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

Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

311–320 of 576 posts

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

#311

Post by ramesh31 »

angarg12 wrote: post #280

I always get flak for this but here we go anyway: the key is to manage expectations in the short term. First realize that the market you know is far from the norm. We were at the end of the longest bull run in history and the hottest tech job market in memory. These are things you can kiss good bye for a while: eye popping salaries with little experience, kombucha on tap and Prosecco Friday, headcount doubling every…

I'm really skeptical of all the "sky is falling" talk. Asset prices have been wildly inflated since COVID opened the taps on QE. That they are now coming down to reality is the entire point. The Fed is doing its' job. This isn't 2008. There isn't a systemic risk. Revenues are strong, consumer spending is strong, and savings are at historical levels. A wildly inflated sector of the economy is being unwound, and there will be sore losers. But the bull case for the foreseeable future hasn't changed at all really.

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

#312

Post by dasil003 »

bergenty wrote: post #53
bnt wrote: post #2

Their honesty should be applauded. Imagine they hired you and then had to fire you in 6 months. Keep in touch with the PM if you liked them and see how they perform in the next 12 months.

Isn’t that pretty great? Get paid for 6 months of relatively light ramp up time and then a few months worth of severance for some time off once fired?

Wait, you take it easy for six months when onboarding? That’s an interesting strategy but can’t say I’d recommend it to a junior to mid-level engineer.

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

#313

Post by daxfohl »

majormajor wrote: post #303
daxfohl wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Is there strong evidence yet that this is a 2010-bubble-pop vs a 2020-bubble-pop? The last few years were particularly nuts in a lot of speculative markets. Big difference between back to normal or even a bit slowed from 2019 and a huge downturn, but I'm not seeing indicators yet that things are gonna fall off a cliff. People are still spending a lot of money and demand for a lot of things is still high - that might…

Haha yeah I think I've probably predicted collapse annually since like 2010. So either you can safely ignore me, or we're due for a 12x apocalypse.

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

#314

Post by majormajor »

Jensson wrote: post #305
majormajor wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there strong evidence yet that this is a 2010-bubble-pop vs a 2020-bubble-pop? The last few years were particularly nuts in a lot of speculative markets. Big difference between back to normal or even a bit slowed from 2019 and a huge downturn, but I'm not seeing indicators yet that things are gonna fall off a cliff. People are still spending a lot of money and demand for a lot of things is still high - that might…

> People are still spending a lot of money and demand for a lot of things is still high Yes, that is how you create a gigantic crash. Look at this graph, click 25 years, does this look to go in the right direction? The US economy is shifting more and more towards consumption of imported goods instead of producing things itself, this isn't sustainable. You see how the 2008 crash got the curve back and track, a similar…

I mean, the crash, by definition, is when the demand stops, yeah? "A crash is coming because currently demand is still high" is a bit incomplete as far as theories go. That graph matches my original point about the last two years being very different from 2010-2020 - but it doesn't tell me anything about where to expect things to "correct" to or whether or not such a correction would be good or bad - a lot of people would love to see a US spending shift back to spend on services/experiences rather than manufactured goods. If you look at the 2000 dot com bubble, for instance, that line didn't move as much as in the 2008 crash. Does that tell us that tech valuations popping doesn't affect other things as much as other crashes might? I don't know - but I don't believe you can know for sure either on knowing what'll happen next. We've been defying predictions for years!

Is that crazy luck, or is it that the predictions are extrapolating from small samples against an ever-changing background and so basically just throwing darts? Everything is unprecedented, both good and bad, at this point in human history.

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

#315

Post by scarface74 »

twblalock wrote: post #113
michaelrpeskin wrote: post #98

I bet the non-profitable, feeding-on-VC startups are getting worried and we'll see more of this. I work at a non-VC-funded, profitable, stable, small place and we're desperately trying to hire. I've never made FAANG/startup income, and I've always felt a little left-out because of that. But we've been stable for nearly 30 years, and have never had the big layoffs or hiring freezes including, dot-com bust, 2008, 2020…

FAANGs are slowing down and freezing hiring too. It's not just startups that are worried.

I can tell you two of the BigTech companies that are definitely not slowing down - at least in their cloud divisions.

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

#316

Post by PragmaticPulp »

jen20 wrote: post #131
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Isn’t that pretty great? Get paid for 6 months of relatively light ramp up time and then a few months worth of severance for some time off once fired? Not great at all. For anyone reading your resume in the future, it's impossible to know if you were let go due to no fault of your own, or if you were let go for cause after a probationary period expired. I personally don't hold a single short job against people, but…

> For anyone reading your resume in the future, it's impossible to know Just write why on your resume? The dates will check out or not.

Unfortunately, most of the fired-for-cause people also claim that they were just laid off, hence the uncertainty.

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

#317

Post by deathanatos »

michaelrpeskin wrote: post #225
NDizzle wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the pay ranges for the roles you have open?

