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Employers bow to tech workers in hottest job market since the dot-com era

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Re: Employers bow to tech workers in hottest job market since the dot-com era

#471

Post by hkt »

throwaway321654 wrote: post #292

Does anyone have any info/data/anecdotes for the UK job market. (or infact any non-US market) My story (hence the throwaway account)... Last year we got no pay rises and were told "no increases this year because covid uncertainty". This year it's a rather megre 2% percent that doesn't even beat inflation, even more so when viewed over two flat years. I'm obviously looking around and can likely get some small increase…

> So why is remote work being blamed for driving salaries up, shouldn't it have opened up the talent pool for hiring companies just as much as it's opened up the potential choice for applicants.

Same reason house price rises are so sticky: you don't have to move unless you've got something better to go to. Rising salaries are about turnover as much as anything else.

Re: Employers bow to tech workers in hottest job market since the dot-com era

#472

Post by joe-collins »

robotresearcher wrote: post #271
the_only_law wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Take the leap into something you WANT. Skills, Sschmills! You can learn can't you? It’s just about time really. I could skill up but what’s the market going to look like by the point I’m ready.

Get the job and then learn the skill. The value proposition you present is that you can learn stuff. This is not a flippant reply! I’m totally serious.

Can I ask for a reality check, then?

I've broadly tech-savvy, and I can do some programming. I taught myself Lua for the sake of making game addons, I've dabbled in Java and Javascript (and tiny bits elsewhere). Most of my projects of note, outside of gaming, are simply little utility scripts for my own curiosities, nothing shared. My career thus far has been a decade of retail, but at least I'm currently in an entry-level management position.

Is there a core there worth trying to sell for a tech job?

Re: Employers bow to tech workers in hottest job market since the dot-com era

#473

Post by throwleetcodr4 »

ditonal wrote: post #170
bradleyjg wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even leaving aside golden handcuffs the number of companies paying top of market seems relatively small. That’s especially true once you get past entry level positions.

I feel the opposite. A decade ago, it was pretty much Google, Facebook, and some elite trading firms that could pay a ton. Now so many startups have grown up, there’s a huge list of them on levels.FYI that will pay 400k+ for senior and 600k+ for staff. I recently have interviewed for a ton and got rejected a bunch, but I joked with my spouse that there’s so many that by the time you’re done interviewing at all of the…

I work at FAANG (not Amazon) and have worked for similar companies. I was rejected by multiple top tier hedge funds after 1-2 tech rounds, after getting a mid tier hedge fund a few years ago. I interviewed with multiple then pre-IPO companies that have since IPO'd. They all asked Leetcode Hard problems on the phone screen even. My original FAANG + hedge fund interviews from a few years ago were not even quite as difficult, just some dynamic programming questions and tricky recursion, mostly Leetcode medium with some hards thrown in occasionally.

I also got an offer from a crypto exchange which is a household name, but they claimed they switched to non-negotiable offers and wouldn't even match my current TC. I had to walk.

Now wondering if this is just some game that companies are playing to either make themselves seem more selective or show "growth" through hiring / headcount to make investors happy. The interviewers also seem less enthusiastic about selling their companies to me, and more like they already made up their minds that they do not like me. One kept asking me more and more questions to cause us to run out of time so that I wouldn't be able to code.

The questions I'm being thrown at all are ridiculous in difficulty now, and the interviews feel like they are designed for me to fail. Who can code a segment tree in 20 minutes? I ended up completing this one, and it wasn't even the hardest question I was asked. I even had a recruiter ask me to prepare for their company's interview by doing TopCoder Div 1 500 problems. That's absurd (IOI difficulty level). There are people in Eastern European countries who do nothing but train for these competitive programming problems with coaches and all since secondary school.

I suppose I will just remain in my relatively cushy FAANG job. Despite having very little time to prepare, being employed while interviewing can be a good thing, after all.

Re: Employers bow to tech workers in hottest job market since the dot-com era

#474

Post by BeetleB »

VirusNewbie wrote: post #379
cxx wrote: post #115

Not my experience at all. For context, I'm a L6 at FB right now and have more than a decade of experience. I've never seen tech interviews become as stupid as they are now. In the last 3 months I've applied to a few places, including one where I literally built from scratch what the hiring team wanted to do (and got promoted for it at FB), and I've never seen the difficulty of the programming rounds so high as now. I…

Wow, I've never seen someone admit to being that much of an asshole on HN in all my years. People are literally spending months studying for interviews hoping they can get hired at FB and you are sabotaging their chances. You're admitting you aren't even trying to evaluate if they would be someone you want on your team or an asset to the company, and instead just wasting people's time and hurting careers as a protest…

The guy's an asshole, but people spending months studying in the (mostly vain) hope that they'll get a job at FB kind of have it coming (myself included). If anything, it's a good lesson for them to learn the value of their time, and whether they want to dedicate so much of it to then be subject to people's whims.

