The pain of not being able to find a software job

social:

00:00 - Delusions with finding jobs
06:10 - low point
08:29 - People don't change
09:40 - small successes

[quincylarsonmusic]

It takes a lot of humility to publish such an unflinching analysis of yourself. That part where you talk about the sacrifices your family made to get you to the US and into a US university, and how you were failing to live up to their aspirations, or your friends politely listening to your entitlement - damn. Not only is your advice spot on here, you have earned my respect for your willingness to share your mistakes so you can help other people steer around them.

[balaclava]

I didn't study CS. I was an English teacher. I spent 3 years studying web dev in my free time. I made an app that was reasonably successful (50k users) and got accepted for the first job I applied for. Your portfolio is your CV.

[m.wilkinson]

This is such an important video. Wanna-be programmers are being fed a lie of "super high demand" but the reality is that there is a demand only for EXPERIENCED programmers. At the end of the day all companies have problems that need to be solved TODAY, not in a few months time after you get your training. This is why they need experienced people who can pretty much start solving their problems immediately. That's the reality of any job in any field really and programming is no exception.

[richieseputro]

Man, this is such a wake-up call to me. I've been putting off my responsibilities like doing university assignments and studying for upcoming exams since like 2 weeks ago. I guess letting my parents down is a strong fear for me. Thank you! I'll start working on myself from now on.

[yqweqwun]

The reason why i see you as inspiration is unlike other youtubers who paint an ideal unrelatable picture of themselves;I find you relatable, like you talk abt struggles etc.

[judonomi]

This is my story too. I thought my CS degree would be enough. It took another year of self-study and countless rejections before landing my first software job.

[AlexRodriguez-dojx]

As a fellow cs grad(2019) I felt this video heavy. Wish there was more videos like this showing the realities of getting a job in this industry. How saturated it's become. Every other ad on my feed tries to pitch "break into tech in like two months", or influencers talking about how they pivoted w/zero experience in a ridiculous amount of time. It just amplifies my anxiety and my imposter syndrome. Like bro I'm trying to get in WITH a degree and I'm having a hard time.

[jerewang]

“What did you do in school?” Similar words struck me hard when I was being interviewed at a big tech company. Till this day, it still stings and those words discourage me from applying to another job. Thank you for your story, I needed this. I will use this as empowerment towards another chance. Best of luck to you and your journey to towards your ultimate goal.

[nickjacobsss]

As someone who just finished a lengthy bootcamp and got their first job already, a big problem is the entitlement. These boot camps/college programs claim you’ll make $80-100k straight after graduation, and while that was true at some point, and is still true for a few people, the reality is, you might have to just take a low paying job for a year or two to get real experience and get your foot in the door

[AoCabo]

Doesn't stop once you have a job either. For the first 4-5 years of my career, I made very little progress and got paid very little money. For some reason I thought just having a degree and YOE would automatically put me up for promotions. No, it doesn't work that way. Only once I started taking my job seriously by actively studying and improving my technical expertise, did I start getting praises from my boss/colleagues and getting some serious raises and promotions. Nothing worthwhile in life comes for free. Nothing will change if you do nothing.

[antwanvu]

Dude, I seriously thank you for this. I found a lot of comfort in this and just like yourself, my circumstances definitively forced me to rethink a lot. It's nice knowing that there is someone/others just like me who've had this reflective moments and tbh at one time of another got lucky but is still working their way up. LGI fam!

[CommandoMaster]

This is why ppl need to realize that the whole go to college/uni for a degree to a get a job path is not as safe as ur parents made u think it was. At the end of the day, u need to take control of ur own destiny, and not let it be controlled by others.

[jordanb]

Honestly never thought I would find someone talk about their journey word for word exactly the same way I felt, including in high school and job. Thanks for this video.

[justanamateur]

I wish anyone looking for a software developer job good luck. I hope you guys succeed. I’m currently unemployed, studying from scratch (no degree/experience) so I know the road ahead is going to be long and difficult. I’m already feeling episodes of worthlessness during this journey. But no matter how dark this tunnel is, I’m going to keep making steps forward until I reach the end. Wish you all the strength to grit your teeth and keep moving forward!

[sxyt]

As a professional with CS background, I would let you know the reality these years. A CS degree is not so useful from around 10 years ago. Most companies use leetcode style code test to screen candidates. No matter what is your major, you have to pass it. So many non CS people just spent time in leetcode or similar all day. Another cruel reality is that even you have gained years of experience, the interview is still leetcode style code test to start with, and you are competing with people all over the world who spent nearly everyday on leetcode. That is the reason I left the software career because life just gets harder when you are older

[GlitteringBeads]

As someone who was unemployed for two years after graduating from college with a CS degree, I can attest to the fact that tech interviews are BRUTAL! I probably submitted thousands of applications before I got my software job.

[irishknightt]

Well done and relatable. I had no jobs lined up at graduation (same year as you, coincidentally) and so it was a bittersweet moment and maybe even more bitter due to a low GPA and no internships. at all. I quickly had to grow up and shape myself in the months following and yet also had to regress a bit by moving back in with the parents. Humbling, humbling experience, especially coming back home with only a piece of paper.

Also, not surprised to hear your friends on their silence or quick change of topic when bringing up touchy, professional matters. Friends meet up to escape from their professional life, not marinate in it with others... That'd be a miserable time otherwise. I will admit you were lucky to be surrounded by such successful friends, even if it was just for a bit of context about the working world in software. I didn't even have that much and had to figure it all out on my own.

[rodzme]

Growing up in Brazil wasn't easy, my family didn't have a lot of money and my parents had 4 children to feed. I always went to public school (awful standards in Brazil) and by the time I got to high school, I didn't even know what I wanted to do with my life. My mom, on the other hand, having been through so much hardship to raise all 4 of us, forced me into a technical school to learn programming and IT. Boy, I'm thankful for her decision to this day. That led me to a CS degree later on and because of our financial situation, I was forced to work the entire time I was in college. I used to think this was a tough situation and that I would have liked to socialize more and have time to enjoy other things other than study and work all day every day. But now at 34, living in the US, earning a steep paycheck, and being able to help my family back home, I can see it was all worth it and wouldn't change it. The moral of the story is, sometimes growing up in less-than-ideal situations can be the push you need to grow in life.

[ghostaccountlmao]

I didn't graduate, I actually dropped out and learned full stack web dev in 3 months (day and night studying).. I then spent 16ish hour days making a bunch of apps, complete with Rest API's and full comment sections, mobile dev'd, yada yada... and this was fantastic but... what really got me through a door was when I started searching as low as 40k salary. I only had 2 interviews, both for the same employer, after 100+ applications. My second interview was with the owner, and it lasted like 3 hours. I really blew him away with my knowledge and understanding. I knew some stuff he didn't even realize. Anyways, I did like 80% of the talking and I started the next day at 50k after the job being post around 45k. So point is, you gotta be able to tune your expectations down.

[TerryOnVinyl]

"What did you do in school?" That line hit me hard.
My answer: I had awesome social life, bartended at a local college bar and made a ton of friends. I thought I was "the sh*t" because I would ace my calc exams while still being drunk from the night before. Now I have a CS degree and I can't find a job. I know I would be able to perform well as a software engineer, but my biggest mistake was spending ZERO time figuring out how I was going to prove that to a hiring manager. I don't stand out on paper at all because my lack of preparation. My advice to anyone still in college would be to start figuring out ASAP how you're going to make yourself stand out from your peers. If you don't think it's that important right now, just read through the rest of the comments on this video.