Was laid off a few years ago. Ive got 23 yrs experience and was making 220k + profit sharing. I had plenty of savings so no fear at first. Then after applying for dozens and dozens of jobs, hearing that many employers would rather hire someome younger for half the salary. I was getting burnt out on the industry anyways so I decided to take control. I really wanted to spend more time outside, so I spent some of my savings to buy the minimum to run a lawn mowing business. The first year was a little slow and I only brought in around 60k. Three months later I was having to turn away customers because I was too busy even after hiring some help. After paying for all operating cost and my one employee, I'm making almost what I did before I got laid off and I feel a lot better being outside and enjoying the sun all day. I still enjoy writing code but now I get to do it on my own personal projects and never have to sit in another scrum meeting again lol. All this to say, have you considered starting your own business and never having to be at the mercy of a corporation again? I certainly do sleep better knowing that I am in control of my bank account.
Largely I do have my own business… but the flow of work needs to be consistent. This was my main big day gig, so it’s not like I’m going to zero, with no way of bringing in money, but it does obviously hurt the yearly budget. I am making moves to have consistent money outside consulting and contracting, but not there yet! Thank you for sharing your story. I really appreciate it!
Yes, you are 100 percent spot on, "careers are not what they used to be". So many in the baby boomer generation had 1 or 2 jobs for their whole entire career. They had social security and pensions and many also had 401k's. They are living an awesome end of career ride or retirement right now. Many of the baby boomers who had these easier careers than we Gen X , Millenial and Gen Z have are demonizing the younger workers saying we are the problem. Interesting that the baby boomers are mostly in control of politics and also the younger people are working to pay the taxes to support all the social programs like social security medicare and medicaid for the baby boomers. To the baby boomers who say they paid into the system, yes, they did, however they are getting paid more out of the system, far more, than they ever paid in. In contrast, us Gen X, millenials and Gen Z people, are going to pay in more than we will get out of the system when we retire, as the system is falling short. As a whole, Gen X, millenials and Gen Z have more certifications, more college degrees, and more hard and soft skills than the baby boomers did, however the baby boomers had the benefit to have been able to have lived during more prosperous times . Sad situation for anyone under 55 in the work place right now.
@@notabannedaccount8362 I didn't say getting a job was hard. I would encourage you to re read my comment if you think I said that. I said that baby boomers lived during more prosperous times. The inflation wasn't an issue, and employers didn't demand from boomers from they demand today from younger generations. (skills, amount of time spent at work, carrying cell phones everywhere). Getting a job is easy. Finding a career that respects today's talent is like finding a unicorn.
Sorry to hear that you got laid off. As someone who also just got laid off last week, this is really great advice! Always be kind. Accept your fate and move on.
Very true, and I'm sorry you're in the same boat as me! Stick around, and hopefully you'll enjoy my job hunting journey, and we can maybe learn together.
The bigger the pay, the bigger the company or the bigger the position, those are high possibilities of laying off when times are bad. Always side hustle when you are living comfortably.
Yep. I made a little less than Cody and was at the last company for 11 years and basically brought them out of the dark ages of technology. In the end, they saw that I cost what 3 mid level developers cost so I was first to go when times got rough. Any how, things have a way of working out. Now I run my own business and much happier.
Im in the same boat...I was one of the leading Sr Infosec Managers at VMWare, and when Broadcom bought the company they sent almost all of infosec packing. Ive been looking for five months and Ive been final four at SAP, Tesla, and Apple. Its just a wacked market.
Linkedin used to be a great place to network. Tell others you found a job, tell others you are looking etc. Now it has become a wasteland where some people give advice that isn't relevant so they can get exposure, some HR people will recruit desperate people looking for work at rock bottom salaries, and then comments and posts, have become so political and nasty. It is supposed to be a business site. It doesn't seem to be a business professional environment any longer.
Found out I was laid off after they reset phone, laptop and build PC. I worked remote. They sent email laying off everyone while IT started started remote wiping devices. They then systematically reported all company hardware stolen to individual police departments which resulted at least in my case with the police raiding my home and charging me with possession of stolen property. That happened hours after they failed to notify me of being fired. The police were not sympathetic and were openly hostile. Found out they did this to everyone. Company does not exist anymore. They made sure anyone applying for assistance would be screwed too. Lucky no one I knew had to worry about that. But remember it can always be worse. Everyone worked out and this was years ago now but I thought I would mention it.
thats crazy, almost seems unreal, especially cops part, like what the hell, they are supposed to send you a box AFTER letting you go to send laptop back, not expect you to beam it like on Star Trek back to the company, before even knowing you're laid off. No wonder they no longer exist. Last 2 companies for me, temp jobs, I had to ask like 5 times for the box to be sent, like what the heck, where is your process to get laptops back from remote temps
That’s the reason I’ve been self employed for over 40 years! I always wanted to wake up every morning knowing my destiny depended on my own work effort, not on some unknown bean counter.
hey, aint the bean counters laying you off, it's management, I'm a bean counter, called FINANCE and ACCOUNTING the only beans are in my coffee. We just give the facts and figures of reality. Management decides what to do with it.
I too was laid off back in early April. Job market is absolutely terrible. Nonetheless now is the time to study, learn new skills, and work on different areas of our personal lives.
It's the worst IT job market I've ever seen and overall a terrible job market. Unfortunately, we are entering into a depression. I would focus on learning survival skills (not joking).
Wow... 35 years as a software engineer and never laid off. Hoping to retire but my company doesn't want me to go... so I went part-time when I turned 60. I LOVE IT. Working 20 hours per week is perfect once you hit late 50s. I also left high-stress/high-pay job at corporate US and went to a small company at 55 which was also a great move. No more midnight calls when an application goes down.
I am glad you had a good career. I wish everyone could have. Your generation, the baby boomers, lived during more prosperous times. Many of the baby boomers had easier careers than we Gen X , Millenial and Gen Z have currently in general. I know your career wasn't easy, but easier than what young people today have. Sign of the times. I agree, with the stress thing. I am 40s now and I remember working in manufactering for many years, getting up at 5 am to be ready to be at work for 6 to 7 am, then working until 4 or 5, then having to stay late to work on something that broke. Eat dinner and unwind around 7 or 8 pm, go to sleep for 2 to 3 hours, and at 11 or 12 at night woken up by someone calling on night shift that something went down. The night shift guy sleeps when he is off during the day and gets paid overtime if he works over 40 hours, the IT guy gets paid about the same to be on the clock 24 hours a day, no overtime. IT careers are not fun, not fulfilling and honestly horrible.
@@mikecoffee288 I've been in IT for over 20 years and have to say that the work load and stress is only increasing. Not only that, but you're treated like crap from users/internal customers. I even hate referring to colleagues as internal customers. They're f***ing users for goddsake.
Cody I will give you a tip from an older person in his career. Many folks agree that when you reach your mid to late 40's, you really need to start working for yourself. This is easier to do if you have a job, even part time or casual for the income support. A layoff makes us realise how vulnerable we all are to working for someone else.
100%. I'm 38, and I've already been putting this in motion. I've been 100% contract/freelance for the past 3 years and I'm trying to branch out into more independent ventures to ween off needing that day-job-for-the-man
Im so tired of age discrimination, wage discrimination whatever you want to call it. Having your own business or side job sucks, in my view, mainly due to lack of good benefits at all, plus no W2 so you're not building social security, unless a bigger business and you pay yourself a wage, but yeah, conceptually, you can't rely on regular working for others.
Same thing happened to me. It’s crazy out here. I’m taking a job outside of tech just to not be unemployed for too long. Currently I’m at the 2 month mark. Good luck!
Yeah! I have some people who I greatly respect on the hunt for new work. It is definitely a different world than what the past 10 years have looked like. I'll try and keep youtube up to date!
Job hunting is always frustrating. We expect immediate results, and it generally takes months to find a job. Something will come along. Remember, at the end of every storm, the clouds part, and the sun shines through again-it always does.
It's hard to stay clam when they lay you off and then the CEO gets a bonus of 40-80 million dollars . What I think the best strategy is to be the competition of the companies that laid you off . Companies like Google , Apple, Amazon have gotten way to big and need to be disrupted .
CEO's that make things happen are worth every penny. However, the ones that are nasty and miserable and force the lives of their workers to be bad to make a company great are terrible people who don't deserve their money. The only thing that will stop that is people have to stop relying on the products and shop elsewhere. As long as the American public buys Google and Apple phones, computers, laptops and uses them non stop for everything, everywhere they go, spending tons of money on those products, this cycle will never end. I am an IT guy but I will say this to anyone who will listen, people are way to reliant on computers in our society. People many times don't even interact with each other, they text message someone who lives or is physically close to them, order food on an app, never or very little interacting personally with other humans. The money causes the companies to keep developing technology that discourages interactions. Our world has changed so much in the last 20 years. If people went back to a simpler life, and stopped using so much technology, this cycle would stop and I think people would be happier. Honestly, who need to have a cell phone and a smart watch and a laptop and a desktop at home and a computer in their vehicle? Has this made your life any better or happier? The cell phone alone is really all you need in case of emergency. All the money spent on the technology, which becomes obsolete every couple of years, leading to you buying more of it, hasn't made your life any better. The CEO's and top people got rich though. Its not greed, they are just feeding a desire that the public wants. So it really isn't the CEO's fault, its the consumers fault.
makes me puke ya can have many hires for even 20m of the 40-80, and less burn out overall too... it's all about the most work for the cheapest, it wasn't always that way
I want that for myself and started with GitHub projects for practice and fun. The problem is that these companies take out or buy the startups. It’s getting sharky in the water.
