My regular readers (both of them) may remember that, at about this time last year, I was hired at Amazon. But this year, on January 18th, Amazon jettisoned 18,000 people. I was one of them.

Although this was a severe blow to my mental health when it happened, trust me when I say that I'm not upset right now. Not at all. Sh*# happens. But it does mean that I've been wading through the job market now for the last few months. And what I've found has been... interesting. To say the least. The following are some of my observations for the (occasionally surprising) ways in which the job market feels very different than the last time that I was actively looking for a job.

Disclaimers

Let's get some disclaimers out of the way. First, I'm a very senior dev working out of the US-based job market. I've been doing this for a quarter-century. So I don't claim for a second that these observations will apply to other "levels" of experience, or that they'll apply to other countries.

Second, although I've been actively looking for the last few months, I can't possibly assume that my experience will mirror that of other devs. Even if they're, like me, very senior, and they're operating, like me, from within the US. So obviously, your mileage on these observations may vary.

Third, I've primarily become a frontend dev (by choice). So it's perfectly possible that my experiences may not map to those who are "backend" devs, or devops specialists, or... any other "flavor" of devs.

Finally, I wanna make it clear that this post isn't me whining about the job market. There are still plenty of jobs out there. And believe me... I'll be just fine. But it's a little surpising (even, jarring) to see how things have changed lately.

Knocking on doors

I've grown incredibly spoiled as a senior dev in the last decade or so. The last coupla times I moved jobs, I barely had to apply anywhere. I was constantly hit-up by recruiters who always wanted to know if I was interested in new opportunities.

Whenever I even thought that I might be interested in a new role, all I needed to do was to simply ANSWER the many inquiries that I typically received from recruiters. The stream of recruiter inquiries was near-constant - whether I currently had a good job or not. But lately I've found that the pipeline of unsolicited recruiter inquiries has slowed to a trickle.

To be clear, I'm not claiming that I never receive unsolicited inquiries from recruiters. But it definitely has not been the unfettered waterfall of solicitations that I'm accustomed to receiving. And if all I did was sit back on my couch and wait for someone to contact me, then I'd probably be sitting here with little-or-nothing to do - for a long time.

Of course, this is not shocking. Not only did Amazon jettison a huge swath of highly-qualified engineers. So too did Meta, and Google, and Microsoft, and Twitter, and... a whole host of other huge tech companies. In January, I read an estimate that 60k+ tech workers had been dumped into the market. I assume that, at this point, that number is actually much higher. (In fact, an article that I just read on Time today pegs the total number at 275,000. That's no drop-in-the-bucket.)

I've also noticed that many would-be employers have frozen hiring. When I first started putting myself "out there" again, I talked to one recruiter who was looking to fill three very-promising and high-paying roles. But before he could even submit me to any of those positions, all three companies informed him that they're putting a hold on their staffing ambitions.

I also wanna be clear that I'm not griping about this. It is what it is. And in the long run, I'll be... just fine. But I certainly empathize with anyone who's found the job market to be, umm... challenging lately.

Stratification

I've noticed a rather odd "stratifying" of the job market these days. I remember a time, not too long ago, when it seemed like most of the "senior frontend" jobs that I saw advertised all fell within a certain band. Specifically, the US market seemed to value most senior devs somewhere between $100k and $130k.

Yes, there were always outliers (like, the big FAANG companies that offered far more). But for most established companies that needed frontend help, it felt like they were bunching their offers together in a tight band.

But now, that "band" seems to have been blown to smithereens. I've seen numerous job postings that advertise comp in the low-to-mid 200's. I've also seen many posts that advertise jobs in the low-to-mid 100's. Heck, just yesterday, I was looking through job postings and saw a listing for a "senior" frontend dev - requiring eight years of solid experience - that purported to pay "$50,000 - $80,000".

And yes, I know how privileged this may sound to some folks. I have many friends, in completely different career fields, who would kill to have a job that offers $50k-$80k. But for senior frontend programming help, that just feels outright... silly to me.

The employee/contractor disconnect

I'm accustomed to contract work paying a premium over regular fulltime employee work. The assumption is that contractors are treated as more "throwaway". They often receive fewer (or... no) benefits. And they're usually the first people let go when a company decides to tighten its belt.

