
Ask HN: Have you been laid off? - Peretus
I work remotely as a front-end developer at a VC-funded, series B startup.  Funding has dried up as investors with financial exposure to anything retail or entertainment-related are hemorrhaging cash.  The company leadership told us that starting immediately, all employees (including the fully-remote workers like myself) are on mandatory unpaid leave.<p>Job cuts in 2019 were already up a whopping 351% from the previous year[1].  Considering the COVID-19 outbreak, I&#x27;m concerned that many other tech workers like me might be updating their resumes and entering a stagnant job market.  Alternatively, organizations may view this as a great time to gain additional market share.  What do you think?<p>If you&#x27;re a tech worker, have you been laid off or do you expect to be laid off soon?
If you are a hiring manager, what is the current hiring status at your company?<p>[1] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.challengergray.com&#x2F;press&#x2F;press-releases&#x2F;2019-year-end-job-cuts-report-fewest-monthly-cuts-july-2018-yoy-10
======
Rebles
At the beginning of the year, I decided it was time to find a new job after 10
years with my employer. I spent February doing interview prep and conducting
interviews. Back then, the COVID-19 was mostly limited to China, markets and
governments weren't terribly concerned about COVID-19.

I accept a job offer, put in my two weeks notice, and my last day at was last
Friday. Hardly anyone was seriously concerned about COVID-19 when I gave
notice. A week later, business travel was suspended and WFH policies
implemented. My last day, schools were closing, and the economy tanked. This
week, we're sheltering in place.

I gave myself 3 weeks in between the old and the new job, you know for
relaxation and travel. Instead, I'm sequestered to my house for 3 weeks.

Everyday, the news got worse and worse and continues to get worse and worse.
Now, I'm in between jobs, and am a little worried my new employer will revoke
my job offer. To add insult to injury, one reason I didn't leave my previous
job was job security. But in February, there wasn't any sign of an economic
downturn. Everyone was enjoying the bull market.

~~~
ccajas
I have been laid off just before 2015 and I haven't found any stable work
since then. I have been under-employed for a long while before the outbreak,
and I don't even know what new change-ups in job hunting I should be doing
now.

For a long time, many people have said that my years of experience make me
valuable so that I should have gotten offers very quickly, but the reality
hasn't shown that. Heck, even the founder of the startup company has told me,
when I asked for his reference, that he was "very confused" that I haven't
found any work for so long. And that was only a year in.

He unfortunately can't give me work anymore as he's tied up with his business.
He did consider me for a follow-up freelance job before, but that was more due
to a technicality that they needed a US developer for a particular job.

After being evaluated on mock interviews, turns out I'm in the peculiar
situation where I am too underqualified for my years. But at least I have some
experience working remote that should make me more appealing to employers.

I just can't call it impostor syndrome anymore if I consistently fail at
getting full-time offers even when the economic climate was good.

~~~
inlined
“Under qualified for your years” is ageist bullshit. You’re either a capable
L3,4,5,etc. Any coupling of those achievement brackets to age ranges (which
cannot be completely detached from experience level) is discrimination.

~~~
101404
Pretty sure it means "years of work" and not age.

~~~
codersteve
That’s the plausible deniability part of it.

------
Miktor
This is probably a long shot - and I'm sure you'll see quite a few posts like
this over the coming weeks - but I'm going to swallow my pride and ask
nonetheless.

I've been a data entry clerk for the past twenty years, working for a major
bookmaker in Northern Ireland. With the coronavirus pandemic hitting recently,
many businesses have decided to lay off large numbers of staff. I've just
become one of the unfortunate victims of one of these layoffs today, with a
mortgage to pay, a wife and two young children to support.

I've also been programming, in my own time, over the past seven years or so,
in Python 3, Javascript and PHP mainly. Over that time I've developed a number
of tools that were used in my former place of employ, to scrape data from
websites and automate the process of data entry. I've also built some online
tools in Javascript and PHP for scraping/munging data. Most recently, until
the coronavirus hit and unemployment loomed, I was working on a Mario/NES
style level editor in HTML5 and a random tile generator for building
platformer levels, while I learned C++ and wrote a platforming engine to
develop a platform game for release on Steam.

I've placed a number of these tool in public repos on github. You can check
them out at:

[https://github.com/Zleet](https://github.com/Zleet)

I've also got a resume ready to go for anyone that's interested. What I'm
looking for is any remote programming job that fits my skillset and will
enable me to keep a roof over my family's head and food in the cupboard for
the next few months.

I apologise for posting something like this here. I've been reading hacker
news for years now. It's my favourite website. But, along with many other
people right now, I'm in a pretty bad place and I've got several little people
relying on me to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads. Be
assured that any job offer right now would be gratefully accepted.

Cheers,

Miktor

~~~
WFHRenaissance
Apply for jobs at defense contractors, they're always looking for people that
know C++. It will not be glamorous work, but I think it might be a good bet
for you. Raytheon Missile Systems is hiring in Tuscon Arizona, inquire about
remote work. Also, I recommend you learn SQL (just learn SQL Server or
Postgres).

~~~
_bohm
OP specified they live in Northern Ireland so it is unlikely they will be able
to get a job with an American defense contractor as a non-citizen who can't
obtain a security clearance.

~~~
prh8
This is correct.

I live in Tucson and am quite familiar with Raytheon (having been recruited
and know numerous employees as they are the biggest employer here). They are
not going to be hiring remote developers from Ireland. In all likelihood, they
will not be hiring any remote developers anywhere, unless those people will be
relocating to Tucson and being on premise once this calms down.

~~~
exikyut
Hmm. How are environments like this handling the WFH status quo?

My completely naive/distant presumption of sites like these is that they are
fundamentally incompatible with the security concessions inherent to remote
work.

~~~
prh8
What toomuchtodo said. Plus, some of those places fought it as long as they
could.

------
dang
All: a user emailed with the brilliant suggestion that HN do a "Who Is Hiring
Right Now?" thread. We'll do that soon; maybe tomorrow. This will specifically
be for jobs that are ready to hire, and able to onboard, quickly.

If any of you have suggestions for how to make this most helpful under current
conditions, please share them. I'll check this thread later tonight.

~~~
meritt
As the owner of a fully remote, revenue-funded, and profitable startup that
wants to hire, my concern is one that won't be particularly well received. I
don't want to hire people, _yet_ , because they're still thinking that
[https://levels.fyi](https://levels.fyi) is realistic. I'd rather wait a few
rough months, have the pool of talent grow rapidly and people will start
realizing that maybe paying $350k to a green React dev isn't very sustainable.

We're going headlong into a recession and I imagine an overwhelming number of
firms are going to take the same stance.

~~~
meheleventyone
It’s kinda scary people with the ability to react and reduce suffering whilst
also benefiting in kind are willing to exploit a global emergency and use that
suffering to justify coming out a little ahead.

~~~
dang
I see your point, but let's not attack each other like this here, especially
not right now with stress and fear running so high. Better to treat this as an
opportunity for an uptick in how well we treat each other.

" _Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone
says, not a weaker one that 's easier to criticize. Assume good faith._"

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

~~~
AchieveLife
How is the post an attack?

He claimed his emotion (fear) towards a behavior that has been demonstrated by
many in this chaotic environment.

I interpreted his post as an observation and experience rather than an attack.

~~~
aguyfromnb
> _How is the post an attack?_

Perhaps by asserting the OP is trying to "exploit" the situation by not
wanting to pay Google wage rates at their small business?

I'm not sure I understand why the business owner "deserves" to take the
financial hit for the sake of a new employee. The market will sort it out.

~~~
AchieveLife
He doesn't have to pay Google wage rates. He also doesn't have to wait it out
for a bigger candidate pool so he can 'negotiate' lower baselines.

Business owner is using a turtle strategy. Opportunistic yes but also seeing
people as numbers on a spreadsheet.

OP stated that he feels fear. Fear is a reasonable reaction when a Business
Owner closes doors for conversation to wait out catching google 'talent' at a
bargain.

Some people are in a situation where they need work now or very soon.

~~~
aguyfromnb
> _but also seeing people as numbers on a spreadsheet._

Looking at numbers in spreadsheets is how you stay in business.

> _Some people are in a situation where they need work now or very soon._

Then they should lower their rates until they find a market clearing salary.

I'm flabbergasted at the argument that a business should pay a potential
employee whatever they demand, because that person "needs work". It flies in
the face of all logic.

~~~
AchieveLife
> I'm flabbergasted at the argument that a business should pay a potential
> employee whatever they demand, because that person "needs work". It flies in
> the face of all logic.

That wasn't the argument.

------
porkloin
Just found yesterday out that I'm being laid off at the end of the month.

Sadly, I wholeheartedly believe that the owners are using the coronavirus as
an excuse to close their already-failing company. The company has been in
slow-motion dissolution for the better part of a year, and now they're blaming
the entire thing on the virus outbreak so that they have a narrative to tell
that covers up some of the mismanagement that makes the closure of their
company look bad. Now they have an effective smokescreen that shows that the
closure was "outside of their control".

I have no doubt that many other companies will take advantage of this
opportunity to close without the shame or stigma of having closed a failing
company. There is almost no downside to using this as a guilt-free chance to
rapidly shut down at a time where employees need stability more than ever.

All of that said, the company was conscientious enough to give us all two
weeks' notice, pay out our PTO plans (that might just be required by law,
though), and additionally pay out any pending bonuses to employees that had
been agreed upon. They certainly didn't have to do all of that (even if some
parts are just them following the law), and I appreciate them for taking those
particular steps to help all of us transition to new positions.

Luckily, I started looking for jobs nearly a month ago and had begun preparing
my resume and materials back in December, so I've already had a good number of
interviews and am waiting to hear back about two positions in particular.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed and doing a lot of email refreshing, but if I'm
being really honest it seems grim. I've already heard that many other
companies are implementing a hiring freeze with the virus outbreak, etc. I
can't help but shake the feeling that I should have started applying about a
month earlier.

~~~
whalesalad
> Sadly, I wholeheartedly believe that the owners are using the coronavirus as
> an excuse to close their already-failing company.

If you feel the company has been failing, then I doubt this is an excuse. It's
just the straw that is breaking the proverbial camel's back.

~~~
porkloin
Totally valid point. I think they were simply surviving by merit of the fact
that the market was good, and really any major speedbump would have caused the
company to fail. It's an excuse in the sense that they're not addressing that
the reason coronavirus has destroyed the business is because it was built on a
poor foundation.

~~~
johnmarcus
Why do you think they owe you that? You think they don't cry enough when they
go home to it? Of what purpose would this info help you or anyone?

~~~
porkloin
I don't feel like they owe it to me at all – I'm just being honest about what
I think is happening. I know that to some degree they probably even believe
that the virus was the cause of the closure. This is my opinion, of course,
but to me it seems clear that this is all about them having an opportunity to
close that leaves them with a narrative of how it happened that lets them
sleep better at night, which frankly I think is something they deserve.
They've worked hard - the company has succeeded at times, but in its present
form it wasn't ready to handle the relatively minor turmoil we've experienced
from the virus thus far, but that's not to diminish how hard the closure is on
them at all.

Sorry if I'm coming off as if I'm bitter or frustrated with the ownership. I'm
truly not intending that - I just generally have found the whole process
interesting, the way in which the narrative has been spun toward the
coronavirus causing the closure, etc. I legitimately feel for these people who
I have worked for for several years and think of as not just bosses, but
friends. I might be letting some of my own personal emotions bleed into my
writing since I'm frankly a little stressed about my own situation, so I
apologize if I'm giving the wrong impression here.

------
okareaman
Not to scare anyone, but myself and many of my highly capable friends were
laid off after the dotcom bubble burst in the early 2000's. It took many of us
1, 2 sometimes 3 years to get back to the same level of job we had before.
Prepare for a long haul. Get over your ego immediately and take whatever job
you can get now, while you continue to look for work in the software industry.
I drove a city bus (surprisingly to me, I loved it.)

~~~
misja111
Still, in 2000 the situation was quite different. IT companies had been hiring
like crazy based on the assumption that infinite Internet growth would require
infinite resources. And then, it turned out it was all a bubble and most of
the IT workforce was not needed.

Right now there is not much fundamentally wrong with the economy, there is
just a temporary setback because of the Corona lockdown. Things will go back
to normal after the epidemic is over, provided that it doesn't last too long
and except for some companies who were not doing too well beforehand already.

~~~
samsonradu
> Right now there is not much fundamentally wrong with the economy, there is
> just a temporary setback because of the Corona lockdown.

A very bold claim there. There are a lot of things 'wrong' with the economy,
starting with negative-yielding sovereign debt, corporate debt, repo markets,
politics interfering with Central bank decisions, PE levels and ending with
30% stock market gains in 2019.

------
sqs
Sourcegraph CEO here. We build universal code search for developers. Our team
is all-remote (all countries and timezones OK). We're hiring for engineering,
design, and product roles (+ others):

[https://github.com/sourcegraph/careers/blob/master/job-
descr...](https://github.com/sourcegraph/careers/blob/master/job-
descriptions/software-engineer-backend.md)

[https://github.com/sourcegraph/careers/blob/master/job-
descr...](https://github.com/sourcegraph/careers/blob/master/job-
descriptions/ux-designer.md)

and
[https://github.com/sourcegraph/careers#readme](https://github.com/sourcegraph/careers#readme)
for a full list of roles.

We are growing quickly and have not slowed down hiring pace (and don't plan to
do so based on the Covid-19 crisis). The limiting factor for us is just
ensuring we're adding engineers, PMs, designers, and managers in the right
ratios.

If you are interested in joining our team, we would love to hear from you.
Understanding the financial stability of the company you'll join is crucial,
and as CEO I always walk all late-stage candidates through our internal
metrics, burn, cash on hand, etc. We are doing very well and just announced a
$23M Series B 2 weeks ago ([https://medium.com/craft-ventures/why-we-invested-
in-sourceg...](https://medium.com/craft-ventures/why-we-invested-in-
sourcegraph-5ace28317e3d)).

