I graduated last year in June (Data Science), had an interview with Google for a position called "Software Engineer, Early Career" same month. 3 weeks later they told me I passed on Monday, sent me the form to fill out where I'd want to work and in what area, and by Wednesday, my recruiter calls me telling me because of the hiring freeze, I'd no longer be considered. Because I had no internship experience it was impossible to find anywhere to even get an interview at. Ended up working at a contracting company at the beginning of this year, and I'm lucky enough to be put on one of the few client projects where I can get professional experience with Python / REST APIs / AWS. My uni has a STEM career fair in October I'm going to, hoping for some luck there.

Back in 2000, the word was that the Silicon Valley was full of entry-level jobs. I went though job listings for every company and couldn't find one single job posting for less than 2-years of experience. So, the explanation was that companies don't post the entry-level positions. Then, the advice became to apply for 2-years of experience jobs, sell your skills, and someone will hire you. Then, the explanation became that I was stupid or lazy.

Not even just in SWE, even IT jobs such as a Network Engineer and a System Admin are asking for 5-10+ years experience for entry level 🙃

This is why I just lie about my experience. The construction company one of my buddies ran out of his garage? Yeah I ran the entire IT department (1 laptop 1 printer) there for 3 years. I have 3 years of IT management experience.

This is the SAME exact thing that happened to STEM degree science majors when companies said they need more scientists. Come to find out there were no jobs.

This is why I feel terrible for jobs in which your education does not count as experience. For example, me being a pilot took me getting all my certificates and ratings that all took hours to get. Even my training alone for all these took about 230 hours for me. This COUNTS as experience because it was me flying while learning a new plane or certificate. This still counted as experience because I was doing the flying.

One of the biggest issues is also the increasing tech stack, I personally have 11+ years of experience, and broke 6 figures over 4 years ago. So getting a job in IT for me is no issue, the problem is new jr. Devs have hurdles that didn't exist when I joined the tech scene in 2012. Now cloud expertise is now becoming mandatory, it is no longer good enough just to understand a programming language, you must have a much deeper repertoire in order to compete in todays market. And building in the cloud requires additional set of knowledge that just wasn't needed over a decade ago.

As a Senior developer, let me tell you that it's tough as well: more requirements, less pay, more competition... the market in 2023 is very different to previews years.

If you don't get a job as a developer start applying for an IT support it's easier to get and build connections during your first year and you will get something

As a senior engineer, the market isn't easy. The market is crazy this year. Things will pick back up in the fall. Keep learning as you said in the video

Graduated in 2020 as an adult student to boost my income. Before college I worked 3 jobs around the clock. Now, I still work 3 jobs around the clock. Little did I know, even with 17 years of work experience and now a degree, I am considered the same as a child who is starting out because I am a new grad and I didn't work in that field. The system is broken.

I've been searching for months for a video like this and finally someone made one. Seems like not many KZfaqrs make videos on the negative side of becoming a web developer these days because it ruins their advertiser/sponsorship pay which is fueled by hype. Great video. Very cool project.

I have 8 years of experience and cant find a job right now. Insane.

It's blowing my mind, it's not like they want entry-level to do entry-level work anyway. They want above and beyond.

I graduated in summer 2022, and thankfully I had a job lined up pretty much right out of school. The main reason I got the job was because my dad knew the manager and was able to schedule an interview, thankfully, I prepared myself the best I could and got the job. The main points I got from my experience: Connections are very important, if not, necessary. Just this past month one of our interns brought in a guy for an interview he knew, and now he’s hired on as well. Do everything you can to network and make sure you are prepared because an opportunity might come up unexpectedly. Everyone needs IT, so don’t be scared to look in different industries for software dev or even IT jobs, getting your foot in the door is the hardest part. Once you’re in, like Devy said, keep yourself sharp so you can leverage all your experience to ace an interview.

