[bluesroo]

It's clear that you haven't had to get an interview from a non-connection in the last year. It's a literal fucking nightmare unless you have connections that can literally hand you a job. I have 8 years of experience.

TL;DR: Connections don't mean shit. Companies require multi-hour takehomes and then ghost you. Every reply is automated unless you are moving forward. Recruiters take a week to reply to even the most basic updates.

For reference, I've job hunted twice in the last 2 years. The startup I joined in Feb of 2022 folded in Feb of 2023. My style is to treat it like a full time job, usually completely filling my schedule with interviews.

2022 stats: In 1 month I interviewed with 31 companies, received 6 offers in under 5 weeks and had a job secured making ~30% more than my previous role. Of the 25 companies that I stopped interviewing with, 13 were me cutting off the process to save time and 12 were rejections. So ~50% success rate depending on how well you count the 13 that I cut off.

2023 stats: First month I interviewed with 14 companies, was ghosted by 6 of them. GHOSTED. 3 of these were from direct referrals from friends and previous coworkers! Not even my connections could get information on my process! I interviewed just as strongly as my previous year and they vanish, not even with a rejection. Of the remaining 8, 4 were not actually software jobs and 4 were rejections that refused to elaborate at all.

Second month I interviewed with 34 companies. 12 ghosted me, 4 of which required a multi-hour take home assignment. With a mortgage and kids, I was doing it all.

Of the 22, 11 didn't work out for non-performance reasons (found candidate before I was through the process, recruiter misunderstood the role, company moved so slow that I couldn't complete the process). Of these 11, 4 were from connections! They could not get their internal recruiters to reply to me in less than 2 weeks.

Of the 11, I was rejected by 6. Again, with no feedback or even a response when I asked for it.

Of the remaining 5, I got an offer and ended the madness before waiting to finish my remaining 4 interviews.

[wonderwonder]

Respectfully I have never gotten an interview let alone a job via a connection in my life. I maintain zero contact with previous coworkers.

Also I don't understand why you said I must have connections and then a sentence later say connections mean nothing.

You are right though, it has been 16 months since I interviewed so things may be different.

[bluesroo]

I mean, the timeframe was also important there. Yes, that 16 months makes a huge difference right now. That's the exact time that I basically walked through my interviews to 6 offers.

RE Connections: I meant they only matter if they are high up enough to literally hand you a position. Anything lower than that (i.e. an IC referral) was completely useless in 7 different companies.

[scruple]

Conversely, 4 of my 5 employers in the last ~20 years in this industry have been through my network. I'm still I interviewing, but the process has been relatively painless for me otherwise, especially in the face of anecdotes like the GP and the OP.