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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?

#81

Post by jacknews »

hotpotamus wrote: post #4

I don't know that it's a serious tech recession; my understanding is that the major players are still posting serious revenue growth. As far as I can tell, a lot of the VC/startup world was mostly a low interest rate bubble. I suppose I'm "lucky" that I got laid off in 2021 after the company I was working for was acquired by private equity. It wasn't a bad time to find a job, and I went looking for something differen…

Indeed it doesn't seem to be a recession for the tech companies themselves, they're still raking in adverttising $$ or whatever.

But it's certainly a recession for tech workers.

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

#82

Post by yieldcrv »

busterarm wrote: post #77
yieldcrv wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not trying to rub it in, sorry. I don't actually think you did anything wrong either. Companies are just being assholes right now.

you’re fine, thats not what you did but I’d much prefer that to the unquantified optimism people

many people, including engineers, are obsessed with looking for a silver lining when the reality is that I lost all my leverage and every new recruiter call is at least a month and a half from new money hitting my bank account, if everything goes perfectly.

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

#83

Post by jurassic »

xboxnolifes wrote: post #64
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.

Hang in there. Every rejection is bringing you one step closer to your ultimate goal.

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

#84

Post by parker_mountain »

belltaco wrote: post #75
parker_mountain wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> irrational bias Then say it. :)

Sure, already got plenty of downvotes, it's C#, F# and the .NET ecosystem.

I can think of a lot of reasons why companies and startups would find it bad for their use cases tbh. It's hamstrung by microsoft licensing and ecosystem, and while building tools for enterprisey stuff is great, web-style startups are more of the focus here.

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

#86

Post by neonsunset »

parker_mountain wrote: post #84
belltaco wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, already got plenty of downvotes, it's C#, F# and the .NET ecosystem.

I can think of a lot of reasons why companies and startups would find it bad for their use cases tbh. It's hamstrung by microsoft licensing and ecosystem, and while building tools for enterprisey stuff is great, web-style startups are more of the focus here.

All of it is distributed under MIT license.

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

#87

Post by IsoldesKnight »

personjerry wrote: post #38

Keep in mind this thread is heavily affected by selection bias; Those who aren't affected have very little reason to contribute.

Yup. The company I started with last year had layoffs. I wasn't impacted, but I didn't like how they were done. So I applied at a few places and accepted an offer at a new company just last month. For context, my resume does not have FAANG on it.

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

#88

Post by soupfordummies »

worked at a midsize mature startup. got bought out by private equity. it wasn't revealed that private equity actually fully bought them out until about the second round of layoffs. monthly layoffs and heavy outsourcing, I survived 8 rounds until they finally got me just in time for the holidays.

I'm alright, already found another position but others are not so lucky unfortunately. We were already understaffed and working hard constantly too. I can only imagine how burnt out my old coworkers are probably getting now.

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

#89

Post by righthand »

The job market is extremely rough right now. I was one of the first layoffs of this job drought which happened to me in December 2022. I took a sabbatical and now jumped back into the job search in August 2023. I get very few call backs/interviews and I’ve been developing software for 20 years.

I noticed companies are being excruciatingly picky during interviews. One interview for a senior position the interviewer kept interrupting me during coding and during my explanations to tell me how he would have answered the problem. It cut into the solution time.

Another company I was interviewed by someone who had only been in the industry for 3 years and at the company for 6 months and not a senior and told me I wasn’t qualified enough for a senior position because they couldn’t follow my explanation. Even after asking “does that answer your question?” I was also a referral from a former coworker who was also laid off.

I have an interview in two days that has two 1 hour coding interviews and a systems design interview and this was after I already completed a 1 hour technical screening.

I’ve even done a take home project that resulted in no interview so I have stopped interviewing with those companies as well.

I think a lot of younger people were promoted or weren’t laid off and now companies are feeling out how to hire people again, but the biggest barrier I am seeing is purely over interviewing candidates and looking for some tiny flaw in their responses.

Are you trying to hire me or just interview me?

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

#90

Post by the_only_law »

It basically destroyed me. I spent most of 2023 unemployed after being laid off in late 2022. I was working for a small SaaS company that went from ~100 to ~200 in the past couple years and than subsequently dumped the recently hired ~100 a year later.

Part of my problem was I really wanted to avoid moving and stay remote. That turned out to be impossible. I ended up taking a job and moving to place I don’t care for so far. I’m pretty sure I only got it because of a referral because I was less qualified for it than many of the roles I was getting rejected for.

My career was rotting anyway. I’m not going to waste time typing out an essay, but I’m pretty sure I’ve hit my peak pretty early and there’s not much left for me to do (or that I care to do). I still had some ounce of ambition prior to the layoff, but that’s gone now. I just feel defeated. I was actually planning to leave the industry prior to the layoff, but that won’t happen now.

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