Systems engineer, +5 years of experience, mainly webdev but also 80% of every branch of IT there is, have worked with many technologies professionally, many more academically, fluent in 3 languages, low salary expectations... how come I can't land a new job?
I've done a bunch of stuff: Specialized CVs, used many platforms, personal connections, showed at different places, updated my socials / projects...
Man I suck at job hunting.

Before you hate on me, this is more of a reflection than a vent. I'm not mad at all. I know I've been doing a poor job and I'm stepping up my game soon. I didn't underestimate the IT job market, I just had other priorities in mind.

Your salary expectations aren't low enough. That's what it boils down to.

Many reasons can explain that. The first one is that there’s less jobs.

The good news is that, while tech businesses have gone down, other companies need more and more software engineers. Don’t overlook those as they can be very interesting jobs.
Other reasons can be very trivial. Maybe you suck at interviews. Maybe your face is unpleasant to Karen of “talent team”, maybe you don’t sell your skills in a specific manner.

Just be confident and have humor when you apply. Works great for me.

I got all the way down to compiler design before I landed a job. And now I no longer work on my own compiler lmao.

@cuddlyogre no, the opposite

increase your salary expectations. they think you're lying because you're asking for too little

you should be asking top 20-10% of salary. you have a lot of experience

this also works psychologically. like it or not people don't think logically but with impressions. if you ask for a lot of money they think you're a high quality professional

the issue is that you're presenting yourself incognruently by asking too little money for the skills you have. people are risk-averse -- if you ask for too little money they think you're risky, that there's "something wrong with you". you set off sus bells

greed plays a part in some companies but that's not the primary motivator for people especially in tech (and especially not when you have experience instead of being boot camp consulting). we get all the VC and inflationary money printing. there's more than enough money; they're looking for quality/ high status signals instead to justify those loans

@jestdotty Interesting take. This may come in handy for me soon.