I recently lost my job at Zoom and now I'm looking for another software engineering position... but honestly one of the biggest things on my mind isn't even salary or benefits anymore. It's "stability" (if there is a such thing nowadays)........ I just want to work somewhere where I don't have to constantly worry about whether my job is going to disappear in the next round of layoffs. I know the tech industry has always had its ups and downs... but at what point did it become normal to assume that every company is eventually going to lay people off??? You join a company, get comfortable with your team, learn the systems, build relationships... and then suddenly you're back looking for another job. It's exhausting just thinking about having to start the whole process over again.
What makes this soooo frustrating is that I actually enjoy software engineering. I don't mind working hard, learning new things or dealing with challenging projects... I just don't want to spend the next several years constantly wondering whether I'll still have a job six months from now.
And now that I'm looking again I'm wondering how you're even supposed to evaluate job security during interviews. Every company is going to tell you they're growing, that business is doing well and that they're investing in engineering... but what does any of that actually mean anymore???? A company can be hiring today and cutting employees tomorrow.
Someone suggested that I should just start my own business if I want stability... seriously???? Because startups are famously stable and successful, right??? I mean I understand the argument that owning your own business gives you more control, but starting a company isn't exactly my idea of reducing financial uncertainty.
At this point I'm genuinely curious whether there are software engineers out there who actually feel GOOD about their employer's stability. Not just people who survived the latest layoffs... but people who work at companies with a track record of treating employees well and not constantly reorganizing or eliminating positions.
I'm not necessarily looking for the highest paying job anymore... I'd rather find somewhere I can settle in, do good work and not have layoffs hanging over my head every few months. Maybe that's unrealistic in tech nowadays... I really hope it isn't.
Are there any SDEs here who are actually proud of their company's stability?