Not sure this is an 'appropriate' place for this, but I figure I'm a dev and this place is for dev related topics.
Like so many others...
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Hey David. I hope you are doing well! Thank you for sharing your experience. I am sorry you have to go through your time with brain cancer and I am glad you are recovered! Truly remarkable and kudos for not giving up so far!
I believe this needs more attention in regards for those of needing accommodations when doing job duties. It is quite interesting to hear your experience about the layoffs and things you have seen in the market. For me, I am currently (kind of) on the job hunt and reading about your experience makes me wonder about the morality between the health of employees Vs. Profit of the company.
I mention this because of my OCD revolving around technologies. I don't want to go into detail because it is painful to think about, but it makes me wonder how companies handle disability and to what extent.
When you mentioned "When layoffs came around I was the only one on my team let go. I'm not saying I was let go because of my disability...just that it doesn't look good.", it breaks my heart. It felt malicious in my opinion because of your disability and to think that they use the term "layoff" as an excuse. Whatever the case may be, I am genuinely sorry that you got lay off.
I am glad you are still doing okay and great job on the SaaS app! Me personally, I would love to see you share on what you have built! I bet other people will invest into your project and maybe contribute to it (if you want!)
All I could say is don't give up. It's very generic and to be fair, you have more experience than me since I been in the development world for 4 years. I bet there will be someone out there that cares for you and see your talents regarding of disability. All it matters is skills! If you can get the work done while having a disability, it's more impressive to me in my opinion.
Thank you for sharing. I added the "#discuss" tag to this post since I believe this needs more attention to the community and I am confident we can support you in any way. Feel free to remove the #discuss tag if you like. This action is based in my opinion!
I hope your journey goes well for you. Don't give up! We are all here for you.
Thank you so much for this comment. I made this post out of frustration for the state of things and a way to see how many others are in a similar boat. Your empathy has caught me off guard and got my head swimming with potential responses. For brevities sake: Thank you. Truly. This means a lot to me right now. Sorry I'm not saying more - your comment deserves a better, or more of a response.
Yea no problem! Don't worry about it! Saying little says a lot more. I tend to type a bit too much sometimes because I have a lot to say. I appreciate it though :D
@ben I told Sloan to sent that message as part of a reply to the comment. Instead, it ignores it and post it as a separate comment, leaving the author confused. Is this a bug?
@hubedav I am so sorry. Feel free to ignore that Sloan Message. It is meant for @adnan-hasan.
Thank you for clarifying that. I would've been confused by that. And maybe a little flattered. 😅
I would be flattered too. To be fair, I thought it will reply to the comment I pointed to, but I was today years old when I realized it does not. Learning experience for me lol.
Again, sorry about that! I do recommend hiding it if you are able to. If not, I hope people see this message lol
Man, I am sorry about your situation, and I feel what you are going through in a small part (due to the eternal job searching process).
The part I can relate to my personal path is that job searching can be a painful road (and much longer than we want).
If it is useful for you, I can hand over a list of links I used to search in my time before living abroad (at least to look for remote opportunities).
Besides that, thank you so much for sharing your story, and I hope you can pass this situation very soon.
Thank you for this. My heart goes out to those in a worse situation also in this job market. If I am facing this, there have to be others in a worse spot.
"If it is useful for you, I can hand over a list of links I used to search..." - a share would be awesome! Even if I don't find it useful, I'm sure someone could. Part of what I love about these sorts of interactions is people outside the conversation benefiting from the exchange. 🤓
David, sorry about my delay.
This is the list I gathered some time ago, hope this can be useful for you.
getonbrd.com/
infojobs.net/
workingnomads.com/
builtin.com/
remoteineurope.com/
jobs.80000hours.org/
welcometothejungle.com/
tradingview.teamtailor.com
eurotechjobs.com/
michaelpage.es/
google.com/about/careers/
pagepersonnel.es/
maltajobs.com/jobs/
euremotejobs.com/
thehub.io/
keepmeposted.com/
If there is any other way to give you a hand, raise your hand, and I will see what I can do.
Oh wow, that's quite a list! Thanks for sharing this!
