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Ask HN: Laid off folks, are you getting hired?

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Re: Ask HN: Laid off folks, are you getting hired?

#211

Post by nfw2 »

metadaemon wrote: post #158
shaftway wrote: post #103

Senior SWE, 20+ years of experience, based in the bay area, laid off from Meta in November. I reached out to my network and had a couple applications in same-day. One of those panned out and I just started this week. I also did a bunch of cold job applications, but didn't get a callback from any of them. The whole process led to a ton of anxiety and was really nerve-wracking, especially reading about layoffs from oth…

Man, there's definitely something broken with the cold application process. I'd estimate my success rate of getting an interview from a cold application is something like 1-5%. I almost always resort to referrals or getting lucky networking with recruiters.

It's ironic because you would think companies would want engineers who actually are eager to work there.

When connecting to companies through recruiters, you're expected to still come up with some semi-BS about why you're so excited to work there. But you need to go through the motions because the places you are actually excited to work won't even interview you.

Re: Ask HN: Laid off folks, are you getting hired?

#212

Post by metadaemon »

Yoric wrote: post #165
metadaemon wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess if you are used to the security (or lack thereof) and coast-ability of large tech companies, you might be inclined to stick to the big names. However, I've recently discovered how fulfilling startup work is. Ironically, I feel more secure in my current role at a startup than I ever did at big tech. That's thanks a lot to the industry I'm in, but regardless senior devs are missing a lot if they completely disc…

Happy for you. Unfortunately, with VC money currently drying off, I know of many startups that are laying off. And I'm not talking about 10% of workforce layoffs, but more around 30%.

Yep, you should definitely be wary about joining a startup in a drying industry, like B2B. Ask yourself if the customers/clients of said startup are still able to afford spending money on the product. If the customers themselves are another tech company that is struggling due to their VC money going away, probably not the best choice.

Re: Ask HN: Laid off folks, are you getting hired?

#213

Post by scarby2 »

nivenkos wrote: post #26
PretzelPirate wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in the US and would love to hear about the UK expefiencd. What's it like when being laid off in the UK? Do you get guaranteed severance and some breathing room from the stress of rent or mortgage payments? Do you worry about access to high quality Healthcare? Overall, do you think being in the UK makes you less worried that a layoff will leave you broke and homeless?

It depends on your company, but the statutory minimums are awful. You get a minimum of 2 week's extra pay if you have over 2 years service, and Job Seekers' Allowance is about 77 quid a week - so imagine living on less than $500 a month. Healthcare access (via the NHS) is unaffected, you might be able to get free prescriptions too. But in general it's terrible. As always in Europe you either want to be an ultra-rich…

I was unemployed in the UK once (early in my career) it was not fun, luckily i was able to move in with my mother and scrape by for a few months.

When my partner became unemployed in the USA i was amazed that she was getting $750 a week and her healthcare plan was $200 a month due to the marketplace subsidy.

Re: Ask HN: Laid off folks, are you getting hired?

#214

Post by millerm »

bugbuddy wrote: post #17

I was a senior dev at a big tech and got laid off in November. I have applied to hundreds of places. Not a lot of responses. I have been doing interview preps the whole time. It has been very demoralizing and I am thinking of switching careers to something else. I have been considering skilled trades. I like carpentry in particular.

I've been doing this stuff for decades. It has become an unbearable career. It's too late for me in life to change it as there are other circumstances that have made certain paths impossible for me to do. I'm screwed. Meanwhile, the uppers keep getting paid more and more while I get tossed. I honestly believe this is my final year on this planet.

Re: Ask HN: Laid off folks, are you getting hired?

#215

Post by scarby2 »

eddsh1994 wrote: post #168
kypro wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As always in Europe you either want to be an ultra-rich landowning aristocrat (little to no property tax, inheritance tax, etc.) or very poor/unemployed (e.g. a refugee) so you qualify for state housing, etc. - work does not pay. I just left an inappropriately long comment saying, in effect, actually the same thing. The US isn't perfect, but if you want to work you're generally able to move up the economic ladder e…

> make wealth creation via employment almost impossible. Depends on what 'wealth' means here, but you can get a 1% salary in England in your late 20s by contracting in tech and save several grand a month. Put that in shares & buy-to-lets and you'll be very well off by 40 compared to the average person. With the lower cost of living I don't see any issues here... If that's what drives you of course.

the cost of living isn't lower though.

Re: Ask HN: Laid off folks, are you getting hired?

