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Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

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Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#41

Post by est31 »

teraflop wrote: post #29
300bps wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But I'm looking at the job market and think it might be better to give it 4-6 months. I'm fascinated by this. How does one do this? Two options I can think of are being independently wealthy and being dependent on another. Are there other ways to accomplish being so comfortable with, "eh, gonna be unemployed another 4-6 months and see what happens"?

Software development pays incredibly well by the standards of the average American. You can spend that money on lifestyle inflation, or you can save/invest it and buy yourself an enormous amount of financial freedom. Whether you call that "being independently wealthy" is a matter of semantics.

Yeah there is a lot of space between "has savings for 8-12 months" and "is independently wealthy, i.e. can live off interest of their own savings". Former is extremely easy to achieve if you can save significant portions of your salary. If you can save 30%, you can achieve it after 3 years. Latter takes a bit longer.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#43

Post by andsoitis »

300bps wrote: post #20
that_guy_iain wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've not been laid off either. I'm currently taking a break from jobs. I'm starting to think that it's time to go back to full-time employment. But I'm looking at the job market and think it might be better to give it 4-6 months. Let all the companies that are going to do layoffs have their layoffs and then join a company still looking for new devs in a few months.

>But I'm looking at the job market and think it might be better to give it 4-6 months. I'm fascinated by this. How does one do this? Two options I can think of are being independently wealthy and being dependent on another. Are there other ways to accomplish being so comfortable with, "eh, gonna be unemployed another 4-6 months and see what happens"?

It is common financial advice (in the US) to have a couple of months’s expensive in cash so that you can weather unexpected circumstances.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#44

Post by ummonk »

300bps wrote: post #20
that_guy_iain wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've not been laid off either. I'm currently taking a break from jobs. I'm starting to think that it's time to go back to full-time employment. But I'm looking at the job market and think it might be better to give it 4-6 months. Let all the companies that are going to do layoffs have their layoffs and then join a company still looking for new devs in a few months.

>But I'm looking at the job market and think it might be better to give it 4-6 months. I'm fascinated by this. How does one do this? Two options I can think of are being independently wealthy and being dependent on another. Are there other ways to accomplish being so comfortable with, "eh, gonna be unemployed another 4-6 months and see what happens"?

If you're not saving money on a software engineer salary, you're being very frivolous with your spending.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#45

Post by stkdump »

that_guy_iain wrote: post #22
300bps wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But I'm looking at the job market and think it might be better to give it 4-6 months. I'm fascinated by this. How does one do this? Two options I can think of are being independently wealthy and being dependent on another. Are there other ways to accomplish being so comfortable with, "eh, gonna be unemployed another 4-6 months and see what happens"?

Honestly, German unemployment money. I'm entitled to 2/3 of my original salary for 360 days. 2/3 of my salary is enough to live on while still saving a bit of money every month. I paid all the taxes for 7-years, so I figure I should take advantage of the unemployment money.

Well, you should not publicly admit that you aren't looking for work, otherwise you might risk that sweet unemployment money.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#46

Post by nicoburns »

300bps wrote: post #20
that_guy_iain wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've not been laid off either. I'm currently taking a break from jobs. I'm starting to think that it's time to go back to full-time employment. But I'm looking at the job market and think it might be better to give it 4-6 months. Let all the companies that are going to do layoffs have their layoffs and then join a company still looking for new devs in a few months.

>But I'm looking at the job market and think it might be better to give it 4-6 months. I'm fascinated by this. How does one do this? Two options I can think of are being independently wealthy and being dependent on another. Are there other ways to accomplish being so comfortable with, "eh, gonna be unemployed another 4-6 months and see what happens"?

> Are there other ways to accomplish being so comfortable with, "eh, gonna be unemployed another 4-6 months and see what happens"?

Having low outgoings. While I would prefer to have income (I'm hoping to be able to buy a house at some point), I'm a single person with no dependents, and I probably spend around £1200/month in total (including rent). And that's in London - one of the most expensive cities in the world - and without putting any effort into living cheaply (I often buy groceries at the local store rather than the cheaper big supermarket for example). If I chose to live somewhere cheaper (even in the uk) that could probably be halved without completely destroying my quality of life.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#47

Post by jlarocco »

300bps wrote: post #20
that_guy_iain wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've not been laid off either. I'm currently taking a break from jobs. I'm starting to think that it's time to go back to full-time employment. But I'm looking at the job market and think it might be better to give it 4-6 months. Let all the companies that are going to do layoffs have their layoffs and then join a company still looking for new devs in a few months.

>But I'm looking at the job market and think it might be better to give it 4-6 months. I'm fascinated by this. How does one do this? Two options I can think of are being independently wealthy and being dependent on another. Are there other ways to accomplish being so comfortable with, "eh, gonna be unemployed another 4-6 months and see what happens"?

You're missing option three which is to save enough money that you don't need to work 100% of the time.

It's pretty easy to save money on a software developer salary in the United States.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#48

Post by simonswords82 »

nixgeek wrote: post #14
JoelMcCracken wrote: post #5

I’d ask in a month. It’s still early since the layoffs. I’d guess that even for people who were laid off first, started looking immediately, and found plenty of hits, few have accepted jobs. I’m much more curious in 4-5 months. I assume VC funding is harder to get now, for example, but I don’t think that’ll make a massive impact for a little while.

I got connected to someone impacted at Twitter on Saturday, within 24 hours of them being notified they were impacted by the layoff. I talked with them for an hour that next Monday AM about the opportunities my teams have open, one of which was highly relevant to their skills, and by the time we chatted, they had 3-4 interviews with other companies scheduled. Joined the dots to the hiring manager and recruiters. They…

I don't like Elon either but am happy he's blown $44m on a side project that it looks like is going to fail

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#49

Post by throw1234651234 »

oceanplexian wrote: post #40
throw1234651234 wrote: post #25

For those who did get laid off from F(/M)AANG, are you considering "lower" end positions or looking for comparable total comp at comparably sized, tech-focused companies? Just curious, as a flyover midwesterner, it seems like no one here is affected, nor are we getting any interviewees from FAANG into the pipeline suddenly.

There are a lot of FAANG-adjacent companies that offer competitive comp, Stripe, AirBNB, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc. I left Amazon a year ago to work for one, most of my peers are AWS or Google engineers and the quality of life is much better. I interviewed at smaller companies but the main problem was they were out of touch with TC and unwilling to offer equity, and at least one place was kind of rude about it when I…

Definitely interesting to see the perspective from the other side - thank you. It really is a different world. I am a (by all accounts decent) architect and a 23 year old junior (admittedly exceptionally talented) got higher TC at Amazon when he jumped ship after 3 months with us (his first job out of college).

He did ask if he could come back within a week, stating that the work env was horrible, and we told him he is welcome to if he wants, but at the end he decided to stay at Amazon. It's also not like we have a chill team - I just try to make sure people don't work OT unless it's strictly necessary (about once or twice a year). Other than that though, we do expect people to put in their 8 hours on a semi-flexible schedule.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#50

Post by ummonk »

est31 wrote: post #41
teraflop wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Software development pays incredibly well by the standards of the average American. You can spend that money on lifestyle inflation, or you can save/invest it and buy yourself an enormous amount of financial freedom. Whether you call that "being independently wealthy" is a matter of semantics.

Yeah there is a lot of space between "has savings for 8-12 months" and "is independently wealthy, i.e. can live off interest of their own savings". Former is extremely easy to achieve if you can save significant portions of your salary. If you can save 30%, you can achieve it after 3 years. Latter takes a bit longer.

Less than 3 years, since your expenses are only 70% of your salary.
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