LAYOFFS Are Here - Are You Next?

[@berninme]

Couple things to add. First, very few teams will be all safe or all cut. The vast majority of leaders/teams will be asked to make some contribution to reducing cost. The amount of cost to reduce will vary from team to team. Second, companies frequently do not jump directly to layoffs of employees. If there are a significant amount of contractors, they are usually the first to be impacted. Then companies will sometimes offer early retirement or voluntary job reduction. This isn't universal, but I have seen it many times in larger orgs.

[@azteca6695]

I was a company for about 10 yrs. ( Medical field) The same year new management came in, I was diagnosed with cancer. Had surgery and treatment and went back to work after 3 months. The following year I was let go, as I was going back to check if the cancer was gone. Fortunately, I had saved 6 months of emergency funds. You just never know what life is going to throw at you

[@k-yo]

Just got laid off and honestly I'm believing it might be a blessing in disguise. The amount of support and recruiters at better companies flocking at my LinkedIn profile is nothing short of wholesome. I live in Brazil and a lot of opportunities at companies abroad that pay well even for remote work is a lot, and it was something I dreamt of. Hoping to be employed again at a much better place at least for a while by focusing at being a hedgehog. Thanks a lot for this video, great as always.

[@mfiaz7719]

Sorry about the layoff. I like your positive attitude. Hope that a great opportunity comes on your way soon. If you don’t mind, could you please share the name of a company you were laid off from? Just curious because my team has contractors from brazil

[@k-yo]

@@mfiaz7719 Thank you for your kind words! I was laid off from a bus charter platform called Buser last week. Kinda like a Brazilian Flixbus (although they are already here lol). I think the only services abroad we used there were for the website/app infrastructure.

[@obesechicken13]

How much are the recruiters offering and for what kinds of positions? @k-yo

[@k-yo]

@@obesechicken13 Senior front-end engineer roles. Monthly base salary ranges I'm seeing: In Brazil: 10k BRL - 16K BRL (1.9k USD - 3.4k USD) Abroad: 4k USD - 6k USD for remote work from Brazil

[@sujit_webdev]

@@k-yo may I ask for how many years of experience? Is it a React.js role?

[@pheezus]

Came back to this video today, my company closed my entire office because the lease was up and told us we have 2 months to find another job. Thanks for the advice, Steve

[@yukinanashi]

Solid advice thank you. One suggestion I have for the videos is to use more contrasting colors like for the leaf node example. People who are colorblind can't easily make out the different colors.

[@wabdih]

I love devs like you that help fix recurring issues that us operations people run into. Its such important and impactful work to the client, but I feel a lot of devs act like they are above it. I bet people love having you on the team

[@g_rant_]

"Just take off your shoes before coming into the house...." that is such a good phrase that encompasses the type of situational awareness, common courtesy, and and a general "please have and show respect for others" type of mentality that can sometimes be forgotten or lacking.

[@incyphe]

These are solid advice even during non-layoff seasons. (btw, go a bit easy on stock video footages, especially of those other people. It somewhat devalues your quality content. 🙂)

[@stevenirby5576]

Came back to this months later. Just wanted to say great advice. I followed this for the last ~3 months. I survived a big layoff. I'm doing what I can to hang in there. Thank you for the great content. I hope all of you reading this make it through these times. 🙏

[@alexusadays]

The impact won't last, code is everywhere nowadays. Unlike the 2001 tech bubble, code is essential now. A modern car has 100 million lines of code. And anything that has code needs to be maintained or competition will take over. Like for the video :)

[@emzywillrich7243]

You're still a young pup. I can't wait to see what wisdom you acquired already in your short time on Earth.

[@vulpixelful]

For folks outside of big tech, this isn't how it goes. Smaller companies don't have as much personnel bloat as big tech, so, if you're laid off there, your performance likely had nothing to do with it. It's just you as a listed salary (and benefit costs) line item on a spreadsheet, and a detached person in finance running numbers. Unlike big tech, if you weren't an avg to high performer in a decent amount of time, you would have already been dismissed, you wouldn't be able to hide in a crowd until the hard times hit. So try not to take layoffs personally. Easier said than done, I understand.

[@vulpixelful]

@@bobsyerunkle5638 You're talking about companies that see software engineers as cost centers. I'm talking about tech first companies, with a primarily technical product, like SaaS. They value competence, they can't afford to keep low performers for a long time like big tech can, and there's much less bureaucracy so low performers can be let go much faster. I work at a company like this, and we didn't have any low performers laid off in the last round. There were no more low performers around to lay off! No one was looking for an excuse to get rid of anyone, we run lean.

