The news about big tech’s layoff woes are hard to miss. In my feed today came this article: “Job Cuts in Big Tech Continue Unabated“. Yeah, more glum news for those of us trying to make a career in tech right now. I really appreciate Sheharyar’s insights into what’s going on. Things like:
- “The last commonly held belief for layoffs was that businesses hired way too aggressively during the COVID-19 pandemic…”
- “artificial intelligence has now sparked a demand for professionals that can tame the beast and help make products that companies can then sell to others, or, just make them better at what they do. Hiring specialized professionals isn’t cheap, so of course, companies are letting go of people that don’t necessarily possess the skills that they’re looking for while bringing on those that do”
- More succinctly “while some jobs are being made redundant, others are springing up all the time.”
Big tech companies don’t seem to be struggling, though.
- “Meta’s results stood out, so much so that its stocks jumped a whopping 20%…”
- “Over at Alphabet, the Google parent saw Q4 revenue of $86.31 billion, up 13% year over year…”
- “Apple posted quarterly revenue of $119.6 billion, up 2% year over year…”
- “Microsoft….booked an 18% year over year increase in quarterly revenue to $62 billion…”
- And Amazon? Their “Q4 net sales increased 14% to $170 billion while net income increased to $10.6 billion…”
This all reinforces the notion that tech has simply overhired. The video below talks about that, too.
Of course, the billion dollar question is “how long will this last?” At what point do we expect these thousands of tech workers to get re-assimilated into the machine? Late in 2023, I was hearing pundits predict that 2024 was going to see the end of layoffs and a rebound in hiring. Well, that hasn’t happened…not yet, at least. Of course, we’re only two months in.
Also, I think that the notion of specializing might be less than optimal for your tech career. Building out as much complimentary skill as you can seems to be wise. And, in the short-term at least, developing skills with AI seems a solid bet for finding employment. Will AI find itself in the dust bin of the latest hypecycle? Hard to say, though it’s stayed the course stronger than crypto and Web 3.0.
What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts.