It's not just you. It's not even just tech. The economists are wrong. By all indications the economy is strong, profits are up, overall employment numbers are the lowest they've been in a while. But here in the US, companies regardless of their bottom line, are laying off huge chunks of their employees. Some to correct overhiring in previous years, some to show Wall Street they've met their numbers, and some are still hedging against a downturn that was projected but did not come. Rates are not coming down, so companies are not borrowing cash to cover growing head count, and the ones who are hiring are drawing out the process. Our org for example, only added 4 new developers across our entire global footprint in 2023. We needed a lot more, especially backend devs, but were not allowed to add headcount. Every quarter we are being asked to do more with less.
Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?
301–304 of 304 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?
#302You are apparently in the UK, but the job market in the U.S. has similarly been very spooky lately. I was laid off and have received almost no interviews outside of a single previous employer. My resume was flat out rejected, even from places that I had previously worked or was made an offer from as little as a year or two ago. It was really weird. As in, previous contacts would not even reply to emails or LinkedIn m…
Been in those shoes before.
Had 3 offers, chose 1 but denied 2 while trying to say "let's stay in touch" because you never know. That time came after 2 years - got canned with many others due to financial reasons, got back in touch with company that had sent me an offer previously and, damn, if it didn't feel like those dry responses you get from your ex after dropping that "wyd?" texts at late evening - simply rejected with no seeming continuation for this potential business relationship.
All in all, not a great time to lose a job. Been digging for about last 4 months and there's nothing really out there - a lot of rejections for fitting jobs and only getting interviews from places that need senior level coders for chump change. Some even have the nerve to pay too little and step back from the mutual agreement of not needing for me to come to office.
Re: Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?
#303Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It sounds like you've been out of work for a year and you've fallen into a state of anger and despair. I've had non-stop employment for the last 17 years. I think you get the wrong idea. I am happily employed for the moment. I am lucky to be in a very senior (VP of Eng) position in a company that I helped start. I am also able to hire and retain engineers for my teams so, luckily, I am not at the mercy of risk-aver…
ath3nd, I responded to a sibling post to this one, but it's largely the same as what I would say in response to this post. It sounds like I misinterpreted you and misunderstood your situation. I pattern matched to a situation I have seen where a person has very strident political or adjacent opinions not really because they care that much about changing public policy, but as a way of coping with a problem in their ow…
Read more on this: https://text.npr.org/1227326215
> "They're getting away with it because everybody is doing it. And they're getting away with it because now it's the new normal," he said. "Workers are more comfortable with it, stock investors are appreciating it, and so I think we'll see it continue for some time."
> Interest rates, sitting around 5.5%, are far from the near-zero rates of the pandemic. And some tech companies are reshuffling staff to prioritize new investments in generative AI. But experts say those factors do not sufficiently explain this month's layoff frenzy.
They are simply bumping up their stock price. They were hiring and growing like little malignant cancers when that was the signal of "success", and now they are "streamlining", which is the new signal of "success".
Re: Ask HN: Why am I suddenly unemployable?
#304Earlier quoted context omitted.
I live in a small town. When I hired a developer locally, I basically posted it as: * 2-3 years in Vue, React, Angular, or any modern JS framework When I posted it for remote only I advertised * 2-3 years of Vue experience There are _SO_ many applicants for a remote job (1000s), that I can be picky. So I will cut to the 500 that have the language I want, vs a slog through 5,000 that can maybe someday do what I want.…
As an employer I totally get you. I don't think that most people get that your goal is to reduce the number of interviews by any filter necessary. You could limit by height and you would still get too many applicants. Once you are not filtering for location, other filters are necessary. You can't interview 1000 people. I totally get that from an employee perspective, skills and domain knowledge are valuable and trans…
Then you have to rely on getting the job by other means than sending your CV. In other words networking.
Personally I don't apply to public job listings any more, even when I match all requirements. They are a waste of everyone's time. But networking has its limits.