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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

#131

Post by surgical_fire »

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…

> "Easily" my ass.

I personally know multiple people that transitioned into IT well into their 30s, from a variety of professional backgrounds.

They might not be employed at a FAANG making 500k a year, but they make enough money to live comfortably. Certainly above average for the rest of the population.

Easy? I don't like to undervalue other people's achievements, so I wouldn't call it easy. They certainly put their fair share of elbow grease into it. But it was not an unreasonable, insurmountable difficulty.

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

#132

Post by Sugimot0 »

sveme wrote: post #59
epups wrote: post #56

My perception is that at least in Europe, mass layoffs have had almost no impact on the tech sector. I would say there is still a shortage of people for desired roles and therefore job offers and salaries are still high. Not talking about FAANG positions (or salaries) of course, more run-of-the-mill roles that companies struggle to fulfill.

I‘m currently on the market and the situation is definitely very different from the same time last year. Companies are hesitant/waiting to see where the economy is heading, a lot if startups ran out of money. It‘s not that easy anymore, at least in my bubble.

Yeah last year my inbox was flooded with recruiters, but I had a rough round of technical interviews back to back and succumbed to imposter syndrome. I postponed interviewing to learn and prep and try to add more to my resume.

Now a year later, I'm trying for a new job again and I hardly hear from recruiters, and I actually have to apply for jobs. It's a huge contrast from this time last year and it makes me regret waiting.

Side Note: Having seen other coworkers move on and knowing what I know now, I've realized I was more than ready to get a new job a year ago, I just lacked the confidence to keep trying. Hopefully this serves to motivate others paralyzed by imposter syndrome.

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

#133

Post by filoleg »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #24
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…

> I know folks without a college degree that started as tech support reps I know a few as well ... but that was decade(s) ago. I'm not sure the industry is still as hurdle-able as it once was.

I know someone who was working an amazon warehouse job (as a regular entry-level warehouse worker, not as a manager or anything like that), did the internal amazon "learn to be an swe" training program (forgot the actual name, but iirc it is a 6-9 months long program) right before covid, and then converted to a SWE through that program. Currently, she is still employed as a SWE and makes typical amazon SWE salary rates (significantly above $150k). No tech background whatsoever.

This is still definitely possible, with a caveat that it just might not be as doable right at this specific point in time (given layoff waves and recession and all).

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

#134

Post by 908B64B197 »

giantg2 wrote: post #97
908B64B197 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For example median dev salary is about $110k. Median physician salary is about $205k. That's an interesting point, but what to the distributions look like? For devs there's evidence it might be bimodal [0]. [0] http://danluu.com/bimodal-compensation/

It would be interesting to see what that looks like adjusted for location/COL. It's possible the comp due to cost of living with a high concentration of devs in one area might be enough to influence this. Until we understand that and compare it to the distribution for physicians, it would be hard to draw any conclusions from it.

> adjusted for location/COL

Isn't the majority of COL housing? Of course, with a mortgage, you actually build equity into an asset (the house) that you can later resell.

From my experience, SV caliber devs command SV comp pretty much worldwide.

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

#135

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #16
Joeboy wrote: post #12

I'm not sure what would be a better bet? It's not like automation / the economy / capitalism aren't also coming for other workers. Maybe a good time to retrain as a bailiff?

Given the capabilities of our current set of AI tools, I have zero doubt that almost every white collar job will be affected within a 10-15 years. Before you say that's not possible, remember that chatGPT (GPT-3.5) went live in November 2022, and GPT-4 went live in March 2023. 10-15 years is a long time in tech. The iPhone is barely 15 years old.

ChatGPT was based on GPT3, which was released in 2020. The fundamental advance appears to have been InstructGPT which was 2022. GPT4 was 2023, three years after version 3. Id expect to see GPT5 sometime in 2026.

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

#136

Post by filoleg »

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.

Since we go for anecdata - I work for a FAANG, and I am the youngest person on my team in my late 20s. Half the team is above 40, the other half is above 30. Some of the people from both age groups were hired after I got hired (in the past 2 years).

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

#137

Post by cityofdelusion »

giantg2 wrote: post #97
908B64B197 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For example median dev salary is about $110k. Median physician salary is about $205k. That's an interesting point, but what to the distributions look like? For devs there's evidence it might be bimodal [0]. [0] http://danluu.com/bimodal-compensation/

It would be interesting to see what that looks like adjusted for location/COL. It's possible the comp due to cost of living with a high concentration of devs in one area might be enough to influence this. Until we understand that and compare it to the distribution for physicians, it would be hard to draw any conclusions from it.

Bay Area bias is almost certainly skewing this entire conversation thread. In my average non-coastal metro area, all the nice homes in the nice areas are owned by classes of people like lawyers and doctors, not software developers. Most developers I meet here drive average cars and live in average housing.

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

#138

Post by spaceman_2020 »

disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #135
spaceman_2020 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the capabilities of our current set of AI tools, I have zero doubt that almost every white collar job will be affected within a 10-15 years. Before you say that's not possible, remember that chatGPT (GPT-3.5) went live in November 2022, and GPT-4 went live in March 2023. 10-15 years is a long time in tech. The iPhone is barely 15 years old.

ChatGPT was based on GPT3, which was released in 2020. The fundamental advance appears to have been InstructGPT which was 2022. GPT4 was 2023, three years after version 3. Id expect to see GPT5 sometime in 2026.

This thing is out in the public now and has massive mindshare. Funding and intellectual talent is flowing in at a much faster pace. The big incumbents are now under pressure from their shareholders to come up with competitors.

I'll be very, very surprised if the growth rate doesn't accelerate from here.

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

#139

Post by 2devnull »

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…

Timing is everything.

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

#140

Post by giantg2 »

908B64B197 wrote: post #134
giantg2 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be interesting to see what that looks like adjusted for location/COL. It's possible the comp due to cost of living with a high concentration of devs in one area might be enough to influence this. Until we understand that and compare it to the distribution for physicians, it would be hard to draw any conclusions from it.

> adjusted for location/COL Isn't the majority of COL housing? Of course, with a mortgage, you actually build equity into an asset (the house) that you can later resell. From my experience, SV caliber devs command SV comp pretty much worldwide.

I'm not sure how that can be true. I would expect the if there were demand for the higher quality devs then we would see them skewing the distribution locally (like on Glassdoor). There are certainly some higher paid devs in the distribution, but the overall distribution is lower than SV. If the demand is low, then I would also assume the pay would be lower.
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