The job market for software engineers has for sure become increasingly competitive due to the pandemic and recent layoffs. However, the demand for skilled soft

The job market for software engineers has for sure become increasingly competitive due to the pandemic and recent layoffs. However, the demand for skilled software engineers is not going away. There are tons of exciting career paths in tech that will continue to grow in the coming years, such as machine learning (ChatGPT!), data science (as long as there is a company, there is data being underused), and cloud computing (stuff's got to run somewhere). And don't be discouraged by competition from more experienced engineers. Focus on your strengths and unique skills, and find a niche where you can excel. Don't worship these FAANG or w/e engineers; they're people firstly, and secondly they did just get laid off, so their generally applicable skills are almost certain to be rusty at least.