| Formally build up your network. It's not a question of "areas of focus" in the technical sense. I mean, be a worthwhile engineer, yes, of course. But "nobody hiring" is BS. Horror stories, yes, but still just about everybody is working. LeetCode is good interview skill, if you can do it under pressure and with a hostile audience (rather than fresh, in peace and in the morning.) I find it shocking nowadays that people get laid off or fired and don't have dozens upon dozens of "buddies" they can remind themselves to. Not even after months of feeling like they might be next. To build your network: be pleasant and useful to work with not just to your immediate colleagues. Instead be also pleasant, curious and available to everybody in sight at your company. Actively talk to them, ask for meetings and discussion and overviews of what happens around them. Among what you will hear about is all the soft skills that you may not already have. And all local vaguely related interest groups, and online ones, and trade shows, and dev conferences, etc, etc. Formal in that you might as well maintain a CRM-like database of this network. Use LinkedIn so that other people can find you, instead of just you finding them. Four years might be a little early, but cultivate headhunter relations also. Look for advancement opportunities within your company. Don't necessarily get hired there but probably still talk to them. It's still more people who would love to know you. If you feel "state school" may be a little insufficient... Four years is nearly enough that which school doesn't matter much anymore in your career. But you might be ready and IF you get laid off, you might do an MS at a "much better" school. This time choose one that will let you balloon your network with everybody else there that you might run into. |