I'm fortunate to still be in a role, but I've always kept an eye out for other opportunities, and it looks very rough out there in the UK job market.
I don't know if companies are just in a "wait and see" stance to see the effect of AI coding agents, or if it's the sign of a wider slowdown.
100% remote is also a tough ask. I've noticed increasingly job roles are listed as 2-3 days in the office as companies awkwardly transition back to the office.
The massive rounds of layoffs in the US over the past 3 years mean there are a ridiculous number of software engineers looking for jobs. AI has compounded this by automating applications such that a single opening might get multiple thousands of submissions.
Your best bet to find a job in this market is to have some connection to the hiring manager. It might be a friend of a friend of a former colleague. Or both having membership in the same semi-open community. But you need a way to say “hey, I’m a real human being and especially interested in this job; please at least take a look at my resume!”
The other thing I had to realize before I could get an offer in this market is that there are so many overqualified candidates it’s almost impossible to get a stretch role and very difficult to get one at the same level you were last working at. If you just need an income for now, consider looking for something you’re significantly overqualified for but that gives you exposure to something new in a different dimension (new industry, for instance). Then once you’ve got that job and have restored your savings, you can look for something with more growth while still employed. Maybe some day the market will even bounce back, tho I wouldn’t count on it.
If possible, go to local meetups for whatever type of role you are in/interested in. The current environment while very different from the 2000’s dot com bubble bust, has certain similarities, and at that time, the only way to really find work was through relationships. I know at that time I ended up switching from being a software engineer to desktop support for about 6 months just to stay employed, especially since it was the only job available in my friend group.
This will be a U.S. centered response, because that’s where I live and work. We’ve tried hiring for local and remote roles. It’s a terrible experience all around, both on the hiring and being hired side of the equation.
The company I work for is a medium sized business, in residential and commercial construction. For example, a recent react native mobile dev position my company posted had about 300 applications in the first hour, with about 500 total in the first week on indeed. Of those applications, 90% didn’t have most of any of the requirements for the position. The job description says that we don’t sponsor H1B visa’s (because it’s stupidly expensive now). Of the 10% that somewhat met the minimum qualifications, all but 1 required sponsorship. This was listed as a hybrid role, only 20 people applied from the region where the office is.
We already know from previous roles that a huge percentage of people with resume’s that say they have the required skills, actually won’t come close to making it through the interview process.
While as a company we like AI/ML tools, and encourage our staff to learn them, and use them where appropriate, we want to invest in everyone’s skills with new tools. We try not to use AI where a human connection is important (hiring, sales, etc). We’ve had to resort to AI for dealing with the massive influx of low quality job applications and it sucks.
Basically anyone who goes above and beyond at this point automatically get’s at least an interview.
I do understand why so many people are just applying to every job that shows up, it makes sense. But it really does make the prospect of finding those few great people very difficult.
We aren’t a ruby/rails shop otherwise I’d reach out to OP.
I'm curious where your company is located. I am a native mobile developer, but have experience with Flutter and React Native applications. I don't require any sponsorship and am willing to relocate for the right role. If your company is still looking please reply here or my email ggenova79@gmail.com.
> 100% remote is also a tough ask. I've noticed increasingly job roles are listed as 2-3 days in the office as companies awkwardly transition back to the office.
Keep in mind that at some places this is general policy, and that tech is given an exception. For example, my company has 2-3 days in-office, but everyone in tech is allowed to be 100% remote, even though that’s not written anywhere.
I don't know if companies are just in a "wait and see" stance to see the effect of AI coding agents, or if it's the sign of a wider slowdown.
100% remote is also a tough ask. I've noticed increasingly job roles are listed as 2-3 days in the office as companies awkwardly transition back to the office.