First of all, don't see yourself as a loser! Having worked in startups for so many years, the experience you've accumulated is a huge asset. The previous startup experiences might have affected your interviews because you didn't highlight the transferable skills you gained from those experiences, such as rapid learning, complex problem - solving, and adaptability. You might as well focus on these general skills in your resume and interviews and downplay the label of startup failure.
As for the job - hunting direction, apart from traditional tech companies, some emerging industries, such as green technology and medical technology, also have growing demand for people with technical and product experience, and the competition is relatively less intense. Have you considered them? Also, you mentioned the salary level of new graduates. In fact, with your experience, you can definitely strive for a higher salary. Have you studied how to highlight your experience advantages in job - hunting to match positions that meet your expected salary better?
Thanks! Everyone keeps calling it an "asset", but so far I've only been able to get meager results (monetarily) in startups using what I've learned. Frankly, I wish I was less adaptable and was just a solid IC who could actually pass technical interviews.
My intended direction is somewhere in technical product, but I've really only done it for around a year and frankly I'd need to build a bit of a narrative to be competitive with other product hires.
Ideally I'd like to stay somewhere relatively tech centric because I don't want to go back to uni - but curious where you think I should look?
LinkedIn / some recruiters have yielded a few leads - but again, the market is beyond cooked at the moment.
> and frankly I'd need to build a bit of a narrative to be competitive with other product hires.
Understand that just about _everybody_ is doing that.
You should avoid telling lies in applications and interviews, but you should 100% be "spinning" your experience to make it look best for there job you're applying for. You haven't "only done technical product work" for a year, you "spent several years dedicating personal learning time and took advantage of internal company professional development and mentorship, and eventually were promoted to technical product lead".
You'll need references who'll back you up on that, and it needs to be at least "true enough" that if they go and find co workers you didn't put down as references they won't outright contradict it. But most people can push the truth a long way in the direction they want it to lean without it being deceptive or outright lying.
I liked banks or similiar institutions. They are kinda boring technically, but you get to know interesting insights and problems. You get tired of it after some time but there's no stress at all.
Don't be stressed. You'll eventually find something.
You are not a loser.
Situation now is now simply not good anywhere.
