Hard truths I learned when I got laid off from my SWE job

Coming off my own job search, my take is that the era of remote work has fundamentally changed the entire process. I'm going on 24 years of professional experience and applied to more jobs in that search than in the rest of my career combined. Prior to this year, I've had exactly two applications that didn't result in an interview, and only 3 interviews that didn't result in offers.

In this past search, I applied to about 50 jobs and had 4 interviews. According to LinkedIn stats, most of those jobs had 30-200+ applicants. The results of those applications were:

  ~12 screens with recruiters that resulted in rejection
  ~ 8 rejections w/no conversations
  ~20 no reply whatsoever
  ~ 3 rejects in first round
  - 1 second round reject
  - 1 final round reject (a nearly 2 month process!)
  - 1 offer for about 50% of my previous salary, but a more more interesting role
  - 2 replies indicating a desire to move forward that came 6 weeks after my application, and after I'd accepted a job.

My takeaway is that it's a numbers game now. In the past, I was very highly targeted in my searches, but now that the doors are wide open to everyone across the country for many roles, it's about getting someone's eyes on your resume, and that requires a certain level of aggression in applying.

Was laid off in March 2020 (senior dev/lead), took 1.5 years to find another job. Share author's disbelief in "job market in unbelievably strong", "people quit jobs because they are unhappy and hop to better positions", "employers cannot have enough IT workers" and similar statements.

By extension wondering how accurate overall job market statistics are; "Employers are scrambling to find workers" while layoffs have been in full swing for months now.

> In my experience such networks have been self-serving and mostly exclusionary, rewarding loyalty more than competence.

I think that's all true except for the "more than competence" part and it's a good thing. Competence is directly related to loyalty. When you recommend someone for a job and they excel, it makes you look good. It makes you loyal to them and giving the opportunity makes them more loyal to you. If someone isn't recommended you for job openings they know about, it's because they think you might make them look bad, either through experience with you or the lack thereof. Unfortunately, it takes time to prove you're competent and gain that loyalty.

Sometimes nepotism can creep in and someone can use their influence to get someone under qualified into a position they shouldn't but that influence was, generally, built through competence, including a history of recommended qualified and competent people.

> The best advice someone could give? > 1. Achieve impressive things > 2. Never give anyone a reason to dislike you

I think the real advice is be reliable and don't be abrasive. A recommendation for a position goes a long way because it alleviates the risk of hiring an unknown person that may be unreliable or not be able to work with other people.

I think I don’t fully understand the opening up a terminal prompt part of that comment.

> Im going to do this because they are good, because they don't suck, because they will get the job done. They will make me look good as the person who brought them in/onboard.

This maybe makes sense from a hiring manager's perspective, but I think a lot of the people who say "let me know if I can help" are non-management peers. At most companies, the best they can do is enter their recently-laid-off colleagues information and resume into the internal referral system. Yes, that's usually better than going in through the "random applicant from the internet" funnel, but it's still limited. Even if they have a good relationship with the hiring manager, often the applicant still has to go through the funnel, and it's easy to get lost there. This usually isn't an issue with smaller companies that have less process, though.

Regardless, on the few occasions where I (as a non-manager) have referred someone and they've been hired, I don't think it gave me much of a reputation boost as someone who brought someone good onboard. Regardless, there are certainly some people for whom I'd go above and beyond to try to help them get an interview, but I'd do that because they are close friends whom I want to help, not because I of any professional perks of successfully referring someone, which I absolutely don't care about.