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Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

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Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#11

Post by spike021 »

I wasn't laid off but spent Jan-Aug taking time off and then interviewing for a while. Even before the layoffs started things were getting tricky. I was mid-process with multiple companies between June and August that pulled out because they were having freezes, or no longer hiring for the west coast due to budget constraints, etc.

I was still getting a fair amount of interviews though. Fortunately I landed an offer in August, because without it I may still be jobless. But the layoffs, freezes, and continued whiteboarding style interviews and things are definitely a trifecta.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#14

Post by nixgeek »

JoelMcCracken wrote: post #5

I’d ask in a month. It’s still early since the layoffs. I’d guess that even for people who were laid off first, started looking immediately, and found plenty of hits, few have accepted jobs. I’m much more curious in 4-5 months. I assume VC funding is harder to get now, for example, but I don’t think that’ll make a massive impact for a little while.

I got connected to someone impacted at Twitter on Saturday, within 24 hours of them being notified they were impacted by the layoff.

I talked with them for an hour that next Monday AM about the opportunities my teams have open, one of which was highly relevant to their skills, and by the time we chatted, they had 3-4 interviews with other companies scheduled. Joined the dots to the hiring manager and recruiters. They introduced us to lots of other Twitter engineers too which was amazing and very helpful to me.

Our interviews happened with them 10 days later and we moved forward to make an offer; we are still working through offer details with them (and they have multiple companies making offers). We’ve also got several strong applicants for this role.

I’m glad to see many of the impacted folks are quickly finding places to land because the cruelty of Twitter’s next chapter under Elon is a stain on the industry and the world.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#15

Post by compiskey »

abadger9 wrote: post #7

I'm not laid off but actively looking to change after spending a couple of years at my current employer. Despite being a staff engineer, managing 12 engineers, and having a solid revenue stream tied to my current team - I've mostly gotten rejections without interviews, 1-2 low ball offers, or radio silence. I cannot imagine how hard this must be for those laid-off, hopefully this storm passes soon. EDIT: you cannot m…

Freelancer here; this time of year there is always a slowdown. Holiday vacation absences make scheduling all the right people to interview harder.

I set aside extra the rest of the year to smooth over the drop off in responses late-Oct/Jan period. By February I usually get swarmed with asks to tackle projects and can pick ones that are actually interesting.

Then it happens again in summer as people with enough money to not work take another 2-3 months off.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#17

Post by chihuahua »

I keep getting the same amount of emails from recruiters as before, mostly startups.

Found a new job (non-startup) by responding to one of those. Signed the offer and was going to quit FB on a certain date, then got the FB layoff severance package a week before that date as a nice bonus.

I also interviewed at Google and got the thumbs up to proceed to team matching, but no team matches after a month. This makes me believe that they have at least a partial hiring freeze, although their recruiters are pretending that this is not the case - they're just saying that team matching takes a bit longer. Google interviews were useful as practice for the other jobs, but not for actually getting an offer.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#18

Post by blamazon »

marumari wrote: post #6

this is a terrible time of year for interviewing, most places won’t be adding headcount until january.

I recall the 'pandemic hiring spree' on my team did not start until Jan-Feb 2021. After that it took basically the whole year to complete. That company was famous for its speed and scale of pandemic hiring sprees.

To anyone who is job hunting now and finding a slow market: things will change, we will get through this.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#19

Post by AlotOfReading »

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #2

I am not laid off but interviewing since I don’t like my current job. Seems to be tons of jobs still if you are L6+. Below that it gets harder.

It's the same reason many employers don't have meaningful programs for continuing education or conferences. The goal is to hire people who are perfectly suited for the role already (or the nearest approximation), not to train people into the job.

Re: Ask HN: How's the job hunt going? (For those laid off)

#20

Post by 300bps »

that_guy_iain wrote: post #9
abadger9 wrote: post #7

I'm not laid off but actively looking to change after spending a couple of years at my current employer. Despite being a staff engineer, managing 12 engineers, and having a solid revenue stream tied to my current team - I've mostly gotten rejections without interviews, 1-2 low ball offers, or radio silence. I cannot imagine how hard this must be for those laid-off, hopefully this storm passes soon. EDIT: you cannot m…

I've not been laid off either. I'm currently taking a break from jobs. I'm starting to think that it's time to go back to full-time employment. But I'm looking at the job market and think it might be better to give it 4-6 months. Let all the companies that are going to do layoffs have their layoffs and then join a company still looking for new devs in a few months.

>But I'm looking at the job market and think it might be better to give it 4-6 months.

I'm fascinated by this. How does one do this? Two options I can think of are being independently wealthy and being dependent on another. Are there other ways to accomplish being so comfortable with, "eh, gonna be unemployed another 4-6 months and see what happens"?

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