Have realistic goals, and know yourself well. If dedicating months for an interview and getting rejected on a whim is going to affect your mental health, don't do it. You can make a pretty good living without working at a FAANG.

> and hurting careers as a protest.

Sorry - but being rejected at one company won't hurt your career. If it does, you have bigger problems.

(Non-disclaimer: I'm not at FAANG, but I don't approve of their interviewing styles).

Re: Employers bow to tech workers in hottest job market since the dot-com era

#475

Post by thr1236 »

echelon wrote: post #468
thr1236 wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So around $350k total comp, non FAANG, remote from FL. What are you basing those numbers on?

Source : my total comp as well as my coworkers and friends. Just look around... https://www.levels.fyi/company/Lyft/salaries/Software-Engine... https://www.levels.fyi/company/Airbnb/salaries/Software-Engi... https://www.levels.fyi/company/Twitter/salaries/Software-Eng... https://www.levels.fyi/company/HBO/salaries/Software-Enginee... Many of these are fully remote.

So I’ve seen levels.fyi before, but it’s hard to tell how close they correlate to offers (due to appreciation and/or location based pay).

I also feel like companies paying more than Google (3/4 you listed) probably have a decently rigorous interview (I don’t have much spare time for prep, sadly).

Re: Employers bow to tech workers in hottest job market since the dot-com era

#476

Post by vinceguidry »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #172
grepfru_it wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Look on glassdoor, indeed, whatever site you want to use to find out salary expectations in your role/area 2. When asked, give this number as your desired target, but a lot of times they ask about old pay. if the old pay differs greatly, avoid the topic by pointing out how 'the old job requirements are different, benefits are different, etc. But if they press on this number, tell them, don't lie or completely avoi…

> a lot of times they ask about old pay Been in the industry 25 years and never once agreed to disclose my previous pay. Don’t do it. Ever. It’s none of their business and will only be used against you.

I'll disclose it if I'm concerned I'll get lowballed. Ends the discussion pretty quickly.

Re: Employers bow to tech workers in hottest job market since the dot-com era

#477

Post by thatfunkymunki »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #434
handrous wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can just get it through a one of the many private spy/surveillance agencies (one of the credit bureaus, for instance) if they really care.

Credit bureaus do not know your salary unless you’ve reported it to them (and why would you do that?)

You may have told your bank at some point, maybe when getting a loan or something, and I doubt they wouldn't share that with a credit agency.

Re: Employers bow to tech workers in hottest job market since the dot-com era

#478

Post by dingsbumps »

joe-collins wrote: post #472
robotresearcher wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get the job and then learn the skill. The value proposition you present is that you can learn stuff. This is not a flippant reply! I’m totally serious.

Can I ask for a reality check, then? I've broadly tech-savvy, and I can do some programming. I taught myself Lua for the sake of making game addons, I've dabbled in Java and Javascript (and tiny bits elsewhere). Most of my projects of note, outside of gaming, are simply little utility scripts for my own curiosities, nothing shared. My career thus far has been a decade of retail, but at least I'm currently in an entry…

I think everyone with aptitude or interest in programming should take a shot at a career in the field. Even outside of this current talent crunch, it's an industry with a lot of opportunity.

Getting your foot in the door is the hardest part (like many other industries). I don't have a lot of recent experience, but a boot camp or something similar might be needed to get past the first line of hr screening.

But doing some leetcode and sending out some applications is a pretty low investment way to start!

Re: Employers bow to tech workers in hottest job market since the dot-com era

#479

Post by ativzzz »

mark-r wrote: post #403
ativzzz wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seconding linkedin, got my current job passively through recruiters reaching out to me and taking interviews with ones that sounded interesting.

The recruiters I get reaching out to me through Linkedin rarely tell enough about the job to make it interesting.

They usually give you info like size of company, stage of company and general business area the company is in, which is usually enough to know if you want to set up a 15 min call with the recruiter and ask more details like the company name so you can look it up and see for yourself what they do.

I've had calls with recruiters; during the call, I told them "that's not something I'm looking for and thanks for your time" and moved on.

I've also had multiple late-stage interviews that started this way and my current job was found this way.

Re: Employers bow to tech workers in hottest job market since the dot-com era

#480

Post by 1991g »

apozem wrote: post #255
mmaunder wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly this. We just gave all our devs a significant raise - way above the norm, and way way earlier than we would. We're acknowledging the reality of demand, scarcity and wage inflation. My co-founder (also my wife) and I immediately felt our blood pressure drop once we did that. Market conditions are making it hard to retain and very hard to hire. We've done a bunch of other stuff to recruit - which I described in…

That is very smart. My old employer gave me a 3% raise in January and tried to make it some big gift. I left anyway in April for a 50% bump. New company, same level of responsibilities. The old employer underpays everyone, so that percentage is higher than it otherwise would be, but still.

Current employer just gave me 5%. I'm interviewing for ~30%. /shrug
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