This article was first published by Branden Lawrence on Medium. Week after week, we’ve heard that X company will be going through a round of layoffs. In fact, according to layoffs.fyi, 128,202 tech employees were laid off in 2023 alone when this article was published. For comparison, in all of 2022, 161,411 tech employees were laid off. This has left many looking for a new job, others uncertain about their software engineering future, and prospective junior engineers unsure how to get their foot in the door at any company. So how can engineers find their feet at