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U.S. job openings post biggest drop in more than four years

reuters.com

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Re: U.S. job openings post biggest drop in more than four years

#221

Post by andrekandre »

mAEStro-paNDa wrote: post #137
sosborn wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> About 90% of reporters are left of center How would one even go about defining what center is? And when we say "left of center," how far to the left are we talking about?

This is an important point. One could argue, and some have, that the center of US political discourse is actually firmly right of center, especially when compared to European nations for example.

that definitely seems the case to me

the other thing is, in the us, people say “left” a lot which they really mean is “liberal” (which itself is a very blunt word to be sure)

if put in that context, then saying the media is slanted liberal (market oriented, individualistic, capitalist etc) is probably true (at least from a layman’s eyes)

when reframed in that way, there are very few “left” media in the us; it’s either conservative (socially, right-wing) and liberal corporate media

Re: U.S. job openings post biggest drop in more than four years

#222

Post by addflip »

borkt wrote: post #208
UncleOxidant wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously, your best bet (and the advice I would give my 20-something year old self) is to SAVE AS MUCH MONEY AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN. And then save more than that. Try to be financially independent by 50. If you can do that then you won't have to worry about ageism. You'll be able to be picky about the kinds of jobs you take. From a practical standpoint that means don't buy status symbol products (cars, fancy phones, et…

I'm in a similar spot. As enticing as a Tesla Model 3 Performance edition might be, my '00 civic with 220k miles, no heater, and a head gasket problem still gets me to work every day, and I have all the cash I need to replace it the day it dies. My wife and I are in our early 30s and our mortgage payment is less than most of our friends pay to rent a single room because we worked and saved through college. When I buy…

While I'm pretty frugal myself I do splurge on cars; currently own the Model 3. The reason being is that safety technology is always improving. So driving an '00 Civic with 220k will save you some cheddar it may cost you a severe injury or worse.

Re: U.S. job openings post biggest drop in more than four years

#223

Post by downerending »

slumdev wrote: post #211
downerending wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Technologists live in a world of negative unemployment Just wait until you turn 50...

I don't personally know any sharp ICs who have trouble finding work, regardless of age, provided they keep learning. I've met many people who have struggled to find work after they stopped learning. But someone who refuses to learn at 30 is less employable than someone who still gets excited about a new framework at 60.

I passed an all-day at Google in my 50s. No offer, though, and that job hunt lasted many months. Pleased to meet you. :-)

Re: U.S. job openings post biggest drop in more than four years

#224

Post by borkt »

addflip wrote: post #222
borkt wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in a similar spot. As enticing as a Tesla Model 3 Performance edition might be, my '00 civic with 220k miles, no heater, and a head gasket problem still gets me to work every day, and I have all the cash I need to replace it the day it dies. My wife and I are in our early 30s and our mortgage payment is less than most of our friends pay to rent a single room because we worked and saved through college. When I buy…

While I'm pretty frugal myself I do splurge on cars; currently own the Model 3. The reason being is that safety technology is always improving. So driving an '00 Civic with 220k will save you some cheddar it may cost you a severe injury or worse.

I'm not saying I don't want one (I rented a P100D on vacation and it was fantastic). Its just not the right decision for me to use as a commuter car despite how much my heart wants one, and I have to actively supress my desire to purchase one, but it does make me feel more fiscally responsible not to buy it. I also probably don't value safety as much as you. I have a twin turbo 300zx track car which I'll never sell and goes completely against everything I described above to be honest, so I'm a hypocrite regardless!

Re: U.S. job openings post biggest drop in more than four years

#225

Post by ScottBurson »

ellisv wrote: post #168
downerending wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Technologists live in a world of negative unemployment Just wait until you turn 50...

Do you have any recommendations for someone earlier in their career (<50 yo) to avoid or minimize ageism? Go into management? Be prepared to pick a new career?

Assuming you're in software -- study machine learning! It's going to be hot for a long time.

Re: U.S. job openings post biggest drop in more than four years

#226

Post by downerending »

addflip wrote: post #222
borkt wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in a similar spot. As enticing as a Tesla Model 3 Performance edition might be, my '00 civic with 220k miles, no heater, and a head gasket problem still gets me to work every day, and I have all the cash I need to replace it the day it dies. My wife and I are in our early 30s and our mortgage payment is less than most of our friends pay to rent a single room because we worked and saved through college. When I buy…

While I'm pretty frugal myself I do splurge on cars; currently own the Model 3. The reason being is that safety technology is always improving. So driving an '00 Civic with 220k will save you some cheddar it may cost you a severe injury or worse.