[@NathanHedglin]

Agreed.

[@sadijdhakal]

I appreciate that you go beyond your working hours to share this valuable information. Thank you so much for being transparent about everything.

[@gxsc3]

One feedback on the promotion aspect: while what you say is true for most situations, there are some who excel at expanding scope during a downturn. These...are the spikes of a hedgehog. The way they seek impact/scope changes: instead of trying to grab more ambitious projects, they now focus on making organizational changes that can better the organization's ability to survive. So while they may be distracted from their core work, their efforts are recognized. There are also instances where people are already performing at the next level who need to spend little bandwidth to get their current level work done anyway. These are nuanced situations where "not seeking a promotion" is not as applicable.

[@gerhardshtopany5360]

This channel is a bloody goldmine! Thank you for making those videos.

[@teresasean3117]

My biggest financial mistake was being only 12 years ago during the 2008 financial crisis and nowhere near prepared enough to scoop up some cheap stocks and real estate maybe

[@brightdekpen2341]

You're so correct! Save, ¡nvest and spend for necessities and a few luxuries relatives to on's total ass~ets ratio.

[@AlI-hg3xt]

Hindsight is 20/20. Easy to call it a mistake now because you have clarity on what the outcome of your choices would have looked like. You would have been "prepared" or found a way to be prepared if you were certain of the outcome. Some might argue that today some tech stocks are down huge. Would you take the risk now and invest?

[@goldenboy_808]

I was impacted by the layoffs. Used to work at a big tech company but they reduced their employee head count which included me. It took a while just because of the state of the market currently but I was able to get a new position paying as much as I was receiving at my other job. I’m just so glad I was able to do that because I know the same can’t be said for many other people. To anyone reading this that was also a part of the layoffs: keep your head up, and keep searching you got this

[@smitthakkar9837]

Me last year: Phew...I guess the pandemic was the worst thing that could happen Year 2023: 🙂

[@jenreiss3107]

I work as a contractor doing SWE and I'm kinda apprehensive about all of this, because my job is doing really well right now and I'm about to ask for a raise

[@agoogleuser1932]

"And the largest cost to a company is its people", except when a testing RDS cluster that hasn't been used in the past 18 months is costing more every month than the salary of an engineer.

[@ravinankani8652]

then you be the engineer to eliminate it and add a bullet point to your name to save your job

[@marhawk6468]

Got laid off. It’s sucks but I’m happy I don’t have to fix that annoying ass bug anymore

[@angelachanelhuang1651]

how does a person get laid off?

[@Melbester9]

​@@angelachanelhuang1651 When a company feels that they need to save more money to cut costs and they have too many people working to pay their salary. They will lay off hundreds to thousands of workers to cut costs.

[@YesIndeed869]

Thank you for taking the time to make and share this content! I initially followed because of how concise you are, but I’ve really loved your additions with editing/visuals like the sound effects, charts, etc. Thanks again!

[@MrChaluliss]

I really enjoy your channel @A Life Engineered, its a truly rare flavor of advice in this day and age. You represent a fairly rare perspective to me and for that I find the ideas you share to be more interesting. If I am to be 100% honest, I somewhat subconsciously classify your standpoint as boring, safe, and sheepish. (sheepish in the sense you're not trailblazing in an obvious way). But when I think about your perspective and career strategies critically, it is quite clear that a great deal of clear judgement, discipline and skill are needed in order to successfully execute on your strategies / philosophies. Anyway, just thought I would share my view of your channel at this early stage, I really appreciate you taking the time to share your perspective in a digestible way, its certainly enriched my own thoughts and philosophies already.

[@redhotkido]

I got laid off this year. I did ALOT for that company. I managed the entire lab for 2 years alone, remodeled the lab, created a project management system.created an entire process for those guys and starting the automation processes they continue to use to this day. As a result the data could get delivered VERY quick. Essentially I created the entire lab from scratch, even making the test request forms myself. They kept the guys I trained up well and enabled hiring( we needed a PHd engineer and I gave all the feedback needed, as aresult they hired the guy) for instead of me. Unfortunately one of the hires "brown nosed" his way to becoming my manager and I didn't realize that politics at work existed, and as a result of that I got into the chopping block I think. Wanted to hear if it is possible if "good performers" get laid off or maybe I am just imagining things haha. Additionally I helped my new hire a lot with endless favors, and helped the guy I trained with a lot of things and he ended up being the favorite (they often tried to teach him more things and I also noticed him doing personal favors for colleagues ). I even offered emotional support for my colleague who was borderline about to have an anxiety attack due to feeling worried about me teling him to "redo" his work. Idk but I do firmly believe politics can be a part of the layoff process.

