6 ms·

Having been there in 2008 (but not 2001) I will say that 2008 did hit developers a little bit: a number of companies (including big ones like Google) had hiring

by zamfi 8y ago

Having been there in 2008 (but not 2001) I will say that 2008 did hit developers a little bit: a number of companies (including big ones like Google) had hiring freezes for about 6 months, and investment dried up starting in early 2008 and lasting until nearly the end of 2008. It looked scary for a little bit, even for developers. (Though of course nothing like the rest of the country.) Starting in late 2008 it was all rainbows and ponies again.

weeksie 8y ago
Fair! Yeah, I had a kiosk software company that took it in the shorts, at least my attempts at making it work in the US. (Primary customers were real estate trusts like malls and airports and such.) I ended up selling my part and doing consulting dev work when I realized I was beating my head against a brick wall. But yeah, I was back in dev land from the end of 08-onward and despite all the blood sloshing around the canyons of Wall St. the job market for dev bros in NY was booming.
HeyLaughingBoy 8y ago
Yup. I remember working for my employer at a job fair during a hiring freeze. Big corporations are nucking futs.
- toomuchtodo 8y ago
  As long as the check clears...
AnsisMalins 8y ago
Ponies didn't start until late 2010.
throwaway5752 8y ago
Yeah, you weren't there in 2001 if you think a 6 month hiring freeze is a hit :)
- ptd 8y ago
  How long were the hiring freezes in 2001?
  - throwaway5752 8y ago
    It was more like they laid off 50-100% of the company.
  - ci5er 8y ago
    80%+ of the VC-backed tech companies died between March 2000 and Oct 2001 (fuckedcompany.com, anyone?), the remaining laid of 50% or so, hiring was dead until 2003, and while the the VCs had stopped hiding under their desks by then, they were still skitterish until 2005. Which is why I was shocked at how mild the pause was in 2008...
  - vitaflo 8y ago
    Hiring freeze? If only we were so lucky. Imagine half the tech companies around you straight up folding, and the other half laying off half their workforce. Now imagine you're part of this huge sea of newly shit canned developers and there are NO jobs available anywhere. That was pretty much 2001 for me. It was to the point where I honestly thought this whole internet fad had come to an end and I picked the wrong career path. A very large amount of people I know left the field altogether because they couldn't find work in tech.
  - ttul 8y ago
    Picture SOMA with 50% office vacancy. Literally landlords would give you an office for free just to keep people from vandalizing it. And this went on in 2001-2003. The recovery of tech took a really really long time. I miss the tech crash. So many great people were floating around with nothing to do. It was a good time to be starting something.
    - asciimo 8y ago
      This isn't the SOMA I remember back in the day. Even if that estimate is accurate, "SOMA" was barely a thing. Now SOMA is literally south of market, and a 50% vacancy would be quite different.
sk5t 8y ago
Hmm, the blood was really in the streets around March 2009--e.g. folks thought BAC and C might go to zip.

by zamfi 8y ago

weeksie 8y ago

Fair! Yeah, I had a kiosk software company that took it in the shorts, at least my attempts at making it work in the US. (Primary customers were real estate trusts like malls and airports and such.) I ended up selling my part and doing consulting dev work when I realized I was beating my head against a brick wall. But yeah, I was back in dev land from the end of 08-onward and despite all the blood sloshing around the canyons of Wall St. the job market for dev bros in NY was booming.

HeyLaughingBoy 8y ago

Yup. I remember working for my employer at a job fair during a hiring freeze. Big corporations are nucking futs.

toomuchtodo 8y ago
As long as the check clears...

AnsisMalins 8y ago

Ponies didn't start until late 2010.

throwaway5752 8y ago

Yeah, you weren't there in 2001 if you think a 6 month hiring freeze is a hit :)

ptd 8y ago
How long were the hiring freezes in 2001?
- throwaway5752 8y ago
  It was more like they laid off 50-100% of the company.
- ci5er 8y ago
  80%+ of the VC-backed tech companies died between March 2000 and Oct 2001 (fuckedcompany.com, anyone?), the remaining laid of 50% or so, hiring was dead until 2003, and while the the VCs had stopped hiding under their desks by then, they were still skitterish until 2005. Which is why I was shocked at how mild the pause was in 2008...
- vitaflo 8y ago
  Hiring freeze? If only we were so lucky. Imagine half the tech companies around you straight up folding, and the other half laying off half their workforce. Now imagine you're part of this huge sea of newly shit canned developers and there are NO jobs available anywhere. That was pretty much 2001 for me. It was to the point where I honestly thought this whole internet fad had come to an end and I picked the wrong career path. A very large amount of people I know left the field altogether because they couldn't find work in tech.
- ttul 8y ago
  Picture SOMA with 50% office vacancy. Literally landlords would give you an office for free just to keep people from vandalizing it. And this went on in 2001-2003. The recovery of tech took a really really long time. I miss the tech crash. So many great people were floating around with nothing to do. It was a good time to be starting something.
  - asciimo 8y ago
    This isn't the SOMA I remember back in the day. Even if that estimate is accurate, "SOMA" was barely a thing. Now SOMA is literally south of market, and a 50% vacancy would be quite different.

sk5t 8y ago

Hmm, the blood was really in the streets around March 2009--e.g. folks thought BAC and C might go to zip.