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The layoffs are here for those who chose to ‘learn to code’

businessinsider.com

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Re: The layoffs are here for those who chose to ‘learn to code’

#41

Post by ProllyInfamous »

lelanthran wrote: post #38
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't worry, the sweet irony is hitting those condescending tech-bros now too the same way it hit the condescending crypto/stock bros who kept preaching "the market only goes up", "to the moon" and, my personal favorite which I read on HN, "developer demand is infinite". How's that infinite demand working out now tech-bros? Just ask Twitter employees. https://imgur.com/a/ZSEl44o A lot of people working in tech were d…

> https://imgur.com/a/ZSEl44o I was around for the last 13 years, and I'm pretty certain that it was *self-identified left-leaning journalists* who told coal-miners "LearnToCode" and then got all huffy when they got told "#learntocode". Developers weren't taking part in this mess.

I'member when "Learn to Code" was taken as SEXIST somehow?!

It's irrelevant now, it's more properly "Learn to prompt" [-engineer without tell anybody you have self-obsolesced your own career].

Re: The layoffs are here for those who chose to ‘learn to code’

#42

Post by Doofus20230425 »

nonethewiser wrote: post #3
CraigRo wrote: post #2

A lot of very mediocre people were getting pretty astounding money. Happens every cycle.

> A lot of very mediocre people were getting pretty astounding money. Good

Wait, are we talking about shareholders or employees?

Re: The layoffs are here for those who chose to ‘learn to code’

#43

Post by Doofus20230425 »

slig wrote: post #37
Thorentis wrote: post #4

> Coders made up 14% of employees at tech companies Wow is this true? If so, I'm extremely surprised it is this low. No wonder Elon could cut 80% of jobs and everything would keep ticking along.

And the consensus was that Twitter wouldn't survive the next weekend.

As Microsoft's old lay offs from the Windows team had shown, the company can just keep producing a crappier product and things will just carry on.

Re: The layoffs are here for those who chose to ‘learn to code’

#45

Post by jacknews »

christkv wrote: post #5

I'm surprised not more of support staff is getting laid off. Product managers is like 2.9% only for example. Also the weird split between software engineers and application developers or web developers ?

"Also the weird split between software engineers and application developers or web developers ? "

Yes it suggests these stats are meaningless, and only provided to fit the 'developers are doomed, don't be asking to for a raise now' narrative.

Just another part of the inflation-reduction and capital-clawing-back-labor-power plan.

Re: The layoffs are here for those who chose to ‘learn to code’

#46

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

ProllyInfamous wrote: post #39
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't worry, the sweet irony is hitting those condescending tech-bros now too the same way it hit the condescending crypto/stock bros who kept preaching "the market only goes up", "to the moon" and, my personal favorite which I read on HN, "developer demand is infinite". How's that infinite demand working out now tech-bros? Just ask Twitter employees. https://imgur.com/a/ZSEl44o A lot of people working in tech were d…

I'm a blue collar IBEW electrician that inevitably injured myself working in confined spaces. Summer 2022, I set out on my quest to become a technical writer, but by Holidays 2022 I was generating images and tip-toe-ing into the emerging ChatGPT stuff. By January 2023, I was already certain that professional writing would be increasingly-difficult to enter (as a career field) as a novice content creator: I was alread…

There must be work in your area that isn't backbreaking physical labour or computer knowledge work revolving around rapidly changing fads.

How about working for the government or public companies or institutions?

ChatGPT knows a lot when it comes to information that's public in the internet or open sourced a lot, like web dev, but a lot of business require institutional knowledge that's always in the heads of the workers and never opensourced online like electrical engineering, embedded programing, train operators, plumbers, electricians, PLC programming, etc.

Knowledge work is so much more than web dev or copyrighting.

Re: The layoffs are here for those who chose to ‘learn to code’

#48

Post by peddleroftruth »

tyingq wrote: post #44

So, the same companies that overhired and ended up with underskilled developers are somehow going to accurately identify the underperforming developers and lay them off?

I think one of the problems is that they are about as good at identifying talent as they are at laying off underperforming developers.

One of my friends has worked at the same place for 10+ years, dodging several layoffs. When he talks about layoffs it seems pretty random who gets the stick.

He doesn't have the complete picture though, so they might very well be great developers, but still underperforming...

Re: The layoffs are here for those who chose to ‘learn to code’

#49

Post by tyingq »

peddleroftruth wrote: post #48
tyingq wrote: post #44

So, the same companies that overhired and ended up with underskilled developers are somehow going to accurately identify the underperforming developers and lay them off?

I think one of the problems is that they are about as good at identifying talent as they are at laying off underperforming developers. One of my friends has worked at the same place for 10+ years, dodging several layoffs. When he talks about layoffs it seems pretty random who gets the stick. He doesn't have the complete picture though, so they might very well be great developers, but still underperforming...

There's also some obvious issues with the way they do layoffs. Like, say there's a 10% cut target. They typically make every leader hit that target. Even if one team has, say, 30% of their devs underperforming, and another team has 0%.

And, of course, the idea that every leader even has a reasonable idea of their developers' performance. They don't. And they protect or punish people for all sorts of reasons, often unrelated to performance.

Re: The layoffs are here for those who chose to ‘learn to code’

#50

Post by thegginthesky »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #31
onion2k wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The software engineers are likely going to be some of the highest paid employees, so laying off underperforming engineers is going to help reduce labor costs substantially. It might seem counter-intuitive, but often businesses lay off the high-performing-but-best-paid people because that drives the biggest savings while reducing the vanity headcount metric less, especially in companies where the effort of the team gr…

High performing people adding the most value to the business were rarely the highest paid ones as they had long tenure and the best institutional knowledge but got mediocre wage increases as a punishment for being to loyal too the business. The highest paid ones were usually the ones who job hopped the most during the times of economic boom. They added little value where they went as their tenure was too short for th…

No joke at all. I personally know people that rode this last hiring bubble very stellar and got from analyst to manager in just 2 years, while raising their salary over 300% upwards because of strategic company hopping.

Some of them did get fire and are having trouble finding a job that paid as well as the last one.

It was a risk they were willing to take and I believe in some cases it paid off.

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