I fear I squandered the good times of tech and feels like now I will never get in.

I was a 2020 graduate with a graduate job lined up once I was finished university, but my initial offer got rescinded during the early days of the pandemic. Found the market in Q2 and Q3 of 2020 to be very tough with the uncertainty and companies trying to adapt to the remote working mandates. What hurt me the most was not having the capacity to work remotely during that time as I had bad internet and no suitable workspace available so I decided to reframe from applying to software jobs until the pandemic ended.

At the time, it seemed like a good idea as I was able to collect unemployment money and lived at home rent free. I worked on a family farm in receipt of my bills being paid, so I was saving money and safe from catching Covid. Overall, I was content with the situation in the moment and viewed it as a temporary fallback plan and considering I completed my studies at 22, I felt like I had all the time in the world.

Of course at the time, I did not realise it would take two years and certainly didn't realise that the market would plummet just as Covid ended and would only get progressively worse in the years to follow. Was also unaware that the clock starts ticking the moment you finish a degree, and assumed that a degree was for life which I found not to be accurate. Closing in on my thirties soon with very little to show for it.

On the job hunt, constantly interviewing and applying when the world went back to normal and have a first hand account of how bad its gotten. Was able to get to many final rounds even during the bad spell of mass layoffs and over the years. But now, AI has abruptly reduced the number of entry-level/junior positions to a very slim number of postings.

In hindsight, I should've just forced my hand and applied during the entire time of the pandemic by pretending I had a viable remote working setup. Could've had five or six years employment by now. Annoyingly, if the lockdowns happened today, I would be fine as I have fibre internet and an office to work from home. I even had the chance to join the market in 2019, but did an additional year in college for a higher qualification which only hampered me by missing out on another good hiring year. My temporary backup plan has become permanent, which I've grown to hate and despite being a better candidate than I've ever been, I can't seem to get a job offer.