"If there is any other way to give you a hand, raise your hand, and I will see what I can do." - you've helped by sharing that list. That said, I'm looking at getting into consulting, so if you, your company, or anyone else you know have a problem hit me up. Having navigated and survived cancer, I have a unique perspective and can cut through the BS/noise to solve small business problems. Are there any problems you or your company have been avoiding addressing lately?
thanks for posting this. takes guts.
one thing that makes it worse is the constant "AI is replacing developers" noise. that story is being pushed by companies who literally benefit from you believing it. it makes an already brutal market feel hopeless when it shouldnt.
every major tech shift has created more jobs than it killed. ATMs didnt kill bank tellers. the number went up. spreadsheets didnt kill accountants. demand exploded. the jobs shift but they dont disappear.
your skills have value. the market sucks right now for reasons that have nothing to do with you. hang in there.
Totally agree on the "AI taking jobs". Like other industry and world alterating technologies things will be different. "Different" doesn't mean "gone". That's more of a waiting game. "Waiting for the dust to settle" so to speak.
My big issue in this post is around feeling caught in an impossible position within an already hard market. There are plenty of posts on this platform going over many of the bigger issues going on, so I won't get into those here. The things specific to me here is that I'm screwed regardless of what I say. It's like the other person only hears a "no" to in office and shuts down. Like, "hey, guy. I don't get a choice in my not driving. That's discrimination!" It's about all I can do to stay civil at this point. 😤
That’s quite an experience you had to go through. There’s a lot more to life, and it takes a lot of courage to write things this honestly.
I hope you the best, and that everything works out for you. :)
I don't even know where to start. This is one of the most honest and bravest things I've read on this platform. 🙏
You survived brain cancer. You relearned how to walk, talk, swallow. You came back to work. You got laid off (under suspicious circumstances). You kept going. You launched a SaaS. And now you're dealing with employers illegally discriminating against you and you still have the clarity to call it what it is.
That's not lost. That's exhausted. And you have every right to be.
Let me be direct about the ADA piece because you mentioned it:
What they're doing rejecting you because you can't drive or commute, without discussing reasonable accommodations is illegal. Full stop. The ADA requires employers to engage in an interactive process to find accommodations. They're not even doing that.
So what can you actually do?
Document everything. Every rejection, every statement about commuting, every refusal to discuss accommodations. Screenshots, emails, notes with dates.
Contact the Job Accommodation Network (JAN). Free. Confidential. They specialize in exactly this and they can walk you through your rights and options.
Consider a free consult with an employment lawyer. Many work on contingency for ADA cases. Even a single letter from a lawyer can change how a company responds.
You can file an ADA complaint with the EEOC. It's not fast, but it creates a record. And if this is happening to you, it's happening to others.
But here's the part I want to sit with: You shouldn't have to do any of this. You shouldn't have to be an activist just to work. You already fought harder battles than most people will ever face. And now this.
You asked how to navigate this. Here's my honest answer: You don't navigate it alone. You find one person a lawyer, a disability advocate, a trusted mentor who can carry some of the weight with you.
What's one small step you feel capable of taking this week? Not a big one. Just one.
And yes I'd absolutely read the SaaS post. 🙌
I appreciate this so much. I am absolutely exhausted. One of those other life events I eluded to in my post is trying to keep a recently recovering alcoholic family member and their roommate alive. Both are recovering - one is struggling more than the other. There have been so many other things it's hard to remember everything.
I will definitely look into that JAN, and maybe legal options, if this keeps up. I haven't been recording anything yet - just don't know what should be.
I actually made the post late yesterday: After 6 months, I might have to shut down my API
This story is truly impressive, and I don't even know what to say except to wish you luck. You've had a tough journey, and I hope everything works out for you. 💝👍
Feeling lost is genuinely one of the most common phases in a dev career, and the fact that you're asking about it publicly shows self-awareness most people don't have. My advice: pick ONE thing and build something small with it in a week. Not a tutorial - an actual project that solves a tiny problem you have. The confidence comes from shipping, not from learning more theory. When I felt stuck, I started automating repetitive tasks in my daily life with Python scripts. Each small win compounds, and suddenly you have a portfolio of real things rather than half-finished courses.
