You Don't Suck - the Software Engineer on Your Resume Does

If you've had the good fortune of a stable job within the past 3-4 years, don't take it for granted. The job hunt in that time frame has been absolutely brutal. Having started my career in 2008, I've been through a lot of ups and downs, but this is the first era where every position you apply to is overflowing with applicants. You may think you're the exception, because you have several years of experience, you've got some big company names on your resume - and so you treat updating your resume like 1 pt maintenance task. For some reason you aren't getting hits, so you do what everyone does - Google "Best Software Engineer Resume Tips & Tricks 2026" or nowadays - you just let AI apply those tips & tricks for you. So you've modernized your CV to compete with everyone else and now it's just a matter of submitting your application faster than them. You do that obsessively, but after tens upon hundreds of applications you've only interviewed 3 times. Then you think, obviously it's the indu