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Getting Laid Off in Tech: The Myth of Upper Middle Class Security

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Re: Getting Laid Off in Tech: The Myth of Upper Middle Class Security

#121

Post by tomsthumb »

gojomo wrote: post #52

Author is 22 years old, and was not laid off. But, because some peers were – from Snap, a boom-times high-flyer – he's now facing a crisis-of-confidence, first in himself, and then in what feelings of security might be available from reaching "[t]he upper middle-class, the professional class, that venerable example of American wealth and mobility". Well, of course working for a single hot company at 22 doesn't mean y…

Your opening paragraph on its own makes me wonder how this is not the top comment.

Re: Getting Laid Off in Tech: The Myth of Upper Middle Class Security

#122

Post by gamblor956 »

mysterydip wrote: post #7
refurb wrote: post #2

Having been laid off due to downsizing, I think everyone should go through it at least once. Sure, the first time will leave you panic stricken, but you'll come out the other side with a lot more clarity about the employee-employer relationship. You are disposable. Even the CEO is disposable (as I've seen many times). Once you realize that, you'll stop the BS about loyalty to your company. It's a business arrangement…

Agreed. I once got a call out of the blue that I was being laid off. I had always associated stability with success: as long as I was doing a good job, my job would be secure. That was not the case. It was purely a business decision for them, but I left dazed and wondering what to do. I had always planned job changes on my terms. But it was also freeing in that I now could find opportunities I would've missed. I'm mu…

Same thing happened to me. I was taking my first vacation in two years and I got a call just after lunch. My boss said, "I need to let someone go because our numbers are down from where we want them to be. And it's going to be you, because you'll probably have the best chance of finding a new job."

Highest grosser in the region 5 years straight. Aced the performance review. Brought in several clients, a few of which are YC graduates. But because Bob in NY wanted us to hit 25% growth for the 5th year in a row and we were only going to reach 5-10% YOY, someone had to get cut so the partners wouldn't see a drop in expected take-home payments. And I was the most expensive employee in the region.

Fuck loyalty.

On the bright side, my new job was only a small pay cut, but literally half the work load and all the vacation I could ask for. In a sick way, getting laid off worked out for the best. But those weeks between jobs were the most stressful of my life.

Re: Getting Laid Off in Tech: The Myth of Upper Middle Class Security

#123

Post by xxpor »

21 wrote: post #32
ForHackernews wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of people on this rock. Even if only a "small portion of the population" can do the work, that means there are tens of millions (literally) around the world who could do your job as well or better than you. You are the lucky beneficiary of restrictive immigration and employment policies.

There are places with less restrictive immigration (Europe) and salaries are still very high. The supply of decent programmers is just not enough to cover demand.

Salaries are not high in Europe compared to the US.

Re: Getting Laid Off in Tech: The Myth of Upper Middle Class Security

#124

Post by mooreds »

refurb wrote: post #2

Having been laid off due to downsizing, I think everyone should go through it at least once. Sure, the first time will leave you panic stricken, but you'll come out the other side with a lot more clarity about the employee-employer relationship. You are disposable. Even the CEO is disposable (as I've seen many times). Once you realize that, you'll stop the BS about loyalty to your company. It's a business arrangement…

"You are disposable."

A kinder way might be to say that no one is irreplaceable. I'd argue that that's actually a good thing.

But yes, the first time you go through layoffs it is shocking, especially if you've built your identity around your job.

Re: Getting Laid Off in Tech: The Myth of Upper Middle Class Security

#125

Post by mooreds »

The real myth is that your job is going to make you who you need to be and provide for you.

The only thing that will make you who you need to be is you, and that is going to require hard work to determine who you want to be and who you are capable of being.

The only entity that can provide for you is yourself, and your determination and willingness to work hard and take advantage of the environment you are in to the best of your ability.

Re: Getting Laid Off in Tech: The Myth of Upper Middle Class Security

#126

Post by thoughtpalette »

zanny wrote: post #113
Rafuino wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be curious to ask you what "tech skills" means. What's demanded by the companies you refer to is likely shifting constantly. If you're not working in the hot stack, you're not going to have job security "prior generations could only have dreamed of."

HN might not like to hear it, but what this hive mind likes to think of as "hot stack" - React, Node based software in general, etc - is not even close to the "hot stack" of almost anywhere except in the microcosm of California around SF. At the end of the day there will still be a dozen programming jobs in .Net or Java to every one in the latest and greatest web tech. In equal parts because on one hand finding peopl…

This is an absurdly narrow view with regards in what the market/industry wants, especially in regards to geolocation.

Re: Getting Laid Off in Tech: The Myth of Upper Middle Class Security

#127

Post by gaius »

The harsh truth: you may be an excellent engineer. But your company can probably make do with a mediocre engineer for half the cost. You may write superb quality thoroughly tested code. But your company just needs something that mostly works most of the time. You might be able to implement that feature in a week, your company would be happy to have it in 6 weeks or even months. Talent is no guarantee of job security.

A fair severance package is 1 months salary per year of employment.

Re: Getting Laid Off in Tech: The Myth of Upper Middle Class Security

#128

Post by benatkin »

allannienhuis wrote: post #38
mseebach wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on the idea that companies should spin off departments? On the face of it, I don't see how that could work, but I probably don't understand your idea fully.

The idea might work better for products than departments. I worked for an employer who did exactly that when one of the new product/business they'd built wasn't growing (enough?) to warrant more investment. So he set up a couple of the developers working on the product with the rights to the product and helped work out new contracts with the existing handful of clients (it was large enterprise software). There was en…

Sounds like they should have shut down the product but kept the developers. If they were able to run the business on their own, they were probably 10x developers. Even if they lost half of their momentum by being switched to a new team, they still would have been great for the company.

Re: Getting Laid Off in Tech: The Myth of Upper Middle Class Security

#130

Post by ericd »

bb88 wrote: post #102
gojomo wrote: post #52

Author is 22 years old, and was not laid off. But, because some peers were – from Snap, a boom-times high-flyer – he's now facing a crisis-of-confidence, first in himself, and then in what feelings of security might be available from reaching "[t]he upper middle-class, the professional class, that venerable example of American wealth and mobility". Well, of course working for a single hot company at 22 doesn't mean y…

> Well, of course working for a single hot company at 22 doesn't mean your career is set for life. What, did he think he was going to retire at Snap? Isn't that the promise of silicon valley? That there's so much money to be made that it turns engineers into entrepreneurs in their 20's? Or has silicon valley now gone the way the rest of society has where huge corporate profits no longer get passed to the people who m…

Technically, Snap is in LA, not SV.

And engineers still get much more equity in SV than is true elsewhere, and so have a shot at becoming wealthy.

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