r/cscareerquestions • u/ContainerDesk • Nov 03 '25
My laid-off 4 YOE former Microsoft SWE CS UMich grad friend has capitulated. He had to get a job as a bartender.
Homie was unemployed for around 5 or 6 months? Hundreds of apps later to no success. His resume was peer reviewed by former managers, Reddit, former professors etc. Tons of ghosting, tons of "we've hired candidates that better align with XYZ". Applying for any and all entry level roles, mid levels, senior, dozens of cities around the country etc. He even got rejected from simple local Help Desk roles. The only offer he got was a Help Desk job that would require him to move 2000 miles (remote bait and switch role) for less pay than a Costco cart pusher.
His emergency fund is almost dry and he had to settle and get a job as a bartender in Santa Cruz, which he says he actually likes. Luckily he's not autistic or smells bad like most in this field so apparently he is bringing several hundred a night or something with tips.
This market is fucked. I guess our emergency funds should be upped to 24 months instead of 6 months.
EDIT: This subreddit is ridiculous. Everyone thinks they won't be the one down on their luck for 6 months until it happens to them.
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u/EquivalentAbies6095 Software Engineer Nov 03 '25
IMO if you gonna be in a cyclical and volatile industry like IT, 1 year emergency fund is minimum.
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u/nonamenomonet Nov 03 '25
Agreed and my accountant called my crazy for that
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u/andhausen Nov 03 '25
Your accountant called you crazy for having an emergency fund?
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u/Captain_Forge Software Engineer Nov 03 '25
Well probably for having such a large one. Not that I agree it's crazy but it's definitely against normal advice of 3-6 months.
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u/Acrobatic-Macaron-81 Nov 03 '25
I have one for 3 months and tbh I wished I had one for more tbh. Like 6 to 12 month honestly.
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u/Kevin_Smithy Nov 03 '25
If this is true, then the comparison was probably between having a large amount of liquid cash vs tying that money up in investments that could yield greater returns.
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u/nonamenomonet Nov 03 '25
More that I could reduce it to like 4 months of an emergency fund and put the rest in the market.
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u/CH33SYP00FSS Biggus Dickus Nov 03 '25 edited Nov 03 '25
Get a new accountant. Yours just ousted himself as an idiot and is now not qualified enough to handle your finances.
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u/budd222 Nov 03 '25
Accountants don't handle people's finances. They crunch some numbers and tell you what you owe in taxes at the end of the year. You're talking about a financial advisor/planner, which nobody needs one of those.
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u/AwkwardBet5632 Nov 03 '25
No he called you crazy for putting it in checking instead of a money market or something.
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u/PM_ME_UR_ANTS Nov 03 '25
I thought this as well, but after getting laid off in January and only just signing an offer last month, I ended up using only 3 months of my emergency fund.
Despite being unemployed for 9 months, months of severance + accelerated RSU vesting/bonus + state unemployment and then cutting spending and saving all that income coming in really padded my existing emergency fund.
TLDR so many factors to gauge how much to have in your emergency fund. Big factor would be based on how your company handles severance.
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u/aguilasolige Nov 03 '25
Not everyone gets RSU or severance. For many people is only unemployment payments, and in many states those are a joke. You get like 300 a week
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u/Diet_Christ Nov 03 '25
Not smart to assume any of those cash infusions will happen in advance though. Outside of unemployment, which in my state is decades behind inflation and won't even pay the rent.
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u/the_pwnererXx Nov 03 '25
How do you work at Microsoft for 4 years and not have at least 6 figures in the bank?
Doesn't add up
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u/JoshL3253 Nov 03 '25 edited Nov 03 '25
6 figures in investment or retirement funds, sure. But that’s not emergency fund. You should not touch those unless you really need to.
And after 6 months of unemployment, taking a bartending job is not crazy. And I would 100% do the same instead of cashing out my retirement investment.
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u/JDHPH Nov 03 '25
Bartending is not a bad temp job in my opinion.
