Tech Industry job layoffs looking scary

[Ugo Ogugwa]

I posted this in an AI art group but it is semi relevant here as well; for those who assume that they and their chosen career/segment will always be "safe..."

The "diesel that did it" the EMD FT diesel locomotive was introduced in 1939. By 1959, the Norfolk and Western railroad threw in the towel and retired their last steam locomotive. In 20 years the entirety of America's steam locomotive fleet had been replaced (including models that were less than 10 years old, you'd think they would have been "safe" ) by what many deemed then an inferior upstart. And of course, along with the end of steam locomotive went the hundreds of thousands of jobs that went into the support, operation, and maintenance of the old beasts and the infrastructure surrounding it.

I guess you could say at this moment we are in the Steam era of computing. AI is the diesel locomotive. ChatGPT isn't the EMD FT, it's more like the little diesel switchers that moved freight cars around in the 1930s, a novelty that was showing more than just promise but opportunities for practical applications and a foundation for something transformative on the horizon.

The thing is, technology moves a lot faster than it did in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. Once the "AI that did it" is realized it won't take 20 years to make this "Steam" era obsolete and since most jobs these days aren't unionized the redundancies will be dispatched posthaste instead of dragged out over the ensuing decades.

How long until an AI CEO?

 

[gldnone913]

 

[Rarely-Wrong Liggins]

How long until an AI CEO?

I don't know but I don't want to be around to witness it.

 

[Standing on business]

I posted this in an AI art group but it is semi relevant here as well; for those who assume that they and their chosen career/segment will always be "safe..."

The "diesel that did it" the EMD FT diesel locomotive was introduced in 1939. By 1959, the Norfolk and Western railroad threw in the towel and retired their last steam locomotive. In 20 years the entirety of America's steam locomotive fleet had been replaced (including models that were less than 10 years old, you'd think they would have been "safe" ) by what many deemed then an inferior upstart. And of course, along with the end of steam locomotive went the hundreds of thousands of jobs that went into the support, operation, and maintenance of the old beasts and the infrastructure surrounding it.

I guess you could say at this moment we are in the Steam era of computing. AI is the diesel locomotive. ChatGPT isn't the EMD FT, it's more like the little diesel switchers that moved freight cars around in the 1930s, a novelty that was showing more than just promise but opportunities for practical applications and a foundation for something transformative on the horizon.

The thing is, technology moves a lot faster than it did in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. Once the "AI that did it" is realized it won't take 20 years to make this "Steam" era obsolete and since most jobs these days aren't unionized the redundancies will be dispatched posthaste instead of dragged out over the ensuing decades.

Microsoft laid off 10,000 employees while simultaneously investing $10 billion in OpenAI.

 

[Forsaken]

I posted this in an AI art group but it is semi relevant here as well; for those who assume that they and their chosen career/segment will always be "safe..."

The "diesel that did it" the EMD FT diesel locomotive was introduced in 1939. By 1959, the Norfolk and Western railroad threw in the towel and retired their last steam locomotive. In 20 years the entirety of America's steam locomotive fleet had been replaced (including models that were less than 10 years old, you'd think they would have been "safe" ) by what many deemed then an inferior upstart. And of course, along with the end of steam locomotive went the hundreds of thousands of jobs that went into the support, operation, and maintenance of the old beasts and the infrastructure surrounding it.

I guess you could say at this moment we are in the Steam era of computing. AI is the diesel locomotive. ChatGPT isn't the EMD FT, it's more like the little diesel switchers that moved freight cars around in the 1930s, a novelty that was showing more than just promise but opportunities for practical applications and a foundation for something transformative on the horizon.

The thing is, technology moves a lot faster than it did in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. Once the "AI that did it" is realized it won't take 20 years to make this "Steam" era obsolete and since most jobs these days aren't unionized the redundancies will be dispatched posthaste instead of dragged out over the ensuing decades.

Jobs change. Always have to be on the next wave and be ready to pivot.

AI is compute heavy. I'm actually thinking of applying at Intel. Easier to get into companies when nobody wants to work there.

 

[Serious]

Jobs change. Always have to be on the next wave and be ready to pivot.

AI is compute heavy. I'm actually thinking of applying at Intel. Easier to get into companies when nobody wants to work there.

Elon Musk says Twitter is done with layoffs, ready to begin hiring | Business Insider India

After firing about twothirds of the microblogging platforms 7,500 employees in only three weeks after his take over, Twitter CEO Elon Musk said that the company is done with layoffs and is hiring again. At a meeting with employees, Musk also claimed that Twitter is now actively hiring for...

www.businessinsider.in

 

[chineebai]

i recommend people to get into management. Management typically fares better during layoffs in tech in my experience. But you have to be upper management and not just a middle manager.

