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Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

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Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#282
I was in a similar position in 2008. The key thing you need is experience, as people fresh out of college take awhile to ramp up and actually be productive.

I'd avoid small startups and focus on larger, established players. Unless they raised money before things started to get bad, smaller companies won't have the same resources as late stage orgs and FAANG.

While you're applying, try to get experience however you can. Work on personal projects relevant to jobs you're applying for and post them on Github. Pick up work on UpWork, etc at whatever price people are willing to pay. Having experience you can point to gives you a leg up over everyone else.

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#283
post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am slightly amused your account name appears to be your real name =)

It’s not :). Its from when I was a poor grad student. I filled out a survey to get free stuff and purposely wrote very sloppy so they wouldn’t be able to send me follow up mail (back when people would send you real mail). They were able to decipher my mailing address but they got the name really mangled and sent it to Michael R. Peskin. So I use that as my pseudonym now.

Well played, didn’t see that one coming. =p

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#285

I'm not surprised (unfortunately, and I am truly sorry for this). Don't look to the 2008 recession for an idea of how things may go. Look to the 2000 (Tech Bubble Burst) recession. In that one, the bottom dropped out of the tech market. Web designers were especially hard hit. I have family that works for Intel, and they say that Intel tends to actually increase hiring in bear markets. I suspect that's because they ar…

I think what's looming feels worse than 2000. 2000 was just a hype bubble of the previous 2-3 years that burst. That actually worked out great for me, as my company just offered unpaid-but-full-benefits sabbaticals. This feels like the debt bubble that was launched by Reaganomics is now imploding, we're reeling back into the 70s stagflation with lame-duck / impeached leaders, increasing inner-city violence, race riot…

I don't know about your experience, but 2008 was devastating to people just starting out in their careers. So far, the current economic situation feels mild in comparison.

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#286
post #282

I was in a similar position in 2008. The key thing you need is experience, as people fresh out of college take awhile to ramp up and actually be productive. I'd avoid small startups and focus on larger, established players. Unless they raised money before things started to get bad, smaller companies won't have the same resources as late stage orgs and FAANG. While you're applying, try to get experience however you ca…

> I'd avoid small startups and focus on larger, established players.

normally good advice, but it is a conservative stance and one should understand what they are choosing if they go down this path imho.

Fresh out of college is a time when you can take the highest risk in terms of jobs; your expenses ought to be quite low (zero dependants presumably), you can share house/get room mates etc; you can work long hours without hugely impacting health short term (as you get older, you will no longer be able to function this way).

Therefore, if you would want startup experience, and a chance at making it big (both financially and experientially), there's no really better time than straight out of college. Of course, nothing prevents you from doing so later in life - there's a large variation in startup career, and what i described is merely just one anecdote.

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#287

I'm not surprised (unfortunately, and I am truly sorry for this). Don't look to the 2008 recession for an idea of how things may go. Look to the 2000 (Tech Bubble Burst) recession. In that one, the bottom dropped out of the tech market. Web designers were especially hard hit. I have family that works for Intel, and they say that Intel tends to actually increase hiring in bear markets. I suspect that's because they ar…

Biggest difference between now at 2000 is companies have real customers and revenue. 2000 was a completely different beast and conditions that set that off aren't anywhere close. Doesn't mean it can't get bad but 2000 is not the place to look for a playbook.

Two more key differences:

- In 2000, people were talking about the future being about outsourcing engineering work to lower cost-of-living countries. To some extent that's happened, but companies also see tech as integral to their survival and have realized that their core engineering teams need to be in the same time-zone. - In 2000, tech was for tech companies. Now, every large bank has a huge technology team. Every company in logistics has a large tech team. Every retailer needs good engineers. In 2000, there were a few niche websites online. Now, a strong online presence is essential even for stores like Home Depot.

There's no question that the market was overheated, but it's too early to call doom here. The NASDAQ is still up about 50% from where it was 3 years ago, before COVID, even after the recent drop. That's a 14% yearly average return... still a crazy amount. At it's peak, it was up over 100% from May 24, 2019... a level that just wasn't sustainable.

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#288
NPR’s marketplace segment was unusually honest in their assessment yesterday, noting that most economic experts want new hiring to considerably slow down. I’m old enough to remember when this kind of statement was in the news all the time in the 1990s, but this is the first time I’ve seen it said in public in a long time.

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#289
post #5

I can say without hyperbole that this job market is still incredible compared to post 2008 recession times. Especially comparing apples to apples at the entry level. What you can do to prepare is just to keep getting better at the skills people are looking for.

Isn’t it too early to tell? The crash is very recent.

So far it's really just asset valuations coming back to earth. With employment so high, wages higher than ever, and the problem is that we can't get enough supplies are employees, can we really call this a crash for the economy at large? For once it's wall street suffering while main street thrives.

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the Georgia Tech online MS, what does the process look like? If you wanted to, could you accelerate the timeline (instead of 2-3 years part time)? That is, take multiple classes at once? Are the lectures prerecorded and you only need to complete the required coursework and lectures or are you required to pace at the same time as a traditional degree?

Don't know the current answers to all your questions, but re: courseload: you can take 6 credits max in the fall and spring and 3 credits max in the summer. You need 30+ credits to graduate, so the quickest you can finish is 2 years (but this should be quite doable from a workload POV if you're not working full-time)

I don't know for sure about OMSCS, but in OMSA you can ask the advisors to let you take more than 6 credits and they'll usually approve it. There are a fair amount of people who try to finish it in 3 semesters, although that seems a little crazy to me. It probably depends on your course selection, but I would struggle to take more than 3 classes (9 credits) at once (without working), and I would definitely have a shallower understanding of the material.
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