#216

Post by Yoric »

ulizzle wrote: post #93

I just got back into the market after taking a hiatus to write a novel (finished it, deleted it afterward cus I'm not proud of it) and work on my music,(more success but I'm not good enough to think I can make a career out of it). There's a definite hiring slowdown due to current market circumstances and the fact that "Senior" really doesn't mean what it used to, so there's a lot more competition for those roles now.…

> There's a definite hiring slowdown due to current market circumstances and the fact that "Senior" really doesn't mean what it used to, so there's a lot more competition for those roles now.

What do you mean by "Senior" changing meaning?

Re: Ask HN: Laid off folks, are you getting hired?

#217

Post by beamgirl »

Yoric wrote: post #165
metadaemon wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess if you are used to the security (or lack thereof) and coast-ability of large tech companies, you might be inclined to stick to the big names. However, I've recently discovered how fulfilling startup work is. Ironically, I feel more secure in my current role at a startup than I ever did at big tech. That's thanks a lot to the industry I'm in, but regardless senior devs are missing a lot if they completely disc…

Happy for you. Unfortunately, with VC money currently drying off, I know of many startups that are laying off. And I'm not talking about 10% of workforce layoffs, but more around 30%.

The best move is startups that are profitable while being small. I went to a 13 person company out of college that was profitable when I joined. Rode that train till we got bought by a company that isn't profitable and is now doing layoffs to try and fix that. Now even so I'm still in the division that brings in more profit per programmer than almost any part of the company, but I still don't feel as safe as when we were a 50 person company that was still profitable after almost quadrupling in size.

Re: Ask HN: Laid off folks, are you getting hired?

#218

Post by metadaemon »

shaftway wrote: post #171
metadaemon wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man, there's definitely something broken with the cold application process. I'd estimate my success rate of getting an interview from a cold application is something like 1-5%. I almost always resort to referrals or getting lucky networking with recruiters.

I think it's a lot of luck and being one of the first people to apply. Once the flood comes in then people start filtering on metrics that don't really matter. "Oh, you only have 10 years of Java? This candidate over here has 11." I also think there's a weird game going on with remote roles. On my new team everyone is "remote", but of the 10 people 3 are in the bay area and the other 7 are in 6 different cities, but…

It can for sure. I felt that way interviewing with Google and Facebook. I typically go for "remote first" companies that either don't have an office presence at all, or companies with a significant number of engineers across the nation/world. It's one of the primary questions I tend to ask during the initial interview phases.

Re: Ask HN: Laid off folks, are you getting hired?

#219

Post by ghaff »

ryandrake wrote: post #116
dixie_land wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My observation is that recent layoffs affect engineers with different seniority very differently. Senior devs I know who got laid off are just enjoying their time off (with pay! if you consider the severance) after the rocketing market in 2021 (and maybe even H1 22) made them whole and financially secure. And they won't be entertaining a startup unless significant equity or big leveling up (eg Principal or Director).…

Furthermore, some very senior employees are in this boat: They kinda have enough savings to just retire, but were hanging on to their jobs to save maybe 10% more or whatever. Now that they're out of a job they are simply saying "Whelllp, I guess I'm now retired." and not really feeling the need to look anymore. I know someone who refused a forced return to office, and when his company tried to call his bluff, he just…

I've definitely seen some of that. Drag their feet through another vesting event. Maybe see if they can snag a severance package.

Re: Ask HN: Laid off folks, are you getting hired?

#220

Post by dangwhy »

renewiltord wrote: post #199
dangwhy wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> lookout for senior rust engineers Interesting how companies have trouble hiring for hyper specific tech that they might abandon in a few years. Then what happens to these "rust engineers", do they get laidoff for the next hiring of "X engineers".

As someone who did this for "low-latency min-allocation Java", the answer is that I have the need for this X now but I'm confident they can adapt to whatever comes later. The truth is that anyone on my team can become proficient in this given time, but I'd rather get someone who can juice the machine by showing up with existing knowledge and we'll all get ahead faster with them. I wouldn't fire someone in order to ge…

> rather get someone who can juice the machine by showing up with existing knowledge

This doesn't feel like a sustainable way to build engineering org. You only get N chances for such 'juicing', what do you do when you need to juice but don't have open headcount. You have to come up with a strategy for that anyways, so why not implement ' want juice but no headcount' strategy and expand your hiring pool.

I've also found that people who sell themselves as "Rust/SAP/Java engineer" seem to have a huge bias against anything else which makes sense since they've built their careers selling themselves as experts in a particular niche.

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