Interview burnout? You’re not alone — Reflections on Interviewing in 2026

Hey there.

Have you been applying for software engineering jobs, as I have?

I’ve been doing it for 3 months now. Many of us have done it longer. Maybe even you are one of them.

And it gets tiring. It’s maddening when you put your all into a long line of interviews only to have it result in yet another failure. Yet another rejection.

Or even as you apply to company after company, and discover something about them that makes you want to run away screaming.

And then having to do it all again, over and over.

I think I know that feeling of starting from scratch, when you look at another application and try to find it in yourself to present the best version of yourself to whoever these next guys are. Or throwing your resume into the pile (and there are many piles), hoping but not expecting so much as an automated rejection letter, using hundreds of words to tell you “you’ve been rejected” for reasons that you will never know.

In the meantime, your living expenses don’t suddenly disappear while you are unemployed, so every day you spend jobless is a day you burn through your savings.

It sucks.

Find solace in the fact that you are not alone

Let me repeat that. You are not alone.

The tech layoffs are real. Many many software engineers are losing their jobs amid rising concerns for AI costs. My LinkedIn feed is 70% AI posts (and probably written by AI in equal proportions!). It feels like I’m reading the same few posts over and over again.

But the fact that the world is crowing about AI and layoffs speaks to the scale of it. Doesn’t help your situation for sure.

If you feel burnt out and cannot explain why, studies have come out linking job loss to grief. This grief is often invisible, like depression. Outwardly you look and behave like you always have, but your mind has no out. You have no idea how to open up to friends and family because they don’t understand how you lost your colleagues that you had good working relationships with. It feels like a part of you has died, but on the outside nothing has changed.

Let me repeat once again: You are not alone.

Maybe it’s weird to try to share a burden over the Internet. But knowing that this anguish you are feeling about things is not unique? It can be liberating, because you know that for all the terrible things that you are enduring right now? People have overcome it, and so shall you eventually. Dawn will come.

Give yourself permission to take care of yourself

Does this sound strange? I know it sounds hard to do when your emergency funds are flickering away in the night while you slave away at a chance for a job. And your job hunt isn’t exactly directed by some boss with deliverables so the only thing stopping you from taking a break is yourself.

But the flipside is you yourself burn out and find yourself unable to reply that email or take that video call. As you probably have felt in some shape or form now.

If your first sprint landed you a participation trophy (read: rejection email), maybe it’s time to treat this as a marathon. And nobody runs a marathon like a sprint.

So slow down a bit. That boss right now? That’s yourself. And you owe it to yourself to take care of yourself.

Go for a walk. Play a game. Engage in retail therapy. Or even try something new and really get into it. Something to pull your mind off of the job hunt for a day or two.

You owe it to yourself.

And once you do you’ll take back control over your life. Maybe even just a little, but control all the same.

Thank you for reading

If you are like me, I hope you find solace amid this storm.

I have more reflections on tech interviewing in 2026. Do check it out.