this post was submitted on 27 May 2025
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Is anyone else feeling no interest in applying for jobs anymore (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I got laid off in March as a software engineer 2 and since then I've hardly applied to many jobs, of the few I've applied to I got a handful of interviews which I couldn't even clear the first round of Leetcode test. I can barely solve 1 or 2 LC questions a day, and I've tried to read system design for a while but can't find any interest in it. Even if I solve the interview questions we'll I've been rejected, everything feels so pointless. I just want to play video games and watch movies till these darks days pass and there's another boon in tech hiring. But with AI it feels like many jobs won't ever come back. Should I consider changing careers or moving to another country. I don't think I have any real passion or talent for programming, but it's the only skill I have right now. I don't know what level of panic I should be feeling right now. I don't have any close friends or supportive family to talk to about any of this.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

I'm in the same boat; I no longer have any motivation to self study and pursue excellence in these skills - 'AI' has destroyed that. At least back when searching Google / Stackoverflow / reading Documentation was still a thing I saw the value in making my own notes so as to reduce the friction in recalling the concepts, but with AI it's become trivially easy to get an answer to any question.

I've been distracting myself with learning other skills (i.e. how to drive, taking certifications, applying for Working Holiday Visas), but these are dead ends.

I'm still employed, but only a matter of time before I get laid off I think.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago

Yeah I'm ticking things of my list as well, just random stuff I always wanted to do but never had the time, in this regard getting back into a job actually feels kinda depressing, cause I know I'll be back in the grind and not have any peace of mind in my free time to pursue the things that actually bring me joy, the amount of time of our life we throw away working vs how much actual impact that work makes is idiotic, we should be working to enjoy our lives not sacrificing our life to work.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

This system is broken, there is no longer a social contract, our country takes everything and gives nothing

Crime is unironically more accessable and rewarding than being employed in America.

Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives

[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 days ago
  • Got a degree in game programming
  • Every big game developer is doing layoffs
  • Indie studios are full or closing
  • Guess I'll just go fuck myself
[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 days ago (1 children)
  • I couldn't even clear the first round of Leetcode test.
  • I can barely solve 1 or 2 LC questions a day
  • I've tried to read system design for a while but can't find any interest in it.
  • everything feels so pointless.
  • I just want to play video games and watch movies
  • till these darks days pass
  • I don't think I have any real passion or talent for programming
  • I don't what level of panic I should be feeling right now.

Sounds pretty depressive to me. And a depression does not help with tackling a depressing situation. Get any help your able to get in your area for your mental health – therapy, medication, self help groups, sports, yoga, whatever. You deserve a happy life, don't let depression destroy it.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Yeah I was about to start looking for local therapist before I got laid off, can't afford one now, I'm hoping to motivate myself with some short term goals, trying to take it one day at a time till I can get access to Healthcare again

[–] [email protected] 3 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

Emacs psychotherapist is free and surprisingly good for a 60s AI project. It implements a very basic Rogerian school psychotherapist session. Outdated, but still helpful to sort out feelings and worries.

And youtube is your friend (and foe – the algorythm can be very destructive, too). IMHO, HealthyGamerGG is a very helpful channel.

Edit: I'm serious about the emacs psychotherapist. It is not a substitute for therapy, but a tool to aid self-reflection.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Therapy is not accessible to most people.

Finding time to go to therapy would be a problem.

Finding a good therapist for you would be a problem.

Paying for therapy would be a problem.

Implementing the solutions that therapy provides would be a problem.

Nobody ever seems to be willing to admit that therapy adds more problems on in the hopes that one day it might possibly reduce the number of problems, but any time you mention you have a problem in your life, people seem to crawl out of the woodworks to tell you to go to therapy.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

I agree with all of your points but the last.

