abright

I've been looking for a new job on and off since February and have had no luck despite participating in the final round of interviews for two different companies (one was a pretty large and well-respected company from Australia). I have over 8 years of experience doing full-stack web development and supposedly scored in the 80th-100th percentile on Triplebyte's generalist interview. I have worn many hats from being a sysadmin, junior code monkey, architect, and mentor.

Other relevant points, I'm based in Pittsburgh and not looking to move and I'm 35 years old.

Admittedly, I've been very selective with where I'm applying since I don't want to get stuck in a terrible culture which I've gotten better at identifying. Otherwise, what am i doing wrong?

I've been a software developer for eight (8) years now and while my programming skills are decent I think I've developed a much better sense of how teams function (or don't) and processes that help or harm the operations of a team.

All of that to say, the management track seems like the entry-level job paradox. You need management experience to get into the role so there's no way to get that original experience. I'm also coming at this from the perspective of someone who is currently under a manager who simply got the role due to seniority and only plays the manager role when absolutely necessary and I believe that my "team" has a ton of untapped potential because of the lack of true leadership.