Those who DIDN'T get laid off have it worse than those who did. Being laid off gives you a chance to coach those left behind on how to mitigate the damage of staying in a toxic workplace.
It’s not always “toxic”, yes most corporate are just jerks who want to make more money and add more workload on just a few workers …… some are start ups that they legit just don’t even have the money to operate anymore, due a contract they were depending on it a gain they where expecting
This is like a slap in the face to people who got laid off. It’s basically down playing people who did get laid off. It’s basically “one-upping” (or one-downing I guess in this case..). “Oh you failed the physics exam? You don’t realize it but people who didn’t fail it have it worse. We have to worry about the stress of maintaining our grades for the rest of the year” 🤦
@@_______6398 The reason it's not a slap in the face is because the work previously done by those laid off gets dumped on those who stay. "You could be next" is used as a tool for "management by fear".
I was a PM at a PC peripherals company, and I was laid off exactly 2 weeks ago on the day of my 42nd birthday. I actually felt relieved when the SVP called me into his office to deliver the news, I guess ignorance is truly a bliss because I didn't fully grasp how it was going to impact my life. I started applying for jobs the same day I got laid off, and started an excel sheet to log all of my progress. To date, I've applied for 160 jobs, 36 of them were rejected, and have received no news whatsoever for the rest. it is really daunting because I don't think I've ever applied for that many jobs and not get even a phone screen, the last time I went job hunting I had to move things around my schedule just to squeeze in interviews. Job hunting has become my full time job, it's basically what I do all day now. I don't have a family that I need to support but I do have a mortgage and a property tax bill fast approaching that I don't know how to pay off if I don't find a job soon.
@@william7182 I’m sorry you’re going through that! The job market is quite hard for various reasons this year. Keep your head up. You have marketable skills!
My dad is a lawyer who left his law firm and worked for himself for a long time. He saw some ups but also a lot of hardship and serious downs. Being self employed doesn’t necessarily make all problems dissolve but this video is very inspiring to me. Thank you for taking your difficult time and just showing your confidence and calmness. I just turned 30, single and no kids yet, and about to start looking at homes. I do 130k in pharma building design as a controls engineer. I’m doing well but I feel the pressure of the industry, lack of security, and confusion about what my ceiling really is. I want to start a business but I have no clue. I’m terrified of being in your position but you seem like you are handling it with poise and grace. I look up to you in that regard. Thank you for this video. I don’t know what to do but I hope I find the balls to start a business, show some work ethic, and get lucky in the end.
Hey buddy! That’s amazing and thank you for the kind words. It’s not for the feint of heart. I do think the best course of action to take is become super knowledgeable of personal finance. Like have that on lock down and know what you spend, what you need, what you want, and that unlocks discrete and factual numbers that you can build off of. Mr. Money Moustache is super entertaining and helpful in this regard. Those are the foundation blocks of having that confidence. You are lucky to be able to learn and be inspired by your dad. Growing up you see how it’s possible. I wish you the best of luck dude!
I might get cut soon too, so your experience is really valuable to me. Appreciate it. You have a new subscriber who would love to watch your videos in the foreseeable fututre ;)
I've been laid off twice in 40 years. If I recall it took 2 weeks to find a new job the first time. The second time I was overjoyed as I hated that company.
As someone who is a senior level program manager, who is on the front lines of this, both hiring and sadly, sometimes letting people go, this is great advice. Try to take emotion out of it and realize that the people who may be giving you bad news, don't want to do that either. Never burn bridges. Hope you find a new journey soon!
I worked in automotive in Detroit and layoffs were a constant concern. I was advised by an older worker to go in business for myself. I did and it started slow but I’m finally a multimillionaire and it never would have happened if I had stayed working in manufacturing.
I just wanna say thanks for saying this, because I was laid off earlier this year: got told in March, finished in mid April. Kinda been looking for a new job now for two months, but my first resume draft wasn't all that good and didn't tell people much. I revamped it a couple of weeks ago to a much better effect, but the last two weeks have been the holiday weeks for my country, so it was a slower time again. I've already heard many words of support and wisdom from people at this point, and hearing a seasoned professional now saying all the same things is just reassuring, and helps me accept the reality of the industry I love and want to keep working in. Also, to everyone in the comments and reading this, hang in there, we can persevere. Last time I got laid off I managed to get into a place that taught me great things that become a very solid basics for the next level of my career. It certainly isn't easy, especially if you're early in your career or it's your first layoff, and there's no "buts" about that; I just hope that you all find a place you're truly happy with after.
Oh this is interesting. I appreciate your insight. I’ve just started a contracting role and this type of scenario has stressed me out for months. I never know if they will lose funding or something in the overall company just drastically changes. Honestly, I don’t even know if I’d wanna do contract work after this year anymore due to the anxiety it brings. I’m sorry to hear that you were laid off. That’s incredibly frustrating and I really hope you find something even better and wish you the best! Thank you for sharing.
Brother, this is normal. Same thing happened to me twice. Just look for next job. None of these companies have loyalty, it is what it is. You are just an asset.
1000000%. This is my 3rd lay off. That's fine. Some dude commented saying it's all my fault, and I want to talk about lay offs in my next video. It's just a vicious would of business
@@cody_codes_youtube No, that guy doesn't know what he is talking about. Layoffs are about the company maximizing profits. It has nothing to do with you or your performance. If it was your fault, they would fire you.
Hang in there. Just know it wasn’t you. If/when you feel yourself getting down- spend time with people who care about you. This is just like going through a storm… it will end and you will come out the other side intact- and stronger.
Just wanna share i was given a warn notice that i was gonna be laid off at my company. This was a month ago. Being professional in your layoff and working in whatever way possible with your manager and co-workers is honestly the way to go, as they helped me to find another job in the company. It was not for free, I still had to build my resume, prepare myself, and do interviews, but ultimately every piece helped get me to the next stage and I can personally validate what this man says.
Ouch! It's never fun to get laid off, even if you see it coming. I was laid off (a non-tech job for a non-renewed contract) nearly a year ago. All the advice you're giving here is great. I would say keeping a positive frame of mind and optimistic outlook are key to landing your next gig smoothly. That is sometimes easier said than done. I'm sure you will be alright--and good luck.
Thank you so much. Yeah, I do have that skillset of keeping almost an obnoxious level of enthusiasm and positivity in these moments. I'll keep everyone posted.
I respect your professionalism and positive outlook. However, you are likely going to start feeling bitter after 6 months to a year and you still don't have a job. I am sorry to tell you but you lost your job in the worst job market in over 40 years and the worst IT job market I've ever seen. I wish you all the best and try to stay positive but be prepared to pivot into something new or perhaps start your own business. It's really awful out there right now and I see no evidence of any improvements in the near future. In fact, I think we are entering a depression. Not trying to be overly negative, just being real with you.
Appreciate the concern! I’m still feeling positive as of today. I know the market has taken a drastic turn lately. I have been mentoring many that are on the job hunt too
@@cody_codes_youtube please prove me wrong by getting a job soon! I will be celebrating right there with you! Just be prepared (sounds like you are) mentally, spiritually, and financially the best you can for a dry spell and difficult times. Good luck brother!
I recently took a month off from my developer job as I felt tired and burnt out. My boss was very understanding and even promised to find me something lighter until I get back on my feet again. I got put on a project and after 3 weeks I am basically doing 18 story points of work where average is around 7-8. Problem is that it eats me up both physically and mentally. Now I decided to teach programming as a business as a way to get out of this hell. But I cant just quit my job overnight so I am getting up 4 in the morning every day to get some course work done before the first project meeting. I really want to do this, I just don't know if there is enough juice left in me to see it through.
Sounds like burnout my friend. You sound like a super talented engineer. So I think you can take your foot off the gas and not work so hard. I would get your motivation and energy management under control before embarking on a serious new endeavor. I just worry about your health!
@@cody_codes_youtube Thanks Cody. Unfortunately money is still plays a huge factor in my life which makes it difficult to slow down or make decisions based on my own preferences. But I am over 40 now and I want to begin to enjoy life more that I could in the last decade and also want to spend more time with my family. Which is why going solo seems to be the right decision here. But its risky.
Never easy to go through that situation, but taking it professionaly and trying to keep the doors open is an excellent idea, which we tend to forget. Hope this is just a bump on the road and, soon enough, you'll be back in business.
Well, I went Maxie Devine's way instead of finding job in IT. I do freelance and I created my own IT company in just one person for about 5-7 years if count work time overall I've spent on it, and I'm gonna need about half of a year or so to release my first products
Today I had a call with my Director, she asked if employees on my team would want to land other roles in our company & I could assist. I was like I’m not trying to blow up our team, then said “should I be concerned” - I make what this guy makes in Tech, but I’m not feeling valued lately, even when we were setting records. I’m officially on the hunt for the next great gig that will make me happy / fufilled
I was laid off from a high paying job at the beginning of the pandemic. I made myself a nice dinner, opened a bottle of wine, and enjoyed a relaxing evening and then pivoted to consulting full time - I'd started picking up side gigs and client a few years before. Within short order I was earning more, while working less, and all from home. Sometimes I think about hetting a regular job again, but I loathe all the time sucking meetings and political games that accompany working in a corporate setting.
