A remote software job paying 20% more

The story

Hey all,

In January of 2025, I lost my job as a software engineer. For 6 months, I applied constantly with very little luck. Sometimes I made it to final rounds, but ultimately I couldn’t clinch an offer.

I was getting really discouraged by the process and found myself in a dark place. I started doubting whether I’d ever be employed as a software engineer again. Those doubts were also echoed by friends and family, unfortunately. I wanted a full-time remote role and a raise from what I was making at my last company. People told me I was being too picky; that companies were pushing people back into the office; that software engineer salaries were coming down; that the market was terrible and there were tons of capable engineers out of work. And honestly, they weren’t wrong.

During that time, I really doubled down on my law of assumption practice. I kept telling myself that circumstances didn’t matter; that I was the right person for the jobs I wanted; and that those rules and constraints didn’t have to apply to me. What genuinely helped me most was speaking and listening to robotic affirmations.

For a while I just resorted to YouTube affirmation playlists and kept affirming throughout the day no matter how I felt.

Eventually, I reached back out to a recruiter from a company where I had previously made the final round but didn’t get the offer. I asked if I could apply for a different position. He said they were looking for someone with deep experience in a specific tool, Terraform, and asked if I’d be able to pass an interview focused on it. Despite having basically 0 experience, I confidently said yes.

Then I spent 6 days drilling Terraform. I kept affirming that I would easily clear the interview. The interview ended up being easier than what I had been practicing. At one point he asked me how much experience I had with it, and I said about a week. He told me I was doing a lot better than people who claimed to have years of experience with it.

I cleared the rest of the interviews with relatively little struggle and got an offer paying 20% more than my last role. The cherry on top was that the company was remote-first, so there was basically no risk I’d ever be called back into an office.

Looking back, what helped me most was persisting when the 3D looked completely against me. I didn’t feel confident every day. I definitely had bad days. But I kept returning to the same story until eventually my outer world caught up.

TL;DR: Lost my job. Was told I was being too selective about my next role. Affirmed through the tears, the doubts, and the discouragement. Landed my dream remote gig.