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Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#421

Post by kojeovo »

_bxg1 wrote: post #415
jee1shi wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Lately "software engineer" feels a bit pretentious to me, with all the articles about how we're co-opting the word "engineer". I've started using the word "programmer" just to avoid the pretention and because it has a nice old-school ring to it. I kind of doubt employers read it as such a technical term that it would factor into the hiring process.

My HR friends say it matters to some. That engineer looks better

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#422

Post by SeanAppleby »

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?

IMO engineer implies the same direction of thing it implies anywhere else: a deep understanding of the fundamentals of what you're building, an ability to rigorously model and optimize for the key aspects of your problem space and turn them into a solid design that meets them (whether that's performance, scaleability, reliability, latency, throughput, memory use, etc)

Programmer moreso implies just making things work, like a carpenter, by putting together something good enough using existing tools, possibly constrained by the tools available to you, in my opinion.

That said, everyone's understanding breaks down at some level of abstraction, so it's a spectrum, and you can be plenty productive and useful operating at a high level of abstraction.

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#423

Post by smnrchrds »

eropple wrote: post #256
ellyagg wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's probably talking about the rationalist community, and people did. https://twitter.com/ESYudkowsky/status/1233174331133284353

I assure you I am not talking about the aggressive curve-fitting community. Just...normal people. Nobody famous, not even any Chinese nationals. Just...fairly normal, if tech-worker-y, Americans and Europeans.

By and large, both the general public and organizations were caught by surprise. If most people knew, the stocks would have tanked in January, not these past few days.

Which brings an interesting question: how many of all the people you know who knew, yourself included, put their skin in the game and are now rich from the options they bought in January? If it is not many, I would argue it is better to say people suspected or feared, not that they knew.

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#424

Post by UncleOxidant »

Rebles wrote: post #44

At the beginning of the year, I decided it was time to find a new job after 10 years with my employer. I spent February doing interview prep and conducting interviews. Back then, the COVID-19 was mostly limited to China, markets and governments weren't terribly concerned about COVID-19. I accept a job offer, put in my two weeks notice, and my last day at was last Friday. Hardly anyone was seriously concerned about CO…

I was doing drone control software (RPi based) for a startup that ran out of funding last November. They told me that they were going to keep looking for investors/funding and if they got money they'd call me back to work immediately. And there were some promising signs in December/January that they might get some funding. So, since I liked them, they liked me, and the gig was fun I figured I'd put off looking for other work until later in the Spring just to see if they get the funding. Welp, now I really doubt they're going to get that funding.

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#425

Post by dionidium »

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?

In reality? It's totally nebulous, the terms aren't standardized, the distinctions aren't agreed upon, and people use these words -- developer, engineer, programmer -- interchangeably and/or inconsistently. You can't actually tell anything about someone by which term they use.

But in practice, as you'll see in this thread, some people have very strong (and totally arbitrary) opinions about those words, for reasons I cannot fathom. Knowing this exists is important, I guess, because some people will (maybe silently) judge you for using the wrong one in the wrong context, and you should at least be aware that can happen.

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#426

Post by dillonmckay »

dang wrote: post #391

All: a user emailed with the brilliant suggestion that HN do a "Who Is Hiring Right Now?" thread. We'll do that soon; maybe tomorrow. This will specifically be for jobs that are ready to hire, and able to onboard, quickly. If any of you have suggestions for how to make this most helpful under current conditions, please share them. I'll check this thread later tonight.

So, I am sure there are few of us that have lived through the dotcom and 9/11 bust.

That being said, if history repeats itself, there is a decent chance some of these jobs will be short-lived, then move on to the next, which also will not last, and a cooling off period.

I am not trying to be negative, I just think it is wise to consider not just the job, but the industry, its customers, and how it handles its cashflow, and how that relates to limited physical contact for the foreseeable future.

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#427

Post by roskilli »

dang wrote: post #391

All: a user emailed with the brilliant suggestion that HN do a "Who Is Hiring Right Now?" thread. We'll do that soon; maybe tomorrow. This will specifically be for jobs that are ready to hire, and able to onboard, quickly. If any of you have suggestions for how to make this most helpful under current conditions, please share them. I'll check this thread later tonight.

Very interested as someone looking to work with other HN folks, ready to hire people who could onboard and start during the work from home mandate (we had an employee onboard Monday from their home).

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#428

Post by dillonmckay »

okareaman wrote: post #387

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…

This should be the top post.

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#429

Post by wmeredith »

smoyer wrote: post #414
mehrdadn wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might be helpful to highlight whichever of the following are feasible: - Remote work (even across the country, with no expectation of travel) - Short-term work (like a few months, no expectation of staying for > 1 year) - How long the employer roughly expects to be able to provide the job in their projection of the current economic conditions - Rough company size, given the US Congress just passed a bill concernin…

Perfect time to test an alternate way to conduct interviews too. Give several of the second round candidates paid work on something you actually need to have done (perhaps pick tasks that are a sprint away). It should be a great test of both who can produce working code with tests (production code is way different than white-board pseudocode) as well as who can stay on task remotely. I can't imagine paying three peop…

This isn’t new. It’s called contract-to-hire and it’s great.

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#430

Post by throwaway98797 »

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…

If you can weather 2 years of no income, probably makes sense to take the risk.
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