1. https://mothasa.substack.com/p/the-junior-developer-is-going...
Thanks for reaching out.
It is definitely getting tough in the world of AI and just fierce competition, especially with these dwindling opportunities for graduate or entry level roles.
I think the best chance these days is to have a targeted set of projects that is tuned for small businesses where you can easily reachout to them via Linkedin or similar social channels.
It has to be tailored projects using real data and services like AWS or GCP anything that can be built on top of real life usage in companies will help alot.
With this, you can get a chance to reach out to people in that company that doesn't have to be the hiring manager, just someone that can put a good word in to get you in.
Smaller places just need "a guy" and don't always specify experience.
Eventually I can see the solution as UBI plus abolishing minimum wage; allowing people to live on basic and take apprenticeships where they can just earn experience.
As in I see a lot of demand for working student and new grad positions, because they can pay them less and they aren't demanding on hours, wages and WFH, and then high demand for highly experienced positions with a lot of personal responsibility like principal, tech-lead, CTO, etc where they expect you to do the job of 3 people with a laundry list of skills and requirements working long hours for 80-90k/year which nobody wants because after taxes you net home 1000 Euros more than a junior while working 5x more so there's a constant "shortage of skilled people". And then there's basically nothing in between.
Anecdotally the junior/new grad people I know have no issues getting job offers, but the senior people I know who've been laid off have been unemployed for almost a year and gave up when confronted with the current job market, and became day traders or wantrepreneurs.