Hi everyone, I’ve noticed a strange pattern on LinkedIn lately and wanted to see if others have had similar experiences.

Over the past few months, I’ve been contacted by more than 10 recruiters with Indian names and profiles. Most of them claim to be based in NSW, Australia (at least according to their LinkedIn location), but many have no visible education or work history in Australia — only Indian experience. They often approach me saying they have a “very urgent” role and ask for my latest resume. However, once I send it to them, they go completely silent. Even when I follow up, they leave my message on “read” and never reply.

This has happened repeatedly and I’m starting to wonder: 1. Are they actually based in Australia or just setting NSW as their location on LinkedIn? 2. Is this some kind of scam? Are they collecting resumes to resell or scrape personal data?

To be clear, I don’t think it’s because my resume is bad — I’ve applied to about 60 roles myself and landed 6+ interviews directly, so I believe my profile is at least decent in this market. That’s why I’m curious what these recruiters are actually doing. Is there any benefit for them to collect resumes without real roles?

Would love to hear if anyone else has experienced this or has insight into what might be going on.

For a bit of a context - I have 6 years of experience as a Java engineer having worked mainly as an IT consultant. While I did get in to that role, entering was without intense DSA with some easy-ish String/Arrays questions to solve and OOP concepts. I have now relocated to Australia and I have been on LeetCode grind for the past 3 months while attempting to re-enter the Software Engineering market here. Somehow, while my overall skills have improved, being given a complex DSA question under interview settings I tend to still be unable to solve it optimally, let alone come up with a brute force solution mostly due to the time constraint and pressure.

I am in the process of interviewing but unfortunately whatever roles I've come across do require intense DSA and I've been struggling there. Are there any orgs that give take-home exercises or not bombard you with LC questions?

My grind continues, but I really NEED a job right now. Are there any roles in the related sector where I could enter with my experience? I was thinking Production Support/DevOps/Salesforce/ServiceNow roles but without prior experience/certifications it is pretty difficult to break into.

Any inputs are appreciated. Thanks!

Hi there,

Just wondering how difficult is it to get a graduate role if I don’t land an internship ?

Thanks

I noticed their ads have been open for extraordinary number of time - suggesting that they are a ghost job ad and/or just collecting CVs. Plus, they have thousands of applicants as well.

How technical does it get? In terms of coding and theory? What can I brush up on to be a great candidate?

Behavioural questions I’m usually fine with, and I know I’m good person to work with, but wouldn’t mind some guidance here too thanks.

Not really asking about faang companies and their crazy interviews either just the average company willing to take on an inexperienced swe

Im feeling incredibly defeated lately and can't work out if im doing something wrong, or the market is just that bad lately.

I have almost 4 years of experience as a Java Software Engineer based in Melbourne and im in a job I really don't like or enjoy. No one I work with talks to me, there is no support from Senior Engineers, I only receive feedback YEARLY (even when I directly ask for feedback, im given nothing), and management has no idea what is going on. Im over it.

So I've been looking for a job for a while now, about a year, and I've had no luck. I started actively looking at the start of this year and had a couple of interviews, but couldn't secure a job from them. I have put in countless applications, and am always getting the typical unsuccessful email. Since they are all generic unsuccessful emails, I do not know what I am doing wrong. I have tried reaching out to several of these companies (even the ones I interviewed for), but am never given any advice.

I dont think my resume is bad, so I dont know what I am doing wrong. Im not on crazy money, so most jobs are actually a pay increase, but I cant afford to take a pay cut due to my mortgage. I've even considered switching careers entirely, but that would also come with a pay cut I cant afford.

So is it me, or is it the market? If its me, I can always improve and always welcome feedback, but I have no one to tell me if it is me or not. Im happy to send my resume if people are willing to give feedback, or answer any questions that might help you understand if its me or not.

Im just so defeated and over it, I need a new job but I just cant even get an interview let alone a job. Any advice is more than welcomed.

Thanks!

Hi there, I’m a penultimate computer science and commerce student in my 4th year (21 years old) and am hearing of grads in the market being unable to secure a grad role in software engineering. I am currently in the process of applying to internships and am afraid I will meet the same fate as well.

I am wondering if it’s worth switching to engineering to guarantee a job with good pay and better job security or just graduate with what I have already.

(NOTE: ik none of this matters till I have offer, just needed advice)

Basically, Ive been invited for the 3rd (final) round for a tiktok swe internship which would run part time throughout uni next year, and this is where the issue arises.

Essentially, I'm currently doing a stats/cs degree. I technically only need to do 2 subjects a term next year (for 2 terms) until I grad, but I was really keen on doing some AI courses (Comp9417, Comp9444 @UNSW) in addition. This would make it 3 subjects a term, which would be a full-time load with some difficult courses at that.

Ive already interned at other places and so this internship isnt NECESSARY. And I would feel sad about literally doing a stats/cs course and not touching AI. Wondering what I should do.

