I’m sorry you’re having such a rough time. I took a break to try to launch a startup which didn’t go anywhere. Then I spent time just honing new skills. Before I knew it, I’d depleted my savings while racking up a long period of unemployment that made me toxic to job submissions. I couldn’t get callbacks in tech as a result but I also couldn’t get labor positions because my resume had much-better-paying jobs that made it obvious that I’d leave at the first opportunity. It was a vicious cycle and that’s before the economy and tech sector went to shit.

I would switch careers, given your limited time investing in your current profession. After people found out that tech could pay a lot of money, the market got flooded with people who don’t have a passion for the work. It used to be filled with nerds and it was awesome, but that gradually changed. I seriously considered switching professions and thought about what work I might find fulfilling. I would have become a professor of history were it not for the accredidation required (I have no college degree because you can be self-taught in tech).

Do what you can to get by. I don’t know what to suggest regarding other possible employment, but I’d take whatever you can find perusing job ads in adjecent market and try to stabilize. I went from software development to IT because I needed to interact with the people I’m helping to feel rewarded. There’s less money in it, but I’m happier overall.

If you can find a government job (preferably state, not federal, for reasons I shouldn’t need to point out), that’s awesome. I landed in a state position and love it. There’s a lot of beaurocracy and it takes forever to get hired (as a friend just confirmed when he got a state job), but it’s stable.

Good luck!

The industry is pretty fucked right now to be brutally honest. I was let go a few years ago after nearly a decade along with another member of our team. Took a full year and easily 1000+ applications for me to find something new, and even longer for my former team member.

Didn’t get back into SWE either. I work in software support now, making literally half of what I used to make, and I believe my friend is in a sort of sysadmin role.

The best thing I could say is expand your options. Between RTO mandates, huge pushes for genAI bullshit, and just complete oversaturation of the market, SWE is a hellhole right now. The job market as a whole is a disaster right now, but tech is on another level. Expand your options to different roles and tune your resume to get past the automated bullshit systems and read by real people. I hate to be pessimistic but frankly I would not expect to get into another SWE role with how things are right now. Software support is a strong adjacent field but don’t expect anywhere near the same salary.

Im not sure what to say. Problem is that tech was sorta the haven of decent pay and as far as I can tell no other industry as the capacity to absorb the tech sector people no matter their skills. Add to this some who jumped to tech did so do to having to support other people or such and anything they can get outside of it will not meet basic costs. I dunno.

The tech market is shrinking rapidly and permanently. Sounds like you’re still pretty young, so if you have the time to change careers, I think you should.

I spent some time contemplating my life choices and I realized that if I had it to do over again, I’d like to have stuck with computers as a hobby, not a profession.

Don’t be afraid to take unskilled jobs to slow the financial bleed while you continue your search.

The key to finding a Job is absolutely networking. Take a look for local SW groups, defcon groups, hacker spaces, start up scenes, etc.

I need an engineer familiar with data pipelines but specifically on the SQL side and financial type analysis and schema design.

dm me

A few suggestions:

Create a portfolio site. Pictures, logos, and a little text. If you have the skills, install Wordpress and set it up with a portfolio theme. Each entry shows off something you did. Built an app that saved $10K. Put that in. Screenshots if you have them. Opensource code, college projects. If you don’t have a good screenshot, get a semi-relevant image from freebie image sites like unsplash.com (with credit). Not too wordy. Nobidy likes reading a short story. Punchy two liner. Also, make your PDF resume available from the site.

If you don’t want to deal with Wordpress, create a static HTML site using Jekyll (with a theme) and host it on github pages or Cloudflare for free. Vibecode it if you don’t know how. set it up with an easy, memorable domain name related to your name.

Next, write some short articles on things people in the same background as you might be interested in. You mentioned Python, SQL, and AWS. All are good. Post them to Medium or Substack. Cross link them on social media.

If you have the skills, make a video screencast covering the same topic as the blog post, and post it up on your own Youtube channel. Do one per week (or more often) while you wait. Put a link in your portfolio. Link from video description back to your portfolio.

If you have the energy, start a related podcast. Start with a survey of the latest news in areas you’re interested in. Just need a cheap USB mic. Post once a week. Again, cross-link with your portfolio or other channels.

Join local Meetups and show up. If one doesn’t exist, consider starting one. Host it at a local bar. People will show up just to chat and grab a drink. Invite someone interesting to give a short talk. Post links everywhere. Expect a lot of no-shows. Don’t take it personally.

Volunteer to help a local non-profit. Help them put up a website, clean up a database, or run some reports. Maybe a stretch project. Use it all in your portfolio. It’ll help you learn new things and stay uptodate.

Ask on Nextdoor or some other local site if people need in-person IT help. Setting up computers, fixing networks, or cleaning up phone problems. Charge a modest fee for individuals. Slightly higher for small businesses. Insta-print business cards with your contact info at Kinkos or Office Depot for $15. Leave 2-3 everywhere you do a job, so they can hand them to a friend, especially if they’re elderly. Pin them up in the local senior center and laundromat.

And lastly, consider getting a teaching cert and teaching high school, or going back and getting a graduate degree. Will likely have to borrow money, and it will take a year or two. But by then, job market might have turned around and with a graduate degree, you’ll be worth more.

