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Tech jobs remain a good bet despite mass layoffs in Silicon Valley

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Re: Tech jobs remain a good bet despite mass layoffs in Silicon Valley

#71

Post by [deleted] »

giantg2 wrote: post #45
JCM9 wrote: post #17

Tech is a rare industry where you can easily pivot into it later in your career, start at an entry level position, work your way very high up the ladder and get paid very well along the way. I know folks without a college degree that started as tech support reps who worked their way up to senior roles in big tech that make multiples more than most physicians I know or others that had to go down a rigid path to get to…

"Easily" my ass. "The industry favors eager people who are hungry to continually learn and grow. While there can be short term bumps in the road, those that fit these characteristics have and will continue to do extremely well." That wasn't my experience. The people you describe making so much money are statistical outliers who got lucky. I'd love to live in whatever bubble you do. All I'd have to do to make stupid l…

[deleted]

Re: Tech jobs remain a good bet despite mass layoffs in Silicon Valley

#72

Post by spaceman_2020 »

rippercushions wrote: post #57
bombolo wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh please stop with this meaningless fear mongering. AI is a (not so good) tool. Yes it can write very short snippets that often make sense, but in no way can understand requirements, do debugging or maintain existing code.

The ChatGPT 4 developer demo showcased literally all three of those. https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-watch-first-d...

According to HN, technology never improves. The first version of something is always the way it will ever be. OpenAI hasn't improved at all from GPT-3 to GPT-4, and all the billions flowing into this field will cause zero improvements in the next 30 years.

This place needs to change its name to LudditeNews.

Re: Tech jobs remain a good bet despite mass layoffs in Silicon Valley

#73

Post by bradlys »

giantg2 wrote: post #43
nytesky wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, we hire a ton of technical Fed contractors, but the pay range capps out at $150k and starts at a level most of HN would find insulting. But it’s considered “tech” at least by NPR.

It's insulting that people think most of HN are highly paid. I dont really fit in anywhere. I suppose I don't even fit in on here. $150k would be a very nice raise for me, one that I'm not capable of abtaining.

HN is a very Silicon Valley focused website. $150k in SV isn’t very much at all. You get more than that even at startups as a senior engineer. New grads at FAANG will get at least that or more.

Re: Tech jobs remain a good bet despite mass layoffs in Silicon Valley

#74

Post by hgsgm »

evilduck wrote: post #69
giantg2 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Easily" my ass. "The industry favors eager people who are hungry to continually learn and grow. While there can be short term bumps in the road, those that fit these characteristics have and will continue to do extremely well." That wasn't my experience. The people you describe making so much money are statistical outliers who got lucky. I'd love to live in whatever bubble you do. All I'd have to do to make stupid l…

Relative to other fields. Compare it to wanting to switch careers into the military, plumbing, captaining a boat, or becoming a doctor or lawyer or civil engineer after the age of 40. Technology has no age limits, educational requirements, no government enforced credentials or inspections required, no apprenticeship or residency requirements, no significant union presence, no commonality for time in title, no profess…

Real estate agency is also easy to get into, and can pay a lot. that doesn't make the median agent high-income

Re: Tech jobs remain a good bet despite mass layoffs in Silicon Valley

#75

Post by giantg2 »

evilduck wrote: post #69
giantg2 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Easily" my ass. "The industry favors eager people who are hungry to continually learn and grow. While there can be short term bumps in the road, those that fit these characteristics have and will continue to do extremely well." That wasn't my experience. The people you describe making so much money are statistical outliers who got lucky. I'd love to live in whatever bubble you do. All I'd have to do to make stupid l…

Relative to other fields. Compare it to wanting to switch careers into the military, plumbing, captaining a boat, or becoming a doctor or lawyer or civil engineer after the age of 40. Technology has no age limits, educational requirements, no government enforced credentials or inspections required, no apprenticeship or residency requirements, no significant union presence, no commonality for time in title, no profess…

Yeah, and it's still not easy, especially if you're talking about being in the higher income levels. It's also not enough to just enjoy learning and growing to get you there.

