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Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

economist.com

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Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#171

Post by JohnFen »

red-iron-pine wrote: post #71
robin_reala wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“every laid off individual” should be “every laid off individual with a LinkedIn account”.

I wouldn't be surprised if most FAANG and similar tier companies require a linkedin account; mine did. HR sent policies, and would help you with a headshot, with the idea you'd use that w/ your email, Teams, etc. as well.

> I wouldn't be surprised if most FAANG and similar tier companies require a linkedin account; mine did.

What?? Companies do this? Such a requirement is so crazy that I would drop the company as a prospect immediately even if I had a LinkedIn account.

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#172

Post by Zetice »

shagie wrote: post #120
Teever wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you give some examples of companies that are commonly called 'tech' companies that you don't brief develop any tech at all?

SaaS companies that are linking one business function to another where the entirety of the product is some software running on the cloud. This isn't saying that they don't do development, but rather that they're not breaking new ground in tech. They aren't working on any cutting edge problems or developing frameworks to enable development at scale. I worked at a company that did some logistics. There was an app for p…

I'm the lead engineer at one of these and you nailed it. If I catch anyone "innovating" we have a talk about what it is they're working on to make sure it's part of our core business. It very rarely is.

I probably suck to work for in that way, but the reality is this is not a job about pushing the envelope, it's a job about executing as cleanly as possible. You work at one of these if you love to implement simple tech to solve non-tech problems, and I make that clear while hiring.

It's a moderately lucrative job, and can be very rewarding for certain types, but I totally understand if, coming from Google, it would be a system shock as it is decidedly not "tech" as most folks mean it.

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#173

Post by marginalia_nu »

JohnFen wrote: post #169
robin_reala wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“every laid off individual” should be “every laid off individual with a LinkedIn account”.

And only about half of the programmers I personally know have LinkedIn accounts in the first place.

I have one. Although it says I work at a place that shut down in 2017.

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#174

Post by sjf »

wonder_er wrote: post #160
sjf wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many other laid off tech people are there in Bali?

good question. No idea. I didn't ask, and wasn't there as a laid-off tech worker. :) I was visiting a friend who moved there a decade ago, and scootering around the island. So, I had good food, met lots of interesting people, read books in beautiful places, and saw beautiful sites. I called it 'a research trip for bringing better scooter norms to the USA'. Bali's scooter game is fire!

You're not first one I have heard from.

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#175

Post by lazyasciiart »

Zetice wrote: post #168
0xbadcafebee wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Retiring isn’t that fun when you’re in your 30s I would kill to retire. All I want to do is make art, music, cook, hike, kayak, and travel on the cheap. I have about.... 1/20th of the savings needed.

I get the impulse, but why isn't this viewed as profoundly selfish?

People tend not to spend too much time analyzing impossible dreams. Most "if I won the lottery" plans are also profoundly selfish.

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#176

Post by JohnFen »

catmanjan wrote: post #43
nubela wrote: post #18

We actually tracked every laid off individual from Google to understand the story behind the layoffs. Here's the summary: - 747 out of the 2,762 laid-off Googlers have since updated their profiles to indicate a change of employment status in the last 4 months since November 2022. - Only 56.7% of these people joined a tech company. - 1/3 of these ex-Googlers joined startups. See the full blog post here: https://nubela…

What is a tech company? Is ford a tech company? Is Goldman Sacha a tech company?

According to PR and marketing departments the world over, every company is a tech company.

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#177

Post by 0xbadcafebee »

Zetice wrote: post #168
0xbadcafebee wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Retiring isn’t that fun when you’re in your 30s I would kill to retire. All I want to do is make art, music, cook, hike, kayak, and travel on the cheap. I have about.... 1/20th of the savings needed.

I get the impulse, but why isn't this viewed as profoundly selfish?

Selfish how? Like not contributing to society? Do we really want to have an introspective philosophical debate about the societal impact of working for a tech company?

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#178

Post by drakonka »

Zetice wrote: post #168
0xbadcafebee wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Retiring isn’t that fun when you’re in your 30s I would kill to retire. All I want to do is make art, music, cook, hike, kayak, and travel on the cheap. I have about.... 1/20th of the savings needed.

I get the impulse, but why isn't this viewed as profoundly selfish?

Not sure it's any more selfish than working for giant corporations for a fat paycheck. Both are selfish in their own ways, and both can also help people in their own ways. I wouldn't say there's something inherently wrong with being selfish on its own.

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#179

Post by fshr »

imwithstoopid wrote: post #57
DrBazza wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And probably leading to the next wave of innovation and/or unicorns. https://www.wired.com/story/tech-layoffs-are-feeding-a-new-s...

the next wave of innovation will be things like battery tech, deep AI in other words, nothing a React dev is going to put together in their kitchen realistically, the unemployed will end up competing with the ten of thousands of new devs coming out of college and bootcamps...the guy who cleans our pool is learning python as part of his online coding degree (really)

1. It’s not zero sum 2. You don’t need to innovate like that to create a successful startup 3. There is a very, very aggressive skill curve for developers and being ex-Google will have an advantage over the pool boy

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#180

Post by ikiris »

stcroixx wrote: post #167
QIYGT wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can learn everything most devs need to know about Kafka in a couple hours. I can't imagine why companies would ever hire based on current knowledge rather than problem solving skills and ability to learn.

We might be unique, but here's no situation we're using Kafka where someone unfamiliar with it would be able to design and support production level systems to the standards we do after a couple hours. That would result in a time bomb for someone else to clean up later when all the stuff you weren't aware you didn't know becomes a problem. These skills are common, some would say table stakes, so it's not hard finding…

You aren't unique, you're just really bad at training and documentation.
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