Hi y'all! I hope you guys are doing well. So basically I am going through a lot right now. I just need some advice. The thing I am going through is the following and yes I copy pasted from reddit cause the advice there wasn't the best I'd say. I was hoping if you guys could help. Thanks in advance!
I’m feeling really stuck and could use some guidance. I have a CS degree and worked for 1.5 years at a major financial firm building data pipelines, working with financial datasets, and using technologies like Python, SQL, and AWS. I was put on a PIP earlier this year and eventually let go, so I started applying for jobs during that time and have now been unemployed for a few months. I’ve sent out 400+ applications with minimal callbacks, tailoring my resume to each and every job. The tech market is absolutely brutal right now with mass layoffs and companies choosing overseas teams over domestic engineers.
I’m at the point where I don’t even know what direction to go anymore. I’ve been considering pivoting to becoming an actuary since my background with financial data analysis seems relevant, and I’ve read that programming skills are increasingly valued in that field. The work seems like it would fit my analytical mindset and the career appears more stable than tech. However, when I looked into it more, I found conflicting information about how competitive the entry-level market actually is, and I’m not sure if I’d just be trading one oversaturated field for another.
I’ve also tried applying to healthcare IT roles and local banks and credit unions thinking they’d be less competitive than major tech companies, but even those seem incredibly hard to break into right now. I’m getting rejected from positions that should be a good fit for my background, which is making me question if there’s something fundamentally wrong with my approach or if every industry is just this broken.
The financial stress is getting to me, and I’m doing some gig work to survive, but I can’t keep this up much longer. I even considered joining the military, but I’ve been on antidepressants and would need to wait at least a year to be eligible.
Has anyone else made a successful pivot from software engineering to another field? Should I stick with trying to leverage my existing technical skills in adjacent industries, or is it worth investing time and money into studying for actuarial exams? I’m really struggling to figure out what my next move should be and would appreciate any advice or perspectives from people who’ve been in similar situations. Should I just grind hard on leetcode at this point for SWE jobs with how terrible the job market has been?
I’m honestly just feeling defeated and don’t know what path forward makes sense anymore. Any guidance would be really helpful
The industry is pretty fucked right now to be brutally honest. I was let go a few years ago after nearly a decade along with another member of our team. Took a full year and easily 1000+ applications for me to find something new, and even longer for my former team member.
Didn't get back into SWE either. I work in software support now, making literally half of what I used to make, and I believe my friend is in a sort of sysadmin role.
The best thing I could say is expand your options. Between RTO mandates, huge pushes for genAI bullshit, and just complete oversaturation of the market, SWE is a hellhole right now. The job market as a whole is a disaster right now, but tech is on another level. Expand your options to different roles and tune your resume to get past the automated bullshit systems and read by real people. I hate to be pessimistic but frankly I would not expect to get into another SWE role with how things are right now. Software support is a strong adjacent field but don't expect anywhere near the same salary.