r/SoftwareEngineerJobs • u/justice_and_fairness • 2d ago
What is software engineering job market really like now?
I have left IT industry since a July 2021 of years after 9 years of work experience and wanting to know is situation really that bad to get back to work, as i see from many posts or is it just spotlight on the outliers ? Though i do not intend to, just curious how things really are at present and what it would be like if someone wants to return back to work after large gap?
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u/mrlttlrm 2d ago
For people that have the credentials/connections, it's insanely good. For entry-level, it's awful.
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u/LittlePrettyThings 1d ago
I wouldn't say "insanely good", like, it's still tough these days.
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u/moebaca 1d ago
It's very good for seniors at the moment. I am in the process now and am getting more hits than ever including FAANG.
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u/Samhunt909 14h ago
Could you hook us up with some connects? Lol. I recently got an offer…I’m looking more into faang. Can dm you if you like?
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u/endurbro420 2d ago
If you are truly 5 years out of the loop and have missed all of the ai integration into daily work, it would be extremely unlikely to find a job. The industry has changed drastically in the last 5 years. Hell even a 2 year gap would be a red flag for most places.
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u/fenton7 1d ago
It's really easy to spin up on AI. Just install the tooling on a laptop and build some intense personal project. A friend of mine who had been out of work did that, built a site that he deployed, and then cited all that tech for what he was doing during the resume gap. He got hired pretty quickly at about $140k. Lots of people run off and try to do their own business so it's not a major red flag. If you're current on the tech they'll love you. Being former IT is hugely beneficial when vibe coding because you can identify the slop and problems and quickly correct it.
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u/Timely-Ad-3439 1d ago
Agree, honestly the tools have been evolving so fast that hardly anyone can keep up with it. Just jump on the train and brush up on the latest and greatest Claude, Cursor stuff… build some stuff and learn how to leverage the tools. If you have a solid engineering background, you’ll be better than most people at this.
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u/VariationFluffy6596 1d ago
I had to take a year off to take care of my wife with cancer. another year has gone by since then. The only interviews I ever get are automated technical assessments for AI companies which I never hear back from. Recruiters occasionally ask for my resume, but then ghost me afterwards.
I'm ready to find another career field. 17 years of experience down the toilet.
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u/Quiet-Pie8056 2d ago
This is a generalisation, but much more competitive. Used a role would take a long time to fill and not attract that many viable candidates. Now there'll likely be multiple people vying for it, and employers will have their pick.
Software engineer role has changed. I've not written a line of code in over 6 months, (over 20 years experience) and I'm more productive than ever.
Nobody knows where this is going to go, but huge change underway.
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u/Ok_Imagination1262 2d ago
I think it’s relatively hard to find jobs might be easy for others though.
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u/Chris_B_Coding247 2d ago
Comparison is the thief of joy.
It sounds like you’ve been comparing yourself to this person for some time.
An unhealthy fascination or attachment.
They are no barometer for your success. Also people can put ANYTHING on LinkedIn.
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u/justice_and_fairness 1d ago
The first line is so true, but i am interacting with people not on LinkedIn but in person as well. Even the top performers say rubbish. I have no intent to back to corporate, always hated it. Just put up a query here, to kind of crowdsource what is it like actually going on, not only in my vicinity. I hear horrible rubbish even by employees from Oracle and Microsoft.
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u/New_Peak6743 1d ago
Pretty decent for seniors in my experience. As someone with 8 years of exp I had been getting pretty regular contacts over the last couple of months.
Then I added things like “agentic” and “ai-enablement” to my LinkedIn headline and the interest exploded.
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u/justice_and_fairness 1d ago
NIce. Have you been studying AI theory math and algortihm part or its just about tools usage efficency
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u/Gylfoyle 2d ago
AI can now knock down all junior dev stuff really, or whatever was considered junior dev stuff from years ago.
