Why in the world do these companies keep thinking that firing their most experienced and knowledgeable employees is the solution to fix the problems caused by their lousy and selfish bosses? Has this tactic ever actually returned anything but short-term gains for anybody? Seriously, the fact that there's no significant improvement after laying off workers should be enough to show how d-mb this whole thing is, right?
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Here is what happened:
- Money became very cheap to borrow.
- Firms borrowed or raised lots of cash.
- Firms spent some of the cash on pie in the sky showcase projects, and went on a hiring spree. The rest was squandered.
- Lots of showcase projects flopped and lost money.
- Money is now hard to raise.
- Flop projects get cancelled, nothing for recent hires to do, plus they cost money. Bye bye.
How much money did Fakebook squander on their Metaverse? 16 billion, IIRC.
@1rek+1lRiIvPv
Right, go get BA in English Literature and tell me how's you job prospects then.
STEM is still the best choice for a degree and with all manufacturing coming back from Asia it's going to bo-m in not so distant future.
"high schools and universities are now geared to pumping out as many STEM workers as possible"
Exactly. The market is being flooded by lozers who have been axed or are newly graduated - most of them are now skrewed for good. Time to consider different careers/retraining because those jobs are not coming back. AI is the final nail in the tech workers' coffins. No more job prospects.
"Tech is just modern-day manufacturing. "
This. Tech workers have become an anchor on shareholder value. Teeh companies can't shed employee costs fast enough, but don't worry. Cuts are going to accelerate with increased adoption of AI. Coming soon to enployers near you!
You nailed it. Once, 30-35 years ago, we were celebrated, highly respected and extremely well paid. Now we are considered necessary evils.
And yet high schools and universities are now geared to pumping out as many STEM workers as possible. The job market in tech can only go one way now, from bad to worse.
@E5AcJnkPRcGWy24!
You nailed it. Once, 30-35 years ago, we were celebrated, highly respected and extremely well paid. Now we are considered necessary evils. I am grateful I got in at the beginning and got out before the end. I am retired but am helping my wife navigate the paperwork in starting her own LLC. I love the work and I love accomplishing things, but...At this point, I'd never go back.
Hope this helps somebody.
For those of you that don't have a very long history in IT, you need to understand that what 'we' did to people in other fields beginning in the 1990's is now being done to us. Jobs and people will be sacrificed no matter what you believe. That's human nature and there's no escaping it.
Same thing is going to happen with AI except it'll be a much quicker turnabout.
Study Philosophy, Economics and History. Despite what your college Profs tell/told you about concentrating on Tech or whatever your specialized field of study is/was, having a decent Liberal Arts education during your time in school or after you graduate will pay off and help you navigate through life's minefields. A person was once considered well educated if they had studied those topics before moving into a technical or engineering field. People once knew the importance of combining different areas of human knowledge. I'm not so sure that's the case nowadays.
Voltaire said “History never repeats itself. Man always does.” . This is more true than you know - well, yet. People are much harder to understand and predict than technology. Spend some time reading what others and other cultures have learned hundreds or thousands of years ago. It's one of the best ways to secure your present and future - at least you'll understand why things are happening to you and the world.
BTW, I am 60 and I worked for Oracle during the dot.com era (I am a senior SME in the Cloud world now for a very large organization). It was both a great and painful experience. My management never once failed to make it known what was the most important thing we all had to focus on and that was being 100++% billable and selling the products like crazy. If you could do those things you were paid very well. If not, then you were not a fit for the company and needed to move on or they would eventually help you out the door. And yes, there were exceptions with some people being allowed to do nothing because of politics. That's everywhere so don't look for justice and fair play in the working world today. You won't find it. So, you either accept where you're at at what the corporate culture is or you learn and earn best you can and then leave.
I wish you all the best and good luck.
Tech is just modern-day manufacturing.
"Leadership" are not going to fire themselves. Instead, they offshore/outsource, and get rid of their most experienced/skilled workers (because yes they cost more). By the time customers figure out that the product has turned to po*p, "leadership" has a nice nest egg to fall back on.
I don't get all these layoffs in tech
Why in the world do these companies keep thinking that firing their most experienced and knowledgeable employees is the solution to fix the problems caused by their lousy and selfish bosses?
You must be new here.
Tech workers are like lightbulbs - completely commoditized. When they burn out you go buy new ones. When you find brighter bulbs that consume less energy you get rid of the old ones and replace them. Simple economics given that the workers are a dime-a-dozen.