> I want to start an honest discussion here and see 1st if I am alone feeling this way? and 2nd how can we solve this weird situation? I have been job hunting

> I want to start an honest discussion here and see 1st if I am alone feeling this way? and 2nd how can we solve this weird situation? I have been job hunting for over 6 months. It has been extremely difficult, but I should be getting a solid offer within the next few weeks. My short term career goals are to slightly increase my zero-interest rate era salary era, and find an intellectually exciting project. In the EU, most "exciting" companies are either wannabe FAANGs with a minuscule fraction of the operational ability and success, or middling startups that took way too much VC money in the zero interest era, and are now micromanaged by those VCs because they want their money back. I've worked for those people already, and it sucks. When the economy isn't good, HR people suffer from some psychosis that makes them ask you all kinds of random or creepy questions that are tangential to software engineering. My guess is that they are looking for people who are as burnt out and soulless as they are. It can be exhausting. My advice is to trust your gut and run away from recruiters and interviews that give you even the slightest red flags. It almost never pays off to be patient, and chances are that you will find dozens of equivalent job ads in the next few days. To make progress in the software industry, you have to learn to navigate the sea of crap.