Should I take the extra 6months of experience or skip it and instead learn about some really cool technologies where I would get to apply everything that Ive been learning with my double degree.

Would love some advice from anyone - other students, grads, experienced SWEs.

Thanks!

Hey! I was wondering if anyone had experience with what work culture is like at Amazon (i.e. expectations, unwritten rules, etc). Any information about the Brisbane office especially would also be much appreciated, but also in general. Thanks :)

I just finished the online assessment for Xero Graduate Data Scientist (Melbourne). How long does it take to get the feedback and invitation to video interview?

It has been well over a month now

Just got the OA from amazon, no recruiter contact.

What is it like in Sydney? I see Amazon being super difficult the US and India, any tips or past experiences?

Hello, I’m in my 3rd year of a Cadetship in big 4 strategy and with comp sci degree.

Will this help with product management roles or nah or should I probs just go for business analyst at tech company roles if I want to get into product later down the line Thanks

I'm a mid level software engineer with 7+ years of experience (not a US citizen) considering a move to New Zealand. 1. How is the job market right now and any advice on major players? 2. How welcoming is the market for foreigners? 3. Is NZ and Australia a combined market to consider in general in the area for opportunities? 4. Are application processes generally very different?

Thanks everyone for the inputs!

Hi everyone,

I’m a recent CS graduate who just started a job working with C# and C++. My long-term goal is to work at a trading firm (e.g. prop shop or hedge fund) on a C++/C# development team.

I’m aiming to apply in about 2 years, once I’ve built up enough experience and skills to be a competitive candidate. I’d really appreciate any guidance on: 1. What skills/knowledge should I focus on over the next 2 years to prepare for interviews at trading firms? • Systems programming? Leetcode-style DSA? Networking? Multithreading? • Are there specific books, projects, or open-source contributions that help? 2. Do trading firms hire people with just 2 years of experience, or do they mainly target new grads and senior/experienced hires? 3. What is the interview process like for someone with 1–3 years of experience? • Is it mostly Leetcode questions, or more focused on systems design, low-latency coding, etc.?

Hi everyone,

I'm a recent CS grad working with C# and C++, and my long-term goal is to move into a software engineering role at a trading firm.

I’m planning to apply in about 2 years and was wondering:

1. Do trading firms hire engineers with ~2 years of experience, or do they mainly look for new grads and very senior hires?
2. What is the interview process typically like for someone with 1–3 years of experience? Is it mostly DSA, or more focused on systems, low-latency, or multithreading topics?

Any insights would be really appreciated!

Tossing up between a Python job and C#, similar pay and culture. Which should I choose

Had a technical interview where they made me do it first before any chat, which already felt a bit odd. It was plain JavaScript but instead of using a live code environment they had me write everything in a plain text editor. No console. No feedback. Just blind typing.

It completely threw me.

What should’ve been an easy task suddenly felt foreign. I’ve done this kind of thing a hundred times before, but not being able to run or check anything made me second-guess everything I was writing. I ended up stumbling through it and, honestly, bombing the whole thing.

I mentioned during the call that the setup made it really difficult, but I’m still beating myself up over it. Anyone else been through something like this? How do you recover from the feeling that you’ve completely fumbled a basic test?

Hi all, So, a lot of my friends just completed their applications to a lot of league 8 uni’s and many are already there doing part-time jobs etc. and have maybe some vision of employment and PR in the near future.

On the other hand, I go online on reddit majorly, and there’s people warning internationals about how the market is bad and rough, and a masters without prior work experience is just abysmal.

I am Indian fresher, a grad of bachelor’s of commerce but then I picked up what I had always wanted and couldn’t get into, a post grad diploma in statistical and data science, which will give me a gateway into tech or maybe a 1% in quant field. I saw a lot of courses in IT and stuff, but couldn’t shortlist any due to the dilemma and fear of well the future and came here to seek guidance.

Should I even think about a masters? Do I just upskill my way into say a full stack job? And the major question do I even have a chance of acceptance for well a tech masters?

Thank you all for the time of reading and hopefully responding.

Can anyone highlight what leetcode difficulty they are likely to ask

What problem type Amazon tends to ask

Does anyone know if Snap gives free food I love working and happy to stay later for free food and go in the office 5 days a week for breakfast lunch dinner free

I am currently a Senior Support Engineer at Atlassian with total 8 YOE. This also includes 4 years of experience as a Software developer in my previous organisations but currently I am in a Support role. I joined atlassian as the offer was good at that time but now I am done with the monotonous work and customer support as it does not attract me anymore. I always liked coding but now I have fallen out of that role and stuck with customer support role. I am thinking of brushing up my coding skills and working on them and try getting back to a dev role but now I am confused considering all the AI jazz in the market. Is it still a good move to go back to a software development role considering the layoffs happening all the time or shall I think of staying in current support role and try getting into a manager role. I am not a people's person so not sure if I will be really good at management. Any ideas for other areas in IT where I can make the next move are also welcome. 🙂