Got laid off a few months ago... and yeah man, it's been rough.
A friend and I were let go at the same time. Same experience (5 yrs), almost the same salary. She's in UI/UX, I'm a developer.
She landed a new job in a month with a 50% hike. It's been 6 months for me, still trying.
For dev roles it feels exhausting now. You can grind DSA, system design, everything... and still end up in an interview where one random question decides everything. Sometimes it's not even about a correct answer; it just doesn't match what the interviewer expects, and that's it - rejection.
After a point it stops feeling like a fair evaluation and starts feeling like pure luck.
I've tried everything - job portals, referrals, cold emails - all of it. Right now I wish I was in a different field. It's hard not to compare when someone with a similar background gets through quickly just because they're in a different role.
And about AI... I've seen its impact first‑hand in layoffs, so it doesn't feel distant.
Just wanted to ask, how has it been for you all? How long did it take you to bounce back after a layoff?
Life is so hard rn... I know many of us are going through this. Just trying to stay hopeful somehow.
Corporate is a truly unpredictable rabbit hole. No one can predict when things flip, especially for developer roles.
I hope you get a job soon. I'm a final‑year student with no relevant experience, but I've been applying endlessly (no shortlists) and never losing hope. I'm pushing past my limits because I believe a fateful day will come and I want to be at my best then.
I'm not laid off but I've been looking for a switch for a long time. Unfortunately interviews these days expect you to be perfect. It's true that a random question can decide everything.
Still, I hope that one random question will work in my favour someday.
That's sad to hear. Praying you get a job soon.
I'm applying for a Technical Account Manager role because I think consultancy is the only field that isn't heavily impacted by AI.
I saw an average Power BI developer get hired as a staff engineer at Walmart.
Some hiring managers just favor candidates based on gender rather than skills.
Similar feelings. It's been 5 months since my layoff, I've faced burnout a couple of times and I'm still waiting while many of my peers got promoted. Some recruiters drop the call as soon as they see a layoff or a gap on the resume.
~2 YOE
Got laid off 2 years ago. I've done thousands of interviews in the past 2 years, even reached the final discussion round a few times, only to be ghosted by recruiters after they'd talked about an offer. I also got scammed by data‑collection agencies that posted fake jobs, promised an offer after I cleared all rounds, then asked for private documents like bank statements and tax returns. I lost my father and my life savings in these 2 years. I'm losing hope now. Every day feels like a struggle and I can't see a future for myself.
Same situation, but I'm in cloud security. I passed interviews but got ghosted twice just before the offer was released. It's been 6 months.
Got laid off exactly 2 months and 2 days ago.
Was laid off 1.5 months ago. After 20 days I got an offer, but during salary negotiations they revoked it, so I'm still job hunting. I've never seen a revocation like that. Right now everyone in the market seems to want to hire full‑stack developers.