Jobs and Software Is Fucked
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
Losing month-long job searches to internal hires while AI proctored filters screen out honest candidates.
A software engineer with 10 years of experience, most recently seven at Blizzard, was laid off in June 2025 and has been job hunting for six months. They reached final rounds at multiple companies, only to lose out to internal transfers or other candidates. Recruiters went silent after rejections. Automated coding exams (Coderpad, Hackerrank, AI proctors) act as filters that reward cheating with AI tools, putting rule-following candidates at a disadvantage. The author feels the AI hype has supercharged the worst hiring practices, degrading the craft and making the process feel like a Sisyphean task.
What commenters are saying
The thread confirms a brutal market for experienced engineers. Commenters report vanishing recruiter spam and rejection rates near 100%, even with strong resumes. A few niches are hiring: semiconductor design (PCIe, Ethernet, DDR), agentic-AI experience at startups, and senior roles in London. Recruiters are described as relying on brand-name filters (FAANG, MIT) rather than evaluating skills. One new grad got two offers but turned them down. A split emerges: some say leetcode prep is trivial, others call the system broken.