I give similar advice to people looking to getting started in their dev journey. I'm actually mentoring an old friend of my wife on this exact thing. So I'm not really lacking in competence or confidence in my dev skills at this point. Where I am lost is with seemingly everyone treating my disability with driving like I have a choice in the matter. As soon as I say anything other than "yes" I get the door slammed in my face. It's incredibly frustrating and deflating while navigating the job market.
@hubedav Firstly, congratulations on the health fight. I hope you keep beating that nasty thing.
Regarding your workplace/application experiences, I'm appalled and disgusted by the way some places have responded. Take this as a sign that they were never going to be the places that made you happy in the long run.
When you find the one that works out, this is your sign of a place with people of good ethics and moral standing. Those are the folks who will support and understand.
It is sad that we have rules against the treatment you have received, yet somehow companies still get away with it.
If I found the right applicant for a position, I would move heaven and earth to make sure they are getting what they need and my full support. I'd also quit any company that treated anyone disrespectfully, because I don't want them reflecting poorly on my personal values.
The very best of luck, hang in there!
Thanks for this. Sounds like we hold the same mentality with this.
FWIW - I've been thinking of those rejections as "well, if that's how you're handling this, I don't want to work with or for you anyways!"
Man, you're brave and strong not to give up, and to just keep going after all that - I don't know if I could handle it ... regarding your question (at the end of your article):
Aren't there any "remote only" positions being advertised anywhere - for sure there are? That would be the ideal option in your situation because:
(1) you don't need to travel and they won't ask you to, and
(2) you don't even need to tell them about your situation (why would you?) so it's not gonna be a reason for them to reject you (while pretending it's not the reason, lol) ...
I thought we moved on from the majority of companies being intent on having their devs in the office one or more days per week - but then again, maybe companies have reverted to their "old habits", which I certainly don't think is progress ...
Well if you're good (which I think you are) then you're gonna find something!
Thanks. I appreciate this.
I've been targeting fully-remote roles, but those are maybe half of what I'm finding out there. At least as many are 'requiring' on-site or hybrid of some sort.
Hearing from others in the market in other industries, yeah it's some broad transition to on-site. To oversimplify - it's stupid.
It's unfortunately a compound issue. My inability to drive is only part of the problems. An over saturated job market is another large factor. "AI experience" is another - hiring managers frequently don't even know what they want there. These two factors lead to hiring managers looking for their "unicorn" employee. Frequently that person doesn't exist in the market.
I know I'll find (or make) something. I just need to make it though a little more "suck". Thanks again. Really.
Half of the positions fully remote, that's still good, maybe just focus on those, makes things way simpler ... and AI, yeah everyone is scrambling to become a 'guru', would be good if you can do something there to sound like one ;-) ... good luck !
Ha! No kidding. I'm planning on picking Harvard's free CS50AI back up to do just that.
"Half of the positions fully remote, that's still good, maybe just focus on those..." Absolutely. Mostly. Generally? Ugh, the nuance is killing me here. I'll respond to that with "Yes, and here's some additional context:", since nothing can be that simple.
I'm going to allow myself to get a bit pedantic here.
First — thank you for sharing this. I know it wasn't easy to write, and I want you to know it matters that you did.I've been hiring and leading engineering teams for over 15 years. What you're describing isn't just frustrating — it's a systemic failure in how our industry handles accommodation requests, and frankly, it's illegal in many of the cases you're describing. You already know that, but I want to validate it clearly: you are not the problem here.
Thanks for that. It's hard to tell with a sample size of one.
Thanks for sharing your story and venting out, if we developers wont listen to each other, who else will.
Good luck for your future assignments.
20+ years in and still hitting walls like this - the market is genuinely broken right now. this was the right place to share it.
It really feels like it. I'm the type of person who would take a crack at solving it - if I had any idea what might help. Pretty sure it's a compound and self-feeding problem on all sides.
yeah that compound/self-feeding framing is exactly it. honestly the itch to solve it is probably the right instinct - just no clean lever to pull anywhere.