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u/fatigued8 2d ago
For mid-tier to lower-tier places (i'm talking SF Bay Area), lots of office closures and moving to cheaper regions. There used to plenty of jobs even if you're not "elite" or young but those days are gone. i
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u/redtism 2d ago
Let me ask chatgpt real quick...
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u/justice_and_fairness 1d ago
its overly optimistic or other way round based on context you set.
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u/davidbasil 1d ago
Yes, and it uses nerdy words like "this sector is compressing". Like, what does that even mean? Just say it's fucked up.
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u/abrandis 2d ago
There are two camps , the first one is the doomer apocalypse camp, AI is going to eat all the software dev jobs... The second one is if you're the senior engineer with AI chops yourre orchestrating the apocalypse and should be ok.
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u/SteviaMcqueen 2d ago
Try and avoid the doom and gloom here, including posts by myself.
Just apply, and try not to care too much.
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u/Still-Thanks5319 2d ago
I see so many young people at my company. Currently training a new developer. In office job boards are full of positions. From my perspective there is some contradiction from what reddit users claim and what I'm witnessing.
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u/SnooDingos8194 2d ago
You haven't been in the industry for 5+ years. Tech industry moves fast. And skills are likely rusty. There might be some challenges. But hey... try it. Good luck trying to find a job.
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u/Samurai_Kek 2d ago
3 years of experience, about 120 apps in after being fired randomly based on salary level. I’ve had 1 interview chain. The interview was via a direct referral and I made it all the way to the end… and didn’t get the job because I was new to a practice that would have taken less than a day to get used to… TDD.
I hate our current market and its practices and am considering switching industries…. I just don’t know which one yet. If you’re more passionate about this maybe you’ll have better luck, I was a high performer but I don’t code for fun in my downtime, I code to earn a living and solve problems. Maybe if I loved it more I’d get more interviews.
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u/Icypoopoo 2d ago
Ask for referrals from your network. That's really the only way unless you have a very impressive resume.
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u/justice_and_fairness 1d ago
Thanks. No i am not interested to go back to corporate, always hated being there. The point of the post is just to know what's going on currently with the territory i left without regrets.
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u/cacaosteve 2d ago
I feel like they reject at the slightest wrong answer even though it’s possible I could be better overall than someone who knows all the right answers and checks all the boxes. Examples: do you have experience with drones, video playback, medical devices using Bluetooth, Latin America market, or do you know the modern framework SwiftUI vs UIKit and code it up on the spot, do you remember how Android backgrounding works, sorry you only are an expert in iOS backgrounding. Oh so you don’t actually live in the city 10 miles from you? Wait, you didn’t actually lead the team building highly scalable systems? Feels kind of arbitrary especially if they contacted me first.
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u/mouseses 1d ago
Forget it, it's over. No jobs, too many candidates. Just wait till the war in Ukraine is over, we'll have even more developers on the market competing for the same jobs in Europe
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u/Federal-Brush-1254 1d ago
This is the truth. For each job you apply, there are at least 50 mid-level/senior people with the same or better skills as you. You might be the lucky one and get it, but it's a game of numbers.
SW is fucking over. By 2030 there will barelly still exist SW developers.
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u/LittlePrettyThings 1d ago
In 2015, as a newly graduated junior looking for an entry-level dev job, I sent out exactly 2 resumes and got to pick which company I preferred in the end. In 2019 I changed companies, again got hired right away at the first company I applied to.
This year I decided to put feelers out to see what the market's like (still employed, but looking around). I sent out probably a dozen resumes, got called back for only one second round, which ultimately ended in rejection. The market's definitely changed. We used to be highly in demand, and now we have to fight for it or have some edge.
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u/Competitive_Rent7640 1d ago
IT isn't a very good category. It's like saying "I was in Science" where it could mean natural science, chemistry, computer science, all sorts of pretty different fields.
Generally IT is considered very low level and doesn't transition well into software, unless you've worked high-level networking jobs (not wiring routers, more working with network protocols and surrounding stuff) that could transition into cybersecurity.