~~~
RangerScience
Oh fantastic! I'll hit you up for the Customer Engineer. Love that kind of
gig.

~~~
RangerScience
Sent!

------
dathinab
My predictions:

DISCLAIMER: I'm not a expert wrt. any of this. Don't listen to me ;=). It's
all just speculation.

Companies which plan to downsize since a will will do it now, using COVID19 as
a excuse.

Companies who have shifted some "bad consequences" into the future might now
book them using COVID19 as a excuse for why they exist.

Companies who are already on the last straw will end now, (Such which without
COVID19 might have survived a view more month up to a year but didn't see a
chance for long term survival without a wonder).

A bunch of companies will go insolvent because COVID19 or following marked
situation.

Because of this investors will be a bit more careful then normal, for most
kinds of "fresh"/"new" startups it likely will not be a good time.

A small number of startups will have massive opportunities.

Marked will recover after at most 5 Years more likely 3.5 Years. At least if
no further crisis happens (like WW3 or one of the massive Vulcan's going off).

Unrelated tip: Be a software engineer not "just" a programmer.

~~~
jee1shi
What's the difference between a software engineer and "just" a programmer?

~~~
SeanAppleby
IMO engineer implies the same direction of thing it implies anywhere else: a
deep understanding of the fundamentals of what you're building, an ability to
rigorously model and optimize for the key aspects of your problem space and
turn them into a solid design that meets them (whether that's performance,
scaleability, reliability, latency, throughput, memory use, etc)

Programmer moreso implies just making things work, like a carpenter, by
putting together something good enough using existing tools, possibly
constrained by the tools available to you, in my opinion.

That said, everyone's understanding breaks down at some level of abstraction,
so it's a spectrum, and you can be plenty productive and useful operating at a
high level of abstraction.

~~~
DeathArrow
At university I've studied Computer Science, that's what is written on my
diploma and I consider myself a computer scientist even if I do lots of
engineering and programming.

And it's not because of the diploma but because I am highly interested in the
fundamentals of computer science, formal languages, automas, formal semantics,
algebra, algorithms, data structures, coding theory, game theory, symbolic
computation, graph theory.

But that doesn't make me an efficient coder since all that is required is to
know a particular framework and programming language well and have lots of
experience with it.

So, while I can understand the theory better, there will be many people coding
faster and better than me.

I do however have the advantage of being able to pick up and learn stuff fast.
Since I like to learn about new thinks I've also fiddled with lots of tech
stacks and while I didn't mastered them, I've picked up enough to know what
might be the best tool for a particular job.

So, beside stuff I use currently and which I am at a decent level, I am more
of a jack of all trades. I don't know if anyone ever needs a jack of all
trades at a company since everybody seems to be hiring highly specialized
staff.

But I think my skill set might be of value when I'll be starting my own
business.

------
Cyberdog
I'm a contract full-stack web developer. I've been "laid off" in that my last
remaining client, who was already behind on her bills, told me to stop all
work and she has no idea if/when she'll be able to pay her outstanding bills.
I have no idea where next month's rent is going to come from.

If anybody needs some contract web dev done, check out my info at
[https://albright.pro/](https://albright.pro/) and reach out ASAP. I will cut
you one hell of a deal if you can at least help keep a roof over my head.

~~~
Kwantuum
Sorry to say, your online presence is dreadfully low for a web developer.

~~~
Cyberdog
What do you mean by that?

~~~
incog_nit0
Not the OP and I like your profile page. If you do find you want to mess with
your profile page I personally had good luck with this theme:
[http://ttleadx.wpengine.com/freelancer/](http://ttleadx.wpengine.com/freelancer/)

Available here: [https://themeforest.net/item/leadx-landing-page-marketing-
wo...](https://themeforest.net/item/leadx-landing-page-marketing-wordpress-
theme/17840700)

I didn’t make it nor am I affiliated with it - but it was a quick and easy way
of generating a polished freelancer page for myself.

Good ways to find gigs as a freelancer are toptal, moonlight, yunojuno, bark,
stack overflow (get a good score by answering questions).

Bit of advice a friend gave and I have yet to try out: If you want to find
local clients go to meetups, networking stuff where you would likely be the
only software developer and people will likely be interested (obviously one
for after this crisis has passed).

Good luck!

~~~
Cyberdog
>
> [http://ttleadx.wpengine.com/freelancer/](http://ttleadx.wpengine.com/freelancer/)

Sites that fade and pan in content as I scroll down the page can die in the
hottest of hellfires. I do appreciate there are less harmful "modern" design
cues I can take for the new version of my site, though.

> Good ways to find gigs as a freelancer are toptal, moonlight, yunojuno,
> bark, stack overflow (get a good score by answering questions).

I recall trying Moonlight a couple years ago and finding they could do
absolutely nothing for me. Perhaps it's time to give them another look. I do
have a SO presence, but their job board doesn't let me filter by contract
positions. I will check out those other sites, though.

> Bit of advice a friend gave and I have yet to try out: If you want to find
> local clients go to meetups, networking stuff where you would likely be the
> only software developer and people will likely be interested (obviously one
> for after this crisis has passed).

That's a good tip. I used to be active in a couple groups around here but it
got disrupted by some family stuff. I should get back into it again once this
all blows over.

------
DeathArrow
I've lost my job as an Unity game programmer 2 months ago. I've found another
one working as a C#/ASP.NET core developer for a big multinational wholesale
chain. I work here since a month ago.

Payment is 2x better and I find Web stuff being more interesting and rewarding
than game programming. Also it's less stressful and it's better to do
something mainstream than working in a niche. It means more opportunities.

I've went through about 20 something job interviews until I had enough to
chose from.

Good luck!

~~~
davedx
Hah I also learned C# doing Unity programming and now work as a "enterprise"
.NET developer, it's a great path if it's one you want to take...

~~~
avgDev
I develop enterprise applications in C#/.Net Core/.NET MVC5 it is a bit boring
but should be pretty stable.

~~~
DeathArrow
Now I develop an user creation application for our data warehouse. It's not as
interesting as writing the next cool trending app, but I can take what design
decisions I deem necessary and I can use new technologies like.NET core 3.1
and Angular 9. That would sharpen my skills and make me more employable.

And nothing stops me to work in my free time in a more interesting project
which I hope I will launch as a business in a few years. It helps that I am
doing web programming at work because I don't have to jump from one tech stack
to another daily and I can learn and experiment faster.

------
lynnetye
I'm the founder of Key Values, which helps software engineers find teams that
share their values. Not only do I live in the Bay Area and have many founder
friends, but it is also my full-time job to connect tech startups that are
hiring w/ devs looking for new roles, so I think I have a good view on this.

I'm still gathering information on how coronavirus is impacting the job
market, but what I know now is that many companies have laid team members off
in the last week, and I suspect many more will soon. Most early-stage startups
that did not recently fundraise and do not yet have significant revenue will
struggle during this pandemic. If they were planning to fundraise this summer,
fall, or winter, their investors and advisors have already told them start
cutting costs in order to survive. Hence, a rise in layoffs.

More stable startups may have slowed their hiring efforts (i.e. "we planned to
hire 40 engineers by 2021, but after adjusting our budget, we're now looking
to hire ~20"), but they've also explicitly told me that filling certain roles
are more urgent than ever.

While this all sounds bleak, some companies will endure, and a smaller number
will actually thrive during these times.

Several folks who have recently been laid off have reached out to me. I know
that getting laid off can give you the impression that every company is laying
people off, but it isn't true. Companies who need to hire in order to keep up
w/ unprecedented demand are ramping up and are excited to capture talented
folks who were recently let go. So stay positive, put yourself out there, and
keep looking!

I'm currently reaching out to all of the companies I work w/ in order to stay
on top of their hiring plans, and I hope to message what I learn in my
upcoming newsletters. It is the easiest way for me to keep folks up to date on
what I'm seeing, and I absolutely will not take offense if people unsubscribe.
Key Values: [https://www.keyvalues.com](https://www.keyvalues.com)

~~~
edouard-harris
Chiming in here with a bit of data on the hiring side of things. I'm the
cofounder of SharpestMinds, an ISA-powered mentorship marketplace for data
scientists. For all the obvious reasons, we track the hiring rates for our
grads very closely and have been keeping close tabs on the pandemic's effects
on the tech job market.

Our observations so far:

1\. Hiring in tech has _definitely_ not gone to zero, even for the junior-
level roles we skew towards.

2\. We're seeing more like a 60-70% drop in hires compared to our original
(pre-COVID) projections for the month of March, so far.

3\. Companies least affected seem to fall in two major categories: A) BigCos
with deep pockets; and B) SaaS businesses with predictable revenue streams and
some degree of economic insulation from the "meatspace" economy.

Many software businesses (e.g., Zapier, GitLab) are already run partly or
fully remotely, so their hiring workflows can take quarantine in stride, to an
extent. Many others (e.g., Stripe) are quickly adapting to these new
constraints.

The effects of a global quarantine and pandemic are almost certain to
propagate to all companies eventually. But some are less affected than others,
economically and operationally. We're fortunate in tech that it's still quite
possible - albeit measurably harder - to get hired under current conditions.

~~~
TAForObvReasons
> SaaS businesses with predictable revenue streams and some degree of economic
> insulation from the "meatspace" economy

Those are most likely lagging by a few weeks or a month. Monthly subscriptions
are arguably the easiest to cut and companies are looking to cut non-essential
services.

~~~
Aeolun
They’re likely also the smallest possible thing that a company can cut. I
doubt anyone will save their company by cutting Slack.

~~~
TAForObvReasons
There are two possibilities: either this is a storm to be weathered or an
existential crisis.

In the former, cutting run-rate is important but you also need to look at the
aftermath. Firing people now hurts you later on when the storm clears, whereas
cutting Slack and switching to open source self-hosted alternatives is a cost
savings that won't impede the future growth. Obviously cutting slack won't
save a company with zero revenue.

------
diN0bot
My heart goes out to everyone getting laid off or looking for work for any
reason.

Would anyone be interested in a free "lightning round no-bs Q&A for
engineering candidates webinar"?

I do interview and negotiation prep with candidates, and while there is a lot
of general advice out there, I've found specific advice to be incredibly
helpful to individuals.

I'm imagining a zoom call where one person at a time briefly describes their
situation -- maybe with one or two clarifying questions on my part -- and then
receives specific advice about what to prepare for their next interview, or
how to find jobs to apply to, or what to say to that recruiter.

Let me know if you're interested, and what times would be good. Reply here or
email hello@DangoorMendel.com

Adam and I have a Youtube channel here, though it so far focuses on
negotiation (we've done a ton of application and interview stage work with
individuals but haven't made videos about that yet, hence the idea for a live
lightning Q&A): [http://CandidatePlanet.com](http://CandidatePlanet.com)

~~~
Peretus
I would absolutely be interested in this and will check out your site.

------
lamberciak
Really sorry for everyone affected by the current situation.

We have open roles at DuckDuckGo for SREs and director level hands-on
engineers (in mobile and frontend). There should be a senior frontend engineer
role coming up soon too. Check out all open roles at:
[https://duckduckgo.com/hiring/#open](https://duckduckgo.com/hiring/#open).

We're a fully distributed team of 85 aiming to raise the standard of trust
online and have been profitable for over 5 years now. Here's a chart depicting
our growth: [https://duckduckgo.com/traffic](https://duckduckgo.com/traffic).

If have questions, feel free to reach out via Linked In:
[https://www.linkedin.com/in/zbyszmo/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/zbyszmo/)

~~~
ma2rten
What are "director level hands-on engineers"?

~~~
trimbo
Something like "Principal Engineer" is usually the term for this.

------
throwaway5752
Take whatever you can get, if you are lucky enough to get an offer. Look for
contract work. Reduce your expenses. The gaining market share idea is too
optimistic. Consider cashflow and sector and aim for stability over upside.
Consider headhunters/recruiters.

Really consider your expense and have a plan if you cannot find computer work
when you will look outside of that. The general employment picture is a
disaster, though.

Read up on COBRA (ensure you have continuing medical coverage) and your
state's unemployment benefits and how/if they have recently changed.

Personally, I experienced the .com crash and worked through the 2008 financial
crisis. I am absolutely terrified right now.

~~~
isbvhodnvemrwvn
> Read up on COBRA

I first read it as "read up on CORBA", but I think we aren't that desperate
yet.

~~~
pjc50
One of those heavily overloaded acronyms - in the UK it's Cabinet Office
Briefing Room A, which is where all the emergency briefings are done from. So
"cobra committee" gets mentioned on the news a lot.

~~~
jon-wood
Totally off-topic, but the COBRA panel is now too big to fit in Briefing Room
A, and use Briefing Room B now, hence the occasional references to them as
Cobr in the press now.

------
Frost1x
It's going to get bloody out there soon. Minimize your expenses if you don't
already do this.

The market was already fairly saturated from what I inferred last year when I
jumped ship during a move. Most organizations did not appear to be seriously
hiring, they were hunting for a labor bargain or someone to add to their
future contact list for quick turnaround when demand rose.

If you didn't think it was an employers market already, it's about to be.

~~~
Eiriksmal
>market was already fairly saturated ... did not appear to be seriously hiring
... an employers market

This was my experience in the job market last year, as well. A lot of open
listings, but curiously picky requirements for who would be considered for a
role. I definitely got the impression that companies were just idly trawling
for fresh meat, without seriously pursuing any senior talent (read: highly
experienced and commensurately compensated) for their "senior" roles.

