Ask HN: Anyone else struggling to get a software dev job?
I think the real issue is that there are practically an infinite set of unique circumstances (the time, the economic situation, the current company atmosphere, and dozens more variables) which all can impact hiring.<p>One very simple example which can result in a good candidate who got far through the process hitting a wall is that a key person in the company became overwhelmed with something unrelated.  Suddenly they don&#x27;t have the bandwidth (or have left the company perhaps), and the progress is now halted.  That&#x27;s just one little common example, but there are so many more.  Unless you have an insider who can investigate, you just don&#x27;t know.  Wondering is futile, especially as many of us assume it was some failure of our own which caused the process to end.<p>In the last year I had several very promising applications which went through multiple phases, all seemingly very positive, which ended abruptly and shockingly (with a &quot;Sorry&quot;).<p>From the other side, we have seen posts here on HN where the person says, &quot;I applied to 100 jobs and this is what happened.&quot;  If you take a shotgun approach, you absolutely will get something.  There are many problems with this approach, especially if you are more senior and have opinions about things.  For example, there may be some industries or companies which you would not work for regardless of the money.  There are also some companies that you know would be horrible to work for, so you would skip those.<p>It is possible some of us filter out possible companies a bit too heavily, building our hopes on 1-3.  And 1-3 is not a big enough set to reliably make it to the end.<p>My new strong feeling is that those of us with a little runway (as in 1-3 months, not &quot;rich&quot;) should just find a personal passion project and build it.  Then maybe the project makes money, or maybe it&#x27;s just a showpiece to pass some of the dumber interview processes which want you to solve unrealistic CS300 level algorithm tests in a crappy web UI with a timer and audience.<p>But I totally relate about the feeling.  Just one of several examples: There&#x27;s a company that advertises jobs on HN at least once a month.  They are hiring many people for this role.  I went through two verbal interviews, two live coding test interviews, and finally an interview with the CTO (or at least the tech guy responsible for a big chunk of the devs in the company).  Then I got a no.  Either I offended the guy (which seemed difficult to do as he showed up to the interview apparently disinterested and unable&#x2F;unwilling to ever look at me in the camera), or I failed earlier in the process and nobody stopped the show.  But given how simple the programming challenges were and how I was able to suggest multiple solutions, I don&#x27;t think it was that.  So I was baffled.  I have more stories not so different.  You just _never_ know wtf is going on.