Sourced software-engineer job hunts in New York City, San Francisco, and Austin: practice time, applications, rejections, interviews, and offers from first-person write-ups.
Explore career crashout stories: how long the change took, and whether they kept their job while switching.
Cloud / DevOps engineer (Forbes Advisor, Penn State TA)→Job search: SWE, SRE, DevOps (Austin area)
~2 years; M.S. Informatics, Penn State · About 1 year to May 2026 post hunt · Career break
Austin hunt: hundreds of apps, dozens of rejects; SF onsite same-day no.
Hunt ~1 year
Applications Hundreds
Rejections Dozens
SF onsite Same-day reject
Base Austin area
Why they left
She was actively hunting SWE, SRE, DevOps, or cloud roles remote or hybrid from Austin.
Why they moved
High-volume apply plus onsite trips for hybrid/onsite California loops.
How they moved
Submitted hundreds of applications over roughly a year before the SF onsite.
Srija, based in the Austin, Texas area, wrote in May 2026 that a year-long hunt had included hundreds of applications and dozens of rejections. She flew to San Francisco for a same-day DevSecOps onsite hackathon, finished the build, and was rejected hours later along with every candidate that day.
Outcome
Still searching Austin-area engineering roles when she posted in May 2026.
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Work life
Self-funded SF flight for a 3-hour onsite technical hackathon; rejection same day.
Obstacle
None of that day’s SF onsite candidates advanced; prior year was mostly silence and rejections.
Transferable skill
Report ties the change to themes like Austin, San Francisco, SRE.
Founder, Cartesian Tutor; ex-Databricks / Lilac AI→Staff-level engineer, Jane Street agents (NYC area)
Staff search after startup; prior ML/eng roles · ~2 months (Nov–Dec 2025) hunt · Career break
~15 companies, ~100 NYC-area conversations; Jane Street agents offer.
Hunt ~2 months
Companies ~15
Conversations ~100
Peak pace 4 interviews/day
Offer Jane Street, NYC area
Why they left
He closed Cartesian Tutor and wanted a staff AI role with strong culture and comp.
Why they moved
Recurse Center intros plus direct outreach; avoided blind third-party recruiter spam.
How they moved
Casual outreach mid-October 2025; full-time hunt from early November.
Lee wound down his startup in late 2025 and ran a staff-level AI search centered on NYC after Boston/remote options thinned. He wrote that ~15 companies and ~100 recruiter and interviewer conversations led to Jane Street agents in the NYC area, with a peak of about four interviews per day before Thanksgiving.
Outcome
Joined Jane Street on an agents team in the NYC area.
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Work life
Averaged four interviews per day in the 3.5 weeks before Thanksgiving 2025.
Obstacle
Most agent roles clustered in SF/Bay; NYC won on offers and family fit.
Transferable skill
Report ties the change to themes like NYC, Jane Street, staff.
New grad (Hunter College CS, 2024)→Software engineer, Bloomberg (New York City)
First FTE SWE seat; Google SWEP alum · Just under 1 year post-grad to May 2025 offer hunt · Career break
Hundreds of NYC-area apps in ~1 year post-grad; Bloomberg SWE offer.
Applications Hundreds
Post-grad hunt ~1 year
City NYC
Offer Bloomberg SWE
Posted May 2025
Why they left
He graduated Hunter College in 2024 and needed a first full-time SWE seat in New York.
Why they moved
High-volume apply while finishing Bloomberg Tech Lab and SWEP experience.
How they moved
Kept applying through nearly a year after graduation until Bloomberg moved.
Caleb P., based in New York, wrote that hundreds of applications across just under a year out of Hunter College preceded a full-time software engineer offer at Bloomberg’s NYC office. He announced the role in May 2025 after visiting the Manhattan office for new-hire discovery day.
Outcome
Accepted Bloomberg software engineer in New York City; started fall 2025.
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Work life
He described the offer still feeling unreal weeks after signing.
Obstacle
Hundreds of applications for one NYC dream-company offer.
Transferable skill
Report ties the change to themes like NYC, Bloomberg, new-grad.
Engineer, IBM (Texas)→Analyst / engineer, University of Texas at Austin
Engineer/analyst; IBM layoff Oct 2024 · 8 months (Oct 2024–May 2025) hunt · Career break
220 apps, 22 first interviews, 1 Austin offer at UT in 8 months.
Hunt 8 months
Applications 220
First interviews 22
Second rounds 7
Offers 1
Employer UT Austin
Why they left
IBM terminated his role in October 2024; he filed unemployment and kept weekly apply counts.
Why they moved
One master résumé plus tailored cover letters; AI mock interviews for rusty screens.
How they moved
LinkedIn/Indeed Easy Apply first month, then direct career pages and LinkedIn networking.
