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Swizecyesterday at 10:10 PM13 repliesview on HN

> 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 :)


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tomberttoday at 12:15 AM

I'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.

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mwigdahlyesterday at 10:33 PM

You'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.

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davidwyesterday at 10:29 PM

Is this hiring people to dig ditches for data center infrastructure or something? Because it doesn't sound like software.

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WatchDogyesterday at 11:06 PM

Pre-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.

garbawarbyesterday at 11:18 PM

To anyone who's been looking for SWE jobs lately, has this been your experience?

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littlexsparkeetoday at 12:23 AM

Zumper says 15.6% on 1b, 21.3% on 2b - how did you get to 60? https://www.zumper.com/rent-research/national-rent-report

noelsusmantoday at 4:54 AM

This is one of the most "AI tech bro bubble" comments I've ever seen. The broader job market is a bloodbath right now.

kermatttoday at 2:01 AM

> 24 hours is the longest you can leave a candidate waiting. You have been warned.

Need to tell more recruiters.

tayo42yesterday at 11:07 PM

> 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.

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tomwphillipstoday at 5:44 AM

Also seeing this in the UK right now.

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Grosvenoryesterday at 11:25 PM

Can you give me your recruiters number?

gsibbletoday at 3:43 AM

That has not been my experience.

operatingthetanyesterday at 10:24 PM

It seems like the tech job market is exactly the opposite of this right now? Could you be more specific?

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