Ask HN: Is the Job Market Actually Bad? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Is the Job Market Actually Bad?

#151

Post by kristianp » Sun, May 03, 2026, 5:31 AM UTC

Noumenon72 wrote: post #102

tim-tday wrote: post #88

Having them reach out to you is key. Most job postings get thousands of applicants. I don’t think it’s possible to screen them. I just waded through the first 20 till I found someone who would work and hired him. I most certainly could have done better if I wanted to do a lot of filter and screen legwork. When they reach out you’re skipping the hardest 13mo of the job search. To anyone considering quitting, search fi…

I took your point to be "hirers would rather that job seekers contact them directly than look through resumes", but then your example is one where no one contacted you and you hired without looking through many resumes anyway. That doesn't really prove your point, and makes it sound like advice for people who don't much care who they hire. Anyway, if people start to follow the advice of reaching out directly, that ch…

They meant hirers contacting future employees.

Re: Ask HN: Is the Job Market Actually Bad?

#152

Post by senko » Sun, May 03, 2026, 5:35 AM UTC

> I constantly get contacted by recruiters

> I got laid off recently and I had a new job within a week

> Currently I’m waiting for a final decision from another fully remote company and I’m in midstage with 2 more.

> How unusual is this experience?

Yes, unusual. Most people aren't this active with their interviewing. You basically have a full deal pipeline.

Re: Ask HN: Is the Job Market Actually Bad?

#153

Post by dividendflow » Sun, May 03, 2026, 5:55 AM UTC

[flagged]

Re: Ask HN: Is the Job Market Actually Bad?

#154

Post by tavavex » Sun, May 03, 2026, 6:02 AM UTC

I'm surprised no one here talked about the junior side of the market yet. It's underrepresented on HN, but I would have still expected to see something. I'll share what I subjectively gathered from this job market.

Senior devs, people with many years of experience, people who have had the chance to funnel themselves into something specialized are doing okay. It's still not as good as it once was, many still find themselves out of a job and unable to find another one without having to settle for worse conditions or a lower wage, but the squeeze isn't nearly as bad on them.

For juniors and new grads, it's a bloodbath. The best people I know are sending hundreds of tailored job applications to try and get just about anything, and it's still almost impossible. Rates of applications to interviews are probably Basically, it seems like the sides of the job market are diverging. People who are already in are usually still in. You're either doing great or living through the most hopeless and soul-crushing time of your professional life, with a small portion of outliers in either group.

Re: Ask HN: Is the Job Market Actually Bad?

#155

Post by porridgeraisin » Sun, May 03, 2026, 6:57 AM UTC

alephnerd wrote: post #106

porridgeraisin wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see you read the srinivas narayan article :P He's moving back close to where I stay. Many others from the big labs are moving back to their core EE field into stuff like optical networks for data centers and so on by the way. That is a lot of the attrition.

> I see you read the srinivas narayan article Nope. At his level and position I doubt that is actually the primary reason simply because at his level, a way would have been found to retain him despite family issues (eg. opening an OpenAI tech office in Bangalore, Hyderabad, or Chennai or make him GM for OpenAI in India). Something else is going on with Srinivas' departure - either pushed out by Fidji or planning on s…

Why would it lead to litigation?

And yeah that makes sense on the returning from the bay part. Many of those people ended up being fodder for startups here to poach. Work with a few of them.

Re: Ask HN: Is the Job Market Actually Bad?

#156

Post by roymain » Sun, May 03, 2026, 7:21 AM UTC

I have spoken to a couple of founders in the last few months and what I keep hearing isn't "we're not hiring" but "we're hiring fewer juniors and being pickier about the ones we take." The bar for what a screen actually tests for moved a lot in the last 18 months and most companies haven't caught up. Its like everyone has so much to absorb before they can decide who to pick. Most down-selected candidates have gone through 5-6 rounds of interview in their selection process.

Re: Ask HN: Is the Job Market Actually Bad?

#157

Post by taurath » Sun, May 03, 2026, 7:44 AM UTC

sputknick wrote: post #20

I've been looking for 4 months and only had one phone screen from HR. Cybersecurity in Raleigh, my last employer was MAG 7. My particular problem is I took off 6 years to be a stay-at-home parent.

I was able to get 2 offers last year after a 4 year break (distributed systems), but it was difficult to get thru front doors, references make a bigger difference nowadays.

I took a position 1 level down from previous to pay the bills. Am now interviewing for positions 2 above since I’m already performing at that level and my current company is too bureaucratic to bump me quick enough.

Re: Ask HN: Is the Job Market Actually Bad?

#158

Post by dgellow » Sun, May 03, 2026, 7:50 AM UTC

luke5441 wrote: post #60

alephnerd wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why do you want to have non-complaining worker drones We want opinionated engineers. But we want engineers who will respond to a slack message after 5pm during a P1 escalation. > I'd more guess it is that there is a severe income tax advantage Somewhat but not enough to move the needle because depending on the local government, they are matching cross-EU subsidizes. > older people from those countries are good at k…

It's idk 10% for B2B in Poland and more than 50% in western Europe. Of course if you pay someone 135k vs 70k real income the first person will put in more effort. In western Europe you'd just have to specify the availability requirements and they'd do it there as well. You'd just have to pay for it. Edit: If you pay someone 150k€ in Germany what they see after-tax is just not that much. They are going to compare this…

> If you pay someone 150k€ in Germany what they see after-tax is just not that much

For Germany this in not true, I have direct experience of this. Your income is really high at 150k€, even taking in account all taxes you pay if you’re self–employed (plus insurances, social security contributions, etc). You’re way above what you would get from the German market, unless you go into management.

Re: Ask HN: Is the Job Market Actually Bad?

#159

Post by disgruntledphd2 » Sun, May 03, 2026, 8:03 AM UTC

alephnerd wrote: post #110

multjoy wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But we want engineers who will respond to a slack message after 5pm during a P1 escalation. Then you're going to have to pay, aren't you.

We do. €130K-€170K TC is at the top of the range across ALL of Europe outside of HFT. Even London Investments Bankers don't make that much outside the 75th percentile and above. Money ain't a problem, attitude is. The Western Europeans with the right attitude either move to America (eg. I'm sponsoring the O-1 of 2 founders who are shifting from London to SF for that reason) or end up becoming leadership for American…

75th percentile pay doesn't go as far as it used to, tbh. I'm on about that in Western Europe and am looking for more as my costs have increased massively.

And even though I could easily move to London (modulo family) I wouldn't as the wages there are much worse for my specialty.

Honestly based on talking to friends and former colleagues I think you're probably underpaying for many Western European markets, TC of 200k is where it's at now.

I'll leave your attitude comments out as I don't have enough context to reply effectively.

Re: Ask HN: Is the Job Market Actually Bad?

#160

Post by multjoy » Sun, May 03, 2026, 8:30 AM UTC

alephnerd wrote: post #110

multjoy wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But we want engineers who will respond to a slack message after 5pm during a P1 escalation. Then you're going to have to pay, aren't you.

We do. €130K-€170K TC is at the top of the range across ALL of Europe outside of HFT. Even London Investments Bankers don't make that much outside the 75th percentile and above. Money ain't a problem, attitude is. The Western Europeans with the right attitude either move to America (eg. I'm sponsoring the O-1 of 2 founders who are shifting from London to SF for that reason) or end up becoming leadership for American…

"Am I the problem? No, it must be the employees"