

Ask HN: What was it like during the dot-com bubble? - iamtimnuwin


======
davismwfl
In what way? There are a ton of different ways to answer this question. To
raise money? Get a job?

Overall, the pendulum swung too far one direction (in excess) and then as it
always does, swung too far back causing a depressed market in a lot of ways.

Talented developers still had jobs and could find work, albeit changing jobs
took longer and pay/benefits were obviously affected, relocation became tough
to get except in specific cases. But all the outsiders trying to make a quick
buck exited or were tossed out and most stayed away for quite a long time,
which to me has been a good thing.

Raising money became quite difficult but was still possible.

There was a lot of hype around things that weren't really issues, and a lot of
glossing over things that were issues.

Enterprise work was the refuge for a lot of developers as it provided
stability, solid pay and benefits.

If you are trying to compare it to now, IMO there are a lot of things that are
similar and a lot that are very different, so I think its hard to predict what
will happen. If you look at the US economy and history you will see a lot of
boom/bust cycles, so it wouldn't shock me if we had a bust of some sort within
the next 4-5 years.

------
davidw
SF was awash with money. I remember going out to some club that wasn't even
particularly fancy, and there were limos pulling up to it.

It was weird and distorted, and I got the heck out of there and haven't looked
back since.

