Okay, I have to ask you guys this question, given that most ranters here are experienced devs.

I keep hearing this sentiment that "Oh, back in the day it was super easy to land a job. You just show up to an interview, and you have a pulse, and you were hired".

I call bullshit on this sentiment. It's not like people weren't facing rejections back in the day.

What's your take on this sentiment?

One of my interviewers literally just asked me if I can drink (alcohol). It would be hard to fail my interview back then, but I was also very confident in my skills even for my first coding job so idk.

Last Interview (last year) was much harder, but it was for a much larger company.

In fact in my time as a dev I mostly noticed that the trend is "bigger corporation == harder interview"

Startups tend to be pretty chill even now. However there may be one big part to the myth that interviews got harder and that's that a lot of new tech popped up, so you're expected to know more and more even at entry level postings.

That's my take and my experience only though :)

I think getting to the interview stage is worse. AI screening and online tests. I think the actual face to face interview process is about the same.

Front end web devs, specially junior, are a dime a dozen these days though. that's probably got worse. Bootcamps and such.

I got once invited just to talk and I could leave my resume at home. How desperate is that?

I think the devs were higher quality before so yeah you just had to express interest and bam

as devs became lower quality companies start turning and twisting

this pattern seems to maintain to this day, so if a job is sought after the interview is annoying. if it's tech / company nobody knows or cares about then it's if you have a pulse

actually I think this pattern maintains even outside of tech, like civil engineering firms appear to be the same. same with even retail shops

my friend thinks you should gatekeep and that makes good communities but i think this is stupid cuz then you get selection bias at unis who test for IQ, teach nothing, then take credit for their graduates being naturally smart. my fix for rotting communities is just make them nerdy and unknown. no gate, have the audience self-select based on how much they vibe with your labels, behaviours, etc

I used to get a lot more job offers back when I was a junior, so for me the argument is valid.

With the whole AI fuckfest + mass layoffs that are have not stopped since covid gains dunked, I don't see how it is easier to get a job now than it was in the past...

Been doing controls work for 15 years and a lot of programming at work and at home. I had some C++ background, but I was primarily doing Python at the time. My now boss during interview said: "If you can program you can program." There was basically zero coding testing during interview. But I had been around for a while in the workforce. So maybe it would have been different if I had not. My boss is not particularly interested in algorithms as most problems we deal with are short lists of less than 10 items. Very few instances of processing lots of data. I suspect we have a lot of inefficient code as a result. It just works.

Well, in my opinion people back I the day knew what they were doing. Hence getting the job they apply for.

People nowadays are a joke. They feel entitled because they got a degree but can't even develop a simple project. Not to mention their work ethics.

In my opinion it's still easy to get a job, just need to apply according to your experience and skill. Changed jobs a few months ago. Did 2 interviews, got the job.

Most interviews I ever had to do to get a job was 4. Usually only 1 or 2.
And that's not just me but also other competent devs I know.