In tough times a Jr person can be more attractive to companies because they are a fraction of the cost. Also, don't underestimate how much these layoffs are companies just dumping thier overpaid bloat.
Ask HN: Any advice on navigating this job market or pivoting out of tech? (US)
71–80 of 116 posts
Re: Ask HN: Any advice on navigating this job market or pivoting out of tech? (US)
#72Well... my opinion is that you're right. I've been in the industry (without a degree and not in the US) for roughly 12 years in some capacity or another, with numerous gaps of a full year or more when some company has decided to lay me off and every other company can only make decisions with 6 inane interviews before deciding not to offer me anything. It's a soul-crushing idiotic grind that's burnt me out completely at least 3 times, to which I eventually had to take a menial job before eventually finding myself back in programming. This time... it doesn't seem like it's just a matter of not landing a job, it's that there aren't any. I'm not getting any calls, no interviews, there's almost literally no listings at all, and I haven't worked in nearly a year. I don't need reddit or blind to tell me that things are fucked.
So, I'm gradually working on a small independent side project, and will attempt to build up some contracts, but I think it'll be to trade school soon. I have no idea if any of them will turn out successfully, but the market is dead and it's time to adapt and probably move on. Maybe interest rates drop and things change or we get incredibly lucky, but it's better to have some real skills anyway.
Re: Ask HN: Any advice on navigating this job market or pivoting out of tech? (US)
#73Random personal opinion: get a masters degree, researching computer vision or NLP, or something that hedges you against AI. Or if you are inclined, do a PhD. Also you sounds like you are a bit burned out. Translating sounds even much more AI-replacable than CS -- don't do that if you fear CS. (Also Blind is toxic albeit informational! Call up some people. Ask me; or ask HN or some less negative places for how the ind…
>Also you sounds like you are a bit burned out. Translating sounds even much more AI-replacable than CS -- don't do that if you fear CS. Sorry, I accidentally removed the last part of that sentence. It was supposed to say this: So far, I've thought about translating (I'm bilingual) and technical writing. AI is already quite good at both of those, and Duolingo just replaced most of its translation staff with AI. Thank…
Just to reinforce what you and others said: Translation work has indeed been impacted significantly by AI and will be even more so as LLMs, tooling, and workflows improve further.
That said, translation is also like programming in that it seems to be the junior translators who are most impacted. Newbie translators’ job is often just to take any text they are given and render it into another language, with little or no control about the choice of text or its content and with little or no interaction with the client. AI can do that pretty well now, and much more quickly and cheaply than any human.
The human translators who are surviving are those who spend less time translating words on a screen than they do learning their clients’ needs, helping their clients navigate the subtleties of interlingual and intercultural communication, and advising their clients on how to adapt their content to meet the needs of their target readership. I don’t know if there are many entry-level jobs available now with such responsibilities, but that’s what I would be looking for, not for what has traditionally been called “translation.”
My thoughts on this topic from a year ago can be found on my website, linked from my profile.
Re: Ask HN: Any advice on navigating this job market or pivoting out of tech? (US)
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a huge bet and it's going to further increase their student debt. If it doesn't pay off, they'll be much worse off than just moving back home with their parents and trying to say, start a business or freelance.
If you pay for a masters or pHD you have done something incredibly wrong.
Is this really always true? Even with short one year masters programs? I’ve been told this bit of advice quite a few times. My university offers a one year CS masters and I’ve considered it but there’s zero opportunity for an assistantship for the one year programs (as far as I know) so I’d be paying or hoping to find a company to sponsor it/get grant money to cover it.
Re: Ask HN: Any advice on navigating this job market or pivoting out of tech? (US)
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
He said they are a venn diagram with no overlap. I feel like that fact they both use computer programming negates that argument.
Computer programming doesn’t mean computer science.
Good thing I said comp sci includes programming, and not the other way around.
Feel free to enlighten us as to what comp sci and Web dev are, and why they share nothing in common. Please.
Re: Ask HN: Any advice on navigating this job market or pivoting out of tech? (US)
#76It seems like you found all the reasons you wanted to give up before even trying.
Re: Ask HN: Any advice on navigating this job market or pivoting out of tech? (US)
#77Few counterpoints: * AI is better for juniors than seniors. It doesn't do legwork; it just provides knowledge. * Blind is a toxic hellscape and redditors are broadly pretty dim. Plausibly AI is a problem for your employment in like ~2 years; so I'd speedrun into SWE somewhere where you can make as much use of AI as possible (e.g. ask about whether the firm allows copilot, etc). There's no better industry to be in tha…
> * Blind is a toxic hellscape and redditors are broadly pretty dim.
Reddit is, at this point, a literal mirror held up to reality.
Everything you read there isn't happening.
Maybe people want it to happen and think if they spam it enough times people will believe it is happening and report that it is happening, but it isn't.
If you read something on reddit, believe the opposite.
Re: Ask HN: Any advice on navigating this job market or pivoting out of tech? (US)
#78Random personal opinion: get a masters degree, researching computer vision or NLP, or something that hedges you against AI. Or if you are inclined, do a PhD. Also you sounds like you are a bit burned out. Translating sounds even much more AI-replacable than CS -- don't do that if you fear CS. (Also Blind is toxic albeit informational! Call up some people. Ask me; or ask HN or some less negative places for how the ind…
Anyone entering graduate work in AI now is likely going to be entering a market with a glut of similar graduates in 2-4 years.
Good point, and my original opinion should at least have what you said as fine print. Personally, I am finishing up a PhD in CS. When I started my PhD, deep learning had already been all the craze but I chose another subfield -- that did not pan out so well. Hence, I still think AI (maybe AI + X) is a good choice in general.
Re: Ask HN: Any advice on navigating this job market or pivoting out of tech? (US)
#79Random personal opinion: get a masters degree, researching computer vision or NLP, or something that hedges you against AI. Or if you are inclined, do a PhD. Also you sounds like you are a bit burned out. Translating sounds even much more AI-replacable than CS -- don't do that if you fear CS. (Also Blind is toxic albeit informational! Call up some people. Ask me; or ask HN or some less negative places for how the ind…
>Also you sounds like you are a bit burned out. Translating sounds even much more AI-replacable than CS -- don't do that if you fear CS. Sorry, I accidentally removed the last part of that sentence. It was supposed to say this: So far, I've thought about translating (I'm bilingual) and technical writing. AI is already quite good at both of those, and Duolingo just replaced most of its translation staff with AI. Thank…
Btw, totally unsolicited advice, but please take care of yourself. You sound like you have quite some decisions to dwell on, and correct decisions are much harder in moments of hopelessness.
If you feel hopeless, we (at least me, and HN in general) are here to help besides other resources.
Re: Ask HN: Any advice on navigating this job market or pivoting out of tech? (US)
#80Few counterpoints: * AI is better for juniors than seniors. It doesn't do legwork; it just provides knowledge. * Blind is a toxic hellscape and redditors are broadly pretty dim. Plausibly AI is a problem for your employment in like ~2 years; so I'd speedrun into SWE somewhere where you can make as much use of AI as possible (e.g. ask about whether the firm allows copilot, etc). There's no better industry to be in tha…
> * Blind is a toxic hellscape and redditors are broadly pretty dim. Reddit is, at this point, a literal mirror held up to reality. Everything you read there isn't happening. Maybe people want it to happen and think if they spam it enough times people will believe it is happening and report that it is happening, but it isn't. If you read something on reddit, believe the opposite.
I don’t disagree with this, but when did this happen? About a decade ago I remember Reddit being pretty decent. Did Reddit change or did I change?