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Ask HN: Are you negatively affected by the recent economic stagnation?

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Re: Ask HN: Are you negatively affected by the recent economic stagnation?

#11

Post by nicbou »

Fewer people migrate to Germany, and those who already migrated struggle to find jobs. My website helps people settle in Germany. Many of my colleagues are relocation consultants. They feel the difference. I spoke with someone at the city's talent and business promotion board and they see it too.

I have much more unemployed friends and they stay unemployed longer. Employers have started requiring fluent German.

For me, AI is a bigger threat. It wrecked my prospects as a developer, which was always my fallback if the site failed. Then LLMs and AI overviews started wrecking my traffic. It made me divert a lot of attention away from making the website helpful, towards making it resilient.

Re: Ask HN: Are you negatively affected by the recent economic stagnation?

#12

Post by thiago_fm »

nicbou wrote: post #11

Fewer people migrate to Germany, and those who already migrated struggle to find jobs. My website helps people settle in Germany. Many of my colleagues are relocation consultants. They feel the difference. I spoke with someone at the city's talent and business promotion board and they see it too. I have much more unemployed friends and they stay unemployed longer. Employers have started requiring fluent German. For m…

If nicbou the builder is having a hard time, that's all the economic downturn data point I need.

I share a similar sentiment about Germany. I mean, we do have a recession for a couple of years already.

As a Software Developer, I've experienced layoffs of International companies just nuking their German team, for both cost and law risks (from people trying to create a worker council and the like).

I'm still employed because of my YOE, my skills & a wide network of people that have seen the quality of my work, but I see even previous CTOs and great engineers without a job.

Maybe in the years ahead, I might need to work doing something else.

I've always wanted to go to trade school and run my own business anyways, just didn't due to software engineering being so fun, interesting, challenging and ofc, well-paid.

I've been practicing my German a lot (C1+), so in worst case scenario I can do other work, maybe become an electrician or something that involves moving atoms, rather than bits.

Re: Ask HN: Are you negatively affected by the recent economic stagnation?

#13

Post by notahacker »

chistev wrote: post #8
csomar wrote: post #2

I have been out of work for roughly two years, though I should note that, for religious reasons, I have limited my search to positions involving Rust. Toward the end of last year, however, it seemed that the situation was beginning to improve: new job postings appeared that looked credible, and by the start of this year I had two interviews (both initiated by companies themselves). In one case, I advanced to the late…

How have you survived for 2 years without a job?

all comes down to accumulated savings and personal burn rate. Much easier for some people than others to budget for, but generally "software developer" isn't one of the more difficult positions to earn the right to be picky...

Re: Ask HN: Are you negatively affected by the recent economic stagnation?

#14

Post by al_borland »

My salary hasn't kept up with inflation, but I had some really good years before that, while keeping my expenses low, so I've been ok. I've always been pretty obsessed with keeping my fixed costs low, which helps in times like these.

I have been questioning if I need to adjust some things based on what seem to be higher monthly costs, or if I've just had a few months of one-off expenses that make it feel that way. It would probably take me a few hours to sit down and figure this out and I haven't had the chance.

Re: Ask HN: Are you negatively affected by the recent economic stagnation?

#15

Post by nicbou »

thiago_fm wrote: post #12
nicbou wrote: post #11

Fewer people migrate to Germany, and those who already migrated struggle to find jobs. My website helps people settle in Germany. Many of my colleagues are relocation consultants. They feel the difference. I spoke with someone at the city's talent and business promotion board and they see it too. I have much more unemployed friends and they stay unemployed longer. Employers have started requiring fluent German. For m…

If nicbou the builder is having a hard time, that's all the economic downturn data point I need. I share a similar sentiment about Germany. I mean, we do have a recession for a couple of years already. As a Software Developer, I've experienced layoffs of International companies just nuking their German team, for both cost and law risks (from people trying to create a worker council and the like). I'm still employed b…

Do you see an impact on how people behave at work?

Re: Ask HN: Are you negatively affected by the recent economic stagnation?

#16

Post by raw_anon_1111 »

notahacker wrote: post #13
chistev wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How have you survived for 2 years without a job?

all comes down to accumulated savings and personal burn rate. Much easier for some people than others to budget for, but generally "software developer" isn't one of the more difficult positions to earn the right to be picky...

So it isn’t difficult to earn the right to be picky. But yet here you are unemployed for two years and burning through savings because of fealty toward a language…

Re: Ask HN: Are you negatively affected by the recent economic stagnation?

#18

Post by notahacker »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #16
notahacker wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

all comes down to accumulated savings and personal burn rate. Much easier for some people than others to budget for, but generally "software developer" isn't one of the more difficult positions to earn the right to be picky...

So it isn’t difficult to earn the right to be picky. But yet here you are unemployed for two years and burning through savings because of fealty toward a language…

I'm not the OP, and fealty to a language isn't why I was picky. But the reality is many software developers have substantial savings from a combination of well above average wages and non-extravagant tastes, and career paths which aren't based upon tenure, so they can always say "and others are busy accumulating two years of savings they'll never need doing things they don't want to do, because it's the default..."

Re: Ask HN: Are you negatively affected by the recent economic stagnation?

#19

Post by raw_anon_1111 »

notahacker wrote: post #18
raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it isn’t difficult to earn the right to be picky. But yet here you are unemployed for two years and burning through savings because of fealty toward a language…

I'm not the OP, and fealty to a language isn't why I was picky. But the reality is many software developers have substantial savings from a combination of well above average wages and non-extravagant tastes, and career paths which aren't based upon tenure, so they can always say "and others are busy accumulating two years of savings they'll never need doing things they don't want to do, because it's the default..."

And unless your investments are self sustaining - ie they throw off enough earnings to support your lifestyle without going into the principal - it is still dumb to have fealty to a language as the only reason you aren’t working.

He talked about a “burn rate” so he obviously isn’t in that position.

Re: Ask HN: Are you negatively affected by the recent economic stagnation?

#20

Post by notahacker »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #19
notahacker wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not the OP, and fealty to a language isn't why I was picky. But the reality is many software developers have substantial savings from a combination of well above average wages and non-extravagant tastes, and career paths which aren't based upon tenure, so they can always say "and others are busy accumulating two years of savings they'll never need doing things they don't want to do, because it's the default..."

And unless your investments are self sustaining - ie they throw off enough earnings to support your lifestyle without going into the principal - it is still dumb to have fealty to a language as the only reason you aren’t working. He talked about a “burn rate” so he obviously isn’t in that position.

I talked about the burn rate. Personally I doubt using a particular language I specialised in would be a dealbreaker if I wrote code for a living, but I find the mentality that one must in all cases spend 40+ hours a week working in jobs less well matched to ones skillset and interests out of fealty to not consuming any part of the principal of ones savings (irrespective of how large they are) or making any other lifestyle changes even more unfathomable.
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