Similar path here! In the middle of the pandemic I pulled the cord and did the same. I just also make sure I have a full time contract during the day while I build the business outside of that.
Agreed. I would prefer to hear him speak instead of music that might be adding to the sympathy. I've also been laid off and stuck in this crappy climate, but you don't need to add the drama; everyone is here to listen to you.
Sir that's great news now you can start your own company no layoffs you get paid all the money and whatever you choose it's entirely up to you good luck God bless bro
What are your thoughts on AI disrupting the engineering jobs? I got my first job on 2017 and I never IMAGINED how unstable this industry would be. I'm starting to think that software engineering is rapidly becoming a not so "good career". I have a feeling more companies will be adopting AI (a very specific model for their company/needs etc) and a traditional back end engineer team would be composed of 1 senior back end/architect with a highly trained AI model etc instead of a traditional backend team of 3-4 devs + tech lead/architect.
I did a video on this (The one reason AI will never take your job, or something like that). I think you’re right. But also, you should know with 7 years of experience is that almost every team has WAY more work than they can handle. We will all be much more efficient, and get more done, but I bet 100s of dollars the thirst for new functionality, new expertise, and new business will NEVER go away. So I think we just have to adapt and accept this choppy waters for now.
I don't see the problems at this point. I use ChatGPT to teach me how to write better programs. I write in Java and Delphi and ChatGPT always helped me out when I have questions and want examples. I'm a much better programmer with it. You still need someone to put the program together.
Oh haven’t heard it called that before. But yeah, too many spoiled engineers assume just because they can code it will all be perfect. But if the business does not have a necessity for your work then… bad times could be ahead
Even if a person getting $240k a year gets laid off he/she should be able to live like a $50k per year salaryman for the rest of his life with whatever they saved from that $240k job!
@@cody_codes_youtube You should have an emergency fund set aside for things like this and also you should be able to get unemployment benefits. I guarantee you are well off that many Americans living paycheck to paycheck!
@@barneycasting8331 yeah, let’s be clear, no one should be worried about me. I’m not going to zero with no options. My family will be fine and I know I can figure out something quickly. Stay tuned on the channel and I’m going to share it all
Overhead is key though. If you are someone that elevated their standard of living, 240k is nothing. Also, if you live in a very expensive city (most of them are very expensive anymore) your money doesn't last long.
So F... what... there other real people suffering and your bitching about your high-paying jobs.. maybe that will make you Humble..let see if it works...
Best of luck...job search is looking like 4-6 months on average for most devs (purely anecdotal evidence), hopefully it goes better for you. Market is terrible right now.
i did some research before i retired and found out it's good to leave with good feelings for each other so that's what i did , i retired which my manager did not want me to , but i was ready 25 years of service
You are confronting the layoff with the utmost class and attitude possible. Speaking as a fellow programmer, I know how you feel. Sharing the journey to your next job will help someone else, so THANK YOU.
Russian is here. Learn Russian and move here. Here are the plenty of IT industry jobs. Isolation and global (world wide 3) situations make us do a lot of software. Leave your rockets at home and come with peace.
I got laid off last year. The old fashioned loyalty will be rewarded is over, even for an old fashioned, legacy tech company. My attitude is go in, do my 40 hours and go home. Burning your personal time for the company will just cause resentment in the end. Your mental health is more important than you realize.
I think a better way to think about it is, if I am only at this job for one year, what could I learn and accomplish (deliver)? So look at it as a series of one year contracts, This helps you to set goals and not be negative.
More power to you my dude. One thing that’s positive is that you’re getting used to the feeling. And when that happens you can move faster and be more aware as you grow in your career. Turn the negative into a positive!
Remember what Steven Covey said, "Begin with the end in mind." Translation: Put some money away for a rainy day! Live and learn as they say. If you are married to a working spouse, learn to live off of one and save the other. Now, that's living below your means, Superstar!
And THIS is the kind of stressful situation that resulted in my going self emploed for the last few years of my working life an retiring at 62.5. I just dont need the hastle.
@cody_codes_youtube My wife had wanted to open a store featuring the work of local artists. We opened in the now-famous attraction called Artbox,at The Downtown Container Park, in Las Vegas. We were there from 2013 to 2021 when we sold the business to one of our contributing artists. It's still there and is something of a landmark now, over ten years later. Before that, I worked in technical training development and delivery for Nextel (later Sprint). The threat of layoffs loomed over my life for much of my career, and as I left corporate America, many companies had implemented teams of full-time "headcount strategists" embedded within the company that were as their accounting or sales teams. Needless to say their existence wasn't advertised. While I've been retired, I've been actively experimenting with AI. Unfortunately, I have become convinced that this technology will be heavily used in companies' overall job elimination strategies. To be candid, I fed ChatGPT-4 a brief from one of my last corporate projects. It produced results that took my team of ten six months to deliver in about five minutes. It was an uncomfortably humbling experience.
Saw this coming miles ahead. The moment I started seeing 'project managers' being promoted to director positions, I knew this crap was going to happen. Sucking up to upper management and promoting useless employees is why the tech market is failing.
I have been in the IT Industry for more than 30 years. Never encountered such a tough time. The latest I hear is that more and more companies outsource to Mexico and Africa! Even India and Eastern Europe became expensive for greedy stakeholders :) Also, more and more, excellent paid positions are reported in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Doha etc. My 2 friends found jobs in Dubai ($180.000/year) and getting ready for the trip.
Tech jobs are like sports contracts these days. You get big buck and applauds first and get immediately released when things don't seem to be that perfect anymore or someone "less expensive" arrives on the scene. The moral of the story: Never expect loyalty from an employer.
Short version: In USN and being fast tracked to Chief Petty Officer, Limited Duty Officer,or Warrant Officer. Cold War ended and I was forced out: too expensive to keep me and Navy ran out of money. Then to a major brewer: 10 years into that and plant blew up. Repairs were below code so I told them they were going to close the facility so I quit.Year later facility closed. Had a job set up with another major brewer but was talked into setting up a factory. Told them I would give them 1 year of my labor. Year later I was going to the major brewer and a failing business was for sale. So, bought it,grew it,became one of the best in the industry, sold it and retired early and well 2 years ago.Owned it a little over 20 years. Key to wealth/job security for me was owning my own company.
Definitely do not agree with unemployment for engineers being low. There are so many new grads every year and only a small percentage of them will find an engineering job
I know comp sci grads have increased. But I would love to see some data that supports dwindling Job placement with those degrees. I know it FEELS rough lately. But I want to see some data. Even today, I think engineers have it easier than my non engineer friends.
240k for a non-lawyer is doing pretty well, you must have talent. I have been laid off a couple of times, the low baller job offers can get to you , people trying to get you for 100k a year, my plumber makes more than that. I just try to talk to every recruiter I can. I have done 1099 for many years, I make sure to have six months savings on hand so I don't lose any sleep. Companies always need talent that can get projects completed on time with no drama. There are just so many fakers they have to filter out during interviews, I have interviewed many of them.
A dozen guys, as good and experienced as you, were ready to take your previous jobs for half of the money you had been making. Western EU, for example. Not from the "third world".
@@cody_codes_youtubeyeah I dated a guy who would give me shelter during his paid internships in undergrad but as graduation approached he dumped me so I’m sure you just have to ride the wave some go back to school for another bachelors in engineering but I would never
I've been laid off 2 times in my 17 year career. Each time I was let go, I ended up in a better spot, that includes during the 2008/09 downturn. "Offload the things you were working on" is essentially saying that your $240k salary could be much less for someone in India, Guatamala, Philippines or any other county like that. So they do want the work done, they just want it cheaper. Dev salaries are actually ridiculous if you think about it. For what we do, it's way out of line.
I agree. The market will change and our compensation will go down probably. The guy taking my place made the same as me, he just had been consulting there for over a year already so he had the advantage
I disagree. Developers are paid exactly what they are worth, which is a lot. In business it is about the value you add to a project, not that someone in India calls themselves a developer. If is funny how lawyers make lots of money, but I have never heard a lawyer say they are overpaid. In the early 2000's many tech jobs were shipped overseas , but companies soon realized they had contracted out the critical operations of the company to a different country and pulled things back. Culture, accents and time zones matter.
@@info781 time zones matter a LOT on execution times. That’s why near-shoring has spiked up a bit. But even then, managing non-local engineers is super hard
in My situation it was politics... My boss was trying to get rid of me for a long time... And he lied that I was not good enough... I did not show anything that made me not good enough... He was saying to HR that I was not experience or had the knowledge to do the work... But I was well over qualified and did not make any mistakes. But he liked people who were able to joke and laugh/socialize with him... I was very professional at work and did not socialize with him outside work... So he thought I was not a good fit so he did everything to try to kick me out.
Yeah, that’s the hard part. Managers are people and people can make ridiculous mistakes. You can only control so much of your life in these kind of jobs
If that was true, I thought more reasonable is to move out of his department or get another job in a different company. Not sure your logic to stick around if that is the case.
@@annat6249 I only stayed around because of the pay check and benefits. I wasn't given any leadership or leading any projects because my boss discriminated me and treated me like an intern even though I had 20 years of experience. My colleagues saw it. I was applying for jobs but the job market is very competitive. I was laid off (the only person) a month ago because my boss made up stories I was not good enough (even though I did not make any mistakes in my work). It was total politics. Like I said if you in his social circle and laugh at his jokes he will like you but if you don't socialize and laugh at his jokes you get bullied. I ended up getting a new job after a month of unemployment. A job with lower pay. I think politics are common.. if you can socialize and act like friends with your boss you get promoted but if you just do your work and dont mix work with play your boss will treat you differently and will never pick you for promotions. It happens. I'm just not the type of person who can socialize and act like his friend. I don't know if you experience this before where people play politics at work. But I'm glade I dont need to be in in that job. I would have left earlier but I needed the pay check.
