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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

#41

This will be at least the fourth such downturn I have seen in my career: - the 2000 Dotcom Bust - the 2008 recession - the 2020 pandemic recession - Now The short answer is that no one really knows what will happen. A lot of companies are reading the tea leaves - and regardless of what anyone tells you, that's really all it is - and trying to figure out how to make the best moves given rising prices, rising interest…

> - the 2020 pandemic recession Did this affect the IT sector? Seriously asking because I didn't notice it.

If you were looking for a job at the time, it absolutely did. It recovered in 2021, but I was very far along - at the stage where they were ready to make an offer - with at least two major companies and a handful of small ones, and had the rug pulled out at the end citing the pandemic and them closing ranks.

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

#42

This will be at least the fourth such downturn I have seen in my career: - the 2000 Dotcom Bust - the 2008 recession - the 2020 pandemic recession - Now The short answer is that no one really knows what will happen. A lot of companies are reading the tea leaves - and regardless of what anyone tells you, that's really all it is - and trying to figure out how to make the best moves given rising prices, rising interest…

Could you please some advice regarding this for someone with 2yoe mostly lamp stack? Where do I find clients after incorporating > My advice here is to keep looking, but start working on something on the side that will generate revenue

You need to spend a lot of time thinking about your product and who actually wants to pay for it. Who are your ideal customers? What are their challenges? How does your product solve those challenges? How high a priority are those challenges to that audience? Is there an audience that would put them at a higher priority? How much is it worth to them to solve those challenges - how are those challenges currently affecting their business and how much money could they make / save if they fixed them?

If you figure out these answers and get to know your targeted audience very well, you will then understand how they learn about new products and evaluate them. You can then start marketing to them in their language with the value proposition of how your product solves their problems. Put ads up where they will find them, hang out in forums and chat rooms and such where they ask questions, write blog posts about things they are interested in and make sure they get picked up by search engines and - hopefully - news aggregators like this one where your target audience is reading. It's a slow, iterative process that keeps building on itself as you keep going and building momentum. It will be very discouraging at times, but you need to really understand your customers and, when you do, you should be able to figure out why things aren't working when they aren't and how to fix them.

Don't worry about going big and scaling - make enough money to support your needs (and trim your needs as low as you can while remaining comfortable). I found consulting clients by posting on my LinkedIn feed. I have one major privilege here - I've been in the industry for more than 20 years and have built a sizable network as a result, all of whom were eager to help me find clients. The bulk of this network is only a few years old, though, so there's no reason you can't build a similar network yourself, if you haven't already.

As technologists, we tend to focus on the tech. Spend some time focusing on people, their problems, and how you can uniquely solve them - better, faster, more focused, whatever. You may even find tech isn't the answer to solve for - it may be education or writing or running workshops or something else.

And, mostly, build trust in yourself. All of this stuff seems so complicated at first, but that's because we complicate it needlessly. You want o be successful in business? Find an audience that has a need, really understand the consequences of that need and what it means to that audience, create a solution and solicit feedback from the audience, then sell to those who respond favorably. Then, keep listening to them and intelligently improving it to grow the business. If you sit down and think about how YOU would go about doing it, you may find most of the answers you're looking for.

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

#43
post #31

This will be at least the fourth such downturn I have seen in my career: - the 2000 Dotcom Bust - the 2008 recession - the 2020 pandemic recession - Now The short answer is that no one really knows what will happen. A lot of companies are reading the tea leaves - and regardless of what anyone tells you, that's really all it is - and trying to figure out how to make the best moves given rising prices, rising interest…

The 2020 pandemic crash hardly counts - it was a quick blip and everything quickly rebounded to new highs (hiring, salaries, stock market etc).

I agree with the poster above this one - 2020 and now are basically one big event, but I still mark 2020 because it was the point when I finally decided enough was enough with this hiring BS these companies put us through. You spend weeks in in the interview process, meeting everyone and their cousin, taking dumb little tests and such, all so that, right near the end, they can say the job is no longer available because they need to figure out how the pandemic will affect things. I mean, yeah, I get they need to look out for the business... but they wasted weeks that could have been better used doing something else.

I actually think we're going to look back and see the massive hiring and good news that came in 2021 is the blip. A lot of these companies that soared during the pandemic - like Zoom and Netflix - are seeing revenues drop. Many companies figured the worst was over and went nuts hiring, getting funding, etc. Now that the fed is raising rates again, a lot less of that money will be flowing around, and companies that hired thinking they would get their next round will find themselves laying a bunch of folks off. It's already started. Every single day there's another version of an article in my tech feed saying something to the tune of, "Batten down the hatches for the next 18-24 months". Executives reading those stories are already making moves to cut costs and try to ride out the storm. Whether the storm comes or not is largely irrelevant as the effects will be the same - and all of that preparation for the storm in many ways ensures its arrival.

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

#44
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I like your optimism but what crash? Things might get much worse. Or not. There are many things happening at once. One that I think people are underestimating is baby boomer money. They are retired/retiring. It doesn't feel comfortable with the same risk that was acceptable in the last decade. That will suck at an unprecedented amount of liquidity from the system.

But that's precisely why the "correction" will have to be much steeper for Fed to rein in inflation. Fed cannot magically fix the supply side: they can't control Putin or lockdown in China. The only way to bring inflation way down is by dampening demand. To dampen demand Fed essentially would like see the stock market collapse, the extra liquidity that has been injected for the past 10 years need to be evaporated so people will feel impact to bring down demand.

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

#45
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.

In 6 months?? I can remember situations in the past where people were hired and then fired 2 weeks later because a contract was lost. Mostly in aerospace/defense industry.

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

#46
Honestly I'd take that as dodging a bullet, and so appreciate the honesty - if they have sufficient concerns about present market behavior impacting their ability to retain staff or even continue as a going concern to be stopping recruitment, then you'd be risking turning down other opportunities for a job that may literally disappear in just a few months.

OTOH, if they're still around and hiring again a few months later then I'd take that a sign that they are running themselves well, and have a good grasp on their stability, and would consider applying again then.

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

#48
post #34
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. In a previous recession I had an offer rescinded over a weekend. I’m glad they did because most likely as they had to reduce headcount during the recession Id have been on the chopping block --my then employer having been conservative in hiring didn't have to cut as much. also sometimes in times of expansion some hires are "luxury hires", nice to haves, but not must haves and can be the first to go. Usually…

> Usually it’s recent hires and people who’ve been there a long stretch who get cut first, of course with lots of exceptions. This was a bit confusing to me. Are you saying in your experience that it is both the most senior and most junior employees (in terms of company tenure) that get laid off?

I entered the job market during the 2008 recession. I definitely experienced the "hired... and..now you're laid off" ~ as the saying goes "when times get tough, last to hire = first to fire". As for laying off senior folks -- I've seen this too; I've seen people who are senior by virtue of just having been there the longest (20+ years) and have had the most pay raises... but don't necessarily contribute as much value as someone who's been there 10 years and costs less. If you're senior and your boss knows* that you're contributing more value add than is reflected by your paycheck -- you won't be let go.

* This is one reason why you should be sure to convey your wins to your boss; when you have 1-on-1 conversations, be sure to highlight obstacles that you've overcome. You don't have to brag, but it's okay to be realistic - humble, but proud.

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

#49

I've had meta and microsoft cancel on me. I also went all the way through the interview loop at one company, received very positive feedback but was told that they had decided to close the position without filling it. There's definitely a pullback and it started about 2 months ago. Update: As of now, about half of the companies I've interviewed with at one level or another, have abruptly halted their process due to e…

Not sure about other places but MSFT recruitment just reached out to me today.
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