this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2025
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Less than 3 years as a developer and already been laid off twice. Does it ever get better? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I'm a 25 yo British guy. I landed my first job as a dev in 2022 for a consultancy with a 1 year international placement, it was good but a few months after returning, the whole cohort was laid off due to corporate politics between the offices in the two countries. After 7 months of searching, I got my second job working for a small pensions fintech startup, it was fine but I didn't find it all that fulfilling. After 9 months of working there, the CEO pulled me into a meeting and said they'd made a mistake hiring me and they needed a more senior developer who could help steer the company from a business perspective too, so I was once again laid off.

That was in January, since then I've had 2 interviews, both of which have gone nowhere. The vibe of every position that's matched my CV has basically been the same sort of work- pretty mundane web dev roles and I can see myself being pulled into a cycle of mundane work then being laid off. I've wanted to be a developer for as long as I can remember, I started writing code when I was 12, studied CS throughout school so I could go to uni and do it for my degree - but now, I feel so disillusioned with the whole industry, where do I go from here? Does it get better? How do I find a job that actually feels fulfilling?

Sorry for the ramble, it's 4am and I just happened to stumble across this community while scrolling. Thought it might be worth an ask.

TLDR; been laid off twice in about 2 and a half years, feeling pretty disillusioned with everything, where do I go from here?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I know everyone is focusing on the external issues, but serious question: could it be you? What have you done about working with your manager on code reviews and 1:1s for feedback around your performance? It’s entirely possible you’ve just managed to land in shitty companies, but it’s also possible you’re doing something wrong without knowing it and without fixing it and this is their way of being nice.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

it’s also possible you’re doing something wrong without knowing it and without fixing it and this is their way of being nice.

That's not being nice, being nice would be pulling him into meetings or going on a PIP to tell him what he's fucking up and how to improve. Letting an employee go for not doing something right is asinine, assuming there isn't a proper reason like misconduct or something, because (from the company perspective), you're pissing away time and money already spent on the employee without trying to improve the investment before throwing it away.

I know that sunk cost fallacy comes into play here, but there's a large spot before that's relevant where you can try to spend $ to improve an existing employee instead of spending $$$ to hire and train a new employee.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

True but a lot of businesses lack that maturity and don’t realize the cost differences even when spelled out. They don’t want to put in the effort around training and correct coaching.