“I applied to a position that wanted 15 years of React experience. React is only about 13 years old.”

I have 30 years of experience with Web tech technologies. 15 years with PHP, 20 years with JavaScript, among many other others. I lost my job two months after I bought my first house, early last year. I’ve hired a company as well as an individual to apply to jobs for me for the entire year, as well as my own 8 to 16 hours a day. We approximated over 40,000 applications last year. That landed me interviews with about ten different companies. I went through second, third, and fourth interviews, only to be ghosted by every single one.

At the same time, employers are asking for senior level software developers at nearly half the wage they were just a year or two prior. Job requirements have gone through the roof. Employers are merging DevOps DevSecOps, full stack development, “cloud engineering”, and AIML into a single “software engineer” position. I even applied to a position where they wanted 15 years of react experience when react is only about 13 years old.

Those interviews gave me hope where there was none. I should’ve jumped ship a long time ago. The shitty interviews, perspective employers late to every single interview because they have “other calls”. It’s all bullshit busy work. I actually want to build something. This started off as a hobby for me and it became a career because I loved it.

Now I’m getting ready to lose my house and everything I’ve worked so hard for. I’m angry, and there’s no one to help. It only makes it worse when employers post jobs. They have no intention of filling, or they pass on a completely qualified candidate so they can hire someone in a different country for cheaper.

I’m fed up. Now I’m looking into raising chickens. Because at least people need to fucking eat.