I got my foot in the door as a contractor at a recently-acquired startup in
the medical industry, considering it a safe bet against the inevitable
recession. Like the economists and investors are now writing en masse on their
blogs, I would never have guessed a _virus_ would kick off that recession. =/

Advice for OP: Try finding which companies in the medical space are looking
for front-end devs. There are a lot of not-exactly-tech companies that keep
small groups of web developers employed.

~~~
linsomniac
Last year we were hiring, for both junior and senior positions, and had a hell
of a time finding people to make offers to. We were absolutely serious and did
end up hiring someone.

I will say though that we were definitely on the picky side. Our company tends
to have a very hard time getting rid of employees that aren't working out, so
we are extremely reluctant to hire a "maybe".

~~~
lainga
Local law?

~~~
staticautomatic
Or company culture.

------
odomojuli
I was in the midst of several interview processes and things were looking
optimistic. Everything changed literally overnight. Interviews were cancelled,
postponed indefinitely, or I'd be plain 100% ghosted by a company. I'm
extremely distraught because I've been looking for employment for a while now
and I don't know how I'll support myself. Even my remote opportunities seem to
have vanished as uncertainty increases.

~~~
chrisjc
I can't imagine what you're going through, but i would suggest taking a more
positive outlook on the "ghosting". Some of these companies are going through
some significant challenges, and priorities and attention may have shifted to
their employees. There may be a chance that IF things turn around, they'll
reach out to you again.

I guess what i'm saying is stay positive and don't take it personally.

------
namc
My entire department got laid off. While some people are local, I was here on
the work visa, and I was six months away from getting PR allowing free market
access.

Now No one is hiring, people are retracting job offers and cancelling
interviews at the last minute with no definite timeline.

Interviewing for bigN takes a lot of prep, and there is really no time, midst
whatever little interviews I have lined up. This is so exhausting.

If anyone is hiring in EMEA, Canada (but would need visa sponsorship) I’m open
to conversation.

6 years of work exp as backend/devops engineer. Skilled in Java, Golang, php.
Worked on distributed systems, reservoir sampling on petabytes of data,
Cassandra & Elasticsearch, timeseries analysis.

Thank you.

~~~
CaveTech
I might have an opening for you, can you email me?

~~~
namc
Hi. Looked at your profile couldn’t find the email. Pls let me know where to
send it.

~~~
CaveTech
Sorry - [https://jumbleberry.com/](https://jumbleberry.com/) is the company
You can email me at ian@jumbleberry.com

------
prithvi24
I'm one of the founders at Sympto Health - we are helping nurses and doctors
communicate more effectively with patients. Nurses spend up to 60% of their
day on manual patient outreach, and the vast majority of nurse's I've spoke to
complain about the roteness and mundaneness of this outreach.

Our goal here at Sympto is to supercharge the role of the nurse, automating
the rote and manual tasks, and ultimately allowing nurses to focus more on
patients who need their attention.

As you can imagine, with COVID-19, we are facing unprecedented demand from
health systems, who need help triaging the expected massive inflow of
patients.

We just closed a fresh round of funding, backed by investors in Modern Health,
Udemy, Guardant Health, DoorDash and Airbnb. We are looking to hire a Founding
Engineer who is interested in playing a critical role in helping the lives of
thousands of patients & care teams across the country.

Check out our careers page
([https://www.symptohealth.com/careers](https://www.symptohealth.com/careers))
or email me at prithvi @ symptohealth.com

------
dangoor
Khan Academy is still hiring, though our focus is backend and full-stack
engineers right now[1]. I hope you're able to find new work soon!

This is an odd time for us. We're an online education non-profit. With all of
the school closings[2], we're seeing a huge spike in traffic. Fortunately, our
infrastructure can handle it, but we are still spending some effort staying on
top of the rapidly changing traffic patterns.

Simultaneously, we're in the midst of a huge project to rebuild our backend
(porting from Python 2 to Go)[3]. So we're juggling a lot right now, but will
be fine.

If there are folks out there with backend skills in particular, we're hiring
and our engineering team is half remote (all in the US/Canada).

[1]:
[https://www.khanacademy.org/careers](https://www.khanacademy.org/careers)

[2]:
[https://www.khanacademy.org/about/blog/post/6117702550643507...](https://www.khanacademy.org/about/blog/post/611770255064350720/remote-
learning-with-khan-academy-during-school)

[3]:
[http://engineering.khanacademy.org/posts/goliath.htm](http://engineering.khanacademy.org/posts/goliath.htm)

~~~
souprock
Say, maybe you could pass this along to the design team:

My kids all reject the current interface. They loved the interface it had a
few years back. In case you need more info to identify what I refer to, I'll
describe it.

I'm pretty sure there was nothing but math. Each topic was represented by a
circle, and each circle was connected to prerequisites. Kids would earn points
in a simple way. Kids would also earn various astronomy-related badges.

The new system simply doesn't motivate any of my kids. It isn't a change in my
kids; I have enough kids (twelve) to average that out. Kids who liked Khan
Academy before now don't, complaining about the interface. Younger siblings,
now the age at which the older siblings liked Khan Academy, also don't like
it.

Also, a completely different matter: Last time I checked, which was some time
ago, the video required YouTube. If I need to block YouTube, the video can't
play. Hopefully you found a solution for that long ago.

~~~
dangoor
Thanks for the input! I can pass that along. I'm not as connected to the user
research and design teams, so I don't have any helpful insights to provide
about the evolution.

We _do_ serve the video through YouTube by default, but we have a fallback
video player that should kick in if YouTube isn't available.

------
kwhat4
Got let go about 3 weeks ago now, not sure if my employer saw this coming or
if their timing was just spot on. No one is interviewing at the moment and it
looks like it's going to be at least another 2 weeks before people are even
thinking about hiring. The employment situation is going to get much worse
before it gets any better. Hang tight, keep applying and hope for the best.

~~~
Tushon
My company is interviewing and hiring still, depending on what you want to
work on. HQ in Alexandria, VA and main other office in Lakewood, CO are most
positions. Working remotely for now in all offices.

[https://careers.fool.com/](https://careers.fool.com/)

~~~
en3r0
I sent in an application and referenced your username. My first name is Dustin
if you are able to put in a good word!

------
BossingAround
Seeing as the stock market is utterly tanking, I would be very surprised if
the world didn't go into recession, and consequently, if there weren't a
number of people losing their jobs in order to make the businesses lean again.

This is especially true of countries like the US, where it seems very simple
to fire someone.

~~~
conductr
People keep saying “recession” but that sounds like they don’t understand the
implications of what’s happening to the world economy right now. “Global
depression” seems like a more appropriate term but time will tell.

I’m a CFO of $300M company that employees ~2200 employees. We’re out of cash
in 6 weeks if our revenue continues to decline. Down 30% vs last year this
week (which is good compared to most). Doing layoffs and pay cuts right now.
My network of CFO friends are all doing the same, many at much larger scale.
Hard for me to imagine a scenario where unemployment is <20% in 2 weeks in the
US if this continues.

At some point, the financial cost is too severe for the majority of us who
will survive this thing. We need to just resume business and accept there is a
death toll. This is war. That’s my unpopular opinion on things anyway.

~~~
Rafuino
Yeah, resuming business and being OK with the death toll is certainly an
unpopular opinion. If you have hospitals overwhelmed because business just has
to continue, business will suffer regardless.

I also don't quite understand how a $300M (assuming revenue, not valuation)
company can run out of cash in 6 weeks. You're saying you can't make payroll
in 6 weeks at the current trajectory?

~~~
conductr
Businesses suffering usually effects investors more than employees. This is
different.

It all has to do with how much cash you have to weather the storm. My firms
investors wanted us to be cash efficient. Meaning we don’t have much of a
safety net. This is the PE mindset IMO. As CFO one may think this is my
decision, but really I advise to risk and the board ultimately decides.

Bigger companies who have hoarded cash since 2008 or before will survive but
still lean down.

It’s possible banks will help companies like mine stay afloat. We have
relationships in place and plan to pursue capital. Not sure how that will play
out.

~~~
dathinab
> My firms investors wanted us to be cash efficient. Meaning we don’t have
> much of a safety net.

This being common or even the norm is one of the (many) fundamental problems
of our current economical system.

------
danmostudco
My heart really goes out to employees who are about to be put through the
wringer, I've heard horror stories of coffee shops and restaurants laying off
90% of staff on a day's notice - I'm sure it will quickly expand.

I work at a DC startup LiveSafe and we are still hiring. We offer a
communications platform for students and employees focused around safety &
security - we were founded out of the need for communities to have a quicker,
more direct line to campus security following our founder being shot in the
Virginia Tech shooting. I have been helping lead the expansion of our
offerings into Fortune 500 corporate clients.

Many of our clients have been using our software to push outbound information
to their students / employees about policies around COVID-19, as well as
triage and respond to employee needs, so we are fortunate in that our product
fits into the response effort for most companies who purchased us. I think we
will be fine for the foreseeable future - sound financials and a generous
credit line secured during good times just in case.

We are hiring for a much needed Data Science position focusing on building and
deploying NLP models & products to analyze the data that travels through our
platforms - plus our production stack is a dream to build and deploy on. It's
a small, fun, mission-driven team granted a lot of autonomy and responsibility
- I'm on phone screens just about everyday and we have not slowed down filling
this position. Would love to hear from any Data Science / Engineering talent
may need a soft landing in all of this - very interesting text-heavy data set.

[https://apply.workable.com/livesafe/j/DA0FCE14D5/](https://apply.workable.com/livesafe/j/DA0FCE14D5/)

------
eatonphil
First off, I'm sorry to anyone who's been laid off. That sucks. It's happened
to me in the past so I know how it can be scarring.

My company is hiring in the US. We do runtime Linux protection & visibility.
Looking for systems programmers with a background in OS development and web
developers with a background in Go/Java/C# (we do Go) and TypeScript. If
you're either, send your resume to the email in my profile.

~~~
Peretus
Thank you so much. I do indeed have experience with Typescript and will be
getting in touch.

------
navaati
I’ve been let go on Thursday, of a DevOps job that had started on Wednesday.
I’m a contractor so I can’t really complain, that’s how the game is played.
The job was in the car rental industry, they are suffering heavily so of
course the contractors are the first to go. It was my first job after coming
back to my home country, and that move have let me pretty dry money wise. Eh…
At least they’ll employ me ’till the end of the month, that leaves me with a
little something !

~~~
wise0wl
We are hiring, not sure where you are but we offer relocation. For now we are
working from home, so for now that probably wouldn't be an issue.

[https://careers.blizzard.com/en-
us/openings/onAAbfws](https://careers.blizzard.com/en-us/openings/onAAbfws)

~~~
user68858788
How's working in battle.net? I interned on a dev team in 2014 and the general
consensus was that work conditions were pretty rough. Is that still the case?

------
zests
I’m about to leave my extremely safe job for a tiny startup. I have to put in
notice by the end of the week.

The startup seems to still want to hire me and is showing no signs of pulling
the offer. I think they planned on getting more funding at the end of the
year.

I’m at a loss for what to do. I’m excited about the opportunity but am not
sure that now is the right time to leave. I plan on calling and asking for
more information about the financials and/or maybe asking for a start date
push back.

~~~
epa
4 red flag assumptions: \- "you think" \- "they planned" \- "getting more
funding" \- "end of the year"

~~~
ratsimihah
Indeed, funding is going to be frozen for a while.

------
nickpinkston
Small startup founder here. We did a hiring freeze and cancelled our contract
with a recruiter, called an oncoming employee about slight role adjustments
due to company plan change, which they were cool with.

Really glad we've got a ton of runway. Keeping everyone in mind who are less
burn-fortunate. My only advice, having done a few big layoffs before: Cut now,
cut once, cut deep.

------
worstestes
I'm a fully remote software developer based out of Chicago, IL working on a
mobile app built with Typescript/React Native/Redux/Firebase. Just found out
our small startup is shuttering at the end of the week "until the markets
stabilize". We're in the events and community management realm, and mainly
work with co-working space communities.

Been spending the last few days really wrapping things up with the project
getting it into a more stable place before payroll stops at the end of the
week. Getting my resume/portfolio up-to-date has been a priority since Monday.
It's overwhelming starting up the job search abruptly and in such a turbulent
time. Keeping my fingers crossed and my eyes open for opportunities, in the
meantime I'll be working on a few personal projects.

~~~
Peretus
I'm the OP and I had to re-read your comment a couple of times to make sure
you were employed by my company. Feel free to get in touch if you'd like to
collaborate on anything. It looks like we both find ourselves with some free
time ;)

My email address can be found in my profile.

------
TheCloudlessSky
I'm a co-founder and the VP of Engineering at ProcedureFlow. If anyone is a
full stack .NET developer and lives in Eastern Canada (remote), I'm currently
hiring: [https://jobs.procedureflow.com/o/full-stack-
developer](https://jobs.procedureflow.com/o/full-stack-developer)

ProcedureFlow is like GitHub but for your company's procedures. We are
hyperlinked flowcharts with pull request style approvals.

I've heard some really unfortunate stories from family, friends, and
colleagues who are being laid off or temporarily laid off. Since ProcedureFlow
is B2B and is part of our customers' backbone, we're fortunate in this
situation. I hope all of you that are affected by this are able to get through
this!

------
throwaway703181
Yes, this week. Throwaway account because it's not public yet. I've been
active in startup land and HN > 10 years, technical founder with one exit.
This cycle looks like it will be worse than 2001 or 2008.

