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Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

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Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#71

Post by 300bps »

est31 wrote: post #41
teraflop wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Software development pays incredibly well by the standards of the average American. You can spend that money on lifestyle inflation, or you can save/invest it and buy yourself an enormous amount of financial freedom. Whether you call that "being independently wealthy" is a matter of semantics.

Yeah there is a lot of space between "has savings for 8-12 months" and "is independently wealthy, i.e. can live off interest of their own savings". Former is extremely easy to achieve if you can save significant portions of your salary. If you can save 30%, you can achieve it after 3 years. Latter takes a bit longer.

Yeah there is a lot of space between "has savings for 8-12 months"

I think there is a mentality difference here. I have savings that would easily last me 10 years of not working. But... that's kind of my plan. I will be retiring some day.

I don't want to use up even a dime of that money by not working in my prime earning years.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#72

Post by turdprincess »

kristopolous wrote: post #37

Let me show you the backdoor: Find a company whose open source projects you are interested in. Dive in and and start fixing things. Then if you really like it after a couple weeks start nudging around for a job. If you do good work they'll just give it to you, no bullshit funnel required. I like this method because you aren't just doing l33t coding exercises to work on some sight unseen codebase that makes you suicid…

Curious if you have done this yourself

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#73

Post by pubby »

elwell wrote: post #58
pubby wrote: post #23

I wasn't laid off, but am unemployed. I've found it very difficult to land any interviews, or even get a response from companies. Even what I thought were safe bets (like a job at a bank, writing CRUD apps) do not respond. I've only had one interview this year. It was with a FAANG. I easily passed and got an offer, but then layoffs were announced and they had to revoke.

You easily passed a FAANG interview?

By easy I mean I didn't prep or study, and at the end they said I passed with flying colors. I reckon my answers could have been a lot better though.

I've only had two software interviews in my life, so I don't have much to compare it to.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#74

Post by brian-armstrong »

throw1234651234 wrote: post #25

For those who did get laid off from F(/M)AANG, are you considering "lower" end positions or looking for comparable total comp at comparably sized, tech-focused companies? Just curious, as a flyover midwesterner, it seems like no one here is affected, nor are we getting any interviewees from FAANG into the pipeline suddenly.

One thing people tend to miss here is that 2021 was a massive hiring year across the board. The layoffs in 2022, while regrettable, are something of a correction from that. The number of ICs just at Google alone is still massive.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#75

Post by krn »

jlarocco wrote: post #60
krn wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Are there other ways to accomplish being so comfortable with, "eh, gonna be unemployed another 4-6 months and see what happens"? It's not that hard to accomplish for those who can be(come) location independent. For instance[1]: > You would need around 2,582.16$ in Budapest to maintain the same standard of life that you can have with 8,700.00$ in San Francisco, CA (assuming you rent in both cities). [1] https://www.…

Budapest is a strange choice for comparison. Just about anywhere in the United States will be a lot cheaper than SF, too, without the huge inconvenience of moving internationally.

I picked Budapest for comparison, because as a European I don't know many large, safe, and affordable US cities that wouldn't require owning a car for comfortable living.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#76

Post by ctvo »

abadger9 wrote: post #7

I'm not laid off but actively looking to change after spending a couple of years at my current employer. Despite being a staff engineer, managing 12 engineers, and having a solid revenue stream tied to my current team - I've mostly gotten rejections without interviews, 1-2 low ball offers, or radio silence. I cannot imagine how hard this must be for those laid-off, hopefully this storm passes soon. EDIT: you cannot m…

> Despite being a staff engineer, managing 12 engineers, and having a solid revenue stream tied to my current team - I've mostly gotten rejections without interviews

How do you expect the HR folks to validate (or even to have read what you wrote) these claims? A lot of people put the things you’re putting on their resumes.

They’re also getting resumes when from Meta, Amazon, Stripe, … engineers. Is it really surprising you’re not getting a call back?

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#77

Post by throwaway20382 »

brian-armstrong wrote: post #74
throw1234651234 wrote: post #25

For those who did get laid off from F(/M)AANG, are you considering "lower" end positions or looking for comparable total comp at comparably sized, tech-focused companies? Just curious, as a flyover midwesterner, it seems like no one here is affected, nor are we getting any interviewees from FAANG into the pipeline suddenly.

One thing people tend to miss here is that 2021 was a massive hiring year across the board. The layoffs in 2022, while regrettable, are something of a correction from that. The number of ICs just at Google alone is still massive.

Yes. But that is where non-Faangs are hosed. IMHO Small companies see a Faang on a resume and toss the other ones out. Even though the Faang company tossed these people first layoff.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#78

Post by VBprogrammer »

300bps wrote: post #71
est31 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah there is a lot of space between "has savings for 8-12 months" and "is independently wealthy, i.e. can live off interest of their own savings". Former is extremely easy to achieve if you can save significant portions of your salary. If you can save 30%, you can achieve it after 3 years. Latter takes a bit longer.

Yeah there is a lot of space between "has savings for 8-12 months" I think there is a mentality difference here. I have savings that would easily last me 10 years of not working. But... that's kind of my plan. I will be retiring some day. I don't want to use up even a dime of that money by not working in my prime earning years.

The other side of that coin is that saving for a post work life (particularly at normal retirement age) is a good way of spending all of your life working hard for a retirement which never comes. There is something to be said for spreading those retirement years across your lifetime rather than saving them all up for the end.

Different of course if you have a plan to retire at 45 or something.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#79

Post by sva_ »

kristopolous wrote: post #37

Let me show you the backdoor: Find a company whose open source projects you are interested in. Dive in and and start fixing things. Then if you really like it after a couple weeks start nudging around for a job. If you do good work they'll just give it to you, no bullshit funnel required. I like this method because you aren't just doing l33t coding exercises to work on some sight unseen codebase that makes you suicid…

This sounds like you're suggesting people work for free for the hope of potentially being hired by an employer. I think that is pretty pathetic.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#80

Post by ctvo »

kristopolous wrote: post #37

Let me show you the backdoor: Find a company whose open source projects you are interested in. Dive in and and start fixing things. Then if you really like it after a couple weeks start nudging around for a job. If you do good work they'll just give it to you, no bullshit funnel required. I like this method because you aren't just doing l33t coding exercises to work on some sight unseen codebase that makes you suicid…

This 1 weird trick of doing free work and hoping they 1) have headcount 2) pay attention / see value in your free work.

> … you are test driving each other.

Unless you think the way they run their open source projects is the way their entire company works, you’re really not.

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