I was laid off three weeks ago after spending four years as a Software Engineer in the fintech sector. My last day was September 1st, and although it hasn't been long, I'm already feeling quite demotivated in this challenging job market. During my time in the industry, I built and maintained banking applications, supported production issues, and worked on automated and functional testing, including performance testing for client-specific releases. My tech stack is pretty extensive, including Java, Spring Boot, REST APIs, Kubernetes, Docker, Cucumber, Jenkins, GCP, React, YAML, Bash/Shell, and Linux. In the past three weeks, I've sent out nearly 200 applications for various roles like Software Engineer, application/product support, QA/SDET, and DevOps. Unfortunately, I'm hardly receiving any calls back. It feels overwhelming to see job postings with 100+ applicants, which makes me doubt my chances of getting back into the industry. I find myself obsessively checking job boards like Indeed and LinkedIn throughout the day, even considering unrelated jobs that pay around $50k, which is concerning me. I've had two screening calls, but I was so discouraged going into them that I feel my energy was off. The worst part is the nagging voice in my head telling me I'm wasting my time applying and that I should look for something else to do. Knowing people in tech who have been searching for months only adds to my anxiety. I'm reaching out to anyone who has been laid off recently or has gone through this before: how did you manage to stay motivated? Did you eventually find another role in tech?