Ask HN: Have you been laid off? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#461

Post by dang » Thu, Mar 19, 2020, 4:49 AM UTC

dillonmckay wrote: post #426

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 cashflo…

One could also call that a positive, since short-term work to bring in immediate money is what a lot of people are needing right now.

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#462

Post by xelxebar » Thu, Mar 19, 2020, 4:49 AM UTC

Not laid off, but I quit my job several years back to go to grad school. Finished up my degree, did a bit of followup research, and now have been in the job market for several months.

The job search has been seriously demoralizing.

There have been three separate companies who have department heads saying they want to hire me, one from the R&D department of a large conglomerate even. After several rounds of discussion and a code test each, they express enthusiasm to work together, at which point the discussion pretty much stagnates.

This has happened three times, and atop the background gruel of cold application submissions, I am lost at what I must be doing wrong. Everyone I talk to in person reflects back very positive sounding impressions: clear communicator, keen analytical skills, impressive knowledge, blah blah. However, since this never materializes into anything, I am beginning to wonder if those are just polite ways of brushing someone off.

I just want to find a good (remote) team to work with and add value to. This job search stint is making life bleaker by the day.

Anyway, enough whining, I guess. Many of us are in similar boats it sounds like. Feel free to PM if you just want someone to talk to.

Cheers,

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#463

Post by aramix » Thu, Mar 19, 2020, 4:56 AM UTC

I am a software engineer and I work remotely for a US company. We are in telecommunications and our main products are callback service and scheduling a callback over phone or messaging. Over the couple of weeks we have started seeing some interest from big companies in healthcare and insurance that want to use our products for their customer support during COVID-19 outbreak. So for us it's more job opportunities there.

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#464

Post by caseysoftware » Thu, Mar 19, 2020, 5:05 AM UTC

martinpw wrote: post #460

caseysoftware wrote: post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. He didn't move far enough fast enough. The public's awareness and preparation was slowed by the media (NYT, WaPo, MSNBC, others) screaming "it's just the flu!" until just a couple weeks ago so most weren't prepared. :( My comment was in response to people not realizing this was a thing a month ago.

I think it was other news organizations than the ones you listed that were the primary culprits in screaming "it's just the flu"

Read https://twitter.com/balajis starting early February and documented many of the posts. He was one of the earliest to call out their BS and anti-scientific agenda.

And then the House tried to remove Trump's travel ban: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/12/house-committee-vot...

You can play politics or you can look at reality.

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#465

Post by geom_998747 » Thu, Mar 19, 2020, 5:08 AM UTC

Laid off:

No, I'm self employed (software business). That does not mean that I'm impervious to macroeconomic conditions, but it does mean I have developed a forecasting mindset that generally keeps me ahead of downturns.

Hiring:

No, not at the moment. But that doesn't have anything to do with COVID. I tend to hire very little and no one permanent.

Honestly, I struggle with tech people who run out of cash or say they can't get hired. I understand that not everyone can ace an interview or makes enough to save up a large cushion -- at the same time you have one of the most valuable / sought after skills in the market today.

A little late for this advice, but:

MAKE SURE YOU GET PAID WHAT YOU'RE WORTH AND SAVE SOME CASH. SOME AS IN MONTHS' OR YEARS' WORTH.

Really, you don't have to be "rich" to have a 1% level of financial stability. It's really about having enough cash to have enough time to weather a downturn or move into a new area without pooping your pants.

The response I usually get is "but x happened!". Yeah, no shit, that's the whole point. We can't see into the future but we can buffer cash.

If this downturn ends up hurting you -- learn from it!

