
Ask HN: Has the market for software engineers diminished at all? - baron816
There was a big rush of layoffs a few months ago, but has that significantly impacted the industry? Was there enough demand for experienced engineers that those who were laid off were able to quickly find a place?<p>I’m still getting contacted by recruiters, and yesterday’s “Who is hiring” had plenty of postings.<p>What’s the experience like been for people who are trying to find a job? Do offers seem lower?<p>What about from those who are still trying to hire? Do candidates seem to be of higher quality?
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throwawayc2020
My gig ended due to covid, and I've spent the past few months interviewing for
IC and leadership positions (12+ years experience).

Personally I've been getting plenty of meetings and interviews, but out of 10
virtual on-site interviews I've yet to receive an offer. I'm based in the US,
and these were remote positions.

I interviewed with two companies for leadership positions which would have
required hiring developers. Both CEOs were adamant about hiring non-US
developers. One stated that because he was forced into a remote environment he
would rather hire 2 or 3 offshore workers than one US based engineer.

Interviewing is tough. I think I'll need to take a few months before I can
start accepting interviews again. The processes are all so long and the
results at times can seem so arbitrary.

While I do need a job, accepting an interview is effectively agreeing to
several phone meetings, a couple of automated hackerrank style coding tests,
6+ rounds of technical and non-technical interviews, all to receive a canned
rejection email.

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davidajackson
I'm not sure what kind of job you prefer but startups can sometimes speed the
interviewing process up. If you can easily get interviews with companies, you
can be frank that 6 or 5 hours of interviews for an onsite is too much.

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throwawayc2020
Thanks for the tip, I'll give that a shot.

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rl3
Thanks for asking this. As someone who's probably going to have to get a job
in this climate very soon, I was about to pose nearly the same question.

> _...and yesterday’s “Who is hiring” had plenty of postings._

At the time of writing (July 2020), the current thread is over day old with
578 comments. By contrast, the July 2019 thread had 912 comments.

I did happen across this comment, which is bleak:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23586183](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23586183)

Likewise upon hearing about senior engineers with 20+ years of experience
being out of jobs and grinding leetcode, it made my blood run cold.

First-hand accounts on either side of the process would be great, or even more
formal analysis.

Just how brutal is it out there? How high has the bar been raised? What's the
approximate chance of success applying for a typical position prior to COVID
and now?

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causehealth101
Thanks for sharing. I was curious and checked the trend too:

Comments: May 2018 (1,199), 2019 (1,018), 2020 (697)

Comments: June 2018 (911), 2019 (799), 2020 (671)

Comments: July 2018 (857), 2019 (912), 2020 (622)

The hiring environment is a mess.

For example, big tech (FANG etc) is vacuuming up folks everywhere from
startups to those hit hard like Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb.

The top career priority in times of uncertainty is stability. So you have not
just those laid off from the those companies, but those still employed and
nervous, who are eyeing and applying to big tech. Startups that survive and
grow now and after will have the advantage of less business competition, but
will see a drop in candidates who will need more time to re-adjust to risk.

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richardknop
There was a decline for sure, here in London I noticed hiring has almost
completely stopped for 2-3 months during the lockdown. Now it's starting to
pick up again from my observation but it might take long time before job
market is back to normal. By September it should be much better already imho.

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sdevonoes
I wouldn't use "Who is hiring" as a significant representation of "market
software for engineers". It's difficult to answer your question since every
single answer in this post is highly biased towards personal experience. In my
personal experience: no, the market for software engineers has not diminished
at all.

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samdwilson
Despite layoffs, I think the market for engineers is going to grow. Working
remote is just going to increase the number of people building tools to make
working remote better.

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wprapido
Hiring is definitely down. Been so since before the pandemics. Pandemics just
accelerated it. The upside of pandemics, remote is more acceptable. There's a
slight upswing since early June though.

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tonyedgecombe
The "who is hiring" threads have had a slight decline but it doesn't seem
much.

[https://imgur.com/a/omLukeG](https://imgur.com/a/omLukeG)

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kevsim
On the bright side, there's a marked increased in remote jobs.

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throw51319
In the US I would suspect trump's H1b freeze to push up the market value for
any engineer, especially the middle standard deviation skill-wise.

