Claim◆Article
Hiring managers are unable to find highly-skilled talent to recruit, at the exact same time that experienced, proven professionals are having their job applications ignored by employers — each side blocks the other from being found.
The tech hiring market has a paradoxical 'Catch-22': employers say they can't find senior talent while experienced candidates say their applications go unanswered. ✦ AI generated
Gergely Orosz · The Pragmatic Engineer · 2026-07-07 · original ↗
Hiring managers are saying that highly-skilled talent (typically senior+ engineers) is not available to be recruited, at the same time as experienced, proven professionals find their applications ignored by employers. What seems paradoxical here is how both can be true.
Read full article ↗excerpt · fair-use quotation
- ·Hiring managers can't find senior+ engineering talent
- ·Experienced professionals get ignored when applying
- ·Both sides claim scarcity — yet talent clearly exists
- ·Each side is blocking the other from being found
- ·Employers: skilled talent 'not available' to recruit
- ·Candidates: proven applications go unanswered
- ·Gergely Orosz calls this seemingly paradoxical
Around this claim
Mechanism · 2
Fake candidates using AI to fabricate resumes and even to perform live during interviews — sometimes outsourcing the interview entirely to a different person — have become a widespread problem, turning technical interviews into something resembling a CAPTCHA test.Senior EM, private-equity backed company, Bay Area, US · The Pragmatic Engineer · conf 65%AI-generated and AI-polished resumes now look impressive on paper but frequently misrepresent candidates' real skills, as illustrated by a self-described 'architect' candidate who, when asked about architectural principles, could only describe Scrum ceremonies like daily standups and sprint planning.Engineering manager, large company, Berlin, Germany · The Pragmatic Engineer · conf 60%
In practice · 2
Inbound job applications have become nearly useless as a hiring channel because the volume of irrelevant submissions drowns out the rare qualified candidate; nearly all of DuckBill Group's recent hires came through personal networks and direct LinkedIn outreach instead.Mike Julian, CEO of DuckBill Group · The Pragmatic Engineer · conf 70%Even offering top-of-market compensation (90th percentile via Pave) plus a hybrid arrangement and good culture is not enough to attract engineering managers and Staff+ engineers, even though it's comparatively much easier to hire people with under 10 years of experience.Fractional VP of Engineering, Series B, New York, US · The Pragmatic Engineer · conf 70%