After 24 years as a software consultant and game developer, watching the 2025 tech market has been eye-opening...
Despite shipping 40+ production applications, building experiences for 10M+ users, and achieving 300% performance improvements at IBM-scale, I'm still navigating the same ATS black boxes and arbitrary coding challenges as everyone else. My Unreal Engine expertise and real-time 3D skills seem invisible to resume scanners looking for exact keyword matches.
The rise of AI is creating an interesting paradox - while I'm integrating LLMs and AI tools into client solutions, there's a perception that seasoned developers are becoming redundant. Yet someone still needs to architect these systems, ensure they scale, and fix them when they hallucinate.
The emotional toll is real. After successfully running a consultancy since 2000, serving Fortune 500s and government agencies, each form rejection stings. It's surreal getting "not enough experience" responses when you've literally trained entire teams at some of the biggest name companies out there.
To my fellow senior devs and specialists - we've solved harder problems than this. We've migrated from Flash to WebGPU, from monoliths to microservices, from 5-day processes to 4-hour solutions. This job market is just another system to debug.
The challenge is especially acute when you're supporting a family and have skills that don't fit neatly into "React Developer" or "Backend Engineer" boxes. Being an expert in game engines, full-stack, AND AI apparently makes you harder to categorize, not more valuable.
Here's the deal: the industry desperately needs big-picture thinkers, the kind of folks who can connect the dots between our nostalgic past and our sci-fi future. Hang in there, champions.
Stay Weird. Phil
https://ko-fi.com/philipjohnbasile