Job Hunting in Tech: 2024's Wild Ride 📱

Apparently, writing about the same subject multiple times a week is an entire thing in 2024, too!

Day 324 of unemployment, and let me tell you: the tech job hunt feels less like Silicon Valley and more like Alice in Wonderland — complete with rabbit holes, cryptic riddles, and a few Mad Hatters.

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• Networking has evolved. Once upon a time, it meant awkwardly clutching a warm beer at a meetup. Now? It’s virtual coffee chats and LinkedIn algorithms that reward increasingly unhinged “I’m excited to announce...” posts. (What is everyone so excited about?)

• The tools are fancier, but the grind? Still brutal. My arsenal includes AI co-pilots, Chrome extensions to dodge application black holes, and 47 versions of my resume — each one lovingly iterated by Claude, my digital co-pilot. (Thanks, Claude, for reminding me not to undersell the times I’ve shipped code that actually worked.)

• The job descriptions? Chef’s kiss of absurdity. “10 years experience in a framework that launched last week.” “Thought leader in AI ethics.” “Available 24/7 but with perfect work-life balance.” It’s like a committee of overachieving octopi wrote these things.

• The hardest part isn’t what you think. It’s not the technical interviews or endless take-homes. It’s staying sane while your mom suggests, “Maybe you should just start the next Facebook?”

My 2024 strategy? Embrace the chaos. Use AI tools without losing your personality. Network authentically (yes, even when your last “win” was debugging the coffee maker). And remember, somewhere out there, another tech worker is also staring at their screen, wondering if their application vanished into the same void as your missing socks.

What’s your weirdest job hunt moment? Let’s commiserate — we’re all in this together.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to update my resume: “Professional Application Form Survivor, 2023-2024.”