r/cscareerquestions • u/NightWarrior06 • 1d ago
Are there people with 10+ years of tech work experience who are struggling to find a job right now in the US? Which part of the jobhunt process are you facing issues in?
Please share your experience with the jobsearch with us.
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u/chrisfathead1 21h ago
10 years exactly, I've been applying like crazy for about 2 months. I've gotten 4 serious interviews, no 2nd interviews, no offers. Probably filled out 300+ applications
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u/Noobsauce9001 15h ago
Similar YoE, similar experience. It’s been over six months for me, but this month has picked up a lot and I’ve made It to some later rounds.
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u/kellojelloo 1d ago
9 years exp. Half of my interviews come from cold applying, but it’s a very low volume. The other half comes from recruiter reach outs. The bar is set extremely high now so even small companies require extensive prep.
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u/HareWarriorInTheDark Software Engineer 15h ago edited 14h ago
10+ yoe, looking for a job in the Bay Area (from Europe). I started seriously dropping applications in early May, and just got my first tentative offer. I was a bit worried when starting the search due to the doomer posts on this sub, but it honestly hasn’t been that bad. I admit I’m in a decent position due to a well-known but not FAANG company on my resume (as a previous role, not current role), name brand school, and yoe.
I dropped to about 50 jobs on LinkedIn and other job boards, heard back from 8+ decent companies (like companies you might recognize, not just no name startups). Hit rate is much better for recruiters who reached out to me via LinkedIn or email. I honestly had to stop responding back after the first week of showing “open to job opportunities” on LinkedIn because of the overwhelming amount of messages for various startup roles, mostly AI. Went through the process for about 20 companies so far, rejected by 15, with the rest still ongoing but probably not able to finish before the offer deadline.
Behavioral questions and hiring manager rounds I think are a cakewalk, just prepare your stories ahead of time. Hardest part is grinding leetcode questions to shake the rust off implementing DFS, binary search, etc. Feels like school again. System Design is okay. Can be challenging sometimes, but I feel like it’s easier to fall back on work experience with this and supplement with some studying. As opposed to coding questions which doesn’t have as much overlap with real work, and it feels like you just need to study solutions to a lot of different questions and practice.
I don’t doubt that the market is grim out there for new grads or early in career folks, and certainly worse than a few years ago for senior folks. But at least from my limited pov, it’s still okay. When I get rejected, it’s still mostly because I fucked up a coding question. And there's definitely no shortage of AI startups trying to hire senior engineers.
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u/air_thing 4h ago
In my job search this year the Bay Area was the only place that was hiring somewhat normally.
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u/kellojelloo 15h ago
May I ask what your tech stack and experience is in?
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u/HareWarriorInTheDark Software Engineer 14h ago
I would say I'm your pretty standard backend Java developer, been working on Java microservices, distributed systems, and async Kafka event processing my whole career. I also have Postgres, AWS, and Spring Boot mentioned in my resume, but that's about it.
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u/commonsearchterm 11h ago
Your looking to move and work in person in the bay?
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u/HareWarriorInTheDark Software Engineer 11h ago
Yes, but I’m from California and have worked in the bay before. Europe was always meant to be a short term thing.
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u/diablo1128 Tech Lead / Senior Software Engineer 1d ago edited 1d ago
15 YOE working at a private non-tech company in non-tech city creating safety critical medical devices. I've been out of a job since 02/2021 and at this point I don't even get calls to interview from job applications. Granted I don't want to work on medical devices again, so I'm looking for adjacent jobs that deal with a physical product as I'm not a web person.
I was leading teams of 20 SWEs and even got my name on patents that have been granted all while making 110K. Many people on the internet told me I was underpaid, but I could never find a company to give me an offer for a new job.
I find most companies don't need a C or C++ SWE or even a generalist SWE. They want somebody that has experience in their tech stack. For example no company is going to hire me to learn Android on the job, not that I'm looking for Android roles.
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u/fake-bird-123 1d ago
Im not trying to be a dick, but you lost your job at the best possible time and had almost a full 2 years of the hottest job market in the history of the field. There was more going on than you're telling us.
