I have 2 YOE as a SWE, got laid off in August from a startup that was Series A and generating no revenue. I was able to get interviews in September/October, and got far at 2 companies but got rejected by one and ghosted by another. I have found it's much harder to get an interview this month as layoffs increase. I'm pretty much hoping that once the holidays are over, things will pick up again, but I am pretty worried that I may be forced to just join the military or something because I can't get a job in tech.
As someone who's been ghosted as well I think you should name the company or (in my experience it was) the person who ghosted you. This is totally unacceptable and I think we should make them pay when the labour market gets tight again.
And if you don't believe in karma, I saw a linkedin post by the guy who ghosted me about how he got screwed over by the company and let go. It's not super healthy, but it still feels good sometimes...
The company is called Recurve. I really enjoyed the interview and the process there (no leetcode), but I was just disappointed that after all of that, they ended up ghosting. I'm not holding it against them too much, but still, doesn't feel good.
As others have said, unemployment in the US is still pretty low. But that may not mean for the near future that plum tech jobs are growing on trees. Lots of openings at many companies/govt orgs (including military) for roles with tech skills but probably not at comp many have come to expect. See also 2000/2001+ era.
Do you think $120k is a reasonable expectation for a SWE with 2 YOE in this market? That's what I am shooting for, and still think is reasonable to expect, but on the otherhand if layoffs continue, I guess I may be forced to reconsider...
It really depends on the employer, I’m a “mid level” engineer with ~10 YOE and I’m struggling to find offers in the $155k (mid-level) to $175k (senior) range.
Keep fighting the good fight and don’t let yourself be under-valued.
Wow I am surprised to hear that with 10 YOE it's still tough to find work. I was under the impression as you gained more experience people would be clamoring to hire. Hope you find something soon!
There is a tradeoff between people not wanting to pay much and just looking for some fairly generic skills on one hand--and people looking for specific skills, particular experience, and for someone with a given track record that one or more on the hiring team have had personal interactions with on the other.
Put another way, if you're just looking for junior with keywords that's one thing but means you're just a number. But you may be looking for specific individuals with a track record which, given the right match, may be good but you need the right match.
I'm pretty specialized and quite senior in a mostly tech-adjacent role so don't have a lot of personal experience. (And don't have the sort of comp you see in the big-name tech companies.) But that's probably a pretty high expectation for a junior-level position in general outside of SV names.
I have 2 YOE as a SWE, got laid off in August from a startup that was Series A and generating no revenue. I was able to get interviews in September/October, and got far at 2 companies but got rejected by one and ghosted by another. I have found it's much harder to get an interview this month as layoffs increase. I'm pretty much hoping that once the holidays are over, things will pick up again, but I am pretty worried that I may be forced to just join the military or something because I can't get a job in tech.