Developers Share What Helped Them Land New Roles in 2024

A friend of mine — senior backend engineer, twelve years of experience, ex-Stripe — applied to 340 jobs last fall. Got four callbacks. Two interviews. One offer.

That ratio would’ve been unthinkable in 2021. But in the post-layoff market of 2024, it’s become disturbingly normal. I’ve been on the hiring side at DreamFlare AI for the past few months, and what I see from the other end of the table confirms it: the market is brutal, the volume of applicants is staggering, and most of the advice floating around online is outdated.