[brainfog]

I can't help but feel like I lucked into easy mode given the general consensus that everything sucks right now. Applied to 10 places (mix of FAANG and small startups) after taking a year off from work. Heard back from 5, somehow got offers from all 5 and am starting at one of them next month.

It took a fair bit of prep to get back into things - especially when it comes to system design interviews - but otherwise everything went fine. Really enjoyed how some companies are trying non-leetcode approaches lately like code review and debugging sessions.

[mancerayder]

Which geographical market? Were you nervous after the time off?

I'm reading people who have been continually employed taking forever to find jobs.

[brainfog]

I’m in Pittsburgh but didn't end up applying anywhere local. I was looking for remote-friendly positions to keep things flexible due to an upcoming move, which definitely limited my options. Out of the 50 or so companies I looked into, barely a third turned out to be remote friendly, with some only pretending to be (e.g. Meta seems to have gone out of their way to make remote suck for everyone involved by limiting it to staff+ on top of manager discretion).

I was definitely nervous about the time off being an issue. The usual stream of recruiter emails had pretty much dried up by the time I started looking for work, and I was fully expecting the search to take forever. It wasn’t an issue at all in the end - no one brought up the gap during interviews. I mentioned it in passing a few times when talking about why I left my previous job and mostly just got “dang that sounds like fun” from people. That being said, I have no idea if I would have gotten more responses to my initial inquiries without the gap on my resume.

[mrdependable]

Do you have experience interviewing / hiring? I wonder if people who find it easier to get offers just have a better idea of what the people on the other side of the table are looking for.