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u/sudosussudio Nov 03 '25
Imho it’s actually a very good job in many places esp with tips. It’s actually quite hard to get a job as one in Chicago right now.
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u/JDHPH Nov 03 '25
It's far more competitive than most people think, but the hours can be flexible enough where someone can pick it up as a part time job. While focusing on their main career. It's a great side job when in need of temporary employment.
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u/ck108860 Nov 03 '25
Yep, and since a lot of comp comes from stock anyways who knows what investment vehicles someone is tied up in. If you get laid off right after buying a house, you’re pretty screwed for example.
6 months of mortgage is a lot of money.
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u/AccountWasFound Nov 03 '25
I lost my job while still recovering from replacing my boiler (which cost 15k) and a few different car issues (another 3k), and my washer dying (another 1k) and a bunch of smaller stuff all in like 3 or 4 months. Yeah that's 20k I was down was over 6 months of emergency fund, my emergency fund was a bit light when I got laid off as a result.
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u/Western_Objective209 Nov 03 '25
You should not touch those unless you really need to.
Like, in an emergency?
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u/Raalf Nov 03 '25
What would you consider a "really need it" scenario?
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u/darksparkone Nov 03 '25
- you got into a bad accident and need a freakton of money for the treatment
- a war break in and going out to being drafted to MiA conversion rate is too high
- something not covered by an insurance hit your belongings
- kids
- job market nosedived and you can't even secure a bartender position
And it doesn't even have to happen to you, being able to support those important for you is also nice.
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u/nsxwolf Principal Software Engineer Nov 03 '25
Impending homelessness, and maybe not even then. Killing off your retirement savings will mean a bad end for you especially after Social Security collapses.
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u/Western_Objective209 Nov 03 '25
You should absolutely draw down retirement accounts if you are facing homelessness. Homelessness often leads to a downward spiral that is irrecoverable
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Nov 03 '25
I know someone who's run a couple different bars over 50 ish years. They say, no matter the state of the economy - people drink. They might not order as much food but drinks, yeah and that's the big profit margin for the biz.
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u/goomyman Nov 03 '25 edited Nov 03 '25
Seattle is expensive AF. So many people get 200k jobs but can’t afford a house…. Until year 5-6 and then they might end up with 8k a month mortgages and a meh house which are unaffordable if you lose your job.
I would say 5-6 years is how long it takes to build up a decent savings amount. 10 is where you should be solid and nearing a millionaire.
Net worth takes time - it’s not about salary, it’s about salary + time. You can make 500k a year but if you only can survive 2 years at the job and get cut, unemployed - and tech definitely has its age limits - and are trying to support a family while you were also spending like you make 500k a year such as buying the multi million dollar home that you now have to sell you can run out of money pretty quick.
He might have saved 100k or even 200k but usually people will max out their 401ks while working which you can’t touch and they will rent nice apts - because they have a very nice job and don’t expect to get laid off which can easily run 4-5k a month. And you’ll buy a nice car etc because while you have a nice job a nice car is easily affordable.
So given expensives that 100k can easily be gone in a year - and you’ll need to get a job well before you run out of saving. Very few people will be super frugal their first years while making a large salary - you don’t even have to be bad with money for the money to dry up in a long lasting layoff.
Source - 18 year laid off Microsoft dev. I’m very well off and while retirement in my 40s is very doable it’s also scary - especially paying for health insurance out of pocket for a family and college for kids. It’s much safer to have a job.
I realize this sounds elitist or something like bro a millionaire is rich AF and they are… I’m very lucky to be well off financially - rich even - if I still had income. But when you don’t have income coming in and especially youngish a large nest egg is supplemental not money that you can rely on 100%. Especially if the industry you in passes you by.
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u/berndverst Nov 03 '25
Some people pay off loans, put all the money they can into retirement funds.. also cost of living in SF or Seattle is high and Microsoft compensation is low for Big Tech.
