As someone who went through a sabbatical, you must first know and acknowledge that your full time job now is to find a job, which means navigating the processes involved.
> Q1. What should I do to get to a point where I feel confident enough to actually send in applications? (I have never really been any good at LeetCode-type problems and have no personal projects to speak of.)
1. The tone of this question, previous sentences and being the first would indicate you have a sense of dread, get rid of that! Assuming you worked for more than 2 yrs and you're already in your 30s then you have work experience and ARE competent enough. Yes, tech is bleeding edge but a lot of that is entirely in tooling and not the end all be all of being employed in the tech industry. The game "actually send in applications" is... surprise! sending in applications. Your best bet is to go quantity vs quality. Especially since you're under the guise of having been on a break. Forget leetcode for now, you need to see if you can get onto interviews asap. So here's what you need:
- a back story (background and what you bring, someone mentioned "what amazing qualities you bring in" here)
- a resume
- Review and Revise your story and resume. When it comes to the application process storytelling is important especially when you get into an interview, so finalize this so you can easily answer the typical questions you'll likely deal with and everything makes sense to someone else. Ask your friends, partner, family to help you with this or just someone to listen to what you come up with it so it doesn't sound ridiculous.
- Use a platform's quick apply feature (Indeed and LinkedIn have this). It's important as soon as you're done with the first three points above. You do this and let it rip, you can iterate throughout this process and you should iterate throughout this process.
> Q2. Will the 4-year gap and my choppy CV be a major hindrance to my hirability? (My employement history consists of 2 years at a consulting firm and 3 short startup stints of <1 year each.) If yes, how do I minimise its debilitating effects?
2. Short answer, no. Long answer-- No, you already have work experience so you have already proven your competent enough to hold a job and be of value to an employer. What you'll really need to do is be able to pinpoint what skills you can bring to an employer. You're right in a sense to minimise the debilitating effects so since you have short stints of <1 year each, I advise if it's 6-9 months then use the year you worked and don't bother writing the months on your resume. Anything else lower you can put the months like Month-Month YYYY. Ideally if you have some niche you're good at you would highlight that significantly in your resume. Use quantifiable achievements with specifics like "Lead development of revamped UI component that lowered incidents by 16.5% using web hooks and bespoke API compatibility with connected DeWalt drills".
> Q3. I feel like I have the best chance of getting hired in the kind of roles I used to work at and those are the ones I'm interested in as well but in doing so am I restricting myself to a limited number of positions? Should I be spending my time in expanding my knowledge areas? (Although I feel like I know too little of anything else to ever feel confident enough to apply for an actual paid position in those roles.)
3. Since you're unemployed, a reminder that you're job now is to get a job. It's perfectly reasonable to take on a similar role as your previous role as long as you are aware and disciplined to either leave to promote yourself and/or commit to promoting internally (best to commit to this before starting the job and in agreement with supervisor+HR, get it in writing). If you choose to take this route then you will restrict yourself so this is entirely up to you.
Remember, fake it till you make it is the norm in the professional world, if you are willing to play that card then you can aim higher with the roles you're going for, you're going to be selling yourself anyway so this will be a major part when you're going through this process.
Regardless, if you aren't already read and update yourself with any tech you previously used and are looking to use. You should ALWAYS be spending time in expanding your knowledge areas. Whether its related to your job or your interests.
> Q4. Is my timing bad? Is the current climate not well suited for someone like me to get back into the industry (though I have a feeling that no climate would be conducive to someone in my position.)
4. Not really, you may find a really good opportunity because of the current climate. A lot of interviewers will be going through and looking for quality hires with the increase of free agents. Competition is there but that's the norm no matter the climate. And please stop the negativity, no matter what goes on externally you have to deal with your position, you wanted to move out of that position and you submitting this question for all of HN to see is one positive step out of that. You have a runway. Hell you're already on the runway. So consider yourself a couple of steps away, stop and look around is fine but keeping going forward. Find activities that bring back your confidence. Good luck stranger!