The Breaking Point: From Demant to the Unknown

My realization that it was time to leave Demant didn’t happen gradually; it happened the moment I returned from vacation to find the landscape shifted for the worse. I was handed a second manager—a stooping, incompetent individual who lacked the basic sense required for the role. After 18 months in that “cesspool,” it became clear: nothing was going to change.

In 2023, I began my hunt for a Lead Microelectronics Engineer position in Copenhagen. What I discovered was a job market that felt more like a circus than a professional landscape.

The “Second Job”: Fighting the Gatekeepers

Job hunting today is a full-time commitment. I spent 1–2 hours daily tailoring CVs and Cover Letters. In the modern world, you aren’t writing for humans; you are writing for “thick” HR departments or, worse, poorly calibrated AI. If your keywords don’t match their arbitrary filters in the first three lines, your decades of expertise go into the trash.

My Advice: Your CV is only truly read once it reaches an engineer. If your first interview isn’t with a future teammate or a technical lead, consider it a red flag.

Balancing this search with my sports and YouTube channel while trying to recover from the daily grind was exhausting. The silence from the market was deafening.

The Hall of Shame: Company Breakdowns

Despite sending out nearly 500 applications over two years, the feedback loop was abysmal:

  • Microsoft (Quantum Computing): I had one interview. The vibe was “corporate circus.” The interviewer looked miserable, and the team dynamic seemed toxic. I consider it a bullet dodged.
  • Sophion Bioscience A/S: One interview, then total radio silence. The interviewers couldn’t even explain what they did or what the role required. A “scorched earth” environment.
  • KLA/CAPRES (The Worst Experience): A six-month marathon of five interviews, including a trip to Denmark for an in-person meet. They promised a decision in a week. Instead, I got two months of ghosting. Follow-ups were ignored. Then the HR went on vacation—a classic stall tactic. A company that hires this poorly cannot possibly produce quality equipment. They are officially on my blacklist.

The “Competitor” Comedy: GN and Widex

Since I came from Demant, I looked at their rivals. It was a joke:

  • GN: I applied for an NPI Engineer role that perfectly matched my Demant experience. Result? Total ghosting. Not even a rejection letter.
  • Widex A/S: Another circus. The HR was based in Poland (a strange Danish trend of outsourcing talent acquisition to save pennies). The recruiter didn’t understand the job description, couldn’t explain the team structure, and didn’t know if the role was even technical. Naturally, they ghosted me too.

The “Phantom” Job Market

One of the most absurd observations from my two-year search: The Perpetual Vacancy. I saw the same roles circulating every six months. They aren’t being filled; they are just being reposted. Whether these are “fake” ghost jobs, HR incompetence, or corporate idiocy, it makes the entire Danish market look like a facade.

Final Verdict: The Decline of Denmark

I was eventually let go from Demant. In their eyes, I was “confrontational.” In reality, I refuse to tolerate narcissism, idiocy, or corporate brainwashing disguised as “the way things are.”

Looking at Demant now, they are still hiring “managers of managers” and “equality managers” instead of actual producers. The trend is clear:

  1. Technical roles have dried up.
  2. The immigration/visa regime is actively pushing specialists out.
  3. An economic crisis feels inevitable.

Getting out of that “cesspool” was the best thing that could have happened. It was an experience better observed from a distance than felt on one’s own skin.