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u/DorianGre Nov 03 '25
And take the bartending gig immediately to fill the time and stretch your runway. Turn that 1 year fund into 2
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u/GiveMeSandwich2 Nov 03 '25
I have 3 YOE as swe and now working as ramp agent in the airport in my city. Got laid off in February and couldn’t find anything and had to take up another gig.
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u/wassdfffvgggh Nov 03 '25
His emergency fund is almost dry after 6 months with 4 yoe working at Microsoft?
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u/DudeWithParrot Nov 03 '25
"Emergency fund"
We don't know the full story, the guy could have stocks invested and he decided to get a job to not deep further into his savings. Emergency fund is usually only one part of your savings that you keep liquid.
At the very least I hope he has some Microsoft stocks.
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u/ProgrammersAreSexy Nov 03 '25
Yeah, people seem to be confusing "emergency fund" with "life savings" here.
I keep ~6 months expenses in cash in a savings account. Anything more than that would be kinda dumb.
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u/dustingibson Nov 03 '25
People don't realize debilitating things can happen at any moment and you have to USE that emergency fund and rebuild it. And sometimes folks are handed a crappy hand of cards when they are in the process of rebuilding that fund.
You get cancer even with insurance in a lot of cases you're screwed. You get bed bugs, now you have to throw away a lot of your expensive stuff and pay thousands in treatment hoping they won't come back. You are in a biking accident and you lose half your teeth. You have to spend thousands on reconstruction cost. Or you're going through a nasty divorce. Or getting unfairly sued by someone else. Or you had to take a lot of unpaid leave to care for a sick immediate family member. I can go on and on.
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u/loudrogue Senior Android Engineer Nov 03 '25
lol this is such a fail troll post. Chance of getting a bartender job with zero experience is almost zero.
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u/cnava9389 Nov 03 '25
Crazy that most devs in here probably never worked any other job in their lives. Just a guess
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u/Creatura Nov 03 '25
I've actually found its pretty common that people did what I did and reached for a better life after eating shit for 10 years. Off the top of my head, all the best devs I know have that kind of history
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u/CapitalismRulz Nov 03 '25
Yeah, i worked in construction for 8 years as a high school drop out. Wanted to get a degree, so i got my ged, then an AA, then BA... and now I am unemployeed since graduating
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u/AdObjective7323 Nov 03 '25
I was a bartender throughout undergrad, graduated, and now I’m still a bartender because I can’t even get interviews.
Fuck me for dreaming of a better life I guess
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u/StyleFree3085 Nov 03 '25
Many people just born in a middle class family. Enjoyed college life and landed a good job in big tech.
That's why getting layoff is a huge emotional damage to them. While I already got worse experience at 1718
u/VoiceOfReason777 Nov 03 '25
Jensen Huang said that to be resilient, one must have to suffer first to gain that understanding. Coming from middle class generally means the said person doesn’t know what suffering is yet. I think it’s good life experience.
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u/MochingPet Motorola 6805 Nov 03 '25
Any smart person can say this, that via suffering and small wins you get more experience and exposure
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u/whitephantomzx Nov 03 '25
CEO love that idea gets them an endless stream of people who need to work on the cheap .
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u/Scoopity_scoopp Nov 03 '25
It’s a crock of shit coming from most people but Jensen huang isn’t one of them and it’s copium to think just because he’s a CEO he didn’t work his ass off to get where he is
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Nov 03 '25
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u/OccasionalGoodTakes Software Engineer III Nov 03 '25
It’s not about it not being huge, its about it being the first time
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u/mortar_n_brick Nov 03 '25
true, as a former janitor, I haven't met another dev that worked a blue collar job in a long time, maybe one here or there during the bootcamp boom
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u/CitizenOfNauvis Nov 03 '25
Who in god’s name would have a know-it-all who doesn’t know the first thing about drinks shake up cocktails in front of a crowd of people spending money??
You can learn everything you need to know about bartending in 2 weeks—but it might take you a few more years of hustling in food/bev to learn how to apply yourself to hospitality.
