). Not sure if companies care about cover letters or not either.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

I started doing it for all the jobs. Can’t say whether that got me the interview. Definitely need to edit it.

[–] FizzyOrange 2 points 2 days ago

That's sounds very unusual. Presumably you've got some interviews? I would ask some of them for some honest feedback because it sounds like you're doing something wrong. Also try talking to recruiters...

Also maybe do some networking if you're that experienced? Ask old colleagues?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

been unemployed almost 8 months and older so 25 years experience. bachelors and masters. This surpases 2013 for me but not 2010 but im only like two weeks a way from surpassing 2010.

[–] andybytes 0 points 2 days ago

Ambition of a few, the sloth of many, the pain of all, the luxury of pity. With their sweet talk, they promise US the world, but leave US crumbs. We ask for a fraction, and they just make more bombs. Those that want to save the children are those that harm the children. Immaculate conception, East and West deception. Putting revolutionaries in a box and destroying their cause, want to kill a truth, wrap it in a lie, then watch it die. The leader is a follower, and the follower is a leader that is dead. If there is a hell, it's inside your head.

[–] andybytes -2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Regardless of who is the president the American empire is in decline. The United States is using Palantir, which is a web scraping tool mixed with language learning models that scrapes Twitter and uses open source intelligence to determine which targets to hit. This means some random goofball on the internet who plays around with maps can post something on Twitter and that night there'll be a strike and so they will have to live with the guilt of blowing up civilians. This has already happened. https://web.archive.org/web/20250501204843/https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/us-yemen-bombing-x-osint So why on this tangent? Well, even the military is not using analyst. They're cutting corners at every avenue. And this is not just Trump's fault. Biden caused a lot of our problems too. We are a imperialist empire in decline. And so the only option at this point is full-blown world war. I don't think it has anything to do with you or your age. Or is it young dumb and full of cum willing to work for crumbs? So basically what I'm saying is you might want to move out of the country or start a revolution. Both parties need to be overthrown kinetically.. I think we drastically underestimate the unemployment rate in the United States. I think it's around 23%. I mean sure we've got like really highly educated people working at low wage positions ..welcome to the lumpkin pumpkin seems like all that hard work didn't really pay off did it. You could get a job blowing up poor children in other countries by joining the military industrial complex. They hire some of the dumbest people so you definitely can get a job. And I'm not saying you're dumb. You're probably like really smart. But, you know, that's an option. Let a sleeping dog lie. Go make some bombs better dead than red. https://youtu.be/_T9MHFldX1E

At least you have the ability to witness the United States drop a nuclear bomb on a country. Since the United States is the only country that's ever dropped a nuclear bomb on a civilization. That's something to look forward to. Witnessing history or the end of history. Don't believe me? Oh well, I don't care. We're gonna have full hot war with Iran. The optics will be good cop bad cop. While at the same time Israel and the United States is going to create all types of hell all around the world. Also, we're gonna witness the total destruction of Europe because the United States just wants to cut Europe off from Russia's natural resources. We're kind of like friendenemies us and Europe. To be of the ally of the United States, what a wild ride. Me personally I wish I was never born. What a waste of a life. I hope y'all don't have kids.

http://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/06_iran_strategy.pdf

https://youtu.be/Wh6hesHk6yE

Also, all the people being smug in the comments talking about throwing in the towel. 401 k bla bla bla...I guess live it up tricks.... Just wait. Your dollar won't go as far. And when you get older, your health care will bankrupt you. And because everyone else is suffering, but no one's willing to fight the good fight, we'll just lose empathy for each other. I'm literally watching what it's like to live in America and die in America. It gets lonely and dark and sad towards the end. I'm surrounded by the elderly, and they all have the same problems. It will be You too. When you get older, your cognition starts to decline, but your ego continues to rise. People will tell you what you want to hear and they will rob you blind.