I have been working in Bay area in IT for 15 years. This is my 6th job. Got laid off from 4 of the past 5. Always got severance for 4 months and was able to find a job in those 4 months. I was not stressed about being laid off before I became a father. Now I am scared but at the same time I have much more network so like you said, keep in good touch with all your contacts, and use them in future to find new jobs. I never stopped learning. Life long learner. Now learning AI tools so that I can have more productivity.
@@cody_codes_youtube well I drive truck and to be honest I quit and don't work in any company more than year or maximum two years because once I learn the job then it becomes rat race and routine which kills my motivation. I am the person who likes to keep climbing the ladder. I really surprised and amazed when people say I am working in this company for 20 or 30 years which really make me feel suffocating and I can't do. I can't stuck to one thing for long.
In March 2020, I embarked on my first career 1099 stint making what you were making in your last role. I made more money than I knew what to do with for ~18 months until I saw how chaotic it is to always have work lined up at the end of your contracts. I decided the stress of looming unemployment was too much for me, and I took a near 50% paycut to take a full-time role that might lead to a position (in ~5-8 years) where I can make the same kind of money as I did while consulting, but with benefits and job security. The one thing I hated as a consultant was that no matter how much money I had, I was still treated like a 2nd class citizen anywhere in the US healthcare system. Now, I'm in a job where I'm among the first persons to know when funding is running low, and it gives me a lot of peace of mind to be in the information loop.
For sure. This hits home. I would not be able to manage this level of stress without my wife. She has benefits for the family, so that is an unfair advantage I have.
It's just that phase of life where things go wrong for no rational reason and you feel like somethings trying to take revenge on you. But you just push past it because your 240k is waiting to upgrade to 300k on your next hunt. Keep hunting.
Your faith in me makes me so optimistic! Thanks dude! Yeah, these phases are painful, but now I'm open to much different opportunities in life! I hope to share the whole journey on my channel
Happened several times to me in 2008/09 and made me realise dont rely on this constantly changing career and got house paid off quickly as i could and developed other income streams
Got laid off again earlier this year in Feb. Previously laid off May 2022 but got a job again September that same year. Sucks to only have been in the role, it was a startup too, for a year and a half only to have to find a new role again. The job market this time is really rough too it's been a lot more difficult to say the least. Good luck to you too!
What I see is they want to hire young cheap people or replace 'expensive' US workers with workers from India or China. If you're an older engineer, you better be VERY good at what you do.
I’m sorry about your layoff! Thank you for sharing your experience. This is great advice in regard to maintaining those professional relationships and reflecting.
You're welcome! I am going to make this into a series, because I think there is potential that this will be a fun project. I'm still very optimistic. Call me out in a month if I'm not employed!
@@cody_codes_youtubehahaha no worries, it was just unintentionally funny, I was looking around my place like who on earth is playing a piano 😂 anyway good luck on your job hunt dude! I’m sure things will work out, just keep persisting onwards
Past handful of years have been harder. There’s been a correction. At the peak, there was unreasonable money being thrown at little value for all levels of engineering. Some may have brought the business more value, but there was kind of a bubble in value ROI on early and mid level engineers
You have an excellent attitude and outlook. I sure you're highly skilled in your industry and will find another assignment soon! All the best and thank you for sharing.
Was laid off a few years ago. Ive got 23 yrs experience and was making 220k + profit sharing. I had plenty of savings so no fear at first. Then after applying for dozens and dozens of jobs, hearing that many employers would rather hire someome younger for half the salary. I was getting burnt out on the industry anyways so I decided to take control.
I really wanted to spend more time outside, so I spent some of my savings to buy the minimum to run a lawn mowing business. The first year was a little slow and I only brought in around 60k. Three months later I was having to turn away customers because I was too busy even after hiring some help. After paying for all operating cost and my one employee, I'm making almost what I did before I got laid off and I feel a lot better being outside and enjoying the sun all day.
I still enjoy writing code but now I get to do it on my own personal projects and never have to sit in another scrum meeting again lol.
All this to say, have you considered starting your own business and never having to be at the mercy of a corporation again? I certainly do sleep better knowing that I am in control of my bank account.
Largely I do have my own business… but the flow of work needs to be consistent. This was my main big day gig, so it’s not like I’m going to zero, with no way of bringing in money, but it does obviously hurt the yearly budget. I am making moves to have consistent money outside consulting and contracting, but not there yet! Thank you for sharing your story. I really appreciate it!
@@cody_codes_youtube you bet. Sounds like you're going to land on your feet just fine! Good luck!
That's awesome!
Hank Hill would love this.
@@ryanpowell9522 I sell propane and propane accessories.
Careers are not what they used to be.
Absolutely. It’s evolved into something different.
Yes, you are 100 percent spot on, "careers are not what they used to be". So many in the baby boomer generation had 1 or 2 jobs for their whole entire career. They had social security and pensions and many also had 401k's. They are living an awesome end of career ride or retirement right now. Many of the baby boomers who had these easier careers than we Gen X , Millenial and Gen Z have are demonizing the younger workers saying we are the problem. Interesting that the baby boomers are mostly in control of politics and also the younger people are working to pay the taxes to support all the social programs like social security medicare and medicaid for the baby boomers. To the baby boomers who say they paid into the system, yes, they did, however they are getting paid more out of the system, far more, than they ever paid in. In contrast, us Gen X, millenials and Gen Z people, are going to pay in more than we will get out of the system when we retire, as the system is falling short. As a whole, Gen X, millenials and Gen Z have more certifications, more college degrees, and more hard and soft skills than the baby boomers did, however the baby boomers had the benefit to have been able to have lived during more prosperous times . Sad situation for anyone under 55 in the work place right now.
@@mikecoffee288 Getting a job isn’t that hard. I marched right into the mill, said “I’m a Union man!” and that was that.
@@notabannedaccount8362 I didn't say getting a job was hard. I would encourage you to re read my comment if you think I said that. I said that baby boomers lived during more prosperous times. The inflation wasn't an issue, and employers didn't demand from boomers from they demand today from younger generations. (skills, amount of time spent at work, carrying cell phones everywhere). Getting a job is easy. Finding a career that respects today's talent is like finding a unicorn.
Hey, @ALifeAfterLayoff in the building. He’s got good content too.
Sorry to hear that you got laid off. As someone who also just got laid off last week, this is really great advice! Always be kind. Accept your fate and move on.
Very true, and I'm sorry you're in the same boat as me! Stick around, and hopefully you'll enjoy my job hunting journey, and we can maybe learn together.
The bigger the pay, the bigger the company or the bigger the position, those are high possibilities of laying off when times are bad. Always side hustle when you are living comfortably.
You get it. I’m not broke, or without options, but losing the main gig does hurt. Thanks for watching!
@@cody_codes_youtube ahhh 👌 got it
I've had side hustles for 20+ years :)
Yep. I made a little less than Cody and was at the last company for 11 years and basically brought them out of the dark ages of technology. In the end, they saw that I cost what 3 mid level developers cost so I was first to go when times got rough. Any how, things have a way of working out. Now I run my own business and much happier.
@@StTrinawhat do you do?
I got laid off last December. It took more than 6 months but I managed to get an excellent new job. Don't give up!
This is motivating! Thank you for watching and commenting :heart:
Man this gave me a little hope. Been 2 months since my first lay off as a Jr dev. 😢
I got laid off last November. Still hunting.
Im in the same boat...I was one of the leading Sr Infosec Managers at VMWare, and when Broadcom bought the company they sent almost all of infosec packing. Ive been looking for five months and Ive been final four at SAP, Tesla, and Apple. Its just a wacked market.
@@mikehenkelman2111 oh it is. But this time will pass. Its like 2008 when the tech industry was down but keep working the market will change.
I feel that Linked In is nothing but former employees thanking their ex-employer for firing them while giving them "the opportunity".
Linkedin is a dumpster fire, dude.
Is there any better place for thrusty and up to date job boards in tech ??
Linkedin used to be a great place to network. Tell others you found a job, tell others you are looking etc. Now it has become a wasteland where some people give advice that isn't relevant so they can get exposure, some HR people will recruit desperate people looking for work at rock bottom salaries, and then comments and posts, have become so political and nasty. It is supposed to be a business site. It doesn't seem to be a business professional environment any longer.
Agreed. Posts like that never made sense to me
Oh my god..God... hahaa.. I saw that the same way.
Found out I was laid off after they reset phone, laptop and build PC. I worked remote. They sent email laying off everyone while IT started started remote wiping devices. They then systematically reported all company hardware stolen to individual police departments which resulted at least in my case with the police raiding my home and charging me with possession of stolen property. That happened hours after they failed to notify me of being fired. The police were not sympathetic and were openly hostile. Found out they did this to everyone. Company does not exist anymore. They made sure anyone applying for assistance would be screwed too. Lucky no one I knew had to worry about that. But remember it can always be worse. Everyone worked out and this was years ago now but I thought I would mention it.
That is one of the craziest lay off stories I’ve ever heard! Yeah of course it could be worse. But dang man. I’m sorry you had to go through that.