[@emmanueldoe7517]

Politics definitely play a huge role and you have to learn how to play it unfortunately. There are many companies where your managers will not be aware of how much time you spend helping others. This is a common type of hidden work because usually it will be in the form of a personal message/phone call and is obscured from your managers. Its thus important in companies to have some kind of kudos process where people can give shout-outs to people who invest time in helping others (like you did). In many remote teams, this usually comes in form of a kudos Slack/Teams channel. In the office, it would be during a retrospective meeting. If someone you help a lot never gives you kudos/credit and instead takes the praise for something you helped them with, stop helping that person immediately (at least privately). If they require your help, it should always be in a public/in view of your managers whether that is a public channel, a CC'd email chain or an issue ticket.

[@redhotkido]

Damn I didn;t know that actually. I will definately keep this in mind next job. I could go on and on about my previous job, but however I am prolly better off keeping this is in mind. I Never knew politics at work existed until my experience there.

[@theplasmacollider6431]

The key is to be in continual communication with management about your accomplishments (assuming on good terms) plus indirectly delivering a message that the company is screwed without you.

[@redhotkido]

Yea I was not too good about talking to the bosses. I didn't trust the guy who brown nosed hs way up as he was constatly "sucking up" to the boss over and over again

[@matthewmitchell68]

I learned about corporate politics, and as a result I have started to develop more independent contractor work. Similar work for much higher pay, plus actual ownership in my own company. These are my clients and not the companies, they can’t phase me out.

[@JasonL_Hawaii]

Sounds like Steve wants people to put in OT (being on-call, and answering their work emails and calls outside of work). Hey people, be ready to be burnt out from your job just to get laid off, and yes, that happens all the time. It is more prudent to devote your time on personal skills rather than company-focused goals, because at the end of the day, you can and will get laid off/terminated at-will by any company.

[@DavenH]

Your content is always 10/10, solid, clear, no fluff. And they contain unexampled opinions that are predictive.

[@SeanGoresht]

I work at a large tech company, and we just started hiring again -- for an intern position and also just re-hired an intern. At least in Canada, I'm not worrying too much for the moment.

[@Delphyken]

Pls what’s the name of the company and how can I apply for an internship

[@jymbeautuesday]

I've definitely binged this channel and go back to re-sync on highlights. Thank you so much, Steve!

[@wahswolf88]

Good advice. I have seen this stuff throughout my career.

[@izamalcadosa2951]

I just got laid off at Google, as a Junior Software Engineer!! Took me by surprised when I got the email and call from my Project and Program Managers. I had a feeling back in September and October we were going to be let go!! Sucks Big Time!!

[@izamalcadosa2951]

We were given pink slips back in September and October that lay offs were goin down during the Fall 2022 and Winter 2023.

[@ckrgksdkrak]

Go to med school…

[@CommandantNOVA]

What org were you part of? Last time Sundar spoke publicly he said only "experimental" orgs where in danger

[@ladyblack679]

@@ckrgksdkrak for what?

[@ckrgksdkrak]

@@ladyblack679 job security

[@vasujain1970]

Just what I needed to see, thanks!

[@ritwikverma2463]

best video on The Internet today.

[@jamieg1802]

there are safe industries, these are great places if you are worried about layoffs and always have some savings, if its not a layoff, could be a pandemic/war/mother nature thing; always be prepared for the unexpected. Keep God first place and remember you only fail if you give up.

[@the_real_cookiez]

Thanks Steve, tough video to make, but it certainly helps. Stressful times for sure. An economic downturn/depression helps no one.

[@isurujn]

This is easily one of my favorite tech channels to watch now.

[@mengli9867]

The algorithm section was super funny, even if you didn't intend it that way. I loved the PE level geekiness.

[@TheCreatorsAttorney]

Love the thumbnail!! ❤ let’s get you to 100K!!😊

[@SDFC]

+1, can’t wait to see the well deserved checkmark show up

[@emzywillrich7243]

The Gold Medal I won being named as the Most Valuable Peer, didn't shield me from a Global Reduction of the Workforce.

