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Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

economist.com

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Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#51

Post by imwithstoopid »

rcarmo wrote: post #42
imwithstoopid wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm calling BS on the "startups" number...I think this is a lot of people hacking around on side projects on their own dime No mention also of how many will permanently leave tech...this may come down to who has the most savings to fall back on...if you just have to get paid to pay off that BMW lease, you're going to find work wherever you have to

And if you're leaving Google and willing to relocate, you probably have "enough" savings.

having worked at Google doesn't make you a good saver or dictate a sustainable lifestyle

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#52

Post by msandford »

esskay wrote: post #23
Beaver117 wrote: post #13

I can't find another job even with a FAANG background. The market is brutal. Maybe my only choice is to start a startup.

Are you expecting a salary similar to the one you were getting at a FAANG though? Because that seems to be the main issue - FAANG people thinking they're worth way more than they actually are.

A kinder way to say this is "the talent entering the market is pushing wages down" or something like that. It's pretty rare that wages reflect worth. They reflect what employers have to / are willing to pay.

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#54

Post by rcarmo »

imwithstoopid wrote: post #51
rcarmo wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if you're leaving Google and willing to relocate, you probably have "enough" savings.

having worked at Google doesn't make you a good saver or dictate a sustainable lifestyle

Statistically, some folk will keep their wits about them regardless of the company they work for.

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#55

Post by saalweachter »

rcarmo wrote: post #32
DrBazza wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And probably leading to the next wave of innovation and/or unicorns. https://www.wired.com/story/tech-layoffs-are-feeding-a-new-s...

I seriously doubt that. Might be true for younger people who were laid off by the "LIFO rule" (i.e., cheaper severance), but anyone with a 10y+ career would at least think twice before joining a startup... Especially in Europe, but these kinds of stories are never about Europe.

What, if you were laid off with 10+ years of savings from a bigtech salary and 30-40 weeks of severance and continuing benefits, you wouldn't (after a few weeks to process and recover) begin hammering out a prototype to that idea that's been in the back of your head for the last 5-10 years? You could burn half a year and still have ten weeks to do a job search.

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#56

Post by dagw »

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #31
nubela wrote: post #18

We actually tracked every laid off individual from Google to understand the story behind the layoffs. Here's the summary: - 747 out of the 2,762 laid-off Googlers have since updated their profiles to indicate a change of employment status in the last 4 months since November 2022. - Only 56.7% of these people joined a tech company. - 1/3 of these ex-Googlers joined startups. See the full blog post here: https://nubela…

>Only 56.7% of these people joined a tech company Does this suggest that a large fraction of laid off employees were in non-tech roles (e.g. pro{ject,duct} managers, scrum masters, sales, etc.)? If so, perhaps the layoffs are a good thing—in my experience, the worst tech companies to work for are those dominated by non-technical employees. Perhaps layoffs are being used as a blunt instrument to shift the balance away…

I've spent most of my career at places that most people here would classify as "non-tech" companies and have spent my time there working with programming, statistics and data analysis and data science research.

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#57

Post by imwithstoopid »

DrBazza wrote: post #19
freeone3000 wrote: post #5

Answer: "Working somewhere else mostly, but some started their own company."

And probably leading to the next wave of innovation and/or unicorns. https://www.wired.com/story/tech-layoffs-are-feeding-a-new-s...

the next wave of innovation will be things like battery tech, deep AI

in other words, nothing a React dev is going to put together in their kitchen

realistically, the unemployed will end up competing with the ten of thousands of new devs coming out of college and bootcamps...the guy who cleans our pool is learning python as part of his online coding degree (really)

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#58

Post by margorczynski »

catmanjan wrote: post #43
nubela wrote: post #18

We actually tracked every laid off individual from Google to understand the story behind the layoffs. Here's the summary: - 747 out of the 2,762 laid-off Googlers have since updated their profiles to indicate a change of employment status in the last 4 months since November 2022. - Only 56.7% of these people joined a tech company. - 1/3 of these ex-Googlers joined startups. See the full blog post here: https://nubela…

What is a tech company? Is ford a tech company? Is Goldman Sacha a tech company?

Yeah, that's a good question. Considering main revenue sources Google is a marketing/ad company and "tech" is simply an implementation detail.

I think a good litmus test is - if the Internet would die then would a given company be killed off by that. Ford and GS can function without it (it would be much harder but still they did that for decades) but for Google that would be the end.

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#59

Post by jacknews »

msandford wrote: post #52
esskay wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you expecting a salary similar to the one you were getting at a FAANG though? Because that seems to be the main issue - FAANG people thinking they're worth way more than they actually are.

A kinder way to say this is "the talent entering the market is pushing wages down" or something like that. It's pretty rare that wages reflect worth. They reflect what employers have to / are willing to pay.

Of course, in general, employers are making way more from the work the employee does than they pay, otherwise why bother?

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#60

Post by looping__lui »

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #31
nubela wrote: post #18

We actually tracked every laid off individual from Google to understand the story behind the layoffs. Here's the summary: - 747 out of the 2,762 laid-off Googlers have since updated their profiles to indicate a change of employment status in the last 4 months since November 2022. - Only 56.7% of these people joined a tech company. - 1/3 of these ex-Googlers joined startups. See the full blog post here: https://nubela…

>Only 56.7% of these people joined a tech company Does this suggest that a large fraction of laid off employees were in non-tech roles (e.g. pro{ject,duct} managers, scrum masters, sales, etc.)? If so, perhaps the layoffs are a good thing—in my experience, the worst tech companies to work for are those dominated by non-technical employees. Perhaps layoffs are being used as a blunt instrument to shift the balance away…

I guess working on your empathy skills and trying to understand emotions of others (instead of solely focusing on your own) might make your life easier.

I have met many engineers who thought along the same lines of “technology is the end and sales and product managers are the means to have me do whatever I want to code" and agree that these people struggled in environment focusing on "the customer".

I doubt, that "customer and product centric" companies will become less "customer and product centric".

A reason for the changes we are observing is less access to cheap capital which - as far as I can tell - will shift attention more towards "money, customers and products" and away from "engineering pet projects".

But, perhaps this is a good thing.

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