I am in the exact same boat. One issue I am finding though is staying motivated to continuously learn something when you’re labor, efforts and time investment are never rewarded. The other compounding thing to this is the fact that coming up with any form of useful idea or project is extremely difficult, which yet again has a high probability of being swept under the rug with no reward leaving you with yet another chunk of your life gone and making no further economic progress. This is shockingly bad for young people. We want to work. Many of us went to school because we thought we’d get an above average salary and be able to keep growing and earning. Sure it’s awesome if you couldn’t live another day in your life without coding, but some (most) people view their career as a vehicle which will transport them up the socioeconomic ladder more quickly so they can have a normal and decent standard of living.

I think you are right that college CS is not *directly* teaching things like React or whatever tools are popular now, but it’s absolutely not useless. Knowing about analyzing algorithms, functional programming, design patterns are incredibly useful when learning the fad tech of the era

The problem is this breaks the economy long term because at some point those software engineers will retire and there is a lack of EXPERIENCED software engineers filling the gap. We have the same problem in many other fields.

It's not only that entry level positions that are affecting, but the nature of tech is sooooo unprofessional. I waited a whole month to get my Amazon panel interview, got all the questions right, and still wasn't hired. Im lucky to get 6+ interviews at apple, has to do with masters degree. I even had a 50+ year old engineer from Apple, be a no show, and then after eating 8 days to finally schedule an interview, I asked how long is the interview process he said "Oh it slow". .... ugh

It's really pleasant to see that I'm not alone in this. Thanks for shedding light on this issue.

Seems like people who are into swe are getting into cybersecurity and cloud based systems like AWS / Salesforce. I like to get into software engineering on a web development focus but looks like it’s getting quite saturated these days. I totally agree even entry level roles require 1-2 yrs experience.

I notice that this video applies to all jobs not just tech of jobs that were entry level 20 years ago now require senior level experience but for entry level jobs. Most jobs even if they are entry level require 2 years of experience and you have to have knowledge of the job and what is expected than what the job requires.

Ill give some advice that did help me. I was completely self taught, not bootcamp, no nothing. I had worked in IT at a hardware level but my background was in healthcare. I built a website from scratch JS, Bootstrap 3, HTMl, and some Css. The site that got me interviews was a website i made that was almost like a personal trainer. You could create workouts in a calendar, and it would email , text, or both; those workouts to you on that calendar day. I built something that could be used by someone in a real business scenario. Thats my best advice is build something you think could be used. It could be an App, a low power OS, and API, just something actuallh usable.

Not in SWE, but in cybersec. Landing my first job after grad was an absolute struggle and I got it because i got LUCKY. I was unemployed for a year and a half.They only took notice because of my location and how close I was.

not to mention the senior jobs salaries have dropped 30-40%. i have over 12 years of experience and it was easy to find jobs over 200k now its pretty rare to even see that in the range

Even internships are competitive.

thanks for the video, graduated 3 months ago and the search has been very difficult. I hope to do what I fell in love with as a career in the future

I really appreciate you making this video. I graduated from a web dev boot camp and had to have applied to a thousand jobs and got a few interviews but nothing. Only one of my classmates even got hired and that was only because they already had years of experience.

I lied on my resume and i kept up on that lie in my resume, worked on projects for free with teams , so when i applied for. 4+ experience job i was able to bring value on a codebase and the team within a week. So everyone relies on me to solve the hardest bugs 😂😂

Just wanted to say a few things here: 1. In general if it's on the evening news, it's too late. This goes for stock picks and "most in demand" careers. 2. From what I see most people are getting into a swe career because of the high salaries from Google, Facebook, etc. This is NOT normal. 3. Being a good SWE is much more than leetcode and copying and pasting from stack exchange. It takes years of experience and hard work. 4. A lot of people end up not liking SWE and switch to something else. There are other areas Product Manager, Scrum Master, Growth Manager, etc that you might like better. 5. This happens in a lot of industries where supply exceeds demand. How many people want to be film directors who intern for years before their even considered for higher positions.

Hey bro! Congratulations on the success of your channel!! This is just the beginning man! All the best always to you!

Honestly, amazing video bro. I have really been struggling with finding entry level jobs and I have been applying since last december (I graduated in June 2023). This video gave me the motivation to just work on something, rather than beating the bush of the job market to just get demotivated. Thank you man.

