5 ms·

Can any of you from the Bay Area comment on if you have found it harder to find jobs lately? Are recruiters reaching out less than they did last year? I would

by 20years 10y ago

Can any of you from the Bay Area comment on if you have found it harder to find jobs lately? Are recruiters reaching out less than they did last year? I would be interested in hearing from some of you that have been laid off. Have you found another job in the Bay Area or did you have to leave?

ISV_Damocles 10y ago
I haven't really seen a letup in recruiters emailing me. Not one of the ones who was laid off, though.
stale2002 10y ago
I'm a couple years into the industry, and I'm still getting recruitment emails every day. But from what I hear from my friends, new college graduates, with no experience are having a tougher time getting jobs than how it used to be 2 years ago.
- mevile 10y ago
  It's a mistake to equate recruitment emails with ability to get a job. There are many reasons for recruiters to send you emails that have very little to do with your likelihood of being hired. Talented engineers will always be difficult to find, though the challenge may change from trying to find one that's not employed to finding the best among those that need a job. Recruiters are just casting a wide net for a few seats. Some independent recruiters, given the payout involved, cast that net very wide (and generally contribute to low quality candidates stuffing up your hiring manager's inbox). Had you said you recently got a lot of offers, that would be a totally different story.
  - dredmorbius 10y ago
    Frequency matters far less than quality. Poor-quality VOIP line out of Noida: bottom-feeder. Local call, especially SF, PA, SJ, or similar, far better. Independents over firms, in my experience.
  - city41 10y ago
    I moved to San Jose a year ago and in general I'm finding the recruitment contacts I receive are higher quality than I'm used to. Actual managers, tech leads and CTOs contacting me inviting me for a drink. I'm sure it's still quite shotgunny, but feels a step or two above the spam I'm used to.
- sotojuan 10y ago
  > But from what I hear from my friends, new college graduates, with no experience are having a tougher time getting jobs than how it used to be 2 years ago. Not sure how it was two years ago, but nowadays between college grads, bootcamp grads, and self-taught there's a lot of people applying for "entry level" jobs and I am guessing it's harder for companies to pick out of all of them.
lethain 10y ago
As a hiring manager in SF, my anecdotal experience is that most large companies are still hiring at the same pace they were a year ago, but that capital and subsequently hiring has dried up for smaller companies. For experienced developers/managers, things seem to be business as usual, but in particular the "top tier" companies generally are more focused on avoiding false positives than in reducing false negatives, so I see us as entering a slightly unpleasant period for non-traditional and entry-level candidates.
- 20years 10y ago
  Thanks! I can't imagine that being good for a lot of the bootcamp grads.
- dclowd9901 10y ago
  As someone with a lot of great experience and no CS degree, I'm definitely seeing a lot more gunshyness in my interviews.
- pelhage 10y ago
  As a "non-traditional" (self-taught) and "entry-level" candidate who who just moved to SF a week ago (crashing on my bro's couch), I've been nervous as hell about my prospects. If anyone has any advice other than "go back home", it'd be much appreciated.
  - eru 10y ago
    Befriend some Googlers, do lots of mock interviews with them, then go for Google. (Some for Facebook etc.) They still got oodles of cash.
    - johnward 10y ago
      Doesn't Google still but a lot of weight on your degree? Sounds like a waste of time to me.
      - eru 10y ago
MrKristopher 10y ago
Everything looks normal to me. My employer is hiring (and it's not easy to find candidates either). I just got contacted by a recruiter yesterday (from Uber). Facebook and Google recruiters contact me every few months.
- vonmoltke 10y ago
  I'm in Dallas, and I haven't been pinged by a Bay Area firm in a long time. Amazon keeps hitting me up every month or so (despite me not wanting to go anywhere near that shitshow anymore), and Microsoft occasionally pings me (only to then ignore me). I get the impression that Bay Area recruiting has been getting much more insular over the past couple years.
rconti 10y ago
No change. It's far too early to expect much of an impact. I think the knock-on effects take awhile to show up, even if things didn't get any worse. At this point it's a drop in the bucket.
acchow 10y ago
Cold emails seemed to slow down in December and January, but everything seems normal to me now.
- w1ntermute 10y ago
  That's just a seasonal effect.
ots 10y ago
It's harder to get an IT job in the Boston area compared to 2-3 years ago. I've been in the job market for several months. With my skill set it was a breeze to find a job just few years ago.
jacobwcarlson 10y ago
I live in SF and was a little surprised how many SF-based candidates responded to a front-end engineering position I posted on Stack Overflow (the position is remote and my location wasn't part of the post). But I certainly don't know anyone local who is out of work.
geggam 10y ago
If you are networked you generally don't get jobs via recruiters. That said the email / linkedin spam hasnt slowed at all.
- pmiller2 10y ago
  How do you get jobs if you're not networked? I'm getting recruiter emails, but not nearly the volume I'm seeing from people here.
eva1984 10y ago
Get harassment from Google's recruiter. And from small companies here and there, now and then. So far it feels a not too much of a difference. But let's be realistic. Over hiring exists, and esp in large companies here in Bay Area. That corporate demand to devour whatever engineers in their sight, is draining. Various companies I know, (small/medium/big companies, from their employees), are running into growth issue. They hit the ceiling. But their workforce is built to handle exponential growth, which is no longer the case. Unless this industry could find new source of excitement, it will stay this way, which means higher entering bar and preference to the experienced.
skylark 10y ago
The contraction is definitely overstated. If you can nail the technical interview, doors will still open for you left right and center. I've had coworkers who have been laid off and were snapped up within a week or two. There's still a huge need for software developers who have a few years of experience under their belts.
arjie 10y ago
Three of my friends have switched jobs to higher paying positions in the last three months and my employer is hiring. My social circle is doing all right. SF, Santa Clara, SJ. There may be trouble but lucky so far.
ryandrake 10y ago
Looks like I've got to be the contrarian, but I have not found the tech job market to be particularly hot within the past few years at all. Compared to the late 1990's when they were almost literally giving jobs away at the airport when new grads landed, things aren't even close to that in recent memory. So, I'd say pretty slow last year and pretty slow this year.

