r/androiddev • u/Acrobatic-Bit3508 • 21h ago
Experience Exchange To senior android devs here, was it really that easy before the AI era?
These days, people often say that AI has severely impacted the job market. Candidates are applying to hundreds of jobs without getting a single interview call, and some are even losing their jobs to AI.
My question is for senior developers who have experienced the job market before the AI era: Was getting a job and landing interviews really easier back then, or are people overreacting and blaming AI for what might actually be a skills gap?
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u/r1mka 21h ago
I have 13 years of experience and it was pretty easy before. Now I barley see any open positions in my country.
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u/blindada 16h ago
Similar boat, but I would remark this is very country-dependent. Tech is way more common in the developed world, and aome of us have always dealt with lesser markets, plus remote.
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u/NullPointerJunkie 20h ago
Software development jobs are feast or famine. I was a software dev back in the dot COM days and jobs were plentiful. Getting flown across country for job interviews was easy to pull off. I got laid off in the dot COM era and decided I was going on vacation and other people would pay for it so I used job interviews as a way to tour the US. It's how I ended up in Silicon Valley.
Then everything collapsed. Offshoring to India was the new thing. Lots of people assumed tech was dead and the promises of the dot COM era were all dead. With the benefit of hindsight we know its not the case.
I expect where we are now will recover. A lot of people who got jobs with no formal education or experience and are now laid off will move to other industries like they did in the dot COM era.
Call my naive or out of touch but I think things are going to recover.
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u/EconomyCool7371 10h ago
My mortgage repayments won’t wait for the industry being recovered unfortunately
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u/farber72 6h ago
Same as you, but in Germany - started my work as student, then freelancer during dot com days, then landed a job during dotcom crisis.
When I now think of the some job interviews I had (travelled across Germany and let the companies pay for rail/hotel) - if I wouldn't be so nerdy at that time, I could easily have almost any of them.
I think things will recover for engineers how understand how to work on big projects with AI
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u/koweratus 20h ago
yes it was, there were lot more job openings and getting them was easy. now its ghost town
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u/Qawaii 20h ago
I did a round of interviews in 2015 and one in 2020. 100% pass rate after preparing leetcode for a bit (nothing crazy).
2020 in particular I only interviewed at Airbnb, Meta, Google, Snap and had all four fighting each other raising their offers for a couple of weeks, it was nice…
It was definitely easier than it is now, even though I have not tried recently so I can’t confirm for sure, but each position we open now has 3-5k people applying and before we spent a significant amount of time just finding juniors/interns
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u/Acrobatic-Bit3508 20h ago
I guess then it's pretty bad time for freshers, we are literally struggling and regretting doing a cs degree :(
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u/One-Program6244 20h ago
Jobs were definitely more plentiful back then and if you go back even further you had recruiters calling you nearly everyday with multiple roles. Some even asked for exclusivity so you would work with them for awhile before other recruiters got their hands on you. It really was an in-demand role back then.
Now it's a lot quieter.
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u/Acrobatic-Bit3508 20h ago
What you are telling sound like a literal dream in the present job market
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u/KangstaG 20h ago
The job market has definitely changed. There's multiple factors at play:
- Tech was very hot a few years ago. Pandemic was going on so everyone was sitting indoors using their computers. Interest rates went down to close to 0% (ZIRP) which allowed companies to borrow lots of money to invest in tech
- Mobile was the hot new thing just like AI is now. Mobile has matured now.
- Companies are laying off and not hiring any more due to over hiring during the pandemic and because of AI
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u/Evol_Etah 17h ago
It was amazing until covid.
Covid is when things changed. And that was before AI. But AI came soon after that
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u/AllThingsEvil 15h ago
I felt like I got a lucky break in 2022 when I last switched companies. ~2 months unemployed but basically covered by the severance.
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u/Neutraled 20h ago
Yes, it was easier. Why? Because there was no AI, so trivial jobs or simple refactors required humans. Companies hired juniors everywhere.
