Evan King and Stefan Mai, co-founders of startup Hello Interview, believe that junior engineers face the most difficult challenges. As they write in an article for The Pragmatic Engineer, just a few years ago, being a «competent» software engineer was enough to get a job. Now you have to be perfect.
Evan King and Stefan Mai, co-founders of startup Hello Interview, believe that junior engineers face the most difficult challenges. As they write in an article for The Pragmatic Engineer, just a few years ago, being a «competent» software engineer was enough to get a job. Now you have to be perfect.
King previously worked as a staff engineer at Meta, while Mai has experience as an engineering manager at Amazon and a senior engineering manager at Meta.
«A candidate who doesn’t do everything right has little incentive to get an interview,» King and May write in the newsletter The Pragmatic Engineer. «This is the grim reality of what happens when there are so many qualified professionals in the interview pool.»
A series of adverse circumstances have created a perfect storm for unemployed engineers, they say. Overall job openings have only grown by 40% since the market crash in 2023, and companies are becoming increasingly selective about who they hire.
And as engineers of all experience levels compete for fewer roles, candidates are increasingly facing interviews that King and Mai say are becoming increasingly difficult to pass.
«While the basic interview structure at large tech companies remains largely unchanged, the bar has shifted about one standard deviation higher, and results that would have secured an offer in 2021 may not even make it to the selection stage today,» they write.
According to King and Mai, engineers in niche specialties are doing better because the job market is seeing increased demand for those with knowledge of «AI infrastructure» and «machine learning operations,» among other things. However, there are fewer openings in «key areas,» which the authors include front-end, back-end services, and mobile development.
However, not all challenges are equally severe. King and May write that juniors, especially those entering the market for the first time after graduation, face the toughest competition.
«Companies that once supported strong university hiring programs have dramatically scaled back theirs, which is worrisome because it could create an experience gap that will impact the industry for years to come, and could manifest itself in a ‘missing generation’ of engineers,» they write.
As for what junior programmers can do to improve their chances, King and May suggested relying on fundamental knowledge.
«The technical bar for entry-level roles has risen dramatically, making mastery of fundamental algorithms and data structures extremely important,» they write. «Successful entry-level candidates typically complete 150-200 coding challenges at all levels of difficulty before the interview. You must be a strong programmer first and foremost.»
Although competition is high, the interview process has essentially turned into a «specialized game.» But candidates have one advantage—the rules are public, and interviews can be practiced.
«The process may seem arbitrary, but with proper training, it is entirely learnable,» they note. «Anyone with enough dedication can master these models and significantly improve their results.»
Experts are confident that the current labor market favors trained people.
