Comment on It’s a dark time to be a tech worker right now

• corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I know a guy who was let go a year ago. Dude’s like 170 IQ - and while people say that, this guy’s dizzyingly smart. 3 degrees, he can teach, code to spec, rebuild your delivery pipeline so it fucking howls, manage nerds, and he’s been interviewing like it’s his job for a year without lasting results.

  Some shitty company in Connecticut just flew him out for a project wrap-up, as he’s been helping save their ass since their completely out-of-his-depth manager reached out on a public forum for some clue. Like, without him they’d’ve been 4 kinds of fucked and he was looking for something to keep him sane for a few weeks.

  Handshake and a free dinner and sent him packing. Because they could. They got what they needed, and they foolishly think they can get it again when this idiot fucks up again in a month.

  I worry a lot of nerds are getting fish-hooked like that, when they just want to make things go and maybe also eat regularly.

  source

  • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Handshake and a free dinner and sent him packing. Because they could. They got what they needed, and they foolishly think they can get it again when this idiot fucks up again in a month.

    Pretty common with OEMs. They hire to develop the new product line, let them go, and make the products until they literally can’t anymore.

    source
• SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I’m not disputing their experiences - I’ve replied otherwise on this thread - but I’m going to guess that a lot of those experienced devs didn’t go through the 2000-2002 ish dot com crash, or maybe even the 2008 recession.

  Sometimes the money goes away for a while. The money has currently gone away. Eventually they drop the interest rates, people decide that real estate or EVs aren’t sexy anymore because they’re overbought, and the money floods back in. Then it gets too much, to the point that some kid gets $60M for the idea of selling barbecues and charcoal over the internet, and the cycle repeats.

  We thought Keynes fixed this but then decided it was more fun for a handful of people to make shitloads of money and then crash the economy every decade or two.

  source

  • maegul@lemmy.ml ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Some claimed to have been around long enough to gone through the 2008 recession, but dot com crash would certainly be very unlikely.

    source

    • SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I’ve been working in tech in one form or another since about 1994 and even before that if you include “writing some software for some guy’s cash register.” I’ve been through a few of these. They suck, but two years from now it’ll be forgotten.

      source

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Ohai. I rode the 1998/99 wave, got hit with the crash, took a cut in one job and grabbed a side-hustle, got laid off in 2006 in the company’s 117th round of layoffs (bru-tal), and never been laid-off again. Because if I even smell a whiff of stink-of-death, I’m out. I still have the side-hustle, and in the gaps I just bulk up on it to narrow the gap. Works okay. Now my main gig is union, and since I deliver on my goals and I’m not a sociopath, I have some confidence they’ll keep me around for a few years. That’d be neat.

        source

        • -> View More Comments
      • dylanTheDeveloper@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Since you survived through the year 2000 you gotta tell us your Y2K story

        source

        • -> View More Comments
      • Taleya@aussie.zone ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        '97 here. Could do this shit in my sleep by now lol

        source
  • aesthelete@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Spot on. A word of advice to people in the tech field: save while the sun shines because another thing you can’t time besides the market is when the money will be flowing your way.

    I’m somewhat optimistic about the long term prospects because if new technology isn’t the future then what is?

    But seriously, don’t pretend like your high salary will last a lifetime and plan accordingly.

    source
  • rambaroo@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I don’t think the money is magically just going to come back this time. I doubt that interest rates will ever drop to the levels they were at before the pandemic.

    The market is insane right now. Basically every position I see has 1000+ applications. Really wish some of these rookie candidates would go chase gold in some other industry because they’re making it harder for qualified people, and the vast majority of them turn into shit devs.

    source
• treadful@lemmy.zip ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  It can also be a common occurrence and devastating to an individual at the same time. It sucks, and people vent.

  I’ve been in this game a long time and been laid off from about half my gigs. It sucks every time. If it wasn’t for the fact that the pay is good and that I like doing it, I probably would’ve moved to something more stable already.

  source
• Taleya@aussie.zone ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  A certain subset of dev thought they were untouchable. Now they are finding out they’re the same level of peasant as the rest of us. Hard fall. :/

  source