The job market isn’t nearly as bad as the job-seeking process. Hiring managers don’t actually know what they want or what their businesses need done. Software is so hyper-specific and skills so conditional that you either needed to be onboarded straight out of college or get incredibly lucky in your job rotation to land on the one critical bit of information all the demand revolves around. Automated tools and services ingest a ton of spam that HR still needs to sift through. Recruiters are as happy to lure away your staff as help you find new people.

The jobs are out there. But it’s an absolute fucking mess to find them.