[jechamt]

I am in the US, but otherwise your situation highly resonates with me, and I feel your description could be used to describe my own search.

I've been looking, applying, and interviewing (though not as often as I would like nor expect from my volume of applications) for 8 months. After some recent disappointing news, I am looking to be moving away from software development and systems-at-scale roles, and spending more time and effort at IT support / system administration roles in the future as I can't help but feel the industry just isn't interested in any desire to grow and develop professionally, they just want the perfect applicant that has already used the technologies they need for 2-5 years and won't waste time on anyone else.

It doesn't help my own confidence that I have "FAANG" experience (I'll leave it to the reader to decide which FAANG belongs in quotes), and it hasn't helped my response rate or evaluations.

In any case, it's disapointing, and I feel your struggles. I wish you the best, and hopefully your newfound perspective separating the CV and the interview will help you spend less time and anguish over the less important parts

[ehto]

Appreciate the support jechamt. Good luck on your own journey.

It's undeniable that practice makes for better interviewing - I tend to index way to much on researching the company and industry, and not enough on the tricky art of impressing them by emitting words in the right way!

[alexfromapex]

I have “FAANG” too but as a contractor and I feel like it’s hurt me more than it’s helped because everyone wants to give me super rigorous coding assessments or questions my few month gap.