silvercymbals

Reducing myself to the career mean of a midwest town sounds worse than checking myself into a mental institution.

Worst case maybe I'll join the military

It's really scary out there - I couldn't imagine what it would be like to not have any hard skills during this recession.

thanks - this is what I'm getting by on for now

This is a fantastic analysis.

I didn't want to go here, but I do have direct knowledge from two final rounds I was passed over for that h1b visa holders were selected instead of me and paid less. (I knew employees at these startups)

Part of why I'm just considering doing something else is the fact that so much of this work is going to be outsourced. Most of my friends who are actively running startups don't even bother hiring inside the US and just use latam contractors.

Unfortunately, I need money. I have effectively a net zero income for 2025, this after years of entrepreneurship just isn't good enough. I find it ironic how on HN anyone advocating to push themselves into a position where they have more options (more income) is met with accusations of being "entitled" or outlandish.

Let's say my skillset isn't as "senior" as I think, how on earth do I escape the tar-pit of being a semi-junior senior (to quote DHH)? This problem is what's been tearing me apart... I genuinely don't know what to do.

I also have some medical stuff I need taken care of and I can't afford to liquidate more of my retirement. So "bootstrapping" another company is just something I'm not interested in.

Hope things get better! Thanks for your thoughts :)

Thanks for your thoughts - but I'm not going to pat myself on the back trying to make the US median income. To be clear, I'd accept anything over $70k at this point.

this has been precisely my experience

frankly, if an offer presented itself for $80k a year I'd take it (it's embarrassing but that's just where I am at the moment)

hard to say - just trying to figure it out

I've run out of options in my network and at this point I just need to make at least $70k before I have to resort to working at a UPS store or something that will cause my skills to further deteriorate.

Couldn't agree more - I'd even be open to an unpaid contract period before an offer goes fulltime.

I've actually never really had issues passive system design rounds. I had to get through those to get to both on-sites I mentioned. It's partially why I started applying to solutions eng roles.

Fortunately I have some vaguely profitable side projects that keep me busy - trying to stay sharp with those.

Aside from that and leetcode what would you recommend I do to practice?

They've given some - all I've really received is "your solutions were interesting and passed the bar, but we proceeded with another candidate"

We'll see - have a few leads but hoping to close one of them before November since all hiring grinds to a halt until the new year after November.

Thanks!

I really enjoyed the process engineering and problem solving of running my own companies. It's how I ended up managing a small team of engineers. I even lived in China for a few months getting our production setup.

Unfortunately, most companies don't seem to care about this experience or think because it was my own org (with references) it doesn't stand up to actual "PM" / "management" experience.

Looking for opinions from engineers in america.

I've had plenty of time to relax. Going forward I want options, and the best path to that is to pay off the small amount of debt I currently have and start making forward financial progress.

I need a way to begin making income in the next few months, I can't afford to roll my own business and wait years to break even. I don't want anything non-conventional - I want a normal job, heck even if it's $90k per year.

I can't tell if I'm just too stupid to pass them or if the market has suddenly raised the bar substantially.

Well, if your basis is a midwest state like Iowa with zero tech jobs - that might be accurate.

I built a bespoke IOT stack that currently runs over 10k devices and a full production line interface / deployment for a factory we used in china. I'm not going to define what "senior engineer" is, but this was done largely solo with engineers I managed to maintain it.

Thanks for your thoughts :)

Look up the average salary of H1B visa holders...

I don't really have any interest arguing what a respectable salary on HN is. The recruiter I was working with clearly stated that $180-200k given my resume was reasonable. America isn't europe.

These were real-world type problems etc. Maybe I just use cursor too much and I've forgotten the short-hand they were looking for.

Prior I never had to do leetcode screens for interviews because of my network - don't really regret not burning tons of hours grinding leetcode.

My best guess is they thought my skills weren't advanced enough for my age or found it weird I was bald.

thanks, this means a lot

I'm in my early 30s, but I generally find it really discouraging here when people on HN try to "be nice" by claiming $150k isn't effectively minimum wage even working at startups in the bay.

Fortunately I've had some success with consulting - the world just seems really bleak right now in terms of my employment prospects.

Some have been leetcode, others just asking esoteric react facts.

The in-person rounds I've done have seemingly gone well, I've produced code that fits requirements each time.

Not exactly sure.

Good luck friend :)

I've considered this. But I really just want a real salary. If I could find this and make $120k in the bay (barely survivable) I'd consider it - but I would really prefer to have a normal job with a dependable salary.

I was previously in the bay, but I'm back in Austin for a while - which fortunately is dirt cheap.

Regardless, calling $150k a "shockingly high" salary is hilarious in 2025.

I appreciate this, but I'm just not willing to fall for boomer cope.

The notion that $150k will even let you raise a family where you don't care about looking poor (I don't care) is frankly insulting.

I'm legitimately going to just move to another country if one more boomer tells me I just have to "wait for the stars to align" one more time.

Not in a hurry, but my lackluster "exit" is roughly equivalent to a middling faang job for the years I put into my startup.

My monthly expenses are low, but I'm sad I'm in my early 30's and effectively just burned a year doing nothing because I'm mentally in this place and can't really afford to spend more.

I basically haven't made any money in 2025 and it's starting to eat me alive. Fortunately, after taking some time off I no longer really feel burnt out.