The End of Golden Age of Tech?

I’ve been a developer for 15 years, Millennial (28 years old), and I’ve done everything you can imagine. I've never been mediocre and have always been passionate about technology. I've never been unemployed because I'm good at what I do, and I've already founded and sold a startup with two years of growth and constant updates. However, my generation and Gen Z are facing a strong global financial crisis, which makes us work like crazy, only to be rewarded with just enough money to pay rent and buy food. I'm not ungrateful, but just to put things into perspective, selling a startup for a few thousand BRL didn’t give me enough autonomy to even buy my own house or get a better car. At most, it allowed me to make a few small investments and set up an emergency fund. I live in Brazil, which has its own economic challenges that add another layer to this situation.

In the past few months, I was unemployed for the first time and spent two months looking for a job, both in Brazil and abroad. My resume was well-structured, direct, and to the point, with an updated tech stack for the web development market (Vue, React, Node, as any other tech stack automatically disqualifies you from job openings). I was called for only two recruitment processes abroad, even after applying to over 100 companies, with at least 70% of them being in Brazil. Those processes left me horrified.

In one of those companies, which I won’t name, I went through three Attention to Detail (front-end) tests, a technical interview involving bug fixing, layout adjustment, and an English interview with the Tech Lead. I passed everything. But a week later, I received an email from the Tech Lead saying they were "raising the bar" and sent me an IQ test. LOL.

I was so indignant that I took the test (one of those 50-minute ones where you have to guess the next geometric figure in the sequence) in 15 minutes. The result? I didn’t pass the selection process because I was deemed “stupid.” My mistake?

I've noticed that, in addition to this global crisis, the rise of AIs and especially the disruptive way ChatGPT has established itself in the market over the last three years has placed the tech and development sector in check for three main reasons:

AI allows people to "learn" programming in a way never seen before, which has significantly lowered the barrier for new entrants into the tech market.

Many people have been switching from other professions to development, influenced by promises from false gurus claiming it's possible to earn 150K USD/year and work from home in six months.

Because of the above, tech salaries have been plummeting in free fall, with no bottom in sight.

The apocalypse in the tech sector is real. If you’ve been employed by some company in the past three years, you may not believe these words, but remember that you’re only one layoff away from being in this position. Markets that actually generate wealth for the planet are losing professionals because of the perks our sector can offer. Meanwhile, sectors that require manual (physical) labor are on the rise, driven by high demand and Gen Z’s absolute disinterest in getting involved with that type of work.

Dev friends, prepare yourselves for the next five years and learn a new profession or start your own business to avoid putting all your eggs in one basket.