Job listings these days are basically a tech buzzword bingo card. Left side: backend technologies like Postgres, Kafka, Kubernetes. Right side: frontend stack with React, Vue, and Tailwind. And recruiters? They want you to be an expert in all of it . The painful truth every developer knows: companies post "entry-level" positions requiring mastery of 15 different technologies, 8 years of experience, and probably the ability to refactor legacy code while blindfolded. Meanwhile, the actual job is maintaining a CRUD app from 2012. The cherry on top? The salary is "competitive" – which translates to "we'll pay you half what you're worth but hey, we have free snacks in the break room!"