by 20years 10y ago

ISV_Damocles 10y ago

I haven't really seen a letup in recruiters emailing me. Not one of the ones who was laid off, though.

stale2002 10y ago

I'm a couple years into the industry, and I'm still getting recruitment emails every day. But from what I hear from my friends, new college graduates, with no experience are having a tougher time getting jobs than how it used to be 2 years ago.

mevile 10y ago
It's a mistake to equate recruitment emails with ability to get a job. There are many reasons for recruiters to send you emails that have very little to do with your likelihood of being hired. Talented engineers will always be difficult to find, though the challenge may change from trying to find one that's not employed to finding the best among those that need a job. Recruiters are just casting a wide net for a few seats. Some independent recruiters, given the payout involved, cast that net very wide (and generally contribute to low quality candidates stuffing up your hiring manager's inbox). Had you said you recently got a lot of offers, that would be a totally different story.
- dredmorbius 10y ago
  Frequency matters far less than quality. Poor-quality VOIP line out of Noida: bottom-feeder. Local call, especially SF, PA, SJ, or similar, far better. Independents over firms, in my experience.
- city41 10y ago
  I moved to San Jose a year ago and in general I'm finding the recruitment contacts I receive are higher quality than I'm used to. Actual managers, tech leads and CTOs contacting me inviting me for a drink. I'm sure it's still quite shotgunny, but feels a step or two above the spam I'm used to.
sotojuan 10y ago
> But from what I hear from my friends, new college graduates, with no experience are having a tougher time getting jobs than how it used to be 2 years ago. Not sure how it was two years ago, but nowadays between college grads, bootcamp grads, and self-taught there's a lot of people applying for "entry level" jobs and I am guessing it's harder for companies to pick out of all of them.

lethain 10y ago

As a hiring manager in SF, my anecdotal experience is that most large companies are still hiring at the same pace they were a year ago, but that capital and subsequently hiring has dried up for smaller companies. For experienced developers/managers, things seem to be business as usual, but in particular the "top tier" companies generally are more focused on avoiding false positives than in reducing false negatives, so I see us as entering a slightly unpleasant period for non-traditional and entry-level candidates.