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u/MKevin3 17h ago
There were a number of years, early on in iOS and Android, that people were begging for anyone with some experience. I got my first mobile job in 2010 because I knew Java and they really needed someone to help out on a Java Desktop app along with taking over an ObjC iOS app and building an Android version of it. Heck with was pre ARC days for iOS and pre fragment days for Android. I had a background in C/C++ so, besides finding ObjC syntax funky as hell, I knew how to handle reference counting on my own.
At the time they knew a solid developer could learn another language and another SDK. If you proved yourself out with a resume there then jobs were not too hard to find. Of course it was all "in the office" so the commute might be an issue. Companies seemed to be much more flexible. Now you have to hit the ground running with a massive background in the exact ecosystem they are using.
I learned ObjC + iOS and Java + Android and was paid to do it. Highly doubt that would happen in today's market.
Since then I have been able to find Android + iOS jobs. I shifted to Android + Kotlin only. It was getting a bit rough to keep up on both mobile OS. Now I am doing KMP so my iOS knowledge is helpful and I have picked up the Swift I have needed for small bits of the app like firebase integration. Using CMP for the UI on Android, iOS, MacOS, and Windows.
I have been with current company for 5 years in two different departments. My plan is to ride it out as even with my background I think the market is super tough. Just hoping I don't get caught in some sort of layoff that I don't see coming.
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u/Exallium 21h ago
There was definitely a golden age spurred on during the pandemic but I think what we're moreso seeing is market correction over the last few years, and I think the downturn started *before* AI was widely avaialble. Furthermore, most studies are actually showing that AI doesn't necessarily make anyone *faster*, in a realworld context. You might be able to get something off the ground and running faster from a white-room perspective but actual, real engineering is only partially solved by automating code changes.
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u/redpiapps 17h ago
the recruiter bit is real tbh, used to get messages most weeks and now it is basically silence unless it is a weird contract role. feast or famine is exactly how it feels from the indie side too
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u/PrestigiousGarden815 20h ago
Some years ago, it was really easy to apply and get a job offer. With only two interviews and one challenging test, the process was really clear and predictable. But now, I've noticed that there are fewer and fewer job positions.
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u/FloppyTomatoes 20h ago
I haven’t been looking for 2 years, the last time I changed jobs, but it was take your pick. I was laid off 2 years ago and had recruiters calling me, that’s how I landed my current job. The mails and calls have dried up since then, only had 1 email in the last few months.
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u/droi86 20h ago
My changing jobs process was put "open" in LinkedIn, I'd get contacted by a recruiter and they'd get my resume get me the interviews and that was it, it would take me two months, I've never had to apply or taylor my resume until 2023 and it's harder to even get interviews now, the economy is pretty shitty right now so companies have been reducing costs (no need to spend money on tax deductible stuff like labor when you don't need to pay taxes) and using AI as the scapegoat to cover offshoring, that is what's been hurting swe positions in the US
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u/thelapoubelle 19h ago
Had tons of job offers a When hunting in 2018, 2020, and early 2022. By late 2022, all the advice ongave to people job hunting felt out of date.
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u/Zhuinden 19h ago
I wouldn't be so sure it was that easy. I personally "lucked" into situations that I then accepted, which somehow gradually kept deteriorating over time,
typically for external reasons (company just stopped getting android work but they had react work, company stopped focusing on android work and had flutter work, company stopped being asked for extra staff (augmentation) because "we'll handle things in-house".
Big companies always loved their 5+ steps of interviews, whiteboard DSA, behavior tests, system design, and etc etc. So it definitely wasn't easy. But it was definitely a bit less nebulous. Agentic stuff are new, but now you need 5 years of MCP experience in 2 years old tech...
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u/MostProbablyYourDad 19h ago
I used to take a few weeks to implement a single feature. If I couldn't be arsed, I would pay someone around $50 on Fiverr. Now, I implement that same feature in 1 hour 🙃
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u/Nihil227 18h ago edited 18h ago
I was contacted at least once a week by recruiters. Switching jobs every 1-2 years because I was always offered more. After getting laid off couldn't get anything for more than a year.
I have given up and now transitioning to blue collar job.
