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Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?

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Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?

#61

Post by Vibgyor5 »

flat-pluto wrote: post #4

Blind[1] is a decent community to get a glimpse into what employees truly feel about employers, get referrals and overall tech career advice. It can get rather toxic and troll-ey at times, but you can filter that out to focus on the useful stuff. [1] - https://www.teamblind.com/

Does anyone have ANY recommendations for referral platform?

Cold application is fairly useless in today's age and time. A referral puts your application much ahead in the pool so that a human actually reads it.

Blind used to be a tolerable place until they made it exclusively US-centric. Importantly, I really loved their side product - Rooftop Slushie - where you could have resume reviews, interview prep, and get trusted referrals for a small sum. They seem to have closed that though.

Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?

#62

Post by pm90 »

maximinus_thrax wrote: post #27
flat-pluto wrote: post #4

Blind[1] is a decent community to get a glimpse into what employees truly feel about employers, get referrals and overall tech career advice. It can get rather toxic and troll-ey at times, but you can filter that out to focus on the useful stuff. [1] - https://www.teamblind.com/

At times? It's a cesspool of negativity and lies. Good content is the exception on Blind. Deleting that app is one of the best things someone can do for their mental health.

I can second this.

I made the mistake of downloading it once big players started layoffs in hopes of getting in on the news before it hit. But that forum is toxic sludge for anyone’s mental health.

I don’t use it anymore. The only time I download the app is like glassdoor when figuring out if a company is ok or not.

Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?

#63

Post by lucidguppy »

Chyzwar wrote: post #58
throwawaaarrgh wrote: post #14

It just occurred to me that so many people were laid off, we could start the world's largest software co-op (and arguably one of the largest tech orgs, period). We could build software products that every industry needs, that every worker owns a part of and can vote on org-wide decisions. Literally everyone you need was laid off... Tech people, business people, marketing, sales, etc. We just need a forum and some vol…

Sounds like Anarcho-syndicalism[1]. I am rooting for you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-syndicalism#:~:text=An... .

We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week. But all the decision of that officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting. By a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs,--

Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?

#64

Post by sebzim4500 »

Vibgyor5 wrote: post #61
flat-pluto wrote: post #4

Blind[1] is a decent community to get a glimpse into what employees truly feel about employers, get referrals and overall tech career advice. It can get rather toxic and troll-ey at times, but you can filter that out to focus on the useful stuff. [1] - https://www.teamblind.com/

Does anyone have ANY recommendations for referral platform? Cold application is fairly useless in today's age and time. A referral puts your application much ahead in the pool so that a human actually reads it. Blind used to be a tolerable place until they made it exclusively US-centric. Importantly, I really loved their side product - Rooftop Slushie - where you could have resume reviews, interview prep, and get tru…

>Cold application is fairly useless in today's age and time.

Really? 95% of the people I've been involved in hiring have been cold applicants or via a recruiter (where normally those connections aren't made by referrals either).

Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?

#65

Post by asdff »

JohnFen wrote: post #51
harshalizee wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always thought having a "guild" like Hollywood does or something similar would be a great boon to empower tech workers. Of course, it wouldn't be 1:1 mapping, but a collective tech union-like open institution would go far in leveraging against hostile employers. CEOs get golden parachutes on signing. It's time tech workers start demanding what their exit package looks like in case of layoffs/reductions against thei…

> I always thought having a "guild" like Hollywood does or something similar would be a great boon to empower tech workers. Maybe. But remember that the Hollywood guild system also acts as gatekeepers keeping people out of the system.

Software development has arguably more gatekeeping even without any guild. Got a CS degree from a university that isn't R1 and didn't score a summer internship? Need a visa sponsor? I don't envy how painful your early career will be. Luck out with the Stanford admission and a summer internship? You are playing on easy mode.

Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?

#66

Post by r2_pilot »

booi wrote: post #52
JohnFen wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I always thought having a "guild" like Hollywood does or something similar would be a great boon to empower tech workers. Maybe. But remember that the Hollywood guild system also acts as gatekeepers keeping people out of the system.

Would AI be allies or scabs?

Why not both? GANN vs LLM, an eternal cat and mouse game even more pointless than cryptocurrency mining

Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?

#67

Post by asdff »

koheripbal wrote: post #39
quacked wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the difficulty isn't even thinking of a good idea, it's reconstructing the enormous legal barriers, government contracts, and relationships with private capital that the existing tech companies have cemented over decades.

The larger barrier will be coming up with products that people are willing to pay for.

Thats one way to market yourself, but not the only way. For example, consultancies don't come up with products people are willing to pay for. They are hired as a service to do work on a project, but they aren't selling things off the shelf. A software "consultancy" could operate in a similar way, where customers say "we need engineering labor to achieve our goals" and this agency comes in with the labor that develops the product to meet the companies needs.

Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?

#69

Post by asdff »

dudul wrote: post #12
firstfewshells wrote: post #8

Each man for himself. I'm seeing a dog eats dog mentality.

Without going as far as "dog eats dog", I don't know if I would feel the need to socialize with laid off people if I got laid off. What would that serve? It's not like one of them is gonna be like "hey, we're hiring at my company!". Socialize with people who have a job.

On the other hand, when you are laid off and looking for people to socialize with, your other laid off friends will be the most available. Nothing like taking advantage of things like discount matinee rates, happy hours you never were able to make on time with a job, or speedy efficient trips through town without traffic when you are already generating no income.

Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?

#70

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

JohnFen wrote: post #53
sahila wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The number of engineers isn’t the limiting factor competing against google, it’s the innovation/talent. While most engineers even at google aren’t working on hard problems, there’s a few who’re solving distributed computing/gfs/page rank/etc and those individuals are definitely not being laid off. The others use their tools to solve business problems.

I don't think it's the number of engineers or the innovation/talent. I think it's the sheer economic advantage of being a huge multinational corporation.

>economic advantage of being a huge multinational corporation

I just left a huge multinational corporation that despite its economic power was wasting millions/billions and not achieving anything in the tech space due to huge mismanagement, as everyone at the top was completely clueless but well connected and good at bullshitting and too busy fighting private wars just so they can climb the corporate ladder to coast for massive paychecks. Basically very wealthy crabs in a bucket.

Money and talent aren't everything. You also need competent leadership who can steer the ship in the right direction and are motivated to bring value to the company not just to themselves.

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