That level of malice warrants calling out the company by its name.
thats crazy, almost seems unreal, especially cops part, like what the hell, they are supposed to send you a box AFTER letting you go to send laptop back, not expect you to beam it like on Star Trek back to the company, before even knowing you're laid off. No wonder they no longer exist. Last 2 companies for me, temp jobs, I had to ask like 5 times for the box to be sent, like what the heck, where is your process to get laptops back from remote temps
That story sounds fake , it would be on the front page of the news.
That sounds like a lawsuit
That’s the reason I’ve been self employed for over 40 years! I always wanted to wake up every morning knowing my destiny depended on my own work effort, not on some unknown bean counter.
What do you do? If you don’t mind me asking?
hey, aint the bean counters laying you off, it's management, I'm a bean counter, called FINANCE and ACCOUNTING the only beans are in my coffee. We just give the facts and figures of reality. Management decides what to do with it.
Thank you sir.
Yes , but then it turns into working 24/7
YEAHM BUT IF YOUR CLIENTS HAVE NO JOBS THEY CANNOT PAY YOU AND THEY WILL STOP CALLING FOR YOUR SELF EMPLOYED BUSINESS!
I too was laid off back in early April. Job market is absolutely terrible. Nonetheless now is the time to study, learn new skills, and work on different areas of our personal lives.
True that my friend. I wish you the best. And I hope we can progress in this journey.
Absolutely. I was laid off last year and i spend my time learning cloud tech with projects.so when the market is up i will be ready
Same for me April…job market is totally awful. Don’t really know what I’m going to do.
It's the worst IT job market I've ever seen and overall a terrible job market. Unfortunately, we are entering into a depression. I would focus on learning survival skills (not joking).
Wow... 35 years as a software engineer and never laid off. Hoping to retire but my company doesn't want me to go... so I went part-time when I turned 60. I LOVE IT. Working 20 hours per week is perfect once you hit late 50s. I also left high-stress/high-pay job at corporate US and went to a small company at 55 which was also a great move. No more midnight calls when an application goes down.
You got it made! That’s perfect!
I am glad you had a good career. I wish everyone could have. Your generation, the baby boomers, lived during more prosperous times. Many of the baby boomers had easier careers than we Gen X , Millenial and Gen Z have currently in general. I know your career wasn't easy, but easier than what young people today have. Sign of the times. I agree, with the stress thing. I am 40s now and I remember working in manufactering for many years, getting up at 5 am to be ready to be at work for 6 to 7 am, then working until 4 or 5, then having to stay late to work on something that broke. Eat dinner and unwind around 7 or 8 pm, go to sleep for 2 to 3 hours, and at 11 or 12 at night woken up by someone calling on night shift that something went down. The night shift guy sleeps when he is off during the day and gets paid overtime if he works over 40 hours, the IT guy gets paid about the same to be on the clock 24 hours a day, no overtime. IT careers are not fun, not fulfilling and honestly horrible.
You have a very rare experience which most people will never have in the job market. Your company really values you which is the difference.
@@mikecoffee288 I've been in IT for over 20 years and have to say that the work load and stress is only increasing. Not only that, but you're treated like crap from users/internal customers. I even hate referring to colleagues as internal customers. They're f***ing users for goddsake.
@@SurpriseMeJTyes most people I know have this type of workplace
Cody I will give you a tip from an older person in his career. Many folks agree that when you reach your mid to late 40's, you really need to start working for yourself. This is easier to do if you have a job, even part time or casual for the income support. A layoff makes us realise how vulnerable we all are to working for someone else.
100%. I'm 38, and I've already been putting this in motion. I've been 100% contract/freelance for the past 3 years and I'm trying to branch out into more independent ventures to ween off needing that day-job-for-the-man
@@cody_codes_youtube I know some contractors who went back to work for a boss full-time and very much regretted it.
Yeah, I already feel like I would feel the same way
Im so tired of age discrimination, wage discrimination whatever you want to call it. Having your own business or side job sucks, in my view, mainly due to lack of good benefits at all, plus no W2 so you're not building social security, unless a bigger business and you pay yourself a wage, but yeah, conceptually, you can't rely on regular working for others.
Same thing happened to me. It’s crazy out here. I’m taking a job outside of tech just to not be unemployed for too long. Currently I’m at the 2 month mark. Good luck!
Yeah! I have some people who I greatly respect on the hunt for new work. It is definitely a different world than what the past 10 years have looked like. I'll try and keep youtube up to date!
Hi which role in tech where you doing before and which role outside of tech aew you at now?
@@cody_codes_youtube this is terrifying.
@@tas4092 DoorDash
What is the 2 months mark? )
Job hunting is always frustrating. We expect immediate results, and it generally takes months to find a job. Something will come along. Remember, at the end of every storm, the clouds part, and the sun shines through again-it always does.
Yup. Absolutely. Also, software engineers have been so used to so many years of it being on easy mode.
It's hard to stay clam when they lay you off and then the CEO gets a bonus of 40-80 million dollars . What I think the best strategy is to be the competition of the companies that laid you off . Companies like Google , Apple, Amazon have gotten way to big and need to be disrupted .
It's quite savage. The industry, and the way to apply for jobs is rife with bad practices. It's also at the expense of the workers
CEO's that make things happen are worth every penny. However, the ones that are nasty and miserable and force the lives of their workers to be bad to make a company great are terrible people who don't deserve their money. The only thing that will stop that is people have to stop relying on the products and shop elsewhere. As long as the American public buys Google and Apple phones, computers, laptops and uses them non stop for everything, everywhere they go, spending tons of money on those products, this cycle will never end. I am an IT guy but I will say this to anyone who will listen, people are way to reliant on computers in our society. People many times don't even interact with each other, they text message someone who lives or is physically close to them, order food on an app, never or very little interacting personally with other humans. The money causes the companies to keep developing technology that discourages interactions. Our world has changed so much in the last 20 years. If people went back to a simpler life, and stopped using so much technology, this cycle would stop and I think people would be happier. Honestly, who need to have a cell phone and a smart watch and a laptop and a desktop at home and a computer in their vehicle? Has this made your life any better or happier? The cell phone alone is really all you need in case of emergency. All the money spent on the technology, which becomes obsolete every couple of years, leading to you buying more of it, hasn't made your life any better. The CEO's and top people got rich though. Its not greed, they are just feeding a desire that the public wants. So it really isn't the CEO's fault, its the consumers fault.
It’s almost like a wall is up now, I’m considering walking into buildings with my suit on and trying to talk to a human.
makes me puke ya can have many hires for even 20m of the 40-80, and less burn out overall too... it's all about the most work for the cheapest, it wasn't always that way
I want that for myself and started with GitHub projects for practice and fun. The problem is that these companies take out or buy the startups. It’s getting sharky in the water.
Those who DIDN'T get laid off have it worse than those who did. Being laid off gives you a chance to coach those left behind on how to mitigate the damage of staying in a toxic workplace.
Ohhh I like this take! Thanks for sharing!
It’s not always “toxic”, yes most corporate are just jerks who want to make more money and add more workload on just a few workers …… some are start ups that they legit just don’t even have the money to operate anymore, due a contract they were depending on it a gain they where expecting
That's why you keep a large emergency fund allowing you to quit at any time.
This is like a slap in the face to people who got laid off. It’s basically down playing people who did get laid off. It’s basically “one-upping” (or one-downing I guess in this case..). “Oh you failed the physics exam? You don’t realize it but people who didn’t fail it have it worse. We have to worry about the stress of maintaining our grades for the rest of the year” 🤦
@@_______6398 The reason it's not a slap in the face is because the work previously done by those laid off gets dumped on those who stay. "You could be next" is used as a tool for "management by fear".
What a great mindset/advice in this! Looking forward to seeing what's next Cody...
Thanks Travis! Yeah, let's touch base again and catch up!
I was a PM at a PC peripherals company, and I was laid off exactly 2 weeks ago on the day of my 42nd birthday. I actually felt relieved when the SVP called me into his office to deliver the news, I guess ignorance is truly a bliss because I didn't fully grasp how it was going to impact my life. I started applying for jobs the same day I got laid off, and started an excel sheet to log all of my progress. To date, I've applied for 160 jobs, 36 of them were rejected, and have received no news whatsoever for the rest.
it is really daunting because I don't think I've ever applied for that many jobs and not get even a phone screen, the last time I went job hunting I had to move things around my schedule just to squeeze in interviews. Job hunting has become my full time job, it's basically what I do all day now. I don't have a family that I need to support but I do have a mortgage and a property tax bill fast approaching that I don't know how to pay off if I don't find a job soon.
@@william7182 I’m sorry you’re going through that! The job market is quite hard for various reasons this year. Keep your head up. You have marketable skills!
Have alot of savings. Never stay stagnant. Keep looking for next opportunity before the layoff came. Have a side gig.
Check, check, and check! That’s the value I want to bring in the next few videos. Advice and showing how I approach these set backs
My dad is a lawyer who left his law firm and worked for himself for a long time. He saw some ups but also a lot of hardship and serious downs. Being self employed doesn’t necessarily make all problems dissolve but this video is very inspiring to me. Thank you for taking your difficult time and just showing your confidence and calmness.
I just turned 30, single and no kids yet, and about to start looking at homes. I do 130k in pharma building design as a controls engineer. I’m doing well but I feel the pressure of the industry, lack of security, and confusion about what my ceiling really is. I want to start a business but I have no clue. I’m terrified of being in your position but you seem like you are handling it with poise and grace. I look up to you in that regard. Thank you for this video. I don’t know what to do but I hope I find the balls to start a business, show some work ethic, and get lucky in the end.
