u/Fit-Comfortable-3430

Got a random LinkedIn message from a recruiter and almost ignored it.

Turns out:

$82+ / hour ($170K / year)
Strong tech stack I already work in
Healthcare sector
One interview only with leadership
Possible paid California onboarding trip
Only 3–4 candidates shortlisted
I’m one of them

Meanwhile people mass apply to 500 jobs and wonder why nothing happens.

Here’s what I think people miss:

Most candidates prep for coding trivia.

I’m spending the next 3 days (yes, even the holiday weekend) preparing for product conversations, business impact, architecture tradeoffs, communication, and founder-level questions.

Senior roles often seem less about "reverse a binary tree" and more about:

Can you think?
Can you make product decisions?
Can you communicate with leadership?
Can you build things that actually solve business problems?

I’ve also noticed recruiters periodically finding me on LinkedIn instead of me always applying outbound.

My question:
For those further along in their careers, did optimizing LinkedIn + experience + communication skills create more inbound opportunities than mass applying?

And for founder/leadership interviews, what questions caught you off guard?

I live in a rural area so I know cost of living is different, but every time I read rent posts online people are paying $1,500 to $3,000+ a month for a shoebox apartment. Makes me realize how expensive housing has gotten in a lot of places.

My paycheck finally hit today.
I opened my banking app expecting life changing money.

The loading circle started spinning.
I stared at it like a stock trader during a market crash.

Finally loaded.

A little under $4,000 for two weeks.

I just sat there in silence.
That’s it?
That’s all society thinks I’m worth?

I still have groceries to buy.
Gas.
Utilities.
Emergency canned beans.

No kids thankfully, but I do feed the neighborhood squirrels gourmet peanuts because I’m not raising freeloaders on generic brand food.

I may need to cut back financially and switch them to almonds.

Trying to stay positive through these hard times.

Just had another J2 interview and here is how it went.

Screening was simple as always. They basically told me at the end they were going to pass me through.

Then I got the take home assignment.

I was able to fork it and see a bunch of past submissions from other candidates and how many people had attempted it. Bro… some of the submissions were rough.

Some people literally wrote in the README they did not know certain things. Some solutions missed requirements completely. A lot of people overengineered the project too. As a senior, I could tell pretty fast that is not what they were looking for.

The crazy thing is the company even mentioned they have been trying to fill this role for some time now and would like to move fast. Best combination to hear honestly.

So I compiled a bunch of the submissions together and basically told ChatGPT:
“Don’t do this. Do this instead.”

Then I had ChatGPT help me build the prompt for Claude.

That’s kind of the thing people don’t understand about AI right now. You can’t just dump a vague prompt into AI and expect senior level output. AI gets you maybe 70% there.

The other 30% is experience. Knowing when someone is overengineering something for no reason. Knowing what the company actually wants to see. Knowing what matters and what doesn’t. Knowing where you can simplify and save time. Knowing the difference between flashy code and actually solving the problem cleanly.

People think AI replaces engineers. What it really does is amplify engineers that already know what they’re doing.

I know I’ll go to the next round to explain my work and honestly that will be the easiest part for me.

In the last month I’ve applied to around 300 jobs and landed about 4 or 5 interviews so far. Slowly getting closer.

Pays around $150K+.

If I land this I’ll be close to $300K total comp between J1 and J2.

What’s cool is I can even attempt something like this because my current contracting work is a lot slower paced compared to a lot of AI startup environments.

At that point my biggest concern becomes:
Please don’t let the meetings clash bro. 😂

Sounds like mostly final discussions from here.

You opened Reddit “just for a minute.”
Now it’s been two hours.

No applications sent.
No interview prep done.

Just scrolling.

Yeah… I’ve caught myself doing this too. Anyone else? 👀

I feel like I have a few months left to land a J2.

Right now my resume only shows my last job, and my current J1 is off it. At some point, I’m thinking a 1 year+ gap could start raising flags with recruiters. Not a dealbreaker, but probably adds some friction.

I can frame it as freelance work and living off savings, which is what I’ve been doing.

With 300 applications in the last month, I’ve gotten four interviews (one tomorrow morning), so it seems like the 9 month gap hasn’t really mattered so far.

Curious for others here:
Have you had a 1 year gap and still landed a J2 without much issue? How much did it actually matter in practice?
Edit: Forgot to mention I'm a Senior Software Engineer but looking for same or lesser role for J2

A lot of people are in the financial situation they’re in because of their choices. Period.

