I'm Backend / DevOps engineer with 12 years of official professional experience. Have been looking for a job for about half a year. Went through about 15-20 interviews, passed ALL technical ones. But in the end I hear almost the same things all the time: "we really liked your technical expertise, but there was no personal fit with the team", "we appreciate deep knowledge you have, but decided to proceed with another candidate", etc. Are tech companies even hiring right now or most of them have just dummy openings for internal procedures/investor reports? Anybody with the same/different experience? P.S. I'm based in the Netherlands, picture in France looks the same.

Certainly HR wants you to think so, otherwise even they are not safe. So, you'll see jobs and interviews for vacancies that don't exist so those still left in HR can seem busy, because they are next in masses.

I know well the EMEA market and work in several languages. No companies are hiring and all jobs are fake. I can guarantee you. The few that take somebody are doing internships for young graduates, or government subsidized employment programs, notably in France and Spain.

Sometimes, some companies, will hire if they find a interesting candidate but few are able to evaluate what a suitable candidate is.

Agencies simply collect data and will consume your time with intake interviews. This keeps their metrics up and allows them to claim they have such and such number of CVs, on their databases. The less scrupulous just do it, to sell your private data.

Also upskilling or workforce skill development has grounded to a halt. Companies assume you are supposed to become a Rust expert or do your AWS certifications on your own time and cost...

Dont know your background but particularly in Belgium and the Netherlands if you get too many: "...there was no personal fit with the team..." it just means you are not blonde and are too ethnic for their environment.

I'm not looking at the moment, but I did notice I haven't gotten a ping from a recruiter in a long time (at least six months, maybe a year at this point). In the past I'd usually get at least one a month, but lately it's been nothing.

Doesn't make me eager to jump back into the job search even though I probably should start looking for something else soon, I've been at my current role for almost five years now, and have been getting the itch. But I suspect it's going to be a pain to find something new.

Have you thought about building your own business?