Tech hiring’s heating up 🔥
Plus: what's actually moving the needle when it comes to building your tech team?
Hey there,
Tech hiring right now is a weird mix. Some teams are quietly scaling up, others are slamming the brakes. Job posts go live, then disappear. Devs are walking away from slow or messy processes. And top candidates? They’ve got options.
This edition cuts through the noise with:
Why 1 in 4 job ads lead nowhere
What you should learn to nail your next interview
What devs actually want (hint: it’s not ping pong)
How the best teams are hiring in 14–21 days
Let’s get into it 👇
⚡ Quick Hits
🧠 Microsoft’s layoffs: a resource shift, not panic - Microsoft has cut 9,000+ roles in July — but the bigger story is what they’re funding instead. The company saved $500M+ using AI automation and is reinvesting heavily in cloud, LLM infra, and AI-native teams.
📉 1 in 4 roles are never filled - New analysis shows 26% of jobs posted on company career pages are pulled before anyone’s hired — leaving candidates ghosted and frustrated.
🇬🇧 UK labour market cooling — but tech stays steady - The UK hiring market slowed sharply in June, with permanent placements falling and candidate availability rising for the first time in months.
📊 Candidate experience is now a C-level concern - More companies are tracking candidate NPS, time-to-offer, and dropouts — not just hires.
🌀 Framework burnout is back - Devs are pushing back against the endless churn of JavaScript ecosystems.
⚡️ Wider AI Talent Race & 'Acqui‑hires' - Big Tech firms are increasingly pursuing “acqui-hires”—Google paid $2.4 billion to recruit AI talent, while Meta shelled out $14 billion to acquire Scale AI’s workforce.
🛠 Dev Corner: What to actually learn now
From system design to prompt engineering, these are the skills hiring managers actually care about — and how to prove you’ve got them.
🧱 System Design
Still the #1 gap for mid-senior dev interviews.
→ System Design Primer (GitHub)
🤖 Prompt Engineering
Still growing — especially when paired with product or data engineering.
→ Free: LearnPrompting.org
🗣 Communicating complexity
Being able to explain what you built (and why) is a killer skill.
→ How to explain complex systems
📬 EXTRA: Why devs actually quit
Spoiler: it’s not just about pay. Developers are walking away from burnout-heavy environments and “always-on” stress.
→ Why More Developers Are Quitting Burnout Jobs for Balance in 2025
📣 Hiring Signals: What we’re seeing behind the scenes
What’s moving the needle (and what’s stalling it) in tech hiring right now — based on real data from the Haystack community and the wider market.
💼 Hiring freeze ≠ no hiring
Infra, backend, and AI-native roles are still getting filled — especially when tied to revenue or uptime. Quiet headcount shifts ≠ market collapse.
⚡ Speed = success
Teams who run interviews within 48 hours of intro are:
3× more likely to make a hire
60% less likely to get ghosted
Hiring in as little as 14–21 days
📉 Why candidates drop out
The top 3 reasons we’re seeing:
No follow-up after the first interview
Too many stages (3+ = major drop-off risk)
The role changes mid-process (scope creep, title shifts, new decision-makers)
🧠 Drift kills momentum
When hiring priorities shift mid-cycle or no one owns the outcome, things stall. Assign a DRI (Directly Responsible Individual). Avoid the “let’s see who’s out there” trap.
🌍 Remote = retention
Even soft RTO mandates (“2 days a week”) are causing devs to walk away. Remote-first roles consistently attract higher intent.
🛠 Smart TA teams are rebalancing
Less budget going into spray-and-pray sourcing. More into:
Candidate experience
Interviewer training
Role clarity
P.S are you hiring at the moment? Let’s chat 👇
📊 Bonus: What’s your team worth?
We analysed thousands of roles to build the 2025 UK Tech Salary Report. It breaks down salary bands by:
📍 Region (London, North, Midlands, Scotland)
💼 Role (Frontend, DevOps, Mobile, AI, etc)
📈 Level (Junior → Principal)
→ Read the full 2025 Salary Report
⭐️ Haystack Spotlight: Tribe Connect
This month, we’re spotlighting Tribe Connect — a retail IoT company helping consumer tech brands run immersive in-store product demos that actually work.
From eSIM-enabled demo devices to real-time compliance alerts, their platform powers live shopper experiences in stores across the UK and beyond.
They’re currently hiring through Haystack for:
🔥 Android App Developers (Contract)
📚 What we’re reading
Top insights shaping the 2025 tech job market
🔍 UK job seekers hitting post‑COVID highs
Data from REC and KPMG shows June saw the fastest rise in UK job hunting since Nov 2020—driven by economic uncertainty and tax hikes.
→ Number of UK job hunters at fastest rate since COVID (The Guardian)
🎓 Graduate roles shrinking — AI playing a part
Entry-level tech positions are down by a third, and AI is accelerating the trend. Graduates with AI literacy are better positioned—even in smaller firms.
→ ‘Workforce crisis’: key takeaways for graduates battling AI (The Guardian)
🧠 16% fewer talented employees stick around under RTO mandates
Rigid RTO policies are pushing high-skill tech talent to stay remote—or to leave entirely.
→ Study: RTO mandates hurt retention
🛠 The rise of multi-skilled developers
Firms now prioritise generalist engineers with AI, backend, and platform chops—versus siloed specialists.
→ The 2025 Tech Hiring Boom: Why Companies Want Multi-Skilled Developers
🌐 Skill-first hiring accelerating
New World Economic Forum report highlights how employers are increasingly choosing skill-based signals over degrees.
→ Future of Jobs Report 2025 (WEF)
💸 Refer & Earn
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