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Unemployed office workers are having a harder time finding new jobs

wsj.com

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Re: Unemployed office workers are having a harder time finding new jobs

#11

Post by unsnap_biceps »

autobodie wrote: post #5
CursedSilicon wrote: post #3

I can definitely attest to this statistic. Got thrown overboard at my last job for not wanting to sign my name to things we weren't doing (no I'm not telling the IRS we encrypt our data at rest when we don't!) Finally got brought on a week ago at a PC repair shop of all things. It's not glamorous but it's the only "IT related" thing I could find. In Seattle of all places! The FAANG's doing their massive layoffs cause…

How can what you're saying be true if Elon Musk says we need more H1Bs because there is a labor shortage?

Tesla laid off 14,500 folks in April 2024 and then they received 2,405 H1Bs in 2024.

"Tesla workers said that many employees let go were more senior engineers with higher compensation and they have been replaced with junior engineers from foreign countries at a lower pay."

https://electrek.co/2024/12/30/tesla-replaced-laid-off-us-wo...

One of the biggest issues with H1Bs is the fact that it reduces the employee's ability to change jobs and thus reduces their bargaining power for wages and thus depresses the wages across the board over time. That seems to be the main driving force for Musk behind the bluster around labor shortages.

I've worked with a few folks on H1Bs and they've all been paid significantly less than I have in the exact same role. Less base and less RSUs.

Re: Unemployed office workers are having a harder time finding new jobs

#12

Post by thw09j9m »

Tech market is rough. I think BigTech currently thinks that there's a better ROI spending $300k on compute (training an LLM) than $300k on an employee. All the startups I've interviewed with are HEAVILY leveraging LLMs (via Cursor) to keep engineer count and burn rate low.

Re: Unemployed office workers are having a harder time finding new jobs

#14

Post by lumost »

OutOfHere wrote: post #9

In our industry, they key to getting a job is simple: 1. Work on two meaningful projects using the tech you want a job in. Update your resume with the work that was done, without embellishment. 2. Open your profile on LinkedIn. Close it when you get five interviews. Learn from each failing interview.

This was great advice 15 years ago. Something has changed in the last two years.

I can’t put my finger on it, but I’ve observed a trend where new hires have massively fraudulent experience on their resumes. Likewise an engineer who passed leetcode rounds suddenly doesn’t know what a variable is.

At the very least, we have a problem with people using AI to game the job interview process.

Re: Unemployed office workers are having a harder time finding new jobs

#15

Post by bagels »

OutOfHere wrote: post #9

In our industry, they key to getting a job is simple: 1. Work on two meaningful projects using the tech you want a job in. Update your resume with the work that was done, without embellishment. 2. Open your profile on LinkedIn. Close it when you get five interviews. Learn from each failing interview.

I don't think most people are getting meaningful job offers by simply having an open profile on LinkedIn right now. This isn't 2021.

Re: Unemployed office workers are having a harder time finding new jobs

#16

Post by uptownfunk »

My observations for the last two years:

Employers are hyper hyper selective

There are a lot a lot of fake job postings

The bar has gone way way up

It is in general very difficult and gruelling to get a job

If engineering roles are hard to find, product is 10-100x worse

If you have a job, be thankful, don't rock the ship

OBVIOUSLY there will be statements to the contrary, but this is really more in the spirit of - if you're having a hard time out there, you are not alone, and at least one person out there (who has been working for the last 10 years or so) finds it much much harder. I would say reminscent closer to 2014-2015 than anything like 2020-2021.

Re: Unemployed office workers are having a harder time finding new jobs

#17

Post by UncleOxidant »

autobodie wrote: post #5
CursedSilicon wrote: post #3

I can definitely attest to this statistic. Got thrown overboard at my last job for not wanting to sign my name to things we weren't doing (no I'm not telling the IRS we encrypt our data at rest when we don't!) Finally got brought on a week ago at a PC repair shop of all things. It's not glamorous but it's the only "IT related" thing I could find. In Seattle of all places! The FAANG's doing their massive layoffs cause…

How can what you're saying be true if Elon Musk says we need more H1Bs because there is a labor shortage?

did you forget to put a /s at the end of that?

Re: Unemployed office workers are having a harder time finding new jobs

#19

Post by echelon »

OutOfHere wrote: post #9

In our industry, they key to getting a job is simple: 1. Work on two meaningful projects using the tech you want a job in. Update your resume with the work that was done, without embellishment. 2. Open your profile on LinkedIn. Close it when you get five interviews. Learn from each failing interview.

You're stuck in a time warp. This is pre-pandemic advice.

Highly skilled engineers aren't being fought over anymore. It's become a buyer's market.

If you lose your job, you might be looking for a new one for a long time.

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