How treating my job search like a product problem helped me see what’s really making software engineering recruitment hard in 2026

Get ready for a bit of a ramble about looking for a job as a software engineer in 2026. No, it's not about AI changing the definition of software engineering in 2026. But there's obviously some truth in that. It's about product engineering. Specifically, it's about the challenges engineers face when searching for new opportunities because of the massive shift toward product engineering. I should preface what comes next with this: Searching for a software engineering job in 2026 is really hard. Scroll through LinkedIn or any software career blog and you'll see plenty of posts about how the recruitment system is broken, how good engineers are being ghosted, how CVs are being filtered out by AI screening for keywords. These frustrations are valid, but... you know what else is really hard in 2026? Being a software engineering recruiter. Being a software engineering hiring manager. And software engineering is about solving problems. With that said, you can't solve a problem you don't define. So to lay the foundation, I want to address some challenges I've recognised before addressing what can be done about them. The Problem Space First, the thing that's been haunting me for the last 6 months. Impact articulation . I suspect this isn't a problem that's unique to product engineering, but it's certainly one I've faced as a product engineer. Earlier this year, I completed full interview processes with two separate companies. I felt confident about both. The roles were the type of engineering I'm great at: sitting close to users, working through ambiguity and owning product areas end to end. But neither resulted in a job offer. The feedback I received was surprisingly consistent: I demonstrated strong technical execution, methodical problem-solving, clear communication and product judgement, and consistently sought to understand the "why" behind the "how". But also, I struggled to connect my product decisions to business or user outcomes. It was clear that I was a great engin