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Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#381

Post by lmeyerov »

conductr wrote: post #75
BossingAround wrote: post #2

Seeing as the stock market is utterly tanking, I would be very surprised if the world didn't go into recession, and consequently, if there weren't a number of people losing their jobs in order to make the businesses lean again. This is especially true of countries like the US, where it seems very simple to fire someone.

People keep saying “recession” but that sounds like they don’t understand the implications of what’s happening to the world economy right now. “Global depression” seems like a more appropriate term but time will tell. I’m a CFO of $300M company that employees ~2200 employees. We’re out of cash in 6 weeks if our revenue continues to decline. Down 30% vs last year this week (which is good compared to most). Doing layof…

Sell some stock and come out stronger than competitors. Lobotomizing hurts more if you're good. If you can't, well, that says a lot about the owners and company when push comes to shove. Not the narrative, but fundamentals.

Of course, if $300M is VC ponzi valuation money, this was 80% fake anyways, and dependent on funny math continuing until the company caught up to the hype or exited to Someone Else's Problem, but that was the game being played. Then yes, time to cut. 2K people sucks, but like Uber employees complaining about RSU devaluation.. sucks, but you are the 1% and will ride it out.

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#382

Post by user68858788 »

wise0wl wrote: post #146
navaati wrote: post #27

I’ve been let go on Thursday, of a DevOps job that had started on Wednesday. I’m a contractor so I can’t really complain, that’s how the game is played. The job was in the car rental industry, they are suffering heavily so of course the contractors are the first to go. It was my first job after coming back to my home country, and that move have let me pretty dry money wise. Eh… At least they’ll employ me ’till the en…

We are hiring, not sure where you are but we offer relocation. For now we are working from home, so for now that probably wouldn't be an issue. https://careers.blizzard.com/en-us/openings/onAAbfws

How's working in battle.net? I interned on a dev team in 2014 and the general consensus was that work conditions were pretty rough. Is that still the case?

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#383

Post by winter_blue »

arcboii92 wrote: post #229

I resigned from my current role because the office culture is terrible, and I hate being around pretty much all the people outside of the IT team. I was offered 6 figures as a counter offer for the first time in my career, which I turned down. That was last week. New Zealand (where I'm from) hasn't shut down yet, but everything is so bleak, and I'm regretting turning down the offer. I start working from home tomorrow…

> I'm regretting turning down the offer

Ask them if it's still on the table. I know you're going to feel terrible asking that, but you have to realize that you are probably a very valuable employee to them, who knows their systems well. Considering you might be leaving in 2 weeks, there is nothing to lose in asking (other than maybe pride).

> Whats worse is I emailed the new job asking if we're still going ahead with me starting, and there was no reply.

This is extremely messed, and a huge red flag. It's extremely unprofessional and rude to offer someone a job, and then not even have the courtesy to communicate if the offer is being rescinded.

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#384

Post by moltar »

jee1shi wrote: post #373
dathinab wrote: post #192

My predictions: DISCLAIMER: I'm not a expert wrt. any of this. Don't listen to me ;=). It's all just speculation. Companies which plan to downsize since a will will do it now, using COVID19 as a excuse. Companies who have shifted some "bad consequences" into the future might now book them using COVID19 as a excuse for why they exist. Companies who are already on the last straw will end now, (Such which without COVID1…

What's the difference between a software engineer and "just" a programmer?

The same as brick layer vs architect.

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#385

Post by solotronics »

traitsnspecs wrote: post #329
eropple wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But in February, there wasn't any sign of an economic downturn. Everyone was enjoying the bull market. First: I’m super sorry about what you’re going through and I hope things work out with your new employer. Second: I worry that “nobody could have known” will be the narrative. A very large portion of my circles was aware that COVID was about to explode and that the prevention measures would either drastically slow…

If we had not taken prevention measures, the economic impact would be worse? I'm very skeptical of this. Keeps in mind that the disease has a 2-4% mortality rate among hospitalized patients, and the real rate is very likely to go down, not up, since most sick people do not immediately go to the hospital and there is an unknown-but-surmised-be-very-large population of infected people with mild symptoms. There is a rea…

Having live television feeds of people dying in the streets (like in Wuhan) would absolutely crater the economy and cause massive social unrest.

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#386

Post by danmostudco »

My heart really goes out to employees who are about to be put through the wringer, I've heard horror stories of coffee shops and restaurants laying off 90% of staff on a day's notice - I'm sure it will quickly expand.

I work at a DC startup LiveSafe and we are still hiring. We offer a communications platform for students and employees focused around safety & security - we were founded out of the need for communities to have a quicker, more direct line to campus security following our founder being shot in the Virginia Tech shooting. I have been helping lead the expansion of our offerings into Fortune 500 corporate clients.

Many of our clients have been using our software to push outbound information to their students / employees about policies around COVID-19, as well as triage and respond to employee needs, so we are fortunate in that our product fits into the response effort for most companies who purchased us. I think we will be fine for the foreseeable future - sound financials and a generous credit line secured during good times just in case.

We are hiring for a much needed Data Science position focusing on building and deploying NLP models & products to analyze the data that travels through our platforms - plus our production stack is a dream to build and deploy on. It's a small, fun, mission-driven team granted a lot of autonomy and responsibility - I'm on phone screens just about everyday and we have not slowed down filling this position. Would love to hear from any Data Science / Engineering talent may need a soft landing in all of this - very interesting text-heavy data set.

https://apply.workable.com/livesafe/j/DA0FCE14D5/

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#387

Post by okareaman »

Not to scare anyone, but myself and many of my highly capable friends were laid off after the dotcom bubble burst in the early 2000's. It took many of us 1, 2 sometimes 3 years to get back to the same level of job we had before. Prepare for a long haul. Get over your ego immediately and take whatever job you can get now, while you continue to look for work in the software industry. I drove a city bus (surprisingly to me, I loved it.)

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#388

Post by smaps »

Tushon wrote: post #15
kwhat4 wrote: post #5

Got let go about 3 weeks ago now, not sure if my employer saw this coming or if their timing was just spot on. No one is interviewing at the moment and it looks like it's going to be at least another 2 weeks before people are even thinking about hiring. The employment situation is going to get much worse before it gets any better. Hang tight, keep applying and hope for the best.

My company is interviewing and hiring still, depending on what you want to work on. HQ in Alexandria, VA and main other office in Lakewood, CO are most positions. Working remotely for now in all offices. https://careers.fool.com/

I'll second it as an awesome place to work!

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#389

Post by dougmwne »

zests wrote: post #99

I’m about to leave my extremely safe job for a tiny startup. I have to put in notice by the end of the week. The startup seems to still want to hire me and is showing no signs of pulling the offer. I think they planned on getting more funding at the end of the year. I’m at a loss for what to do. I’m excited about the opportunity but am not sure that now is the right time to leave. I plan on calling and asking for mor…

Yikes! Clearly I only know what you just told me, but I would be extremely careful about taking that job at the tiny startup. Winter is coming.

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#390

Post by mobiledev2014 »

Sorry to detract when I'm lucky and have not been laid off but I feel it's relevant.

I just started a new gig a month ago. I feel it is stable and was a good move, but who knows in these uncharted waters.

My wife is 12 weeks pregnant. I haven't told my manager or anyone else. Should I tell them or wait? We're on her healthcare and she is a nurse so high job security. Happy to add more details and thanks for your advice.

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