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Lost my job in early 2023. Couldn't find anything (25 years of exp, director of engineering managerial/technical type, great at what i do by past coworkers/boss
by pluc 1y ago
Lost my job in early 2023. Couldn't find anything (25 years of exp, director of engineering managerial/technical type, great at what i do by past coworkers/bosses admission). By EOY I had to sell my house, figured I could use the (significant) profits to buy time or I could travel and make the time a little more enjoyable, so I set out to explore most of Europe thinking, well I'll for sure find a job before I run out of money! Another year went by, hundreds of applications, no job. Back home now, living in rather inadequate accommodations thinking "any day now!" Applied to ~400 jobs in the last 1.5 months (because at this point I'm applying to everything that moves), 3 interviews, 3 ghostings. Everyone's rejecting for real shitty reasons, I could go on for a bit about that.
- MangoCoffee 1y agothis year's job market is really bad. my manager landed a new job last year but he have spent 5 years causally looking for a job ever since my employer got bought out. i have been looking to jump ship but gave up.
- pluc 1y agoIt was already bad before AI fucked it nine feet deeper. Now it's probably change career type of situation, but after climbing the tech salary ladder for 25 years (not US level mind you), it's real daunting to go back at the bottom.
- bluSCALE4 1y agoThis is sort of what I'm afraid of. I reflect on a lot of people I worked with in the past that are a little older than I am now and things were rough. They'd basically try and find side work and make a living off of it but nearly all of them returned to the workforce. Now, jobs are scarce so I'm really thinking that a career change might be in order. With self driving cars posed to take out a chunk of low skilled jobs and with the self imposed AI that will likely cost 25% of IT job shrinkage, the future looks really grim. Crass's song from the 1981 Systematic Death last verse seems prophetic, "They'd almost paid the mortgage when the system dropped its bomb".
- huflungdung 1y ago[dead]
- verteu 1y agoSorry to hear it. What country are you in?
- pluc 1y agoCanada, but I'm a rare case that I'm open to relocate anywhere (except the US) and have been working remotely since before it was made popular by the pandemic. So I've been applying literally all over the world for two years (though it's been mostly Europe due to personal preference and desire to relocate there).
- mgh95 1y agoWhy not the US? Anecdotally, I'm beginning to see the US market pick up again and a TN visa should see you employed pretty quickly.
- greyb 1y agoCan managers/directors of engineering even qualify for a TN under the recent renewed scrutiny?
- mgh95 1y agoYeah. That's actually the only way to get a TN -- to oversee technical work in a managerial capacity. Technical managers of software engineers are 100% able to enter under TN.
- bananalychee 1y agoWhat do you mean it's the only way? Computer engineering is a valid TN employment category, among many others.
- mgh95 1y agoSorry - I mean the "only way" as a manager, not as a software/technical professional. You can't for example, use manager of a McDonalds to qualify as a manager under a TN as far as I understand it. If you are a manager, you need to be technical in nature.
- sanswork 1y agoAfter that much if you're as skilled add you think you should be finding an interview coach and someone to edit your CV. Have you asked past bosses, co-workers for referrals?
- pluc 1y agoI've done a few rounds of CV edits and reviews early on, it hasn't helped. It's worth noting that the initial CV I had was one where I never had trouble finding work with. Edit: misunderstood "referrals" for "references" so edited my reply out. No, I've never asked for referrals from past colleagues.
- selectodude 1y agoHiring managers check you on LinkedIn 100 percent of the time. Not having a LinkedIn is a huge issue.
- jonny_eh 1y agoIn 2025 it basically means you're likely a bot/scammer. LinkedIn provides the social proof that at least you're a real person, with real business connections. It's sadly not optional.
- metaphor 1y agoI agree that it's not optional; in my book, a company mandating association with the degenerate cesspool that is LinkedIn as entry criteria for employment consideration is simply a non-starter, full stop. If I disclose an email address that's directly traceable to my current employer---or even one provided to me by professional organizations I'm registered with---as adequate "social proof" (whatever that means) that I'm not "likely a bot/scammer", and a company's hiring manager is too blind to see the signal, then I'd write that off as a hidden trap passively dodged with confident relief.
- groby_b 1y ago
- gruin 1y agoSorry to ask, but is this another of those comments where there's an unmentioned criminal record lurking behind the story?
- pluc 1y agoNope
- Aztar 1y agoAre you by any chance applying to european jobs while residing in canada? This is a big no no. At the least you should have an address in the country you are applying for and a local phone number. Applying with a CV from Canada with canadian details would probably eliminate you from the process early on. I say this as someone who was trying to work in the UK while living in Germany. The minute I changed address/phone things started to look better. You may even mention this on your CV sayong that you are looking to move or already moved to that country.
- VirusNewbie 1y agoYou were a director of engineering and you didn't have more than a year of expenses sitting around?
- pluc 1y agoDirectors of Engineering in Eastern Canada make (or made, until recently) < 200k, CAD. That's 145k USD. So no, didn't have much of a golden parachute like the US do.
- monkeyelite 1y agoThe side effect of stronger employment protection is limited upside and more friction in getting into new positions.
- benhurmarcel 1y agoAre expenses so high there? That’s still more than twice what you’d make here in Western Europe, and you’d have an easy time saving way more than a year of expense here.
- Bombthecat 1y agoA big chunk went into the house I guess
- teaearlgraycold 1y agoI’m curious about personal connections. I’ve got many fewer years of experience and have had great luck with finding jobs thanks to friends and former colleagues even in tough job markets.
