I was offered 50k more for a non-remote position. An almost 50% bump. I turned it down. No way I’m giving up a comfortable work life balance for profit.

I’m a big proponent of work from home for no other reason than the vast majority of workplaces are extraordinarily uncomfortable.

Open Concept offices are common and studies continually show they reduce productivity by up to 40%. Half your productivity goes to the wind because someone honestly thought having a giant room with desks for “collaboration” was good idea.

Then there’s “culture”. The biggest myth of work is the notion that workplaces have culture. There is no culture, there’s just what management wants you to value. Which is what they value. That’s what work culture is. The adoption of the values and dispositions of the people who own the company. Who do not care about you and would pay you less if they could. Most companies would employ slaves if they were legal, which tells you all you need to know about “work culture” and the values companies want you to adopt.

Then there’s just the useless politicking and interpersonal bs. People get harassed less and are far away from actual harassment and harm.

Something like 1/4 women get harassed IN the workplace… so there’s that…

Give me remote any day. Once I went remote I never went back. The positives just don’t outweigh the negatives.

It’s just the haves controlling the have nots.

Life needs and healthcare.

Peopleware.

The best book on managing people I have read full stop. Nothing even comes close.

Here’s some of the things I did:

• Keep resume short (2 page maximum)
• Condense your points using key words, use ChatGPT
• I like Applying in “waves” so that I don’t miss out on an opportunity that I think is good. So, one week I do 50 resume. Then I send like 10 the next.
• Use ChatGPT to interview you or have a friend in the industry interview you
• Some side project work can help keep your skills fresh.
• (This may not be for everyone) Be prepared to sit down and look at Transferable Skills. You might have to start applying outside your domain.
• Give yourself some grace. You’re not bad at this, the market is competitive. We all struggle and we’re all deserving of love and kindness. Especially to love of ourselves.

It’s a grind. I ended up getting a Business Analyst position. Because tech simply wasn’t hiring.

I’m happy where I am. But it was hard. A lot of stress.

I recently made the transition from Developer to Business Analyst because the industry is so hard right now.

300 applications spread across 3 roles (BA, Developer and Team Lead).

80% of the Applications were Developer. I had a friend who was in the same situation, 250 applications. Another friend, easily one of the best developers I know: 100.

The industry is brutal right now.