u/Feeling-Ideal-1026

I have 20+ years of experience across SaaS, startups, aerospace, architecture, backend, frontend, cloud, AI workflows, management, hands-on coding — basically the whole stack. But lately it feels almost impossible to even get seen.

Every job on LinkedIn seems to have 300–1000 applicants within less than a day. A lot of listings feel fake, paused internally, or already filled before posting.

Where are people actually applying these days?

• LinkedIn?
• Recruiters?
• Networking?
• Smaller job boards?
• Direct company websites?
• Discord/Slack communities?

At this point I honestly wonder if I need to change careers entirely or if this market is just broken for software engineers right now.

Curious how others are navigating this.

I’m honestly exhausted dealing with this system.

I used my FSA card for completely normal medical expenses:

• prescriptions through LillyDirect
• visits/payments related to CHOC hospital

The card worked at the time of purchase, so I assumed everything was approved.

Then days later I started getting messages asking for receipts. I uploaded them. Then they asked for itemized bills. Then more documentation. Eventually the card got suspended while I’m still trying to figure out what they actually want from me.

What frustrates me most is that these aren’t questionable purchases. This is literally a children’s hospital and a licensed pharmacy.

I’m already dealing with family and medical issues. I shouldn’t have to spend hours chasing billing departments and learning healthcare paperwork rules just to use money from my own FSA account.

The whole process feels unnecessarily difficult:

• vague rejection messages
• endless upload/review loops
• support that doesn’t really explain the issue
• every document somehow still “not enough”

I understand fraud prevention, but at some point the process becomes more stressful than the actual medical expense.

Has anyone else dealt with this? How did you finally resolve it?