How Bad Is The Tech Job Market Right Now? 1
The headline is Recession hits Silicon Valley as layoffs pile up and yet it fails to fully capture how the landscape has changed so rapidly in the last half a year. I was looking at my career options back then and was shocked to find just how much demand there was in the market. It seemed like the R word wasn’t going to ever be spoken in the tech sector. A few months ago, I was calling friends at Yahoo and other places, and trying to convince them to come work with me. While I wasn’t entirely unsuccessful, it was a non-trivial argument to make (which based on what you read in the press would seem impossible at least for Yahoos). This month…
…I get pings from people I’ve worked with, people I barely remember, and even recruiters. The latter show a shocking amount of compassion/desperation. I actually had a recruiter call me up today and offer to hand me a resume even though he knew we don’t work with outside agencies to keep our costs down, and so there could not be any compensation in it for him (and yes, this gesture will undoubtedly pay dividends when this mess comes to an end, but he has to know that may be a long way off and I’m sure he is as desperate to bring home the bacon right now as anyone). I’ve never seen a recruiter do something like that before. Not even during the .com bust years. THAT is how bad it is.
Hang on to your horses everyone, this is going to be a very bumpy ride… since we’re in LA you may choose to think of it as an economyquake. ;-)
Does this mean an end to the days when Google and (ahem) FIM snatch up every nerd worth hiring? Because that would be pretty freakin’ sweet.