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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?

#301

Post by hikawaii »

paganel wrote: post #284
georgeecollins wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> were hanging on to their jobs to save maybe 10% more or whatever The amount of wealth all people need is constant. It is 1.5 x whatever they have today.

The people going after "wealth" are a minority. The majority of us are salaried people who go to work in order to have a roof over our heads, to pay the bills and put food on the table and maybe to have enough money to have some kids. The majority of us don't actually know what we "have", because it isn't that much anyway. We do know though what we need to pay in the next 10 to 15 days(and if we somehow forget there'…

Given that the average mid level developer makes a salary and stock grant putting them well into the 1% (in USA) I find it questionable that the majority of people are "just" trying to keep a roof over their heads.

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

#302

Post by [deleted] »

millerm wrote: post #214
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.

[deleted]

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

#304

Post by linkjuice4all »

I think remote work has definitely changed the game (not in a bad way). I was working remotely at a YC start up since the start of the pandemic and they never really figured out their business since I've been there. I've been looking around for new work and my job search has changed drastically from pre-pandemic.

I've reached out to my network and found some success there but I've also been shotgunning out applications on LinkedIn to any "close-enough" remote role that had easy apply (I'm saving a ton of time on resume customization and cover letter bullshitting). That's resulted in a lot of rejections which is demoralizing - but it's a numbers game at this point.

No new job yet - but definitely some good responses and intro calls after only 2 weeks of searching.

(Background - 10 years experience/full stack and marketing/college drop out/LA)

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

#305

Post by sulam »

away271828 wrote: post #293
zwkrt wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite a broad generalization. Sounds like people who don't have an actual plan for their money other than to have more of it. The kind of person who retires and realizes they don't even know what to do now that they aren't striving for that $$$.

I don't know. It's a big and somewhat irreversible decision from a pay and career perspective. I can certainly see people hesitate to make the plunge and maybe stretch things out a bit further even though they're pretty sure they're fine finacially.

Irreversible? If Tom Brady can come out retirement your typical tech worker will surely find it possible.

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

#306

Post by FlyingSnake »

RamblingCTO wrote: post #24

I'm looking for > mid backend folks right now, kotlin + spring boot/micronaut. preferably rhein-main area/Germany or remote in Germany. Just hit me up ;) Good luck to everyone else.

I'm not looking for a job, but there are no contact details in your HN profile.

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

#307

Post by urbandw311er »

kypro wrote: post #127
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?

I'm a contractor so no severance, although I believe severance in the UK works fairly similarly to the US (I just wouldn't know). On mortgages, I'm very worried because in the UK all mortgages are ARMs and our repayments have gone up a ton. But in addition to this so have our energy bills, and expenses generally. > Do you worry about access to high quality Healthcare? I don't have private healthcare. Unless you're ve…

I live in the UK and disagree with almost everything you said.

If you’re not working, sure there are some state benefits but to assume that life on benefits is some sort of ‘easy ride’ is nonsense. Your quality of life will be poor, there will barely be enough money to heat and eat and your “house” will most often be a poor quality council flat. Some accommodation is so bad there have been deaths caused by mould.

It sounds like you may have developed a skewed view of the situation perhaps due to your personal experiences. You should read up on some of the myths about benefits at this website:

https://www.poverty.ac.uk/editorial/exposing-benefit-‘myths’

Income tax rates for the highest earners are relatively low in the UK compared to other European nations. Denmark has the highest personal income tax rate, at 56%, compared to 45% in the UK.

I do agree there is a problem with inherited wealth in the UK though. Money makes money.

But on your overall point — nope. For the vast majority of people in the UK, all the stats evidence that your life is likely to be way more pleasant if you’re earning.

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

#308

Post by timr »

mywittyname wrote: post #294
Yoric wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can testify to that. Of course, your team can be considered strategic one day, then disbanded the next.

I've definitely seen some "strategic" people being shown the door over the past few rounds of layoffs, and at least two boomerangs (laid off, then rehired). These are very confusing times.

You can always be laid off. The chances are much higher if you work on things unrelated to the core business at a startup that is losing money (or worse, not making money).

Obviously, if you're the junior hire on a team of 1,000 people doing third-derivative things that relate to revenue, YMMV.

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

#309

Post by FollowingTheDao »

sgwizdak wrote: post #285
jaxomlotus wrote: post #66

Here's the flip side: I was hiring (at a stealth vc-funded startup). I reached out to every designer and coder laid off from Twitter and Amazon (one of my investors sent me a spreadsheet that those laid off folks added their contact info to). I didn't receive a single interested response to my reach outs. Now granted, I'm sure they were bombarded with lots of startup offers and being picky what company/stage they wer…

One note from personal experience -- it'll likely take about 12 weeks or so for a laid off dev to come back up to speed with interview prep to feel confident to start the interview grind again. One thing that can likely help is being upfront with the evaluation process.

If they can afford to wait three months (!) to start looking for work because of "feelings" they they deserved to be laid off.

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

#310

Post by josephg »

teacpde wrote: post #155
mikeg8 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone with more carpentry experience (paid) than dev experience, but strong interests in both worlds, I’m curious how you would reconcile taking an approximate 50% reduction in comp. Don’t know the numbers for your area but knowing Bay Area salaries, senior devs make 2-2.5x journeyman carpenters.

As someone who has no carpentry experience but has spent a lot of time on woodworking as a hobby, I absolutely don't look forward to a carpentry job, even if the tech job market goes further south. Jobs take the fun out of your hobby sooner or later, and I have learned that lesson with software development.

I had that early in my software career. I've enjoyed programming since I was a kid, but after getting my first fulltime job I started questioning if I even enjoyed it.

Turned out I was just getting burned out from the feature factory work I was doing. I took a little break and did some fun hobby projects, and I instantly fell in love with programming again. I think making a programming career sustainable requires that we do work we actually enjoy.

A few decades later, I know what I do and don't want in a workplace. For me that means: No corporate gigs, no java, no barnacle coworkers and no jira. Yes to smart coworkers, projects I care about, technically interesting work, small teams, and a culture of responsibility taking and ownership.

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