The fact that you have to basically be an expert at Leetcode to get a job says it all

Well done video. Transitions, information, audio, running footage, and editing, in my opinion, is really high quality. I both enjoyed your content and related to it. Great stuff and looking forward to more of your content!

Hey man, just random ran into your video on my recommended page. I’m a junior that was thankful enough to get a return offer this year. I just wanted to saw that I was very impressed by the quality of your video! Keep up the great work

Great video man! Thank you! As someone that is very new to this career by self-learning and soon joining a bootcamp, I needed to know this information.

great video! thanks so much for putting together a cohesive and interesting video that accurately sums up the industry these days :)

Thank you for making this vlog! It was helpful 😊

5:36 pause and look at the applicant count for that internship 😂. Internships are just as bad if not worse to get than new grad and junior roles. “Just apply to internships” isn’t the definitive solution to this problem

Perhaps at the moment, juniors need to avoid too much saturated positions, like webdev positions. Although there should be always demands, there should be supplies more than twice of the demands. Those are actually positions that you don't really need to have compsci knowledge that much(you could learn while working, and no one asks you to write a JVM code from scratch or a JS parser in C++, for example), and you need to compete against bootcamp grads or self-taught ones, who might have more refined and good looking portfolios.

You a wrong, the job of a school course should not be to teach the framework of the day but to give you the mentality to learn any framework\tech\ecc in your work life. Job training has always being a work place duty, a duty the very short sighted current managerial class wants to unload on schools due to plain and simple greed.

I've done so much backend related projects I wanted to do some frontend and delved head first into NextJS/TypeScript. I had 0 react experience, but some HTML, and knew NOTHING about NextJS. I've been rebuilding my portfolio site and have learned SO MUCH by doing this. It's been a challenge simply because I have so many unique things I want to maintain that it forced me to learn even more! This video is 100% on-point, but I'd argue that a currently a Bachelors degree doesn't set a person up enough to get a job out of college, and agree internships there are important. If you want some more expertise and knowledge, then a Masters allows you to explore all kinds of fields that you didn't get to when pursuing your Bachelors. However, money. I start my Masters program in a few days and am very excited, this video helped me get out of a funk and restart my job searching for when I finish my Masters degree.

I just found your videos and wanted to say thank you for making them! I’m just starting out in web development and really enjoy your perspectives. ❤

I graduated from college in 2021, so I wanted to find a job that would help me with my education skills so I can walk my own. But it has been three years since then, I haven’t been able to get any jobs I did get an internship, but it seems entry level jobs doesn’t matter. At this point, I feel like companies should take a look back at what they’ve been doing and see what they can improve on…

I did a boot camp that ended in march, got a nice remote job in may. It's important to understand that everyone's path is different but the more shots you the more likely you are to make

It takes a lot of resources to mentor a junior developer. Glad I got in when I did though and thankful for my seniors who babysat me years ago

What’s crazy about this in 08 they did my father like this he’s a software engineer and I’m an electrical engineer we have different disciplines but he did mention fake hiring will happen when the economy slows. His advice is start with startup companies for experience. By the way great video your voice isn’t annoying and you aren’t overly excited and to top it off it’s very informative. Keep it up!

I can't really compare the current climate but even 10y ago - it was quite hard to find entry level jobs - as it always required a level of experience. I think a lot of people were tricked by semantics - there is a shortage of developers and there will always be a shortage but that people forget to add - that it is a shortage of talented / experienced senior developers. Companies want people who can do the job - not someone to learn to do the job. In the beginning of my career - I joined a small startup with small salary (you could probably earn more in starbucks as barista) but it allow me to build some experience and open a lot of doors so that is the advice that I would give to anyone who is struggling to find a job.

University is not like an initialisation ritual be welcome in the corporate cult. You go to university to learn the field. The fact that you can learn better on your own just has to do with the inability of universities and schools to adapt.

