10 ms·
> Nice severance; but in this job market, holy shit. I just talked to a bunch of recruiters (we're hiring) and their main piece of advice was: The market is cr
by Swizec 8mo ago
> Nice severance; but in this job market, holy shit.
I just talked to a bunch of recruiters (we're hiring) and their main piece of advice was: The market is crazy. Move fast. We're seeing people getting jobs within days of starting to look, bailing on offers after signing because they got a better offer somewhere else, etc. 24 hours is the longest you can leave a candidate waiting. You have been warned
edit: I am in SFBA. Your reality may be different. People have spilled some 2 trillion dollars onto the area in the past 2 years. A lot of that is going to software engineers as everyone tries to shove AI down consumers' throats. Rents are up 60% in 12 months, which is not the sign of a cold employment market :)
- operatingthetan 8mo agoIt seems like the tech job market is exactly the opposite of this right now? Could you be more specific?
- ej88 8mo agotrimodal swe compensation (elite, big tech, everyone else) extends to the job markets too
- operatingthetan 8mo agoThey generalized "the market." I know a lot of out of work SWEs right now.
- ej88 8mo agois there any data about the overall job market on whether it's been good or bad? genuinely curious the most recent data point shows a rebound https://www.citadelsecurities.com/news-and-insights/2026-global-intelligence-crisis/ https://www.citadelsecurities.com/news-and-insights/2026-glo... and fwiw i dont know any swes struggling to find work personally swe is so broad and in bubbles its hard to get an objective analysis
- yesb 8mo agoTheir graph shows a rebound to early-mid 2024 levels which is promising but still a relatively bad job market
- ej88 8mo agoi guess it depends on what you define as bad and what that threshold is https://trueup.io/job-trend https://trueup.io/job-trend this tracker shows continuous improvement since 2023
- yesb 8mo agoSure, I assumed status quo everyone is talking about is basically the several years before that graph. I still think it's relatively bad compared to that despite the modest improvement. What's not shown in a graph of job postings is the demand side. With all the layoffs, out of work college grads, people staying put in jobs they are unhappy with, etc., I'd wager that demand per job is still at a historically high level compared to what we have been accustomed to
- Swizec 8mo agoSoftware development jobs are up 10%. Jobs in general are down 6% https://x.com/perborgen/status/2025890393166917857 https://x.com/perborgen/status/2025890393166917857
- jibe 8mo agoJob openings are down, but total jobs are up. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PAYEMS https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PAYEMS
- yesb 8mo agoYou'd think "past year" would include a full 12 months. This person has chosen a ~10 month period to hide the large drop off in early 2025 as you can see here: https://www.citadelsecurities.com/news-and-insights/2026-global-intelligence-crisis/ https://www.citadelsecurities.com/news-and-insights/2026-glo...
- davidw 8mo agoIs this hiring people to dig ditches for data center infrastructure or something? Because it doesn't sound like software.
- Swizec 8mo agoJust the current reality in SFBA. People have spilled some 2 trillion dollars onto the area in the past 2 years. A lot of that is going to software engineers as everyone tries to shove AI down consumers' throats.
- VBprogrammer 8mo agoNot being obtuse, I even googled it, but I have no idea what SFBA is in this context. I'm assuming it's not to do with windsurfing in the San Francisco Bay Area or some kind of insulation. Could you elaborate?
- jahlove 8mo agoyou're so close!
- nick32661123 8mo agoSo, onsite work in an area with no available housing?
- davidw 8mo agoProbably a bunch of performative 9-9-6 BS too.
- ianbutler 8mo agoThey're just saying the job market is hot in the location of the S (San) F (Francisco) B (Bay) A (Area) it's not cryptic, I'll assume you had a brain fart here it happens. Unless I'm getting whooshed now lol, but yeah the market here is just super hot because all the AI money sloshing around.
- mwigdahl 8mo agoYou're hiring, so of course that's the message you're getting from recruiters. "Market is hot", so take their candidates quick before someone else snaps them up. Don't believe this line without confirmation.
- operatingthetan 8mo agoYeah that would make me consider finding a different recruiter. Real estate agent mentality means their interests are not aligned properly.
- thepasswordis 8mo agoNo, that's just the reality of the market right now. Software engineers are an extremely hot field, likely because everybody is trying to add AI to their products. https://www.citadelsecurities.com/news-and-insights/2026-global-intelligence-crisis/ https://www.citadelsecurities.com/news-and-insights/2026-glo...
- iAMkenough 8mo agoEasier to hire consultants to add AI to do your software engineering for you than temporarily hire humans with needs and benefit costs to add AI to do your software engineering for you.
- loktarogar 8mo agoI'm an software engineer with 17 years experience and I can't even get an interview at most places I put my resume in to.
