By Scott, Founder at Tides Digital

When I think back to where the tech hiring market was three years ago, it feels like a very different environment.

Not just in terms of volume, but in how people were thinking about growth, teams and what “good” hiring actually looked like.

In 2022, everything was moving quickly. There was a sense of momentum across the market and a real confidence in building. Companies were growing their teams at pace, often ahead of demand, and hiring felt like a race to keep up with opportunity. There were a lot of roles open at any one time, and the focus was on moving fast and getting people in the door.

It was an exciting time, and in many ways it pushed the industry forward. But what stands out to me now is how much clarity has developed since then.

Over the following couple of years, the market naturally found a different rhythm. Hiring slowed down, not in a way that removed opportunity, but in a way that encouraged people to think more carefully about what they actually needed. Roles became more defined. Conversations became more thoughtful. There was a shift toward understanding where real impact sat within a team, rather than simply adding more capacity.

That change has carried through into where we are now.

What I see today, across the teams we work with, is a much clearer link between hiring and technical direction. CTOs and engineering leaders are thinking about their systems, their product and their roadmap first, and then shaping hiring around that. It feels more deliberate, and in many cases more effective.

AI has played a big part in that shift, though maybe not in the way people expected.

It hasn’t just created demand for new roles. It’s changed what people expect from the roles that already exist. Engineers are able to move faster, to work across different parts of the stack and to take on more ownership of what they build. That has influenced how teams are structured and how work flows through them.

I’ve noticed that conversations about hiring now tend to focus less on individual tasks and more on outcomes. There’s more emphasis on understanding how a system behaves as a whole, how different components interact and how decisions made early on affect what happens later in production.

That’s led to a different kind of engineer becoming more visible.

People who are comfortable with complexity. Who understand their core area deeply, but also have a sense of how everything connects. Who are able to step back and think about the product, not just the code. It’s a subtle shift, but it comes up consistently in conversations.

At the same time, candidates have become more considered in how they approach their careers. The best engineers I speak to are taking the time to understand where they can have the most impact, who they’ll be working with and how a team operates day to day. They’re looking for environments where they can contribute meaningfully and continue to develop.

That has made hiring feel more balanced. There’s a level of thoughtfulness on both sides that perhaps wasn’t always there before.

When I look at what has driven these changes, it feels like a combination of factors coming together at the right time. The market has matured. Technology has evolved. And both companies and individuals have learned from the pace of the previous cycle.

What’s emerged is something that feels more sustainable.

Teams are being built with a clearer sense of purpose. Roles are designed around real needs. And hiring decisions are made with a longer-term view in mind.

For me, that’s been the most interesting part of the last three years.

It’s easy to focus on how many roles are open or how quickly things are moving, but the more meaningful change has been in how people think about building teams in the first place.

And looking ahead, I think that continues.

The tools will keep evolving. AI will keep developing. But the teams that stand out will be the ones that understand what they’re trying to build and bring in people who can genuinely contribute to that.

From where I sit, that’s a good place for the market to be.