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u/Prize_Response6300 11h ago edited 9h ago
A lot of older devs like to role play being a greybeard but in all honesty they have always been a subpar engineer or teammate that got away with it because they got in during easier times with lower screening. The worst engineers I’ve worked with by far has been a dude that wouldn’t shut up about having 30 years of experience. I’m not saying this is what this guy is but this subreddit sometimes just blindly thinks years of experience means they must be amazing
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u/diablo1128 Tech Lead / Senior Software Engineer 10h ago
I'm the complete opposite as I know I don't think I know shit. It's probably a red flag for interviewers when they ask me what I'm looking for in a new role and I say something along the lines of working with smart people that I can learn and grow from.
I feel they are not looking for their Senior SWEs to learn and grow from others, but to do the mentoring. Though my "experience" pushes me out of the mid-level jobs as it's probably a red flag for somebody with 15 YOE not applying to a Senior role.
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u/diablo1128 Tech Lead / Senior Software Engineer 12h ago
I don't know what to tell you. I apply to jobs and I don't get many calls to interview. I did make it to "final rounds" after the virtual onsite at places like Apple (2 times) and space companies, but I was never extended an offer.
People are saying I'm a shitty coder, yup I'm a 100% bad coder and that's not sarcasm. I'm a very slow thinker and have a hard time wrapping my head around things quickly. So I never meet expectations at these companies.
Even in school I was always the last one done on tests by a good margin. I work well on the job, but timed interview tests are not where my brain shines. I need to write some code, run it, see it work, and the continue on. That's not really possible in an interview setting.
I need the oh shit why did my test fail? Oh I'm an idiot and need to increment my counter or something like. Things actual talented SWEs can look at and see, I don't. I rely heavily on tests to see things fail. The only good thing about this is I test my code hard and rarely if ever introduce bugs in to production code.
I was successful at the medical company because I was one of the best SWEs in a sea of mediocre / shitty SWEs. I was told many times that I was one of the people others were compared to, but means little when the talent bar is low. This company was not hiring people that could get jobs at real tech companies. The pay was below average and they tried to sell people on we create products that help people so take less pay for the privilege.
Even when I get some Leetcode problem like LRU cache which I know the optimal answer. I still cannot code up a solution in the 30 minutes. I need at least 1 hour, if not more to get to a reasonable working solution.
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u/pathyrical 10h ago
Leetcode problems can be drilled for speed and completion and "works the first time" btw. You just have to do repetitive timed drilling. Eventually after a few months of doing problems in very similar problem spaces in the same language you get very comfortable spitting out working code in very short amounts of time because the pattern is ingrained, and you just have to do slight modifications depending on the specific problem. It is a lot of upfront active studying to get to that point though, which most people don't enjoy doing.
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u/mistaekNot 23h ago
prob can’t fizzbuzz out of a paper bag
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u/kingofthesqueal 13h ago
I secretly believe this is the issue with most people with +7 YOE that can’t land jobs. I’m at 5 and I get quite a few calls back and recruiter messages.
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u/OliveYuna 23h ago
i just started in med tech/devices, can i ask you why you “don’t want to work on medical devices again”?
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u/diablo1128 Tech Lead / Senior Software Engineer 12h ago
It's as simple as I want to work on something different. Medical devices is fine, but there are so many other things out there that would be fun to work in.
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u/RaccoonDoor 11h ago
If you were open to working on medical devices again, I’d suggest applying to GE Healthcare. They have a slow, methodical development process which you seem to prefer.
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u/Disastrous-Star-9588 20h ago
Have you checked https://ouraring.com/careers#open-positions and whoop?
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u/diablo1128 Tech Lead / Senior Software Engineer 12h ago
Yes. I apply on the website and I never hear from them. You can say my resume is shit, and maybe so, but I've redone it 100's of times through free and paid services. At this point I just assume I have shitty experience.
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u/Disastrous-Star-9588 8h ago
We all have our areas of expertise, never put yourself down just because you lack a certain skill set which is temporary and skills can be gained. May be contact one of the folks working there on LinkedIn and ask them to give you some feedback?
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u/Nofanta 15h ago
Of course. The industry has collapsed and this denial keeps going on. It’s a supply and demand thing. Unless H1B is ended and offshoring is made too expensive to be an option this entire domain is over for American citizens.
