Experienced engineers are struggling to get hired

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall market conditions

  • Many describe the current software job market as the worst in a decade for developers, especially compared to 2020–2022.
  • Others note past downturns (dot‑com bust, 2008) were worse overall and argue “these are still relatively good times” historically.
  • Some attribute the slowdown to pandemic over‑hiring, higher interest rates, mass tech layoffs, AI expectations, and tax code changes (Section 174).
  • There’s disagreement over macro data: economists and official unemployment stats say the economy is strong, while many engineers, students, and mid‑career folks report severe difficulty finding roles.

Hiring processes and job postings

  • Multiple posters report “fake” or stale LinkedIn postings, long delays, ghosting, and generic rejections.
  • Companies are more precise and picky about requirements; many roles appear tuned to a specific internal candidate or an ultra‑narrow stack.
  • LeetCode-style interviews remain common; some think companies are moving away from over‑reliance on them, others see the opposite.

Experience, titles, and age

  • Experienced engineers (15–35+ years) report long searches, sometimes years, and feel general “experience” is undervalued versus recent buzzword skills.
  • Advice includes trimming resumes to the last ~7 years to reduce age bias.
  • “Senior” is described as diluted; some become “senior” in 1–3 years, while others argue that in many professions seven years is a reasonable senior threshold.

Employer perspective on candidates

  • Hiring managers describe thousands of applicants, many under‑qualified or embellished, plus cheating (AI, whispering, memorized answers).
  • Filters (years of experience, specific language/framework) are used to control volume, but may exclude strong generalists; some see this as a “market for lemons” problem.
  • There’s debate whether difficulty hiring seniors reflects unrealistic filters/compensation vs. genuinely weak applicant pools and noisy signals.

Compensation and geography

  • Sharp mismatch between candidates expecting FAANG‑like $400k+ packages and startups or non‑tech companies that can’t pay that.
  • Big differences by region: rural US, Europe, and South America report strong engineers at much lower rates; some US companies now prefer cheaper remote hires abroad.

Sector and skill variation

  • Embedded/systems and certain niches (Rust, ML/Transformers, banking ML) seem healthier than web/startup roles.
  • “Boring” sectors like manufacturing and industry are seen as under‑served by software but slower to hire.

Coping strategies and advice

  • Suggested responses: lower salary expectations if feasible, broaden sectors beyond FAANG/startups, lean on networks, contribute to open source or personal projects, and target companies where software is a profit center, not just a cost center.