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“Great resignation” wave coming for companies

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Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#461

Post by pbourke »

mattgreenrocks wrote: post #411
dreen wrote: post #7

Im quitting and not looking for another job. Gonna use the savings to take a gap year, or a couple, work on some stuff I want maybe. Maybe more involvement in OSS is coming too? I've never had a gap year, it was all school, then immigration, work, university, more work. Any holiday time you fly back home. I kept hearing its not unusual for people in the west to take gap years, so thats what Im doing. edit: thank you…

FYI, frame this as freelance consulting when you apply for your next job. You can talk about wanting something new and striking out on your own for a bit. IMO what you find out is a year is a long time without work from a time perspective. Hope you enjoy your year off!

Just chiming in that I absolutely detest this way of thinking. This isn’t a dig at you personally, but against the idea of living or presenting your life as some series of neatly explainable resume bullet points. I have been susceptible to it myself to a greater or lesser degree throughout my career.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#462

Post by sokoloff »

vidarh wrote: post #415
ryandrake wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steve Blank wrote about this: https://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-ear...

I like the one who suggested the answer to the question of how much the free drinks cost should be "less than the cost of hiring a single engineer".

Used to work at an office where they got rid of free drinks. The morning it happened, Top Engineer 1 sent a mail to all Boston staff announcing he was thirsty and asked if anyone else was similarly thirsty and wanted to join him on a grocery trip to buy soda. Three cars full of engineers went to the grocery store, taking a little over an hour. Free drinks returned later that same week.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#463

Post by vmception »

thatfrenchguy wrote: post #391
tgtweak wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate the alternative perspective and productive-pessimism, but anecdotally in my immediate social circle of engineers, 5 have changed jobs - all for substantial upgrades, and not 1 of them was for a job that required office presence or downgrade in quality of environment. The last year has been so strong for online tech that there is a heavy vacuum effect on the available talent. FAANG are struggling to fill…

> FAANG are struggling to fill demand in hiring and are offering increasingly high salaries This has been the case, according to my colleagues who are older, since at least 2003 ;-)

> Recruiters are charging 22-25% for placements, and having difficulties filling them.

This has been the same as well, to my knowledge, since 2010

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#464

Post by throwaway894345 »

admissionsguy wrote: post #377
throwaway894345 wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be clear, I'm merely saying "the complexities of the American healthcare system might be why Europeans are more inclined to take gap years". That said, I didn't know that European public health insurance was commonly contingent on employment. I would be curious to know more about this.

I am honestly very bitter about Americans glorifying the European system while happily taking home 2/3rds of their 100k+ developer salaries and enjoying much lower prices of everything. With regards to insurance: - in some countries (UK, Sweden) - the insurance is contingent on having a social security number, so the coverage is pretty much universal for residents, but people coming from other EU countries will still…

> I am honestly very bitter about Americans glorifying the European system while happily taking home 2/3rds of their 100k+ developer salaries and enjoying much lower prices of everything.

I agree, although I think the ignorance extends to Europeans as well. Europeans are often surprised to hear that American software professional salaries are ~60% higher than European salaries even after adjusting for taxes, healthcare, vacation, etc. Some will argue that the US cost of living is more expensive, but they're almost always comparing some major US metropolis with some European village or perhaps an Eastern European city. I've seen other arguments that the cost of housing in the US is comparable or more expensive, but they're typically comparing some relatively tiny European apartment with a much larger American home. Europeans seem to fixate on medical bankruptcies, as though these are commonplace for upper-middleclass Americans.

This was all a surprise to me, an American, who has tried earnestly to live in Western Europe for a few years, but found that I can either live in Europe or I can travel in Europe but trying to do both would likely be economically infeasible (even if I can find gainful work as a software professional, it would specifically be difficult for my wife who isn't in a hot field). Fortunately, now that remote work is catching on, it seems likely that my wife and I will be able to do more frequent 1-3 month stints in Europe while remaining employed by our American companies.