[@Gundamjock193]

Well said and no doubt. We dominate don't be cocky in these times

[@AmrXcellent]

Good advice and good analogy with the fox and the hedgehog - easy to remember and easy to understand.

[@sheaerickson537]

Your videos are superbly made and are very high quality. It's honestly impressive. You work hard and it shows in your videos which makes people (myself included) that much more willing to take your advice. Hope you have a good week and holiday season uncle Steve

[@doodahgurlie]

I'm new to this channel and have noted how amazing the quality of his videos are. I hope he gets the subs and views he deserves as he provides such great information all around.

[@aecastillo101]

Thank you so much Steve! Love your content

[@maco1985]

The "layoff algorithm" you described is too logical and complicated. Bigger layoffs follow just simple rule: Save as much money as possible. Your performance will usually mean nothing.

[@kmunson007]

Great stuff - thanks for this one. Good wake up call.

[@dinoscheidt]

Weird thing is: I‘m a CTO, need to hire a lot of people, enterprise backed start-up - I worked at google long time ago - and the engineers from FANG are almost of zero value to me. Primed for internal tools, no sense for the outer business context and not any meaningful example of pulling through an end-to-end example from problem to user experience. So if you are not a FANG engineer: don‘t worry. We still need you. If you are a FANG engineer: Time to polish your github with tutorial project because nobody will believe you that you are able to deliver hard business value.

[@wangfred]

This is weird. But it's encouraging to me!

[@mattbettinson4576]

“Nobody will believe you” is so untrue lol

[@pedromarques9267]

You are trying to make non-FANG employees feel better about themselves by saying a lot bs about FANG employees. Be real!

[@willweng305]

There are former fang went to startup and became successful, usually based on luck beyond their control. It’s like saying MBA consultants are bunch of overpaid useless overhead, but why does Fortune 500 companies keep hiring them? Ur hiring strategies and bias doesn’t correspond to competent CTO role, small or enterprise environment. Maybe ur employer is over paying ur management skill, too much free time commenting in KZbin and not delivering value.

[@dinoscheidt]

Mh, sorry if I‘ve hit a spot. But shall we turn on logical reasoning for a second? FANG (plus a few more) run a handful of products with 100+ Mio Users. Those products are maintained by thousands of FANG engineers - as an individual, you are somewhere deep inside a machinery with special tooling, highly redundant processes (cause risk, 100+ Mio Users after all) and reward systems for high specialization. The rest of the world, the long tail, has maybe 10Mio users per P&L; often find themselves in concept phases and not in cash cow situations (no cross financing). The golden handcuffs for FANG engineers (as with corporate careers) are real. Not only is your salary scaled (which is great), but your knowledge and responsibilities narrowed. Being able to wrangle moma, being able to rely on a perfect DevOps Set-Up maintained by 1000 other engineers, having product managers doing the „stakeholder thing“, and so on is awesome, but - logically (!) - not useful in slightly different contexts. So If you actually take the time to get off KZbin and talk to a few companies, you‘ll quickly find out that if someone at the business is interested in having one or two FANGs it’s 🥁… usually the CEO. Always great to have a FANG logo somewhere on the slides. But hardly CTOs for the price that worked with some - even if they themselves have been at one. I believe it is highly valuable to have worked at FANG; but once you cross the Junior mark you need to understand that you are about to specialize. Anybody who thinks working at FANG has no down sides is naive - underwriting the thesis here. Coders will soon be replaced by AI; needing even more engineers that have seen products going from end to end (nobody believes that of an average FANG engineer; doesn’t make sense - and as long as FANG like companies are around, totally fine. Same with enterprise careers.).

[@shashankkulkarni993]

Ok thanks for information

[@jhors7777]

Excellent video thank you

[@aurorawonderland5557]

As a person who had a very hard time finding my first job after college and experienced company went out of business X2 let go X1, worked at an underpaid job for few years, in my 20s, all I want to say is -- so what? We should prepare for the future to a certain extend but there is no need to worry too much and not need to fear. Don't take lay off too serious. The more hardship/difficulties a person experienced, the stronger you get, one door closed means another door opens.

[@angelachanelhuang1651]

work is tough

[@mbank3832]

One thing that pisses me off even more is when you are looking for another job, the interviewers will immediately think you are underperforming once they know you were laid off from your previous job... I mean, go look up what "layoff" means, they are not the same as getting "fired" smh

[@NathanHedglin]

That's why you never tell them

[@torstenrudolf3392]

What a pun. "The algorithm is guaranteed to terminate". Well done

[@phillipgoat00]

Got the feeling I am going to be laid off in January, the thing is, I was a good performer during 2022, probably the best in my team, but managers tend to prefer other people for certain tasks. So I won't be mad if they can me next month, honestly the job is ok, but mentally I am kind of done with that place. Favoritism is a thing, and I am a guy driven by numbers not by personal preference, so yeah, If I get canned I wouldn't care that much.

[@erjantj]

This channel is gold. Found from Rahul Pundey

[@kentuckyfriedchildren5385]

Terrible luck for people such as myself, having finished highschool during a pandemic and entering the workforce during economic downturn

[@stefangarces499]

You feel like that dev dad I didn't knew I needed in my dev life 👨‍👦

[@alanalso]

Thanks as always for the insights. Logged into LinkedIn recently and saw a number of impacted connections seeking job opportunities. A good follow up might be next steps if you've been laid off.

[@ALifeEngineered]

One thing I forgot to mention was I was promoted during the great recession by hedgehogging because more scope came my way, not because I was seeking it. Continue the conversation on my Discord: discord.gg/HFVMbQgRJJ Check out my Patreon if you'd like to support the channel: www.patreon.com/ALifeEngineered

[@iamverybigsad]

amazing video! Could you perhaps do a video on importance of monetizing your projects and how to do it? I've been coding various projects for over 4 years now, but none of them even attempted to make a profit, while everyone says that making pet projects with some sort of business motive is a crucial skill. Thanks!

[@ckrgksdkrak]

You should have gone to med school… less stress… more money… more predictable… you can always code on the side…

[@xxdavexx23]

@@ckrgksdkrak “more money, less stress” lmao bye.

[@bob32qwerty]

Great video! I'd love to hear your perspective of how to make the best of being laid off. In my personal opinion, times of churn are the best to make career investments with opportunities for asymmetric upside (even if your gut is telling you to play it safe and take the first job that comes your way).

[@brpadington]

Tech salaries were rising all year. They are all doing layoffs to try and gain that control back.

[@techmentormaria]

Such a great video for the time right now! And I hope the people who got laid off find something quickly because it’s not necessarily performance based as we’ve learned recently.

[@narudesigns]

Thank you!

[@JaimeGuajardo]

Quality video. They keep improving every time.

[@brianpwnsjustin]

Got laid off 2 months ago. thanks for the breakdown

[@BAgunner300]

thanks for all the insight into the industry, very helpful...now when's the tour of the whiskey shelf? I've gotta know what those society bottles are lol

[@cleanfrank]

Really appreciate the content you put out! This is really useful!

[@R5123]

Thanks Meta. I'm actually in a position where my manager has been discussing with me for the last few months that they are developing me for a higher role. So we'll see if that promotion comes to fruition. I'll be cautiously optimistic, but given the market conditions like you say, it is a tougher sell so I'll just be grateful to have the role I do. I have a friend who was let go from himself company not too long ago.

[@vandana9089]

2022 is a dramatic year. Great resignation and layoffs happened in the same year. Same with extreme highs and lows in the stock market. It's a life lesson for how ephemeral things can be in volatile industries like stocks. But learnt that high tech is also a volatile industry now - massive hiring and firing can happen in a short period!

[@foxh8er]

Inflation declining, the economy is booming, lets calibrate expectations here

[@TheEggroll4321]

During these uncertain times I actually got a promotion that I fought for... so that point he made makes me nervous... lol

[@gxsc3]

it is ok. Just need to focus on finding ways to deliver different kinds of impact. What he said is not true if you are the spike on the hedgehog: you can use the downturn as an opportunity to help your org.

[@theIdlecrane]

I'm a veteran of my industry, though I'm not in tech. I would offer similar advice; a career is not a sprint, learn to run the Marathon..

[@deemon710]

Thank you for the quality advice

[@Canthev]

congrats on 100k subscribers :)

[@LearningWithAnishSrinivas]

Thank you Meta.

[@SDFC]

omg the production quality of that first 30 seconds 🤯💯 I literally just picked up iMovie, wtf are you using?

[@VeryMachoNachos]

Almost 100k subs, early congrats uncle Steve!

[@davidr4523]

Good video in describing a layoff in scientific, mathical and advantage business terms. However I did not see any strategies provided for avoiding being layoff.