Hey buddy! That’s amazing and thank you for the kind words. It’s not for the feint of heart. I do think the best course of action to take is become super knowledgeable of personal finance. Like have that on lock down and know what you spend, what you need, what you want, and that unlocks discrete and factual numbers that you can build off of. Mr. Money Moustache is super entertaining and helpful in this regard. Those are the foundation blocks of having that confidence. You are lucky to be able to learn and be inspired by your dad. Growing up you see how it’s possible. I wish you the best of luck dude!
@@cody_codes_youtube thank you. I’ll check out mr money moustache
Saving & investing enough to be financially independent by 50 is the only way to live in this era. Tired of the job uncertainties.
@@venuswealth6 it’s super important
Being laid off can be a blessing! It opens up a path to move onto something better! ❤
You’re not wrong!
I might get cut soon too, so your experience is really valuable to me. Appreciate it.
You have a new subscriber who would love to watch your videos in the foreseeable fututre ;)
Dude, let's do this together! Stick around because I'm definitely going to be doing this a lot differently than some other creators out there.
I feel your pain. Please do not give up. we are pulling for you!
You’re so sweet, thank you!
I've been laid off twice in 40 years. If I recall it took 2 weeks to find a new job the first time. The second time I was overjoyed as I hated that company.
@@kwilde1131 sometimes it is a blessing!
As someone who is a senior level program manager, who is on the front lines of this, both hiring and sadly, sometimes letting people go, this is great advice. Try to take emotion out of it and realize that the people who may be giving you bad news, don't want to do that either. Never burn bridges. Hope you find a new journey soon!
Thank you for the validation man. And thank you for watching!
If you work for yourself, you'll never be out of work. Actually, it's almost impossible to get rich working for someone.
Working on it!
best advice ever
I worked in automotive in Detroit and layoffs were a constant concern. I was advised by an older worker to go in business for myself. I did and it started slow but I’m finally a multimillionaire and it never would have happened if I had stayed working in manufacturing.
@@sheneedsmeso what area(s) did you go into as an independent?
Glad your made the video it will help a lot of people going through similar situations.
@@PlanningYourCorporateEsc-er1ml thank you!
I just wanna say thanks for saying this, because I was laid off earlier this year: got told in March, finished in mid April. Kinda been looking for a new job now for two months, but my first resume draft wasn't all that good and didn't tell people much. I revamped it a couple of weeks ago to a much better effect, but the last two weeks have been the holiday weeks for my country, so it was a slower time again. I've already heard many words of support and wisdom from people at this point, and hearing a seasoned professional now saying all the same things is just reassuring, and helps me accept the reality of the industry I love and want to keep working in.
Also, to everyone in the comments and reading this, hang in there, we can persevere. Last time I got laid off I managed to get into a place that taught me great things that become a very solid basics for the next level of my career. It certainly isn't easy, especially if you're early in your career or it's your first layoff, and there's no "buts" about that; I just hope that you all find a place you're truly happy with after.
Absolutely! Thanks for sharing the encouraging words :D
Oh this is interesting. I appreciate your insight. I’ve just started a contracting role and this type of scenario has stressed me out for months. I never know if they will lose funding or something in the overall company just drastically changes. Honestly, I don’t even know if I’d wanna do contract work after this year anymore due to the anxiety it brings. I’m sorry to hear that you were laid off. That’s incredibly frustrating and I really hope you find something even better and wish you the best! Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for watching! Yeah, contracting and freelancing is not for the faint of heart.
Hey man, great advice, it's hard out here, best of luck to everyone on the hunt.
Thanks brother. It won't always be this way
i'll be here watching you and soaking every ounce of knowledge I can from your experience. Hence subscribed
I'm here for you! Let's go! Let's do this together.
Brother, this is normal. Same thing happened to me twice. Just look for next job. None of these companies have loyalty, it is what it is. You are just an asset.
1000000%. This is my 3rd lay off. That's fine. Some dude commented saying it's all my fault, and I want to talk about lay offs in my next video. It's just a vicious would of business
@@cody_codes_youtubehow does a stranger know that it was your fault?
@@cody_codes_youtube No, that guy doesn't know what he is talking about. Layoffs are about the company maximizing profits. It has nothing to do with you or your performance. If it was your fault, they would fire you.
An asset, no. An expense, yes. Crucial difference.
Hang in there. Just know it wasn’t you. If/when you feel yourself getting down- spend time with people who care about you. This is just like going through a storm… it will end and you will come out the other side intact- and stronger.
You will come out fine ! Looking forward to you sharing your next wonderful adventures !
Thank you! Yeah I think this is a great opportunity to share how I approach my job hunt and share my learnings from so many years hunting for jobs.
I went from over 230k to about half that and it was a hell of a difference but I pray it gets better for us all.
Yeah the market has made a huge correction in compensation. Thanks for sharing.
Just wanna share i was given a warn notice that i was gonna be laid off at my company. This was a month ago. Being professional in your layoff and working in whatever way possible with your manager and co-workers is honestly the way to go, as they helped me to find another job in the company. It was not for free, I still had to build my resume, prepare myself, and do interviews, but ultimately every piece helped get me to the next stage and I can personally validate what this man says.
Yes, anger resentment and spite do not have any positive ROI. We gotta roll with the punches my friend. Good work!
Ouch! It's never fun to get laid off, even if you see it coming. I was laid off (a non-tech job for a non-renewed contract) nearly a year ago. All the advice you're giving here is great. I would say keeping a positive frame of mind and optimistic outlook are key to landing your next gig smoothly. That is sometimes easier said than done. I'm sure you will be alright--and good luck.
Thank you so much. Yeah, I do have that skillset of keeping almost an obnoxious level of enthusiasm and positivity in these moments. I'll keep everyone posted.
I respect your professionalism and positive outlook. However, you are likely going to start feeling bitter after 6 months to a year and you still don't have a job. I am sorry to tell you but you lost your job in the worst job market in over 40 years and the worst IT job market I've ever seen. I wish you all the best and try to stay positive but be prepared to pivot into something new or perhaps start your own business. It's really awful out there right now and I see no evidence of any improvements in the near future. In fact, I think we are entering a depression. Not trying to be overly negative, just being real with you.
Appreciate the concern! I’m still feeling positive as of today. I know the market has taken a drastic turn lately. I have been mentoring many that are on the job hunt too
@@cody_codes_youtube please prove me wrong by getting a job soon! I will be celebrating right there with you! Just be prepared (sounds like you are) mentally, spiritually, and financially the best you can for a dry spell and difficult times. Good luck brother!
I recently took a month off from my developer job as I felt tired and burnt out.
My boss was very understanding and even promised to find me something lighter until I get back on my feet again.
I got put on a project and after 3 weeks I am basically doing 18 story points of work where average is around 7-8.
Problem is that it eats me up both physically and mentally.
Now I decided to teach programming as a business as a way to get out of this hell.
But I cant just quit my job overnight so I am getting up 4 in the morning every day to get some course work done before the first project meeting.
I really want to do this, I just don't know if there is enough juice left in me to see it through.
Sounds like burnout my friend. You sound like a super talented engineer. So I think you can take your foot off the gas and not work so hard. I would get your motivation and energy management under control before embarking on a serious new endeavor. I just worry about your health!
@@cody_codes_youtube Thanks Cody. Unfortunately money is still plays a huge factor in my life which makes it difficult to slow down or make decisions based on my own preferences. But I am over 40 now and I want to begin to enjoy life more that I could in the last decade and also want to spend more time with my family. Which is why going solo seems to be the right decision here. But its risky.
@@a.z.b.1916 for sure. But it is good to know where your values are. And I understand what you’re saying.
Bro that sucks, very sorry to hear that. Good luck!
Thanks man! I think I’ll land on my feet pretty quickly.
All the best Cody. Thanks for the wise words.
You're welcome! And thank you, I will be fine, but it's getting back to work
Never easy to go through that situation, but taking it professionaly and trying to keep the doors open is an excellent idea, which we tend to forget. Hope this is just a bump on the road and, soon enough, you'll be back in business.
Thanks dude! That means a lot. Hope everything is good in your world!
Excellent advice as always, especially just taking a moment to 'take a breath'.
Thanks dude! We need to get some zoom beers soon, so I can tell you the full story. Ugh!
Cody I believe in you! You've bounced back before, you can do it again.
Thank you! These are the best vibes!
Well, I went Maxie Devine's way instead of finding job in IT. I do freelance and I created my own IT company in just one person for about 5-7 years if count work time overall I've spent on it, and I'm gonna need about half of a year or so to release my first products
I haven’t heard of Maxie Devine. Thank you for sharing your story! I’m working on the same
@@cody_codes_youtube You can watch the movie , it's called "The Quest" 1996.
Today I had a call with my Director, she asked if employees on my team would want to land other roles in our company & I could assist. I was like I’m not trying to blow up our team, then said “should I be concerned” - I make what this guy makes in Tech, but I’m not feeling valued lately, even when we were setting records. I’m officially on the hunt for the next great gig that will make me happy / fufilled
Yeah, unfortunately I have abandoned the fulfillment goal for now. Once I have more money saved I can be picky about work. But maybe 2-3 years more
Contract work was always super stressful to me and I was single and 26. I can't imagine how much worse it would be with a family that depends on you.
