Who is getting laid off?
- Thread starter cliff
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Most of the people I see getting laid off on LinkedIn have soft skills. Marketing, sales, HR, recruiting, program managers, some support people. Some engineers, mostly software people, though very few I'm noticing in system software (kernel code, drivers, security... experts in C, C++, other performance languages (Rust, Go, etc)). I'm not connected to many of them, but they're 2nd level connections (connections of people I'm connected to). I'm personally hearing about many seemingly arbitrary unsatisfactory performance reviews going around, which reminds me of 2008. The bottom 2% I think has become the bottom 5-10%. The one anomaly I'm really seeing, because I'm connected to so many Intel people, is the large number of long-time Intel employees "retiring". Intel must have offered a lucrative early-out package. The numbers are amazing to me.
Perhaps this is an artifact of the people I'm connected to, but Google appears to have really mishandled their layoff. What a mess. I know the news sites have reported this, but the reality seems even worse than the news reports. Many relatively senior people posting they found out about their job loss by losing their login credentials, an email, or their badge stopped working. Seriously Google?
I am especially concerned for those with H1B status. US high-tech success is a lot more than a little due to attracting the best and brightest from around the world. This is dumb, and doing our reputation in the world harm. I know you're a big US citizen fan, Cliff, but IMO this tenuous H1B situation for laid-off people is the wrong thing for the country.
Lots of companies are still hiring for critical positions, including Intel, Google, and Meta. I'm see new position announcements from people being hired by all three. 2008-2010 was like that too.
Perhaps this is an artifact of the people I'm connected to, but Google appears to have really mishandled their layoff. What a mess. I know the news sites have reported this, but the reality seems even worse than the news reports. Many relatively senior people posting they found out about their job loss by losing their login credentials, an email, or their badge stopped working. Seriously Google?
I am especially concerned for those with H1B status. US high-tech success is a lot more than a little due to attracting the best and brightest from around the world. This is dumb, and doing our reputation in the world harm. I know you're a big US citizen fan, Cliff, but IMO this tenuous H1B situation for laid-off people is the wrong thing for the country.
Lots of companies are still hiring for critical positions, including Intel, Google, and Meta. I'm see new position announcements from people being hired by all three. 2008-2010 was like that too.
Mr. Blue, I almost always agree with you, and this is no exception. My company's US citizen policy has more to do with our niche/schtick, and security. It is possible that we start a less secure division or entity. We are actually looking into that.
Our (US) H1b policies are awful. The H1b people should be allowed to stay in the country. They are economically desirable immigrants (pay taxes, less crime). The US is committing suicide. I agree.
As far as layoffs, is it tricky. Lots of factors. We all know them. Another topic.
I don't agree with you on 2008. Extremely talented engineers were cut and companies closed. We benefited greatly by this. We hired superstars in 2009-2010. I am drooling at the chance to do this again. That is why I am asking how real this is. Capitalists capitalize
Our (US) H1b policies are awful. The H1b people should be allowed to stay in the country. They are economically desirable immigrants (pay taxes, less crime). The US is committing suicide. I agree.
As far as layoffs, is it tricky. Lots of factors. We all know them. Another topic.
I don't agree with you on 2008. Extremely talented engineers were cut and companies closed. We benefited greatly by this. We hired superstars in 2009-2010. I am drooling at the chance to do this again. That is why I am asking how real this is. Capitalists capitalize
For the record, we have had 100's of international MSEE grads needing to seek voluntary employment within the 3 month window. We have employed the good ones, and H1b'ed many. We just happen to lose them all during large hiring frenzies (many in some countries believe that bigger companies are better). The only staff members who stayed were those with golden handcuffs, and they now just happen to be US born citizens, which was really a coincidence. In a software company, you need fewer people as time goes on, and with the new nationalist world we live in now, we will stick with it, at least for one of our entities. The other may be the extreme opposite.
Got it.
I only noticed start-ups and over-extended companies laying off hands-on hardware engineers in 2008ish. And start-ups are often very vulnerable to any economic hiccup. As for capitalizing, go for it.
The job board on SemiWiki continues to grow, even with some of the companies who laid off. It will be interesting to see what 2023 will bring to the analytics.
I think right now layoffs are primarily targeting FAANG (and similar company) engineers. Personally I think the escalation in tech salaries got a bit ahead of itself. Some tech companies historically (and rightfully) were willing to pay very high compensation packages to "unicorn" talent or "10x" engineers. The problem is unicorns and 10x engineers are very rare and these types of compensations packages became very common even for ordinary engineers who learned how to game the interview process by grinding leetcode problems. This has led to many mediocre engineers making $300k+ while coasting along and companies are seeing it show up in their productivity numbers. The FAANGs are still all very profitable but have more or less realized the mistake they made and are correcting for it.
Anecdotally, I'm hearing from founders that many of the former FAANG engineers are not working out, probably because they have gotten used to "resting and vesting" and have really high salary expectations. Of course this is a general statement that does not apply across the board but I think there is a certain amount of truth in it.
I'm not seeing the job market in other areas weaken. In hardware it's still a very tight labor market and in my own highly specialized field it's the strongest job seeker market I've ever seen. Of course things can turn on a dime, anyone who has been around for awhile knows that.
Anecdotally, I'm hearing from founders that many of the former FAANG engineers are not working out, probably because they have gotten used to "resting and vesting" and have really high salary expectations. Of course this is a general statement that does not apply across the board but I think there is a certain amount of truth in it.
I'm not seeing the job market in other areas weaken. In hardware it's still a very tight labor market and in my own highly specialized field it's the strongest job seeker market I've ever seen. Of course things can turn on a dime, anyone who has been around for awhile knows that.
I always enjoy checking license plates, there are many new ones here in Austin. New Mexico, and one from Kansas.
It’s something to see 5 tall office buildings go from empty to full, with 5 more under construction.
To say nothing of Taylor. It’s just booming here in Austin, like nothing I’ve ever seen. Like Dickens “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”
It’s something to see 5 tall office buildings go from empty to full, with 5 more under construction.
To say nothing of Taylor. It’s just booming here in Austin, like nothing I’ve ever seen. Like Dickens “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”