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Ask HN: How Bad Is the Current Market? Pt3

33 points by 71a54xd ↗ HN
I'm an eng with three years of backend experience (1yr faang, 2.5yrs growth stage startup) and one year being a technical product manager / product eng. Startup I was working for laid off 75% of the eng team and half the product team (including me, since I had the least exp and was the most recent addition).

Been about six weeks, around 40 applications that only converted to three interviews. Fortunately I have savings, but insurance is expensive and the outlook doesn't seem good. Anyone else struggling without a solid "senior" track record / solid resume?

Consulting for a friend's startup to keep the lights on, but future seems pretty bleak especially with GPT4.

12 comments

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goethes_kind
It is selfish, but also just true. Just look at the difference in salary between US and EU SWEs.
BjoernKW
That it's true - or rather - the current state of affairs, doesn't make it right.

Restricting the (relative) access to opportunities and resources to a select group of people by means of artificial barriers has never worked in the long run, and fortunately so. Otherwise, most people would still be living in abject poverty with only a tiny aristocratic class having agency and control over their lives and standard of living.

I find it particularly baffling that while people would usually claim to be all for social justice and a more equitable distribution of resources, the second their own privileged position is at risk, those ideas go out of the window.

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globalise83
I think the big change is that companies are now hiring more or less directly 1:1 (often with a employer of record for convenience). Previously companies contracted with outsourcing firms and had no real say over the quality of individuals. At least in my narrow experience the new model works well - there are great people in India, Pakistan, Kenya and Nigeria etc. who are just as good as on-site people and can probably live very well on their salary compared to local living costs.
drakonka
I realize HN is largely US-based, but sometimes still do a double-take when I see people say "all" and mean US-only. As one of the all pro-WFH people, I very much remain pro-WFH whether it pertains to working for a US or local company (and pretty sure I would even if I were in the US).
kypro
What are you applying for? Are you trying to get a FAANG salary or just a job? Not judging, just wondering.
savorypiano
Somehow you think that your unselfish perspective will result in corps raising wages abroad? Maybe a bit but certainly they will be aware enough to control wage inflation there too. The benefits aren't going to accrue to the commoner.
VagueMag
Tech workers who adopt this perspective shouldn't be surprised to find themselves in the same position as manufacturing workers when the United States was deindustrialized over the last 4 decades. Labor in the U.S. is not on an even footing with labor overseas because the USD cost of living and real estate prices are so much higher here.

Flattening out global entry wages like this will be great for the holders of corporate equity capital but would probably even rugpull U.S. real estate prices.

cableshaft
> but would probably even rugpull U.S. real estate prices

Good, it's been increasing at an out of control pace for a long time, but especially since the pandemic.

I'm saying this as a homeowner myself, whose home went up in 'value' almost 50% since I bought it five years ago (it really hasn't, if anything it should have gone down a bit from wear and tear, it desperately needs a new roof, deck, fence, and some gnawed up corners of walls and trim patched up from puppies when they went through teething).

VagueMag
I'm not talking about going down 50% for a year or two and then rebounding when the Fed re-juices the markets with liquidity, I'm talking about grinding down over a couple of decades to something like -75% and staying there, and this would have huge implications beyond just where buyers & sellers can transact.
throwaway675309
False. Many companies which offer WFH limit job applicants to US Citizens only because of the difficulties related to supporting international tax systems.
potta_coffee
IDK about that. I work for a massive company with employees around the world. We need people in all time zones. We need people who can do work in specific regions and markets. We need people who can communicate in English and other languages and understand cultural subtleties. Also have experience with outsourcing in several other companies and have seen some terrible results.