It’s hard, that’s why I’m always looking and always networking to prepare for the worse when these things happen.
I was laid off from a high paying job at the beginning of the pandemic. I made myself a nice dinner, opened a bottle of wine, and enjoyed a relaxing evening and then pivoted to consulting full time - I'd started picking up side gigs and client a few years before. Within short order I was earning more, while working less, and all from home. Sometimes I think about hetting a regular job again, but I loathe all the time sucking meetings and political games that accompany working in a corporate setting.
Similar path here! In the middle of the pandemic I pulled the cord and did the same. I just also make sure I have a full time contract during the day while I build the business outside of that.
It is the same with me, if someone does not need me, I don't want to be there.
Please dont turn the background music on so loud. No background music is much better.
Nobody here is going to listen the music.
THANK YOI for the feedback. I really truly appreciate it. I legit turned it down so much and thought it would be good. But this feedback is grwt
Agreed. I would prefer to hear him speak instead of music that might be adding to the sympathy.
I've also been laid off and stuck in this crappy climate, but you don't need to add the drama; everyone is here to listen to you.
Sir that's great news now you can start your own company no layoffs you get paid all the money and whatever you choose it's entirely up to you good luck God bless bro
Thanks buddy! Appreciate the vote of confidence!
What are your thoughts on AI disrupting the engineering jobs?
I got my first job on 2017 and I never IMAGINED how unstable this industry would be. I'm starting to think that software engineering is rapidly becoming a not so "good career". I have a feeling more companies will be adopting AI (a very specific model for their company/needs etc) and a traditional back end engineer team would be composed of 1 senior back end/architect with a highly trained AI model etc instead of a traditional backend team of 3-4 devs + tech lead/architect.
I did a video on this (The one reason AI will never take your job, or something like that). I think you’re right. But also, you should know with 7 years of experience is that almost every team has WAY more work than they can handle. We will all be much more efficient, and get more done, but I bet 100s of dollars the thirst for new functionality, new expertise, and new business will NEVER go away. So I think we just have to adapt and accept this choppy waters for now.
I don't see the problems at this point. I use ChatGPT to teach me how to write better programs. I write in Java and Delphi and ChatGPT always helped me out when I have questions and want examples. I'm a much better programmer with it. You still need someone to put the program together.
It's called business necessity and business judgement decisions. Little recourse. Stephen Covey said, "Begin with the end in mind."
Oh haven’t heard it called that before. But yeah, too many spoiled engineers assume just because they can code it will all be perfect. But if the business does not have a necessity for your work then… bad times could be ahead
Even if a person getting $240k a year gets laid off he/she should be able to live like a $50k per year salaryman for the rest of his life with whatever they saved from that $240k job!
Saving percentages are super important. You’re right.
@@cody_codes_youtube You should have an emergency fund set aside for things like this and also you should be able to get unemployment benefits. I guarantee you are well off that many Americans living paycheck to paycheck!
@@barneycasting8331 yeah, let’s be clear, no one should be worried about me. I’m not going to zero with no options. My family will be fine and I know I can figure out something quickly. Stay tuned on the channel and I’m going to share it all
Overhead is key though. If you are someone that elevated their standard of living, 240k is nothing. Also, if you live in a very expensive city (most of them are very expensive anymore) your money doesn't last long.
So F... what... there other real people suffering and your bitching about your high-paying jobs.. maybe that will make you Humble..let see if it works...
No worries man. I know the privilege and how tone deaf this can sound. It sucked, but I will be okay. I know this isn’t a real struggle
With 15yrs of experience I'm sure you'll get hired in no time. If that doesn't happen then we're all fkd.
Haha. Thanks brother. I’m not worried about my family, it’s just an unexpected hurdle, ya know?
A mortgage is a 30 year commitment and income from a job is very volatile.... Not a good match up.
@@peterbedford2610 life in chaos mode
Best of luck...job search is looking like 4-6 months on average for most devs (purely anecdotal evidence), hopefully it goes better for you. Market is terrible right now.
Thanks brother, yeah, I have a similar feel for engineers I've been mentoring
i did some research before i retired and found out it's good to leave with good feelings for each other so that's what i did , i retired which my manager did not want me to , but i was ready 25 years of service
@@GloriaEsparsen-q6l good work! That’s a smart move
You are confronting the layoff with the utmost class and attitude possible. Speaking as a fellow programmer, I know how you feel. Sharing the journey to your next job will help someone else, so THANK YOU.
You’re welcome! Thanks for the kind words!
Russian is here. Learn Russian and move here. Here are the plenty of IT industry jobs. Isolation and global (world wide 3) situations make us do a lot of software.
Leave your rockets at home and come with peace.
Thank you for the invite!
Welcome to the club. Time for independent businesses.
Let's do it
I got laid off last year. The old fashioned loyalty will be rewarded is over, even for an old fashioned, legacy tech company. My attitude is go in, do my 40 hours and go home. Burning your personal time for the company will just cause resentment in the end. Your mental health is more important than you realize.
@@bmiller949 this is exactly right. The “company man” is a dated concept.
I think a better way to think about it is, if I am only at this job for one year, what could I learn and accomplish (deliver)? So look at it as a series of one year contracts, This helps you to set goals and not be negative.
This suckkkksssss......im only 26 and ive also been laid off 3 times....
More power to you my dude. One thing that’s positive is that you’re getting used to the feeling. And when that happens you can move faster and be more aware as you grow in your career. Turn the negative into a positive!
I appreciate the honesty. Good luck to you.
Hey thanks dude! I have high spirits so far, I’ve mentored people through this, and I know what I have to do
Remember what Steven Covey said, "Begin with the end in mind." Translation: Put some money away for a rainy day! Live and learn as they say. If you are married to a working spouse, learn to live off of one and save the other. Now, that's living below your means, Superstar!
Yeah, buddy! That’s exactly right. Thank you for taking the time!
And THIS is the kind of stressful situation that resulted in my going self emploed for the last few years of my working life an retiring at 62.5. I just dont need the hastle.
I agree! What kind of self employment do you do?
@cody_codes_youtube My wife had wanted to open a store featuring the work of local artists. We opened in the now-famous attraction called Artbox,at The Downtown Container Park, in Las Vegas. We were there from 2013 to 2021 when we sold the business to one of our contributing artists. It's still there and is something of a landmark now, over ten years later. Before that, I worked in technical training development and delivery for Nextel (later Sprint). The threat of layoffs loomed over my life for much of my career, and as I left corporate America, many companies had implemented teams of full-time "headcount strategists" embedded within the company that were as their accounting or sales teams. Needless to say their existence wasn't advertised. While I've been retired, I've been actively experimenting with AI. Unfortunately, I have become convinced that this technology will be heavily used in companies' overall job elimination strategies. To be candid, I fed ChatGPT-4 a brief from one of my last corporate projects. It produced results that took my team of ten six months to deliver in about five minutes. It was an uncomfortably humbling experience.
Ah man I just started my first tech job and i'm so worried after hearing about all these lay offs. Appreciate the advice though, best of luck to you
Stick around dude. I’m not scared, and I want to have this be a series of guiding people through layoffs and job hunting. Share my experience
First job, don't worry , learn all you can you may not be there forever. "Think" if I was only here one year , what could I learn?
very inspiring video. Thank you. I am looking forward to learn from the new approach experiment. Salute from Egypt
Thanks for watching! I hope you enjoy where I take the channel
Saw this coming miles ahead. The moment I started seeing 'project managers' being promoted to director positions, I knew this crap was going to happen. Sucking up to upper management and promoting useless employees is why the tech market is failing.
Can’t say I’ve seen that or agree. But thanks for watching and sharing!
I have been in the IT Industry for more than 30 years. Never encountered such a tough time. The latest I hear is that more and more companies outsource to Mexico and Africa! Even India and Eastern Europe became expensive for greedy stakeholders :) Also, more and more, excellent paid positions are reported in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Doha etc. My 2 friends found jobs in Dubai ($180.000/year) and getting ready for the trip.
Wow! Thanks for the insight and sharing on the channel. I appreciate you sharing your experience
Really? What were you doing in 2001-2002 and 2009, those were pretty tough years. Dubai has always paid well, but can get tiring.
Hope everything works out for you it's sad when this happens to people
Thank you. I’ll be fine in the end. Just a minor setback!
US job market is really in bad condition when you realize you cant keep a job for a whole year...
@@kamilkachnic7360 ehhhh yes and no. Majority of my career has been contract and consulting based. So naturally shorter durations
Isn’t capitalism great ?
Blessing and a curse
It's 100% better in than any existing alternative.
Compared to what?
@@JudahCrowe-ej9yl Yes.. NO WAY there could be a better system... NO WAY 100%.. this is as good as it could ever be 😂
@@whitetrashtrucker908what’s the alternative?
Tech jobs are like sports contracts these days. You get big buck and applauds first and get immediately released when things don't seem to be that perfect anymore or someone "less expensive" arrives on the scene. The moral of the story: Never expect loyalty from an employer.
Yup. Learned that the hard way a long time ago
Rooting for you!
Thank you! I’ll keep you all posted!
240K? Wow, I'm not even close. Good for you even with the layoff.
