U.S. job openings post biggest drop in more than four years • Hacker News Board

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

#231

Post by sethammons » Fri, Jan 17, 2020, 8:11 PM UTC

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. :-)

How do you know you "passed" the all day? Why do you think the lack of an offer is age-related?

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

#232

Post by meddlepal » Fri, Jan 17, 2020, 8:12 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #228

meddlepal wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.”

I'm skeptical they'd be able to accomplish even one of those things.

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

#233

Post by borkt » Fri, Jan 17, 2020, 8:12 PM UTC

NotSammyHagar wrote: post #229

borkt wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

I wanted to be a software engineer throughout junior high and high school until I saw the dot com bubble burst. My naive 18 year old brain thought even if things look good for a few years, its just going to happen again. The year I graduated in 2008 again was a terrible time to enter the workforce, so I entered a field that needs to exist in some capacity irrespective of economy (municipal engineering). I haven't looked back much before now, but as my job went from a balance of field and office to primarily office, and I enjoy the mental exercise of coding more than I enjoy what office civil has become.

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

#234

Post by UncleOxidant » Fri, Jan 17, 2020, 8:14 PM UTC

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…

The other advantage of 90s Hondas (and possibly also '00) is that they're so cheap to have fixed as opposed to how much you have to pay to get a newer car fixed. Parts are readily available and pretty darn cheap. I know a shade tree mechanic in the neighborhood and when I needed to get a new clutch master cylinder put in I ordered the parts off of Amazon for $20 and he did the job for $100. I probably could've done it myself, but for $100 it seemed like it would be better to have him do it as he does this kind of thing all the time.

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

#235

Post by sdinsn » Fri, Jan 17, 2020, 8:14 PM UTC

arcturus17 wrote: post #23

erikpukinskis wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A coworker told me he thinks as long as people think it might crash it won’t crash.

That makes no sense.

It does. If people think valuations are inflated and a correction is near, then then they'll be less likely to invest, which stunts valuation growth.

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

#236

Post by borkt » Fri, Jan 17, 2020, 8:16 PM UTC

UncleOxidant wrote: post #234

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…

The other advantage of 90s Hondas (and possibly also '00) is that they're so cheap to have fixed as opposed to how much you have to pay to get a newer car fixed. Parts are readily available and pretty darn cheap. I know a shade tree mechanic in the neighborhood and when I needed to get a new clutch master cylinder put in I ordered the parts off of Amazon for $20 and he did the job for $100. I probably could've done i…

Yep, I am one of those shade tree mechanics, the only way I can afford my financially irresponsible 300zx. Beware amazon parts however, my head gasket issue in the civic issue was caused by an "OEM" (pretty sure it was counterfeit in some way) water pump from amazon that failed in under a year.

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

#237

Post by sdinsn » Fri, Jan 17, 2020, 8:18 PM UTC

frockington1 wrote: post #55

asdfqwer234 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given wages not increasing with COL in cities and availability of credit (student loans, rising rents, credit cards, low interest rates) I'd assume poorly

Numbers prove your assumptions wrong. Take a look over at the bureau of labor reports, Q4 2019 is out

Except he's right. Wages have increased with respect to CPI, but not to COL. The housing market has consistently and significantly outpaced salaries.

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

#238

Post by downerending » Fri, Jan 17, 2020, 8:20 PM UTC

sethammons wrote: post #231

downerending wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

How do you know you "passed" the all day? Why do you think the lack of an offer is age-related?

The Google recruiter told me that I passed that and the follow-on hiring committee. I have no reason to believe that wasn't true, especially since the people in the all-day seemed genuinely enthusiastic about me.

I didn't say they didn't hire me for age. Rather, I was offering that as a proof of sorts that my skills are current and yet I had a hard time getting hired.

(I did hear via back channels that I was nixed there for being [euphemism for too old]. Hard to know whether that's true, but all things considered, it's hard to think of a non-demographic explanation, aside from bad luck. In any case, I'm over it.)

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

#239

Post by borkt » Fri, Jan 17, 2020, 8:23 PM UTC

NotSammyHagar wrote: post #230

borkt wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Are you suggesting a local community college only (Santa Rosa Junior College for me) or do remote courses work too? What class specifically should I be taking?

The first year curriculum at Cal Poly was Java at the time, and while cumbersome I did well enough, so I don't exactly need an intro to computer science course. I'd like to jump in to something for people with about a year's experience working with whatever languages are in demand right now. I know I need to learn to learn programming again and I'd be learning all my career if I make the switch down the road, but I'd still like to do it with a language that could get me some freelance work to start building a resume with.

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

#240

Post by NotSammyHagar » Fri, Jan 17, 2020, 8:31 PM UTC

akvadrako wrote: post #88

lame-robot-hoax wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good god, is this supposed to be ironic? Imagine trying to paint Reuters as biased. Next thing you’ll be telling me that the Associated Press is biased as well. And really? USMCA? You mean NAFTA 2.0? Imagine acting like “passing” USMCA has any meaning. It’s just NAFTA. Tell me when we pass the TPP. Oh wait, we messed up and now that ship has sailed without us. This is news whether you like it or not. Sorry, there is…

Most news organizations are biased one way or another. About 90% of reporters are left of center, that probably also applies to Reuters. They do keep the spin to a minimum, I’ll give them that.

I disagree that most news sources are biased. This is a lazy claim that is used to explain away a lot of biases by fox news, because "they are all biased". You have to explain what bias means, and what you mean by 90% of reporters are left of center. In my experience most reporters try hard for a middle balance.