I could only relate too hard to the statement that My CS Degree was irrelevant, Been struggling to find anything for the past five years.

it was hard and it's still hard lol. right after college I ended up working as an Sys Admin, after a year I ended working as Linux sys engr, and finally during pandemic I got hired as a test engineer and at least I am able to write a code/script for test automation until now, it was a good thing though bcoz I realized web dev is not for me. Now looking to work in the embedded sw realm which I really enjoyed doing when I was in college. just keep grinding we'll get there! peace!!!

This video is well put together! You earned it.

In this field you better be willing to move, thats no joke.

This was a great video bro! Definitely agree on all your points. 💯

I tried learning swe in 2021 and still looking for a job today. Decided to look into data science in government because these companies aren't hiring.

High quality video as always. Love the work!

Yes, that was what I was doing for past 2-3 months applying for jobs, but I when I applied for internships I got messages from recuritors. You cleared my doubt, thanks.

I'm plagued by guilt because I recently rejected a return offer from an internship I did last year, that would have likely made my transition from intern to full-timer completely seamless, all in order to do a study abroad. Now I'm dealing with companies everywhere giving me things like IQ tests and leetcode I don't know how to solve, then getting auto-rejected for failing them en-mass. I know for a fact my internship experience, and by extension degree would have definitely proven not meaningless, had I just taken that return offer. I've come back to a dumpster fire now. Study abroad was my dream so I just had to pursue it no matter what, but it's hard not to feel bad now considering how agonizing and indefinite the job-search is. I told myself "Jobs will always be there" but it doesn't mean much when it feels like the entry-level market is shrinking exponentially. I'm mad at myself knowing how easily I would have avoided this boat, yet choosing not to. Now I'll likely have to burden my family with things like having to move back home (Lease is ending and I chose not to renew, once I graduate) and scared of working fast food again because of the horrific treatment I experienced working it last time.

Well put together video, amazing editing. Thought you have a million subs already. Keep it up bro.

Your melanoma app looks like an awesome idea, congratulations!

The senior positions are a joke too. Theyre looking for specific senior experience using everything in their tech stack and when someone does have that experience they have half a dozen interviews to weed out perfectly capable developers for no logical reason

The problem is most of ypu programmers are applying to FANG companies instead of networking with local companies that also need programmers such as automobile manufacturer's, accountanting software providers, or military aircraft manufactures. That be tight

Great job. Breaking down clearer pathways for people confused by the market

insta subscribe!!! so motivational, especially if you spent last 9 month job searching and recently landed a senior dev offer!!! well done man!!! really well done!!!

This confirmed my worst fears. Literally from day 1 of university, you need to build a portfolio to be "worthy" of any position, let alone an entry position. Would this mean forgoing Uni altogether? No, but think of how many small businesses you can start with the tuition money before one of them becomes a major success if you play your cards right.

I've pivoted into entrepuenership. I think nowadays you gotta start your own thing. Better to own a small business than spend time tap dancing for employers who want 5 years + of experience and pay minimum wage. There's no opportunity to learn nowadays, everyone wants a senior and the truth is they don't train anyone because those seniors barely have any idea what they're doing. No job security nowadays either. All this for a subsistence wage to be another office monkey and at the mercy of some employer and office politics. I absolutely refuse. I'de rather build a business and live on my own terms earning 50k a year than earn 100k a year and be fucked if i lose my job/the economy buckles/compete with all these other people constantly etc.

This was amazingly put together bro, I definitely want to learn how to story tell in my videos also. This video could have been longer, it told the harsh truth about the market even though some people want to sugar coat it. It's called business and if a business is no longer a startup and can afford a senior dev to do the job in a shorter time, they will do that, especially now in the age of A.I.

No cap, this is very well done homie. Good job (Larry June voice)

You *almost* touched on a real problem. Juniors are competing with Seniors. Your perspective is how that feels as the junior, but imagine too how it feels for the senior. Jobs are bad all over, to the point where seniors are willing to work for less pay doing work they're overqualified for.

This is what I'm doing as a UX/UI designer who has yet to find work. I'm taking additional tutorials on design and coding so I can keep adding experience and skills to my portfolio and resume.

