[Swizec]

> Nice severance; but in this job market, holy shit.

I just talked to a bunch of recruiters (we're hiring) and their main piece of advice was: The market is crazy. Move fast. We're seeing people getting jobs within days of starting to look, bailing on offers after signing because they got a better offer somewhere else, etc. 24 hours is the longest you can leave a candidate waiting. You have been warned

edit: I am in SFBA. Your reality may be different. People have spilled some 2 trillion dollars onto the area in the past 2 years. A lot of that is going to software engineers as everyone tries to shove AI down consumers' throats. Rents are up 60% in 12 months, which is not the sign of a cold employment market :)

[tombert]

I'm in NYC which I think has similar demographics to SF in this regard; I found my job in August of last year, after about five months of searching, and I found it because a friend of mine referred me. It's a good job, and I like it, I'm grateful for that friend.

Regardless, it's not like that was the only job I applied to. I had a policy of applying to at least ten jobs a day, so I applied to about ~1500 jobs, and literally all of them rejected me except for the one I have right now. I had about twenty other interviews (edit: 15, checked my calendar from last year), a few that got to late stages, and they didn't pan out [1].

I psychotically save money so I wasn't worried in any kind of existential sense, I could survive for years if I needed, but man I would have killed to be in a situation where I even had the opportunity to bail on an offer.

This has been the worst economy for software engineers I've seen in my ~15 year career. I am slightly optimistic that it will improve eventually but I suspect "eventually" might mean several more years.

[1] And one at a one of the world's largest bank (that my lawyer/mom has advised me not to name publicly) where my interviewers were potentially the most incompetent people I have ever talked to and who didn't seem to know what an atomic was in Java, and "corrected" my counter code with a mutex. And I put "corrected" in quotes, because what they corrected it to would deadlock. Morons.

[eitally]

The trick to applying these days is to have a contact on the inside that can tell you what the hiring manager is actually looking for, vs what's in the public JD, and then to refer you.

That doesn't scale to 10 jobs/day for very long because almost nobody has a network that big. If you don't land something through referral to the hiring manager, it's mostly a crap shoot these days.

[vedaba]

Blink once if the bank rhymed with face

[garbawarb]

I'm a senior in NYC, considering changing jobs but haven't pulled the trigger. I've got a good amount of reachouts from finance recruiters and small-to-medium sized startups but haven't heard anything from the established players (admittedly I haven't been looking).

[lucas_the_human]

I think it's starting to turn around. My sense is there's still a ton of devs on the market but there's a lot of jobs opening recently. Here's the data from the st luis fed: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IHLIDXUSTPSOFTDEVE

[epolanski]

NYC population dropped by almost half a million since 2020.

[mwigdahl]

You're hiring, so of course that's the message you're getting from recruiters. "Market is hot", so take their candidates quick before someone else snaps them up. Don't believe this line without confirmation.

[thepasswordis]

No, that's just the reality of the market right now. Software engineers are an extremely hot field, likely because everybody is trying to add AI to their products.

https://www.citadelsecurities.com/news-and-insights/2026-glo...

[operatingthetan]

Yeah that would make me consider finding a different recruiter. Real estate agent mentality means their interests are not aligned properly.

[davidw]

Is this hiring people to dig ditches for data center infrastructure or something? Because it doesn't sound like software.

[Swizec]

Just the current reality in SFBA. People have spilled some 2 trillion dollars onto the area in the past 2 years. A lot of that is going to software engineers as everyone tries to shove AI down consumers' throats.

[tayo42]

> I am in SFBA. Your reality may be different.

With my current job search I've got the sense that sf is once again the place to be. Everything else kind of sucks, lots went back on remote work.

[te_chris]

London is pretty hot right now. But lots of the jobs are Founding Engineer roles at startups which I’m deeply skeptical will get out of seed.

[WatchDog]

Pre-covid, and during the early covid hiring spree, I used to get messages from eager recruiters every week, I get maybe one a month these days, and they are much more tepid.

[thayne]

I'm not actively looking, but what I've noticed from recruiters contacting me (I'm not in SFBA) is:

- I'm contacted less often

- Offered Salaries are lower, despite inflation

- They basically all required being in office, and relocating at my expense

- Most of them are from AI startups that have a decent chance of not lasting more than a few years.

[garbawarb]

To anyone who's been looking for SWE jobs lately, has this been your experience?

[shaftway]

I've actually had really positive responses. I'm fairly senior (~20 years of experience). I was laid off by Meta in 2022, started at Block 3 months later. Laid off by Block in 2024, started at a smaller company 1 month later. Decided to leave that company in early 2025, contacted one company from a HN Who's Hiring post and took that job. That ended up being a poor fit, and I went back to a FAANG around July of 2025.

In the last three transitions I applied to a grand total of 5 companies.

Also, looking at the recruiter emails I've been getting, they've been ramping up over the last few months, and I'm back up to one or two cold emails per week.

But again, I'm fairly senior, and I have deep domain knowledge in a few key areas. I understand the market is brutal if you're early career or your knowledge isn't "T" shaped.

[sickcodebruh]

Started looking in November, four offers by end of January, all decent, last two competing offers were fantastic with great companies and I accepted one. Past few months and even now I’ve had more inbounds from recruiters than any time since Covid boom. Offer salaries aren’t as high as Covid boom days but there are a ton of startups that need people.

[yogorenapan]

Wildy varies. I'm a new grad and got my first offer after 8 applications and got another offer last week unprompted. Meanwhile my friend graduating from the same university has done 300 applications and a couple dozen interviews with no offer.

[malfist]

Just left amazon for Stripe. Not part of a layoff. It wasn't too bad for me. Remote middle of the country too

[kermatt]

> 24 hours is the longest you can leave a candidate waiting. You have been warned.

Need to tell more recruiters.

[littlexsparkee]

Zumper says 15.6% on 1b, 21.3% on 2b - how did you get to 60? https://www.zumper.com/rent-research/national-rent-report

[noelsusman]

This is one of the most "AI tech bro bubble" comments I've ever seen. The broader job market is a bloodbath right now.

[tomwphillips]

Also seeing this in the UK right now.

[lewispollard]

Yeah, mid-late last year was one of the worst markets I've seen in my career, but the last couple of months things have really seemed to pick up speed.

[Grosvenor]

Can you give me your recruiters number?

[gsibble]

That has not been my experience.

[SoftTalker]

> We're seeing people getting jobs within days of starting to look

Really? So no take-home projects? No leetcode? No six rounds of interviews? Just show up and express interest, you're hired!

[operatingthetan]

It seems like the tech job market is exactly the opposite of this right now? Could you be more specific?

[ej88]

trimodal swe compensation (elite, big tech, everyone else) extends to the job markets too