301–310 of 576 posts
“We burning through cash like Willie Nelson burns through weed and VCs are antsy that they won’t be able to pawn their money losing investments off to the public market and are antsy about throwing good money after bad”
Profitable tech companies are not going to stop hiring where they see opportunities.
There are public companies that are pre profit that are profoundly affected. Their run up in stock price was free money for things like stock based compensation that has gone away.
Small companies pre profit will all be implementing hiring freezes or have already to reduce burn as far as possible.
The job market just got a lot more competitive for jobseekers as hiring plummets.
If you are offered stock based compensation, make sure your strike price (if it’s options) is tied to CURRENT stock valuation and not some story about a temporary dip in the market that will correct soon. And know that this may be a protracted recession (think years) and that we haven’t yet seen the bottom.
In my opinion we’re looking at a bubble in housing, bonds, stocks and commodities along with a massive decoupling of the global economy, with war in Europe, a hangover from too much fed stimulus, and the real cost of COVID coming due. A perfect storm doesn’t begin capture what we need to dig out from here.
Best of luck to the founders and jobseekers here. I mean that sincerely. Hang in there and look for the opportunity amidst the crisis.
I'm not surprised (unfortunately, and I am truly sorry for this). Don't look to the 2008 recession for an idea of how things may go. Look to the 2000 (Tech Bubble Burst) recession. In that one, the bottom dropped out of the tech market. Web designers were especially hard hit. I have family that works for Intel, and they say that Intel tends to actually increase hiring in bear markets. I suspect that's because they ar…
I think what's looming feels worse than 2000. 2000 was just a hype bubble of the previous 2-3 years that burst. That actually worked out great for me, as my company just offered unpaid-but-full-benefits sabbaticals. This feels like the debt bubble that was launched by Reaganomics is now imploding, we're reeling back into the 70s stagflation with lame-duck / impeached leaders, increasing inner-city violence, race riot…
Edit: the worst case certainly might come true, but people are pattern matching on like n=1 scenarios here. That's why people have been predicting collapse as long as I've been alive... but the more people are prone to jump to conclusions and panic immediately, the more it might be self-fulfilling.
> I hope some experienced people in the industry can give some hope and advice. Is demoralizing to find out I spent 4 years in school just to get into a really harsh job market. First pandemic, then recession? F... Overall, I'd say relax a bit. You're still in a good situation. Recessions are hard for many, but software engineers were among the best off during the last one and I expect will be this time also. > I wan…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think what's looming feels worse than 2000. 2000 was just a hype bubble of the previous 2-3 years that burst. That actually worked out great for me, as my company just offered unpaid-but-full-benefits sabbaticals. This feels like the debt bubble that was launched by Reaganomics is now imploding, we're reeling back into the 70s stagflation with lame-duck / impeached leaders, increasing inner-city violence, race riot…
Is there strong evidence yet that this is a 2010-bubble-pop vs a 2020-bubble-pop? The last few years were particularly nuts in a lot of speculative markets. Big difference between back to normal or even a bit slowed from 2019 and a huge downturn, but I'm not seeing indicators yet that things are gonna fall off a cliff. People are still spending a lot of money and demand for a lot of things is still high - that might…
Yes, that is how you create a gigantic crash. Look at this graph, click 25 years, does this look to go in the right direction? The US economy is shifting more and more towards consumption of imported goods instead of producing things itself, this isn't sustainable. You see how the 2008 crash got the curve back and track, a similar thing should happen this time around as well.
I bet the non-profitable, feeding-on-VC startups are getting worried and we'll see more of this. I work at a non-VC-funded, profitable, stable, small place and we're desperately trying to hire. I've never made FAANG/startup income, and I've always felt a little left-out because of that. But we've been stable for nearly 30 years, and have never had the big layoffs or hiring freezes including, dot-com bust, 2008, 2020…
I know it doesn't make your experience any better, but this is *not* a harsh job market. Yes, some companies are pulling back/slowing down/pausing hiring, but there are still far more software jobs available than people to fill them.
> What companies or roles will be more resilient?
Those that are or can quickly become profitable. Most startups are NOT profitable because they chase growth at all costs. This may change as cheap and easy money dries up.
> And how as a SWE / tech industry professional, specially the ones starting their careers like me, can prepare?
Don't do anything different. You had one company pull out on you. That happens all the time for a multitude of reasons. Don't be discouraged. Apply for jobs at a range of companies, from start-ups to profitable SaaS companies to companies outside the typical "tech" wheelhouse.
> I hope some experienced people in the industry can give some hope and advice. Is demoralizing to find out I spent 4 years in school just to get into a really harsh job market. First pandemic, then recession? F... Overall, I'd say relax a bit. You're still in a good situation. Recessions are hard for many, but software engineers were among the best off during the last one and I expect will be this time also. > I wan…
> Overall, I'd say relax a bit. You're still in a good situation. Recessions are hard for many, but software engineers were among the best off during the last one and I expect will be this time also. The demand for software engineers was driven partly by zombie app and saas companies all competing for "top talent", dependent entirely on free cash but without sustainable business models. On top of that, the "demand" n…