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Ask HN: Has the tech recession affected you?

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Re: Ask HN: Has the tech recession affected you?

#61

Post by jurassic »

Of the people I know who got laid off in the last year, pretty much everyone got a job after seriously pursuing one for 3 or 4 months. By seriously pursuing I mean preparing, applying, networking, and interviewing for >20 hours per week. If you aren’t talking to people in your network to find warm leads and obtain referrals and introductions, you’re doing it wrong.

Things seem toughest for the very young. If you have Also, even though more experienced folk are in great demand in general, finding the right role that aligns your interests and expertise with what a company needs and values is still a lot of work. You may be awesome, but you aren’t as interchangeable as somebody with say 4-8 years of experience. For leadership roles (staff+) hiring managers can get very picky and specific about what they want to see.

It’s best not to get discouraged by this but just recognize the rejections as a necessary step in the process.

Re: Ask HN: Has the tech recession affected you?

#62

Post by karmasimida »

operatingthetan wrote: post #10

I keep hearing whispering of an "AI boom" happening soon on HN but don't see in the real world. Has anyone seen signs either way?

AI boom and austerity on hiring can be happen at the same time.

AI boom is interesting in the sense, if the AI successfully increases programmer productivity, then it also would drive down the demands, unless AI can increase the pie by eating away other industries. So far I haven't seen this, AI seems to have a bigger impact on software industry itself than any other industry out there.

Not very optimistic that AI alone can change the tide, but considering how fast things can change (GPT-5 might be the AGI, or GPT-4 level model gets open sourced and runs much cheaper everywhere), 6 months in the future the outlook might change drastically.

Re: Ask HN: Has the tech recession affected you?

#63

Post by spamizbad »

I’m a hiring manager. My company did a round of contractor layoffs in 2023 and made a smaller number of FTE hires backfills.

My advice is to hang in there. Often we have 3 strong candidates per open position. The people we reject aren’t getting rejected because they aren’t a good fit or lack skills - it’s just that someone else was a little better. If I had the budget I’d hire all the great people I have the privilege of interviewing.

For what it’s worth I think the industry is starting to run a little too lean. Teams are getting pushed to their limit, there’s no “slack” left for additional output. Contrary to the buzz you see on sites like HN, in the real world AI coding tools are completely underwhelming. The pendulum is losing momentum and I suspect orgs will realize they either need to grow their headcount or downsize their product offerings - meanwhile they’re letting certain products languish because they don’t have the headcount to work on it. And risk appetite for entering new markets is waaay down. The business culture is becoming more conservative (not politically/culturally, but rather in terms of its approach to operations and product development)

This means more opportunities for entrepreneurs and new companies soon. “What if big tech company X just copies you?” — oh you think they’re going to get budget to do that? You think they’re going to hire 50 devs to just copy your random startup? In THIS market? With THIS amount of Wall street scrutiny against quixotic projects? Hah! If you see a gap build it and fill it. The big dogs are all tied up in meetings with finance trying to save their datadog subscription from the chopping block - they won’t notice you until it’s too late.

Re: Ask HN: Has the tech recession affected you?

#64

Post by xboxnolifes »

jurassic wrote: post #61

Of the people I know who got laid off in the last year, pretty much everyone got a job after seriously pursuing one for 3 or 4 months. By seriously pursuing I mean preparing, applying, networking, and interviewing for >20 hours per week. If you aren’t talking to people in your network to find warm leads and obtain referrals and introductions, you’re doing it wrong. Things seem toughest for the very young. If you have…

> If you have I'm experiencing this. I've run into multiple junior (or new grad) positions that auto-disqualified my application because I graduated over 2 year ago. I'm less qualified for a junior position because I have some experience.

Re: Ask HN: Has the tech recession affected you?

#66

Post by busterarm »

yieldcrv wrote: post #32

I tried to negotiate a verbal offer, swapping the signing bonus for base salary, ultimately moving base up not even 7% and they didn't even counter and moved on. very established company too, a highly unusual practice according to every recruiter, article, AI rehash, and person I’ve told this to I would say this is a symptom of the market. Employers flexing on the big pool

Employers feel like they've been forced into remote work and salary creep by covid and faangs. They feel so powerless that any pushback from a potential employee makes them think they're going to have a permanent headache working with you.

The way things are you'd have much better luck negotiating a salary review after a six month probation or something.

Re: Ask HN: Has the tech recession affected you?

#67

Post by busterarm »

mmmmmbop wrote: post #53
busterarm wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to guess Palantir or Anduril. Or similar. Honestly they have some really interesting-looking roles open. I've also heard great things about working at Anduril and not-so great things about working at Palantir.

I'm sure they're talking about crypto.

Except the job market around crypto has largely cratered and it's actually not the technically interesting to work in.

Re: Ask HN: Has the tech recession affected you?

#69

Post by bootloop »

throwaway347598 wrote: post #44

Here in Europe things look a bit more quiet than usual but not too bad: I still get contacted by recruiters almost every week, my company is hiring and people around me are still finding decent jobs. I wonder if this is mostly a problem in the American VC/startup world.

I have the same feeling. As usual everything is a bit less volatile here.

Re: Ask HN: Has the tech recession affected you?

#70

Post by yieldcrv »

busterarm wrote: post #66
yieldcrv wrote: post #32

I tried to negotiate a verbal offer, swapping the signing bonus for base salary, ultimately moving base up not even 7% and they didn't even counter and moved on. very established company too, a highly unusual practice according to every recruiter, article, AI rehash, and person I’ve told this to I would say this is a symptom of the market. Employers flexing on the big pool

Employers feel like they've been forced into remote work and salary creep by covid and faangs. They feel so powerless that any pushback from a potential employee makes them think they're going to have a permanent headache working with you. The way things are you'd have much better luck negotiating a salary review after a six month probation or something.

yes, this was objectively an L for me and in hindsight I should not have negotiated a single aspect of the position, so take notes everyone

California, by the way.

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