I’ve been working on it for a couple of months now. Not diligently, just as a precaution. Layoffs are always on the horizon, so I wanted to see for myself how the job market looks like. Results have been discouraging. Most offers I got were subpar. And there weren’t many. I got the impression that employees have been milking the situation, with all of us flooding the market.
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My experience was different from many above, so I guess everyone's mileage may vary.
For me, I did get the sense of "AI is replacing my existing skills" -- or at least that this was the sense that companies had and at least until AI progress "slows down", then trying to find a job without having concrete AI skills would be foolish.
I started building a "demoware" project that utilizes AI for automating some common household record keeping. It was serving my own need, while letting me build GenAI skills.
However, I let other ideas and voices creep in and I dropped the effort over the late summer. I started applying to non-AI jobs, and one put me thtough a very aggravating "code in notepad" live coding -- at first they made it sound like it had to be perfect code, then said to ignore details of their fictional interface -- essentially telling me halfway in they just wanted pseudocode. Failed that interview.
Had another that was misleading from the get go. Got the sense the recruiter just needed her another digital face in front of his client, so he pretended his client needed someone with strong experience "breaking apart monoliths". The client told me otherwise during interview.
But then in early fall I met up with someone who told me my own enthuasiasm early on had inspired his own AI journey. He had built something for his company and then they wound up funding it for productionizing!
I picked up my project again and made tangible, demonstrable progress. Then three weeks later a recruiter contacted me about a "GenAI" project.
I figured, what have I got to lose? I demonstrated my demoware to the AI director, and he loved it! Mostly, he loved that I had been self-learning this during my severance period.
Two months later now, and I accepted a role on his new GenAI team. I will be earthing 25% more than I left SAP with, so I am happy to get stability again.
Will this turn into a future layoff or be a crummy overall work experience? Maybe, maybe not. But, like someone said on this board, 2 to 3 years and hopping for salary bumps is probably the best we can hope for in the midst of all the change and AI hype.
I'll gladly benefit from the hype after having been laid off due to the hype by SAP.
I was part of the April layoffs and "garden period" was end of May. I piddled around for a couple of months, tried something outside of tech which was a DEI nightmare. Got back into the swing of things in late August were ghosting seems to be the new way of saying FO. I took from November - December to just relax and regroup for the new year. Being north of 60 makes it difficult but won't give up. A friend still works at SAP and I was told that their service date was altered where 9 years were knocked off. Big fear that if layoff was to impact them, that's a big dollar loss. From 34 years changed to 25 years. However, there is documentation SAP sent them for 33 years of service.
50% higher
I had 3 offers within 6 weeks of being let go from SAP. 2 offers were from contacts within my network. All were competitive offers but without the RSUs, so overall compensation (total target cash) less. Out of a team of 72 people at SAP, I was the only one let go because my boss thought I was after his job. So while I miss my team, I’m glad to work for managers with integrity.
I have been looking passively and have had three different opportunities. I didn't take one because it was a contracted position that paid less than my current role. Another paid more but it was outside of my time zone. Another seemed promising, but I wasn't thrilled with one of their policies.
I keep a spreadsheet of companies that I look into. My standards are very high since I am still employed. If I were to get laid off then I'm confident I could find something to hold me over.
Keep in mind that in a competitive job market everyone is much more aggressive. If you're applying for a position. Sell yourself and make sure that they know you really want the job. Make it so that any time there is a job opening, you're the first name that comes to their mind. Even if it's to get you to shut up.
I’m actually trying to boomerrang to SAP. Left in 2022 and got laid off 3 times back to back to back. I’m at a point in life where I need an easy paycheck and SAP will do it.
Sadly the job situation will only get worse with AI taking on more and more human tasks. My advice is to reduce/eliminate your debt and increase savings while you still have a job. Dont make any stupid purchases.
Not great! And salaries aren’t the best. Lucky if you get a reply from a recruiter. And if you do, they’ll simply ghost and you never hear from them again. I had one reach out twice, two separate times and just never responded back. Very strange times, hoping it gets better!
Most of the jobs being posted are ghost jobs where the recruiter isn't really hiring. Many people are applying using GenAI to create their Resumes. You have IT people applying for non-IT roles. Non-IT people applying for IT roles. It's a mess. Salaries being offered are again s*** across the industry.