- pluc 1y agoThat's something that I've really wondered about too, since I can't count the number of people I hooked up with jobs I asked myself why the pendulum wasn't swinging back. I relocated "to the countryside" a few years ago and lost my big city tech network, where I was very active and even central. Not being on social media means I have very few ways to reach back out these days.
- bix6 1y agoYou live in the country with zero LinkedIn connections. Do you even want a tech job?
- yard2010 1y agoNo need to be snarky, dude is going through a rough time, can use some empathy
- pluc 1y agoEveryone thinks they know better, that's just the nature of people on internet forums. That's why I stopped asking for CV reviews - as soon as people know I'm struggling they come up with pointless edits. His point boils down to "you have no network, physical or digital" which might sound accurate with the information he's got, but isn't in reality because there's obviously more context than what I've shared here. I didn't just sit around brainlessly applying to jobs for two years. I've tried shit.
- petralithic 1y agoWhat have you tried? And why don't you make a LinkedIn now and add the people you know from before?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- rizky05 1y ago[dead]
- JackFr 1y ago1) as the child of a parent who was a smart, hard working accountant/financial analyst who was out of work for 2 long stretches in my youth, I have learned when you lose your job, you do not fuck around — you attack it with the same urgency as if the house was on fire as in immediately; 2) after 25 years, you’ve got to have some network — swallow your pride and use them. I have been there, and I saw my father — there is nothing good about it. You have my sympathy and I wish you the best.
- BergAndCo 1y agoApplying to 400 jobs is apparently not enough sense of urgency, got it. It's surely American laziness that's the problem and not the infinite slave labor they're competing with.
- queenkjuul 1y agoQuestion is really, was it easier to find a job in 2023 or now?
- rprouse 1y ago400 applications in two years is less than one application a day. The last time I was unemployed I was applying to five to ten companies a day all with targeted cover letters. I kept track of every application and followed up. I made it an eight hour a day job to find a job.
- belthesar 1y agoHeads up - OP said they entered 400 apps over the past 1.5 months, not since they’ve been unemployed.
- fayyazkl 1y agoYou are missing the point that a director level resource, could only apply to a relatively smaller number of roles. Entry level IC might not be worth applying. So despite what they say, the limitation factor might also be number of posted jobs. I know they said they applied to anything - but still anything for that profile might be a bit more broad - entry level IC to FANG may be which pays better or a role that is open to leveling or start up or any other combos.
- monkeyelite 1y agoHow can you be a director and be applying for jobs like a 22 year old?
- SpaceNoodled 1y agoAnd also had less than a year of savings ...
- MichaelRo 1y ago>> By EOY I had to sell my house, figured I could use the (significant) profits to buy time or I could travel and make the time a little more enjoyable, so I set out to explore most of Europe thinking, well I'll for sure find a job before I run out of money! Very reckless finance management, so I wonder if this correlates with not finding a "managerial" job. First, "set out to explore Europe" immediately says "expenses". Without an income, that's teenager-level mentality. Secondly, unless the house was still on mortgage, definitely it's cheaper to live on your own property and only scrap money for bills and food than paying rent on top of those. Also, and I'm not generalizing here, but people in general have parents / relatives. If times were that tough, I would retreat to my parent's house and rent the city apartment, that definitely buys me time. And last but not least ... there are blue-collar jobs out there as a last resort. A friend of mine who lost his QA job, couldn't find anything else so he apprenticed as an electrician and now has got a license and works as such. Says he makes about the same as previously. There's "stacking the shelves at Lidl" also, not paying much but at least you're making something. And if you're willing to put up with the hard physical work and risk of accidents, there's always decent-paying construction jobs. I'd say 2-3 months of looking are acceptable. After 6 months, some "plan B" needs to kick in, including the very mentally difficult idea of letting go of the past. You may have been a managing director but for the moment, the only option could be Lidl employee.
- pluc 1y agoThere is actually meticulous financial planning required to stay afloat for 2+ years, and i do think it correlates with my professional abilities! Sure, it was reckless to leave but the alternative was to stay and fall into a depression from the routine, constant rejection and financial diet, so i picked what i had to.
- tasuki 1y agoI'm always surprised when people with "25 years of exp, director of engineering managerial/technical type" don't have significant savings...
- sam_lowry_ 1y agoIt's unknown unknowns. Had he support his parents, paid for the high school of his niece and for grandma' foster home? Hadn't his wife left him with kids, taking the home and his new home was far from being paid off?
- hippo22 1y agoIt’s possible there are unknown circumstances, but this person sold their house and used to proceeds to travel while unemployed. They don’t seem like a great long term decision maker.
- sam_lowry_ 1y agoAlso unknown unknowns there. Are his parents owners? Is he going to inherit their house? Or other assets? Can he stay at his brother's place once he uses up all the money from the proceeds of house sale? It's really hard to judge without asking lots of questions first.
- hippo22 1y agoIn all of the cases you mentioned, selling a home to pay for travel when unemployed despite needing work are all poor long term decisions.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- BrawnyBadger53 1y agoAfter reading through this thread, do you not think you might be being overly selective? You said you're only really applying to European jobs but hiring people that need working visas is usually a pretty big detractor. No LinkedIn can work, but in the LLM era you need something to prove you're real and you also stated you haven't been asking previous coworkers for referrals. It's very normal here to ask coworkers for referrals so I assume it's a cultural difference? But they usually get you to the interview stage. Your resume is likely not baring you but if you are applying to large enough companies that have thousands of applications on each role, they are using LLMs to filter them down. You should be running your resume against an "Act as a hiring manager" style prompt to see if you're getting filtered that way.