~~~
danpalmer
I’d suggest that it looks worse because it’s more sudden, and it’s more sudden
because it wasn’t going to be bad, it just got all triggered “ahead of
schedule” by COVID-19.

~~~
throwaway703181
I disagree for the following reason: Unless we get terribly lucky we are going
to have a prolonged period (6-18 months) of social distancing and travel
restrictions. There's no fast rebound from that so not a big win even for
those of us holding enough cash to buy the bargains (real estate etc).

------
treyfitty
I was laid off in 2018 because I took a generous 5-month paternity leave. 2
months after my leave, I was given the pink slip. Contacted a lawyer and was
pretty much told "you have no proof it was BECAUSE you took the leave." Based
on my conversation with my boss, I know for a fact that's why. His quote:
"H1B's are cheap and loyal. The mere fact that you committed to taking the
full 5 months showed 0 loyalty." This was a DJIA credit card company.

~~~
User23
No lawyer worth his salt will take a wrongful termination case without the
prospect of being awarded punitive damages and that is a very high bar to
clear.

~~~
treyfitty
You'd be surprised. The onus of "wrongful termination" is on the employee. I
had no justification to show why I was "wrongfully terminated" amongst 100
others across the larger organization. I was just an easy target.

------
MivLives
Not yet but I'm terrified.

Most of last year was me trying to land this job, my first as a dev. So far
this year my company has had a massive layoff, that resulted in the team I
started on disappearing six weeks after I joined it. I was shuffled from full
stack web work to seo data pipeline work. I have no idea what I'm doing or
least that is how it feels. I didn't know PHP before starting, with most of my
past experience being in React. Now I'm supposed to be doing SQL, Hadoop, and
all these other things. I am trying my hardest but...

Our stock price went down like a rock after the layoffs, after the earnings
call, and now with all this mess. I'm worried that my inexperience puts me in
a position where if another layoff were to happen I worry I would be a target.

I know I should be thankful that I still have a job. That I am a citizen of
the country I'm in. But I'm scared, and don't know what will happen if the job
ends.

------
karlkatzke
Yes, I was part of the massive Expedia Group lay-off last month. I’m finding
out that a lot of the managers I reported to are becoming individual
contributors again as they wind up the department.

I’m a DevOps/Linux Systems Engineer/SRE with 20 years in industry, about 5 as
a developer and the rest as operations. Looking for anything remote, or
possibly in Austin, TX. I have worked remote before. Besides AWS and Linux,
I’ve got experience implementing incident management practices, agile/scrum
for infrastructure teams, and have worked remote for over a quarter of my
career.

~~~
lwb
Did you work at Homeaway?

~~~
karlkatzke
Yes, but renamed to Vrbo and then my team was merged into Expedia Group but
not re-tasked. The last six months before I was cut was an incredibly
confusing time because we couldn’t even figure out how we were supposed to
sign emails.

~~~
lwb
Interesting. Sorry to hear about the layoff, hope you land on your feet!

------
boring_baduku
I have been told I will be laid off this month end. I am on H1B and am
completely freaking out because I have only 1 year experience and a student
loan. To be honest, I kind of saw this coming a month ago and started
applying. But, I have had no luck. I even submitted an ask HN yesterday to
discuss and get ideas.

~~~
ratsimihah
The good thing is you already have the H1B, so it's easier than having to go
through the lottery.

My advice would be to hope for the best but expect the worst. In other words,
keep applying to jobs super aggressively, but at the same time, start packing
to leave, if there aren't other options.

------
maerF0x0
Does anyone have advice from 2000/2008 about what happens to immigrants on
visas? When the work dries up do we all just have to leave and go home?

~~~
benttoothpaste
If you are on H1 then once you lose your job you'll be immediately out of
status. Now being out of status is not a very big deal, but it does mean
you'll need to find a new employer willing to sponsor you as soon as possible.
USCIS is generally forgiving if your out of status period is not too long
(they might require you to leave and then re-enter the country to get back to
status though). Also living out of status is not fun - in addition to loss of
income you'll have difficulty with things like renewing driver license or
traveling out of country.

~~~
0x5002
As far as I'm aware, that is only true for L1, not H1B, which has a 60 days
grace period. I don't know how it affects folks with AOS to an I-485, though.

~~~
justinv
I believe it's like this:

L1 - if you lose your job and you have no other status (ie have not filed for
green card or have your H1B), that's it. You have to leave within 60 days and
you cannot work at another company in the US.

H1B - you can switch to a new company and they port your H1B with USCIS.
Otherwise, 60 day grace period to leave.

Adjustment of Status to 485 - if it has been pending with USCIS for more than
180 days & you have your EAD, you can port to another company under the AC-21
act.

------
Evgeniuz
I suffered pay cut due to outbreak affecting my company. It was profitable and
growing steadily, but due to outbreak people stopped using it (and paying).
Right now we're in the red, this is not sustainable, so I think in a couple of
months I will be laid off (unless situation stabilizes by then).

It's a bit scary to be in this position, as I know most companies here stopped
hiring, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to find a new job quickly.

~~~
slimsag
Sorry to hear this, I dug through your profile to see if maybe I can help. I
can't guarantee anything, of course, but we're hiring Go developers at
Sourcegraph and are 100% remote so if you meet the other qualifications here
please do consider applying with us:
[https://github.com/sourcegraph/careers/blob/master/job-
descr...](https://github.com/sourcegraph/careers/blob/master/job-
descriptions/software-engineer-backend.md)

~~~
Evgeniuz
Thanks, I've applied. Didn't know Sourcegraph is a remote company. BTW, I've
used it on one of my projects before and it was really easy to set up and
proved great for onboarding new developers, so thanks for developing it :)

~~~
slimsag
Glad to hear it :) If you have any feedback we'd love to hear it, as well.

We went 100% all-remote at the start of the year, and historically over 50% of
over our team has always been remote. This has been a really good boon for us
as we started writing down and documenting even more of our processes, etc. in
a handbook:
[https://about.sourcegraph.com/handbook](https://about.sourcegraph.com/handbook)

------
nojvek
I haven't been laid off but I voluntarily quit my job in Jan when COVID-19
looked like China would handle it by themselves. I went solopreneur fulltime
on [https://boomadmin.com](https://boomadmin.com) but everyday I question
myself whether it's a good idea.

Had about 3 years of savings, now only 1.5 years. The stockmarket wiped out a
huge part of my runway. I can live like a cockraoch, but let's see what
happens. Tough times. I'm optimistic of a rebound once there is a vaccine.

~~~
Twixes
If your savings are diverse stock, you'll probably get your value back just
fine in 3 years if you go long.

------
DyslexicAtheist
anyone without a job here right now: does somebody have a zulip, discourse,
slack whatever, where we can all hang out? I think it would be generally a
cool concept to have a HN-job-seekers chat site where smart people can
network. People in-need might be able to help each other with ideas and / or
work together on cool side projects while also looking, or maybe just learning
cool concepts from each other ...

Anything really that allows people to focus on solving this problem for longer
than the life-time of a HN post being on the FP. I think it might also be good
for mental-health. E.g it seems there are lot of us here who are struggling
with ageism, discrimination or for other reasons finding a job/gig so this
could be a better alternative than refreshing twitter and focus on helping
each other?

Burnout is also a real kicker. I went through this in 2013 and it had
cascading effects on other areas of my life that caused an absolute meltdown.
It took me 3 years to get back on my feet and after 5 years I could still
notice that the experience changed me. I'm OK now but I'd imagine having a
place where things like these could be discussed in an environment with
intelligent people would have helped. I really haven't thought this through
but just want to put this out there. Maybe should start a new Ask HN, idk

How this could work is post your nick that is used on the site also in the HN
about profile as proof. Or make it open to others too idk, haven't really
thought it through lol.

Anyone interested in this?

------
kubanczyk
I've been laid off yesterday. One of the biggest networking HW/SW vendors, SF
area.

This thread is soothing. I owe you, OP. We all do.

~~~
Rebles
WTF? I would not expect large businesses to start lay offs immediately. These
are troubling times indeed. All the best of luck to you.

------
robryan
Hopefully after this settles down a bit there will be a boom in remote work
positions as so many companies will now be both setup for it and seen that it
is effective.

~~~
notatoad
> seen that it is effective.

I'm curious if this is why we'll actually learn. Reading r/sysadmin this
morning was fun, a lot of stories about companies realizing that people who
have been "remote working" a few days a week for years don't know how to sign
into the vpn.

------
hackandtrip
Just got my first job offer and excited to start! (In Italy!)

~~~
Cyberdog
Wow! It's good to hear that at least some business is still able to occur
there. All the best!

~~~
hackandtrip
International media is probably not talking too much about it, but we are
really trying to do our best! Universities are helping with the production of
hand sanitizer and mask production, startup companies are building systems to
manage the after-outbreak with the government and the entire education domain
is being really productive with online lessons! And, lot of (tech) companies
are still hiring!

------
stephenr
At least partly _because_ of the current “situation”, I’m actually looking for
a person/people who can help bolster a client’s (very) small team (to clarify:
I am the tech lead of the team, not a recruiter)

For the backend, PHP & SQL experience is a must, and realistically some
ops/infra is pretty essential too.

We “self manage” most parts of our stack so some experience with at least some
of keepalived/haproxy/stunnel/percona cluster/redis/shell script would be very
beneficial.

For the front end, it’s essentially just HTML, CSS and some ‘vanilla’ js
w/jquery. Moving to SCSS is on the roadmap so knowledge there may be helpful.

We’re completely remote, but mostly (except me) in US time zones.

If either of the above sounds like you, and you’re looking for work, drop me a
line. My email is in my profile.

~~~
stephenr
I should add - if it wasn’t clear above, a person needn’t have experience in
both the backend/ops areas and front end.

------
Loughla
I'm betting the best places to target for individuals who have been laid off,
for the next 6-12 months at least, will be organizations who serve higher
education.

When the economy hits the shit, higher education booms. This is absolutely
true for tech programs and community/junior colleges, less so for 4-year
colleges/universities.

Source: My experience with the 2001 bust and immediate higher ed boom, 2008
bust and immediate higher ed boom.

~~~
dillonmckay
I don’t know. Alot of these schools have been on real estate development
binges for the last 20 years, and there is alot of physical space that seems
like it will remain unused for the foreseeable future.

I see telemedicine finally becoming viable.

~~~
Loughla
I'm not sure what physical space has to do with a boom in education. The long
term trend is that economic downturns lead to a boom in higher education.
That's just a fact of life.

Schools, right now, are being forced online with all goods and services, which
is uncharted territory for most of them. Whether it's old-timey faculty
dragging their feet because in-person is better than online (it is, by the
way), or because some classes just can't be offered online (without critically
thinking about it I would argue), or because we've just done things this way
forever. Whatever the reason, higher ed is being forced to think about things
in ways it never has before. Institutions are desperately snatching up online
resources right now like crazy.

My argument is that when the boom comes in the next six months, all colleges
and universities are going to look to build resiliency and responsiveness in
certain areas related to critical student facing infrastructure. This means
online. This means external services.

We're big, we're slow, we're out of touch with reality, but one thing we don't
do, in individual institutions in higher education, is make the same mistake
twice. That, at least, we're good at.

None of this has to do with physical space?

------
kirktrue
Effectively, yes.

I run a two-person development company that contracts for tech companies.

Out of the five projects we had in February, two have been canceled, two have
been put on hold indefinitely, and the remaining contract project is only
part-time.

Yes, I'm negligent about sales and marketing. I am the epitome of the
"technician" (in "E-Myth" parlance). I don't expect things to dramatically
turn around very soon.

------
grezql
2 people I know lost their jobs today. I expect more to come in the coming
weeks.

------
seibelj
Poloniex cryptocurrency exchange (Boston, MA
[https://poloniex.com/](https://poloniex.com/)) is still hiring, crypto
markets are doing fine - we make money whether it goes up or down. Interviews
over Google Hangouts. [http://poloniex.careers/](http://poloniex.careers/)

~~~
mindfulplay
Crypto seems like the replacement for casinos gambling away your life savings
at a desperate time.

I don't have a beef with you but the whole crypto crapto markets really need
to calm down and stop stealing money from naive people especially at this
sensitive time. Lack of regulation helps launder money even easier.

~~~
staplers

      Crypto seems like the replacement for casinos gambling away your life savings at a desperate time.
    

I was thinking the same about the stock market. Most launderers use overseas
bank accounts.

~~~
mindfulplay
Not quite. Stock market has real value. People buy things, consume goods, sell
tangible useful things. The market is a reflection of that.

Crypto crapto is the reflection of a giant random number generator that is
operated by both VCs and nefarious entities at the same time. It's a
competition to see who wins this random number generator...

~~~
staplers
Being able to launder money is valuable. You've just shown your mental
deficit.

Also, the crypto market reflects its value as well. You're playing yourself
with your own argument.

------
arcboii92
I resigned from my current role because the office culture is terrible, and I
hate being around pretty much all the people outside of the IT team.

I was offered 6 figures as a counter offer for the first time in my career,
which I turned down.

That was last week. New Zealand (where I'm from) hasn't shut down yet, but
everything is so bleak, and I'm regretting turning down the offer. I start
working from home tomorrow for my final 2 weeks here, and I can't help but
feel regret. Being in the office was the one thing I hated, and now we don't
have to do that.

Whats worse is I emailed the new job asking if we're still going ahead with me
starting, and there was no reply.

~~~
gridspy
If they offered you a good counter offer, ask them if there is a similar offer
still on the table. Their IT challenges are probably only just ramping up and
they will need you as people shift remote.

I'm also in NZ. SO happy that our GOVT takes this so seriously.

~~~
simonebrunozzi
> SO happy that our GOVT takes this so seriously.

Can you elaborate? Don't know much of what's going on in NZ at the moment.