- davidw 8mo agoI'm being very picky with what I look at, which doesn't help, but yeah, it doesn't seem great. Maybe they're all in person gigs? Or is there some ageism? (There has always been some ageism in software)
- 8mo ago
- WatchDog 8mo agoPre-covid, and during the early covid hiring spree, I used to get messages from eager recruiters every week, I get maybe one a month these days, and they are much more tepid.
- tayo42 8mo ago> I am in SFBA. Your reality may be different. With my current job search I've got the sense that sf is once again the place to be. Everything else kind of sucks, lots went back on remote work.
- garbawarb 8mo agoTo anyone who's been looking for SWE jobs lately, has this been your experience?
- yogorenapan 8mo agoWildy varies. I'm a new grad and got my first offer after 8 applications and got another offer last week unprompted. Meanwhile my friend graduating from the same university has done 300 applications and a couple dozen interviews with no offer.
- wavemode 8mo agoWhat differentiates your resume from your friend's?
- inanutshellus 8mo agoI'm curious too but the phrase "random is clumpy" comes to mind.
- SoftTalker 8mo agoLikely it's something about the two individuals. GP probably interviews better, is more confident, more attractive, something like that.
- shaftway 8mo agoI've actually had really positive responses. I'm fairly senior (~20 years of experience). I was laid off by Meta in 2022, started at Block 3 months later. Laid off by Block in 2024, started at a smaller company 1 month later. Decided to leave that company in early 2025, contacted one company from a HN Who's Hiring post and took that job. That ended up being a poor fit, and I went back to a FAANG around July of 2025. In the last three transitions I applied to a grand total of 5 companies. Also, looking at the recruiter emails I've been getting, they've been ramping up over the last few months, and I'm back up to one or two cold emails per week. But again, I'm fairly senior, and I have deep domain knowledge in a few key areas. I understand the market is brutal if you're early career or your knowledge isn't "T" shaped.
- Grosvenor 8mo agoCan you give me your recruiters number?
- tombert 8mo agoI'm in NYC which I think has similar demographics to SF in this regard; I found my job in August of last year, after about five months of searching, and I found it because a friend of mine referred me. It's a good job, and I like it, I'm grateful for that friend. Regardless, it's not like that was the only job I applied to. I had a policy of applying to at least ten jobs a day, so I applied to about ~1500 jobs, and literally all of them rejected me except for the one I have right now. I had about twenty other interviews (edit: 15, checked my calendar from last year), a few that got to late stages, and they didn't pan out [1]. I psychotically save money so I wasn't worried in any kind of existential sense, I could survive for years if I needed, but man I would have killed to be in a situation where I even had the opportunity to bail on an offer. This has been the worst economy for software engineers I've seen in my ~15 year career. I am slightly optimistic that it will improve eventually but I suspect "eventually" might mean several more years. [1] And one at a one of the world's largest bank (that my lawyer/mom has advised me not to name publicly) where my interviewers were potentially the most incompetent people I have ever talked to and who didn't seem to know what an atomic was in Java, and "corrected" my counter code with a mutex. And I put "corrected" in quotes, because what they corrected it to would deadlock. Morons.
- vedaba 8mo agoBlink once if the bank rhymed with face
- garbawarb 8mo agoI'm a senior in NYC, considering changing jobs but haven't pulled the trigger. I've got a good amount of reachouts from finance recruiters and small-to-medium sized startups but haven't heard anything from the established players (admittedly I haven't been looking).
- littlexsparkee 8mo agoZumper says 15.6% on 1b, 21.3% on 2b - how did you get to 60? https://www.zumper.com/rent-research/national-rent-report https://www.zumper.com/rent-research/national-rent-report
- kermatt 8mo ago> 24 hours is the longest you can leave a candidate waiting. You have been warned. Need to tell more recruiters.
- gsibble 8mo agoThat has not been my experience.
- noelsusman 8mo agoThis is one of the most "AI tech bro bubble" comments I've ever seen. The broader job market is a bloodbath right now.
- tomwphillips 8mo agoAlso seeing this in the UK right now.
- lewispollard 8mo agoYeah, mid-late last year was one of the worst markets I've seen in my career, but the last couple of months things have really seemed to pick up speed.
- thayne 8mo agoI'm not actively looking, but what I've noticed from recruiters contacting me (I'm not in SFBA) is: - I'm contacted less often - Offered Salaries are lower, despite inflation - They basically all required being in office, and relocating at my expense - Most of them are from AI startups that have a decent chance of not lasting more than a few years.
- SoftTalker 8mo ago> We're seeing people getting jobs within days of starting to look Really? So no take-home projects? No leetcode? No six rounds of interviews? Just show up and express interest, you're hired!