Finding a Tech Job Is Still a Nightmare
Dozens of applications and interviews, hours spent tweaking résumés, and a conference and career fair turned Hunger Games. Finding a job in tech is a mess.
The past year has brought a reckoning for the once unsinkable industry. Tech companies around the world laid off more than 400,000 workers in 2022 and 2023, according to Layoffs.fyi, a site that tracks job losses across the industry. A year after many of those cuts began, job seekers are still facing a tough market, fighting for a smaller number of spots in a job sector that once promised high salaries, lavish perks, and security.
The tech job market “doesn’t show any signs of turning around just yet,” says Julia Pollak, chief economist with online employment marketplace ZipRecruiter. After growing at a healthy pace before and during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the information sector has lost about 2.5 percent of its jobs over the past year, Pollak says. That’s keeping more people at the same jobs for longer, she adds, and stifling promotion opportunities. There is still demand for tech workers outside of the traditional tech industry, like in government and health care—though salaries here are often lower.
