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Work after work: Notes from an unemployed new grad watching the job market break

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Re: Work after work: Notes from an unemployed new grad watching the job market break

#31
post #9

The most baffling thing is that even now the H1Bs, etc. are still pouring in. How can you say there is a shortage of IT talent and you need to import them where most grads can't find any work?

My company had an onshore hiring freeze, while still hiring offshore. C-suite had the nerve in an all hands to say they were expanding offshore because there was a "local talent shortage", all while an onshore hiring freeze was still in effect. This wasn't even a secret; in our stand ups our immediate manager said that they were blocked from hiring onshore and only had offshore quota available if they wanted any more…

Same thing at my co! The kicker is that our team is down two people with the expectation of increased productivity because of AI. But no filling in those spots, because only offshore, and offshore can't even join our team because of colocation policies.

Re: Work after work: Notes from an unemployed new grad watching the job market break

#32

> The twentieth century spent a lot of intellectual and moral effort glorifying labour because economies needed people to show up every day. The twenty-first century is starting to build machines and systems that do not need quite as many of us. And herein lies the real, consitent, and real anxiety among the youth - leading to lower birth rates. I myself feel the same. And then I look at the elected corrupt pedophile…

Hmm, I'm not sure about the link to lower birth rates. Birth rates have been falling in e.g. Western and Northern Europe for a long time, despite strong social safety nets.

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Re: Work after work: Notes from an unemployed new grad watching the job market break

#33
Imagine you are an Alien playing Sims 17.0 - Earth Edition. You’ve got the Industrial Revolution part mostly done, solar is going to hit big in Africa and Apac, the climate warning light came on but the manual says you can push that out a bit.

The problem is the economic transmission thing. Money was a great invention, but you are close to enough energy production for every Sim to be fed and housed sustainably. Then you get some time for the upgrade pack but you can’t stop the oil thing right now and darn it they keep trying to do the work and dribble out wealth that way. What’s wrong with the plan? Industrial Revolution, silicon and robots level, everyone relaxes and we can do the moonbase

The problem is they keep thinking they need to create more instead of level off - sharing it more and entering maintenance mode

Re: Work after work: Notes from an unemployed new grad watching the job market break

#34
post #10

(Australian not an American here) You’d very quickly rise to the top of the public sector My brother in law is only in his mid 20s and is in charge of half a dozen engineers No nepotism (we honestly know no one) just leaping from the right firm to the public sector at the right time Look for government consultant jobs or even better straight engineering roles

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Re: Work after work: Notes from an unemployed new grad watching the job market break

#35
post #21

"Teleoperation makes this even stranger. . . There are people in one country sitting at desks, driving forklifts in another country . . . It feels like immigration without immigrants." This is a fascinating point - if Neo / Tesla deliver a teleoperated hybrid at their These are being pitched as "home robots" but clearly corporations will go all in - 24/7 operation (with multiple remote operators), no labor law / heal…

I'm not so sure. The tech to do this has been around for ages, and it still hasn't happened. So I'm thinking there's something else preventing companies from going this direction.

My uneducated guess is that if a remote operator has a bad day, there is nothing stopping them from doing damage on potentially sensitive and expensive assets and then disappearing in a country with lax enforcement.

Also, after a certain point, you need to deal with the angry, hungry mob right outside your factory.

Re: Work after work: Notes from an unemployed new grad watching the job market break

#36
post #28

What jumped out at me is that the author had three internships. Those are essentially "entry-level positions". If you do well at an internship, you typically get a job offer. If you don't do well, usually you can at least get some useful feedback. I'm not saying that everything is perfectly fine in the job market right now, it's just a lot more productive to focus on "what skill do I need to work on, that would have…

Yeah either he’s just really unlucky - it’s certainly possible to intern at a place that then implements a hiring freeze or something, or there is more too this.

Re: Work after work: Notes from an unemployed new grad watching the job market break

#37

The most baffling thing is that even now the H1Bs, etc. are still pouring in. How can you say there is a shortage of IT talent and you need to import them where most grads can't find any work?

I have more than my fair share of complaints about Trump, but I did like the idea of charging $100,000 per year for every H1B visa. It would have ultimately helped American workers by giving them more negotiating power and higher salaries. So, naturally, Trump was talked out of doing it yearly and it looks like it's legally questionable whether it will stand-up at all. It appears things worked out in a way that benefits wealthy corporations... again.

Re: Work after work: Notes from an unemployed new grad watching the job market break

#38

The most baffling thing is that even now the H1Bs, etc. are still pouring in. How can you say there is a shortage of IT talent and you need to import them where most grads can't find any work?

At the big tech company I work for, it’s been at least 5 years since I was asked to interview a US citizen. And I have younger relatives and family friends who are recent CS grads that are smart and desperate for jobs. I don’t know what’s going on anymore.

Re: Work after work: Notes from an unemployed new grad watching the job market break

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they can't push their finger down a new grads throat if they push back. Someone who's families very presence in this country depends on their employer will rarely find a reason to complain about being overworked to the bone or told to do questionable things. H1B and other programs have a noble purpose that is often (but not always) abused to create loyal servants.

The allure for companies of exploiting H1Bs for cheaper and more effective labor I understand. But it is not companies who (at least officially) set the rules and laws regarding immigration. So the questions is why the government is not turning off the outside supply when there is an internal oversupply.

You have a grave misunderstanding of how the American government works if you think this isn't things working as intended.

Re: Work after work: Notes from an unemployed new grad watching the job market break

#40
Depressing article but it really captures the zeitgeist among recent tech grads.

I’m more of a mid-level dev, but I was recently unemployed for about 6 months and it felt brutal - and this is despite having a couple years of work experience. I can’t imagine how hard it would be for junior data scientists where there’s an even worse supply to demand ratio of applicants (and almost always with graduate degrees).

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