20years 10y ago
Thanks! I can't imagine that being good for a lot of the bootcamp grads.
dclowd9901 10y ago
As someone with a lot of great experience and no CS degree, I'm definitely seeing a lot more gunshyness in my interviews.
pelhage 10y ago
As a "non-traditional" (self-taught) and "entry-level" candidate who who just moved to SF a week ago (crashing on my bro's couch), I've been nervous as hell about my prospects. If anyone has any advice other than "go back home", it'd be much appreciated.
- eru 10y ago
  Befriend some Googlers, do lots of mock interviews with them, then go for Google. (Some for Facebook etc.) They still got oodles of cash.
  - johnward 10y ago
    Doesn't Google still but a lot of weight on your degree? Sounds like a waste of time to me.
    - eru 10y ago

MrKristopher 10y ago

Everything looks normal to me. My employer is hiring (and it's not easy to find candidates either). I just got contacted by a recruiter yesterday (from Uber). Facebook and Google recruiters contact me every few months.

vonmoltke 10y ago
I'm in Dallas, and I haven't been pinged by a Bay Area firm in a long time. Amazon keeps hitting me up every month or so (despite me not wanting to go anywhere near that shitshow anymore), and Microsoft occasionally pings me (only to then ignore me). I get the impression that Bay Area recruiting has been getting much more insular over the past couple years.

rconti 10y ago

No change. It's far too early to expect much of an impact. I think the knock-on effects take awhile to show up, even if things didn't get any worse. At this point it's a drop in the bucket.

acchow 10y ago

Cold emails seemed to slow down in December and January, but everything seems normal to me now.

w1ntermute 10y ago
That's just a seasonal effect.

ots 10y ago

It's harder to get an IT job in the Boston area compared to 2-3 years ago. I've been in the job market for several months. With my skill set it was a breeze to find a job just few years ago.

jacobwcarlson 10y ago

I live in SF and was a little surprised how many SF-based candidates responded to a front-end engineering position I posted on Stack Overflow (the position is remote and my location wasn't part of the post). But I certainly don't know anyone local who is out of work.

geggam 10y ago

If you are networked you generally don't get jobs via recruiters. That said the email / linkedin spam hasnt slowed at all.

pmiller2 10y ago
How do you get jobs if you're not networked? I'm getting recruiter emails, but not nearly the volume I'm seeing from people here.

eva1984 10y ago

Get harassment from Google's recruiter. And from small companies here and there, now and then. So far it feels a not too much of a difference. But let's be realistic. Over hiring exists, and esp in large companies here in Bay Area. That corporate demand to devour whatever engineers in their sight, is draining. Various companies I know, (small/medium/big companies, from their employees), are running into growth issue. They hit the ceiling. But their workforce is built to handle exponential growth, which is no longer the case. Unless this industry could find new source of excitement, it will stay this way, which means higher entering bar and preference to the experienced.

skylark 10y ago

The contraction is definitely overstated. If you can nail the technical interview, doors will still open for you left right and center. I've had coworkers who have been laid off and were snapped up within a week or two. There's still a huge need for software developers who have a few years of experience under their belts.

arjie 10y ago

Three of my friends have switched jobs to higher paying positions in the last three months and my employer is hiring. My social circle is doing all right. SF, Santa Clara, SJ. There may be trouble but lucky so far.

ryandrake 10y ago

Looks like I've got to be the contrarian, but I have not found the tech job market to be particularly hot within the past few years at all. Compared to the late 1990's when they were almost literally giving jobs away at the airport when new grads landed, things aren't even close to that in recent memory. So, I'd say pretty slow last year and pretty slow this year.