Leonard, writing as Lenwood from Texas, was laid off from IBM in October 2024 and hunted eight months before joining the University of Texas at Austin. He logged 220 applications, 22 first interviews, seven second rounds, and one offer, shifting off LinkedIn Easy Apply toward company sites and warm connections.
Outcome
Hired by the University of Texas at Austin in May 2025.
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Work life
Only one of 22 first interviews came from Easy Apply; most first screens were networked.
Obstacle
Thought he bombed the winning 30-minute screen; offer arrived anyway.
Transferable skill
Report ties the change to themes like Austin, UT Austin, layoff.
Engineer / eng leadership, Jam.dev (NYC after SF)→Staff software engineer, Ramp (NYC)
4 years at Jam.dev after Cloudflare · 3-month open-market search hunt · Career break
3-month NYC staff hunt after leaving SF; dozens of processes, Ramp staff offer.
Hunt 3 months
Paused processes 7+
Restart 3 onsites first week back
Offer Ramp staff, NYC
Why they left
Jam stayed remote while he wanted NYC office presence, later-stage stability, and different learnings after buying a condo.
Why they moved
Weekly LeetCode pairing, a written intro, LinkedIn inbound, and a qualifier: NYC hybrid, Series C+, fit, then comp.
How they moved
Sourced NYC-office roles in Apollo and ran recruiter screens before clustering onsites.
Roshan left Jam.dev after four years, having moved from San Francisco to New York. He ran a three-month staff search requiring NYC hybrid presence, paused more than seven live processes during a family emergency, then restarted with three onsites in the first week back and signed Ramp staff.
Outcome
Multiple strong offers; signed Staff Software Engineer at Ramp in New York.
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Work life
Spreadsheet then Notion pipeline; long park walks to protect energy across a renovation and travel shocks.
Obstacle
Paused 7+ processes for a family emergency abroad; one large org later stopped ingesting new NYC candidates.
Transferable skill
Report ties the change to themes like NYC, Ramp, staff.
Ohio State CS student (non-target)→Software Engineering Intern, Pinterest (San Francisco)
Intern recruiting; Ohio State CSE · Sep 2025 application to Dec 2025 offer hunt · Nights/weekends training
294 intern apps → 9 OAs, 2 offers; Pinterest SWE intern in SF.
Applications 294
OAs 9
Offers 2
Waitlist 1
Offer Pinterest intern, SF
Why they left
He wanted a Summer 2026 SWE intern seat without a target-school brand or referral.
Why they moved
LeetCode grind, day-one Pinterest apply, and no-referral pipeline discipline.
How they moved
Applied to Pinterest on September 14, 2025 the day the posting opened.
Li, an Ohio State computer-science student, wrote that 294 Summer 2026 internship applications yielded nine online assessments, two offers, and one waitlist before he signed Pinterest software engineering intern in San Francisco. He applied the first day the role posted and finished the loop in December 2025.
Outcome
Accepted Pinterest Software Engineering intern in San Francisco for Summer 2026.
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Work life
Timeline: OA Oct 1, recruiter screen Oct 24, final Nov 24, offer Dec 2.
Obstacle
Hundreds of rejections before one SF intern win at a non-target school.
Transferable skill
Report ties the change to themes like San Francisco, Pinterest, intern.
15+ years; Brooklyn since 2015 · About 3 months (April until first offer) hunt · Career break
350+ applications and 85 companies in 3 months produced 3 NYC offers.
Hunt ~3 months
Hours/week 50–60
Applications 350+
Companies 85
Offers 3
Why they left
April 2023 job cuts ended his Salesforce Commerce Search EM seat.
Why they moved
He treated the hunt as a full-time job and used both direct applications and recruiter pipelines.
How they moved
Sent 350-plus applications, mixing career-page apply with recruiter-sourced roles.
Fellipe, based in Brooklyn, was cut from Salesforce in April 2023. He treated the hunt as a 50–60 hour week: more than 350 applications, conversations with 85 companies, and three offers. He took the senior frontend seat at Upgrade.
Outcome
Three offers; signed senior frontend at Upgrade in New York City.
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Work life
50–60 hours/week, sometimes more because the process followed him into sleep.
Obstacle
Hundreds of applications for three offers; he framed the US market as requiring volume.
Transferable skill
Report ties the change to themes like NYC, Brooklyn, Salesforce.
Internal Amazon transfer to NYC failed after layoffs; he needed a new seat before lease deadline.
Why they moved
15–20 LinkedIn apps each morning plus ~200 hours LeetCode course and Hello Interview system design.
How they moved
First interview Dec 2, 2025; locked in through Jan 16, 2026 with PTO for onsites.
