The 2025 Job Search Reality Check: What you Need to Know

After 20+ years in IT recruitment (yes, I’ve seen ALL the tech trends come and go! 😅), I’ve noticed a pattern that every job seeker needs to understand.

The Game-Changing Secret? Understanding the difference between what you CAN and CANNOT influence.

Let’s break it down:

Beyond Your Control:

🚨Those pesky ATS knockout questions (they’re like that one bug you can’t quite fix)

🚨Internal candidates who were already lined up (plot twist: the role was never really “open”)

🚨Late applications (sometimes the best candidate was just the earliest one)

🚨Identity theft scams posing as job postings (yes, hackers are everywhere)

🚨Unconscious biases and ageism (still haunting our industry)

Your Power Moves (What You CAN Control):

✔️ Your LinkedIn Profile – Is it a compelling tech story or just a list of programming languages? Make it shine!

✔️ Your CV – Transform it from a simple skills dump into a narrative of problem-solving victories

✔️ Your Tech Network – Are you actively engaging in developer communities? Your next role might come from that random GitHub collaboration

✔️ Your Mindset – Approach job hunting like debugging: methodical, strategic, and persistent

✔️ Your Application Strategy – Stop the “copy-paste apply” approach. Target roles like you’d optimise code: with precision and purpose

Here’s the truth about tech recruitment in 2025: landing your ideal role isn’t just about technical skills anymore. It’s about smart positioning, strategic networking, and being persistent.

Think of your job search like a complex system architecture – you need to optimise the components you can control while building resilience against those you can’t.

Your dream tech role IS out there. And no, this isn’t recruiter-speak – it’s data-driven reality. Sometimes it needs more iterations, more testing, and more refinement of your approach. But like any well-architected solution, it’s worth the effort.

By Therese Otten – follow on LinkedIn here