If you care about safety, don't overlook the effects of weight differential. Odysseys are quite safe, partly because they're pretty heavy.

Re: U.S. job openings post biggest drop in more than four years

#227

Post by slumdev »

downerending wrote: post #223
slumdev wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't personally know any sharp ICs who have trouble finding work, regardless of age, provided they keep learning. I've met many people who have struggled to find work after they stopped learning. But someone who refuses to learn at 30 is less employable than someone who still gets excited about a new framework at 60.

I passed an all-day at Google in my 50s. No offer, though, and that job hunt lasted many months. Pleased to meet you. :-)

I live in flyover country and have worked many years for companies way less sexy than Google. The environment here is different from the Bay Area's "moving on at 26" mentality. Certain industries (especially insurance, financial services, and healthcare) prefer someone who's been around the block and is more interested in maintainable, well-architected solutions. A lot of the in-joke humor about tech culture that you see on HN would probably go over the heads of most of my coworkers because they just don't care. They want to write great software and leave at 5.

Re: U.S. job openings post biggest drop in more than four years

#228

Post by rayiner »

meddlepal wrote: post #204
tomjen3 wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it is 12 to 18 months away it will happen just after the election this winter. That will be fun.

Alternatively timed perfectly to let the Republicans hammer the Democrats if they win all the way until 2024. I'm pretty convinced the Democrats will be toast as a party by 2030 once they get saddled with imploding the economy by no fault of their own other than bad timing.

> I'm pretty convinced the Democrats will be toast as a party by 2030 once they get saddled with imploding the economy by no fault of their own other than bad timing.

The effect of federalizing $3 trillion a year of the economy, raising corporate taxes to far above what Sweden has, and 70% marginal personal tax rates probably won’t be “no fault of their own.”

Re: U.S. job openings post biggest drop in more than four years

#229

Post by NotSammyHagar »

borkt wrote: post #150
boernard wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... and there are many many HR departments going on a hunt for these people that got laid off

Is any tech worker seriously that desirable still that they are being hounded immediately after getting fired? I entered college in 2004 and transferred out of software engineering, feeling that developer/engineer jobs would quickly become the auto mechanic of the 21st century and wages at the grunt level would fall in line. I also didn't feel fulfilled with sitting at a computer all day. Fast forward to now, and whi…

Can you explain your insight on why you thought programming would be an unattractive field to work in in 2004, where wages would become much less, like they are for auto mechanics? Since the 1980s at least software has been probably the leading factor in increasing business performance, efficiency, and automation. I guess in 2000 there was the dot com implosion but after that there were always lots more demand than there were devs, there's really been a shortage of devs my professional life over 25 years except maybe 2001 and 2008. I used to worry that there would be an infinite series of much cheaper software engineers worldwide, taking my job for less page. I think there is enough work for all the tech workers in the world, plus many things are easier with local engineers, like product discussions and evaluation of quality. But there are great engineers all over the world, of course. Maybe we've had better university training in the us but I don't see that anymore, the people I work with from india and china are first rate.

Just write some code, some toy problems, find something that is fun and go from there. And yes, software engineers face constant recruitment, daily recruiter spam on linked in. It's been a crazy hiring environment for 10 years, even worse. Everyone you try to hire has a job already (that's where the negative comes in), college students often get jobs offers their junior year.

Re: U.S. job openings post biggest drop in more than four years

#230

Post by NotSammyHagar »

borkt wrote: post #216
yodsanklai wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> while I work as a Civil Engineer Not answering your question, but just sharing some anecdote. A good friend of mine is a (unhappy) Civil Engineer and became passionate about programming. It's a hobby that he discovered later in his life. I can tell he's actually quite good (even though he lacks some fundamentals but he could learn fast). Unfortunately, I don't think he would be given a chance in company (here in Fr…

Thanks! Yeah its just an idea I'd like to look into at this point. As I said in my post I grew up natively thinking like a programmer surrounded by a bunch of hackers in university on IRC when I was still in grade school, but I never did any structured programming learning and when I got to college it just didn't feel like a realistic path to a career-long job, as to me coding was familiar enough that it felt anyone…

Take a software class at a community college. I had my eye on recruiting interns and new devs at the local community college and I went to the career fare and they said the entire graduating group had already been hired, mostly by microsoft. It's a crazy world with so much demand.
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