~~~
gridspy
For some time now, all incoming visitors have been required to self-isolate
for 14 days. This means that any incubating virus runs its course without
further incident.

[https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-
conditions/...](https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-
conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-novel-coronavirus-health-
advice-general-public/covid-19-self-isolation)

If any symptoms are shown, patients get tested. This is generally done in the
carpark of their preferred Doctor (GP).

Positive tests are contact traced. In most cases there are very few potential
people they could have infected, since they were isolated.

All businesses have been putting place COVID-19 plans and stepping up things
like cleaning and moving workers remote.

Any school with infections possible is immediately closed, close contacts of
the infected are put into self-isolation.

After some tourists failed to follow the 14 day quarantine guidelines, NZ has
closed all its borders to non-residents.

------
jaaron
I'm a (hiring!) tech director for Singularity 6, a game studio startup on the
west-side of Los Angeles.

We're actively hiring. If anything, we're trying to be _more_ aggressive in
our hiring. There's some concern that talent will, understandably, want to
hunker down and stay with what's known and safe than risk jumping to a new
job.

On the plus side, everyone's at home, so it's a bit easier to get in touch
with candidates!

Our available roles are up at www.singularity.com/careers. We're all work-
from-home for now, but expect folks to eventually be on-site in Los Angeles
when life returns to "normal."

~~~
jaaron
Oh! Yes. Doesn't seem like I can edit the comment any longer. The URL is:

[https://www.singularity6.com/careers](https://www.singularity6.com/careers)

------
sys_64738
We've got a hire freeze as the business is sizably impacted. This could be a
long recession if this virus is not stopped quickly. Could be a depression.

------
perlgeek
I work a company that acts as an ISP, managed services provider and data
center operator.

Unless the whole economy tanks very badly, I don't expect any layoffs.

Right now, companies are buying VPN concentrators and the likes like crazy to
support remote work. Supply chain delays do delay new projects that involve
new hardware though.

------
hairofadog
Barely hanging on at the independent news organization where I work. Lost a
lot of colleagues to layoffs last week.

I'm super worried about the coming year.

~~~
jsight
I feel like this cost is being badly underestimated.

~~~
cultus
I would be quite surprised if this doesn't turn into a depression. The Fed has
essentially already exhausted their options, and we're only a week in to this.
Fiscal policy is the only real policy remedy, and capitalists hate that.

~~~
matwood
> Fiscal policy is the only real policy remedy

The only real remedy is economic activity. That can't happen until people can
start spending money again.

There is a huge opportunity in thinking about when things go back to normal,
what things will remain permanently changed.

~~~
TeMPOraL
> _There is a huge opportunity in thinking about when things go back to
> normal, what things will remain permanently changed._

I started a thread about that the other day; let's collect some more ideas:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22587052](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22587052).

------
impostervt
Seems like a good time for people with ideas who can't code to team up with
people who can code but don't have a good idea. To take a chance on an
app/idea what we wouldn't normally want to quit our day jobs on. Are there
sites that team people up like that?

~~~
Cyberdog
Well, that's pretty much any job board. AngelList's jobs area [0] in
particular has good deal of equity-only positions - no pay, but a share in
future earnings (which, it can't be overemphasized, are entirely theoretical).
Unfortunately, my landlord and debt-owners do not accept hope for the future
as payment.

0: [https://angel.co/jobs](https://angel.co/jobs)

~~~
impostervt
I guess I meant more like, short term, not a real job. I'm stuck at home for a
few weeks (through end of April likely), so why not try some random idea? Keep
my skills up, have something to do, etc.

If anyone has a halfway decent idea for an app or website, I'm a UI guy with a
lot of time on his hands.

~~~
TecoAndJix
I have been watching Picard (the new Star Trek show) and came to the
realization that all the greatest sci-fi interfaces do not have keyboards.
Searching for a person? Tap here, tap there, swipe up, and push forward and
BAM “looks like person of interest was on goobazoar on the night in question”!
Anyways, I’m in the security space and have been doing lots of HackTheBox [0]
in prep for the OSCP [1] this year. With active boxes, they kind of just throw
you in the deep end and you just google tools and exploits to see if they
work. After a few boxes you start using the same tools over and over again
(enumeration mainly) and they are all command line based. there is this tool
called metasploit [3] that is labeled a skiddy tool (script kiddy AKA run
stuff without knowing what they do). it let’s you type in software/OS name,
lists the exploit, add a few parameters and BAM! (Usually). In fact On the
OSCP you can only use metasploit once because it’s so easy. We have metasploit
pro at work and it’s GUI based and even easier! You can integrate it with
their scanner (Nexpose) and make the whole process pretty streamlined from
enumeration to exploitation. The problem is their pro tools are very expensive
and all the FOSS stuff is command line and not integrated. You also have to
use the keyboard! I have been imaging an interface where everything is touch
based - a screen filled with little cards with pictures on them that do
things. Click on one picture, does an action, and populates other cards on the
screen. You drop these new cards in colored circles on the screen where it
either turns green, yellow, or red. If a circle goes green the action worked
and it becomes a gold card. You stack the gold cards together for an exploit
chain and a successful stack means you rooted the box (or whatever goal you
had). A lot of time paths you take seem promising but then don’t produce fruit
so you would have to try different combinations of the gold cards. The
ultimate skiddy tool! On mobile so apologies for the formatting.

[1] [https://www.hackthebox.eu/](https://www.hackthebox.eu/) [2]
[https://www.offensive-security.com/pwk-oscp/](https://www.offensive-
security.com/pwk-oscp/) [3]
[https://www.metasploit.com/](https://www.metasploit.com/)

------
angarg12
I already posted my experience from 2008 somewhere else for anyone concerned
about a recession. No two crises are equal, but might give you some pointers.

My personal perception of the 2008 wreck is the following: a some people got
royally screwed, many people got screwed, some people didn't feel a
difference, and a few people actually thrive. I was in the second category.

First, my company imposed a hiring freeze. This included both hiring new
people or renovating temporary contracts. Then, they relied in natural
attrition to shed people. Since many people were contractors, those were the
first ones to let go. When that wasn't enough, they started laying off full
time employees.

I was lucky since my team was left mostly untouched, while other teams were
dismissed entirely. We did get our bonuses cancelled and salary frozen for a
few years, however. That, coupled to higher taxes and inflation, means that my
income went down over the years, but at least I had a job.

My biggest takeaway is that YMMV (duh!). Many people are concerned now about
losing their jobs. In my opinion, companies (particularly large and stable
ones) will rely on hiring freezes and attrition to curb their numbers. If it
comes down to it, you are more likely to see teams being fired wholesale
rather than each team bleeding a bit.

------
throwaway93892
Working in a fortune 500 company. Am on a team that was developing a new
product for them. Had been doing that for little over a year. Had our product
killed just before going public with it. I speculate it was because of the
falling stocks in the company (which got worse amidst fears of COVID-19).

Nobody in my team has been laid off so far. However we have nothing to work
on, and we most of us believe it is only a matter of time. We are sort of
stuck in a limbo at the moment.

------
bokelley1
I founded my last company, AppNexus, in 2007, and we were out trying to raise
our series A round in 2008 just as the world was falling apart. I pitched 40+
VCs, got nowhere, and was about to sell the company when we finally got a term
sheet from Venrock and were able to keep going. By having the funding to
survive the crisis, we built the company over a 10-year bull market, and ended
up selling to AT&T for $1.6 billion in 2018.

Last year, I decided to start a new company, CMDTY, and raised $10MM from
Venrock and Rucker Park with the intention of having plenty of money in case
the world fell apart again (not really thinking it would, to be clear). I
think we are going to be impacted by the global recession like everyone else,
and at the same time, I think our product - a platform for supply chain
management - is going to be extremely valuable as things pick back up again.

While we are going to be cautious given the uncertainty we face, we plan to
hire 3-5 people over the next few months, and we're open to remote work (that
feels funny writing, given that nobody is in the office!).
[https://cmdtymkt.com/careers](https://cmdtymkt.com/careers)

~~~
autonoshitbox
What say you to this, Bokelley?

[https://medium.com/bugbountywriteup/at-ts-ad-exchange-is-
ove...](https://medium.com/bugbountywriteup/at-ts-ad-exchange-is-overrun-with-
data-stealing-malware-c9a3f5cbde0a)

------
soulnothing
Not laid off from this, but I was last Oct. Unemployed for three months,
started in January. Realized I didn't fit with the team and just took a new
short term contract. That caused me to burn through some of my savings. It's
been one thing after the other recently.

I'm really nervous after this contract is up. I already didn't see anything in
the market. Most recruiters, and even jobs told me I was too senior for what
they were looking for, or to expensive. Even cutting my rates drastically and
going for mid level / entry level engineering positions. Or reducing my
resume.

I'm looking at my burn rate and have about four months, right now. Honestly I
was looking at getting out of software all together after last October. Every
project I've been on is shuttered due to budget, or outsourced. Every six
months or so looking for new work, now this.

My inbox is still being hit up with roles in NYC, San Fran, Seattle on site /
on premise. I don't know if they'll come to fruition. I just worry about
volatility. I just find it odd to see people still hiring.

Hope everyone is safe out there, and can keep the bare essentials running.

------
zeta6896
Expecting to likely get laid off (if I should even care now, having pay
dropped below $2/hour as a full time backend dev). But I'm more worried that
here in Russia this situation unties hands for the government to close off the
borders permanently, and then quietly isolate the internet access.

------
mywittyname
Our leadership announced the possibility of paycuts in the near future. The
company I work for had some pretty aggressive hiring targets for Q1 and I'm
one of those hired, so naturally I expect that, should things get worse, they
will follow a FILO staff-reduction strategy.

~~~
viral007
Probably FIFO :(

~~~
adtac
Finally, being bang average pays off

------
caseyf7
Friday will be the day we find out how much boards are asking their companies
to reduce burn. The first large wave of layoffs will probably happen this
Friday and then it will be a nervous few weeks. Much more similar to 2001 than
2008.

~~~
dajohnson89
what’s special about friday in particular? i know it’s the end of the quarter
but aren’t the earnings announcements etc spread out over a few weeks?

~~~
dillonmckay
You want to stop the bleeding as soon as possible, but you don’t want to lay
anybody off during the week, so they have time to collect their thoughts over
the weekend.

Whereas, if you fired them on a Monday, they may show up Tuesday and cause
issues.

Salary is probably the most costly expense.

In the early 2000s, the warning sign was reducing the cleaning staff, and
having developers empty the trash.

~~~
caseyf7
Exactly. It also takes a couple of days to make plans, consult the lawyers, do
the calculations and have payroll ready. This has escalated so fast it will
probably take until Friday for companies to act.

------
eloff
Just signed a lease for a larger apt with twice the rent. Got laid off within
the hour. The new landlord is not wanting to let me out of the lease. They
already accepted the deposit and first months rent. Really bad timing.

~~~
dillonmckay
Move in and don’t pay anymore rent.

~~~
eloff
Hah, yeah it's occurred to me. I'm hoping they see the light before then.

------
max0563
Though I saw it coming, I was laid off recently (last week). The layoff was
unrelated to COVID-19, but laid off none the less. Luckily I have enough saved
to not be too burdened by it. I have an interview tomorrow and Friday, but I
see it more as an opportunity for something else. In my spare time I have been
working very hard to build a startup in the Insurance Tech space. Though I
have been looking for jobs, part of me keeps wanting to see this as an
opportunity to do what I really want which is to start my own business. Having
thought about it, I think I will be looking for freelance/contract work
instead of another full-time gig so that I can focus more on my company.

With that being said, the job market is going to become much more brutal very
soon, which slightly terrifies me... but I'd probably regret not at least
taking a chance working towards my dream, even during these uncertain times. I
did panic a bit when I got the news that I'd be losing my job, which lead to
the frantic job applications and reaching out to my network. After I took a
step back and thought about it though I was able to see this as an
opportunity.

To anyone else out there who recently lost a job and is panicking, try to take
a step back and evaluate your current situation. It might actually be setting
yourself up for something better. If nothing else, take the time that you have
to sharpen your skills or learn some new ones. Make the most of a bad
situation.

------
squiggleblaz
My s.o. just got a dev role in January, first job she hopes to keep, first job
in the west, to start 2 March. We moved across the country for it. A few other
hires were due to start a bit later in the month.

I was a bit nervous looking for a place to live in an incipient pandemic
(cases were already reported in the wild here at that time).

But from the coronavirus, the two hires due to start later in the month got
canceled - only my s.o. got taken on. I really hope they hadn't quit jobs in
far off lands to relocate :/

------
1st1
Really sorry for everyone affected.

