Transcription
So, this is a video that um I hoped I would never have to make, but um I'm feeling very burnt out by the current tech market. And I feel like talking about it um would be helpful for me. And hopefully, you know, if you're in a similar position out there, maybe some of what I'm going to say resonates with you and we can all navigate this tough time together.
So, I've been actively looking for a job for about 2 months now. I've sent out a 100 applications um and I've got five responses. Um, four out of those responses didn't even lead to a second interview. Um, they only got to the first interview. Um, the one second interview I did have, I think I just felt a lot of pressure. Um, and I ended up screwing up a leak code question that I should have known. And in fact, I I did know right after the the interview was over. I I figured out the solution. Um, so I was very frustrated with myself, but I think it's, you know, kind of fair, I guess, that I didn't I didn't get the job on that one because, you know, when you've got hundreds of people looking for the same job all at the same time and everybody's equally qualified, the person who answers the question under stress is going to get the job. And I can respect that.
Um, some of these other companies though, I mean, man, like they're just the requirements they're asking for or these candidates are just honestly unreasonable. Um, this other company that I I got a response from, I'm not going to say the name of the company, but again, you could probably figure this out if you've applied there and you got past the first round cuz I think they do this for everybody. Um, but they have like a really lengthy process to get through even to get to actually talk to someone. They have three assessments you have to get past. All right. So, this was for a Python engineer role. Um, first you have to do a written assessment which ended up being like a 10-page essay of 38 questions they asked me in an email just kind of explaining like my background and experience. But some of the questions in there were not even relevant to me now at all. Like it was asking about um you know like how I was in high school, like what were my SAT scores like, things like that. And I'm like you know I'm pretty far removed from that now. So I don't understand what that has to do with me as a candidate for a programmer now. But I did it anyways because I really need a job, right?
So um after that I had to do a another Python assessment um which I didn't get any feedback on. Um it wasn't like you know hacker rank style where the test cases are graded. No, you had to write your own test cases. Um and there was a multiple choice part as well. So I have no idea how I did. Um, the other one, the other assessment they had was in like basically an IQ test, which honestly probably shouldn't even be legal. Um, and I didn't get the results of that either. Just nothing. Like they gave me they gave me after they rejected me like a pamphlet kind of showing like, oh, were you at average, above average, below, but not like a definitive this is your score. Um, so that was a little frustrating. And then I after I had already sunk about like 25 hours into doing these assessments, the next day I get an email from the recruiter saying, "Ah, well, you don't have the experience." It's like, I don't know why you would make someone go through all that if you're going to reject them on their experience outright after you can literally find that in my resume.
And you know, one of the things that I've just found to be a very frightening realization navigating all this is just like how disposable you are as an employee at, you know, these companies. Um, I mean, I I'll just share my own experience here. Uh, the reason that I'm even navigating the tech market right now in the first place is because I was um part of a a mass layoff at a big tech company. And um, you know, the way that it all happened was our our third level manager invited my my entire domestic team um to a it's a team's call with HR. So pretty much at that point I I knew I was cooked because you do not get um invitations to meet with your third level manager that say mandatory with HR unless you're cooked. I mean like that's just the reality of the situation. But of course you have to go. Um and then yeah once we got there it was very short and to the point you know it was you've been impacted and um here are here are your resources. is do you have any questions? Of course, nobody has any questions because that's a lot to process, you know, in a split second like that. And it's just it's so surreal to watch like, you know, this team I had of this great engineering talent across the board, you know, from all levels at my like junior level up to the senior level, just all like that unemployed. I mean, absolutely crazy experience.
Um, and I mean of course like they the company I'd say, you know, they they tried to do their best. They they gave us, you know, a severance. They gave it it wasn't like we were fired the next day. You know, we had some time to pass on our work that we've been working on for the last, you know, years over to the people who were going to, you know, take over for us. Um, you know, so I guess they don't have to do that, you know. So that's nice of them. But it's just like wow. I mean and then you know the next day it was international teams um that I worked with who were also impacted. So so many great engineers that I that I knew and I mean um this was only my first job. So this is my whole network just all unemployed. I mean absolutely crazy experience. I never ever thought that anything like this would would even happen to me. Um, but it it it did. And the truth of the matter is it, you know, you need to I'm not saying don't like put your best effort forward to be qualified and and to have skills, but the reality is is that none of it had anything to do with anyone's skill set. You know, it was all about business. And you know unfortunately because of that then great engineers and and um other people I work other managers all just got impacted. Uh so I don't know man I mean even even right now I mean it's only it's been 2 months so I' I've had some time to process it but it's still it's still scary thought that you know something like that could even happen.
You know, and then the other really like crappy part to this is that um you know, I can't speak for the more senior people, but for someone like me who's, you know, a junior and they're in their 20s, I have some savings, but I don't really have time to like sit here and like dwell on this too much. Um, you know, I had I maybe gave myself a day to kind of mope and then the next day I was back on LinkedIn. I was on the grind applying. I'm freaking doing leak code. Um, you know, working on my resume, everything, you know, trying to figure out what projects can I do, what like certifications can I go get. I mean, that's really how I started the whole like SQL 50 thing is I'm like, well, now I need to get prepared for interviews again, so I need to do this. Um, and just like the the pressure and the grind and the constant rejection. I mean, it all just starts to get like pretty overwhelming after a little while. You start to get imposttor syndrome because you're out here applying to jobs that you are overqualified for and you're getting ghosted and rejected. And I mean really I guess the reason that I'm even making this video is to say like you know man like not that you again not that you don't need to upskill and do everything you can to make yourself the best um version of yourself that you can be. However, if you are like getting rejected, you are getting you know ghosted, it's not probably it's probably not you unfort I mean and that's like I guess a good and a bad thing because you know it makes I guess you have like some confidence in yourself knowing that you know you're doing the right thing but just man it's so sad to know that like this is the state of the market that we're in right now where you have tons and tons of very qualified people all competing for the same jobs. And you know, a lot of it's going to come down to who knew the right person or just being in the right place at the right time. So, I mean, again, I'm not saying don't put forth your best effort, but also recognize that like some of these like rejections are like or this the this these feelings of imposter syndrome that you're getting. I mean, it's it's it's not you. It is just unfortunately the state of the market that we're in right now.
Anyways, so I know that probably most of you did not subscribe for this type of content. Um, I just felt like, you know, hopefully my experience could resonate with someone out there who's struggling um, in this market right now and also just help me stay motivated cuz, you know, I'm really I'm trying to do the best I can, trying to keep my head up, trying to keep doing projects, keep doing Elite Code, um, keep, you know, studying for certifications, keep applying, just honestly just just keep your keep keeping my head down and keep pushing, man. I mean, I I need this this this channel kind of helps me stay motivated. Um, so really that's why I'm making this video and hopefully I can resonate with some of you. Um, anyways, uh, if if you're in the same boat, um, you know, leave a comment below. I'm sure everyone would, you know, love to have some support in this time. Uh, hang in there. I mean, even if it feels like right now we're all just kind of, you know, screaming into a void, we all will get through this. Uh I personally believe that like each and every one of us who is committed to this has the skills to get a job even in this market. It's just all about patience and persistence. So um we can do this. Um anyways, I will get back to the regularly scheduled uh coding content. I just wanted to make this kind of video and you know I'm sure I I'm I'm trying not to ramble too much but I could keep talking about other stuff if you know people like this. So anyways uh thanks so much for watching. Uh leave a like and a comment below and I will see you in a future video. Thanks so much. Bye-bye.