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by tacostakohashi 1179 days ago
It's a tough market out there now, so that doesn't help.

From the perspective of a BigCo recruiter, your background doesn't put you into a simple, desirable category - this can be overcome, especially when times are good, but it's harder when expansion isn't happening.

Your options are essentially:

1) keep on getting those recommendations, working for non-tech people, etc like you did before, that can still work and is viable.

2) leetcode, make yourself fit in and conform as a replaceable cog

3) be a team lead / manager, where your experience and focus on the output is seen as an asset

The basic issue is that the market does not value ICs with 10 years of experience, interesting languages, personal projects, etc... those are not _bad_ things, but basically they want leetcode people with a few years of experience, or people to manage those people.

1 comments

Thank you for responding. I appreciate the honesty.

The 10 years as an IC is interesting as an issue and sounds like it might be part of what I'm experiencing.

I am definitely trying to work any relationships I have, but unfortunately with my past I have not been able to properly maintain them. I'll definitely keep trying there, though.

Management is interesting option I had not considered. I have lead small teams for short bursts in the past with some success, but haven't been confident about seeking managerial roles with my history. It's definitely something I would consider, though. Assuming my resume is otherwise ok, do you think I might at least have more success getting interviews with those roles?

Maybe, and perhaps you'd want to emphasize your team lead experience, outcomes, processes, etc.

The basic takeaway is that 10+ years of experience is valued for management roles, and it's not for IC roles. Most IC job descriptions / ads will want 3 years, 5 years (maybe 7 years max...) of experience with <insert hot new thing> here, and they want people who are minimally qualified for those roles. Extra experience isn't necessarily regarded as a good thing, and can count against you in terms of perceived compensation expectations, or being "damaged goods" that didn't get promoted / on a good career track at their last place.

Thank you so much. You are confirming a lot of my suspicions and it gives me some clarity.