r/cscareerquestions • u/Intelligent_Ebb_9332 • 6h ago
Are you going to change careers if you can’t land a tech job?
I’m really considering leaving this field but sunk cost fallacy is what’s holding me back. I hate the idea of needing to go back to college for another 2-3 years just to start with no experience again. Healthcare and accounting seems like the only decent stable options. Everything else is fucked.
There’s no jobs and after 1500+ apps, I’ve lost hope.
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u/es-ganso 6h ago
You're just playing into the boom and bust cycle... You know how over the past few years Computer Science was inundated with more and more people because folks said "we don't have enough software engineers" and it was marketed as a lucrative field?
Guess what's getting marketed these days? Healthcare, trades, etc.
Just try to find something you enjoy doing enough for a paycheck that will support you and go from there. If it's software engineering, keep at it but switch up your job searching to try to find what is and isn't working. If it's another field, go for it
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u/Titoswap 4h ago
Yeah in 5 years the trades will go through the same shit. I remember at one time it was law now it’s tech
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u/SoulslikeGitGud666 6h ago
It's that boom or bust that's burning me out honestly. I just want consistency in my career
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u/jfcarr 5h ago
I've been doing this for 40 years and it's always been boom and bust with things always changing, requiring staying current or fading away into mostly useless middle management limbo. I chose to stick with what I like doing while working on building side investments and income streams.
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u/BigShotBosh 5h ago
This doesn’t work when the field can be lifted and shifted to another country overnight lol.
We gotta stop pretending it’s the same as a real in person job.
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u/MaximumFlow7491 4h ago
Didn't you literally get a job offer in yuma arizona which you turned down cuz there's "too many Hispanics girls" there
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u/Stock-Cheesecake-995 2h ago
Bro’s favourite hobby is whining.
Didn’t you complain about not having enough White Women?
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u/No-Market-4906 6h ago
I graduated college in 2016 with a comp sci degree. Couldn't get a software dev job so I took a job as deskside IT support cause you know bills. Parlayed that into a sysadmin role and then dev ops and then a real software dev role in 2022.
It's easy to say oh but the market was better in 2022 and while that's true I had been putting in effort for 6 years at that point. Market is bad now but I just can't imagine a future where all of the biggest companies are tech companies but also software devs are just never in demand. This stuff is cyclical you gotta ride it out.
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u/Known-Tourist-6102 6h ago
yes, my plan is that if i get laid off, I'll look for jobs for a year or two. If that doesn't work, I'll go back to school for something else.
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u/mobilefi 6h ago
If you’re willing to move, look into defense. You might have to take a job in the middle of no where but you get experience, then can apply elsewhere in 2-3 years, either a defense in a major city or commercial
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u/Helpmehelpyu_ 5h ago
If you go the defense route, prepare yourself mentally. Everything you’ll work on is made to destroy families overseas.
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u/mobilefi 5h ago
That's not necessarily true. There are plenty of defense jobs that do not involve making weapons or the weapons not actively being used. Nuclear deterrence jobs are good ones for instance. Ones that work with NASA or universities are also good places. End of the day, a lot of tech, if useful ends up in military hands. Just look at the AI stuff and Elon's Starlink
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u/Helpmehelpyu_ 5h ago
It’s all designed to eventually land defense contracts. Because why wouldn’t you? It’s guaranteed money and sales tax abatement. You’d be a moron if you didn’t sell to the military. Consumers aren’t enough these days to justify tech profits.
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u/mobilefi 4h ago
Oh absolutely. There is a large military industrial complex in the states but it's also a good opportunity to get experience. I know folks that worked 2-3 years for defense primes and now work with Nvidia, Google and Microsoft for instance. Other paths would be just working for the gov't themselves with a usajobs type posting, but pay isn't as nice last I checked
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u/Helpmehelpyu_ 4h ago edited 4h ago
Working for those tech companies you listed isn’t it right now. Microsoft gaslights all the employees with constant changes. Specially the software department. Causing many to get constantly laid off. Meanwhile Microsoft reports record high earnings. Same goes for Google. Have you seen all the Reddit posts about miserable employees from GOOG? Lmao. Many of them are desperate for meaningful or stable work. Maybe Nvidia is a better culture. With the state of the economy, and sky rocking costs of living, I doubt the company will hold any ethical morale. It’s a shit show. I wish I choose a better career with more valued respect to the field. We’re treated like shit.
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u/mobilefi 4h ago
I mean they still get paid handsomely. But yes it is not as laid back as it once was. The treatment of highly paid employees in other industries generally have pockets of crap/low respect given too.
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u/ccricers 1h ago
The demand from average joe developers to move up to Google salaries isn't really dying down. Jobs and salaries are stratified in the field and big tech can hire replacements still if they need to, because that bad treatment you described exists all the way down the bottom tier of companies and salaries.
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u/Beginning-Debt-6099 5h ago
Booho your taxes are being used to destroy families. With that logic living in America is unethical to begin with.
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u/d-j-9898 4h ago
It blows my mind people could be hitting 1500+ applications without finding a job. I got laid off in March and started at a new job last week.
So the question becomes what is the mismatch between you and these 1500 jobs. Is it location? Pricing yourself out of the roles? Only specific types of companies? Not enough experience?
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u/Sea-Tangerine7425 28m ago
I'm at 2000+. Good interviews, bad interviews, same result. No interview is the most likely outcome at this point. I have 9 yoe across a bunch of roles and my resume doesn't fit any single narrative cleanly enough. The market clearly expects me to just kill myself.
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u/Glittering-Work2190 3h ago
I don't know how accounting is any better. Much of accounting can be automated.
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u/bluegrassclimber 6h ago
Eventually you should. But maybe try a different angle before bailing entirely.
I worked at a grocery store when I was in high school, and it's funny to say, but because i'm an extrovert, that's probably the first place I'd apply. I can imagine I could get promoted fairly quickly. but maybe i'm being cocky lol.
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u/Even-Ad-9930 6h ago
your financial situation decides that, if you can continue trying to find then i would recommend it, if you need bills paid now then change careers and take whatever you can
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u/olduvai_man 6h ago
I've been doing this so long, and don't even have a degree, that I cannot imagine there is a career out there that will ever pay me even a fraction of what I make now (especially at my age). I'd imagine that's probably true even for people much newer to the field.
As others have said, it's probably better to ride out this current moment as the job market looks pretty cooked everywhere right now and there's always a reversion to the mean.
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u/ImprovementLoose9423 5h ago
I'm not sure that is up to you. If you are truly passionate about technology, look into different fields in tech. You can go IT, Ai Development, or even Tutoring.
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u/Waste-Falcon2185 4h ago
Yes I plan on joining the first paramilitary organisation that will take me
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u/uberneenja 4h ago
ngl didnt know what sunk cost fallacy was until today. there's probably a trend after 1500+ apps, maybe not the job market?
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u/Master_protato 1h ago
[...] accounting seems like the only decent stable options.
Guys, be sure to not tell OP to go on the various Accounting Reddit Subs and see how people are in distress in those subs.
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u/Jaqqarhan 6h ago
I don't think many companies will be hiring entry level accountants in 2-3 years. That's one of the easiest jobs to automate with AI.
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u/Hungry_Age5375 5h ago
1500 apps is rough. But you're only searching one geography. UAE's hiring AI talent at scale with comp that reflects real scarcity. US citizens: FEIE exempts $132k+ from federal tax. Different zip code, same career.
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u/Person754 6h ago
Outside of sending apps how many real people have you spoken to irl about the job search?