 

[CodeBlaMeVi]

These layoff reaction videos are all over YouTube.

Before I press play, my guess is she was a “recruiter”.

Update: Pleasantly wrong.

 

[Cakebatter]

Elon Musk says Twitter is done with layoffs, ready to begin hiring | Business Insider India

After firing about twothirds of the microblogging platforms 7,500 employees in only three weeks after his take over, Twitter CEO Elon Musk said that the company is done with layoffs and is hiring again. At a meeting with employees, Musk also claimed that Twitter is now actively hiring for...

www.businessinsider.in

Within the next year or two, all these tech companies will go on hiring sprees, but I guarantee the wages will be less than they were for the jobs they previously laid off.

 

[Forsaken]

Elon Musk says Twitter is done with layoffs, ready to begin hiring | Business Insider India

After firing about twothirds of the microblogging platforms 7,500 employees in only three weeks after his take over, Twitter CEO Elon Musk said that the company is done with layoffs and is hiring again. At a meeting with employees, Musk also claimed that Twitter is now actively hiring for...

www.businessinsider.in

I want publically traded companies that give RSUs. Ride the wave up then hit the ejection seat.

 

[Spence]

Within the next year or two, all these tech companies will go on hiring sprees, but I guarantee the wages will be less than they were for the jobs they previously laid off.

Basically an open secret companies want to reset the market or outsource everything they can to keep labor cheap.

 

[Nicole0416_718_929_646212]

i recommend people to get into management. Management typically fares better during layoffs in tech in my experience. But you have to be upper management and not just a middle manager.

Clearly you don’t read the headlines.

Watch out, managers; job cuts are coming for you next

Companies like Meta and FedEx are giving managers the ax. Meanwhile, Intel, Apple, and Goldman Sachs are docking higher-ups' pay.

www.businessinsider.com

• Companies like Meta and FedEx are paring back managerial jobs; others like Intel are cutting pay.
• Managers may be an easy target as companies correct course after overhiring in the past few years.

 

[Nicole0416_718_929_646212]

Column: The real aim of big tech’s layoffs: bringing workers to heel

Wildly profitable tech companies are citing an as-yet notional recession to make deep workforce cuts. They may have another agenda.

www.latimes.com

According to an industry layoff tracker, the tech sector has eliminated some 220,000 jobs since the start of last year. If the laid-off tech workers formed a city, it’d be one of the most populous in the United States, bigger than Des Moines or Salt Lake City.




To that end, critics argue that simple greed is driving the layoffs; they point to the tens of billions’ worth of stock buybacks the tech companies authorized last year. The Verge’s Elizabeth Lopatto spoke with industry analysts who said that tech companies are evaluating their bottom lines differently, and concluded that they’re doing layoffs mostly because everyone else is, even though layoffs actually often cost a given company money. And the fact all these layoffs are happening in such rapid succession gives the companies some cover — making them seem elemental, inevitable.


Affected tech workers told me that they were struck by the randomness of the firings; senior members of staff in good standing, brilliant colleagues with sterling performance reviews, all shown the door, with little rhyme or reason. Many seemed to wonder why they were spared while their peers weren’t.

Hinnant said he knew plenty of people who lost their jobs across Microsoft — everyone does. “You can be the most important engineer at your job, you can be an awesome programmer, at the end of the day if the algorithm wants you gone you’re gone.”

 

[PrnzHakeem]

Within the next year or two, all these tech companies will go on hiring sprees, but I guarantee the wages will be less than they were for the jobs they previously laid off.

That's not necessarily the case.

Wages shot up after the 2008 recession, wages will shoot up after this current period of uncertainty.
Companies over hired during the Covid recovery, and are now laying folks off, but when it comes to the next hiring wave companies are gonna look at the labor market and see all of talent that Covid removed.

The biggest percentage of the US working population is aging out or dying early, and not enough folks to replace them.

So companies are either going to offshore at the cost of quality
Automate
or pay higher wages cuz competition for "skilled" workers is that much tighter.

 

[IIVI]

How long until an AI CEO?

To be honest, a CEO, CFO, CTO, CPO, etc. who know how to use ChatGPT and have technical abilities/expertise to double check it's work are probably getting the same amount of work done by 100's of people they'd normally hire.

Like if you got a group of five-ten people who really know their shyt they can build some insane things with ChatGPT and keep things running.

The thing about CEOing is it's basically decision-making and decision-making is basically coming to a conclusion with the data you have. If ChatGPT can clean up it's accuracy to get it even more accurate than it is now then it's game over.

Even when it comes to personal relationships: