Experience with a 2 month job hunt late 2025

Inspired by a [previous post](https://reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/1or3gyj/my_experience_interviewing_in_2025_with_5_yoe/) from a few months back. Sankey diagram: https://i.imgur.com/sYt3l2y.png Some terms: * Withdrawn = I withdrew from the process, due to lack of interest for moving forward, or for timing * Rejected = They rejected me and communicated so * Ghosted = They did not respond (either to the initial application or after any rounds had been completed) * Outreach = They reached out to me via email (cold, to my personal inbox) or referral (someone I used to work with connected me with the founder/recruiter) Some tidbits about my profile: * I've worked exclusively at small-to-medium startups, anywhere between Seed and Series C * Based in San Francisco, open to remote or hybrid roles * Current base in the range of 230-250k * Currently employed, with tenure 4 years * Full stack SWE looking for full stack / frontend roles * This is my third time doing a serious job search of this manner. * Total YOE = 7 Been at my current company for over 4 years, and looking to leave to find new challenges and more interesting work. Outside of that I was pretty happy at my job and would not have minded if I didn't get any offers (other than the obvious blow to my ego). Almost all of my jobs were applied through Welcome To The Jungle, formerly Otta. I responded to a few recruiter email reachouts, but only if the recruiter worked directly for the company, rather than for a third party. I did not apply to any companies as practice; I only applied to companies that I genuinely wouldn't mind working for and whose salary range was within at least what I was making now, or more. Almost all companies followed a pretty standard process - recruiter call, technical screen, hiring manager screen, onsite. All companies did not ask any leetcode or brainteaser questions (I did my best to filter those companies out). One company had an online assessment before I talked to anyone, and a take-home later in the process that took ~10 hours. I had fun doing the take home and did not mind the time it took. Preparing for my interview was pretty straightforward. Because I was targeting companies with no leetcode, I did not prepare for coding assessments at all. I did well on interviews that required me to write code (save for one, where I flubbed due to a misunderstanding of the problem / incorrect assumption as it was based on a real-life product). For system design, I used the free versions of HelloInterview (I did not pay for membership like the other post), but I did have an existing lifetime membership for GreatFrontEnd for FE system design. I did not find it that useful for the interviews I encountered. For scheduling interviews, the majority of them were scheduled from 6AM-9AM PT (east coast morning), or (2PM-6PM PT) (west coast afternoons), depending on where the company was located. For the companies that I got rejected, I think my weakest area was for sure system design questions, and doing technical deep dives of my work projects. Two of the five companies that rejected me provided detailed feedback, which I appreciated and understood their perspective. Some rejections were purely tactical errors on my part. In the end (just before new years), I accepted a remote role for +20% base, and a lot more equity than my current role. The role I accepted was one where I was most interested in the company anyway; both offers I received were from companies I would've been happy joining. The entire process took a little less than two months from the initial offer being sent, to me accepting an offer. Happy to answer any questions.