State of the software engineering jobs market, 2025: what hiring managers see (newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com)

A survey of 30+ hiring managers and recruiters paints a picture of a noisy, paradoxical 2025 software-engineering market: an unprecedented flood of inbound applications (examples include 1,700 applicants in 15 hours or >23,000 over 30 days) but very low conversion—often 10% or less of inbounds are technically qualified. LinkedIn is repeatedly called out as the main source of low-quality or AI-tailored resumes, so many companies now prefer targeted sourcing, referrals and recruiter outreach. Despite high application volumes, standout senior candidates remain scarce and competitive; hiring increasingly relies on referrals and active sourcing, and remote roles are attracting stronger talent for 10–15% less pay. Early-stage and AI startups are driving up compensation for product and founding engineers (UK founding offers up to £200K+equity reported). For the AI/ML community this means cascaded technical and process impacts: hiring funnels are noisier, screening costs have risen, and teams must harden vetting against location spoofing, fake applicants and AI-assisted interview cheating. Technical hiring will favor demonstrable work (coding tests, take-home assignments, portfolio artifacts, references) and curated sourcing channels over broad job posts. For AI teams specifically, demand remains robust—especially for product-focused engineers—so expect sustained competition for high-impact hires and higher pay bands for engineers who can ship ML products end-to-end.