EdgeDB Inc (of which I'm the CEO) is hiring. We're well funded early stage
startup with a mission to build the next generation database. We're looking
for engineers with extensive knowledge of nodejs/typescript/react and cloud
engineers with knowledge of rust/python/k8s/golang. Email me at yury [at]
edgedb.com. See also
[https://edgedb.com/careers/](https://edgedb.com/careers/)

------
bsbechtel
A few months back, I launched a side project that builds a professional
profile from your daily todo list (www.komplish.com). The idea is you can use
it to track side projects and even your tasks at work, and build a profile
from that to help you find work. You can also find others through the app for
smaller jobs that may not be big enough for a full time job posting. I’d love
it if anyone wanted to give it a try and let me know your thoughts! Hopefully
it can be helpful to some!

~~~
MattGaiser
Would you consider making it available in Canada? Just tried to download it,
but am north of the border.

------
aramix
I am a software engineer and I work remotely for a US company. We are in
telecommunications and our main products are callback service and scheduling a
callback over phone or messaging. Over the couple of weeks we have started
seeing some interest from big companies in healthcare and insurance that want
to use our products for their customer support during COVID-19 outbreak. So
for us it's more job opportunities there.

------
xelxebar
Not laid off, but I quit my job several years back to go to grad school.
Finished up my degree, did a bit of followup research, and now have been in
the job market for several months.

The job search has been seriously demoralizing.

There have been three separate companies who have department heads saying they
want to hire me, one from the R&D department of a large conglomerate even.
After several rounds of discussion and a code test each, they express
enthusiasm to work together, at which point the discussion pretty much
stagnates.

This has happened three times, and atop the background gruel of cold
application submissions, I am lost at what I must be doing wrong. Everyone I
talk to in person reflects back very positive sounding impressions: clear
communicator, keen analytical skills, impressive knowledge, blah blah.
However, since this never materializes into anything, I am beginning to wonder
if those are just polite ways of brushing someone off.

I just want to find a good (remote) team to work with and add value to. This
job search stint is making life bleaker by the day.

Anyway, enough whining, I guess. Many of us are in similar boats it sounds
like. Feel free to PM if you just want someone to talk to.

Cheers,

------
tellus
We’re hiring at Tellus App, Inc. Currently, we’re prioritizing those who are
looking for non-remote jobs (people who can relocate or already in the Bay
Area), but we are also open to hiring fully-remote. We’re growing quickly and
aren’t looking to slow down the hiring pace.

We’re an ambitious Silicon Valley FinTech startup founded by serial
entrepreneurs in 2016 to become the most innovative real estate investing
platform for all. This unique sector is riddled with extreme fragmentation and
plagued by uninspired product offerings — yet at the same time, real estate
contributes up to 18% of the U.S. GDP. We’re a team of seasoned operators and
developers with a home base in Silicon Valley who love to move fast and want
to do something no one has figured out.

We have several developer roles open which you can check out here:
[https://angel.co/company/tellusapp](https://angel.co/company/tellusapp)

If you’re interested in joining our team and for the right opportunity to dive
into the FinTech space, we’d love to hear from you! Email us at
recruiting@tellusapp.com.

------
aendruk
Yep. Events industry; entire company basically shut down.

------
Sean_Ross
I wasn't laid off, it was worse.

The last startup I worked for turned out to be a Theranos-in-miniature, and
after 11 months (after solving the puzzle) I had to recuse myself to the VC
who brought me in. Made me take a long pause/sabbatical to decide if I want to
be in startups anymore, and I worked on my music for awhile.

Being in the midst of an intense job search before all this broke, I'd been
blocking out the news. Coronavirus was peripheral to me, at best. I was just
starting to gain traction on a job search, when Covid-19 lock-down happened.

The moment I realized (my weak knees broke the news) this was real: Trader
Joe's, where all the aisles—normally so well-appointed, were empty. I've never
seen anything like it, except in a Walking Dead episode.

After successfully exiting the store without fainting, I said, you know that
silver lining? It's going to be huge.

In times of crisis, humans tend to go bigger. We discover how powerful we
really are. It's going to become crystal clear what's important and what's
not. We're living in the golden age of opportunity in so many ways it's not
even funny.

Just because I haven't solved my own personal crisis doesn't mean I won't.
It's going to push me out of my comfort zone even further, into a world
suddenly in exactly the same place. The way forward is focusing on others.

Since last week, I've had two interviews go dark due to hiring freezes, but 3
dozen meaningful conversations with people over the internet that never
would've happened otherwise. Some of them are afraid. I tell them about the
silver lining.

Before Covid-19, I felt a lot more alone. Now it seems like everyone is
freaking out right along with me, except I'm not anymore.

------
syllableai
Syllable.ai is hiring across the board. We are a healthcare company and are
currently slammed with requests from healthcare syatems for automated web and
phone bots. They are crippling under the demand of unprecedented customer
information requests. Our bots drive down their call volume significantly,
freeing up their call center operators to help the most critical information
requests.

Please email andrew@syllable.ai

~~~
Peretus
Andrew, thanks for commenting and I'll definitely be getting in touch. Can you
post a few lines about what kinds of skillsets you folks might be looking for,
or what your tech stack is?

~~~
syllableai
Senior full stack engineer, data scientist, Dev ops. All on-site in Sunnyvale
CA or Seattle WA. AWS, Python, Postgres, machine learning and large data
pipelines, real time natural language classifier running in production. See an
example of our product at www.syllable.ai/covid19-coronavirus

~~~
rabidrat
on-site even right now? Isn't everyone in CA or WA supposed to be WFH and
shelter-in-place?

~~~
shuckles
Presumably they are hiring for jobs that will exist even after the quarantine
is lifted.

------
thrownaway954
just wanted to say that rather than updating resumes, update your linkedin
profile. most opportunities i have gotten has been through linkedin. also,
once you have a linkedin profile completed, you can import it into indeed and
import your indeed profile into ziprecruiter.

also, there are many services out there that will export your linkedin profile
as a resume.

good luck everyone, i might be joining you guys soon enough :P

~~~
rxhernandez
If you don't mind me asking, how many more opportunities came from Linkedin?
Last time I was looking, I was getting about 2 new interviews per week from
sending my resume through Indeed and about 1 interview per month from
Linkedin.

~~~
jfim
LinkedIn really depends on your resume/skills and geographical area.

In the Bay area, I passively get at least two recruiter reach outs per week
and when I was set to actively looking, it was more like several per day. Some
of them are highly targeted. For example, I've had a company reach out
recently based on previous distributed column store experience.

Triplebyte is also pretty good, although it's heavily skewed towards startups.

Both of those options are pretty high return on little investment (a few
hours).

~~~
rxhernandez
Thank you for responding and providing as much information as you did. That's
pretty impressive; if I have to start looking again, I'll have to focus more
on the LinkedIn side of things than I previously did.

------
orionblastar
Laid off since 2002. Became disabled in 2003. Nobody wants to hire me because
of my disabilities.

Since then I've been working on getting better, but tech has passed me by to
where my skills are all retro and legacy tech. I kept up with Windows and
Office but did not learn C# and Python yet. I know the foundations and
fundamentals of programming. Just that I am 51 now and ageism sets in.

------
thereisnotry
I work as a PM in a pretty big tech company, and I’m a cofounder of PrepTick
(an interview prep startup).

Here’s a rundown of what we’ve been seeing in the tech job market. Situation’s
super fluid, so it’s quite likely a lot of this might be inaccurate a week
from today.

    
    
      -Big companies (FAANG, Microsoft, Uber etc) continue hiring unabated. It looks like any contracts made are being honoured.
      -Medium and smaller companies seem to be pausing hiring. A lot of scheduled interviews cancelled. Some candidates told us they were informed these companies would get back in 6-8 weeks.
      -The majority of venture funded startups seem to have entirely stopped hiring, or seem to be on the verge of doing so. Some relatively urgent roles still remain open. Anecdotally, reasons seem to be either runway extension (defensively, or rarely - explicit guidance from investors), as well as a sheer lack of time, too many key people involved in firefighting expected changes in revenue/demand
    

Some incidental observations we made that might be useful for recently
unemployed engineers/analysts: Lots of Banking tech roles still open, inspite
of the pounding their stocks have taken. Banks pay decently, work environment
is rarely as awesome as Tech but it’s a living. Accounting tech and Consulting
tech seem relatively unaffected.

As an interview prep company, we know we can do a lot to help folks affected
by this situation. Up until now we’ve focused on 1-1 coaching/practice simply
because it’s proven to be incredibly effective. We really want to do something
that can help a winder audience given the situation - and until things
stabilize, we’re probably going to do it for free (think webinars, interview
content, videos - we’re brainstorming a bunch of ideas)

If anyone has thoughts, or might be interested in helping/collaborating, drop
me a note at [redacted]. We’re going to do whatever we can :)

PS - first post here, bad formatting, edited to try and fix it.

------
olivierpicault
I'm a French freelance developer - working from France - and until now I had
an Australian company as my main client. I got a call at the beginning of the
week from the CTO telling me that after almost 2 years that was it. The
company suffered a lot from the economic situation because of the COVID-19
crisis and thus could not longer afford my services. The R&D team was split-up
between remote contractors and based in Sydney people. All the remotes have
been laid off. My situation is not that bad currently: I still have another
client I used to work for 1 or 2 days a week, I hope they will have enough
work for me to work 3 or 4 days a week. I have some savings as well. I'll wait
for the end of all of this before taking any decision (go back to a classic
full time job maybe ?). Cheers

------
inertiatic
Wow, my heart goes out to you people, in my mind the tech industry was safe
but apparently I hadn't thought this through.

------
sianliu
The AI startup I was with just informed me that there's been a change of
business directions and they needed more salespeople than a DevOps engineer so
I got the ax.

Unemployment doesn't have to be bleak and depressing. With the downtime, I'm
going to try to knock out two AWS Associate certifications, Solution Architect
and DevOps. Got inspired by Adrian Cantrill. No affiliation, I'm still in awe
of his level of detail and clarity. I would highly recommend it if you are
planning on taking SAA-C02.

Hiring in Singapore for DevOps/Cloud in startups has been pretty good from my
experience these past few weeks. Got more than a few interviews lined up from
startups in different domains, fintech, and travel just to name a few.

It's not what you know but who you know. I still stand by those words.

Lately, Roselinde Torres, a leadership expert asked it the best. What is the
diversity measure of your network?

------
robot_scream
For anyone looking for something right now we are very much hiring over at
[https://snyk.io/](https://snyk.io/) for engineers and more in Tel Aviv &
London. All interviews are remote at this time but we are not stopping hiring.

Here is a small description of what we do: Ecosystems Group My team is
responsible for introducing support for new Languages, Build Tools and Package
Managers to help Snyk users test & fix their projects. We do so by
understanding the language rules & dependency resolution rules for each tool
and building libraries & services in TypeScript that can extract project
dependencies so that they can be tested for known vulnerabilities. Expect to
learn a lot, pair a lot and be challenged while delivering incremental value
to our users

We use Node.js with Express & Typescript.

------
Roritharr
I've been on the opposite end of this. We're a small startup that's vc backed
but cashflow positive and we're hiring a new frontend dev for our next
project, full-remote globally possible. We've received a ton of applications,
put a lot of effort in whittling them down to a final candidate, who could
only start in April. This was a bitter pill for us to swallow but she was
head-and-shoulders above the rest so we decided to keep the position open and
wait for her.

Yesterday I received the mail that because of COVID-19 she wants to stay with
her current employer as she doesn't want any additional uncertainty in her
life at this moment. I totally understand the sentiment, but now our project
timeline is hosed and I have to start the recruitment process from scratch.

Sadly our conservative budgets don't allow for hiring multiple people for this
position.

------
NVI
My team at Apple is hiring two software engineers to work on WebKit Web
Inspector.

[https://jobs.apple.com/en-us/details/200129232/web-
developer...](https://jobs.apple.com/en-us/details/200129232/web-developer-
tools-engineer)

------
late2part
CrowdStrike is hiring aggressively.

My team managers the physical and virtual server infrastructure.

I'm looking for:

Data Center Technicians (non remote) Power Analysts (looking at server, pdu,
DC power - remote) HW Performance Testers (server, cpu, disk performance
analysis - remote) Linux Automation (remote) VMWare Administrators (highly
advanced in large scale environments with high complexity and throughput -
remote) Project Managers with experience deploying telecom and circuits
(remote) Network Engineers (remote) Storage Engineers (familiar w/ ZFS, iscsi,
nfs, complex storage analysis - remote)

If interested, please mail me aXlaXn@crXowdstXrike.com (remove the "X"es) with
your resume and a brief introduction - please put 'remote HN post' in your
subject.

------
ciclista
I'm the sole IT tech for a small manufacturing facility - I was already part
time and just got the request to reduce my hours even further for now. The
local job market is already subpar here, so I'm definitely concerned about the
months to come.

------
Zimahl
As someone who went through the last downturn, this isn't looking good in the
same ways. Back then I was on a contract that had just completed and as soon
as the housing market collapsed all the VC money dried up, established
companies did some purse-tightening which included layoffs, and there wasn't a
job available to even apply to for almost 6 months.

I work in a more downturn-resistant company now and I should be alright since
we were going to be working on some internal projects for the next 6 months or
so anyways. But you never know. Any expenses I have at this time are being
heavily scrutinized because, like last time, things are going to take 6 months
to shake out.

God speed, everyone.

------
msadowski
I'm probably too late to this topic: but if your skills are related to
Robotics and you were laid off let me know at mat@weeklyrobotics.com and I'll
share your profile with all the readers of Weekly Robotics newsletter.

------
grumple
I’m personally unaffected and unlikely to be for a while longer because my
SaaS serves a class of businesses that will be remaining open during
quarantine. We’re pretty slim as an organization and fully remote so I’m
hopeful we’ll be fine through this.

However, my SO is a physical therapist and several of her colleagues at other
businesses have been laid off as people stop coming to appointments (rehab not
being acute care and many patients being elderly or otherwise vulnerable). All
of my service industry and entertainment industry friends are unemployed for
the foreseeable future. The knock-on effects of even a short shutdown are
likely to be significant.

------
lincolndied
Seeing a lot of folks getting worried about layoffs but haven't heard of
anyone being let go first hard yet. Nonetheless, I think this is an important
time to understand how layoffs work, what is negotiable and what to sign/ not
to sign if it happens to you. I warmly recommend this short read, even if
you're pretty confident you won't be affected:
[https://candor.co/guides/layoff/](https://candor.co/guides/layoff/)

------
Patski
Sad to read about some of these stories of hardship that people find
themselves in. If you are based in Melbourne, Victoria we currently have an
opening for a web developer to help with our frontend as well as a business
development role based in the states. You can check the job description on our
careers page:

[https://mod.io/careers](https://mod.io/careers)

Remote work is _potentially_ possible for the SE role depending on the
candidate, but on-site is preferred.. that being said we are all working
remotely for the meantime given the current situation.

