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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?

#191

Post by rcarmo »

tnel77 wrote: post #110
rcarmo wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I saw a quote (I think from HackerNews) talking about how during good times, there’s lots of startups getting money. In tough times, there’s lots of money going to a handful of good startups. Just work hard to find yourself a promising startup!

One word: Europe.

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

#192

Post by rcarmo »

hgsgm wrote: post #79
rcarmo wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You assume too much regarding parting terms, and I don't see any mention of family responsibilities in that rosy scenario of yours.

Most startup founders are over 40.

And independently wealthy to a degree.

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

#193

Post by rcarmo »

saalweachter wrote: post #73
rcarmo wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You assume too much regarding parting terms, and I don't see any mention of family responsibilities in that rosy scenario of yours.

Those are the terms from Google's announcement: https://www.google.com/amp/s/blog.google/inside-google/messa... 10 years gives you 36 weeks of severance, plus 6 months of healthcare. If you have a family, you're never going to have a better opportunity to spend several months working on your side project without measurably impacting your family's stability. Plus, when you do need to resume your job search, your resum…

Those are the US terms. There is an entire planet beyond, you know.

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

#194

Post by inconceivable »

ecshafer wrote: post #188
wonder_er wrote: post #150

Laid-off tech worker here. (backend engineer, ruby/rails/javascript). 5 years of experience. I'm working on not ever going back into tech. I've changed careers a number of times in my 34 years of life, and am doing it again. I'm only a mediocre software developer, have always had strong people/business skills, informed by my pre-software experience of commercial construction, teaching/training at a climbing gym, cust…

> Working on going independent here in Denver, acting as a 'broker' between businesses and their staff/customers to convert single-occupancy-vehicle-users to scooters, to increase the functional number of parking spaces in a given parking lot by 10% or more. How do you make money doing this? I also don't see how you really achieve this as a business. The best way to do this would imo run for city council with the bac…

you sell the scooters and get a commission for the people re-doing the parking lots. the customer company is incentivized by green initiatives and they have budgets to spend.

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

#195

Post by prerok »

stathibus wrote: post #155
gumby wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Only 56.7% of these people joined a tech company. There’s a very good chance that their new jobs are similar to their former jobs. Unfortunately, the term “tech” has become diluted to the point of worthlessness. Every company of any size needs programming, statistics, and such. Conversely many companies swept under the “tech” term don’t develop any technology at all. It’s so bad that actual technology development i…

In my head, "tech" refers to the segment of the labor market, not the product that the company produces. We can race to the bottom on the true definition of "tech" as far as actually producing new technology but in this context it doesn't matter.

Ok, but what is "tech" in this context?

I can imagine those people being hired for infra stuff in other segments but the percentage seems high for programmer-level stuff.

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

#196

Post by bradlys »

sjf wrote: post #158
wonder_er wrote: post #150

Laid-off tech worker here. (backend engineer, ruby/rails/javascript). 5 years of experience. I'm working on not ever going back into tech. I've changed careers a number of times in my 34 years of life, and am doing it again. I'm only a mediocre software developer, have always had strong people/business skills, informed by my pre-software experience of commercial construction, teaching/training at a climbing gym, cust…

How many other laid off tech people are there in Bali?

It's just a popular place for remote people. The usual white digital nomad bro who goes there to sleep around. (Plenty of women doing this too btw)

It's a nice spot but it's just for fucking around in your 20's. (Or 30's if you live an alternative lifestyle or are a terrible romantic partner)

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

#197

Post by endorphine »

Beaver117 wrote: post #98
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.

It will be painful to get a 50%+ paycut but I'm willing to accept any job - but like others guessed small companies instantly reject me. I only get interviews with other companies similar to FAANG, only for them to tell me they have a hiring feeeze. Or very early stage startups, like seed or series A, which I'm not comfortable joining.

> It will be painful to get a 50%+ paycut

Technically speaking, it's not a "paycut" if you're not currently getting paid.

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

#198

Post by ecshafer »

stcroixx wrote: post #167
QIYGT wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can learn everything most devs need to know about Kafka in a couple hours. I can't imagine why companies would ever hire based on current knowledge rather than problem solving skills and ability to learn.

We might be unique, but here's no situation we're using Kafka where someone unfamiliar with it would be able to design and support production level systems to the standards we do after a couple hours. That would result in a time bomb for someone else to clean up later when all the stuff you weren't aware you didn't know becomes a problem. These skills are common, some would say table stakes, so it's not hard finding…

My initial reaction reading this is that you really screwed up somewhere with your infrastructure. A pretty large company needs a Kafka team, a smaller company needs their infrastructure team to have a decent understanding with maybe one person / consultant with deeper knowledge.

Kafka for 99% of developers in the company should be "Can I use our internal library to read/write some topic".

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

#199

Post by worldmerge »

wonder_er wrote: post #150

Laid-off tech worker here. (backend engineer, ruby/rails/javascript). 5 years of experience. I'm working on not ever going back into tech. I've changed careers a number of times in my 34 years of life, and am doing it again. I'm only a mediocre software developer, have always had strong people/business skills, informed by my pre-software experience of commercial construction, teaching/training at a climbing gym, cust…

Sounds interesting! Any way to follow your progress?

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

#200

Post by bradlys »

elzbardico wrote: post #41

One thing that is very important to realize after being laid-off from a very big company during a recession is that you need to adjust your salary expectations for the new reality. And the other thing is that you should have been prepared for this a long, long time ago. Economic cycles are a thing, it is in all history books, there's no excuse for not being aware of them. I have always been very very conservative wit…

> You really don't need a Peloton bike and other conspicuous consumption signs.

This kind of just general bashing on tech people is so conceited. You're acting like a $2,000 stationary bike is really worth fussing over when you're making $400-500k/yr.

Very few people at these incomes in tech are living month to month. They're overall saving a fuckload even if they own a 911.

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