Tech Workers Face a New Reality as Talent Wars Turn to Pink Slips
This spring, Google employees in the Bay Area got a private Lizzo concert to herald a return to the office. Now the company is cutting back on social gatherings as well as hiring.
Meta Platforms Inc.,
known for once-lavish perks such as free laundry, began slashing 11,000 jobs this week and said some of its remaining workers will have to share desks.
The comedown has been swift for employees of big technology companies, long among the most coveted workers in business. Accustomed to jobs with six-figure salaries, fat equity packages and cushy amenities, many employees are now facing staff cuts for the first time, along with shrinking net worths as stocks fall during a bumpy stretch for big tech.
Recruiters like Charley Betzig say they are receiving a flood of notes from tech employees saying they would love to reconnect. For years, he has been the one trying to get their attention, he said. After large-scale layoffs at Twitter Inc.,
Lyft Inc.,
Stripe Inc. and others in recent days, tech employees have logged on to the anonymous messaging board Blind with commiserating posts with titles such as “layoff layoff layoff” and “take care of yourselves y’all.” One post was simply labeled: “I want to cry.”
Meta said this week it was cutting more than 11,000 jobs globally.
Photo:
Getty Images
“The vibe is different types and levels of ‘not good,’ ” said Sherveen Mashayekhi, chief executive of Free Agency, a firm that advises tech employees and places them at companies.
Some tech workers are facing unemployment for the first time in their careers, while others are seeking security in more staid but growing fields such as logistics and financial services, recruiters say.
Mr. Mashayekhi says his firm is getting four times the number of job-placement requests from workers at large-cap tech companies as it did six months ago. Before this year, he said he had never placed a tech worker at
Walmart Inc.,
let alone multiple, as he has recently.
Until recently, workers wanted to go to “what was hot and sexy,” he said. “Now, we’ve placed many at legacy name brands.”
Prashay Deo worked the past few years at Airbnb-like rental company
Sonder Holdings Inc.,
then as an expansion and operations manager at Jurny Inc., a hospitality tech firm. Now he is job hunting. Sonder laid the 31-year-old off in 2020 as it downsized in the early part of the pandemic; Jurny let him go this year after doing the same. Mr. Deo, who previously worked at
Apple Inc.,
said he is reassessing what he wants in his next employer.
From Twitter to Meta: Tech Layoffs by the Numbers
“Tech is going to start coming with more of a question mark than an exclamation point,” he said. He said he is still interested in working at a similar startup with long-term investor support and growth potential but has also considered roles at established hospitality companies such as
Marriott International Inc.
or
Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.
Now, one of his first questions when he talks with a company recruiter is: “Tell me how you’ve handled layoffs,” he said.
Another tech worker, in product management at a Bay Area e-commerce startup, said the flood of laid-off tech staffers seeking work has spurred her to take on more hours. She is not scared of losing her job, she said, but she does feel more replaceable than she did a few months ago.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
If you work in tech, how are you looking at the job market right now? Join the conversation below.
She estimates her net worth has dropped 25% since the start of 2022 as the stock she owns from a previous tech employer has plunged. With the prospect of a lower bonus this year, she is thinking of selling her car, she said.
Jobs at platforms for home sales, car buying and other businesses highly sensitive to interest rates have been especially hard-hit, said
Tim Herbert,
chief research officer with CompTIA, an information-technology trade group. Real-estate company Redfin Corp., for instance, laid off 13% of its staff on Wednesday and closed its home-flipping unit.
Yet plenty of tech companies are posting jobs, particularly those in enterprise software, IT infrastructure and cybersecurity, Mr. Herbert said. Job openings in tech grew by more than 10,000 positions to 317,000 in October, reversing five months of declines, and employment across the industry was 28% higher than a year earlier, according to CompTIA. UX designers, shorthand for user experience designers, dev-ops engineers, web developers and mobile app developers remain in strong demand, Mr. Herbert said.
“You do have workers that could be facing layoffs and they could be quite nervous,” he said. “But then you have other folks that could be completely immune.”
Gene Munster, managing partner at venture-capital firm Loup Ventures, says engineers remain in demand, but sales and marketing people might struggle to quickly land another role.
Those who escape layoffs might have to absorb the tasks of those who left.
“There’s this theme of wanting to get more done with less people,” says Mr. Munster, who knows of one staffer who recently added strategic development and partnerships duties to his investor-relations role after layoffs at his tech company.
Justine De Caires, a 25-year-old software engineer laid off from Twitter last week, says she has gotten a flurry of LinkedIn messages from recruiters for startups still flush from their 2021 financing rounds.
“I do have the option of just waiting,” she said.
Aydin Senkut, founder of VC firm Felicis Ventures, says he is advising his portfolio companies with less than a year of cash on hand not to raise salaries or increase head count. Others with faster growth and more reserves might pick up some of the talent cut from larger companies, he says, but there aren’t enough startups to absorb all of the job losses.
Some firms outside of tech are seizing this moment. Danish containership company A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S says it has had better luck recruiting tech workers recently, in part, because it can offer higher salaries and a smaller amount of equity, a more favorable compensation mix when markets are volatile.
AT&T Inc.’s
chief technology officer,
Jeremy Legg,
says the telecoms company is also drawing more applications from startup employees than a year ago.
Recruiters at
Citizens Financial Group Inc.,
meanwhile, have contacted people recently laid off by tech companies, making the case that a job at the regional bank can offer a compelling career, said
Michael Ruttledge,
chief information officer and head of technology services at Citizens.
“We give stability,” he said. “We’re not offering free nitro (cold brew coffee) and ping-pong tables.”
