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

Reports Coming in of Big IBM Layoffs Underway in the U.S.

spectrum.ieee.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 428 posts

Re: Reports Coming in of Big IBM Layoffs Underway in the U.S.

#291

Post by Gibbon1 »

hga wrote: post #232
acdha wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other people have pointed out how rough the period around 2000 was but it's also worth looking at how similar things were the previous time that'd happened in the early 90s when the defense contractors laid off a ton of engineers as the Cold War died down. That meant that you had large numbers of people with similar backgrounds all on the job market, in the same areas at the same time, competing for a sharply reduced…

And that's wasn't the first Cold War related layoff period, we largely stopped fighting it in the '70s (roughly "Vietnam" through when the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan gave Carter a clue), and between that and the end of the Apollo program aerospace crashed and never returned to its old level. My family hired an EE to do electrical engineering in ~1972 and he was thrilled to be able to get back to it after doing al…

My dad has a story about working for TRW in spring of 1971. One of his older wiser coworkers came into his office and said 'take a look at this', and laid down the previous three months worth of internal TRW phone books. They were rapidly getting thinner each month. My dad decided he needed to get out and get out now. Through an old work friend[1] he managed to swing a government position in the Bay Area which he kept for the next 30 years.

He said before he got that job he was thinking his retirement would be to a cardboard box.

[1] Friend pulled my dads application out of a pile of about 500 and stuck it on the top. If you ever want to know what petty corruption is, that's it.

Re: Reports Coming in of Big IBM Layoffs Underway in the U.S.

#292

Post by finstell »

jwiley wrote: post #97

During the dot-com bust of the early 2000s, I was working at a super-market. One of the guys stocking shelves was a software engineer laid off by a large company after 40 years. The management at Winn Dixie put him stacking boxes in the freezer section...since they knew he needed the money and wouldn't quit. Maybe he deserved to get fired, maybe he didn't. The lesson to me that has been reinforced over my career in t…

Economic downturn happens every now and again. That's expected. You cannot change it. What a software engineer should have done was to be prepared for it. I don't see any valid reasons for him to end up in a supermarket job. 2000s crisis lasted a couple of years at the most. He should have had the means to survive comfortably the temporary time period when he was without an income.

The lesson is: Be prepared as if you are going to be out of job anytime. That's a typical mistake of US based people. US is not a social country, you are on your own when shit happens, you should better be ready for the worst case scenario at all times.

Your monthly income is not for you to spend monthly. It's for today and future.

Re: Reports Coming in of Big IBM Layoffs Underway in the U.S.

#293

Post by paganel »

im_down_w_otp wrote: post #184
toyg wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, sure, but mortgages and kids' needs tend to get in the way of philosophical and strategic thinking.

People with mortgages and kids don't move to new places where there's more, or at least more immediate, economic opportunity? Why not? Kids are mobile. Mortgages can be covered by tenants or by selling the property (usually). I only have kid (singular) and lack a mortgage, but I'd definitely move my family to a place with more opportunity if the well ran dry where we're at now. I wouldn't even hesitate or think twice…

> Kids are mobile

I was a spoiled kid, I admit, but I remember that back when I was 9 or 10 and my parents asked me if I'd be ok with us moving 4 or 5 blocks down the street, in a better area, my answer was a loud "no way!", because that meant losing my play-mates and God knows what else. We ended up not moving. I know it's anecdotal, but looking at what Hollywood is feeding us (with the latest example being the excellent animation "Inside Out") I get the feeling that is actually hard for kids being "mobile". Parents ignore that at their own risk.

Re: Reports Coming in of Big IBM Layoffs Underway in the U.S.

#294

Post by justsaysmthng »

As technology gets better, it also gets cheaper. Probably exponentially so.

That's why we're going to see this trend accelerate within the industry during the next couple of years - layoffs, bankruptcies, etc.

There's just too much really really good technology out there.

A lot of the problems that tech people were hired to solve years ago, have now been solved by the improved software/hardware.

So it would be a good idea to start working on a really narrow skill set, which is something about human beings, before the AI takes over what'll be left of today's tech jobs.

Re: Reports Coming in of Big IBM Layoffs Underway in the U.S.

#295

Post by artur_makly »

or u can change your environment parameters and simply move to a country where the USD is 4-10x. Then u will have the extra bandwith of time to work / study on the next big idea/framework/rev stream. ive done this 10yrs ago. went from a cog ina a wheel at Aol to a serial entreprenuer. stay flexible.

Re: Reports Coming in of Big IBM Layoffs Underway in the U.S.

#296

Post by moonchrome »

anonymousDan wrote: post #288
Conjoiner wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not: 'citation needed' it's rather: 'research is unreliable and, one paper shows x, the next paper shows not-x'

So what, just ignore all research and go with your gut feeling?

When talking about social science you might as well

Re: Reports Coming in of Big IBM Layoffs Underway in the U.S.

#297

Post by easytiger »

artur_makly wrote: post #295

or u can change your environment parameters and simply move to a country where the USD is 4-10x. Then u will have the extra bandwith of time to work / study on the next big idea/framework/rev stream. ive done this 10yrs ago. went from a cog ina a wheel at Aol to a serial entreprenuer. stay flexible.

That assumes a cash surplus for the individual. Where did you move?

Re: Reports Coming in of Big IBM Layoffs Underway in the U.S.

#298

Post by kozikow »

piratebroadcast wrote: post #115
JohnTHaller wrote: post #3

There have been a couple folks on Facebook reporting that the H1-B folks they trained are staying while they are let go (ala Disney et al).

This is my #1 worry about our industry - Zuckerberg and his folks will get that FWD.us thing passed and use to to ship cheap Indian engineers over here. Call me an asshole if you want but don't be shocked when it happens to you.

I didn't get the H1B visa in the lottery, but I got moved to UK and got paid the same salary. Since you mentioned Facebook - they opened the office in London when H1B visa lotteries started, and now the office have several hundreds employees. If you won't accept foreign workers be prepared that more and more tech jobs will just move abroad.

Re: Reports Coming in of Big IBM Layoffs Underway in the U.S.

#299

Post by fdej »

Conjoiner wrote: post #266
fdej wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The paper: https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smj.2192 The PR version: http://today.tamu.edu/2015/10/15/ceo-effect-on-firm-performa...

It's not: 'citation needed' it's rather: 'research is unreliable and, one paper shows x, the next paper shows not-x'

I would take one study with a grain of salt too. Even if the conclusions are correct in the setting of the study (and since most research findings are false, they probably aren't), it doesn't mean that you can extrapolate to every other setting, particularly the specific case of being the CEO of IBM. Hence "Make of that what you will."

But there could be an element of truth to it, which might warrant further research. If CEOs really do have a much more limited influence than they are given credit (or blame) for, then incentives perhaps ought to be adjusted, not just in the interest of fairness but also in the interest of finding better ways to actually improve performance.

Re: Reports Coming in of Big IBM Layoffs Underway in the U.S.

#300

Post by strongai »

michaelZejoop wrote: post #253

Does this mean it'd be waste of time to write up my "let me tell you about my favorite database" story as part of an application for a job at compose.io ? (serious question)

I just submitted mine. The job looks attractive for a techie who likes writing. Mind you, I'm not entirely sure I like the idea of big blue sitting there in the background, metastasizing its woes everywhere.
Post reply on HN