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Ask HN: Job seekers, what is the state of the job market?

3 points by readonthegoapp ↗ HN
tldr; Based on your current searching experience, how good or bad it is compared to what you know, were expecting, etc.?

I really don't know anybody else looking, I have anecdotal evidence of IT folks having multiple simultaneous full time jobs, and every jobs report says "best job market ever", but my bites and interviews are either rare or very rare.

I also know I'm not the rare talent I used to be, so it's possible the job market is fine, or even good or great (for job seekers, to be clear).

What's your experience?

2 comments

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gregjor
The idea of a "job market" gives a good example of why you can't deduce individual outcomes from aggregate statistics. Individual anecdotes don't give others any useful information. By analogy, looking at aggregate life expectancies doesn't help me predict how long I will live, nor does asking my 96-year-old grandmother how she lived so long.

In the "job market" people compete for a limited number of desirable jobs. That will get most fierce at the low end, because of more competition. Someone with rare and valuable skills will not experience the same kind of competition for jobs as someone with a few years experience with common tools and techniques. After the layoffs, which affected people by definition dispensable for one reason or another, those same people have to compete with many others at their same relatively low skill/experience level. Supply and demand ensure lower offers/salaries and a more fickle and selective attitude from employers.

If you got scooped up in the rampant over-hiring during the last decade and now have fallen victim to mismanagement and pandering to financiers, sorry. You can find jobs today, but look away from the tech/FAANG companies. I have always fallen back on enterprise logistics when tech bubbles burst. Banking, health care, retail all offer opportunities for programming and related fields, but don't expect foosball and beer and free dog care.

devjab
Maybe this is a Danish thing, but around here the absolute best benefits are always found in “boring” places like banking, healthcare, energy sector, public sector and similar enterprise. Sure it’s not foosball and beer, but stuff like good pensions, being able to get paid leave for more than the nationally granted first day of child sickness, paid launch (you effectively work 2,5 hours less a week), extra paid vacation options beyond the 6 weeks and stuff like that. Finance often has decent healthcare insurance options as well (this is basically skipping the queue for non-cancer type illnesses).

Startups tend to be really fun environments to work in when you are young. With things like foos and beer, but once you get older, the ability to take two or three days off or semi-off when your children are sick is just sooo much more valuable.

Personally I’ve worked in both environments and I haven’t found the tech to be particularly boring in “boring” enterprise. I work in the green energy sector right now, and I’ve been able to work with things like Rust in the past year. Some of our stuff COBOL levels of “boring”, but anything new we build is pretty much cutting edge tech. You do not get the opportunity to build things like React so often, however, so if that’s your jam you should stick with tech companies.