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Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

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451–460 of 576 posts

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#451
I'm still hiring for my digital agency - we have clients that are funded as an existing traditional business or have already raised a round in anticipation of a market slowdown. You can contact me through my profile if you're interested.

Answering your questions - Will be this the situation for most tech companies or just start ups I expect companies that are still looking for PMF using VC money to die. This is essentially a population bottleneck (1) for certain classes of companies (pre-revenue) & verticals (crypto).

- during recessions recruiting slows down even for big profitable companies[?] The job market overheated for companies doing traditional sourcing, salaries were bumped across the whole industry to retain people, and still a lot of people left. I am sure that some companies overcompensated for this and are going to be burned if last year they went overboard with hiring & retention and this year the market blows up. I don't have an inkling as to which companies to watch out for, but some have already announced layoffs.

- What companies or roles will be more resilient? Companies - big blue chip ones are always safe and look good on a resume. Microsoft, Google, Apple, etc. aren't going anywhere. Even if you join Meta and get laid off due to their bad VR strategy.. it still helps your career by having joined them in the first place. Roles? Anything that existed a couple years ago is fine. Anything brand new like "head of remote work" I wouldn't be so confident about.

- And how as a SWE / tech industry professional, specially the ones starting their careers like me, can prepare? Just keep interviewing at companies with established engineering teams. Don't go somewhere with just 1 or 2 developers, or where engineering isn't the core of their business. This is where good talent goes to languish. I've seen too many people come out of these companies with years of "experience" but it was learned in isolation without somebody experienced helping to shape them into a real middle of senior developer; The worst thing you can do is rack up the years without the actual substance. It's like not MSFT or others are tough - it's just everybody you work with will teach you something new that it's unavoidable. In a tiny company you have to figure out everything by yourself or follow trends, which are less than ideal.

- Is demoralizing to find out I spent 4 years in school just to get into a really harsh job market You are entering almost the best market ever for developers. If you're good, you can get a job anywhere in the world right now at way above nominal rates (if you know how to negotiate).

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_bottleneck

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do yourself a favor though and don’t get any student loans. You’ll be setting yourself up for a future of pain.

Contrarian advice: This is the best time to take on student loans. We are entering a structural shift in how our global economy fueled by a credit bubble post 08. It is going to be much much worse than 2008 and 2000, combined . They are not going to be able to collect student loans for a very long time.

Well, about half a year ago would have been the perfect time to get a loan, before rates went up.

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#453
post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with those two? I'm genuinely interested, software engineers are overpaid as is with benefits that nearly every other industry can only dream about and you're upset about not being able to put extra 5 hours of time a week to improve your skills related to something that's your career? And we wonder why quality of everything is awful and why people are unreliable and entitled.

You're paying your employee because they are suitable at this moment. Expecting someone to study in their free time is nonsense. If you want that you either need to pay for it or allow study time during the work time.

I want to provide service to clients that we're paid for. I want staff to actually know what they claim they know. I want to deliver so we can all get paid and go home and do whatever else interests us.

That's what I want.

But I'm the proxy between staff, clients and government. So when I stay up late every night in order to reconcile all the warring parties, the comment I get is "pay more if you want to get more".

Or I could not deal with entitled underskilled staff, right? That's also a viable option? Why beg people to sharpen their craft if they don't want to? I might be old fashioned and I might take pride in what I do because I want to do it to the best of my abilities. I might have wrongly assumed that the rest of fellow programmers are similar to that, but it seems not.

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where are you located that you have a 35h week while enjoying such great benefits like employer investing in your training? I'd like to move there. In my EU country the working hours are 38.5 which isn't as good as 35h, but it isn't that bad, but no employer hires you to invest in your training. Every company wants only seniors, preferably for junior wages, and scream there's a shortage while offering no WFH because…

Probably France

that does look like french salary ranges for juniors

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#456
post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Employees are not willing to put a little extra (and we’re at the 35hrs week here), > - Not willing to study afterwork to improve their career, Some of your points make sense but these two…

What's wrong with those two? I'm genuinely interested, software engineers are overpaid as is with benefits that nearly every other industry can only dream about and you're upset about not being able to put extra 5 hours of time a week to improve your skills related to something that's your career? And we wonder why quality of everything is awful and why people are unreliable and entitled.

Overpaid? https://www.harveynash.co.uk/jobs

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#457
post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Home time is personal time. Here I deal with family, chores and self-connection. If you want me to learn stuff and be better and my job you will have to give me time, company time, for that. We are not machine. In France it is mandatory for the company to give time for training. Thanks unions. https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/id/LEGISCTA000006189881...

Then you also don't have any problem if better candidate appears and challenges your position, right?

How is that related? That can already happen if a company decide to have this approach. See also companies that have PIP targets.

Presumably companies have a good idea of employees' skill sets when they hire them, or they terminate the contract by the end of the probation period, so they can also plan for this necessary learning.

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#458
post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Employees are not willing to put a little extra (and we’re at the 35hrs week here), > - Not willing to study afterwork to improve their career, Some of your points make sense but these two…

What's wrong with those two? I'm genuinely interested, software engineers are overpaid as is with benefits that nearly every other industry can only dream about and you're upset about not being able to put extra 5 hours of time a week to improve your skills related to something that's your career? And we wonder why quality of everything is awful and why people are unreliable and entitled.

The salaries are only high in the US though, but the recession is global.

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we're desperately trying to hire Perhaps this is a good place to leave a link to your hiring page...

We’re small enough that it would tie my account to me. Not wanting to do that. Maybe the next Who’s Hiring I’ll have a throwaway ready and do that.

You'd be surprised by (probably) how easy would be to tie your account to you. But I respect the care to your own privacy.

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heresy!

Home time is personal time. Here I deal with family, chores and self-connection. If you want me to learn stuff and be better and my job you will have to give me time, company time, for that. We are not machine. In France it is mandatory for the company to give time for training. Thanks unions. https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/id/LEGISCTA000006189881...

thanks unions for the millions of unemployed people too
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