For those of you watching this video. Let me save you some time. Job market right now is extrememly difficult for junior developers. You need lots of experience, to get experience you need a job, in order to get a job you need experience. Going to college is outdated and won't help you learn important things like REACT What to do we do then? Continue practicing and sharpening your skills, become good at learning new things, and start building side projects. That's about it. My problem? If you're already not in love with software engineering and don't have the knowledge or skills that this guy possesses. Then it might be a good idea to find something else that suits you. Software engineering is great if you really enjoy it but, if you're like me and are having a tough time with sticking with it and aren't great at learning new things. I wouldn't waste the time, I already knew that going into this video I just wanted to know more about why the job market sucks. Even though I didn't learn much I did learn one thing, everyone is struggling right now. Which is a good thing because it means you're not alone. Take care.

Gee, I wonder if those would be the same companies that 2 years from now will be whining how they can't find anyone with 2-3 years of experience.

Well said! I have a video in pre-production about the job market that touches on this, so I might link this video as a "learn more" when I do 🙂I keep my hand in on software mostly through my own websites and through tweaking custom widgets on my phone desktop, it's always worth flexing those muscles and I learn some surprising things while I'm at it. Like today, I learned how atmospheric pressure changes with altitude, to the degree that I could have my phone compare the measured altitude and pressure to tell me whether it was above or below the normal. Yesterday, I learned some relationships between temperature, wind chill, humidity and thermal comfort.

Thanks for the late night boost bro ❤

No degree, no bootcamp. I took the free 100 days of SwiftUI course from September-December 2022, and got a job offer of $114,400/year in Pittsburgh, PA in February, started in March. I got a bit lucky, but I also did go 100% into learning by myself and making a portfolio.

I'm in the trades industry I.E carpentry, plumbing, hvac etc. My favorite thing is when the ad says hiring apprentices but the apprentices must have 2-3 years of experience. Just be honest and say you're looking for a journeymen

These days I legit see entry level positions that require 5 years experience. Bro, do these people understand what "entry level" means?! Many of us either get promoted, move into management or change tech stacks after 5 years because we have mastered them. And even if I were to switch to a completely new role like QA or devops I still wont be entry level anymore because a lot of IT knowledge is transferable. They are just looking for some BS excuse to pay experienced professionals crappy salaries and they are all out of excuses. I'd rather see this industry crash and burn than see one more person unemployed, overworked or underpayed.

I am not in IT and I am gainfully employed. Still, this was a great video. Extermely well done and a great presentation. Definitely something people new to the job market need to here. Good luck everyone.

I finished a web development bootcamp back in Fall of 2021, and about 5 months later got a full time remote job as a Front End Dev. I can tell you I applied to about 60 positions with intent knowing I came close to the requirements, and everyday I did at least 1-2 leetcode problems a day. When the interviews finally came(had about maybe 8 companies interview me out of the 60 I applied to)I was prepared and killed those interviews. I ended up with 3 different job offers and took the remote one with the highest pay. I understand that the economy wasn't as bad in early 2022, but if there's one thing I'd recommend to people is KEEP TRACK OF YOUR APPLICATIONS, and PRACTICE LEETCODE EVERYDAY> Software Engineering vs. Interviewing for Software Engineering jobs are entirely different skillsets, and unfortunately, you need one to have the opportunity to gain the other.

Its really hard to get an entry level job in software right now, but I see a bunch of LinkedIn positions for people with little to no work experience every day. Also, as you said in the video, companies are looking for specialization, which is dumb to ask of someone who has just graduated college, but at the same time, can be beneficial to those looking for work. It is much easier for CS people to add specific skills and projects to their resume, than every other major out there.

