So I was laid off on 2023-07 and started to interview for junior positions at different companies, from Chile and US, this process took me 26h01m+ (only in calls and interviews, I didn’t record how much time I studied) and this is what I learned:

1. There are positions in the job market but…

Most companies want a senior for the price of a junior, with 5+ years of experience in their stack and with a lot of different skills, something like 3 persons in one.

2. The interview process for SWE is long and stressful

In my experience for junior jobs you are going to get 1+ interviews for behavioral questions, 2+ coding interviews and sometimes a system design interview. I can only imagine how many interviews has some of the most seniors positions. After all this if you are still in the process, congratulations, you will maybe get an offer!.

3. The ghosting game

So the first time that this happened was really weird but after some time I got the pattern:

  • You enter an interview with someone with low seniority
  • You are going to get some simple coding questions with the possibility of system design questions, the interviewer will praise you A LOT, so you will feel very confident that you are going to the next round
  • The interviewer will tell you the next steps and probably will say something specific like “you are going to get an email from XX for your next interview”
  • No one will contact you and if you reach out they will not respond

This happened a few time and I was able to learn when the interview was going no where.

4. Where is MY feedback

I interviewed with 13 companies (excluding my current one), only three of them gave me feedback after I was not selected, the other ones just didn’t respond when I ask them and some of them sent me a few email to give them feedback to them, because they really care about the process…