Wow what a road it’s been. This community really helped me prep and manage my mindset so I figure it’s the least I could do to share my journey albeit from a throwaway.
From the time my company announced RTO about a year ago, I knew it wouldn’t be in the cards for me to stay with them. I joined as a fully remote and then they said 3 days, then 5. Turned into a shitstorm, nearly everyone quit but the company is so huge they just backfilled all the positions with clueless people.
I started applying a couple months after the announcement since they gave us a year to comply and coordinate. I did a few applications a week and over the last few months it turned into maybe 20 a week.
Interviewing in this field is so exhausting. Several startups asked for what amounted to unpaid work disguised as take home assignments, the amount of ghosting is far, far greater than it ever used to be and it seems like companies are mostly hiring if you’ve been in the same industry and vertical, they’re crazy picky. The amount of leet code algo stuff you have to grind and doing on-the-fly coding during interviews was nauseating moreso than ever.
What the process taught me:
Applying to new industries or ones you haven’t been in in a few years seemed practically a non-starter.
Expect to have to do at least some amount of take home work -the trick is tho figuring out who is asking for unpaid work vs legit assessment. The companies that ended up extending an offer never asked for a take home assignment however.
Confidence with speed was key. Showing hesitation of any kind, even if it was just to think for a second, was never well received. Kind of crazy since engineers really do need to think about problems.
Anyway without dragging this on too much, I’m hoping it’s helpful for people on this or a similar journey. It ended up being a lateral move in terms of salary which while unfortunate, seems to be par for the course in this day and age. For anyone out there struggling, keep at it! It’s tough for sure- wishing you all the best in your next chapters
by Hellokimono