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Comment by f0e4c2f7 | Hacker News Reader

So far most of the layoffs I've seen have been for nontechnical roles at big tech.

In the 2000 crash it was still fairly easy to find a job if you could code. Even though the big tech companies of the time were doing mass layoffs and losing 95% of market cap.

Who knows what it will be like this time. But I wouldn't take layoffs at high profile publicly traded tech companies as an indicator of the whole market. In some cases these companies are still even hiring a few engineers here and there while doing layoffs.

So far as I can tell demand for software engineers may actually be slightly higher than it was a year ago in the larger market.

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You wrote: <<In the 2000 crash it was still fairly easy to find a job if you could code.>>

Personal anecdata: I lived in Silicon Valley in this era. It was awful. That was absolutely not true. I spent two years sorting papers for ~12 USD per hour ("temp worker"). Eventually, I gave up on SV and moved to New York City. I found a very good job in less than two months.

Seems like it was true in your case given that all you had to do was look in NYC, where you found a new job almost immediately.

Most people wouldn't consider a 2500 mile move for a job a "fairly easy" thing to do.

Moving may not be easy, but the original claim was merely that finding a job was easy. The anecdote supports it.

That was exactly my point. Finance was booming in New York City, but the valley would not look at junior hires. So many cheap mid-career devs (with a mortgage) were desperate for a job! I had no chance.

Random anecdote: One thing I remember moving from SF to NYC (in that era): Instantly lower quality of life. I know, I know, that was a long time ago! The weather in NYC is awful compared to SF. I could walk to supermarket without a coat for 11 months a year. And no endless police & ambulance sirens or loud garbage trucks! And housing was more expensive and much lower quality.

I got hired at Amazon about a month after 9/11 pretty much at the depths of the 2000-2001 tech recession, after having lost my prior job only a month or two before that.

> So far most of the layoffs I've seen have been for nontechnical roles at big tech.

That's not the case. Engineers may not be as numerous but in each of the recent layoffs engineers were let go as well.

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