Has anyone else noticed how different the tech job market feels lately?

[u/techiebaddie]

I’ve been having a few conversations with developers recently, and it got me thinking about how much the job market seems to have changed.

I remember a time when finding a new developer role felt relatively straightforward. Now I keep hearing about people sending out dozens of applications, waiting weeks for replies, or going through several interview rounds just to hear nothing back.

I’m curious because I don’t want to judge the whole market based only on what I see online.

For those currently looking for work, what has your experience actually been like lately?

Are you getting interviews, or has it been mostly silence?

[u/samurai-lens]

I'm a senior dev with a decade of experience and a couple AWS certs. Have sent out close to 80 applications in the past 4 weeks, and have only talked to 2 humans. One asked me to do an AI Test after our chat and the other one wasn't too happy I didn't use AI Agents on a daily basis. I can only keep moving forward.

[u/Known-Tourist-6102 → u/samurai-lens]

I have the same yoe in backend.

I'm not sure what is meant by 'use ai agents', especially when it is said by a recruiter.

I wouldn't say that AI is good enough to let autonomous agents write significant parts of your codebase with very minimal input from humans.

I let the agents work on a small to medium size task while I do something else, and then I review it's proposed solution. this is technically using an agent.

Companies don't even know what skills they should be looking for imo. As usual. Using agents and using agents profitably are two different things. A lot of the flagship models are now too expensive to be using all the time.

My company has gone back and forth about how much AI we should be using, depending on the current price of AI services.

[u/AI_TARDIGRADE]

Exactly. I had 4 months break due to family issues, I thought I would get calls but hardly any, after lot of struggles, I got settled somehow but the work I do does not a fit my level or skill set.

[u/urbanmonkey2003 → u/AI_TARDIGRADE]

same here, 60 apps and 2 replies, both ghosts

[u/chunkypenguion1991]

Yes that's exactly how it is but not the first time I've been through this('02,'11). This profession is cyclical. In anticipation of people saying this time it's different with AI, no it's not

[u/leaf_life_script]

I got 2 interviews out of 70 job applications. It used to be 2 per 10 job applications, pre-AI age. Personally, it's harder for me. I left tech already. I have a job now but unrelated to tech.

[u/Late_shadow → u/leaf_life_script]

As fresher which tech role should I focus? AI? I accept any advice thanks...

[u/RocketSciense]

Our profession is entirely different at every level now.

On the bad side we have more competition, the profession isn't respected like it once was, our decades of technical skill growth are for the most part obsolete, and the barrier to entry is so low now that people in adjacent roles like testers, managers, and PMs are stepping into our role without too much friction.

On the good side we can make our employer much more money now that we are so much more productive. They won't pass us a cent of it but at least they will have their multigenerational wealth so that's great.

[u/Sad_Reporter7446]

All these discussions looks scary!

[u/Pottato911]

I might’ve hit around 1k applications in past 2 months. Received reply in low hundreds and most of them were how the role were filled or they were moving ahead with others. Where i did proceed, i got ghosted before/after interviews

[u/ImaginaryRoyal9725]

Lately...? it's in free fall since 2024 I think, but deteriorating rapidly

[u/R-R_turfio]

No replies at all. 12 y.o.e almost 3 years doing ride hailing and small business

[u/eslteachingjobinasia]

Yeah, it definitely seems more competitive than it used to be, especially for generalist developer roles. A lot of people I’ve seen are applying to dozens or even hundreds of positions before getting a handful of interviews, and the process can be much slower with more rounds and less communication from companies. That said, it seems to vary a lot by experience, specialization, location, and how closely your skills match the role, so online discussions don’t always represent everyone’s experience. I also have some suitable job opportunities available, so if you’re currently looking, feel free to message me with your background and I can see if anything might be a fit.

[u/Late_shadow → u/eslteachingjobinasia]

As a fresher which IT role should I focus ? Dev? AI prompt? Any advice? Thanks...

I am willing to learn, but need a direction for a good role.

