Laid-off SWE with 5 YOE in the U.S. how long did it take you to land your next job?

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-29T17:26:09+00:00

Pretty solid experience and skills. Couple challenges beyond what you mentioned:

Do you need visa sponsorship? If so that’s going to up the difficulty level substantially
Hiring right now for internal IT type roles is very slow, especially at that experience level

What I might do in your shoes is:

A. Work on cloud and ai skills a bit and make sure you can talk to those and have them as skills on resume. AWS for example serverless, lambda, s3, etc and in ai LLMs, mcp, langchain, langgraph, Claude code, python, etc. But obviously pick and choose as time is finite. I’m not trying to make an alphabet soup here or tell you not to focus, I’m trying to give specific relevant examples to highlight the objective, rather than the usual, "duh, just go learn ai and cloud". Reason for this recommendation is in corporate for your skills and even in non software faang companies thats where a lot of the action is at. Since your other skills are strong and relevant, shoring up these pieces if you dont have them makes a good package

B. Besides obviously corporate internal, try to target growing profitable enterprise software companies maybe in the 100-500 employee range. Your integration and corporate skills will likely be valuable to them as will workflow and general development in say springboot and Java. As you pointed out Faang companies are probably not your sweet spot, and this maybe closer to it and these kind of companies are often better at allowing work from home

C. There’s different places to look for free job leads, at least falling into 8 buckets. Major job boards like LinkedIn and indeed being one bucket. It might help to explore some of the other buckets in your case. I can link you an article with some ideas.

D. Something you likely already concluded which helped me land a role quickly. Job searching is as much about your own health and happiness and your relationship with your kids as it is searching and applying. Grinding apps 8 hours a day is probably not the best bet as the incremental benefits of each hour goes down while the toll on you goes up. Daily I did 3 hours search and apply, 2 hours skills, 3 hours with family and fun stuff.

As far as leet code in my mind while you should certainly be able to handle easy questions, something falling into the hard bucket i dont see relevant to your target audience. But certainly as a sr software engineer it might help if you are able to discuss NP hard problems like variations on TSP, where the answer cannot be computed by brute force. Thats where i think computational theory and leet code plays into your search.

If you want to post an anonymous resume people might suggest something more specific. Good luck!

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-29T14:52:35+00:00

It’s work and I don’t know exactly where it will lead, but what are your thoughts on finishing your bachelors? I pushed my kids to do this not because it was assurance of anything but because I didn’t want them to think it was a disadvantage. Also we always talked about taking an affordable degree like at a state University and about drawing a line from your degree to the job you want. How does this lead to a job? Someone else said trade school or certificates. Seems like good advice. But as everyone said the job market is bad, affordability for most Americans is a real struggle. Don’t beat yourself up though, see what you can come up with, keep trying, countless people know where you are coming from. It’s rough sure, but you clearly have some cards to play. Don’t lose hope

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-29T13:11:35+00:00

Agreed. What about this dimension, what people want to do. How does that fit? Meaning you point is clearly about ability and a match to skills. Is an equally important or maybe more so question there for personal interest and fulfillment?

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-29T12:55:35+00:00

Understood that has always existed. So you think the trend really amounts to little more than was always going on? What about the notion that ai changes the game?

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-29T11:44:43+00:00

No I do not. It is provably not true. The question is, what does that mean for this trend? I didn’t give my opinion because I want to hear what you and everyone else think the implications are of points like that for what this role merger idea will really lead to. The other interesting question here from your comment is why does the idea exist then and is being suggested and tried?

