Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What is the job market like?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 68 posts

Re: Ask HN: What is the job market like?

#21

Post by WorldMaker »

MeetingsBrowser wrote: post #15
bwestergard wrote: post #8

To go by the numbers, it's pretty good. Not as good as the truly anomalous post-pandemic peak of hiring. But still good compared to almost every other occupational group. https://www.comptia.org/en-us/resources/research/tech-jobs-r...

I don’t know how to make the statistics match my perceived reality. Both in this thread, and people I know in real life who are looking for jobs are struggling hard. Mass layoffs are becoming more common and the time spent between jobs is measured in six month increments. And yet, the numbers say we are in a hiring market with more job openings than ever, except for during the pandemic. My perceived reality and the n…

It reminds me of 2008/2009, but weirder. I remember in that time a lot of companies going through the motions as if everything was alright and they were still hiring just fine, but then not actually hiring in the way they were acting.

It seems weirder now partly because it isn't a clear across the board recession, though part of me keeps looking at quarterly earnings reports and the DOW and keeps wondering if we're still "early 2008" on that rather than "late 2009" and that it will get worse before it gets better.

Re: Ask HN: What is the job market like?

#22

Post by Varelion »

MeetingsBrowser wrote: post #15
bwestergard wrote: post #8

To go by the numbers, it's pretty good. Not as good as the truly anomalous post-pandemic peak of hiring. But still good compared to almost every other occupational group. https://www.comptia.org/en-us/resources/research/tech-jobs-r...

I don’t know how to make the statistics match my perceived reality. Both in this thread, and people I know in real life who are looking for jobs are struggling hard. Mass layoffs are becoming more common and the time spent between jobs is measured in six month increments. And yet, the numbers say we are in a hiring market with more job openings than ever, except for during the pandemic. My perceived reality and the n…

Why would the (USA) job numbers be real? We have yes-men at every level, purposefully installed to spin any and everything in the most positive light possible. And, if not, outright fabricate numbers.

Re: Ask HN: What is the job market like?

#23

Post by throwawayhirex »

Staff eng at large startup in Bay Area, 7-10 YOE. Recently interviewed at the labs. Had to go through a recruiter friend at one of them to get a response. Very difficult interviews but mostly feasible to prep for. Had to get somewhat lucky to get an offer, staff-level. Took about two months from beginning to prep to signing an offer. Recruiters very responsive - a little arrogant re: other companies but insecure about other labs.

Re: Ask HN: What is the job market like?

#24

Post by wc_nomad »

MeetingsBrowser wrote: post #15
bwestergard wrote: post #8

To go by the numbers, it's pretty good. Not as good as the truly anomalous post-pandemic peak of hiring. But still good compared to almost every other occupational group. https://www.comptia.org/en-us/resources/research/tech-jobs-r...

I don’t know how to make the statistics match my perceived reality. Both in this thread, and people I know in real life who are looking for jobs are struggling hard. Mass layoffs are becoming more common and the time spent between jobs is measured in six month increments. And yet, the numbers say we are in a hiring market with more job openings than ever, except for during the pandemic. My perceived reality and the n…

Same, I'm at about a 40% ghost rate & 5% response for any applications I put out.

Most everyone I talk with is looking as well, but nobody has moved roles. It feels like were all stuck.

Re: Ask HN: What is the job market like?

#25

Post by yewenjie »

alephnerd wrote: post #17

This gets constantly asked on HN. What matters is where you live - the hiring market in Germany or Canada is going to be different from the Bay Area or NYC.

German startups that used to be English-speaking are now asking for German. I don't understand what that solves.

Re: Ask HN: What is the job market like?

#26

Post by Mc91 »

I am a programmer in the US. Linkedin mails to me from recruiters -

2026 - one (recruiter did not name the company, hybrid six month contract in another city)

2025 - none

2024 - none

2023 - four (none after March)

2022 - twenty-seven (including Amazon, Google)

Re: Ask HN: What is the job market like?

#27

Post by rdtsc »

US tech company. Just as the RTO excuse ended it started with AI immediately.

RTO was used to squeeze as hard as possible to force people to leave and not pay severance ("You're not in the office a month from now across the country? Looks like you decided to resign, sucks for you!"). First it was "be in any office, as long as you butt is in a building with our logo on it" to "well, no, you gotta be where you manager is, so move again. Oh you can't? Sucks for you, you effectively resigned then".

Then the AI excuse hit. "We'll be so productive, we don't need people anymore at all". That's going on currently. Everyone is token-maxing to the limit to show how on board they are with AI to avoid getting pushed out.

In between they also managed to "cut costs" by moving jobs overseas the countries you're familiar with. This required some finagling, so they shut down one set of platform/products built in US and started building another one overseas. Then said "oh well, looks like this division in US is not needed anymore".

The strange thing is this is happening in multiple companies at the same time. It's like all the CEOs and HR reps met at some golf retreat and decided to follow a script.

Meanwhile I got only 5 or so recruiter emails in the last year or so. Before it was a constant stream, almost one every a few weeks.

Re: Ask HN: What is the job market like?

#28

Post by boyka »

tomashertus wrote: post #16
not_your_vase wrote: post #12

I don't have lived experience, but "Who is hiring" had only 2 or 3 posts from my country this whole year. Until about 2 years ago there were 5-8 posts in each threads. (I'm in a small central-European country, that is full of tech companies, both domestic and international)

Just guessing, Czechia? The Central European software engineering market seems to be softening as well, likely due to second-order effects from the U.S. tech layoffs and decreased demand for remote roles from SV companies.

No, he's in Switzerland. Unexpectedly, I must say, as many big tech including AI labs are expanding here

Re: Ask HN: What is the job market like?

#29

Post by bottle_roket »

me: 11 years experience with big tech on resume. Located in major tech city.

I get 1-2 new recruiters in my mailbox each week for different random startups. I haven’t acted on any so IDK what the process is really like, but it does seem like people are hiring. Almost 100% seem to be some sort of AI product. Senior Eng comp base seems to be in the 200-240 range plus however much worthless equity.

Re: Ask HN: What is the job market like?

#30

Post by Xunjin »

Mc91 wrote: post #26

I am a programmer in the US. Linkedin mails to me from recruiters - 2026 - one (recruiter did not name the company, hybrid six month contract in another city) 2025 - none 2024 - none 2023 - four (none after March) 2022 - twenty-seven (including Amazon, Google)

Funny, Amazon never contacted me, now after I'm 3 months in a new job, they did, but ain't paying half of how much I earn in this new one, and requires me to move to a major city in Brazil to work, sigh...
Post reply on HN