First IT Job Is Harder: Your 48-Hour Plan

Mezha recently reported what most people already feel: entry-level IT jobs are shrinking. The market is tightening, companies want 2+ years of experience, and junior roles are quietly disappearing from job boards. That's not a reason to panic. It is a reason to act differently from what most articles suggest. Here's what to actually do in the first 48 hours after deciding to look for your first IT job, or after getting laid off.

Why It's Harder Now and What That Means in Practice

The shrinking of junior roles isn't new, but it's more noticeable now. A few reasons, plainly stated. First, companies that used to hire junior devs to "grow them internally" are now under pressure: less investment, more caution. Second, AI tools let one mid-level dev handle work that three people used to split. Third, the market is saturated with bootcamp graduates. Everyone took the same course, everyone has similar pet projects, everyone wrote the same CV.

What does that mean for you? That an average strategy will get average results, meaning nothing. If you're sending 30 applications a week with the same CV and getting no replies, you're not in the queue. You're just in the pile.

First 24 Hours: CV and LinkedIn

The first instinct after hearing about job cuts is to mass-blast your resume. Don't do that until you've done these three things first.

1. Check Your CV Against a Concrete Checklist

• Every experience bullet starts with a result verb: built, reduced, automated, increased. Not "was responsible for" or "worked on".
• There's at least one number, even if it's from a pet project. "Reduced page load from 4.2s to 1.8s" beats "optimized performance" every single time.
• No 5-sentence "About Me" section. If you have one, cut it to one line or delete it entirely.
• Skills are grouped by category, not listed in one long comma-separated line. ATS reads structure.
• There's a link to GitHub or portfolio, and it actually works. Check it. Seriously.

If you want to understand how your CV looks from a recruiter's or ATS perspective, try Trackr's AI CV Analyzer. It gives specific feedback line by line, not generic "add keywords" advice.

2. LinkedIn: Three Changes in One Hour

• Headline. Instead of "Junior Frontend Developer | Looking for work" write specifically: "React Developer | TypeScript, REST API | Open to Junior & Trainee roles". Recruiters search by keywords, not by status.
• Open to Work. Turn it on, but choose "Recruiters only" if you're still officially employed. If not, Public is fine. Set job types and locations precisely, don't leave everything selected.
• About. The first sentence should answer: "What do you do and what are you looking for?" Not "I'm a passionate developer who dreams of...". Something like: "Frontend developer with 1 year of commercial experience in React. Looking for a junior role in a product company."

Next 24 Hours: The First 5 Emails

Not 50 applications. Exactly 5. But the right ones. Here's the logic: when there are fewer jobs, competition for each one is higher. One well-written letter with a personalized opening does more than 10 mindlessly submitted through a form.

How to Pick These 5

1. 1Find 5 jobs where you match at least 60-70% of the requirements. Don't wait for 100%, it doesn't exist.
2. 2For each job, find the company on LinkedIn. See who works there. Is there someone from Ukraine or with a similar background? That's a potential contact.
3. 3Check if the company has a blog, GitHub or Twitter. If yes, find something specific to mention in the email. One sentence. "Saw your post about migrating to Bun.js, interesting case."
4. 4Write a cover letter in 3 paragraphs: what you can do, why this specific company, what you can contribute in the first 3 months.
5. 5Send it and log it in a tracker. Without a tracker, in a week you won't remember where or when you applied.

For tracking applications, Trackr's Job Tracker works well. It has a 14-stage Kanban from "found the job" to "offer accepted". The point is seeing your whole pipeline in one place, not scattered across browser tabs.

What Not to Do in the First 48 Hours

• Don't start a course. If you already have the basics, one more course won't get you a job faster. Apply first.
• Don't keep endlessly updating your CV. At some point the CV is good enough. Perfectionism here is more harmful than actual mistakes in the resume.
• Don't wait for a reply from the first application before sending the next. The pipeline needs to be active at all times.
• Don't get stuck comparing yourself to others. Especially on LinkedIn. Everyone looks more successful there than they actually are.
• Don't ignore small companies. In a market where big players are shrinking, it's often outsource studios and small product companies that still hire juniors.

After 48 Hours: System Over Sprint

The first 48 hours is the warm-up. After that you need a system. The market right now means job searching takes longer than it did a year ago. If you're only ready for "two weeks of active search", it's going to be tough. But if you have structure, it's manageable.

A rhythm that actually works: 5-7 new applications per week, each customized at least minimally. Every week, one or two follow-ups on applications with no reply after 7+ days. Every two weeks, review your CV and update LinkedIn based on what recruiters are actually asking. Alongside that, one networking contact per week. Not spam, just one honest message to someone who could be useful.

One Fact Worth Keeping in Mind

The market is tightening, but it hasn't closed. New jobs appear every week, even junior-level ones. The difference between those who find work and those who don't is rarely about talent. More often it's about who has a system versus who is just reacting to the panic.

Short version: use the next 48 hours not to send as many applications as possible, but to make sure every next application has a better shot. That's the whole difference.