Write to Katherine Bindley at [email protected] and Chip Cutter at [email protected]
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
This spring, Google employees in the Bay Area got a private Lizzo concert to herald a return to the office. Now the company is cutting back on social gatherings as well as hiring.
Meta Platforms Inc.,
known for once-lavish perks such as free laundry, began slashing 11,000 jobs this week and said some of its remaining workers will have to share desks.
The comedown has been swift for employees of big technology companies, long among the most coveted workers in business. Accustomed to jobs with six-figure salaries, fat equity packages and cushy amenities, many employees are now facing staff cuts for the first time, along with shrinking net worths as stocks fall during a bumpy stretch for big tech.
Recruiters like Charley Betzig say they are receiving a flood of notes from tech employees saying they would love to reconnect. For years, he has been the one trying to get their attention, he said. After large-scale layoffs at Twitter Inc.,
Lyft Inc.,
Stripe Inc. and others in recent days, tech employees have logged on to the anonymous messaging board Blind with commiserating posts with titles such as “layoff layoff layoff” and “take care of yourselves y’all.” One post was simply labeled: “I want to cry.”
Meta said this week it was cutting more than 11,000 jobs globally.
Photo:
Getty Images
“The vibe is different types and levels of ‘not good,’ ” said Sherveen Mashayekhi, chief executive of Free Agency, a firm that advises tech employees and places them at companies.
Some tech workers are facing unemployment for the first time in their careers, while others are seeking security in more staid but growing fields such as logistics and financial services, recruiters say.
Mr. Mashayekhi says his firm is getting four times the number of job-placement requests from workers at large-cap tech companies as it did six months ago. Before this year, he said he had never placed a tech worker at
Walmart Inc.,
let alone multiple, as he has recently.
Until recently, workers wanted to go to “what was hot and sexy,” he said. “Now, we’ve placed many at legacy name brands.”
Prashay Deo worked the past few years at Airbnb-like rental company
Sonder Holdings Inc.,
then as an expansion and operations manager at Jurny Inc., a hospitality tech firm. Now he is job hunting. Sonder laid the 31-year-old off in 2020 as it downsized in the early part of the pandemic; Jurny let him go this year after doing the same. Mr. Deo, who previously worked at
Apple Inc.,
said he is reassessing what he wants in his next employer.
From Twitter to Meta: Tech Layoffs by the Numbers
“Tech is going to start coming with more of a question mark than an exclamation point,” he said. He said he is still interested in working at a similar startup with long-term investor support and growth potential but has also considered roles at established hospitality companies such as
Marriott International Inc.
or
Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.
Now, one of his first questions when he talks with a company recruiter is: “Tell me how you’ve handled layoffs,” he said.
Another tech worker, in product management at a Bay Area e-commerce startup, said the flood of laid-off tech staffers seeking work has spurred her to take on more hours. She is not scared of losing her job, she said, but she does feel more replaceable than she did a few months ago.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
If you work in tech, how are you looking at the job market right now? Join the conversation below.
She estimates her net worth has dropped 25% since the start of 2022 as the stock she owns from a previous tech employer has plunged. With the prospect of a lower bonus this year, she is thinking of selling her car, she said.
Jobs at platforms for home sales, car buying and other businesses highly sensitive to interest rates have been especially hard-hit, said
Tim Herbert,
chief research officer with CompTIA, an information-technology trade group. Real-estate company Redfin Corp., for instance, laid off 13% of its staff on Wednesday and closed its home-flipping unit.
Yet plenty of tech companies are posting jobs, particularly those in enterprise software, IT infrastructure and cybersecurity, Mr. Herbert said. Job openings in tech grew by more than 10,000 positions to 317,000 in October, reversing five months of declines, and employment across the industry was 28% higher than a year earlier, according to CompTIA. UX designers, shorthand for user experience designers, dev-ops engineers, web developers and mobile app developers remain in strong demand, Mr. Herbert said.
“You do have workers that could be facing layoffs and they could be quite nervous,” he said. “But then you have other folks that could be completely immune.”
Gene Munster, managing partner at venture-capital firm Loup Ventures, says engineers remain in demand, but sales and marketing people might struggle to quickly land another role.
Those who escape layoffs might have to absorb the tasks of those who left.
“There’s this theme of wanting to get more done with less people,” says Mr. Munster, who knows of one staffer who recently added strategic development and partnerships duties to his investor-relations role after layoffs at his tech company.
Justine De Caires, a 25-year-old software engineer laid off from Twitter last week, says she has gotten a flurry of LinkedIn messages from recruiters for startups still flush from their 2021 financing rounds.
“I do have the option of just waiting,” she said.
Aydin Senkut, founder of VC firm Felicis Ventures, says he is advising his portfolio companies with less than a year of cash on hand not to raise salaries or increase head count. Others with faster growth and more reserves might pick up some of the talent cut from larger companies, he says, but there aren’t enough startups to absorb all of the job losses.
Some firms outside of tech are seizing this moment. Danish containership company A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S says it has had better luck recruiting tech workers recently, in part, because it can offer higher salaries and a smaller amount of equity, a more favorable compensation mix when markets are volatile.
AT&T Inc.’s
chief technology officer,
Jeremy Legg,
says the telecoms company is also drawing more applications from startup employees than a year ago.
Recruiters at
Citizens Financial Group Inc.,
meanwhile, have contacted people recently laid off by tech companies, making the case that a job at the regional bank can offer a compelling career, said
Michael Ruttledge,
chief information officer and head of technology services at Citizens.
“We give stability,” he said. “We’re not offering free nitro (cold brew coffee) and ping-pong tables.”
Write to Katherine Bindley at [email protected] and Chip Cutter at [email protected]
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
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