It’s been ages since I posted a link roundup or anything at all. In my defense, the company I worked for shut down last spring and I spent a few months hunting for a new role. I realize that should mean more time for writing and personal projects, but somehow, looking for a job is always more time-consuming and mentally exhausting than having a job. But I’ve finally settled into a new gig, so it seems like a good time for some observations on the software engineering job market in 2025 going into 2026.
The biggest takeaway: whatever its other merits, AI has been a disaster for hiring. Everything about the process is so much worse for everyone involved.
Everything is slower. Months after landing a job, I was still getting responses to applications from the beginning of my search. And I couldn’t even be annoyed at the recruiters because the ones I talked to seemed buried under resumes, desperately trying to root out fake work histories and fake candidates. That's always been part of the job, but the scale and ambient paranoia feel new. The proliferation of LLMs for optimizing and submitting resumes (without being overly concerned with accuracy) means recruiting teams are spending a lot of time playing detective on LinkedIn, making sure that connections line up with previous roles. Hiring managers are surprisingly worried about impostors, starting interviews by comparing LinkedIn headshots and asking that any Zoom filters be turned off. It's like some poor recruiter got fed up with sending cold emails and wished on a monkey's paw for more responses.
Side note: I don't understand the fake candidate scam. Even if you somehow manage to trick your interviewer on a deepfake Zoom call, wouldn’t you be found out on the first day of work? If you’re impersonating someone else on LinkedIn, wouldn’t you need to submit documents and get paid under your real name? What is the endgame? If you have any insights, please let me know.
Startup pickings are slim. During my last search, Wellfound (formerly AngelList) connected me with a wide range of companies (gourmet pet food delivery, digital platforms for comics, salad-making robots); today, almost every startup is building a ChatGPT wrapper. With that similarity, even if you don’t believe we’re in a bubble, it’s impossible to guess which will fail and which will succeed. If, like me, recent experiences and the wider economy have you feeling a little risk-averse, there aren't a lot of great options.
Take-home assignments are out; live coding is in. Look, I get it. The average coding assignment is probably the ideal vibe coding prompt. Employers are already convinced that a non-trivial number of applicants are running byzantine cons. Of course they don't trust work submitted without a proctor. Unfortunately, this is a terrible turn of events for those of us with performance anxiety who completely blank on daily tasks the second someone is watching. I know homework also has its drawbacks, but I miss having an option that isn't biased towards overconfidence.
Generally speaking, 2025 wasn't a great year to be on the market. I had a supportive network and over ten years of experience. I can’t even imagine what it’s like for entry-level software engineers. Here's hoping things get better in 2026.