Why is the junior software engineer market so absolutely cooked?
I'm almost done with my internship and actively applying for jobs. I apply to around 10 jobs a day on average.
My current internship place has offered me a full-time role, but the pay is shit. Like, genuinely insulting.
I've had two other interviews so far:
Interview 1: Offered 20k (work from home). I refused.
Interview 2: Offered 50k as an associate engineer. They interviewed me from 9 AM to 1 PM and during that time, they gave me 1.5 hours to build a full-stack CRUD app with authentication.
I built it. Focused more on the backend because that's where the actual logic lives. Used Tailwind + Vite + React for the frontend. It was simple and decent. Yeah, the UI styling could have been improved if I'd had more time, but it was perfectly functional and not embarrassing by any means.
They didn't even look at my code. Not the backend. Not the frontend. They just said the styling wasn't enough and started negotiating my salary down.
Looking back, I should have just vibe-coded some slop for these mfs.
I genuinely believe I'm a good developer, especially for my age (early 20s). I daily drive Linux. I've been into development since lockdown (instead of attending Zoom classes). I've modernized legacy stacks, written company-wide architecture guides, set up self-hosted deployments with Dokploy to save costs, and built real systems used by real users.
And yet.
I'm starting to lose hope. Which is weird, because I don't usually lose hope.
Am I alone in this? Are other junior devs feeling this way too? Or is it just me?
Should I just accept my fate, that I'll be getting paid less than minimum wage for a while and just grind through it?