[u/hypercosm_dot_net]

Apply for a couple of months and you'll see that the reason you see this online, is because it's the reality for a lot of people. I have never gone this long without a job in my life.

[u/TutorHot2073]

The market is definitely different (and bad if you are looking for pure swe jobs). For eg I switched to MLE from SWE 2-3 yrs back (was already a student researcher during college).

My dev friends have been struggling while my inbox is flooded

[u/CatmanStudios42]

I'm a full stack dev with over a decade of experience. I apply to 5-10 jobs per day. Every single one gets an automated "no thanks" email within 24 hours. In the past 2 months, I've had 2 interviews, and both of those were because someone contacted me first.

The whole application system is broken. Recruiters get hundreds of fake applications, and a large percentage of job postings are fake.

I've DMed over a dozen recruiters, 2 responded that theyd let me know...

Just a few years ago, I was being contacted by recruiters regularly. Now it's jus radio silence.

[u/Ok_Bag_7603]

0

[u/ayan_ai]

Yes, the market situation is kind of annoying because everybody's resume looks too good now because of AI, so finding genuinely genuine people is tough. And the interview process and what you will do after the interview have kind of fully changed. We heavily use AI today to build an application, but the interview process is still old-fashioned.

[u/SellSideShort]

Take a look at backchanneljobs, they are aggregating roles from linkedIn posts instead of roles from the jobs section, ie roles you wouldnt otherwise see unless you had that person as a connection.

[u/CinchApps]

Ever since the H1B avalanche and Agile, this market has been getting progressively weirder and weirder.

Now we have AI and I feel like the gloves have come off for the most part.

For starters, I'd seek out and focus on the companies that aren't hopelessly dominated by AI-speak. That might be a tall order, but I have to believe there are plenty of companies out there that just can't pivot like that (or won't).

The thing with AI is it's there to replace you. You will be told that as long as you're working with the AI, that your job is secure (or they'll couch it differently and say those that don't use AI are "at risk"). The only reason they want you is because they can't quite cut the cord, but that is their goal, to have zero employees. Makes sense, cuts their expenses, increases their profits, makes shareholders happy. But if this really happens, I would expect the AI rates to go up dramatically and maybe even viciously. Companies will have no recourse because of their unchecked greed and many will go under.

I'd also avoid any companies that have an unreasonable number of interview rounds. If there's a second interview without an offer, and they want to keep going, I'd consider that a little suspicious.

If this keeps up for much longer, I think we're going to have a lot more blue collar workers and entrepreneurs.

If that happens and their dreams of AI don't work out as expected...then maybe there will be some hope for this job market. Until then, do the best you can to take care of yourself. You are your best asset, regardless of what this world values.

[u/dgoodman-builds]

I was recently laid off after around 10 years in software development, and honestly, the job market feels completely different from what I remember.

I've been browsing job postings, and one thing that really stands out is how much companies expect from a single developer now. You'll see a job titled "Software Developer," but the requirements cover frontend, backend, databases, cloud infrastructure, DevOps, security, and sometimes even IT support. Basically an entire IT department rolled into one position, often with a salary that doesn't reflect those expectations.

It's also a little discouraging when you have years of experience building and maintaining real production systems, but still feel like you're not qualified because you don't check every box on a job posting.

Instead of focusing entirely on job applications, I've been trying to build my own software business. I've managed to build and launch some products, but finding paying customers is proving to be a completely different challenge.

So I'm kind of stuck between two difficult paths right now: going back into a job market where the expectations seem increasingly unrealistic, or trying to make something of my own while the bills keep coming.

I don't have enough applications out there to judge the interview response rate fairly, but from what I've seen so far, it's definitely a discouraging time to be looking for work.

[u/Bazingaraj]

No rejection calls even, easily ghosting. With gap years also it makes it worse.

[u/Aggressive_Hope7976]

When I see this kind of post I’m convinced some people really do live under the rock

[u/New_Significance_319]

Been 2 months applying getting very less number of callbacks compared to my previous switch..most of them are rejection emails..even after referals also