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Unemployed for 8 months with 10 years experience. How is your job search going?

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21–30 of 41 posts

Re: Unemployed for 8 months with 10 years experience. How is your job search going?

#21

I just said fuck it and am turning to my life long back up plan: military. I have consistently held a part time job in the military for moments like these. My military job pays much less than my long experience as a software developer allows but enough to cover all the bills. I was able to find an open slot for my next required professional military education course in the very near future which will allow me several…

There’s zero reason you need a masters degree to move into management.

Re: Unemployed for 8 months with 10 years experience. How is your job search going?

#22
post #18

I just said fuck it and am turning to my life long back up plan: military. I have consistently held a part time job in the military for moments like these. My military job pays much less than my long experience as a software developer allows but enough to cover all the bills. I was able to find an open slot for my next required professional military education course in the very near future which will allow me several…

“expert beginner” is a term I never knew I needed but it explains so well a present daily frustration.

Worth a read

https://daedtech.com/how-developers-stop-learning-rise-of-th...

Re: Unemployed for 8 months with 10 years experience. How is your job search going?

#23
post #5

I'm 5 years into my software development career, for now I am fine. But I am also making sure that my next possible job is already lined up. I'm not taking any chances with a single client, company or even a technology holding a decision over whether I can earn a livelihood; now or in the future.

Might be going a bit overboard here, calm down - life is good, there is no danger. You will be fine.

Life is good, but I need a sense of impending doom to keep constantly progressing, improving and growing. Not doing that would drive me crazy.

Re: Unemployed for 8 months with 10 years experience. How is your job search going?

#24
post #19
post #11

I just decided to pivot into consulting. Had saved so I have a bit of a runway, but the moment the thought occurred to me that I can forget about letcode shenanigans, and interviews and performance reviews, and terrible codebases and focus on jobs that I want to take, I couldn’t go back

I hear you. On top of it all I had to move to change countries for personal reasons, so now I'm away from my network. The job market is filled with scammers and really low offers. One way to go is to bite the bullet, as others mentioned, and go through the 18 interviews, pointless ridiculously difficult tests and whiteboards, 3-days long code projects, all that to be accepted into a codebase full of legacy tech, bad…

There are many companies and industries, not everything is like that. If you're OK taking a pay cut, the process to work on the film industry (VFX), or bio industry, is definitely much easier, and the work can be more meaningful

Re: Unemployed for 8 months with 10 years experience. How is your job search going?

#25
post #19
post #11

I just decided to pivot into consulting. Had saved so I have a bit of a runway, but the moment the thought occurred to me that I can forget about letcode shenanigans, and interviews and performance reviews, and terrible codebases and focus on jobs that I want to take, I couldn’t go back

I hear you. On top of it all I had to move to change countries for personal reasons, so now I'm away from my network. The job market is filled with scammers and really low offers. One way to go is to bite the bullet, as others mentioned, and go through the 18 interviews, pointless ridiculously difficult tests and whiteboards, 3-days long code projects, all that to be accepted into a codebase full of legacy tech, bad…

I went through the whole cycle of "software is magic" to "All jobs are just babysitting horrible codebases" in about five years. I'm done.

I've said this before elsewhere, but I'm starting anew. I'll be studying the classics and will tend bars/sweep floors to make ends meet if necessary. I'm lucky to be in EU where education is nearly free.

Re: Unemployed for 8 months with 10 years experience. How is your job search going?

#26

A little over 6 months unemployed with around 6 years of experience. Recruiters dried up except for a couple spouts last year and couple last month. Most of the interviews were shockingly hostile. Job applications are a void and frankly I’m seeing less and less jobs relevant to my skill self and less generalist jobs in general. If things don’t shape up this month, I’m preparing for the worst and possibly giving up. I…

>Most of the interviews were shockingly hostile

Just in the past month, I've been, at two separate interviews, told by the interviewer:

"There's been a lot of layoffs lately teehee"

"I'd never apply for jobs. I need to be headhunted"

You give people the least bit of power and they quickly show their true colors...

Re: Unemployed for 8 months with 10 years experience. How is your job search going?

#27

I just said fuck it and am turning to my life long back up plan: military. I have consistently held a part time job in the military for moments like these. My military job pays much less than my long experience as a software developer allows but enough to cover all the bills. I was able to find an open slot for my next required professional military education course in the very near future which will allow me several…

What stack are you primarily an expert in?

I have never wanted to be a tech stack expert. I wanted to be a better developer writing faster and more durable applications. This is part of my frustration.

Re: Unemployed for 8 months with 10 years experience. How is your job search going?

#28
Holding onto a contract but I'm a bit burned out after 10 years in the industry and was considering sabbatical.

I hope you find a chair somewhere soon, but tbh it feels like most of us will have to drastically rethink viability of our careers in coming years if not immediately. It comes for us all, its just a question of time...

Re: Unemployed for 8 months with 10 years experience. How is your job search going?

#29

Holding onto a contract but I'm a bit burned out after 10 years in the industry and was considering sabbatical. I hope you find a chair somewhere soon, but tbh it feels like most of us will have to drastically rethink viability of our careers in coming years if not immediately. It comes for us all, its just a question of time...

I think most people that are kind of burnt out start to think negatively thus reproduce the same kind of thoughts, rethinking and viewing their career as not viable anymore...

Plus there's so much negativity the last couple of months, just because the market is tight and no more easy job hunting.

Re: Unemployed for 8 months with 10 years experience. How is your job search going?

#30
post #11

I just decided to pivot into consulting. Had saved so I have a bit of a runway, but the moment the thought occurred to me that I can forget about letcode shenanigans, and interviews and performance reviews, and terrible codebases and focus on jobs that I want to take, I couldn’t go back

How you initially got in consulting? How ro find first clients?

I’m still figuring it out :) just the position change in LinkedIn has started some conversations but I’m currently working on my personal site because it feel like when people ask me where to look for what I can do I don’t have anything to show them yet (most of my career has been for employers, so I don’t own any of my previous work, only stories)

At the same time I’ve started attending local networking events and meeting businesses (chamber of commerce, meetup, etc) and I’m working on some simple items for friends to get testimonials and portfolio.

It is kind of annoying looking back at more than a decade of work and not owning anything of it! Sure, I got paid, but so what?

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