It’s a pretty wide range. For juniors just out of college, I think we’re near 80-100, I’m at a principal level and am close to 200. We’re looking mostly for junior to mid. We’re a bit top heavy right now. It’s not SV levels plus equity like they get, but we don’t have unlimited budgets like the FAANGs. The owners just take a normal salary and all of the profits go to the employees as year end bonuses. So it’s pretty…

My entry-level base salary, admittedly at a FAANG, ignoring equity/bonus, was $127k real.

So on the one hand, that you say you're doing $80-100k sounds low, to me. But $200k for a principal eng. sounds not too bad¹. So IDK.

¹it sounds "inline with what I'm making now, adjusted for experience / title differences. But it's crap compared to the current housing market.

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

#318

Post by jsperson »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #260
30944836 wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>had a friend from the first job help me get a job This is the part of the story that OP needs to key in on. OP: Network. Network Network Network. I've been at 2 FAANG in 7 years. I don't write code. I make good money. Friends got me jobs both times. Do whatever you have to do to make friends with people in the industry where you want to work. Go to the bars they hang out in. Go to meet-ups. Go to lectures open to th…

This can be hit and miss so needs some persistence. For me, not living in SF or even the USA, there is not really a tech culture to the point where the Pizza delivery person wants to talk about Monads (a story I read somewhere...). However if you are not in a tech city, and don't want to move to one, then online is great. Here is what you can do. 1. Find stuff on Show HN or HN (or Reddit etc.) generally that you are…

> However if you are not in a tech city, and don't want to move to one, then online is great. Here is what you can do.

I live 40 miles north of Wichita Kansas USA. There's no tech - there's no city even.

Here's what I did: I got to know a recruiter in Wichita. Turns out she's a rock star - one of the leaders in the region at recruting tech. Met a guy on an flight from Atlanta to Wichita. We got together and talked geek a few times. The three of us started a Meetup in Wichita where we talk geek every other month or so. We generally get 15-50 folks depending on the time of year and topic. Last meeting I got two off handed job offers (I'm not looking). I've gotten a previous position the same way.

Tech is everywhere. The typical attendee to our Meetup is a developer or analyst at a regional bank, an airplane manufacturer, or farm credit agency. Nothing fancy, but great jobs for this area.

I'm not a very social person, but I do like to talk geek. There are lots of folks like me everywhere. Folks want to learn. Get together and teach each other.

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

#319

Post by no_wizard »

ramesh31 wrote: post #101
bergenty wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t that pretty great? Get paid for 6 months of relatively light ramp up time and then a few months worth of severance for some time off once fired?

>Isn’t that pretty great? Get paid for 6 months of relatively light ramp up time and then a few months worth of severance for some time off once fired? Nah that'll torch your resume for years. Unless you're a total rockstar otherwise, I'd be terrified to explain a 6 month stint.

Depends honestly. If you have a collective experience that affected the industry it’s easy to explain. It’s more of a red flag if it’s a constant even during good times IMO

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

#320

Post by PragmaticPulp »

kyawzazaw wrote: post #184
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Isn’t that pretty great? Get paid for 6 months of relatively light ramp up time and then a few months worth of severance for some time off once fired? Not great at all. For anyone reading your resume in the future, it's impossible to know if you were let go due to no fault of your own, or if you were let go for cause after a probationary period expired. I personally don't hold a single short job against people, but…

Really? Especially in a market like this, I would have assumed more hiring managers would understand. What do you think about new grads having to switch not long after because of bad work environment, bait-and-switch, etc? I hope such a negative outlook is not that prevalent.

> Really? Especially in a market like this, I would have assumed more hiring managers would understand.

Depends entirely on the job and company.

If someone is hiring average developers for average or below-average pay at a no-name company that gets 1 organic resume submission per week, they're going to overlook it and bring the person in.

If someone is hiring top developers at a hot tech company with high pay that attracts 1000s of impeccable resume submissions per week, they can't interview everyone. They might only screen 10% of resumes because that's all they can handle. At this level, competition is so fierce and the applicants are so strong that you have to look for any reason to drop someone from that 10% who get through. Having a short job followed by a resume gap could be enough of a signal to get you bumped in favor of any number of perfect resumes.

Adjust expectations accordingly for companies between the two extremes.

> What do you think about new grads having to switch not long after because of bad work environment, bait-and-switch, etc? I hope such a negative outlook is not that prevalent.

I think everybody gets a mulligan and I personally wouldn't hold it against a junior. A single data point isn't a trend.

However, I would still question the candidate thoroughly about it. Unfortunately, there are many people who leave otherwise decent jobs because their expectations are too far detached from reality. When someone's definition of a "bad work environment" is being expected to participate in code review (true story), the problem wasn't with their employer. Some basic questioning can usually get to the bottom of this, but it's more common than you might expect.

Post reply on HN