Robert Svilpa on LinkedIn: Pulled from my comment on a post regarding coding questions in developer… (2024)

This morning in Bloomberg Technology newsletter:the numbers are large: more than 130,000 employees have been laid off across 400-pluscompanies so far this year, perLayoffs.fyi. If you want to look at it positively, the number is down 40% from the prior year —2023 was the worst for cuts in the past decade, according to the layoff tracker —but with much of 2024 still to come, it’s likely to be the second worst in recent memory.“The economic environment is still tight,”Layoffs.fyi creator Roger Leetold meonBloomberg Technologythis month. “Companies are finding that the only way to increase investment in AI is to cut cost elsewhere and hence all the layoffs that we've been seeing.”This thread runs through some of the highest-profile announcements this year. For example, Dell Technologies Inc. cut sales roles this monthtoreallocate resourcestowarda new team that's developingAI products and services. In July, Intuit Inc. said it’scutting 1,800 staffto help it invest in building AI into its tax prep software.What does this mean for us?Time to skill up. Time to upskill your interview performance. Time to add more skills to your toolbelt.Make yourself more valuable to employers.Or if you have resources, come up with your own idea, kick it off and be independent.The way the market is these days, even medium term contracts are difficult to come by.This is a far different market than what I've experienced in the past, with AI your competition until companies realize they can't replace humans with this or the next few generations of AI just yet.It will improve, but it will take a few rate cuts from the Fed here in the USA before capital starts flowing again, and servicing those interest payments gets reduced.

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Once upon a time I wrote very succinctly just like this.Being a simple foot soldier in a large army like Microsoft some people appreciated the brevity and immediacy of my emails. Just like many other software developers I have tendencies to speak directly with fewer social graces because I have an issue that needs to be addressed and little time to address it.After leaving Microsoft and changing lanes to become a Program Manager/Scrum Master, I started working for a company where this communication style was definitely not appreciated. One such individual leader took great offense to one of my responses that drove straight to the point and provided some tough choices he needed to make.If I had received an email like the one I sent I would understand that there was some urgency to the choice and wouldn't have taken it poorly.But it wasn't me, and the person who received it found it to be highly disrespectful and confronted me and my manager (both VPs) demanding an apology from me.I apologized - I simply said that I have become more accustomed to a bias for action that I learned from prior employers. And I would endeavor to remedy this going forward. And then I asked him directly in front of my manager to discuss the issue and the proposed solutions.Even though we did make the correct decision within ten minutes of discussion, my manager was livid. It was a highly charged political environment, and my manager was an incompetent asshole only out for himself and everyone knew it.I learned how I need to assess the environment and write the email in the fashion that the culture dictates. Know your audience.Steve Jobs could write this email because he was Steve Jobs, and he could have sunk Bruce Chizen by making the Apple ecosystem more hostile to Adobe products.Temper your communication for the culture and audience who will be reading it.

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Brian is giving an excellent wife ranging summary of what's going on today in the stock market, the economy and the job market, including advice involving changing your job search strategies and "going beyond the ordinary". A good video that gives excellent advice across the board.

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David Lynch's quote is an excellent representation of what I've experienced - and everything I learned has come in as useful in my life.

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I took a post from earlier (that I wrote in my car while being pummelled by the outer bands of TS now Hurricane Debby) and edited/expanded it. Its totally built on top of the comments and complaints of many of my clients and also my own observations and experiences as a job seeker.

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It is getting a lot more challenging to not only get interviews but land jobs. I've heard from both sides of the interview desk (in some cases individuals who are simultaneously on both sides of the equation) - candidates frustrated that the bar of expectations has been raised to unrealistic levels, and hiring managers who have reasonable bars of expectations (IMHO) but disappointed with the quality of candidates they talk with.To me, that speaks to a big disconnect in both how resumes are communicating inaccurate information about the candidates, and the criteria being used to filter candidates by recruiters are not the right ones.I personally have also noted that companies are explicitly filtering out the older candidates' resumes - how else can you explain why people with serious credentials and amazing accomplishments are sitting in the market for many months at a time? Employers are losing out on some of the best talents just due to ageist prejudice.It also doesn't help having employers essentially turn the tables and require immediate relocation for someone to get the offer. Hybrid is just another name for On Site when that is the requirement.I myself would be more than willing to negotiate a compromise like a six month contract that has an option to convert to FTE where I would be able to do On Site one week each month or every three weeks - fly in on a Sunday afternoon and fly out Friday night. If this works out for both parties then you make it more permanent with the equity investment from both sides and no illusions of job security. The 1 on site/2 remote is an efficient use of time and resources for both sides as well allowing for enough face time to settle issues needing this while optimizing employees time and addressing family needs.But it seems that this kind of logic is beyond any reason. Until then, employers will continue to insinuate that people don't want to work anymore (which is such a crock of sh*t that they themselves recognize it) and people will continue to be ghosted or filtered out of the running.

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I've been working on my new app/company SilentCar as a Principal Engineer for a while now, but I wanted to share this update with everyone.

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