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u/Ok_Invite_2193 17h ago
Yeah, I've been around since the days when Stack Overflow was pretty much our go-to place whenever we got stuck with Android development 😅
But I'm curious, what's behind your question?
Are you currently trying to break into tech, struggling with job interviews, seeing others around you face these challenges, or just curious how things were back then?
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u/Obvious_Ad9670 17h ago
Yea, I'm a decent engineer but early in my career I would go on interviews, think I bombed them and still get a job offer.
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u/Opulence_Deficit 17h ago edited 17h ago
Every idiot CEO wanted an app. Not because they had a business use for one, but because other companies had theirs. That was a trendy thing to have. Also startups. "Let's make an app, grow a userbase - and don't ask stupid questions like how do we make money on it". So yeah, it was a good rush.
Like every gold rush, it never was sustainable, because eventually every Tom and Jerry would have their apps. And absolutely no reason nor will to maintain them. Basically, a dotcom bubble 2.0.
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u/aetius476 16h ago
I'm not saying it was easy, but I did get hired without a comp-sci degree, and without knowing what a class was.
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u/Optimal-Pop7449 13h ago
5 years ago when i landed my current role, as a JUNIOR, I would have multiple interviews daily, recruiters reaching out non-stop.
Right now i see experiences devs looking at tumbleweed
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u/One_Elephant_8917 6h ago
completely agree coz around 2021 when covid was almost over in many places, organizations were hoarding talent…now its the opposite…
still one thing that really makes current situation painful is that, long ago one could prove to be a high skilled person by solving business problems and sometimes coming up with novel solutions….which also meant the interviewer or hiring manager used to get impressed about specificity that the specialist was bringing in…now that knowledge is commoditized…
orgs are like, if not you then we get someone else that can ship the product at faster rate thereby raising revenue seems more beneficial to them…no more….”this person is great, and knows things only he can understand” kinda scenario anymore….and there is the knowledge power of 100 ppl in one kinda base with these AI that, they want solo devs or pm to ship full stack….
this might be good for indie devs in one way, but for ppl expecting slow mundane life with steady pace snd social connections in a corporate…doesn’t much help them…
i fear since this is emulating brain at massive scale, most likely other domains will get affected soon, like law, radiology etc…basically in these fields they might not be treated as sw engineers and axe them, but will reduce their pay maybe….
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u/makeramen 7h ago
ZIRP was probably a big part of it. Unprofitable startups building mobile apps for unsustainable growth.
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u/MechMansion 7h ago
I interviewed at a startup developing an Android app for their business. During the conversation with the eng director, he revealed he asked for a team of 5 Android engineers to build the app. The founder said he can hire one staff Android engineer to ship the entire app lol. Poof, 4 roles vanished thanks to AI.
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u/Ambitious_Muscle_362 6h ago
Nope.
"Was getting a job and landing interviews really easier back then"
It wasn't. It was even more difficult. And I say it from my experience starting 2009.
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u/yoletmeincuz 13h ago
As a startup founder, I see cybersecurity as the final software domain where human engineers are still absolutely essential. AI can write stellar frontend and backend code, secure endpoints, and run comprehensive tests faster than a human. But when confidential customer data is on the line, we can't risk relying solely on AI. Human oversight provides the final layer of accountability, peace of mind, and customer confidence that code alone can't replicate. So if you're an aspiring software developer, cybersecurity is where you should be focusing your efforts.
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u/leros 20h ago edited 20h ago
It's not just AI.
Tech was in a golden era for several decades. Software engineers were in incredibly high demand by quickly growing tech startups with lots of capital. You had recruiters constantly reaching out to you with great job offers. You could easily get a new job just by scrolling through your recent emails and looking at all the recruiters that you ignored.
Tech used to be special. It was the frontier of a new economy. Now tech is normal. Every company is a tech company. There also used to be a huge shortage of software engineers, but massive amounts of kids have gone to college for computer science so the shortage has gone away. Basically, software engineer went from a special job to more of a normal corporate job. It's still better than average, but getting more typical every year.
I definitely noticed things started slowing down around 10 years ago. Things have really slowed down the last 5 years. All this was happening before AI was a factor.