Thank you! It was a good gig, but also contract so, that did not include benefits
Short version: In USN and being fast tracked to Chief Petty Officer, Limited Duty Officer,or Warrant Officer. Cold War ended and I was forced out: too expensive to keep me and Navy ran out of money. Then to a major brewer: 10 years into that and plant blew up. Repairs were below code so I told them they were going to close the facility so I quit.Year later facility closed. Had a job set up with another major brewer but was talked into setting up a factory. Told them I would give them 1 year of my labor. Year later I was going to the major brewer and a failing business was for sale. So, bought it,grew it,became one of the best in the industry, sold it and retired early and well 2 years ago.Owned it a little over 20 years. Key to wealth/job security for me was owning my own company.
Very interesting! Thank you for sharing your story
That's because you have the skills. lol
I found out today I'm getting laid off at the end of the month, me and 2000 other folks. Time to dust off that CV!
Oh no! I’m sorry to hear that! I wish you the best in this job market!
Definitely do not agree with unemployment for engineers being low. There are so many new grads every year and only a small percentage of them will find an engineering job
I know comp sci grads have increased. But I would love to see some data that supports dwindling Job placement with those degrees. I know it FEELS rough lately. But I want to see some data. Even today, I think engineers have it easier than my non engineer friends.
Let's build an army of layoff people and build something greater!
Yessssssss. I’m on board with this idea
I have never understood why people have "careers".. yáll should go out there and build your businesses.
haha, working on it!
@@cody_codes_youtube Sweet!
240k for a non-lawyer is doing pretty well, you must have talent. I have been laid off a couple of times, the low baller job offers can get to you , people trying to get you for 100k a year, my plumber makes more than that. I just try to talk to every recruiter I can. I have done 1099 for many years, I make sure to have six months savings on hand so I don't lose any sleep. Companies always need talent that can get projects completed on time with no drama. There are just so many fakers they have to filter out during interviews, I have interviewed many of them.
For sure. Thanks for sharing your experience too!
A dozen guys, as good and experienced as you, were ready to take your previous jobs for half of the money you had been making. Western EU, for example. Not from the "third world".
Yeah, compensation is getting corrected after the craze of the 2010-2020 days
Don't forget better looking!
Good thing many find engineering boring so you can apply and get job quickly
I’m not too worried about it. The market is weird though!
@@cody_codes_youtubeyeah I dated a guy who would give me shelter during his paid internships in undergrad but as graduation approached he dumped me so I’m sure you just have to ride the wave some go back to school for another bachelors in engineering but I would never
I've been laid off 2 times in my 17 year career. Each time I was let go, I ended up in a better spot, that includes during the 2008/09 downturn. "Offload the things you were working on" is essentially saying that your $240k salary could be much less for someone in India, Guatamala, Philippines or any other county like that. So they do want the work done, they just want it cheaper. Dev salaries are actually ridiculous if you think about it. For what we do, it's way out of line.
I agree. The market will change and our compensation will go down probably. The guy taking my place made the same as me, he just had been consulting there for over a year already so he had the advantage
I disagree. Developers are paid exactly what they are worth, which is a lot. In business it is about the value you add to a project, not that someone in India calls themselves a developer. If is funny how lawyers make lots of money, but I have never heard a lawyer say they are overpaid. In the early 2000's many tech jobs were shipped overseas , but companies soon realized they had contracted out the critical operations of the company to a different country and pulled things back. Culture, accents and time zones matter.
@@info781 time zones matter a LOT on execution times. That’s why near-shoring has spiked up a bit. But even then, managing non-local engineers is super hard
My friend started a company after being laid off. He sold it at 80 years old for millions
@@FIRE_DrNinjaTurtle that’s awesome!
in My situation it was politics... My boss was trying to get rid of me for a long time... And he lied that I was not good enough... I did not show anything that made me not good enough... He was saying to HR that I was not experience or had the knowledge to do the work... But I was well over qualified and did not make any mistakes. But he liked people who were able to joke and laugh/socialize with him... I was very professional at work and did not socialize with him outside work... So he thought I was not a good fit so he did everything to try to kick me out.
Yeah, that’s the hard part. Managers are people and people can make ridiculous mistakes. You can only control so much of your life in these kind of jobs
If that was true, I thought more reasonable is to move out of his department or get another job in a different company. Not sure your logic to stick around if that is the case.
@@annat6249 I only stayed around because of the pay check and benefits. I wasn't given any leadership or leading any projects because my boss discriminated me and treated me like an intern even though I had 20 years of experience. My colleagues saw it. I was applying for jobs but the job market is very competitive. I was laid off (the only person) a month ago because my boss made up stories I was not good enough (even though I did not make any mistakes in my work). It was total politics. Like I said if you in his social circle and laugh at his jokes he will like you but if you don't socialize and laugh at his jokes you get bullied. I ended up getting a new job after a month of unemployment. A job with lower pay. I think politics are common.. if you can socialize and act like friends with your boss you get promoted but if you just do your work and dont mix work with play your boss will treat you differently and will never pick you for promotions. It happens. I'm just not the type of person who can socialize and act like his friend. I don't know if you experience this before where people play politics at work. But I'm glade I dont need to be in in that job. I would have left earlier but I needed the pay check.
@@annat6249 Agree, you should have fired your boss (by finding a new job), they must have paid well.
I have been working in Bay area in IT for 15 years. This is my 6th job. Got laid off from 4 of the past 5. Always got severance for 4 months and was able to find a job in those 4 months. I was not stressed about being laid off before I became a father. Now I am scared but at the same time I have much more network so like you said, keep in good touch with all your contacts, and use them in future to find new jobs. I never stopped learning. Life long learner. Now learning AI tools so that I can have more productivity.
Dude AI has supercharged my learning too. And I think the network is not stated enough. That’s more than half the battle
These sucker companies lay off in very wrong age over 50 which become very tough to find another job.
Those are hard times when that happens. Did that happen to you?
@@cody_codes_youtube well I drive truck and to be honest I quit and don't work in any company more than year or maximum two years because once I learn the job then it becomes rat race and routine which kills my motivation. I am the person who likes to keep climbing the ladder. I really surprised and amazed when people say I am working in this company for 20 or 30 years which really make me feel suffocating and I can't do. I can't stuck to one thing for long.
@@Hazara26 my uncle also drives trucks. The business behind that work, and the work itself is hard man.
In March 2020, I embarked on my first career 1099 stint making what you were making in your last role. I made more money than I knew what to do with for ~18 months until I saw how chaotic it is to always have work lined up at the end of your contracts. I decided the stress of looming unemployment was too much for me, and I took a near 50% paycut to take a full-time role that might lead to a position (in ~5-8 years) where I can make the same kind of money as I did while consulting, but with benefits and job security. The one thing I hated as a consultant was that no matter how much money I had, I was still treated like a 2nd class citizen anywhere in the US healthcare system. Now, I'm in a job where I'm among the first persons to know when funding is running low, and it gives me a lot of peace of mind to be in the information loop.
For sure. This hits home. I would not be able to manage this level of stress without my wife. She has benefits for the family, so that is an unfair advantage I have.
What is your field of work ? Were you an independent contractor previously?
I’ve done independent contracting for about 3 years full time now
It's just that phase of life where things go wrong for no rational reason and you feel like somethings trying to take revenge on you.
But you just push past it because your 240k is waiting to upgrade to 300k on your next hunt.
Keep hunting.
Your faith in me makes me so optimistic! Thanks dude! Yeah, these phases are painful, but now I'm open to much different opportunities in life! I hope to share the whole journey on my channel
Happened several times to me in 2008/09 and made me realise dont rely on this constantly changing career and got house paid off quickly as i could and developed other income streams
Atta boy! That’s awesome to hear. I graduated college in that year and it was rough to start there.
Interesting. Thanks. toronto canada.
You’re welcome!
"Balancing budget" = leadership made poor choices and weakened the company, and you, the employee, will pay for them.
Got laid off again earlier this year in Feb. Previously laid off May 2022 but got a job again September that same year. Sucks to only have been in the role, it was a startup too, for a year and a half only to have to find a new role again. The job market this time is really rough too it's been a lot more difficult to say the least. Good luck to you too!
Thank you! Yeah, it’s not for the weak of heart
What I see is they want to hire young cheap people or replace 'expensive' US workers with workers from India or China. If you're an older engineer, you better be VERY good at what you do.
Interesting. I’m seeing some of that, but not replacement. Just maybe some jobs that are easier for overseas help
Agree if you are not in the top 20% of your field you should find a new field or get to the top 20%.
I’m sorry about your layoff! Thank you for sharing your experience. This is great advice in regard to maintaining those professional relationships and reflecting.
You're welcome! I am going to make this into a series, because I think there is potential that this will be a fun project. I'm still very optimistic. Call me out in a month if I'm not employed!
I’m subscribed stay strong brother
THANK YOU! Yeah, I hope to share the journey all the way through
0:55 that ominous piano music legit scared the F out of me
Yeah my dude. I’m not doing that again. Sorry for that!
@@cody_codes_youtubehahaha no worries, it was just unintentionally funny, I was looking around my place like who on earth is playing a piano 😂 anyway good luck on your job hunt dude! I’m sure things will work out, just keep persisting onwards
@@ShadyRonin thank you!
I thought engineering was the key to easy street. That is what I was told 30 years ago. What happened?
Past handful of years have been harder. There’s been a correction. At the peak, there was unreasonable money being thrown at little value for all levels of engineering. Some may have brought the business more value, but there was kind of a bubble in value ROI on early and mid level engineers
You have an excellent attitude and outlook. I sure you're highly skilled in your industry and will find another assignment soon! All the best and thank you for sharing.
Thank you for such kind words!!
If he was ugly you wouldn't say that.