Hello folks !!
For the last few months, I’ve been deeply studying the current IT / tech job market — talking to hiring managers, founders, recruiters, engineers, and people who are still unemployed despite “doing everything right”.
And I think I finally understand why so many capable people aren’t getting jobs right now
The problem is not that “there are no jobs”.
The problem is a massive mismatch between where people are preparing and where companies are actually hiring.
Most candidates are fighting in the most crowded layer:
– Entry-level SWE
– Generic MERN / DSA-only profiles
– “I know React Node” resumes
Thousands of people.
Very few openings.
Brutal odds.
Meanwhile, companies are silently hiring in less crowded, higher-leverage roles:
– DevOps / Cloud / Infra support
– Data Analytics (not pure ML hype)
– QA automation, SRE, Platform roles
– Technical Community, DevRel, Ecosystem, Growth-with-tech
– Product Ops, Tech Ops, Internal Tools
These roles don’t trend on YouTube.
So people ignore them.
Another uncomfortable truth:
Hiring today is not purely “tech vs non-tech”.
It’s value vs replaceability.
If your role can be replaced by:
– a fresher in 3 months
– an AI tool
– or a cheaper contractor
You’re at risk.
That’s why people who mix technical understanding non-technical leverage are winning:
– Devs who can also communicate, document, mentor
– Engineers who understand users, growth, systems
– Community / growth folks who actually understand the tech
– Ops people who reduce chaos, not just “manage tasks”
Pure coding is important.
But only coding, without context, without ownership, without surface area — is no longer enough.
The market is not broken.
Our mental model of “what a good tech career looks like” is outdated.
The winners in the next few years will not be the loudest.
They’ll be the ones closest to real problems, real users, and real systems.
Still learning.
Still observing.
But this shift is very real.
Would love to hear how others are seeing the market right now.