If you are interested please drop me an email at pat[at]mod.io

------
jakub_g
No layoffs in Dailymotion. We're in fact having an opening for a junior/mid-
level (~1-3 yrs exp) JavaScript developer role, for my team in south-east
France. Due to the outbreak though, interviews will be via Zoom.

Contact info in my HN profile.

~~~
namc
Sent you an email

------
dingribanda
Two companies that I was in the process interviewing, cancelled the interviews
this week. I am thankfully employed but I was thinking of leaving the company
I work for. Having said that there are other companies still willing to hire.

------
Redoubts
No, but I picked a very bad time to quit my job and move from one hotspot to
another.

~~~
henryfjordan
I really feel this. My partner just got a great opportunity so we jumped on it
but I had to leave my job. Now I'm worried it'll be a few months before this
settles down enough for hiring depts to want me and by then who knows what the
market will look like...

------
hosh
I got lucky. I started a full time remote job in an edtech platform, and this
one has some capability for supporting distance learning.

A friend of mine started a new full time remote job several months ago at a
12-person startup doing telemedicine and remote patient onboarding.

I think it depends on what it is. I would have expected Slack to be launching
like a rocket ship, but they are actually have an in-office-first culture and
resisted the transformation into a fully-remote culture.

I'm still wondering where all those VR startups and entertainments platforms
are. I haven't been hearing anything from Second Life, for example.

------
abb1234etric
I am the Founder/CEO of SimplyWise. We are hiring a tech lead based out of
NYC. We are well capitalized and have plenty of runway to get through the the
next few years.

SimplyWise is empowering better decisions for modern retirement. As the US
population ages, more retirees are faced with difficult decisions around how
to generate income, reduce debt, navigate healthcare and minimize costs. Be a
part of the team that is helping 55 to 70 year olds navigate some of the most
anxiety inducing decisions they face right now.

For more information about the position contact me at sam<at>simplywise.com

------
eloisant
Not talking about today's situation, but I've been laid off during the crisis
in 2008. I was in a small startup that cut its workforce in half (because VCs
wanted it to stay afloat longer with the same amount of money). Many other
tech companies did massive layoffs.

There was still plenty of jobs in companies who were not affected by the
crisis as much and used the opportunity to recruit talent that is very hard to
attract in normal time.

So if you're in tech, it's unlikely that the job market will dry up to the
point it becomes hard to find a job.

------
ta11ey
I'm a Contractor focusing on technical support for eComm sites (Woocommerce,
Shopify, Etc). and overall helping with the technical needs for companies that
can't do it in house. A few clients have indefinitely suspended work, We'll
see what happens when I send invoices at the end of the month ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯.

If your looking for a stateside contractor at rates of around 90$/hr I'd love
to talk! My portfolio is here
[https://talleycodigital.com/](https://talleycodigital.com/)

------
MrMember
I work for an airline. Leadership is saying pretty much every day that
employee layoffs aren't planned currently but they sound less and less
confident about it every time they say it.

------
otobrglez
I’ve found out last Friday that I have to fire 2/3 of our engineering team. I
work for a R&D “lab” inside a corporation, inside market research industry.
Reason that I’ve got is that company hasn’t reached its expected growth and
there is no budget to continue development in such size. I had to let my
friends go... It’s gonna be really really though to stay.

So, if you need remote Senior Ruby, Senior Scala, Senior OPS, Senior Front-End
(Angular), Senior iOS/Swift, or certified product managers, ping me.

------
_bxg1
My intuition is that layoffs will be limited to speculative ventures; i.e.,
startups that aren't profitable yet and/or are highly dependent on outside
investment. Risk is suddenly very unattractive, which is a major turnaround
from 6 months ago.

I don't think tech in general is in trouble. As a whole it's probably one of
the least in-trouble sectors as the world moves online. We'll just see a lot
of developers shifting from moonshots to projects that create real value,
which may not be a bad thing.

~~~
danpalmer
Alternatively, lay-offs could be focused in companies who are profitable but
with poor cash flow and who suddenly become insolvent. Earlier stage companies
typically rely less on incoming cash from revenue and more on cash reserves
from investment. Plus, investors have targets to meet on investments. They’re
going to get more risk averse but they can’t stop investing for 6 months
entirely.

------
idoby
Tens of thousands of people were fired in my country just this week, across
all industries.

While this periodic restructuring of the economy is probably healthy in the
long term, I wish well to all individuals and families hurt by this crisis.
Some people I know won't recover financially.

One consequence of this crisis, IMO, will be that people will focus on their
fellow nationals for a while, and globalism will take a hit. When resources
are scarce compared to the scale of the problem, you have to prioritize.

------
spitfire
A little off topic but can we start a thread for people who have been
displaced by coronavirus seeking work? There sure to be many great people who
will be looking for work now, or will be shortly.

I haven't been displaced, but I am a Data scientist seeking work. I'd
particularly like to jump on projects which can help deal with this virus. But
I'd work take any honest work.

I have the usual DS experience Python, TF, sklearn, stats, Postgres, AWS,
scala/spark pipelines, etc. Contact is in the profile.

------
aladine
I am in the same fate. My company has teams in Melbourne and San Diego. The
whole team in Melbourne office get laid off just 2 weeks ago.

I am working in Australia but with working visa. So it is urgent for me to
find a work within 60 days. Getting a job will be harder this time due to the
fact that not all the companies I applied can sponsor visa for applicants.

But I am still keep my faith. There will be jobs available and even in the
worst case, I could take a time off to spend more time with my family.

------
cnees
Academia.edu is still conducting interviews (now remotely) and hiring at full
speed. It's on solid footing financially, it's adapted well to remote work,
and for the last three and a half years I've found it to be a really fun
workplace. I can't recommend it enough without sounding like a recruiter. Here
are the openings:
[https://www.academia.edu/hiring](https://www.academia.edu/hiring)

------
CoyoteJosh
I accepted an offer with a pharma tech company last week am am super nervous
about putting my notice in this week at my current job. I have verified that
everything is good to go multiple times and am now being shipped my machine to
begin remotely. This has to be the most nerve wracking decision I've made in
my adult life (solely due to timing). I've been told over and over by people
close to me not to worry about it, but I can't help but worry.

------
abinaya_codes
Remote Leaf[1] founder here, I would like to offer a free month of Remote Leaf
membership to people who lost their job during this crisis, that might help
you land a remote job. We hand-pick thousands of remote jobs from tons of job
boards and only sends the ones that apply to you. Just ping me on
Twitter(@abinaya_rl) and send me an email to avail this :)

[1] - [https://remoteleaf.com](https://remoteleaf.com)

------
msolujic
It seams to me that this bust of economy that is rolling has potential to be
even more destructive than previous one of 2008. Brace yourself. Here is good
list of advices in case of layoff, it was posted in HN few days ago
[https://jacobian.org/2020/mar/13/layoffs-are-
coming/](https://jacobian.org/2020/mar/13/layoffs-are-coming/)

------
facorreia
The company I work for is hiring in San Francisco, New York and Bengaluru.
We're doing remote interviews. If interested, my email is in my profile.
Cheers!

------
ketzo
I’m graduating in May, and accepted a return offer at a company I interned at
last summer. I’m reeeeally nervous they’re gonna cancel that offer before
September.

~~~
MiroF
Same boat, but I start in July.

------
mobiledev2014
Sorry to detract when I'm lucky and have not been laid off but I feel it's
relevant.

I just started a new gig a month ago. I feel it is stable and was a good move,
but who knows in these uncharted waters.

My wife is 12 weeks pregnant. I haven't told my manager or anyone else. Should
I tell them or wait? We're on her healthcare and she is a nurse so high job
security. Happy to add more details and thanks for your advice.

------
abecz0926
Hello all,

we are actively hiring. We are Myriad Genetics -- Biotech giant from Salt Lake
City, Utah. Take a look at our openings, apply and let me know if you need
assistance.

[https://myriad.com/working-at-myriad/joining-the-myriad-
team...](https://myriad.com/working-at-myriad/joining-the-myriad-team/current-
openings/)

i can be reached at: alex.bec@myriad.com

------
flibble
Flipdish (food-tech / online ordering for restaurants) is hiring remote
developers (.NET)

[https://www.flipdish.com/careers/](https://www.flipdish.com/careers/)

Mention HN in the application and I’ll make sure it’s prioritised.

I’m totally biased, but I think we’ve a great culture and lovely and friendly
tech team who love solving problems together and getting stuff shipped.

~~~
9wzYQbTYsAIc
> Flipdish is based in Dublin, you will need to be currently eligible to work
> in Ireland without the need for sponsorship.

How does sponsorship work for those in the US?

------
topheroo
I was laid off in December… from my job researching the origins of pandemic
diseases and developing mitigation methods. ¯\\(°_O)/¯

------
bryanmgreen
Basically.

I was actually laid off last year and had been searching for a new gig.

Finally made some progress on finding two companies I really liked and made it
to the final interviews. One company’s business is in jeopardy and the other
has paused hiring.

If anyone needs a full-stack marketing leader with digital, offline and
partnership experience, I’m here! Full or part time at any level or
consulting. Let me know!

------
i_r7al
I'm a full-time software engineer in Seattle and I got laid off today. I have
been with the company for about 8 months only. There given reason was re-org.
Looking for an opportunity during this rough time, my resume here
[http://0sl.in/aboutme](http://0sl.in/aboutme) I appreciate any referrals

------
rxhernandez
Does anyone know how important it is to look for a job immediately if you
don't think your job will exist for much longer?

I have the funds to last about a year unemployed + I wanted to work on my own
software projects for a few months. However, I'm concerned that if I don't hop
back in the job market quickly enough, the decent paying jobs might dry up.

~~~
chickenpotpie
If you only want a two month break start looking now. It will take about a
month to two months to get a job and then you can push back your start date
for another month. You can also go slower in the job process which will let
you be picky and negotiate better.

------
golergka
Working in mobile gaming my whole life, and it's one of the few industries
that's experiencing a a sharp upturn – but I'm still very nervous. Although
big companies and publishers might be enjoying increased revenues, it's still
not obvious how will small studios that are cash flow negative and rely on
investment survive.

------
myriadtechrec
We are hiring at Myriad Genetics. If you are interested in software
engineering roles or any roles, please visit our website at

[https://myriad.com/working-at-myriad/joining-the-myriad-
team...](https://myriad.com/working-at-myriad/joining-the-myriad-team/current-
openings/)

------
jb775
If you were laid off with an excuse related to coronavirus, I'd be willing to
bet that you would've been without a job in the near term no matter what.

This is a short term issue. Once everyone returns to their normal routines in
the next ~2-3 weeks, there will be a surge of spending and businesses won't be
able to keep up with demand.

------
MH15
Yes, from my part-time food service job. Luckily I have a place to stay and
just got my tax refund but I'm a poor college student so the worries I'm
having are with internet access at my familial home. I'm waiting on a refund
from my college for the unused rent after they kicked us out of the student
living.

------
jacob_rezi
[https://rezi.io](https://rezi.io)

We've made our resume software totally free for anyone that is affected by the
virus.

We are headquartered in Seoul and as a result, my first-hand experience with
the virus comes from a place of less concern than most North Americans and
Europeans.

This is the one way I feel like we can help out

------
throwaway150919
Does anyone have advice on what to do if you think your company will lay you
off? For example, would it be best to get laid off, then immediately seek
unemployment? Or, best to negotiate NOW for a severance package that includes
healthcare in hopes of your boss thinking that is a better option for them?
Or, resign for some reason?

~~~
Cyberdog
If you think you're at risk for being laid off, attempting to renegotiate your
contract is probably not a good idea. I also don't think resigning makes any
sense.

I would say your best bet is to cut expenses and start saving up. Cut out
unnecessary entertainment expenses, cook at home more often, trade in your car
for a used beater if you have an outstanding car note, etc. Take it from me,
it's more painful but more rewarding to do this sort of thing before it
becomes absolutely necessary.

~~~
jbkiv
Can't agree more.

------
narenkeshav
I left my job & bootstrapped my startup for the past year. It is an Augmented
Reality product with location-based functionality. We had it tested, refined &
ready. Now I don't think I can release it in the near future. I do not apply
for EI or SMB business credit as well. Well, it is an adventure - isn't it?

www.mani.ai

------
mharroun
Any JavaScript/React or Scala engineers in NYC (and some remote
opportunities). Looking for a job my company dv01 has a lot of open roles.
Currently doing interviews over hangouts.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22618788](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22618788)

------
danbmil99
Running a small consulting firm. Taking the financial temperature of the
startups we service.

If this turns into a many month or year long downturn, I suspect many of our
contracts which are on a monthly basis will come to an end. Trying to re-enter
the job market at my age is going to be extremely difficult.

------
Bombthecat
I'm interviewing right now... Wanted to "switch up". Now I'm not so sure
anymore.

Even though they are pretty big, i have no idea how they woild handle 20
percent jobless and an economy in the shitters... Seriously. No company and
job is save. The big ones will feel the lower sales too.

------
mcv
I'm not being laid off. Well, I will be in a few months, but also the
opposite; I'm a freelancer currently working for a major bank, and they will
soon run into the limit of how long they're allowed to hire me according to
their rules, so they announced my contract will end in the summer. But if I'm
open to it, I could get a permanent position there. It's unrelated to the
pandemic, though.

