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What would a recession mean for developers?

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Re: What would a recession mean for developers?

#31

Post by rad88 »

advael wrote: post #8

The weird part of this advice to me is all the "CS fundamentals" biz. It's admittedly been quite a while since I've felt the need to go out for "junior" roles, but I have a lot of close friends who are recent boot camp grads, and it seems to me that most success in an interview boils down to interpersonal skills and confidence in problem-solving. There's a significant backlash at least in the startup space to "whiteb…

That culture has definitely taken root in some ways, but I wouldn't count on it during a downturn. The idea is what will the hiring/candidate pools look like in a tech recession, so a premise is that many people who can presently get an engineering job then cannot. There are so many software programming jobs right now that the market created bootcamps to fill the demand, but it's not like mature engineers necessarily have fewer interpersonal skills, and suddenly there are many more of them all trying to get jobs.

Re: What would a recession mean for developers?

#32

Post by MrWiffles »

RyanOD wrote: post #17

I'm someone who qualifies as a junior developer even though I have a minor in CS, a BS in math, and a BS in mechanical engineering. My career has been an interesting journey. I've worked in sales, taught high school mathematic and computer science, and led technical SEO for multiple successful startups. I left all that in January to pursue my dream of becoming a full-time frontend developer. My wife and I have two da…

If you’re willing to “out” yourself publicly here, and assuming it’s not against any rules, you could post a link to your GitHub profile if you’ve got some open source work out there. Can’t promise it’ll help, but a lot more people read these comments than comment themselves…

…a LOT more.

Re: What would a recession mean for developers?

#33

Post by VBprogrammer »

We got off easy in last recession broadly speaking, obviously it wasn't the same for everyone, but lots of companies invested heavily in IT (or at least claimed to be doing so to their shareholders) in order to cut costs elsewhere.

Whether the same happens this time around is certainly debatable. Perhaps, cuting IT to investing in sales and marketing will be in fashion this time around.

Re: What would a recession mean for developers?

#34

Post by Silhouette »

TavsiE9s wrote: post #26
MisterBastahrd wrote: post #9

I've been contacted by a number of recruiters recently who are recruiting for positions that are paying FAR more than the market average of just a few years ago. I'm talking an average increase of over 50%. I'm honestly concerned that my entire team, after having received low percentage pay increases in the past year, is going to end up leaving within the next 4-6 months, and I'm not sure the product is capable of su…

I’ve heard the whole “money can’t be everything when deciding on a job” a couple of times when discussing salaries recently. Mostly from companies who realise they can’t or don’t want to compete with the market. Shrug and move on. They’ll learn eventually.

Money is at least understandable. It is a finite resource after all. What I really don't get is employers who are still pushing for other conditions that will deter good people from applying - things like annoying processes or insisting on hybrid working instead of allowing fully remote if there is no clear benefit to those policies.

Re: What would a recession mean for developers?

#35

Post by cabraca »

advael wrote: post #8

The weird part of this advice to me is all the "CS fundamentals" biz. It's admittedly been quite a while since I've felt the need to go out for "junior" roles, but I have a lot of close friends who are recent boot camp grads, and it seems to me that most success in an interview boils down to interpersonal skills and confidence in problem-solving. There's a significant backlash at least in the startup space to "whiteb…

You're not wrong. I mentor some juniors and the ability to talk to a specific target audience about a topic is the most important skill a dev can have. I can teach you the tech stack, but i cant teach you how to talk to the business people or the finance department. "I need budget to rewrite that app in rust" will get you a no from the finance guys most of the time. Tell them that it would reduce your current infrastructure cost by 10% (or whatever you want to achieve) and they might say yes.

Re: What would a recession mean for developers?

#36

Post by rdevsrex »

If you really just need work asap, Upwork is a great place to go. However, I have love/hate relationship with the platform, as getting noticed can be very hard and they take money off the table.

But having found permanent employment on there, and also having hired people on there, sorry to be biased, but if you sound like a native speaker and can hold your own in a Zoom meeting, that's half the yardstick met for me when it comes to hiring.

The number of foreign devs whose English is so bad that you just have to communicate in writing is high. Business people like to communicate verbally, so if you aren't confident, practice.

Hmm, I wonder if there is a startup out there that does English training to help non-native English speakers sound like native speakers? My wife's first language is German, but she really put time into becoming a native-level English speaker, so it is possible.

Re: What would a recession mean for developers?

#37

Post by kqr »

Clubber wrote: post #6
mirntyfirty wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless it’s a “junior” developer with 5 years of experience willing to “wear multiple hats” and “go the extra mile to deliver requirements.”

I mean if that's what you gotta to do get your foot in the door, that's what you gotta do. My first job out of college in the late 90s took 3 months to find. I already had an internship where I did development for money and networking and workstation support. For the first job, I built the applications, designed the database, setup all the servers and all the workstations. I even crimped network cables and managed a…

This is part of the reason I tell people not to take their first job too seriously. It's highly likely to be crap, and teach them what they don't want rather than what they want. But that's also why it's useful. Stick around for a bit but don't feel bad for leaving soon.

It sucks that inexperienced people get exploited, but to do the best of it you have to learn as much as you can and then get out rather quickly.

(Of course, who am I to talk? I'm happily married to my first girlfriend. Sometimes you get lucky.)

Re: What would a recession mean for developers?

#38

Post by mandeepj »

rdevsrex wrote: post #36

If you really just need work asap, Upwork is a great place to go. However, I have love/hate relationship with the platform, as getting noticed can be very hard and they take money off the table. But having found permanent employment on there, and also having hired people on there, sorry to be biased, but if you sound like a native speaker and can hold your own in a Zoom meeting, that's half the yardstick met for me w…

> I wonder if there is a startup out there that does English training to help non-native English speakers sound like native speakers?

There are many vocal coaches. Search Google or Youtube - you'll find a lot of them. It's hard to sound like a native speaker especially when your current state is not understandable. It's an iterative process, so who knows that person might get to native level.

I believe it's much easier for women compared to men - to sound like native English speakers, because they have much crisp voice compared to most men.

Re: What would a recession mean for developers?

#39

Post by smarmgoblin »

Comevius wrote: post #16
Clubber wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean if that's what you gotta to do get your foot in the door, that's what you gotta do. My first job out of college in the late 90s took 3 months to find. I already had an internship where I did development for money and networking and workstation support. For the first job, I built the applications, designed the database, setup all the servers and all the workstations. I even crimped network cables and managed a…

"if you bust your ass like you're trying to impress the hell out of someone, people will notice and eventually, good things will happen" In most industries, most of the time hard work no longer pays off. It is not rewarded, it is exploited. The people who would notice are increasingly sociopathic and short-highted, because that's how you make it these days. Hard work can still open doors, but you have to be smart abo…

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