Day 16 of the job hunt and I caught myself doing something I swore I wouldn’t do. I started wondering if I should just leave tech. Not because I hate the work. Not because I’m bad at it. But because the effort-to-reward ratio feels completely broken.
In tech, it feels like the expectations inflate every year. More tools to know. More rounds. More take-home assignments. More culture fit conversations. You can spend weeks preparing, interviewing, and emotionally investing only to get silence or a rejection that gives you nothing back. When a system demands senior-level output before you’re hired and offers zero feedback after, it starts to feel less like a career and more like unpaid labor roulette.
I used to believe that staying in tech was the safe choice. But lately, it doesn’t feel safe at all. Layoffs, hiring freezes, ghosted interviews, and roles vanishing mid-process. At some point, you start asking whether a career that constantly resets your progress is actually sustainable especially when you’re just trying to build a normal, stable life. The mental load alone is exhausting. Is it even rational to stay at this point?
I've been wondering the same thing after 2 layoffs within the last year and 5 months of unemployment. Unemployment sucks for obvious reasons, but I especially hate the constant disruption to my career growth, so I understand what you mean by resetting progress. However, if I can't even get a job in my own niche, I don't know how I would pivot to something adjacent where I would have even fewer relevant skills. I've decided to give it another 2-3 months before I start thinking seriously about a shift, because thinking about this constantly was really starting to weigh on my mental health. Until then, any thoughts I have about pivoting go into a note on my phone, to be addressed when the time comes.
I feel like if I don’t do it now then it’ll be all too late if I do it later given that I’m in tech and AI has been aggressive in entering the workforce