Applied for a google apprenticeship. Application said 2 yr degree with less than 1 year coding. I had exactly 9 months web dev for a Fortune 500 company. Still got denied after 2 months of “consideration”

One little thing to push back on, while ofc companies are primarily concerned with successful projects that make money, they do care about training employees. A major factor in promotion/performance reviews for senior positions is development of junior employees. And there is profit motive to this, they want their employees to be able to replace each other if one leaves (a super common occurrence). Also, a manager will be very pleased to hear a senior member getting junior members up to speed because then they have less to worry about their junior devs underperforming (which the manager’s manager will review them on)

I'm in pharmaceutical manufacturing but going to school for computer programming, and the jobs market is similar. Some of the entry level jobs postings want some years of experience coupled with the fact that you basically have to know someone to help get your foot in the door

1:00, I was always or almost always told it as "to get a job you need experience, but to get experience you need a job".

I can't even imagine how lucky I am I volunteered for a non-profit when I was in highschool on a bunch of engineering projects. I started early, very frickin early. By the time I turned 20, I already had some good experience, at least 3 years on my belt. Going into work was seamless. I have no degree btw 😂😭

I graduated in 2015. In 2016 I was given a coding bootcamp who didn't prepare me for any part of the job that wasn't just writing code (subpar git, no jira, etc). The job they got me fell apart 3 months in. After that, I went to ANOTHER boot camp in 2017, and they hired me but the clients they put me on were heavily lied to about my resume. They padded my resume with an extra 4 years of experience at companies I didn't know existed let alone worked at. I'm only doing good on my own now with my real resume because this company lied to their clients about me, and put stress on me to maintain the lies they told. Glad I left them, but I also could NOT have gotten a job without them.

Thank you for the informative video, I have some questions! What machine learning courses do you recommend to get started with? I'm curious how did you taught yourself because I don't know where I should start from to get my feet wet with machine learning

Greate video. Just graduated a boot camp and most of my friends are stressed out their minds cause all they want to do is leetcode. I been trying to have them stop leetcode for a little bit and build instead. I shared the video with them, hopefully they’ll watch 😅

If youre fresh out of college your best bet into getting a job right away would be if you have family, good friends, or someone close that works for a company.

Hey man. Great Video, do you have ideas for other projects/other you have done?

Yea this is straight facts bro, excellent video bro

Love how you edit your videand the quality. I like Tech that why I'm subscribed.

Have to be able to relocate and that gives you a big boost. I think the downturn is simply due to economy right now, will settle down in a year hopefully. Good luck out there bros

Even learning the right stacks makes your application meaningless. I've experienced that and now looking for something more suitable. I think many things companies are doing are messing up market for people starting. Even the coding interview setup to make hiring process rigged and set up against 99 percent of candidates. Hopefully there can be lobbying against these hiring practices.

TBH it’s just as bad for experienced engineers. 200+ applicants, months to get an offer. The tech economy is brutal right now.

Hey Devy! Loved the video. Can I use the first 50 seconds of your voiceover to practice in After effects? Maybe I'll post it on my LinkedIn profile. I'll totally give credit. Thank you.

Been drowning my self in your content lately, I love it.❤

I think there is a big issue with HR too. I know React, TS, Jest, Strapi, a little bit of node, and more. Have projects on Git Hub etc etc. The issue is how can a person working in HR even know you can code if they can't read code? As you said all they care about is whether you have experience - that is flawed. Basically, if Bill Gates was trying to get a job now and had no XP he would not get hired because HR would not go out of their way to read his code out of 1000 applicants

I recently got my first salaried position as an engineer and it was tough, like all odds against me. I'm still in school and it was a heavy grind. I first thought that school really did not teach real required job market ready expertise. BUT, they do. There is a huge DIFFERENCE when it comes to software engineer and software developer. I could say I know how to build the latest and greatest web application in REACT, NODEJS, etc... But do you really know what's going on under the hood? One can easily use libraries but when it came to the theory of how to manage your application, database, system design, etc... I feel like school teaches a lot. Don't get me wrong you can completely avoid theory and go straight into applying libraries into your app and still land big roles. But there's a lot more windows that school can open especially expertise. TBH if I had school even mention to me lets build a project in React, i'd kinda be scared of what I'm really getting taught. This video does bring up a lot of good points though! :)

Always be grateful to your first recruiter