Not everyone, but a lot.

I used to be one of them.

You’ll hear things like:

“Well I don’t have much money and I’m about to get evicted…” but also “I just put Coachella tickets on Klarna, I’ll figure it out later”

“Money is tight right now…” but still dropping $50 on fast food without thinking twice

“I’m broke…” but still buying cigarettes or other habits that drain cash every day

That stuff adds up fast. People just don’t want to look at it.

I’ve also lost money in the stock market. That wasn’t bad luck. I treated it like gambling and paid for it.

The biggest shift for me wasn’t investing. It was fixing my spending.

I cut out a lot of unnecessary spending, started saving consistently, and actually paid attention to where my money was going.

Now I’m at about $80K saved and should hit $100K in a HYSA by September.

Most of that came in the last few years once my income went up and I stopped wasting money. I kept my expenses low, didn’t upgrade my lifestyle, and just kept putting money away.

Looking back over the last 15 years, I easily could have saved another $100K if I had these habits earlier. If I could go back, I would.

No windfall. No luck. Just behavior change.

No one made me do it, and no one was coming to bail me out either.

If you want to have something, you have to control what you spend. I used to hate hearing that, but it’s true.

You can’t out-earn bad habits.

If you’re struggling, don’t just beat yourself up. Be honest about your spending first, then work on increasing your income.

For context, here’s how my income changed over time:

2012: $46K (restaurant)
2013: $36K (retail)
2014: $56K (two jobs)
2018: $40K (retail)
2021: $70K (software engineer)
2024: $120K (software engineer)
2026: $140K (software engineer)

Had a few unemployment gaps in there too, nothing over 6 months.

Progress wasn’t fast, but changing how I spent money made the difference.

I started applying about a month ago. Had three interviews so far, but none of them were really j1 friendly. One was bait and switch. You know how it goes.

I know some of the stuff you see on here, like people claiming five jobs making 700k… that’s probably rare or exaggerated. But two jobs? That I believe is real.

And honestly, I feel like I have the perfect setup for it.

I’m in government contracting. Mostly async communication. Maybe 2 hours of meetings a week, sometimes less. Realistically around 4 hours of actual work unless things get busy.

It’s just… slow.

And before anyone jumps in with “you can’t do that,” I’ve done my research. No time fraud, no overlapping hours. Just being smart about how time is actually used. 😉

I’m also getting close to 100k saved, and that feeling is… stabilizing. Like I can breathe a little. Not fully there yet, but close.

And I haven’t even landed a j2 yet.

But I can see it now. I can feel it. My skills are there, especially with AI speeding things up. I just need one door to open.

This honestly feels like one of those windows you only get every few years. Having a job like this plus AI tools… it’s kind of a perfect storm.

Been lurking this sub for like three years.

Feels like it’s time to actually do it.

This economy is basically yelling at me to get a j2.

No one’s coming to save us. It’s on us… and God

throwaway account

Throwaway.

I’m almost 40, fully remote software engineer on a contract making just under $140K.

Low rent ($800), no kids, saving around $5K a month right now, about $80K in the bank. Even with student loans starting back up, I’ll still be saving a decent amount.

So on paper, I know I’m doing fine.

But honestly, I feel behind financially.

Not compared to everyone, just where I think I should be at this point. No house yet, older car, and it feels like I’ve got a limited window to really build something before things get more expensive or uncertain.

The other part is it takes about 4 hours to do all my work for a two week period unless we’re busy, then maybe a bit more. Most of the time it’s just waiting for someone to contact me and staying alert. It's a mindset.

So I’ve been looking around for a J2 last few weeks to boost my income and stay ahead financially. Had a few interviews already, but most roles don’t seem to match the flexibility I have now, or they turn out to not be fully remote. Turned them down even though I made it to the next rounds.

Now I’m in that waiting phase where it feels like something could land, but hasn’t yet.

Has anyone else been in this spot?

Did you push to increase income while you had the time, or just ride it out and stick with what’s already working?

Edit 1: I lost thousands when younger in stock market essentially gambling on volatile ETFs so I am nervous to invest anything in market.

Edit 2: Opened Roth IRA and will max that out every year. Will also increase 401(k) and keep $50K in cash in HYSA for emergencies. From what I am hearing, no need to keep more than that in cash. Going to play the long game. Thanks for all the help and advice!