Dear human, navigating a tech career transition

I've been sitting with a lot of people lately going

through one of the biggest career changes

of their lives...

If that is you right now, I want to talk to you today.

Not about tactics or frameworks or the perfect LinkedIn headline, although we will get to some of that. I want to start somewhere more honest.

Somewhere beneath all the activity right now, the resume updates, the applications, the LinkedIn scrolling, something quieter is happening and it might present itself like this:

"Where do I even fit in now?"

That is a real question and it deserves a real answer, not a pep talk.

So I want to share something that I think matters, because the data points to a hopeful story than most people in the middle of this are able to see right now.

Two things that are both true at the same time

In April 2026, according to CompTIA, tech job postings hit a three-year high. 575,000 open roles in a single month. That same month, thousands of tech professionals were being let go.

Both of those things are true at the same time.

I think that is worth sitting with for a moment, because our brains, and I say this with genuine affection for our very human brains, are not naturally wired to hold two contradictory realities at once.

When we are in the middle of something painful and disorienting, we tend toward the story that confirms the fear. The market is gone. I am too late.

There is nothing out there for someone like me.

But the data tells a more complicated, and ultimately more hopeful, story.

The market has not disappeared. It has split. And those are very different things.

What split actually means

The large, legacy tech part of the market is restructuring. Those roles are contracting and may not come back in the same form. Companies that built enormous teams over the past decade are rebuilding around AI, reducing layers, and eliminating roles that either do not exist in the new model or can be done differently. This is real, and it is worth acknowledging honestly rather than glossing over.

But the other part of the market, the AI-first companies, tech-enabled businesses in healthcare, fintech, logistics and beyond, is growing faster than it has in years. And it is actively looking for people who know how to build, lead, and operate at scale.

People, in other words, like you.

The professionals I see moving forward right now are not necessarily the ones with the most impressive backgrounds. They are the ones who have allowed themselves a moment to get clear on where they are going, pointed themselves in a new direction, and are learning to reposition themselves in a market that has genuinely shifted.

The question hiring managers are actually asking

Here is something important to understand about this market, and I share it not to unsettle you but because I think it is genuinely freeing once you hear it properly.

Your years at Google, Meta, Microsoft, wherever you built your career, that experience is real and it counts. It opens doors. It signals that you can operate at scale, move fast, and work with talented people under pressure. None of that has gone away.

But the question hiring managers are asking today has shifted. It is no longer just where did you work. It is:

What did you actually build?

What changed because of you?

What evidence do you have?

This is not bad news. It is actually an invitation. Because the answers to those questions live inside you. They belong to you entirely, regardless of what any company decides to do with its headcount.

What it takes to move forward in this market

The answer to that opening question, where do I fit in now, is that you do. The map has just changed.

What this moment asks of you is a willingness to learn, adapt, and stay curious, alongside everything you already know.

That combination, deep experience plus genuine openness, is rarer than you might think. And it is exactly what the fastest-growing parts of this market are looking for.

This is what moves people forward. Not perfection. Not having it all figured out. Just the willingness to take one clear step at a time, from a place of curiosity rather than fear.

A few things worth doing right now

I am a big believer in not overwhelming people who are already carrying a lot. So rather than a long list, here are just three things that I have seen make a genuine difference.

1. Do the foundational work first. Before you update your resume or send another application, take a step back and get genuinely clear on what you built, what changed because of you, and what evidence you have of that impact. This is not your resume. This is the foundation everything else gets built on. It is also, for most people, where the real confidence comes back.

2. Conduct some real market intelligence. Where do your skills translate? What sectors are growing right now? Are there pivot options you have not seriously considered yet? The answers are out there but they require genuine curiosity and strategic searching, not just scrolling through job boards. Think of it as research into your own next chapter.

3. Level up your LinkedIn presence. In 2026 this is not optional. It is where recruiters are looking and where opportunities find you before you even know they exist. Make sure what they find when they land on your profile reflects where you are going, not just where you have been.

A closing thought

I have been working with professionals navigating career transitions for a long time now, and what I keep coming back to is this: the people who move through this well are rarely the ones who have it all figured out. They are the ones who manage to hold onto a thread of belief, even a thin one, that there is something on the other side worth moving toward.

The data supports that belief right now. The market is not gone. It is different, and it is asking something different of us. But it is there. And so are you.

Thinking about you on this day, and with whatever changes and challenges it brings.

Angela Kontgen