Why Your Code Isn’t Enough: The Hard Truth About Getting Hired in Tech in 2025

You’ve been told that learning to code is enough — but if that were true, why are so many talented developers still unemployed? What you’re missing has nothing to do with your code…

Layoffs are not new to me. I used to think there was simply nothing I could do about it and that it was 100% out of my control.

Later on in my career, I realized that wasn’t always the case.

I have coached many developers, junior and senior alike, who struggled to land high-paying tech jobs, or any tech job for that matter. The common problems I’ve noticed with many of them: they are unable or unwilling to show the business value they offer through the code they write.

Many portfolios I’ve seen contain apps from YouTube tutorials. Just simply To-Do apps and Netflix clones with no depth. The apps don’t show what problem they solve.

If a company could solve all their problems without you, they would. When an organization hires a software engineer or any engineer, they want a tangible solution that helps them do one or more of these three things: