The Reality Of Tech Jobs in 2024

Summary

The job market is turbulent for engineers; layoffs and hiring freezes lead companies to cut costs. As a result, senior engineers now compete for mid-level roles while employers are wary of investing in training junior hires who may underdeliver. The best path forward is building trusted connections through friendships and networking to access unlisted opportunities. Rather than applying cold, focus on proving trustworthiness through relationships and contributions over degrees and scores. Surround yourself with peers to share progress and discover openings.

Takeaways

• 😟 The job market for engineers is in a scary state with more competition for fewer open positions
• 😥 Companies have tightened budgets and are less willing to take risks on hiring junior developers
• 🤝 Connections and trust are now the most important factors in getting hired as an engineer
• 😀 Referrals and co-worker recommendations provide a lot of value and trust
• 👥 Surrounding yourself with other engineers is key for making connections and finding opportunities
• 🤯 Cold applying to jobs alone is usually not enough in the current market
• 😢 The myth of getting good offers just from school and side projects is fading
• 😡 Internships are even harder to get than full-time entry level positions
• 😊 There are great online tech communities to network and meet peers in
• 🤔 Understand that trust and connections are what companies prioritize in candidates now

Q & A

Why are companies more hesitant to hire junior engineers right now?

Companies are hesitant because junior engineers require a lot of onboarding and ramp up time, which slows down existing engineers. With tighter budgets, companies want guaranteed returns on their engineering investments.

What is the approximate fully-loaded cost of an engineer in the US?

The typical fully-loaded cost for an engineer in the US, including salary, benefits, and office expenses, ranges from $200,000 to $400,000 per year.

How can junior engineers build trust when job hunting?

Junior engineers can build trust through personal connections and referrals, contributing to open source projects, showcasing their skills on sites like LeetCode, and highlighting work from previous internships or jobs.

Why are employee referrals so valuable right now?

Referrals provide social proof and serve as a trust signal for candidates. With higher risk tolerance, companies lean more on referrals rather than cold applications.

What is the alternative to cold applying for jobs?

Instead of just cold applying, focus on networking both online and in-person to build connections in the industry. Leverage sites like LinkedIn, Twitter Spaces, and Discord communities.

Why is networking so important for getting a job right now?

With lower risk tolerance, most companies hire through referrals and existing connections. Networking builds trust and social proof necessary to get your resume prioritized.

What types of engineers are lower risk hires right now?

Engineers with several years of experience at reputable companies are lower risk, as they have a proven track record. Specific niche skills are also valuable.

How has the expectation for engineer training changed?

Companies expect new hires to ramp up faster with less onboarding. There is less tolerance for long engineer training periods.

Why don't degrees and interview performance matter as much now?

The current market values trust and connections over formal credentials like degrees or coding challenges. Social proof is more important.

What if you don't have an in-person network right now?

Online communities like Twitter Spaces and Discord groups provide connections too. The key is discussing code and building relationships.

Outlines

00:00

😕 Job Market is Challenging for New Engineers Due to Lack of Trust

The job market is very challenging currently for new engineers and even senior engineers. Companies have tightened budgets and are hesitant to take risks on hiring and training junior engineers. The key thing missing for new engineers is trust and connections in the industry. The best way to build trust is through relationships with other engineers who can vouch for you.

05:01

😥 Cold Applying is Not Effective; Focus on Networking

Simply cold applying to jobs is usually not effective. With the changed job market, companies are much less willing to take risks on candidates. It's critical to network extensively with other engineers to build relationships and trust that can facilitate opportunities. Strongly recommend finding communities and groups to connect with other coders.

Keywords

💡trust

Trust is an essential element for companies hiring engineers because they want to minimize risks and costs associated with hiring. The speaker says trust is the closest thing to a 'guaranteed win'. It speeds up onboarding, reduces risk, and leads to more productivity. He emphasizes building trust through connections and proving oneself in the industry.

💡network

Networking with other engineers is crucial for building trust and connections that lead to job opportunities. The speaker urges viewers to surround themselves with other coders online or in-person to exchange knowledge and find openings through referrals.

💡risk

Hiring junior engineers is seen as a risky investment by companies right now. It can reduce team productivity initially and requires extensive onboarding. With tighter budgets, most companies prefer to spend money on less risky hires.

💡productivity

Team productivity is a major concern for companies in hiring decisions. A junior hire may reduce output 10-20% at first. The speaker indicates productivity needs to increase to justify the cost of a junior role.

💡relationships

Personal and professional relationships lead to trust and job opportunities. The speaker urges making engineering connections who can vouch for you and link you to openings. This matters more than degrees or resumes in the current climate.

💡onboarding

Onboarding and training junior hires drains productivity from existing staff. Many companies cannot afford this drag on output with tightened budgets. Quickly onboarding new hires through connections is advantageous.

💡referrals

Referrals and recommendations provide social proof that builds trust. The speaker says these are hugely valuable for junior engineers lacking experience, as someone else can vouch for their abilities.

💡budgets

With economic uncertainty, most companies have less willingness to take risks and tighter budgets overall, especially for staffing. Hiring additional engineers is a large expense they want to minimize.

💡connections

Connections to other engineers are the best way to build trust according to the speaker. They lead to opportunities and help junior developers get hired by vouching for their skills.

💡opportunities

Networking and surrounding oneself with other coders creates opportunities for jobs, learning, and mentorship. This community support is essential in a difficult hiring climate.

Highlights

The job market is in a weird and scary state with layoffs and senior engineers competing for positions they weren't before.

Companies are tightening budgets both short-term and long-term, and engineers are the biggest expense for most tech companies.

It's a risky investment to hire junior engineers since they slow teams down initially and may never reach full productivity.

Guaranteed wins right now are hiring from trusted networks rather than training junior engineers.

New engineers lack trust and connections, which are the most important factors in hiring.

GitHub profiles and coding scores don't provide trust - personal connections do.

College is still valuable primarily for making professional connections, not just getting a degree.

Many talented junior developers in tech communities don't require much training, but companies are still reluctant to take the risk.

Focus less on exact job requirements and more on building trust through professional relationships.

Surround yourself with other engineers to build connections and find opportunities.

Cold applying alone is unlikely to be successful in the current market.

The myth of getting top jobs through solo coding projects is fading - connections matter more.

Internships are extremely competitive right now and difficult to acquire.

Leverage online tech communities to network and meet peers.

Understand that lack of industry trust is the main barrier for new engineers in job hunting.

Making professional friendships reduces the risk of hiring you and increases opportunities.

