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How do you guys think this will affect the software job market?

AznHisoka 7y ago
I have friends whose startups are already freezing hiring, and cutting back on unnecessary expenses (as they should). Lowered demand for consumer goods and services naturally mean that these companies will be trimming the fat on SaaS products, and infrastructure (unless it's truly critical for work, ie Zoom) which in turn means less technical jobs.
- itake 7y ago
  Maybe? Enterprise SaaS deals are for year long commitments. Sure in 6 mo, they may choose to renew less tooling and having less employees means less seats, but I don't see a big shift here.
  - r00fus 7y ago
    You think that planning/sales/etc doesn't impact current operations?
    - itake 7y ago
      I think big companies are super slow to react, as they should be. There definitely will be adjustments but companies are not going to stop paying for software.
- Loughla 7y ago
  Living outside SV, but working for institutions that subscribe to several SaaS products, I can tell you it's going to hurt, and soon. The first things on the chopping block, as we consider where to trim expenses, are those "expensive", useful, but not critical software systems with terms ending soon. Except Zoom. That baby is keeping us rolling.
lm28469 7y ago
BS startups with BS products/services that are built on top of hype and investors money -> pretty bad Regular companies with healthy projects, revenues and employee count sized according to their current need and not according to y+5 revenues -> will do just fine.
dejv 7y ago
Some fat is going to get trimmed, passion project gets canceled and unprofitable companies are going to have tough times.
kcindric 7y ago
Well, I just started my first dev job two weeks ago after switching careers. I really hope to get a chance to work in this field and not get laid off ASAP.
bdcravens 7y ago
My experience, from the 2000-2002 downturn: One-trick ponies will suffer. ColdFusion was a popular language, easy to learn, and as a result, led to a lot of folks getting really high paying jobs during the dot com boom. When work dried up, they didn't have the flexibility to do other jobs, because ColdFusion is all they knew. In today's world, I think the front-end dev who just knows their favorite framework of choice will suffer. Not just the one-trick pony thing, but on a lot of apps these days, complex front-ends are a "nice to have". Tighter budgets and needs will force a refocusing of development priorities. Arguably much the same (in my opinion, to a much lesser degree) could be said about frameworks like Ruby on Rails, if that's all you know. Flexibility is key. However, in a downturn, software can be a powerful tool for streamlining. If you know at least one backend language and are devops-capable, you'll be better positioned. The jobs will be boring jobs, in boring companies, on boring infrastructure, but that's OK.

I have friends whose startups are already freezing hiring, and cutting back on unnecessary expenses (as they should). Lowered demand for consumer goods and services naturally mean that these companies will be trimming the fat on SaaS products, and infrastructure (unless it's truly critical for work, ie Zoom) which in turn means less technical jobs.

itake 7y ago
Maybe? Enterprise SaaS deals are for year long commitments. Sure in 6 mo, they may choose to renew less tooling and having less employees means less seats, but I don't see a big shift here.
- r00fus 7y ago
  You think that planning/sales/etc doesn't impact current operations?
  - itake 7y ago
    I think big companies are super slow to react, as they should be. There definitely will be adjustments but companies are not going to stop paying for software.
Loughla 7y ago
Living outside SV, but working for institutions that subscribe to several SaaS products, I can tell you it's going to hurt, and soon. The first things on the chopping block, as we consider where to trim expenses, are those "expensive", useful, but not critical software systems with terms ending soon. Except Zoom. That baby is keeping us rolling.

lm28469 7y ago

BS startups with BS products/services that are built on top of hype and investors money -> pretty bad Regular companies with healthy projects, revenues and employee count sized according to their current need and not according to y+5 revenues -> will do just fine.

dejv 7y ago

Some fat is going to get trimmed, passion project gets canceled and unprofitable companies are going to have tough times.

kcindric 7y ago

Well, I just started my first dev job two weeks ago after switching careers. I really hope to get a chance to work in this field and not get laid off ASAP.

bdcravens 7y ago

My experience, from the 2000-2002 downturn: One-trick ponies will suffer. ColdFusion was a popular language, easy to learn, and as a result, led to a lot of folks getting really high paying jobs during the dot com boom. When work dried up, they didn't have the flexibility to do other jobs, because ColdFusion is all they knew. In today's world, I think the front-end dev who just knows their favorite framework of choice will suffer. Not just the one-trick pony thing, but on a lot of apps these days, complex front-ends are a "nice to have". Tighter budgets and needs will force a refocusing of development priorities. Arguably much the same (in my opinion, to a much lesser degree) could be said about frameworks like Ruby on Rails, if that's all you know. Flexibility is key. However, in a downturn, software can be a powerful tool for streamlining. If you know at least one backend language and are devops-capable, you'll be better positioned. The jobs will be boring jobs, in boring companies, on boring infrastructure, but that's OK.