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#466

Post by randomdude402 » Thu, Mar 19, 2020, 5:09 AM UTC

meritt wrote: post #458

randomdude402 wrote: post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO, if you are fully remote, you might look at it the other way around. The ridiculous salaries are mostly in California and one or two other places. Those places might realize that they can get react devs for a dime a dozen out of bootcamps all over the country for a third of that in a few months once they have let people do fully remote work for a while. The smart thing would seem to be to hire them now before the…

My bet: remote-only for most companies won't last. If there's one thing I've learned over the past 8 years running this company, is most people really struggle at remote. They don't have the dedicated work space, they lack the necessary self-discipline, and many people really start to falter without face time and social interaction. I suspect once this virus is solved, we'll see a flood back to in-person jobs. React…

Haha, glib examples indeed.

I agree with you about remote reverting to a large extent.

I have been working 90% remote for a while, but most of my co-workers have not and it is driving them crazy after only a few days.

We know that a large subset of companies would prefer to have visibility and control.

I still think that even if only 5% of the tech employees forced to work remotely for the first time these next couple months get a taste for it, it will change the landscape of remote work in a noticeable way.

Even if just a few decent sized employers see and acknowledge good productivity in these next couple months and the talent pushes the issue, it could end up with a lot of 300k positions in california being replaced by 130k remote positions basically anywhere else.

After being forced to do it for a while, it's hard to imagine this not happening to some extent, especially in areas that aren't especially strongly affected by stock market news bites.

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#467

Post by jandrewrogers » Thu, Mar 19, 2020, 5:10 AM UTC

listenallyall wrote: post #448

rxhernandez wrote: post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, I dont think it's a humblebrag. If they worked at the same company as all of us, it might make sense to call it a humblebrag but, there are enough people around here in much better positions than those that get bonuses like these for it to make sense to brag about. That is, I (and probably most people on yc) would feel embarrassed talking about my best accolades when there are people on here that were abl…

It's not a humblebrag in terms of dollars. The idea being conveyed is that he (she?) should be unfire-able due to excellent performance (that's the brag), but that at-will employment negates the unfire-ability. I'm expressing doubt that 120% bonus is actually evidence he's such a great employee.

I think you may be missing how the bonus system works at many companies. 100% is defined as the maximum contractual bonus for consistently excellent performance but there is a separate discretionary maximum for exceptional cases beyond the contracted bonus. This discretionary bonus cap is often on the order of 50% higher than the contractual bonus cap. It is for when the maximum bonus is insufficient to reflect individual performance. A 120% bonus typically denotes a discretionary bonus beyond the contracted maximum, which almost always implies you are doing amazing work beyond the scope of your role.

Details vary by company of course but the tiny percentage of people who earned >100% bonuses at companies I've worked at were exceptional performers.

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#468

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Mar 19, 2020, 5:10 AM UTC

tcgv wrote: post #182

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…

> A very large portion of my circles was aware that COVID was about to explode (...) Your circles seem to be the exception then. There are a lot of factors that affect personal perception of such matters, like proximity to inflicted areas, professional background (ex: medical), experiencing similar events in the past, etc. In hindsight it seems obvious that the world wasn't paying attention. But it took until Februar…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#469

Post by stephenr » Thu, Mar 19, 2020, 5:12 AM UTC

stephenr wrote: post #199

At least partly because of the current “situation”, I’m actually looking for a person/people who can help bolster a client’s (very) small team (to clarify: I am the tech lead of the team, not a recruiter) For the backend, PHP & SQL experience is a must, and realistically some ops/infra is pretty essential too. We “self manage” most parts of our stack so some experience with at least some of keepalived/haproxy/stunnel…

I should add - if it wasn’t clear above, a person needn’t have experience in both the backend/ops areas and front end.

Re: Ask HN: Have you been laid off?

#470

Post by MattGaiser » Thu, Mar 19, 2020, 5:16 AM UTC

bsbechtel wrote: post #407

A few months back, I launched a side project that builds a professional profile from your daily todo list (www.komplish.com). The idea is you can use it to track side projects and even your tasks at work, and build a profile from that to help you find work. You can also find others through the app for smaller jobs that may not be big enough for a full time job posting. I’d love it if anyone wanted to give it a try an…

Would you consider making it available in Canada? Just tried to download it, but am north of the border.