Transcripts

I'm going to be honest getting a job

sucks right now I'm really lucky that

I'm not on the market in any traditional

sense now that I run my own company I

have the YouTube channel and I do a lot

of advising for other companies the more

I see it from the perspective both of

people hiring as well as people looking

for a new job or even their first job

the market is in a weird and really

scary State I've never seen it quite

like this before especially with the

layoffs and it's not that senior

Engineers don't have jobs or

opportunities it's that they're now

competing for positions they weren't

before and the despiration to find

Engineers on the company side isn't

quite what it used to be either what

happened we could go in depth on the

economic state of things the interest

rates changing and the reasons why

companies are being tighter with their

budgets but there's plenty of other

YouTubers doing that better than I would

companies are tightening their spend

both short-term and longterm and if

you've never run a team or a company

before you might not know this but the

vast majority of spend for the vast

majority of companies with Engineers is

the engineers because their salaries are

big their benefits are bigger offices

are expensive filling them with people

is expensive and no service you're

paying for costs as much as most of the

teams at your company and when you're

talking upwards of like $200 to $400,000

per person having fewer of them is

really beneficial but what if you're a

new engineer your salary is going to be

a lot smaller right even in the US

markets it's like 80 to 110k yeah after

benefits and everything we're closer to

like 120 to 130 and Junior Engineers

take so long to onboard that you're not

getting much value out of that money

initially in fact new Engineers often

have to be onboarded which means times

being spent by other Engineers that

could be spent on the product instead

being spent helping someone else get

faster if I had a team with four people

on it and I hired a junior enge

productivity is going to go down by 10

to 20% when they join period and after

some amount of time we might go up and

be a little bit closer to like 120% of

the previous productivity so a little

bump in the positive direction but it

takes a while to get there it's also a

gamble because not all Junior Engineers

will ever figure it out it's not because

they're bad it's because the environment

might not be the right place for them to

learn the tech stack might not jive with

them or their interests they might just

be in a weird place in life that makes

it harder for them to produce and as

such it's harder to make these gambles

it's a really challenging bet to make to

say hey we're going to pull this person

in and our team's going to move slower

for a bit but if it works out we might

move slightly faster for only $140,000 a

year that's really scary and as a result

fewer companies are making those bets

and instead choosing to spend their

money on guaranteed wins what's a

guaranteed win in this market and in

this industry I'd make the argument that

the closest thing we have to a

guaranteed win is a team where things

are going well where the people on the

team know others from other companies

they've worked with in the past and know

the capabilities of that they can pull

in to do specific understood earmarked

work if we are working on a front-end

product and we need the back end to be

changed but we don't have a person to

contribute to that backend on our team

and it exists at another team at the

company but I know somebody who has

worked with the people who built that

backend who already knows the language

who knows the framework who knows all

the things they're doing and I've worked

with them in the past and I trust them

as a cooworker I could vouch for them on

my team as a person to bring in and at

that point their previous role and title

barely matters their degree doesn't

matter their GitHub doesn't matter what

matters is I brought trust to the table

and that's the thing the vast majority

of new developers are missing when

they're hunting for jobs they don't have

trust yet it's really really hard to

build trust as a new developer in the

industry there's a lot of things that

help with trust like quality experience

at other companies like co-workers that

can for you this is why referrals and

recommendations on things like LinkedIn

are so valuable but in the end the only

way you're going to get a job right now

is if you have some amount of trust to

build on top of how you build that is

hard you can go through contributions on

GitHub you can prove your high scores on

leak code but the best thing you can do

by far is make friendships and

connections with other people in the

industry this is the real reason I push

going to college it's not about having a

degree although obviously having that on

your resume makes you a little more

trustable it's the connections you make

with other people who might make those

other connections at other places I

can't tell you how many times I'm the

linking factor between some person

getting their first job and some company

that doesn't want to hire another

engineer that takes 2 years to train and

I'll be honest a lot of the junior

engineers in this community don't need

much time to be trained y'all kill it

there are some really talented younger

folk in this community and I can

confidently recommend you to companies

that wouldn't normally hire somebody

under 25 and yes that job listing up on

LinkedIn or whatever might say 25 plus

it might say senior on it it might even

say principal on it they're saying that

because those titles are an exchange

they have made they're willing to spend

more money to have less risk but that

doesn't always mean anything what

they're looking for is less risk and

more trust and finding ways to provide

that primarily through connections with

others is the best win you can have so

surround yourself with other Engineers

that are at where you're at some will go

faster some will go slower some of them

will find really cool opportunities and

the more you stay in touch with them the

more likely you are to find those

opportunities yourself I can't recommend

just cold applying to a bunch of jobs it

might be good practice but it's going to

give you the wrong signals because

you're going to fail a lot of interviews

that's the nature of the field but this

isn't about interviews this isn't about

your resume this is about how you've

proven yourself in an industry that

isn't looking to make bets anymore and

when the market changes the way it has

the willingness of these companies to

take risk and make bets has gone down a

ton and it's important to recognize how

risky of a bet you are as an engineer if

you have 5 years working at Netflix or

Amazon you're a much less risky bet than

somebody who just graduated from school

and has two projects on their GitHub but

if one of those projects is used by

somebody on the team you're interviewing

with that risk goes away immediately so

think deeply about how you've proven

yourself and the relationships you have

and what do it take to make more of

those if you don't have an in-person

group to hang out with that also codes

and is also learning with you find some

online there's lots of really cool

communities with people in things like

Twitter space is people in our very own

Discord which you can join with the link

in the description there are so many

opportunities to network and meet the

other people who you can build this

trust with but it's so important to

understand that that is the core of

hiring right now and that's the thing

you probably don't have if you're

struggling to find a job so go Network

make friends don't go at this alone the

myth of the solo programmer who goes to

a really nice School cold applies to 10

companies and gets offers from two of

them just isn't as much a thing anymore

and God don't get me started on

internships right now what do you think

how's your experience been trying to

hunt for a job if you want to hear more

about growing as an engineer I'll pin a

video in the corner here all about that

and if you're not interested you're

already seen it YouTube thinks you like

the video below it thank you guys as

always appreciate you all a ton peace NS