Having a medical condition makes life hard. Getting treatment for the condition makes life even harder but eventually it will lessen the underlying medical condition and, in aggregate, make life easier.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

What do you propose as an alterative recommendation?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

Yeah it's a slog to find someone who A - gives a shit about you and B - is good at their job to accurately diagnose and help you. But what other option is there, you just have to keep putting effort and money towards this till something clicks. I had been to a psychologist in the past who just diagnosed me as bipolar 2, and gave me some meds, the Ritalin helped for concentration and energy, the other meds just gave me bad sideffects that he wasn't even interested in talking about, just wanted to prescribe me some more meds and end the session. Had to drop him.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Trying going on a short walk, no joke will make you feel better.

I was laid off in Feb, as a level 3 IT tech support and its a pita to get a job.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Yeah I find excuses to get out these days, it does help

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Grinding LC questions just makes me feel worse, because i know that being good at those won't guarantee me job security. If i'm going to have to blast through rounds of torture, just to be laid off 3 month later, what's even the point.

This is one of the few industries, where the demands keep rising exponentially, with no regard for peoples wellbeing

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Yeah, we keep like switching things up, but really like honestly where's the societal good? Like, I'm not impressed by anything I see these days, right? Like there's no innovation, games are terrible, movies are terrible. Like the same circus that brainwashed us all, and our parents, is falling apart itself. There's no carrot to chase after other than sustenance and survival. Which probably could be the calm before the storm. Like I know you're not alone. There is a problem with the way things are being ran right now. And even during Biden. All I see is a world of broken promises, over promise, and under deliver. Lowest Common Dominator Slop. A World of Diminishing Returns. If you lower the bar so low when it comes to expectations because you have monopoly, then you can run this shit with no hands. And as it falls apart, who cares? Because you're only mortal thinking about tomorrow or the next generation is just not in the rugged individuals interest. America is a labyrinth of humiliation as the matador chases you around tormenting you. A world of winners and losers. It's like North Korea with a mixture of Disneyland and you forgot your wallet. A empty vessel of lesser things, a pit of despair. And you know what's crazy. The countries that we interfere in and dominate have it worse than us. There just hasn't been any human progress.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

On a road to nowhere, on tracks coming to an end, on a planet with finite resources. Exponential Feedback Loops, a Society on Life Support with no... Concerns for Tomorrow. A fuck boy, with short-time goals.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

LC blows. I've been on the side of interviewing and hiring engineers, and the only thing LC is good for is filtering down when you have way too many decent candidates to reasonably interview, like on the order of hundreds for every position. It's like how ivy league college admissions are very arbitrarily selective - getting in is way harder than actually doing the work once you're there. They just need a way to toss out most applications without too much risk of dropping the most promising ones because they don't have the time to critically assess everyone.

Whether someone can remember the algorithm for depth first search they learned 10 years ago but never needed to use is totally useless. System design knowledge is much more relevant, but not as easy to auto-grade a candidate on. But more than either of those is someone's ability to...you know, actually do the daily work and take responsibility for the systems they work on. I actually hope the AI interviewer pre-screenings can take the place of unhelpful algo centric automated assessments.

Like: What does the candidate think about testing? How do they plan a large project? Can they form opinions and drive the outcome of a technical discussion towards a robust solution? Are they capable of organizing complexity into manageable and composable units? Can they quickly debug a problem to identify the root cause? Can they write code to do something practical and similar to the actual work my team does on a regular basis?

Anyway, I'm rambling. If I were in your shoes, I'd look into a trade certification program. Go out and repair wind turbines or something. Sitting in a chair all day looking at screens leaves people depressed.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm right there with you, mate. I graduated just in time for the whole industry to be about "AI". I don't want to work on AI. I hate AI. I also don't feel qualified for the jobs I'm applying for. Sure, I did the degree, but I don't feel like I learnt anything in it well enough to call myself qualified.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Yeah it's a terrible time to graduate, I'm sorry you have to go through this shit, the industry was already stacked against new grads because companies don't want to put any time, money or effort towards training new grads and now they just want people with years of experience in their specific stack and they think AI will do most of the coding so they don't need as many engineers or something, I hate AI as well, I avoided lectures on it when I was studying cause I didn't think I'd ever be interested in pursuing it, but here we are

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

At least you're getting interviews

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

I don't know if getting online assessment counts as a interview, I think so far I've only had 1 face to face interview