To be clear, I think the United States healthcare system should be reformed, because it doesn't serve the poorest Americans very well. However, the US healthcare system works pretty well for the upper middle class (if not the whole of the middle class) and above, contrary to perceptions I frequently hear from some Americans and Europeans.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#465

Post by embwbam »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #30
dreen wrote: post #7

Im quitting and not looking for another job. Gonna use the savings to take a gap year, or a couple, work on some stuff I want maybe. Maybe more involvement in OSS is coming too? I've never had a gap year, it was all school, then immigration, work, university, more work. Any holiday time you fly back home. I kept hearing its not unusual for people in the west to take gap years, so thats what Im doing. edit: thank you…

>I kept hearing its not unusual for people in the west to take gap years, so thats what Im doing. You hear a heck of a lot more about it on HN than happens in reality. Maybe I don't hang out with the trust fund crowd enough but I don't know ANYONE who's taken a "gap year" where they weren't doing something for ~40hr/wk in order to make a buck. I know a few people who didn't jump right into career stuff after college…

I have many rock climbing friends who live on less than 15k a year. They often do it for years, working seasonally 3-5 months a year. the trick is to go somewhere with a very cheap lifestyle. It can be accomplished by living in your car in the mountains, or traveling to SE Asia, etc. The climbing provides something to do and a sense of community.

There are other cultures like this. I’ve seen kids from Europe doing a gap year staying in hostels for very little (they sometimes do some light work for the hostel to get a free place to stay)

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#466

Post by busterarm »

myko wrote: post #385

I've interviewed a lot of devs in the midwest (Columbus, OH) the past few months and everybody, even new college grads, expect $120k+ salaries. Mind blowing to me as I know devs who've been around ~10 years in the midwest who are only approaching those numbers.

And they can get it easily. I think if a lot of seniors started looking at their pay compared to new hires they would realize that they are severely underpaid right now.

Unfortunately the trend right now seems to be companies bulking up on expensive, lower quality talent hoping it has more upside potential.

I think if you can't offer at least $90k with a significantly great benefits package you are really going to struggle.

You're talking about a group of people that can just sit at home for two months grinding Cracking The Code Interview as an alternative to your job offer and land FAANG employment at a 3x-4x multiple of what you're balking at paying.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#467

Post by bytematic »

setgree wrote: post #198
dreen wrote: post #7

Im quitting and not looking for another job. Gonna use the savings to take a gap year, or a couple, work on some stuff I want maybe. Maybe more involvement in OSS is coming too? I've never had a gap year, it was all school, then immigration, work, university, more work. Any holiday time you fly back home. I kept hearing its not unusual for people in the west to take gap years, so thats what Im doing. edit: thank you…

I left my job in May and I'm hiking the Appalachian Trail now. I saved more than enough for living in a tent for 5 months (admittedly the tent was expensive but I already had it). So far it's been great. I've met a lot of folks who are burned out and taking some time to think. If long-distance hiking appeals, I'd be happy to discuss it. Long-distance hiking isn't for everyone but

How much savings for that 5 months?

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#469

Post by rightbyte »

joecot wrote: post #127
lordnacho wrote: post #52

I can tell you all the market for devs is white hot at the moment. I mean it was never cold, but right now seems to be insane. If the work-from-home thing has given you thoughts about what you like, now is the time to go. I see very few firms insisting on onsite work though, having interviewed with quite a few over the last few weeks. Even guys that I know would rather have people in the office and would pay them ver…

This. The WeWorkRemotely posting silicon valley type companies are getting flooded and are quite picky currently. But once you apply to a few jobs elsewhere that have recruiters, you get flooded with small to medium size companies looking for devs. And the market is so hot that companies which previously had longer interview processes are condensing down to 1-2 interviews, because if they take any longer all their ap…

Weworkremotely just seem to be targeted at "web"-devs judging by filter categories (fullstack, backend, frontend). Is those positions maybe easier to do remotely?

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#470

Post by baseballdork »

ls612 wrote: post #437
baseballdork wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously if your parents are paying your largest expense, you can save a ton of money. I would assume most people aren't that fortunate.

My point is even with that money my income isn’t that high compared to software engineers.

Understood, but your expenses as a student are also unlikely to be very high, especially if your parents are covering rent/medical/etc, especially if you're comparing to SWEs in SV.
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