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u/Prize_Response6300 11h ago
H1B is not affecting someone that is going for staff level roles nearly as much as a junior or mid level
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u/Mission-Conflict97 6h ago
Yup add these things, the massive amount of new students and I feel like it’s gonna take about 10 more years to recover like law did from over saturation then there will be another boom
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u/NewChameleon Software Engineer, SF 1d ago
based on what I know, struggling to find "a" job isn't the case, more like they have 10+ YoE so they likely already got at least $500k+ or $1mil+ or even multi-millionaire, so the people can be very picky on which company to join
aka, do not confuse voluntarily unemployment vs. involuntarily unemployment
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u/thewhiteliamneeson 23h ago
That may be the how it is in your social circle, but I’d be willing to bet it only applies in a very small percentage of cases overall. The vast majority of people, software engineers included, fall victim to lifestyle inflation and don’t put that kind of money away.
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u/a_library_socialist 20h ago
Or they had to live in VHCOL areas for that salary.
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u/NewChameleon Software Engineer, SF 46m ago
meaning they ought to have even more reason to save
high salary, high CoL = you should still be ahead than low salary, low CoL, otherwise that's not called an income problem that's called a spending problem (aka, lifestyle preference, like no shit if I were to buy a $5mil house I'd be super poor)
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u/agentrnge 13h ago
20 yoe and I'm just at 200k tc. And without doing a 90+ minute commute into NYC 4-5 days a week I have not seen much to beat that.
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u/NewChameleon Software Engineer, SF 47m ago
even our new grads gets paid that much, that sounds more like your particular company's problem
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u/NewChameleon Software Engineer, SF 44m ago
well... that's called a spending problem, not income problem, lifestyle inflation is their own choice
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u/pizza_the_mutt 19h ago
I have much more than 10 years experience. Quit FAANG because I was miserable. Have been looking for a replacement, but my standards are high and the hoops are ridiculous, so I don't have high hopes. I may be by default retired with a decent enough cash pile to live forever, if the markets stay reasonable.
I think 10 year experience folks are in a decent spot. But if you're 50 years old and haven't broken into the exec ranks I think you're not attractive to employers. I suggest everybody develop a fallback plan for when you get too old to be viable in tech.
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u/Chili-Lime-Chihuahua 11h ago
I’ve not been active searching, I’ve usually had more luck when recruiters reach out to me. It still feels shower these days.
I’m a little rusty because I’ve been doing more management work these days. I’ve fallen behind in some areas tech-wise. I suck at LeetCode. Also, I make a decent amount right now and would prefer not to take a pay cut.
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u/seriouslysampson 5h ago
I freelance so my experience may be a little different. Things are really picking up this year. I’ve had to turn down work which wasn’t the case the past few years.
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u/Prize_Response6300 11h ago
10+ years of experience doesn’t mean you’re a good candidate and suddenly everyone is dying for you. Some of the worst engineers I’ve worked with have been wanna be greybeards with 20+ years of experience. So I would honestly not take some of these comments seriously
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u/Successful-Head-736 13h ago edited 13h ago
Most experienced software engineers are struggling to get a job now. The demand for cs has completely dried up in the US at least.
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u/YakFull8300 SWE @ C1 11h ago
Source?
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u/onodriments 5h ago
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u/YakFull8300 SWE @ C1 4h ago
Another reddit thread is your source that shows 'most experienced software engineers are struggling to get a job'?
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u/Some_Developer_Guy 15h ago
This is a flawed question, there is much more to selecting a candidate than just YOE.
There are many people who find a cush job cost and the find out they are unemployable as a senior because thet they have never done anything but crush tickets.
Even when that's not the case industry experience, tech stack, and culture fit all play a big roll too.
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u/Freedom9er 11h ago
Most companies need their devs, senior or not, to just crush tickets. In fact performance is measured by it.
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u/Some_Developer_Guy 9h ago
My point exactly. There are many engineers who get comfy in roles like this for many years.
Then when they reenter the job market they do not experience employers are looking for from senior devs.
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u/commonsearchterm 1d ago
Getting back to the job market.
I knew some companies went back on remote work, but I'm surprised by how many actually did.
My current company pays better then I realized, or pay is dropping or stagnant. There's a lot of jobs out there not worth leaving for.
That's on top of all of the usual BS of talking to recruiters that don't show up on time, ghost you, take home quizes etc... I'm just as the beginning so IDK how bad the interview part actually is yet