I need to consider whether to take them up on that. I like the freedom of
freelancing, and it will undoubtedly be an effective pay cut, but I do really
enjoy the project I'm working on, and other teams within the same department
are also working on interesting things I'd like to get into, like Machine
Learning. And some job security might be nice if the pandemic hurts the job
market. So in a way the pandemic may force me out of my current freelancing
business. I'm totally aware I'm in a very comfortable position compared to
many others, though.

------
escot
We're still hiring, and are trying to help where possible to combat covid-19
(We are a "cloud lab" that gives programmatic control of lab equipment to
scientists via the internet)

[https://strateos.com/](https://strateos.com/)

------
edem
I have. It was the best thing that could have happened. I've got 2 months to
sit at home while being paid. The 2 months are soon over and I'm flooded with
freelance work. So now I work 40-50% less for roughly the same amount of
money. I should have done this earlier.

~~~
MAMAMassakali
How did you find freelance work?

------
eyegor
Not a hiring manager, but I will be hiring more cs people for my team soon. We
wanted to hire people anyway, but this virus will probably expand the
candidate pool since most of the gorillas will have trouble hiring now. Adtech
is about to face a harsh reality check.

------
myriadtechrec
We are hiring at Myriad Genetics.

[https://myriad.com/working-at-myriad/joining-the-myriad-
team...](https://myriad.com/working-at-myriad/joining-the-myriad-team/current-
openings/)

------
vogt
Not yet, but as a contractor-to-hire employee I expect that the latter part of
the equation won't be happening at absolute best.

Anybody looking for a FT remote senior designer with heavy component library,
react prototyping and sketch/figma skills?

------
tomrod
What human-capital organizing platforms do we have, or can we stand up in
short order? Linked and Indeed are overly spammed and enterprise, I don't
expect them to pivot quickly.

Surely we can make a matching platform for and by tech.

------
stunt
This is probably the best time for some businesses like Airlines to upgrade
and migrate their legacy software foundations. I hope they see it that way.
But unfortunately that's not how investors look at it.

------
tmountain
SharpSpring is hiring. We're a marketing automation company. Fully remote--for
the moment at least. Hiring fullstack devs (TypeScript & GraphQL). Email
travis [at] sharpspring [dot] com if interested.

------
kilroy123
Not exactly laid off recently, but I've been on a sabbatical after being laid
off 18 months ago.

I'm about at the end of my sabbatical and was going to start looking for a new
gig soon. Worst timing ever.

Not sure what to do now.

------
bitten
I was layed off before corona. Although I have been interviewing at 2
companies, both of those have frozen hiring and the positions have been
cancelled. So still in a way affected which sucks!

------
auslegung
I'm a frontend dev. I do not expect to be laid off anytime soon. Our company
was planning to double in size this year, we were hiring quite a lot, and now
we're just slowing down hiring.

------
eutropia
No. My company was already 70% remote and our customers and users are in the
US healthcare system. I consider myself extremely fortunate, because my wife
worked at a restaurant and lost her job.

------
earlhathaway
I'm a hiring manager and we're hiring engineers: senior frontend and backend.
Interviews are over Zoom; they're a bit choppy but people seem to be bearing
with us.

If you work for a company funded by SoftBank or your company is chasing froth,
I'd start making plans that involve your current employer no longer paying
you.

I'd be remiss if I didn't say if you need a job, meet the above
qualifications, and are willing to work in SF 4 days/week only -- comment
below this. (Though obviously we're fully remote until at least April 7; I
expect after that it's going to be fully remote at your choice for probably
another month minimum. More depending on if / how Trump bungles the covid
response further).

~~~
ttymck
Thanks for posting. What's the backend stack look like?

------
abecz0926
we are actively hiring -- virus or no virus -- Biotech giant in Salt Lake City
Utah -- Myriad Genetics -- Take a look and apply! [https://myriad.com/working-
at-myriad/joining-the-myriad-team...](https://myriad.com/working-at-
myriad/joining-the-myriad-team/current-openings/)

i can be reached at: alex.becz@myriad.com

------
simon1573
I lost my contractor assignment this morning. It seems like companies here in
Sweden are preparing for tougher times ahead.

------
kylebenzle
Not laid off but about to have a third interview with my ideal company and was
told they were starting a hiring freeze.

------
haileris
Not laid off but was just put on furlough

~~~
jpeg_hero
did they tell you when they expect to recall you? what is that communication
like?

------
siculars
Hey fam, if you haven't noticed - the entire world just went work from home.
Have faith. Don't despair. This too shall pass. Use this time to brush up on
skills, do some side projects, learn new things. Have confidence in your
abilities, recognize where you can use some guidance and don't be afraid to
ask for it.

Look after yourself and your loved ones. Be kind to people.

------
bdcravens
What skills do you have outside of front-end development? How many different
frameworks do you know?

~~~
Peretus
I had a decent amount of contracting work going before accepting the position
that I had most recently, so I will probably start offering that again,
depending on what kind of response I get from the applications I submit. This
most recent job I got from posting in the monthly `Who's Hiring` thread back
in 2018:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17205867](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17205867)

As far as frameworks, I'm quite familiar with React and React Native (app in
Google Play and App Store), Redux, Angularjs, etc. I haven't worked with Vue
yet, but I'm looking forward to trying it now that I've suddenly found myself
with some free time!

The remote team that I have been working with most recently are all updating
our resumes. A portion if the fully-remote engineering team is located in
Europe while a couple of us are located in the USA.

If you or someone you know is hiring, feel free to send me an email at the
address in my profile and I can put you in touch with a few fantastic remote
developers who I happen to know are available and who do great work.

~~~
bdcravens
We're not hiring, but I would encourage you to add at least one backend
language to your repetoire, and some ops (like basic AWS, Docker, etc).
Flexibility is what will make you valuable, and tbh, in a downturn I think
front-ends will be deprioritized.

~~~
Peretus
That's great advice. I don't usually choose it to show off in interviews as
it's not my strongest skill, but I currently work full-stack across an app
with Rails backend and Angular/React front-end. I also have experience with
Express, but haven't worked with it for a couple of years.

------
junkilo
my new company just withdrew their offer (I started in a couple weeks) and I
just left my previous gig (AV startup). backend+infra full stack python/go
stuff

the new company's revenue went from 7 figures+ a month to 0 because of the
virus and they are rightly freaking out

~~~
danpalmer
What market are then in that went from 7 figures a month to zero?

~~~
loriverkutya
Hotel industry for example.

------
krschultz
What's the difference between "mandatory unpaid leave" and "laid off"?

~~~
krupan
With unpaid leave they are saying they will still have a job for you at some
point. It probably means you still have benefits.

------
sriram_sun
Consultant. Projects seem to be drying off (Same story for a couple of other
friends as well).

------
jitl
My employer (Notion Labs, Inc) is trying to hire in this climate and finding
it difficult.

------
toisanji
we are hiring at [https://getcloudapp.com](https://getcloudapp.com). Looking
for a strong ruby and rails developer who knows devops pretty well. Email is
in my profile.

------
daenz
>mandatory unpaid leave

What does this mean, precisely? How is it different from firing staff?

~~~
ShakataGaNai
When you have a layoff, the former employee can file for unemployment. Which
is money that comes from the company (through a circuitous route). So it's
cheaper to go "mandatory unpaid leave".

~~~
daenz
So this is a scumbag move by the employer then? They don't want to lose the
employee, they don't want to pay them, and they don't want to pay for
unemployment?

~~~
infinite8s
The unemployment has already been paid for (in most states it comes out of
every paycheck).

------
narenkeshav
I left my job, bootstrapped my startup (an AR Product). The product was
tested, refined & ready by the end of February. The core of the product
expects people to move & has significant location-based functionalities. I
can't release it in the near future.

------
trilinearnz
Not laid off, but I have been held back from a planned role transition (Agile
Team Facilitator) so that I can continue contributing towards developer
resource in the interim.

------
pjutard81
Come join us! mural.co/jobs

------
solanagaspari
Tray.io | London | Backend Engineer (Scala/Java) / Security Engineer /
Frontend Engineer | Security Engineer| Site Reliability Engineer| Technical
Support Administrator| Full-time | Onsite | [https://tray.io](https://tray.io)

Tray is a visual programming platform. It’s a low-code user experience that
allows anyone to build business logic that precisely defines how data flows
through their organisation.

We’re a well-funded startup with a team in San Francisco and 100+ in our
London Engineering HQ. We have secured a huge Series C in November this year,
at over 8.5x the valuation of our Series A in March 2018; we’ve worked hard on
creating a fantastic support layer for our technical teams and now we’re
expanding. We’re small (approaching medium sized) and dynamic, very open to
new ideas and the work you do now will have a big impact on shaping how we
grow our team and our product.

We aim to pick the right tool for the job, and currently use: Typescript,
React, Redux, GraphQL, and our toolchain includes Webpack and PostCSS. On the
backend, our APIs are built in Scala, with Go and Java powering some of our
custom services.

We are excited by people who want to constantly innovate; borrow from other
industries, experiment with new tools and pool their knowledge with other
solution seekers; people who have shipped entire projects with ownership and
autonomy; people who take pride in what gets built, all the whilst balancing
day-to-day pragmatism with building for the future.

Current open roles:

\- Backend Software Engineer
[https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4586921002](https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4586921002)

\- Systems Software Engineer
[https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4370269002](https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4370269002)

\- Security Engineer
[https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4629664002](https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4629664002)

\- Frontend Software Engineer (Performance)
[https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4363932002](https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4363932002)

\- Frontend Software Engineer (Design system)
[https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4655086002](https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4655086002)
-Site Reliability Engineer
[https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4370269002](https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4370269002)

-Technical Support Administrator [https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4675597002](https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4675597002)

Tech stack: Scala, Go, GraphQL, ReactJS, TypeScript, JavaScript, PostgreSQL,
Redis, ElasticSearch, MongoDB, DynamoDB, AWS SQS, AWS Kinesis, Docker,
Terraform, AWS Lambda, Serverless Framework, Jenkins, Grafana, Prometheus, AWS
& Linux.

Apply: [https://tray.io/jobs](https://tray.io/jobs) or get in touch with
london-talent@tray.io

------
solanagaspari
Tray.io | London | Backend Engineer (Scala/Java) | Security Engineer |
Frontend Engineer | Security Engineer| Site Reliability Engineer| Technical
Support Administrator| Full-time | Onsite | [https://tray.io](https://tray.io)

Tray is a visual programming platform. It’s a low-code user experience that
allows anyone to build business logic that precisely defines how data flows
through their organisation.

We’re a well-funded startup with a team in San Francisco and 100+ in our
London Engineering HQ. We have secured a huge Series C in November last year,
at over 8.5x the valuation of our Series A in March 2018; we’ve worked hard on
creating a fantastic support layer for our technical teams and now we’re
expanding. We’re small (approaching medium sized) and dynamic, very open to
new ideas and the work you do now will have a big impact on shaping how we
grow our team and our product.

We aim to pick the right tool for the job, and currently use: Typescript,
React, Redux, GraphQL, and our toolchain includes Webpack and PostCSS. On the
backend, our APIs are built in Scala, with Go and Java powering some of our
custom services.

We are excited by people who want to constantly innovate; borrow from other
industries, experiment with new tools and pool their knowledge with other
solution seekers; people who have shipped entire projects with ownership and
autonomy; people who take pride in what gets built, all the whilst balancing
day-to-day pragmatism with building for the future.

Current open roles:

\- Backend Software Engineer
[https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4586921002](https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4586921002)

\- Systems Software Engineer
[https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4370269002](https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4370269002)

\- Security Engineer
[https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4629664002](https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4629664002)

\- Frontend Software Engineer (Performance)
[https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4363932002](https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4363932002)

\- Frontend Software Engineer (Design system)
[https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4655086002](https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4655086002)

-Site Reliability Engineer [https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4370269002](https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4370269002)

-Technical Support Administrator [https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4675597002](https://boards.greenhouse.io/trayio/jobs/4675597002)

Tech stack: Scala, Go, GraphQL, ReactJS, TypeScript, JavaScript, PostgreSQL,
Redis, ElasticSearch, MongoDB, DynamoDB, AWS SQS, AWS Kinesis, Docker,
Terraform, AWS Lambda, Serverless Framework, Jenkins, Grafana, Prometheus, AWS
& Linux.

Apply: [https://tray.io/jobs](https://tray.io/jobs) or get in touch with
london-talent@tray.io

The interview process happens completely remotely, and you will stay remote
until the outbreak ends

------
hrenee1978
NAN

------
buttholesurfer
I was trying to get back into the job market and was scheduled for my 3rd and
final interview tomorrow. They canceled it and apologized. Told me hopefully
they'll call me back in a month... I doubt they will.

------
geom_998747
Laid off:

No, I'm self employed (software business). That does not mean that I'm
impervious to macroeconomic conditions, but it does mean I have developed a
forecasting mindset that generally keeps me ahead of downturns.

Hiring:

No, not at the moment. But that doesn't have anything to do with COVID. I tend
to hire very little and no one permanent.

Honestly, I struggle with tech people who run out of cash or say they can't
get hired. I understand that not everyone can ace an interview or makes enough
to save up a large cushion -- at the same time you have one of the most
valuable / sought after skills in the market today.

A little late for this advice, but:

MAKE SURE YOU GET PAID WHAT YOU'RE WORTH AND SAVE SOME CASH. SOME AS IN
MONTHS' OR YEARS' WORTH.

Really, you don't have to be "rich" to have a 1% level of financial stability.
It's really about having enough cash to have enough time to weather a downturn
or move into a new area without pooping your pants.

The response I usually get is "but x happened!". Yeah, no shit, that's the
whole point. We can't see into the future but we can buffer cash.

If this downturn ends up hurting you -- learn from it!