If hard up for cash, pick up gig work, but leave time for doing these other things.

Best of luck!

Has anyone else made a successful pivot from software engineering to another field?

No, but I’ve done the complete opposite.

I’ve sent out 400+ applications

First rule of doing anything: if you hear grinding, you’re doing something wrong and need to rethink your approach.

I’ve found it to be much easier to get my foot in the door with the help of a recruiter. There’s a ton of them on linkedin, all you really need to do is start looking for jobs and they’ll appear in your messages. Interact with them, even if it’s just to say you’re not interested - I think somehow this helps you show up in whatever algo linkedin uses. I’ve only very rarely gotten anywhere with applications. Recruiters help because they usually already have a relationship with the hiring manager.

Emphasis on usually, because you need to only work with recruiters that actually have that relationship. First clue is that they are physically located near the employer, and if they’re actually an internal recruiter, all the better.

Second thing I’m guessing you’re doing wrong is your resume. Remember that anyone filtering out through resumes is probably not a technical person and is just looking for keywords. So make sure every technology you’ve worked with is mentioned by its official name on your resume.

E.g.:

worked for 1.5 years at a major financial firm building data pipelines, working with financial datasets, and using technologies like Python, SQL, and AWS

Then make sure your resume includes “Python”, “SQL”, and “AWS”, as well as the specific SQL you’re using and the names of the specific AWS services, and whatever other cool keywords you can throw in about the financial systems you were working on. Even basic things like Git should be mentioned, because you never know when a HR person might have that on a list of qualifications.

I can say I’ve been looking at switching jobs within tech and I’ve been getting plenty of interest from recruiters. Now I do have a lot more experience, but I don’t think that’s the only factor as I’m also looking at more high-level jobs. The difference in approach is probably the key.

Try the monthly Who Is Hiring thread on news.ycombinator.com, first business day of each month so you will have to wait a couple weeks for the next one. Here is the last one:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44159528

Try this too, though pickings might be slim under present circumstances: https://www.otherbranch.com/

I’m in a similar boat, got RIFed late last year, waited for the new year and started applying. I’ve gotten a couple of final rounds but no offer yet. Last I checked, a coworker who got RIFed along with me hasn’t found a full time gig yet, either. In the past, it didn’t take more than three months to find a gig.

I’m hearing people are searching for a year+ for a new gig, not necessarily for SWE but tech in general. It’s a bad market for sure. But to be fair, the SWE job market has been hot for over a decade. Not trying to scare you, more trying to say there are others in the same situation, too. Low interest rate is over, seems like offshoring is coming back, plus there’s AI to boot. I see a lot of AI/LLM hate but I think some people are delusional. No, AI isn’t perfect but it’s delusional to think targeted use doesn’t increase productivity, which for some employers, means they can do the same or even more work with less people. Companies can choose to increase productivity or stay at the same level for less money.

Network, talk to your friends and their friends. I’m hearing it’s nearly essential in this market to try to get a referral.

Advice I haven’t seen here, host an app you’ve built and/or public git repos so people can see your code, if you don’t already. I suggest this because you are a bit on the junior side based on pure years of experience and are competing against seniors. Send out applications first and work on an app when you need a break or get bored.

Connect with recruiters, even external ones.

There are more applicants per job opening now than in the past. But if we keep applying, by chance our application will be near the top of the pile for some job openings, so it’s a numbers game and it’s just taking longer than usual to get an offer.

Like you, I’m considering a career change. Have you considered adjacent roles like solutions engineer or sales engineer?

For the time being, I’m continuing the SWE job search. Mostly just wanted you to know you’re not alone.

Maybe a dumb question, but have you tried working with recruiters? Especially on LinkedIn. There are so many recruiters looking to fill tech roles in finance, healthcare and insurance.

It would also be good for you to start learning how to use all the new AI tools related to data dev. Everybody is hyped on AI right now and until they really understand the limitations, they’re gonna keep pounding away at implementing it, so good if you’re at least familiar with what’s out there.

Good luck!

Have you considered looking overseas?

In Europe, it doesn’t seem that hard to find an SE job right now.

Sorry to hear this is happening to you. I went through something similar as I graduated with a CS degree in the middle of the dotcom burst. I ended up having to move from NY to AZ (USA) to find a job. It was terrible and I have so much sympathy to anyone going through that now. Wish I had a solution for you, I really do. I sent out crazy amounts of resumes and applications. About the only thing I can think of is to keep applying.

Actuary of 3.5 years - entry level is also tough in this field. If you have no exams passed, you’ll probably need at least 2 to be considered for an opening. Your CS degree may count at some places but not others, although I’ve seen more openings accept them these days so the trend is in your favor. If you started studying hardcore now, I’d expect you to pass 2 exams by next spring. If you’re interested in the field, I’d recommend trying to also apply to actuarial internships since nearly all are well paid, include room and board, and lead to employment opportunities.

Since you’re good with data sets and have a relevant degree, Geospatial Information System (GIS) is a good field to get into. You could study a program or two (ESRI, ArcGIS) to get a job in the public sector. Governments be mapping everything