[@leejim9188]

why would he give you strategies for not being layoff? First of all, you never accept a position with the mindset that you will never get laid-off... your mindset should always focus on protecting yourself financially against possible future laid-offs. Save money for 6 months or more for those possibilities, and continue to upgrade skills and apply for positions while you actively employed..... you have to protect yourself...these companies do not give a shit about you..... layoffs is part of doing business...

[@gaijinboricua]

Awesome content as always. This is the stuff I have been trying to tell my juniors during these times of fear, they feel it is a random game, but sadly it comes down to how much money to bring in with your actions.

[@DannysHauntedJourney]

Already got canned, and found a job. It's tough out there. Stay strong, brothers.

[@fhowland]

Just got laid off on 12/7.. midsize SaaS company. I think they did me a favor by putting me in the first round…. And I had just been promoted five months earlier.

[@khatdubell]

The best part of mass layoffs is the immediate resuming of hiring, but not of the people who were laid off.

[@arcariusmexen1104]

Thanks, Steve. I wonder, which technical books influenced you the most to grow and excel in senior roles? (Bonus, which self-improvement/business management books influenced you too?)

[@skybirdnomad]

Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg is good Its by a scientist who studies human habits The Circadian Code by Dr. Satchi Panda It shows how time restricted eating (aligning food intake with our circadian rhythm) can have big impacts on our health, energy, mental clarity, sleep quality, etc...

[@arcariusmexen1104]

@@skybirdnomad Thank you for sharing.

[@drblitz3092]

2020-2023 has got to be the darkest before the dawn.

[@dfreshness2006]

I frankly wouldn't mind some of my colleagues getting laid off. A small team of A performers will outperform a larger mixed bag of employees any day of the week.

[@adrian14752]

crap Im probably gonna get let go im only like 4 months into the company and its been hard to get things to flow my way. feel like other people keep blocking me hard and I cant get any push to get my work across the finish line early. Feel like this looks bad for me. Sometimes feels like I'm intentionally getting screwed over.

[@tqw1423]

I wished I've watched this video earlier!! I just had 1:1 with my manager asking for expanding scope and promotion opportunities...

[@bianchialex]

Clear up in the quality of the video. This should have a lot more viral potential.

[@Mahersaham]

This is a great content

[@cameron1988]

make yourself rare and valuable. stand out from the rest of the developers and you’ll never be laid off.

[@Lavabug]

Everyone thinks they're special, but you're just a dollar amount on a boss' spreadsheet regardless of your skills or ability. Don't kid yourself, your job opening would be posted faster than your obituary if you died tomorrow.

[@mainstreamiscool]

Great video, thank you

[@shalabhsna]

Thanks!

[@jetizon]

Thanks ALE 👏

[@logicawe]

I deem this LOGICAL

[@kamalsmusic]

Really appreciate the videos. Was wondering if you could address the concerns that chatGPT would take over SWE jobs?

[@lowtiertactical7701]

Yeah I solved that problem. I stayed away from the tech industry.

[@opa-age]

I'm lucky I wasn't smart enough to work for a "big tech". I'm stuck working in a industry that's actually very recession-proof.

[@d4rksoci3ty]

Which industry is that if you don’t mind answering

[@IFearlessINinja]

I liked the shoe analogies

[@CommandantNOVA]

Can you do a video on how to not get bogged down by minutia and make effective decisions on large scale systems. As someone who is in the equivalent of an SDE 2, I'm surprised when Senior/TL's handwave something away as an "implementation detail" but still make effective decisions when they don't know the implementation.

[@0m13]

It's not about hand-waving -- it is about knowing your audience. Depending on who you're talking to, you need to tune your conversation to the correct resolution. Communicating effectively with different types of stakeholders is one of the key skills of a senior engineer (not just coding chops). That doesn't mean there aren't senior engineers who talk from their rear ends and envision things that may be technically infeasible; but mostly we rely on our experience to understand what is and isn't possible within the given resource constraints.

[@jimbojimbo6873]

I dont remember a time when it wasn’t a terrible time

[@baboon_baboon_baboon]

A bunch of layoffs just happened today

[@andrewchang7194]

Thank you for the great advice. I will keep it to heart and do my best in becoming a senior or staff-level IC in the next few years. Thank you for the genuine and impactful content

[@romangeneral23]

None of it matters. If they going to cut you. You are cut. Doesn't matter if you are the uber highest performer, loyal, work culture junkie.