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Ask HN: How is the job search coming along for people who got laid off?

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Re: Ask HN: How is the job search coming along for people who got laid off?

#481

Post by whoknew1122 »

nixgeek wrote: post #206
bluGill wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

since amazon has a policy to layoff the bottom 6% every year (numbers may be off), any good manager will be constantly looking for someone to hire into the bottom 6% role so they can keep their good people. Since they are not actually looking for someone who can do a good job they don't care if they treat you well.

A couple things: 1/ Managers particularly for SDE roles don’t usually have >10-12 people. In reality the URA (Unregretted Attrition) goal is mostly managed at the L8+ level where organization sizes are usually hundreds. Far more likely you have some underperformers in an overall organization of 300, even if an individual team is all awesome. 2/ Interviews at Amazon involve a Bar Raiser who almost certainly won’t work…

This is my experience, too. I've mostly stopped responding to comments where people talk about how bad Amazon is. I've never experienced the horror stories despite being here longer than the average tenure and working in three separate orgs.

Balls may have been dropped by some people, but I always have recruiters pinging me relentlessly the day after I've done an interview so they can get back to the candidate within 5 business days.

Re: Ask HN: How is the job search coming along for people who got laid off?

#482

Post by ryandetzel »

bradlys wrote: post #299
ryandetzel wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went out of my way to not do leetcode so I only had one because Glassdoor was wrong. I would ask the recruiter during the initial call where I also talked about salary so as yo not waste everyone's time. I cancelled a few interviews that I later found out were leet code, not because I don't want to do them but more I think the people you end up working with are better at testing than coding, from my experience.

Was the comp comparable to FAANG and other public companies in the end or did you take a paycut?

Base is higher than I was making at Twitter, but instead of RSU/ESPP it's now options which can go either way, so it's a gamble. For me, I prefer startups, but the golden handcuffs are hard to takeoff once you've had them on for a while.

Re: Ask HN: How is the job search coming along for people who got laid off?

#483

Post by SpeedilyDamage »

rockemsockem wrote: post #446
SpeedilyDamage wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You sign a contract stating you're going to devote all of your available professional mental energy towards your company's problems.

Violating a contract is not the same as doing something unethical. People violate non-competes all the time and IMO doing so is VERY ethical.

What's unethical is saying you'll do something and then not doing that.

In your example, the "ethical" way to violate a non-compete is to redact it from the original contract.

I'm not saying you're the worst person ever, but littering is unethical, and so is saying you'll do something and then not doing it (or vice versa).

Re: Ask HN: How is the job search coming along for people who got laid off?

#484

Post by SpeedilyDamage »

mywittyname wrote: post #279
SpeedilyDamage wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the plebs sign contracts saying they won’t. It’s not illegal, just highly unethical. It’s also not true, he does not know someone doing this.

If you sign a contract, then it is breach of contract, which would be a kind of illegal. I don't see the ethical quandaries though. So long as one is doing the work promised, and the company is satisfied with their output. It's not any more unethical than working on any other side project after hours.

It's not, generally speaking, a criminal offense to violate a contract, I don't believe (IANAL!).

Re: Ask HN: How is the job search coming along for people who got laid off?

#485

Post by jasonladuke0311 »

y-c-o-m-b wrote: post #303
bitL wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's true, I know the guy. He's an outlier for sure, but he exists. Moreover, he moved from the toughest FAANG to more relaxed ones.

I believe you. People that doubt these things are usually projecting some kind of insecurity. "It's impossible!"... no actually, not only is it possible but it happens all the time and yes it happens with FAANG workers too. It's funny, when this topic comes up, the people that are juggling multiple jobs are usually stuck in this weird place where they want to convince people it's true but at the same time not draw to…

> People that doubt these things are usually projecting some kind of insecurity. "It's impossible!"... no actually, not only is it possible but it happens all the time and yes it happens with FAANG workers too.

And a lot of this comes from people who are far less wordly than they think they are. Like there are people that genuinely believe that no one in security makes more than $200k except CISOs.

Re: Ask HN: How is the job search coming along for people who got laid off?

#486

Post by SpeedilyDamage »

bitL wrote: post #293
SpeedilyDamage wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, if I didn't believe you before, why do you think "It's true!" would sway me?

You said "it's not true" and not "I believe it's not true", i.e. a fact vs opinion, so I reacted.

But that ignores my point; you said something, I said what you said isn't true, so when you restate what you already said without adding anything, you're not improving your position.

Re: Ask HN: How is the job search coming along for people who got laid off?

#487

Post by SpeedilyDamage »

y-c-o-m-b wrote: post #303
bitL wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's true, I know the guy. He's an outlier for sure, but he exists. Moreover, he moved from the toughest FAANG to more relaxed ones.

I believe you. People that doubt these things are usually projecting some kind of insecurity. "It's impossible!"... no actually, not only is it possible but it happens all the time and yes it happens with FAANG workers too. It's funny, when this topic comes up, the people that are juggling multiple jobs are usually stuck in this weird place where they want to convince people it's true but at the same time not draw to…

I doubt these claims because I know human nature pushes people to lie in order to contribute to conversations.

I understand it's entirely possible to juggle two remote jobs, I just don't think it's nearly as common as people claim or think, which is why it's an easy lie to make. It's got nothing to do with the total salaries involved, and everything to do with the exceedingly rare nature of the claim.

Re: Ask HN: How is the job search coming along for people who got laid off?

#488

Post by [deleted] »

cgb223 wrote: post #264

I got laid off a few weeks ago I’m mid senior level in Product Management but come from a big well known tech company, and I work remote from a non-tech “city”. 5 years PM experience, 6 years as a Software dev. Launched 3 products from concept. One has over 20 million MAU, one created 9 figures of revenue for my previous company, and one I have no idea because I got laid off lol According to my LinkedIn I’ve applied…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How is the job search coming along for people who got laid off?

#489

Post by bckr »

UncleOxidant wrote: post #457
parentheses wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ageism is often conflated with higher compensation expectations.

I'm in my late 50s. When I hear about the salaries that much younger folks are pulling down in the FAANG companies I'm generally pretty shocked - I've never made anything close to that and don't have any expectations to. My expenses are way lower than most of the younger folks in tech because my house is paid off (will be in about a month), we drive 20 year old cars and we're quite frugal. For most of the past decade…

> Are my compensation expectations high

No... You really don't wanna work for less than $150k at a startup, at least on the west coast.

Re: Ask HN: How is the job search coming along for people who got laid off?

#490

Post by bckr »

godelski wrote: post #369
tarokun-io wrote: post #257

Interviewed with about 28 companies for almost 3 months, without a single offer! I was starting to get really worried about money and burned out from interviewing. In the past I've never interviewed with more than 2 or 3 before getting an offer I now this is incredibly privileged. I'm not humble-bragging, just observing the change in the market. As things usually turn out, during the last week of the 3-month search I…

> In the past I've never interviewed with more than 2 or 3 before getting an offer. I know this is incredibly privileged. I'm not sure why you are saying this. You're in a rough spot and you're human. You don't have to qualify your struggle, even a universal one or one you do slightly better than others. The truth is that it shouldn't take interviewing with 28 companies to find a single offer. Interviewing at a handf…

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