Re: Tech jobs remain a good bet despite mass layoffs in Silicon Valley

#76

Post by giantg2 »

amusedcyclist wrote: post #68
giantg2 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Easily" my ass. "The industry favors eager people who are hungry to continually learn and grow. While there can be short term bumps in the road, those that fit these characteristics have and will continue to do extremely well." That wasn't my experience. The people you describe making so much money are statistical outliers who got lucky. I'd love to live in whatever bubble you do. All I'd have to do to make stupid l…

When people say "easily", they don't mean "everybody gets to it". They mean "The chances are better than elsewhere". Which is true. And also fyi if you actually enjoy learning and growing you wouldn't sound so bitter about not making stupid amounts of money

Are the chances better than elsewhere? It seems sales, real estate, etc would be the "easier" place to make money as there's even less involved in barriers to entry.

"And also fyi if you actually enjoy learning and growing you wouldn't sound so bitter about not making stupid amounts of money"

FYI these aren't mutually exclusive. You can enjoy learning and growing while being bitter about getting screwed over. And it's not bitter to point out to other people that initial comment about just learning and growing being enough to easily reach top 5% income is a lie.

Re: Tech jobs remain a good bet despite mass layoffs in Silicon Valley

#77

Post by hgsgm »

pbourke wrote: post #53
m_a_g wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 2) If one were AI-alarmist, is there any profession you can be confident will not be displaced by AI in 10, 15, or even 20 years? Many; Dentists, people that fix your AC, electricians, etc, etc.

Medicine, law, accounting, professional engineering. Notice something in common with all of these? With the exception of law, automation has already arrived in all of these fields (to accounting first, 1-2 generations ago) and there are now more people in each field rather than less. Answering my own question: each has a comfortable regulatory moat and competent professional society to defend it.

Law is highly automated at the low end where Rocket and Nolo displaced the "neighborhood lawyer".

Same for accounting and TurboTax.

Re: Tech jobs remain a good bet despite mass layoffs in Silicon Valley

#78

Post by seattle_spring »

giantg2 wrote: post #45
JCM9 wrote: post #17

Tech is a rare industry where you can easily pivot into it later in your career, start at an entry level position, work your way very high up the ladder and get paid very well along the way. I know folks without a college degree that started as tech support reps who worked their way up to senior roles in big tech that make multiples more than most physicians I know or others that had to go down a rigid path to get to…

"Easily" my ass. "The industry favors eager people who are hungry to continually learn and grow. While there can be short term bumps in the road, those that fit these characteristics have and will continue to do extremely well." That wasn't my experience. The people you describe making so much money are statistical outliers who got lucky. I'd love to live in whatever bubble you do. All I'd have to do to make stupid l…

The only people I’ve seen who have major troubles are people who don’t actually like to program, or who have very staunch/stagnant attitudes. Do you fit into either of those buckets by chance?

Re: Tech jobs remain a good bet despite mass layoffs in Silicon Valley

#79

Post by giantg2 »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #65
giantg2 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's insulting that people think most of HN are highly paid. I dont really fit in anywhere. I suppose I don't even fit in on here. $150k would be a very nice raise for me, one that I'm not capable of abtaining.

I guess the idea is that HN is mainly tech and much of that demographic makes higher than the societal median.

Which is fine. But what is more applicable here would be the median for tech, which $150k is still over that.

Re: Tech jobs remain a good bet despite mass layoffs in Silicon Valley

#80

Post by giantg2 »

bradlys wrote: post #73
giantg2 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's insulting that people think most of HN are highly paid. I dont really fit in anywhere. I suppose I don't even fit in on here. $150k would be a very nice raise for me, one that I'm not capable of abtaining.

HN is a very Silicon Valley focused website. $150k in SV isn’t very much at all. You get more than that even at startups as a senior engineer. New grads at FAANG will get at least that or more.

Isn't $150k the standard number for the common top end grade? They make adjustments based on location for COL. So it could be more there. Even so, the majority of developers live outside of SV where even the $150k number is attractive (given the national dev median is around $110k).
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