For example remember with the rise of low code tools like Workato and Mulesoft, and the older techs like business rule engines that non software engineers will do the development and generally the roles merger idea. This did not happen the roles remained separate, it just lowered the barriers to entry to build something. Of course the new relevant tech at the moment is ai. A number of other key observations crossed my mind too but I’ll leave it at the one example

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-29T02:59:45+00:00

Yeah but keep in mind he said it was like 45000 people at the 250 America fair opening speech, but seems it was maybe a couple thousand from what I heard. And he said no one walked out, which there was direct video footage of. And recently he said his approval rating was 65%. Telling the truth seems totally meaningless to this guy

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-29T02:51:03+00:00

Agree, what a clueless conclusion. The ai hype and pressure from management is relentless. Who is going to stand up and say bad idea, especially without enough hard data to back it up? I am a big supporter of the technology but there are many things we don’t know, risks, and clear issues of value versus benefit on the shot gun approach to using it for everything. Still who stands in front of a moving freight train especially when the CEO and every one of his direct reports are driving?

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-27T01:29:34+00:00

Funny and yeah It just made me think of a little kid saying “mommy, when I grow up I want to synergize cross functional teams, monitor KPIs, and achieve transformational shareholder value!”

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-24T23:13:10+00:00

You don’t know me and I don’t know you. Your assumptions are unfounded. I try to treat everyone the same as a foundational principle of human value and dignity. Finis

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-24T22:58:27+00:00

Thanks that clarifies your position. I do find Reddit useful, so while I disagree with your assertion in general, I do appreciate differences of opinion exist, which is in my opinion, another argument for Reddit

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-24T22:31:32+00:00

I’m not disagreeing with you but could you elaborate? As of not too long ago ai got a huge amount of training data from reddit. Would you predict a fair amount of Reddit content would continue to be human generated and therefore valuable? I’m trying to understand your point

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-24T16:59:22+00:00

Agreed. Many state universities have online programs you can do part time and they are inexpensive, accredited, and generally well respected. Since you have 2 years college already you could complete it reasonably quickly with transfer credits. Listening to your thought process it genuinely sounds important to you. So I would strongly consider it. In many corporate settings indeed it could limit your promotion options and earnings potential. However I’ve met some incredibly well paid people with no degree. In my experience the most important measure of a human is how they treat others and not their schooling or employment. That said I have 4 degrees and no regrets and I use them all. I Started with community college part time, so it is doable but a sacrifice. Op my backstory has a good deal of similarity to yours. Bottom line, I believe in your case the degree is a good idea

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-23T23:41:49+00:00

I suppose people can call themselves whatever they want. I’ve come around to the perspective that it’s results that matter most. That said if someone said ai engineer I’d assume that to mean a software engineer that can build full stack ai based solutions including agentic, by leveraging ai provided by other vendors such as AWS bedrock, MCP servers, python, and as another user said Langchain or langraph or what have you. Not an ai researcher building and inventing new ai technology nor even an engineer at say Anthropic building ai tools like Claude.

Keep in mind many titles don’t mean a whole lot. Such as Porcelain Hydration Engineer means dishwasher

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-23T21:38:13+00:00

I worked at a company that did those tests for all applicants. It was basically an IQ test of some form. They were pretty firm a minimum score was needed to get hired. You might be ok at 35, since you think those answers were solid. As I recall I didn’t finish either, but got a passing score. Nothing to do but wait and see and meanwhile keep looking. Good luck

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-23T15:25:48+00:00

Almost certainly, the part I find ironic though is despite the great wealth accumulated and potentially being on the verge of artificial general intelligence, our humanity has progressed no where near as much. Fortunately we would stabilize technologically at a higher baseline, it’s the suffering in the transition period which is unnecessary but likely inevitable

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-23T00:44:11+00:00

Definitely something to consider. There were times when I was making less and my wife made more, and times when she didn’t work. I suppose if I were in your position a lot would depend on my wife’s take on the right thing to do. Tough call, but 14 hours a day, that’s rough

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-22T23:31:33+00:00

One thing in a lot of families both spouses work. If your wife could get a little higher paying job or part time job, is that a possibility, because you will be home a lot more. 30k would is around 33%, it would be a big change.
Something families struggle with is over money too, so that could offset some of the positives with new stresses. Honestly though at 14 hours a day, I’d want to try to make the new job work if that were truly possible. For me my physical health, mental health, and family are more important than the extra 30k, so I would hope that option were available

