Comment by randycupertino | Hacker News Reader

Comment by randycupertino | Hacker News Reader

Just the last 4-6 weeks I've started noticing a marked uptick in desperation in reposted linkedin "looking for work" posts. One was "I'll take ANY job to feed my kids" and another was talking about how they've been out of work 10 months and were about to lose their house. Another was saying they were about to get evicted and moving back in with their parents in the midwest. Things feel ominous out there.

If it helps anyone who is looking- when I was laid off 4 years ago, I took a seasonal Oct-Jan delivery job with UPS just to get out of the house, get some income and keep busy. They call them PWDs and it's $46 an hour, you use your own car and do package delivery. Your car and clothes get DISGUSTING - turns out packages are completely filthy- definitely put a tarp down - and you will be dog tired at the end of the day, I was doing 200-285 packages per shift- but it was good income and kept me busy. Also they offered to convert me to full-time warehouse after the holiday season but by then I had placed back into an industry job.

I think they call them SSDs now but same thing: https://www.jobs-ups.com/us/en/seasonal-support-driver

I’m terrified of what would happen if I lost my tech job. It’s not the income but more the cost of insurance for a family of four.

Interesting suggestion - thanks for sharing.

Is the pay location dependent or has it just gone way down? That link shows three near me, but only paying a rather paltry $23/hr.

That's not much more than something like Walmart, which is likely a much less strenuous job with way less wear and tear on your vehicle(and body).

I think the pay is location dependent, but note there was a LOT of opportunity for overtime- I basically could work as much as I wanted. They would ask us to stay late to do extra deliveries almost every day and come in weekends also for time and a half or double time. I think it might vary on the volume of your hub. The reddit "UPSers" subreddit was also a good resource, if you search PVD or SSD on there:

https://www.reddit.com/r/UPS/comments/z0bpne/advice_for_a_ne...

https://www.reddit.com/r/UPS/comments/zu6x8n/first_year_pvd_...

https://www.reddit.com/r/UPSers/comments/1gdypb6/working_as_...

https://www.reddit.com/r/UPSers/comments/18jxcd5/ssd_center_...

It makes sense to get any job if finances force you to, but... if you're not strapped for cash, would that really be the best way to spend that time? I have absolutely nothing against hard work, and if you want to keep yourself busy, go ahead. But I feel it's an ineffective way to spend forced downtime.

Honestly, if I were hit by lack of work, I would see how much runway savings I have and then try to either take some time off, to spend with family, do some low-budget traveling, learn new professional skills I wanted to learn, try to change the niche I work in and/or contribute to some open source project.

For me personally I was pretty depressed about being laid off and instead of using the time wisely (gym/cooking/museums/travel) I was moping around, so having something that forced me to get out of the house and busy was really beneficial.

Also, doing the deliveries kind of sucked so much (lol) that it was highly motivational to network with recruiters which is how I got back in industry.

There's definitely more optimal uses of time for a layoff but I wasn't utilizing them hence this was perfect for me at the time!

If tech folks are laid off who is renting that insanely expensive housing in the coastal cities?

It’s paid for with RSU’s

That's true too. A lot of people made a lot of money and they can now afford expensive real estate even if they're not making big bucks today absent lifestyle expansion and rational investments.

I'd add that I know a fair number of people who are not necessarily in coastal cities but are adjacent to them that have been exiting. They're mostly somewhat older and pretty comfortable or just have other things going on in their lives. The reality for some is that this isn't a terrible time to exit if you're not really loving things any longer and maybe have some other stuff you'd like to work on--or just retire.

Probably the 90%+ who still have jobs.

And, although the Bay Area is a bit of an outlier because geography, there are plenty of coastal cities where you can get to, not inexpensive by the standards of some regions, but not "insane" unless you absolutely feel you need to live in the central city areas.

One thing that strikes me as odd, as someone not from the US, is that it’s kind of assumed that people are renting? I’d expect that lots of people in SV/Bay area would just buy the place, expensive as that might be.

There are a ton of costs even if you own and have paid off. Aside from my $5K/year property taxes, I've spent probably $50K (likely more) in the past year for costs related to a fire. Also some significant costs for deferred maintenance that had to happen. Some routine plowing and lawn/field maintenance that I could do myself but that would take capital costs (and time). So not a typical couple of years but I've spent well over $100K on my house even though it's paid-off. It's far from free once you've written that last check to a bank.

Of course, modern condos will likely be cheaper but now you're paying HOA fees each month.

Just looked and they are $23.00/hour in my area (SW Michigan)

Thank you!

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