Khan left Amazon in Seattle to relocate to New York City with a roommate deadline of March 16, 2026. He wrote that ~500 LinkedIn applications, 49 interviews in six weeks, and heavy LeetCode and system-design prep yielded four offers; he chose Airtable for NYC work-life balance over a higher-paying in-office startup.
Outcome
Four offers (YC startup, Series C, Brex, Airtable); joined Airtable ahead of NYC move.
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Work life
8–12 hours/day prep for ~3 weeks; often two interviews daily; cancelled social plans.
Obstacle
Amazon internal NYC transfer blocked; market expected AI proficiency and product sense on loops.
Transferable skill
Report ties the change to themes like NYC, Airtable, Brex.
Software engineer since 2017 · 2 months to offer (studied from Nov) hunt · Career break
150 apps and 88 hours produced five remote senior offers in two months.
Hunt 2 months
Hours 88
Applications 150
No response 80
Interviewing 30 companies
Interviews 65
Offers 5
Why they left
Rippling moved to five-day RTO; from NYC he wanted remote-first work.
Why they moved
Daily rotation of two timed LeetCode mediums, 1–2 system-design prompts, and ~40 minutes of behavioral out loud.
How they moved
Quit in January 2025 after studying from November; applied on official sites rather than inbound recruiters.
Greene quit Rippling over five-day RTO while based in New York and hunted remote senior roles. He sent 150 applications, reached 30 interview processes, failed 8, and took 5 offers after 65 interviews and 88 study/interview hours across two months. He found plenty of in-office NYC seats and few remote ones.
Outcome
Five offers; joined remote-first Vanta while staying in New York.
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Work life
88 hours interviewing/studying; often two interviews a day with mornings blocked for prep.
Obstacle
80 no-response, 32 no-interview, 8 interview fails; NYC in-office roles were plentiful, remote was not.
Transferable skill
Report ties the change to themes like NYC, remote, senior.
MS new-grad (UMass Amherst); prior data/tech roles→Software Engineer 1, Intuit (New York City)
First SWE 1 seat after MS; prior data/tech work · Duration not stated; 2,000+ applications hunt · Career break
2,000+ applications to Intuit Software Engineer 1 in NYC, May 2026.
Applications 2,000+
Role SWE 1
City NYC
Offer Intuit
Posted May 2026
Why they left
He finished a UMass Amherst master’s and needed a first US SWE 1 seat.
Why they moved
Volume apply plus referrals, cold email, and cold LinkedIn messages.
How they moved
Kept sending applications and outreach daily through rejections until Intuit moved.
Ahuja joined Intuit as Software Engineer 1 in New York City in May 2026. He wrote that the hunt took more than 2,000 applications, plus interviews, referral asks, cold email, and cold messages, after finishing a UMass Amherst master’s.
Outcome
Joined Intuit as Software Engineer 1 in New York City.
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Work life
He described waking up to the same hunt routine after rejections stacked up.
Obstacle
He called the 2026 search brutal: high volume, many rejections, and stranger outreach.
Transferable skill
Report ties the change to themes like NYC, Intuit, new-grad.
She was recruiting for a Summer 2026 SWE intern seat in New York.
Why they moved
ColorStack support plus OA and interview volume across 62 applications.
How they moved
Ran a numbered funnel through applications, OAs, and interviews until five offers.
Odigie accepted a Summer 2026 Software Engineer Intern seat at Mercury in New York City. Her first-person tally: 62 applications, 19 online assessments, 13 interviews, and 5 offers.
Outcome
Accepted Mercury Software Engineer Intern in New York City; five offers total.
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Work life
Nineteen OAs and thirteen interviews from sixty-two applications.
Obstacle
Intern cycle still required dozens of apps and a full OA stack for five offers.
Transferable skill
Report ties the change to themes like NYC, Mercury, intern.
LinkedIn coffees with DigitalOcean, Cockroach, Oscar, Datadog, and Peloton engineers plus direct emails (~1/3 replied).
Zerwick moved to New York with almost no local network and hunted a backend DigitalOcean seat. He ran 2–3 LeetCode problems a day, Pramp 3–4 times a week, at least five applications plus five engineer outreaches on weekdays, more than a dozen coffee chats, and signed Software Engineer II at DigitalOcean’s NYC HQ after nine weeks.
Outcome
Accepted Software Engineer II at DigitalOcean’s New York headquarters.
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Work life
Mon–Thu apply/outreach/study; Fri–Sat take-home practice; cap of about 4 deep-work hours/day plus one full rest day.
Obstacle
Bootcamp-style CRUD portfolios were saturated; he had to ship SpaceCraft and present at meetups to get referrals.
Transferable skill
Report ties the change to themes like NYC, DigitalOcean, Launch School.