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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

#121

Post by mrguyorama »

mikhael28 wrote: post #91
giantg2 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"who don’t actually like to program, or who have very staunch/stagnant attitudes." Were those in the comment? Seems these would be more than just enjoying learning and growing. I might be getting there now. That wasn't the case in the past. Office politics and poor management ruined me early in my career. I'm just a burnt out low performer now. I have seen many others who also fall into the category of enjoying learn…

Take a sabbatical dawg. Or save up to take one. Being burnt out is no way to live, and is blinding you to your potential. You appear to have little to no professional confidence.

Some people have to pay rent

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

#122

Post by mrguyorama »

iaseiadit wrote: post #95
sage76 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Tech is a rare industry where you can easily pivot into it later in your career Everyone I know who is older and already in the industry, is having a bad time trying to change jobs.

I work for a FAANG, and I don’t know of a single IC here that was hired in their 40s or older. Almost everyone we’ve hired is in their 20s, with a handful in their early 30s. As a 40+ IC, I’m praying I don’t get laid off because it looks rough for older workers.

Isn't that more to do with the fact that FAANG often hires straight out of college so they can pay you $80k a year for a degree from a top university and you won't realize you are getting shafted because you are a dumb kid?

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

#123

Post by Kranar »

giantg2 wrote: post #84
evilduck wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok? You can play the victim all you want but entry into tech is by every measure easier than comparably compensated career fields.

And that's not what's being discussed here. What we are discusing is the distorted view in the original comment. The original comment was comparing the top earners of one field to the median earners for another. It would be better to compare the medians. For example median dev salary is about $110k. Median physician salary is about $205k. So no, these are not comparably paying jobs. And one does not "easily" earn mor…

> So no, these are not comparably paying jobs. And one does not "easily" earn more than a physician simply by enjoying learning.

To become a physician requires on the order of half a million dollars in tuition not to mention the lost opportunity cost of around 8-10 years.

It's tough to say but being a dev likely pays off all things considered.

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

#124

Post by pcthrowaway »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #19
spaceman_2020 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you were an average engineer destined to work in cookie-cutter roles in tech consultancies, would you still pursue a tech career, knowing that your job will sooner or later be taken over by AI? Remember that careers last 30 years, and if you're the average engineer, you're more likely to fall into the 80% of the pareto half than the 20%. Can you be confident that AI won't displace you in 10, 15, or even 20 years?…

> Can you be confident that AI won't displace you in 10, 15, or even 20 years? 1) No, but I am nonetheless skeptical of AI-takeover in general — I'm in the wait-and-see camp and so wouldn't be put off by the might-happens. 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? 3) Confession: I'm retired and no longer have any skin in the game.

Perhaps in the long run everything will be automated, but in the meantime there will be a progression of what AI can do, and software engineering might be "lower-hanging fruit"

Any career with strong regulation is going to take longer to automate. Hands-on work as well.

For example, there is strong regulation preventing computers from practicing driving/trucking/delivery, law, medicine, nursing, physiotherapy, and certified engineering

Also, build me a robot that can do the following. I'll wait: construction, woodworking, metalworking, glassblowing, painting (painting houses), electricking, plumbing, delivery, service industry, cooking.

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

#125

Post by pcthrowaway »

hgsgm wrote: post #77
pbourke wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah, but only certified humans can legally practice law. And they're also the group of people with the best ability to prevent changes in that legislation

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

#126

Post by moralestapia »

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…

Well, maybe if you weren't the "programmer equivalent of a Yugo (car)", you'd find yourself in a much better situation. (half-joking, lol)

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

#127

Post by pipes »

giantg2 wrote: post #119
evilduck wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at the data then, because your cherry picking nonsense to support your sob story is tiring. https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm Sorting by annual income, software developers are surrounded by more highly credentialed career options that are much harder to get into or are surrounded by similar paying roles that much more sparsely available per capita.

What sob story? Are those immediately adjacent roles physicians - no, they're making almost double nased on median hourly wage. There are many near that level that do not require extensive training, including ones that have sizable representation (look at all those manager positions, and FYI magistrates are near there and require no law degree, etc). Had that person used nurses, PAs, etc, then they would have been co…

Good grief, what are you angry at? Do you not like working in tech?

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

#128

Post by giantg2 »

Kranar wrote: post #123
giantg2 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that's not what's being discussed here. What we are discusing is the distorted view in the original comment. The original comment was comparing the top earners of one field to the median earners for another. It would be better to compare the medians. For example median dev salary is about $110k. Median physician salary is about $205k. So no, these are not comparably paying jobs. And one does not "easily" earn mor…

> So no, these are not comparably paying jobs. And one does not "easily" earn more than a physician simply by enjoying learning. To become a physician requires on the order of half a million dollars in tuition not to mention the lost opportunity cost of around 8-10 years. It's tough to say but being a dev likely pays off all things considered.

There are alternatives, such as the military programs that will pay those bills for about an 8 year commitment.

But yes, I agree that being a programmer is better from an opportunity cost perspective. What I'm disagreeing with is the claim that devs make the same as docs. When looking at the medians, it's closer to half. If they had compared to to nurses or PAs, then it would be more appropriate.

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

#129

Post by giantg2 »

pipes wrote: post #127
giantg2 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What sob story? Are those immediately adjacent roles physicians - no, they're making almost double nased on median hourly wage. There are many near that level that do not require extensive training, including ones that have sizable representation (look at all those manager positions, and FYI magistrates are near there and require no law degree, etc). Had that person used nurses, PAs, etc, then they would have been co…

Good grief, what are you angry at? Do you not like working in tech?

I guess you could say I'm angry at blatant misinformation.

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

#130

Post by giantg2 »

moralestapia wrote: post #126
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…

Well, maybe if you weren't the "programmer equivalent of a Yugo (car)" , you'd find yourself in a much better situation. (half-joking, lol)

I might be in the lower end of the distribution. That's fine. But that doesn't change the inaccuracy of original comment from ignoring medians to make an inappropriate comparison.
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