> Many people have gotten themselves in a situation where they need a large compensation package in order to live their life.
And then, apropos anxiety, there are those of us who could never believe our good fortune, living life parsimonious and low-key for decades because the rain of riches must clearly be unsustainable.
What more, dutifully interviewing and hiring youngsters who have no such doubts, but instead the infuriating temerity to throw caution to the wind and get promoted right past us in no time flat.
It's really great—for society and for karma—that the job market for digital tech engineers is normalizing.
Except, when those mundane institutions hire, they still want that bold now-accomplished still-almost-youngster that they can get at a steep discount, not yours truly Mr Gray Hairs. I may be free to retire, but what if I don't want to?
Having lived through 2 of these cycles before in Silicon Valley, (1992/3 and 2002) one of which i was unemployed for 6 months in, i can say that stupid hiring practices like giving job interviewers the opportunity to win a car... will be back, just give it a couple of years. This is a periodic power shift from employee to employer, and they last 3-5 years. we can see the beginnings of the next boom in the stupid money that all the big players are shovelling to NVDA now. Building data centers to consume 10% of the world's power is the next boom. Theres money to be found, people just need to be looking for it...
Yeah so it's called a market correction, but to be fair, Google was already overstaffed by a factor of 8 or so back in the 2010s. As I remember it, the excuse was to get 'em before Facebook would, or something.
> “You have been in this industry for a very long time, you must be absolutely loaded.”
You're not alone...
The irony (for me) is that 30 years ago, I was living in a developing country and earning a real pittance compared to what I earn today, but I felt totally baller. I travelled overseas to UK and USA on my own dime (not at ALL common among my peer group in South Africa at that time), and could buy nearly anything I wanted (which, to be fair, was the latest and greatest hard drive when it was released [one of which is a Western Digital Caviar 21200 1.2GB drive which I hold in my hand as I type this in 2024]). Now, with a very different and much more mature situation, I don't feel anywhere near as accomplished, and I wonder if it's because of obligation (family, mortgages, kids education, aging parents, thoughts about our own retirement nest egg, etc), because of situation (bay area peer group where we feel solidly "middle class", and of course the notion of "comparison is the thief of joy", certain choices I've made where I left unvested/unrealized value for other opportunities that didn't materialize as anticipated, etc), the hedonic treadmill, the mental perspective and acuity of a 49 yr old vs a 20 yr old, etc ...
> Many people have gotten themselves in a situation where they need a large compensation package in order to live their life.
And then, apropos anxiety, there are those of us who could never believe our good fortune, living life parsimonious and low-key for decades because the rain of riches must clearly be unsustainable.
What more, dutifully interviewing and hiring youngsters who have no such doubts, but instead the infuriating temerity to throw caution to the wind and get promoted right past us in no time flat.
It's really great—for society and for karma—that the job market for digital tech engineers is normalizing.
Except, when those mundane institutions hire, they still want that bold now-accomplished still-almost-youngster that they can get at a steep discount, not yours truly Mr Gray Hairs. I may be free to retire, but what if I don't want to?
Having lived through 2 of these cycles before in Silicon Valley, (1992/3 and 2002) one of which i was unemployed for 6 months in, i can say that stupid hiring practices like giving job interviewers the opportunity to win a car... will be back, just give it a couple of years. This is a periodic power shift from employee to employer, and they last 3-5 years. we can see the beginnings of the next boom in the stupid money that all the big players are shovelling to NVDA now. Building data centers to consume 10% of the world's power is the next boom. Theres money to be found, people just need to be looking for it...
Yeah so it's called a market correction, but to be fair, Google was already overstaffed by a factor of 8 or so back in the 2010s. As I remember it, the excuse was to get 'em before Facebook would, or something.
> “You have been in this industry for a very long time, you must be absolutely loaded.”
You're not alone...
The irony (for me) is that 30 years ago, I was living in a developing country and earning a real pittance compared to what I earn today, but I felt totally baller. I travelled overseas to UK and USA on my own dime (not at ALL common among my peer group in South Africa at that time), and could buy nearly anything I wanted (which, to be fair, was the latest and greatest hard drive when it was released [one of which is a Western Digital Caviar 21200 1.2GB drive which I hold in my hand as I type this in 2024]). Now, with a very different and much more mature situation, I don't feel anywhere near as accomplished, and I wonder if it's because of obligation (family, mortgages, kids education, aging parents, thoughts about our own retirement nest egg, etc), because of situation (bay area peer group where we feel solidly "middle class", and of course the notion of "comparison is the thief of joy", certain choices I've made where I left unvested/unrealized value for other opportunities that didn't materialize as anticipated, etc), the hedonic treadmill, the mental perspective and acuity of a 49 yr old vs a 20 yr old, etc ...