[gofreddygo]

I graduated right after the 2008 crisis, took 3 years and many temp jobs to get one where I would be paid to write software. Those 3 years were terrible and I estimate it set me back by around 5-6 real years.

Looking back, what would I have done differently ?

(0) mental health is the most important at this stage. Stay close to people who are with you in this difficult time. Never forget their contributions. For me it was my grandma.

(1) have unshakable belief in myself and my worth, never letting my employability be a measure of my worth and identity. Deep down you would question yourself and think its a lie. It isn't.

(2) I should have absolutely used that extra time to master the interview stuff (algorithms, data structures, OS and networking concepts, etc). Sooner or later I would interview at a FAANG which measure solely on these factors, so could have used that extra time to master interview skills. I wasted time on side projects, resume padding and niche upcoming tech stuff.

(3) tech surfing. Ride the latest wave with some side projects. Don't go deep. Just surf.

(4) All things, good and bad, will end. "This too shall pass"

[tracker1]

On #0, there was a group that did this in SV around 2000 called itself "Recession Camp" where they did free/cheap group activities. Would be cool to see something similar, but more persistent.

On #2, with the dotcom bust and further complications post-9/11, I spent my year without work in a house without a decent enough phone line for dialup and learning C# with a big fat book and the command line compiler. I wouldn't discount side projects, etc... but yeah, staying up on interview skills is important. I'm a bit old, with a family/life so what hits me in those scenarios is there's less accounting for "experienced" developers a lot of the time.