How much have tech layoffs affected engineers vs. other departments?
blog.interviewing.io
How much have tech layoffs affected engineers vs. other departments?
1–10 of 359 posts
Re: How much have tech layoffs affected engineers vs. other departments?
#2The market is still extremely tight for good talent in-between Senior and Junior.
Re: How much have tech layoffs affected engineers vs. other departments?
#3> Articles like these drive engineers to speculate on Blind and on Reddit, in the internet equivalent of hushed whispers, about whether they’re next.
Bizarre to reference a Blind thread from 2019 discussing Uber layoffs to back up a claim that engineers are reading the previously linked articles in the future and speculating about "whether they're next."
Re: How much have tech layoffs affected engineers vs. other departments?
#4The market is still extremely tight for good talent in-between Senior and Junior.
So the Senior market is saturated? this is an early sign companies are getting nervous about bloat. After the '08 recession many companies rushed to ditch Architect titles as they found that the role did not serve the interests of their productive engineers or the companies higher ups. Companies that had gone heavy on such talent might find themselves stuck.
I recall seeing talks on "Staff Engineer" and thinking that this was going to be the next version of "Architect". Engineers who's primary job is to write code often dislike working with people in such roles.
Re: How much have tech layoffs affected engineers vs. other departments?
#5The market is still extremely tight for good talent in-between Senior and Junior.
So the Senior market is saturated? this is an early sign companies are getting nervous about bloat. After the '08 recession many companies rushed to ditch Architect titles as they found that the role did not serve the interests of their productive engineers or the companies higher ups. Companies that had gone heavy on such talent might find themselves stuck. I recall seeing talks on "Staff Engineer" and thinking that…
> I recall seeing talks on "Staff Engineer" and thinking that this was going to be the next version of "Architect". Engineers who's primary job is to write code often dislike working with people in such roles.
That depends. If they are actively involved and the architectural decisions are sound, it's fine.
If they are "drive-by architects", showing up, dropping a bunch of useless boxes they read on some book, and then leaving before the consequences of their 'architecture' are known, you are right we don't like working with them.
At many companies, however, staff engineers are still engineers.
Re: How much have tech layoffs affected engineers vs. other departments?
#6The market is still extremely tight for good talent in-between Senior and Junior.
So the Senior market is saturated? this is an early sign companies are getting nervous about bloat. After the '08 recession many companies rushed to ditch Architect titles as they found that the role did not serve the interests of their productive engineers or the companies higher ups. Companies that had gone heavy on such talent might find themselves stuck. I recall seeing talks on "Staff Engineer" and thinking that…
Staff engineer is just title inflation for what used to be senior engineer. Senior engineers at most companies just means this isn’t your first job right out of college.
Re: How much have tech layoffs affected engineers vs. other departments?
#7> Articles like these drive engineers to speculate on Blind and on Reddit, in the internet equivalent of hushed whispers, about whether they’re next. Bizarre to reference a Blind thread from 2019 discussing Uber layoffs to back up a claim that engineers are reading the previously linked articles in the future and speculating about "whether they're next."
Author here. Good call, just fixed to a more generic link about layoffs on Blind. No shortage of recent conversations.
Re: How much have tech layoffs affected engineers vs. other departments?
#8“interviewing.io is both a mock interview platform and an eng hiring marketplace (engineers use us for technical interview practice, and top performers get fast-tracked at companies)”
The source for this article has some strong incentives in the area of perceptions of increased competitiveness.
Re: How much have tech layoffs affected engineers vs. other departments?
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
So the Senior market is saturated? this is an early sign companies are getting nervous about bloat. After the '08 recession many companies rushed to ditch Architect titles as they found that the role did not serve the interests of their productive engineers or the companies higher ups. Companies that had gone heavy on such talent might find themselves stuck. I recall seeing talks on "Staff Engineer" and thinking that…
Staff engineer is just title inflation for what used to be senior engineer. Senior engineers at most companies just means this isn’t your first job right out of college.
I have 15 yoe and have senior software engineer title so do people with 2 yrs experience.
I might be doing same thing over and over. Time to make a radical change :/.
Re: How much have tech layoffs affected engineers vs. other departments?
#10The market is still extremely tight for good talent in-between Senior and Junior.
So the Senior market is saturated? this is an early sign companies are getting nervous about bloat. After the '08 recession many companies rushed to ditch Architect titles as they found that the role did not serve the interests of their productive engineers or the companies higher ups. Companies that had gone heavy on such talent might find themselves stuck. I recall seeing talks on "Staff Engineer" and thinking that…
> So the Senior market is saturated?
I am not sure I would say saturated, but yeah, the Sr. SWE market is definitely not as tight as it was a year ago for most role types. However, it does depend on qualifications and company type. Seniors for R&D positions (so, PhD with 5+ years in product-focused R&D) are still basically impossible to hire. Friends tell me that hiring seniors at mid-pay or low-pay companies is still pretty hard.
The more important dichotomy is between mid-career/late-career and junior. The entry level positions are absolutely saturated. CS programs are definitely over-producing at this point.