This is all fully explained by salaries going up, and the pool of young applicants getting bigger faster than the number of jobs available, while the pool of hi

This is all fully explained by salaries going up, and the pool of young applicants getting bigger faster than the number of jobs available, while the pool of highly qualified applicants remains small. Jobs at Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Intel, Nvidia, are all legitimately competitive, and because more people are applying, those companies have the freedom to be choosier and the incentive to compete for the good ones. Because salaries have gone up (or even simply the perception of salaries), and because salaries are high compared to other jobs, more and more bright-eyed kids are hoping to punch above their weight in interviews, which is why companies are flooded with low-quality applications and don’t have a choice about needing to sift them efficiently. This is the natural state of a competitive environment, and interviews will get “better” for candidates when there are more jobs than good candidates. But be careful what you wish for; if the job market gets less competitive for candidates, salaries and benefits and working conditions go with it. While there might be some truth it to, framing it as an arms race is a mentality that will not help the average candidate, and might do them harm. Employers always have and always will want to pay as little as possible, obviously, that’s the definition of a company. But they do actually compete with each other for good talent, and they do pay a lot relative to other jobs, and some companies’ definitions of pay as little as possible is still to pay enough that employees are well compensated and don’t leave.