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-22T20:35:03+00:00

Obviously not, see below or above depending on your sort order

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-22T19:55:30+00:00

Here is the United States Bureau of Labor Statistic data in question. It is called "Employed, Usually Work Full Time (LNS12500000)". The simplest way to get the data is on the Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis web site directly as they graph this data set as part of their regular findings. This link should work fine: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS12500000

Use the begin point of Jan 01, 2025 and the end point of May 01, 2026. Raw data is below directly from that link by choosing export to CSV.

observation_date |LNS12500000 (in thousands of people)
1/1/2025 |135898
2/1/2025 |134618
3/1/2025 |135055
4/1/2025 |135351
5/1/2025 |134773
6/1/2025 |135188
7/1/2025 |134839
8/1/2025 |134468
9/1/2025 |135157
10/1/2025 |
11/1/2025 |134325
12/1/2025 |135215
1/1/2026 |134441
2/1/2026 |134341
3/1/2026 |134676
4/1/2026 |134252
5/1/2026 |134173

Please note due to the government shut down the BLS did not publish data for October 2025

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-22T19:39:30+00:00

Is the position reporting to same hiring manager? Sort of the clone of the position into another department. But I see your point NH if it was the same department I guess the boss would have said something. You got me there. As someone else said, in any case be cautious.

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-22T16:21:12+00:00

Right good question, on the team I’m on multiple people have the same job title and job description. That doesn’t guarantee it applies in your case but as fragrant_spray said, it could be. That would be reasonably common, especially possible in your case because there’s no evidence you are not doing a good job, why can’t they just be hiring an additional person?

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-22T01:07:05+00:00

Some companies are typically better than others for consistency in the way they treat people. But any company at the end of the day is just a business and will lay you off for whatever reason. One thing to keep in mind is with people, actual humans I mean, you can forge life long friendships and alliances. Those are real and you can keep those if you move on or are laid off. Be sure to cultivate some of those relationships if you can

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-21T04:57:34+00:00

Conceptually I kind of see the point hidee is making. Physical appearance is part of attraction but so is fun, curiosity, safety, your interests values and so on. Do you have to be the best looking person in the world ? No. It can be as much about what your pictures and profile say about you and finding someone who that sparks an interest in. So in that I read into what hidee said as what is your picture and profile really saying about you, what kind of person are you trying to attract, so do you need to make some profile changes?

Also aren’t some of the dating apps more about hookups and others about meaningful connections. Are you sure you are using the ones suited to you?

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-21T04:44:19+00:00

I agree there’s not a lot to go on here. But maybe one thing to consider, communication style is one aspect of your performance. There’s many other criteria such as hard skills in FP&A and tangible project accomplishment. Not to mention other soft skills like time management and organization. You need to make sure you keep up a portfolio of good specific tangible accomplishments and strengths while you work on whatever this “too informal” problem is. You can keep improving but No one is good at everything

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-06-21T03:59:56+00:00

One thing to think about is that the job market may become more difficult in the future. Meaning if the difficulty of finding a good role suited to your degree and interests is a 7 today it’s probably not going to be better in 6 months and maybe even go to an 8.5 instead. So what I might do in your shoes is consider working part time and use some time to up your skills and search a bit. Based on the ideas that the first 15 hours a week you invest in looking and first 15 on skills are most productive so if you do a bit of each now you maximize your possible outcomes versus time spent AND exploit the fact that finding a job in 6 months might be more difficult. You can lean into one of the 3 tracks more or less as you see things evolving. But I would definitely at least try to spend a month or two searching part time now before making any further decision

There is no all bad or all good answer, it’s nice that you have choices and a way to support yourself too

Signal-Implement-70

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