[Question] Programmers, How Bad Is It out There?

[Tomás B.]

I work in a niche company in a niche industry mostly with a nearly-obsolete programming language. I have worked for the same company for an extremely long time by programmer standards, basically right out of high-school. I have not looked for work in a very long time.

Reading HackerNews lately, the market looks pretty grim. I am reading people claim it is worse than 2001 - which is hard to contemplate.

And it strikes me that should I get fired, it’s quite likely I will never be employed as a programmer again!

Feels worth discussing, given how many of us write code for a living.

[Gordon Seidoh Worley]

It’s not quite like the dot com bust. Bottom of the market is very soft, with new grads basically having no options, but the top of the market is extremely tight, with the middle doing about like normal. Employers feel they can be more choosy right now for all roles, though, so they are being. That will change if roles sit unfilled for longer.

[cata]

2 data points: I have 15-20 years of experience at a variety of companies but no college and no FANG, currently semi-retired. Recruiters still spam me with many offers and my professional network wants to hire me at their small companies.

A friend of mine has ~2 years of experience as a web dev and some experience as a mechanical engineer + random personal projects, no college, and he worked hard to look for a software job and found absolutely nothing, with most companies never contacting him after an application.

[notfnofn]

I think it would be a good idea to just start applying now to get a feel for how hirable you specifically are and what you specifically could be doing now to very quickly bounce if you get let go. You might be more valuable than you think