The trade-off is that contractors usually receive a higher hourly wage. But that trade-off seems (from my perspective), to be "broken" now.

I've been talking to companies about potential fulltime jobs that range in the mid-to-upper 100s. Yet every single time someone has contacted me about a potential contractor role, the rate has been anywhere from $80/hr (on the high end) to as low as $55/hr (on the low end). Why in the world would I consider being a contractor at a rate that's equal-to or less than what I can get as a fulltime employee??

(Side note: It's borderline-comical to me that I've been contacted repeatedly about a frontend contracting job at Amazon. They specifically want someone with prior Amazon experience. But they're steadfast in offering a maximum of $80/hr. Every time someone's contacted me about this "opportunity", I've told them that I'm simply not interested.)

The return of college degree requirements

As an entirely self-taught developer, I've always had a certain disdain for companies that wanna use a 4-year-degree as a filtering mechanism. Luckily, for the last 10-15 years, this has hardly been a problem. Because most companies were desperate enough for programming talent, and because most were understanding of the fact that some people have learned all of this stuff without ever going to college, nearly all open positions stated that you needed a computer science degree, or "equivalent experience". But lately I've seen far more companies that have a 4-year-degree as a hard limit to entry.

(FWIW, I actually have a degree. But it's an Associates degree. In electronics.)

To be clear, I'm not claiming that there aren't still plenty of opportunities for the self-taught crowd. And I'm not claiming that anywhere near all online applications require you to have a Bachelors in Computer Science.

And I also understand that, when your applicant pool starts to grow to epic numbers, you look for any way to filter out candidates. But it's still disheartening to see the number of companies that are falling back on this lame non-indicator of developer skills.

TypeScript snobbery

I've also noticed lately what feels like a growing sense of snobbery when it comes to TypeScript vs. JavaScript. It seems that there are more hiring managers who look down their nose if you don't sing the praises of TypeScript.

For the record, I can absolutely do TypeScript. (Yes, I'm on record as not being one of TypeScript's fanboys. But I've done plenty of TS work before.) But for whatever reason, it seems that nearly all the code I've been writing in the last couple years has been JavaScript - not TypeScript. So when I was in a recent coding interview where I was tasked with cranking out a small solution in quick order, I asked if I could switch from TypeScript to JavaScript.

I only asked this because I had a limited timeframe in which I needed to crank out the solution and I just haven't been writing much TS lately. The interviewer did allow me to pivot to JavaScript. But it was pretty apparent that it didn't sit well with him. I've had several other similar interactions from others lately, so now I don't even mention JavaScript much anymore. Because doing so seems to immediately mark me as being somehow "less than".

Sea of applicants

More than anything, it's just apparent to me that there are a lot of people in the applicant pool these days. While the US unemployment rate is currently quite low, it's clear that the unemployment rate amongst developers must still be fairly high. This is evident to me from the (many) job postings for which I'm extremely qualified.

At the risk of sounding arrogant, the simple fact is that I have a stellar CV. I have a solid CV/portfolio site (https://adamdavis.codes). I have a long history of tech blogging on this site (https://dev.to/bytebodger). I have a boffo GitHub presence (https://github.com/bytebodger). I have numerous NPM packages that I've written and maintain (https://www.npmjs.com/search?q=%40toolz). I have full-fledged React apps that I maintain "in the wild" (https://www.paintmap.studio/ and https://www.spotifytoolz.com/).

Nevertheless, I frequently apply for positions that are soliciting "senior React/frontend devs". And yet I find that, mere hours (or minutes) after submitting my application, I receive a form letter stating that I'm no longer under consideration. Although I know better than to waste any mental energy trying to dissect exactly why I was eliminated from any particular job posting, sometimes you can't help but wonder, "If my CV wasn't enough to warrant even a follow-up conversation, what exactly were you looking for??"

C'est la vie

If any of this comes across as woe-is-me hand-wringing, believe me: It's not. I'll be just fine. And I am talking to companies now about putative future roles. But it's definitely interesting to me to see the state of the current job market.

Of course, these things are cyclical. And a few years from now, everything will probably be right back to where it was. But you may find some value in the insights I've been gathering over the last coupla months.

Take care out there!