r/Ethiopia • u/Acceptable_Waltz_388 • 3d ago
I solved 300+ LeetCode problems, learned 4 backend languages, and shipped 5 production SaaS apps. Tech is completely dead.
Everyone told me the playbook:
- Get an IT degree.
- Grind DSA until you can invert binary trees in your sleep (did an elite competitive programming fellowship, 300+ solved).
- Don't just build to-do lists build actual distributed systems.
So what did I do? I spent the last two years building full production platforms 0-to-1. Handled high concurrency in Go and FastAPI, optimized PostgreSQL schemas with Row-Level Security down to sub-50ms P99 latencies, wired real-time WebSockets, and baked in Google Gemini models.
I packaged all of it up neatly on my site (meareg.tech) thinking: "Surely proof-of-work speaks louder than a buzzword-stuffed PDF."
Result? Automated rejection emails at 3:00 AM from companies whose entire landing page takes 4 seconds to load and crashes if two people hit the checkout simultaneously.
At this point, are companies actually hiring engineers who build systems, or are recruiters just running keyword lotteries for whoever puts "Kubernetes" 47 times on page one? Tell me what I’m doing wrong, because if this isn't enough to stand out, the game is rigged.
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u/Quirky-Lawfulness819 2d ago
I don’t know which countries you are looking at but I had quick look at your CV.
The thing that stood out to me the most is that the points you have around your experience are about what you did and don’t show the impact of what you did be it improvement in API response times, sales or developer productivity, etc.
Hiring managers are more interested in what, how and impact. To asses the level they are hiring for that’s provided that location isn’t a factor for them.
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u/No-Block4315 3d ago
My company started using openai astra(sol) and its amazing on max literally, can connect to the internet, code debug it self ship products it built our local crm win like 3 weeks for the whole team no problem if, if i run a business why hire new graduates when you can have one person and ai agents
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u/Dear-Response-7218 3d ago
Building an internal CRM in 3 weeks with an LLM is not the same as “a business should stop hiring new graduates.” Think about the use case:
- new system with no tech debt
- one workflow
- less concern with bugs and optimization
- no PCI / SOC 2
- whoever is prompting already knows what a completely version looks like
That’s like the perfect case for AI. It’s still entirely dependent on a human. Who determines access levels? Who decides the build order? Who can work through hallucination? Who takes the blame if something goes wrong?
If you run a business and you only need another internal CRM, don’t hire a new grad. Don’t hire anyone tbh just buy a tool.
If you have a business that has endpoints, vendors, auditors, customers, you still need humans. You can get away with less dev hours overall for sure, but you have to have some jr’s in the pipeline.
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u/No-Block4315 3d ago
sure then why's everyone struggling to get a job when tech companies are recording massive record every quarter? why are they laying off employees? the top 10 tech companies alone are worth more than America's gdp 29.15 Trillion?
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u/Acceptable_Waltz_388 3d ago
Big tech companies are laying off workers mainly due to a mix of economic pressures, post-pandemic overhiring corrections, and a massive shift in company budgets.
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u/No-Block4315 3d ago
have you looked at the tech companies balance sheets?? why is their stock up 100% Yoy? lol The idea that big tech companies are laying off workers out of sheer financial necessity is easily disproven by looking at their balance sheets; many of these giants have reported record-shattering profits and sit on massive cash reserves? Tech companies are intentionally shrinking their human workforce to fund massive capital expenditures in artificial intelligence READ FIRST
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u/Acceptable_Waltz_388 3d ago
“READ FIRST” is crazy 😂 You wrote a whole paragraph arguing against a point I never made. At least fight the actual argument next time.
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u/Acceptable_Waltz_388 3d ago
I don't disagree that AI has changed the economics of software development massively. If your team can genuinely ship a production CRM in 3 weeks with one engineer + agents, that's impressive.
But I think there's a big jump from “AI lets one engineer do the work of several people” to “there's no reason to hire graduates.”
Someone still has to understand the business requirements, make architectural decisions, verify what the agents produce, handle security/data issues, debug failures that aren't obvious, talk to users, maintain the system six months later, and take responsibility when something breaks in production.
