Hacker News Reader

Comment by darth_avocado | Hacker News Reader

I would hardly call this normalizing.

> Finding the IT workers they need to meet hiring goals or complete projects is a struggle for more than two-thirds of executives

This should tell you everything you need to know about the market. Jobs are being added, but the quality of jobs has deteriorated. If 1000 people were laid off from Google and 1000 jobs opened up for contract roles in consultancies that pay below market wages, I would not call that normalizing.

Anecdotally, it is still very hard to find a reasonable paying job. I’m not talking Google/Facebook salaries, I’m talking engineering at Albertsons salaries.

View on HN

> I’m talking engineering at Albertsons salaries.

Anyone from Blind can confirm that a tech job at Albertsons is going to be the peak of anyone's career.

Are the engineers allowed to sit at all or are they written up if they do?

Seconded. Plus what is up with recruiting culture lately? The ghosting is worse than online dating at this point.

There was a time I was annoyed at the canned rejection emails but I'll be damned if I even get a one word "no" these days.

> The ghosting is worse than online dating at this point.

Honestly, when I do several rounds and travel 2 hours to your stupid office, I’d hope I’d at least get a fucking yes/no.

Ask for a timeframe for the hiring decision and if they don’t respond by then, assume it means no. No use working for someone who will string you along anyway because they probably do that will all of their work.

Yeah I hate it. I do think folks should name names for companies like this. Glassdoor (ironically) did this to me, and they were the ones to reach out first.

It's laziness.

Recruiter head count got whacked. I hear back but weeks later. Summer vacations add lag time.

* HR turnover -- they want to be remote, too, and market forces have been impacting them as much as any other field.

* market research -- at a previous gig (F500 multi) our HR team would periodically put out fake listings to gauge the market, see what is available, and as part of the Taleo application, asked about salary range. I'd bet my hat that they're taking the "temperature" of developers to see what is out there and what they'll ask for. I filled out a couple of those job adverts for "generic VMware Admin" for HR.

* high volume -- lots of layoffs and everyone wants to be a remote STEM worker. no time for interaction, no reason to reply, and no shortage of punters.

Part of the problem is that tech salaries jumped enormously in 2021/early 2022.

Settling back to something more reasonable is now a pay cut.

Something reasonable needs to factor in the waves of inflation that have also occurred. TC was definitely over inflation at one point but in many places I suspect people are operating at a pay cut still.

The never ending war on labor rates continues.

> needs to factor in the waves of inflation

Yes, I would like that to be true, but inflation historically can and does happen independently of wage growth.

that's called "making you poorer" and is not something to defend or rationalize

Certainly. Inflation is terrible and yet rationalized at every turn by economists.

Yeah, I've been seeing tech contracting jobs paying in the $60 to $70/hour range that are very similar to what I was doing last year making $100+/hour.

You don't read Blind, do you? Albertsons is highly respected in that community.

Yeah here in LA its especially bad with the hollywood strikes competition for work has never been more intense.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com