Finding a Tech Job is Hard

Let me take you through my journey of looking for a software engineering job this year. Although it was long and arduous, I got a lot out of it, including sharpening my technical skills, refreshing my data structures and algorithms, learning system design from the ground up, reflecting on my past jobs, what my behavioural flaws are, where I am at in my career and what I am looking for in my future job.

The job search began on February 19th, when I applied for the first role, and concluded on April 7th, when I accepted my offer, a total of 48 days (about 6 weeks).

So my strategy from the get-go was to cast my net as wide as possible to elicit as many responses as possible. This included applying for jobs primarily on LinkedIn Jobs, Indeed and Seek. This included roles in every industry, from tech companies, law tech, digital agencies, AI startups, fitness, journalism and recruitment agencies. The responsibilities ranged from front-end web, back-end engineering, full-stack, and mobile development. The only roles I did not apply for were internships and junior/associate roles. Most of the jobs were very straightforward to apply for. Using the platform's express application process, such as LinkedIn's Easy Apply, made the application process easy. All the fields were pre-filled, and it used my CV that was already uploaded. The downside to how easy these jobs were to apply for was that it created a low barrier to entry. This is why, within hours of a job being posted, there would be over 100 people who had already applied. This became a game of speed, rather than competency.

After the first week of applying, it was fairly quiet. I had received just one phone call from a recruiter, which led to nowhere. On the second week, however, was when the replies started flooding in. Many were outright rejections (which I appreciate the honesty), but many wanted to start the interview process, which usually involved a screening call, followed by a series of technical interviews and behavioural interviews. I spent the next month of my job search attending interviews every other day. These are the companies where I made it deep into the hiring journey.

My first interview with a drone mapping company involved an initial screening call with HR. A week after this call, there was a remote chat with 2 engineering managers about my experience and what I wanted in the role. The next call scheduled was with 3 engineers on a live coding exercise. It took 90 minutes, and I got to the final solution with a bit of struggle. I was able to engage well with the interviewers and work with them to reach a suitable solution. A week later, I was invited in person for a behavioural interview with the lead of engineering and an HR representative. This interview was particularly hard as they deep-dived into my tertiary education and my past 3 jobs. They would stump me with questions like, How would I rate my manager out of 10? And how would your manager rate you out of 10? In the end, 3 candidates were gunning for the role, and I came out 2nd best. The feedback I got was:

It was a close call between you and the successful candidate, it is not that you did or said something wrong. But if we could offer any advice it would be: You worked in what sounded like a challenging environment - talking about what you learned from those situations and how that impacts your future would have been a great addition to your story. It's tough working in places where feedback isn't taken seriously, it would have been great to hear from you how this and other not so great experiences from there have empowered you to approach your current and future roles.

The next company I went through the interview process with was an Australian no-code platform built for the construction industry. To apply for this role, I had to fill out a 40-question form. The next exercise was an async PR review exercise and a system design question that had to be explained and recorded. After completing that exercise, a remote call with an engineer for a simple coding exercise, where I was able to solve within the timeframe. I did not hear from the company for over a week, and after a follow-up email a week later, I got the following response:

You demonstrated strong full stack skills, particularly on the web side, and made solid progress on the challenge with time to spare. Your use of tests and communication throughout were excellent.
We were especially impressed by your attention to edge cases and your broader experience, including AWS.
One area for improvement is focusing on verifying the core solution earlier — it seemed like more time was spent on edge cases, and you may have run out of time without a prompt.
That said, the mobile role you applied for has since been put on hold. If it had still been open, we would have progressed you to the next stage.
You’re clearly a capable and thoughtful engineer with strong potential, and we wish you all the best with your next steps and future opportunities!

Switching gears now and I applied for a digital agency. I was a little bit unsure about working for a digital agency as I had heard some horror stories about how they overwork their employees, log hours against their work and underpay them against market rates. The exciting prospect I was willing to entertain was being able to work on a variety of clients across many different projects, which would make the work dynamic and exciting. My first remote call was with the engineering manager for a casual chat about my experience and my goals. He then invited me into the office for a live coding session as well as a whiteboard system design exercise. Later that week, a remote call with the managing director, and then another in-person interview with the director, managing director of design. That's a lot of interviews. They eventually made an offer for me, which was $15k below my expectations. I negotiated for something in between, and while waiting for an answer, the next company wanted to start the interview process.

At this point, I was pretty exhausted from all the interviews. I got a call from Company D, an Australian digital bank, asking me to do their online coding exam as soon as possible. After Company A and Company B's rejections, I had little motivation left. On a Sunday night, I decided to take the HackerRank exam, which consisted of 2 coding exercises and 1 subjective question about code design. By Tuesday, I got a call from the HR representative to book an in-person system design interview. I had to do a whiteboard exercise with 3 engineers in the room. It was nerve-racking to say the least. By Thursday, I was forwarded to the final behavioural interview with the head of engineering. I had learnt so much from all my previous interviews that I was not nervous and confidently answered all the questions using the S.T.A.R. method as a framework for my answers. By Friday afternoon, I was given an offer, which was considerably higher than Company C's offer. Since I did not hear back from Company C about my proposed counteroffer, I ended up taking this job on Monday. The HR team were super responsive, supportive and moved very quickly, which I appreciated. After all, I had already been in the trenches for the last 5 weeks.

There were a lot more companies where I had minor interactions with.

• A digital agency with which I did an in-person chat with the founder, and got ghosted after.
• An e-commerce platform that offered mega bucks, where I turned down after the initial call because it job seemed very intense.
• A fitness app company, I interviewed with the engineering manager and tech lead, who, between them, must have had an average age of 55. Their style of technical interview felt outdated and not helpful. I declined after that interview.
• An online trading card company which I prepared an entire database migration strategy as a screening exercise, ghosted me. I think they just wanted the free labour.
• An AI real estate company, which did not even turn up for the scheduled remote call.
• A supposed VC-funded unicorn that was run by a 22-year-old. I knew my career would not end well there. I turned this opportunity down.

• 84 jobs applied.
• 15 rejections without an interview.
• 5 job interviews I turned down and declined to continue.
• 2 ghosted job interviews.
• 4 jobs made it to the later or last rounds.
• 2 rejections in the later or last rounds.
• 2 job offers.
• 1 job accepted.
• 48 days from first application to offer acceptance.
• 6 weeks of multiple interviews every week.
• 70% of the jobs applied for did not respond. Presumably, they were inundated with applications and could not attend to each one.
• 18% did not see me as fit for their advertised role.
• 5% I would consider genuine opportunities as potential viable next jobs for my career.