Hiring freeze? If only we were so lucky. Imagine half the tech companies around you straight up folding, and the other half laying off half their workforce. Now imagine you're part of this huge sea of newly shit canned developers and there are NO jobs available anywhere. That was pretty much 2001 for me.

It was to the point where I honestly thought this whole internet fad had come to an end and I picked the wrong career path. A very large amount of people I know left the field altogether because they couldn't find work in tech.