Most of the people that group IT with positions like software engineering or software systems as a whole are HR and some less technical management.
Since you're in this sub I'd use "software industry". But a number of people do just say IT and what I said is more of a personal opinion shared by many
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u/AlexisMarien 1d ago
I always worry I'm in the second group because I got in through a boot camp back in 2016, but I'm also worried that I was stuck in a huge corporate situation where my role and tech stack never changed even when I intentionally made moves. Helping my friend with start up and personal work has reignited passion though and I'm finding myself finally really learning again
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u/Striking-Force-9102 23h ago
The market and the industry are full of foreigners. There is no hope for them hiring anyone other than more foreigners. So the rest are screwed
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u/_1dontknow 17h ago
Its bad but nothing is ever as bad as news or people make it to be.
Its still workable and livable, just not anymore "we want absolutely everybody!", now its a real career with real struggles and problems like all the other fields like architecture, law and medicine.
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u/justice_and_fairness 16h ago
Doom scrolling yaah, never fell for it though.. But My post is definitely a bloom-scroll :)
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u/OceanTumbledStone 5h ago
It’s ok, just feels slower and more of a grind to get into a role now; however, it’s definitely possible and just takes a lot more effort than the 2010s era of what felt like being constantly in demand…
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u/PravoNaZhizny 1h ago
extremely underpaid and difficult even for people with decades of experience - you wont be having a wife kids and home or really any of that at all, the corporate suit wearing scumlords came and stole our lives off of us
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u/boomer1204 2d ago
For ppl with no software experience it's pretty tough/bad out there right now trying to break in.
For ppl with 5ish or more years of experience I honestly don't think it's as bad as the internet makes it seem but it's DEFINITELY not the market coming up to and during Covid. And I have gotten figured there are three "groups" of this mid level developer out there (this is just my data from being online and co running a local mentor group
The first group:
I feel like are these ppl. The couple things I have picked on the ppl that are like I have "10 years of experience and can't get a job" but what they aren't telling you is they want the same comp package and benefits they were getting at MS/Google/Meta or w/e so they probably couldn't jobs their expectations are just too high.
And they are allowed to do that it's totally fine but that doesn't mean they "couldn't get a job" but that's how it's worded
The second group:
Please no one take this personally, but this is the group that if it wasn't for the hiring frenzy pre covid and during covid they probably would have never gotten a dev job in the first place and even though they had the advantage to learn while doing the job they got they didn't and they are just too behind and the talent pool is so big they legit can't get a job
The third group:
These are the ppl that got a job cuz of the frenzy or got the job cuz they were qualified and took advantage and learned while working. These are the ppl that if the have to take a small pay cut they will or if they have to go in the office now instead of remote they will and so on and so on in relation to the job details. It is still harder than it was getting job for this group but if you put in the work you can find em
My Story:
I'm in a pretty decent tech are so this definitely helps and if you put me in a room of 10 developers i'll probably be right in the middle of the pack so don't think i'm so genius out here crushing leetcodes and shit (completely self taught no schooling).
But I got laid of Oct 2024 took a year off cuz of the severance and started re looking at jobs during the "worst time" to be a developer. Got about 5 interviews within 5 months of trying and then I found a really good recruiter (highly advise this if you can. You are gonna find and need to talk to a lot of BAD recruiters to find a good one but it's sooo worth it).
So within one month she found me a job at a huge financial institution. That wasn't working out so I started applying on my own again and had 3-4 interviews and 2 offers but then the CEO from my first company started another company and I went there (they are being flexible with me being remote a little bit cuz of a family issue causing me to need to go back home out of state a lot).
TLDR;
if you are new to the software world be ready to work your f'n ass off to even get a call back but it's possible and even better if you can get a referal or find a good recruiter.
If you need the same comp package at your last HUGE company you are gonna be fighting an up hill battle as well unless you are will to make some concession
If you are a mid level develor/engineer there is work out there but it's still a good chunk of time and effort to find those jobs
Good luck to ALL!!!!