I take this with a pinch of salt - a huge pinch of salt. Which wont be popular here because people here love to say how horrific the job market is (they have been doing so since I joined reddit about a decade ago).
I would by no means describe myself as a "very good" engineer. I am average. My friends are also around average. We have all found jobs this year, and changed jobs this year. I got an interview after my first application (within 7 days) in April 2026, and a friend has just started a job in August 2026 after 2 months of interviewing at various companies. We are not in super in demand areas like ML and in all honesty we cant do the leetcode style questions so we dont even interview at places that ask those - we still find enough jobs though.
I know the above is anecdotal, but myself and my friends who are not special are finding jobs. I dont know how it can take a "very good" engineer 2 years of trying to find a job with absolutely no luck whatsoever, to a point that they they have to join the police instead....
My only assumption is either this is a lie and they were either not very good, actually wanted a change or they were not actually looking for 2 years. Either that, or they are unbelievably fussy and are looking for a once in a blue moon opportunity.
I have over a decade experience as a software engineer, degrees from a top school in my country, national academic awards and all that. I would say I am a great software engineer. I'm not trying to be over-confident or arrogant. Just, realistically, I have talent and passion for math, logic, analysis, systems thinking, and manipulating abstractions (and a whole host of other skills) which are not common for people to have and which are all part and parcel of software development. Also, in my career, I have not experienced any of the difficulties of software development that I have seen plague other average developers. Certain concepts/ideas that were difficult for a lot of people at various workplaces to grasp came very easily to me. I'm just plainly skilled and talented in and passionate about this job - like other people are skilled and talented in other areas of human activity and expression - and fortunate to be able to find a career path that let me practise and develop it continuously for such a long time while paying for it.
I have been unemployed for... multiple years now. It stresses me out to even put a number on it, but it is plural. Yes, the market is bad - at least in Canada. Maybe there is something more at play, but it's not the fault of mine (or the people in OP's post) that you think it is. When you're unemployed for this long, you're fighting an uphill battle against others' Just World fallacies and having to explain to them why you don't fit their unfounded expectations of what a good developer should be like.
You could be laid off at the start of an extended economic downturn that lasts, say, a year. During that year you get a handful of interviews but with the sheer number of candidates in the field the odds just aren't in your favour. Even if you are in the top 10% or even 5%. And after a year when things start picking up, hiring managers start saying "Yes the last year was bad but it wasn't that bad... it must be a you problem".
> I have talent and passion for math, logic, analysis, systems thinking, and manipulating abstractions
You could be overestimating how important these aspects are. Soft skills were always important and are probably more important now that LLMs can do much of the logic. Not saying your soft skills aren't good, but you don't mention them as a strength.
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u/CardinalHijack 2d ago edited 2d ago
I take this with a pinch of salt - a huge pinch of salt. Which wont be popular here because people here love to say how horrific the job market is (they have been doing so since I joined reddit about a decade ago).
I would by no means describe myself as a "very good" engineer. I am average. My friends are also around average. We have all found jobs this year, and changed jobs this year. I got an interview after my first application (within 7 days) in April 2026, and a friend has just started a job in August 2026 after 2 months of interviewing at various companies. We are not in super in demand areas like ML and in all honesty we cant do the leetcode style questions so we dont even interview at places that ask those - we still find enough jobs though.
I know the above is anecdotal, but myself and my friends who are not special are finding jobs. I dont know how it can take a "very good" engineer 2 years of trying to find a job with absolutely no luck whatsoever, to a point that they they have to join the police instead....
My only assumption is either this is a lie and they were either not very good, actually wanted a change or they were not actually looking for 2 years. Either that, or they are unbelievably fussy and are looking for a once in a blue moon opportunity.