How I was laid off and got six job offers in a month

I was the tech lead at an awesome company for two and a half years.

The job was fantastic; I had the best manager ever, and it was my first long-term gig leading a team. I loved diving deep into software architecture and the challenge of managing a team.

The salary? Fantastic. I had full freedom to make technical decisions, and we crushed it with our results. Not only did we deliver the project, but we also pulled off some sweet extras like saving the client up to 15k a month in cloud costs.

But then, out of nowhere, my manager scheduled an unexpected meeting, and we all know what that means.

Yep, it was what I feared. My well-meaning manager was giving me a heads-up way ahead of my contractual notice period that I would be let go. The company was struggling with clients and decided to let go of about 80% of the dev team. Only the three people who had been with the company longer remained.

Finding interviews in an employer's market

Well, 2024 has thrown us for a loop in the tech industry. Suddenly, it feels like the scales have tipped way in favor of the employers. I mean, I've been in this game for 26 years and never sat on the sidelines for more than a hot minute. But now, there’s this whole AI frenzy, although I reckon it’s more about the economics than the tech itself. If you're curious, check out this deep dive on the topic right here.

With job seekers flooding the market, competition is fierce. You’re not just battling a handful of folks for a gig; it’s like an all-out brawl for a spot at the table, and the stakes? They're definitely lower salaries.

A lot of people are suggesting you gotta get personal with your job hunt. Tailor that resume, spice up your cover letter for each application, slide into the DMs of hiring managers, maybe even become a bit of a LinkedIn celeb to boost your networking game.

Taking a leaf out of my own blog from last year— I’m talking about the one where I laid out some job hunting tactics over here—I decided to let recruiters and companies do the heavy lifting. My philosophy? Throw your hat in the ring and let them sort it out. So, I blasted out hundreds of resumes. Did I count 'em? Heck no, that would just slow down the momentum. Picture me standing on a bench in a crowded park yelling, “Hey world, I’m on the job market!”

And here's a kicker — I didn’t stick to my usual tech stack. Why? Because being a solid dev isn't about the tools you use. It's about how you use them. Turns out, some companies are catching onto that vibe too.

I got a job offer to work with Ruby — a language I hadn’t even touched before. Now that’s what I call a green flag from a company’s culture. Just goes to show, sometimes you gotta play the field to find where you fit. And guess what? It totally works.

Time to be picky

Now is the time to start being picky. Some companies have replied, and they're interested in you. So, you must have your goals in place.

Do you just want to get any job? There’s nothing wrong with that, but I had a couple of goals in mind.

1 - First and foremost, I wanted a place where I could stay. It’s hard to assess a company’s future, but by talking to the people involved, you can get a gist of it.

2 - I wanted to work with interesting people. The companies that got my attention were the ones where I had the most engaging conversations with the team. After some technical chats, I found myself jotting down notes to look up later. Those are the kind of people I want to work with.

3 - I wanted to work with an interesting product. It’s going to be tough to stay long in a company where you’re not excited about what you’re building.

4 - I wanted to be paid fairly. We talked about this in the article on finding a job as a Third World citizen. One thing I noticed this year is that companies are specifically looking for people in Latin America, and the reason is clear: they want to pay you a fraction of what they’d pay someone in the US or Europe for the same role. I refuse to work for a company that doesn’t pay me fairly.

As you’ll see in the graph I prepared, these parameters made me refuse offers or straight-up pull out of the interview process.

I’m not committing to a company just so I can start job hunting again soon, and I’m not wasting anyone’s time with interviews for a place I know I’m not interested in.

This approach is also going to save you time and energy.

Interviewing is a full-time job.

The interviews

The interview scene is a mess, we all know it, and no matter how desperate I get, I REFUSE TO DO LEETCODE STYLE INTERVIEWS OR LIVE CODING.

I bailed on some processes the moment I heard they involved this. I also turned down a ton of invites for the same reason. It’s not because I suck at it (though I do), but because I think it’s a sign of a bad company culture. Watching over someone’s shoulder while they struggle to invert a binary tree doesn’t tell you anything about them. It just shows they’ve memorized that one algorithm, and that’s it.

[*] I actually caved and did ONE live coding interview this time around, even though it gives me crazy anxiety. There’s no way I’m going to nail one of those with my anxiety alone. I only did it because I really vibed with the team and the product. I bombed, and that always feels like shit.

Overall, though, the interviews I went through were a mix of real technical conversations, take-home projects, and some curveballs. For a full-stack role, I got grilled with a bunch of cybersecurity questions, which was way out of my depth but super interesting. I made it to the next step.

One trend I’ve noticed is interviews are dragging on way longer than they used to. It’s definitely because of the glut of job seekers in the market. I had a FIFTH interview in one process, which is wild for me.

Picking an offer

In the end, after a month, out of the 24 interview processes I started, here's what went down:

• 👻 5 companies ghosted me
• 🔒 2 roles closed before I could finish the interview process
• 🙅🏻‍♀️ 5 companies I rejected before they could make an offer because I felt they weren't a good fit
• 💅 4 companies said they found a better fit and didn't continue with the process
• 💩 2 companies said my coding skills are made of poo and ass (actually, I bombed the tech interview, which were fair ones, and they were really nice in the feedback)
• ✌🏻 6 companies offered me a job

That’s a 25% success rate, which is pretty decent given the current market chaos (not counting the hundreds of applications I sent out).

So, how will I pick the best offer?

By sticking to the four goals I set for myself at the start.

I want to step into a challenging role at a promising company with amazing people and a great product.

Final tips and takeaways

1. Yes, the market sucks right now, but it's not the end of the world. You can, and will find a job with the same tools that have always worked.
2. Be smart. Especially if you’re not from the US or Europe, these tips are still relevant.
3. Don’t limit yourself to roles within your stack. You can be a great developer in a different stack. Let the company decide if they want to talk to you.
4. Craft a solid resume. Check mine for an example that usually works.
5. Use this time to learn new stuff and read the market. For instance, I noticed a lot of deep technical Postgres questions, which got me interested in studying for their certification. I also spotted some other skill gaps, and they’re all on my list to learn.
6. Be cautious. There are a lot of scams out there. Never give out your credit card information.