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Panic at the Job Market

matt.sh

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Re: Panic at the Job Market

#961

Post by twodave »

leptons wrote: post #688
twodave wrote: post #624

In my area at least, hiring isn’t slowing so much, but the quality of the average candidate has cratered in the last 5-10 years. My opinion personally on this is that if you can’t find a job building software, you are suffering from some combination of these factors: * Titles be damned, you aren’t actually a very talented engineer. Maybe this isn’t the right job for you. * You’re coming off as a jerk. Ask your friend…

Your last paragraph explains perfectly what happened to me during the dot-com bubble burst in 2001. We're seeing similar situations now. This time when the music stopped playing, I had a stable job. I'm holding on to my current job like it's my first born child. I feel bad for developers who are in-between jobs now, I know it's really rough out there, and I know what it's like to go on interviews and see happy well-p…

What a gut-wrenching story. Except for you it isn’t just a story. My heart goes out to you! I know what it is like to not know how I’m going to survive the immediate future. Those kinds of moments test you as a human and reveal who you really are.

Re: Panic at the Job Market

#962

Post by johnnyanmac »

oldpersonintx wrote: post #229
jldugger wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have many friends (in Europe) EU kind of in a recession though. And there's a well known link between interest rates and unemployment. So it's really not surprising to hear that employment in the EU is harder after the ECB raised rates. And good news: they're lowering them now. What really needs explaining is why, despite the unusually strong general US job market[1] for several years now, the US tech market spec…

tech companies are in a long-term process of moving most roles (not all) to lower-comp that often means relocating the job or just low-balling people here there will always be an elite who are very well paid, but we are now seeing the long-term reformat of the rank-and-file step 1 is to freeze hiring and let attrition move the numbers down...this builds up a body of desperate job-seekers who will work for less

Pretty risky strategy. Tech companies colluded 15 years ago to the point where they got hit with anti-poaching lawsuits. Seems they forgot they did all that and paid so high so other companies don't grab top talent and proceed to become competitors.

It may be too late to compete with FAANG, but the rest of the market will still pay decently to keep and retain talent.

Re: Panic at the Job Market

#963

Post by vavooom »

This article is so good. My favorite quote:

"The actual goal of any “behavioral interview” or “culture fit” estimation is simple, but nobody ever lays it out. The goal of culture checking is only: determine how a candidate handles the tradeoffs between progress vs. kindness."

Re: Panic at the Job Market

#964

Post by johnnyanmac »

lazide wrote: post #817
burningChrome wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Most jobs are now hoops after hoops. I had no idea it had gotten so bad. 4th of July was talking with my brother-in-law. His daughter just got some awesome job working for an insurance company (they do commercial insurance) and she had over EIGHT interviews she had to go through, which involved not one, but two days where she spent the day at the company. I could not believe it takes companies and managers this mu…

That sounds like a historically incredibly typical interviewing process.

I'm not sure I agree that 8 interviews, including 2 all day on-sites, was ever regular for a new grad role. I haven't even come close to such a gauntlet. Does an employee need to round robin interview with every interviewee these days to get a good hire?

Re: Panic at the Job Market

#965

Post by johnnyanmac »

weatherlite wrote: post #701

Sometimes I feel really bummed out I am getting 1/2 (or less?) of Google compensation. But then I open my eyes - see the workers in my daughter's kindergarten slaving away taking care of 30 toddlers for less than half what I make, nurses and doctors working in conditions I wouldn't be able to tolerate for more than a few months without mentally collapsing, the people in the supermarkets, gas stations, police, fire de…

> Quit comparing yourself to your friends that work in Google and try to learn how to cultivate a peaceful and happy mind.

Ha, I work in games. My goal was never to aim for 300k+ total comp.

But also, I work in games. You kind of need to abandon the idea of "a peaceful and happy mind" going into such a field.

Re: Panic at the Job Market

#966

Post by deterministic »

I don't know. I have been trying to hire an experienced C++ developer for 6+ months and the market seems to be dry.

And we don't play stupid question games when interviewing. Candidates are asked to review and find bugs in 2 pages of really bad C++ code. And to walk us through how they would solve a more high level production problem.

I get plenty of CVs from Python or Java developers who thinks that knowing Python or Java makes them experienced C++ developers. Eh no it doesn't.

Re: Panic at the Job Market

#967

Post by CapitalTntcls »

Draiken wrote: post #808
weatherlite wrote: post #701

Sometimes I feel really bummed out I am getting 1/2 (or less?) of Google compensation. But then I open my eyes - see the workers in my daughter's kindergarten slaving away taking care of 30 toddlers for less than half what I make, nurses and doctors working in conditions I wouldn't be able to tolerate for more than a few months without mentally collapsing, the people in the supermarkets, gas stations, police, fire de…

We have to complain about literally everything you just said. The entire system is broken. Everyone should be entitled to live their lives without being subject to these awful conditions, but we as a society keep allowing this to happen because we don't really see them as equals. As long as we individually can get by, we can easily dismiss what everyone else endures. I would happily live with less if everyone else co…

> Not sure how we can have a "peaceful and happy mind" while everyone outside of our little bubble suffers. This line of thinking is, to me, an example of why we'll never fix any of this.

I agree with you that this individualistic line of thinking will never fix the systemic issues we find here. But I challenge you on your conclusion, "That's why we'll never fix any of this". There should be another "line of thinking" that will fix stuff. What is it? Maybe something not individualistic, aren't people able to cooperate?

> Folks, remember we're all in the same boat!

By "we" in this sentence I understand you mean ones reading this, or interacting here. Just want to point out that, there are people out of this boat. Their interests are protected by the State and they never, never had to do a 8h work shift.

Re: Panic at the Job Market

#968

Post by CapitalTntcls »

awesomeMilou wrote: post #866
globular-toast wrote: post #718

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So much this. My dad was a school caretaker, recently retired. He said how relieved he is because the work was grinding him down so much. My partner is a nurse and actually dreads going to work on a regular basis. I never dread going to work. Far from grinding me down I feel like I'm growing. I would honestly still do it even if I didn't need the money. My job gives me an outlet for something I really enjoy. A way I…

> you can't take anything away and they don't want to go backwards. I'm considering switching occupations and becoming a registered nurse (in my country in europe). The demographics here are so bad, I don't think we will need a large STEM workfore in ~15 years. Your shiny Vision-GPT model is useless when there is no one that wipes the asses of the elderly. And I don't think Silicon Valley has the capabilities to solv…

When I stayed in the hospital for 2 weeks without being able to move, nurses where doing everything for me. I remember how much I cried over that when I left the hospital, how much grateful I was. They all just looked like angels to me.

Re: Panic at the Job Market

#969

Post by oblio »

openmajestic wrote: post #763
486sx33 wrote: post #507

In a market with a population of 150k. I ran a job ad and got 292 applicants in under 24 hrs 2 years ago, I’d be lucky to get 8 applicants in a week, with probably 4-6 of those living in India or Pakistan with no way to North America So it’s an absolutely exponential job market crash. Most are sitting tight currently, no one wants to play musical chairs and be left standing.

As a candidate, I'm finding the job market extremely hot, specifically early stage companies in and around AI. Just wanted to put that out there for anyone who might find the info useful - I was worried after hearing apocalyptic things before I started interviewing.

In Silicon Valley, I assume?

Re: Panic at the Job Market

#970

Post by oblio »

NordSteve wrote: post #128
Apocryphon wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't the all of the money-printing going on functionally similar to reducing interest rates?

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WALCL is a good picture of that.

Interesting that the interest rate increase managed to suck out so much money already.
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