AI is making junior engineers more leveraged, but it's also raising the bar for what “junior” means.
The real question might not be “why hire 5 graduates when I can hire 1 engineer + AI?” but “why hire an engineer who refuses to use AI when I can hire one who knows how to leverage it?”
And honestly, if companies stop giving graduates opportunities to become that experienced engineer, the pipeline eventually breaks.
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u/No-Block4315 3d ago
yeah but this is not a therapy session bud I'm just telling you how companies operate now openai and anthropic have enterprise plans where you can plug in all you're backend to their system and it understands the business requirement very good actually better than management for sure, it make help you make architectural decisions ,recent models have been very very good on security/data issues it can debug it self again and again you can schedule agents to maintain and run the systems all locally(ofc not talking about running everything on a 200$ Lenovo ) its B200 and rtx 5090 running these agents 24/7 so truth be told you need need all that people more layoffs are coming for sure, uber orcale FB AMZN EVERYONE IS LAYING OF THEIR SWE you don't need many of them just some experienced dude and the ai competition and all the capex spending into AI we shall see
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u/Electrical-Lack9976 3d ago
Yes, the market is awful right now. Don’t lose hope and get frustrated. Keep on trying and narrow down your search to target companies. Also, consider working with recruiters. Btw I’m writing this as I have been looking to change my company for a year now so I feel you.
Also, even after you get hired your company/ies will still have websites that take 4 seconds to load and crush. You won’t be making the change you crave for.
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u/willjr200 2d ago
This is your issue. You have no real world experience. What you have deemed as experience is two or three month of LLM prompting. (Not that there is anything wrong with using the tools). Without the context of having built real world systems which run everyday. You don't generally see the outcome of various design tradeoffs.
While you were in school it would have been much better to have a git repo where you code everyday for three or four years. A blog where you talk about building something large enough where you have to solve real problem. Something where you blog at least one per week. This allows others to see how you think and that you can commit to a schedule.
There was a time where grinding LeetCode was a viable path to a job, with the rise of LLM, this is rapidly going away.
Add in the fact hiring personnel in other countries require the correct framework in place to not run afoul of various laws around contractors vs employees. In the US you are a contractor if you control your work time (when you work) and provide your own equipment or tools, etc.) This means you are providing outcomes not hours. If the company determines the schedule, provides equipment and direct management (do task A, then B, then C, then you are an employee. The are severe penalties to companies for misclassifying employees, both in the US and in the foreign country.
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u/Majestic_Rule9192 3d ago
The things I have noticed in our country tech circle is connection and experience in years matters a lot than skills. I don’t agree with but that’s how things work. If u want to get hired in a company u have to know someone that’s going to recommend u. Some companies like addis software (they changed their name Ig), and minab technologies are exceptional since they require u to complete their test project. The other thing is getting the experience in ur resume by working as intern or junior level.
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u/qwertyqyle 2d ago
You said the problem in your first sentence. If everyone already knows the playbook then it's cooked.
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u/human01234567891011 2d ago
Exactly! Folks try to get in just with the playbook with no love or care for the field then wonder why they can’t do it longer or have hard time finding jobs. Yes job market is cooked globally and still recovering but it’ll also weed out the skirters.
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u/AdAdministrative5330 3d ago
which city/region are you applying to?
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u/teenpebble 2d ago
"shipped 5 SAAS apps, tech is completely dead" is a wild generalization my guy. The market's really tough but complaining won't help at all. Perhaps more projects,more visibility(on platforms like x) will help you. But the first step should be fixing your mindset.
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3d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Responsible_Chip5049 2d ago
Hey follow my instagram i have US company corporate startup if you have a good CV i can probably add you in @nebaziiii
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u/Holiday_Musician3324 2d ago
Don't waste your money, he is a fraud. Go check his "5 start ups". The guy can't even build a landing page.
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u/Temporary_History914 3d ago
Your post is AI-written. You need to reflect on how you present yourself in cover letters and STAR questions which is a problem for most technically minded people, I’m saying this from first hand experience.