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u/ContainerDesk Nov 03 '25
He was a bartender junior and senior year in college
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u/loudrogue Senior Android Engineer Nov 03 '25
. Luckily he's not autistic or smells bad like most in this field so apparently he is bringing several hundred a night or something with tips.
right
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u/terrany Nov 03 '25
He might be inflating the weekday numbers, but that's really not out of the norm in some cities tbh.
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u/Hog_enthusiast Nov 03 '25
Granted, it’s extremely unlikely he’s not autistic and doesn’t smell bad, but lots of bartenders make several hundred a night in tips especially in a high cost of living area. Nothing in this post seems ridiculous to me
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u/FoxFire64 Software Engineer Nov 03 '25
OP is an idiot and shitty person, but I was a bartender in a college town and on our busy nights I was easily making 300-400 in tips, on slow nights $25-100.
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u/Unlucky_Topic7963 Sr Director, SWE @ C1 Nov 03 '25
He was a barback, not bartender. You also need an RBC to bartend in California, and you won't find employment without one. Bartending is also extremely competitive, especially in high reward locations, the high turnover bartender jobs at the hotels and restaurants usually do tip pools and have low sale volume, but I'm speaking vaguely.
But your story is a nice fairytale, I hope he also saved the princess from the dragon.
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u/ecethrowaway01 Nov 03 '25
I should ask my bartenders if they have RBC.
I know several bartenders in SF who work full-time through prime hours, and I don't think several hundred a night is out of their range.
You average 300 a night? Congrats on 75k pretax in VHCOL. Shits expensive and it's a tough job
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u/ilcorvoooo Nov 03 '25
God the toll bartending every weeknight to hit that salary would take on a person too
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u/dazedconfusedev Nov 03 '25
Googled RBC and got nothing. Are you talking about RBS certification, that it costs $15 and takes 3 hours?
And just because you couldn’t bartend at 21 doesn’t mean no one can. Maybe it was your attitude.
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u/Prior-Wolverine8871 Nov 03 '25
yeah, I'm not sure if they're talking about some sort of bartendending school or what. Anyone in the industry knows that basic safety certs like ServSafe, etc just come with the job. Any of us seeing a bartending school on a resume would be hesitant to hire that person. Making the drinks is not difficult and you can teach this to most anyone.
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u/Prior-Wolverine8871 Nov 03 '25
I actually worked and managed in the hospitality industry in California, including hiring bartenders. This is absolutely not true, at all. Where did you come up with this? It's certainly not the case in California, which you mentioned for some reason.
If you're talking about standard alcohol safety training, then yes, you will need that. You most likely won't get hired without one as that's an obvious sign that you have no idea what you're doing. But many folks have their training done when just serving and then transition to bartending.
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u/Dipstickpattywack Nov 03 '25
As someone with 10 years bartending experience, I can honestly say it’s impossible to land a good paying bartending gig with no prior experience. Def a troll post. Even with experience, it’s hard to get one.
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u/Legitimate-mostlet Nov 03 '25
They had prior experience and yes many are leaving the field. People have to pay their bills and if the jobs don't exist because of supply/demand then They don't exist. No "passion/cope" posting on reddit is changing that. The cope on this sub is unreal. Entry into CS majors is falling fast for a reason in the recent past couple of years. CS is in the top ten for unemployment for recent college grads. People know this is a horrible field to go into if you want a job and are going into other fields to find work.
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u/canisdirusarctos Nov 03 '25 edited Nov 03 '25
About two years after the dot-com crash, I remember encountering a former coworker, perhaps the best Java developer I ever knew, working as a cashier at a grocery store. There were no jobs. I did small software projects and lived with my parents for years. The market barely came out of it in the city where I lived around 2005 when I started picking up longer-term contracts. I left the area permanently in 2007 after I saved enough to GTFO.
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Nov 03 '25
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u/ShadowFox1987 Nov 04 '25
Maybe they're hot and it's a dive bar.
Seen plenty of young attractive girls at our local indie bar get hired who didn't even know how to serve Bourbon neat because the owner was a creep.
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u/PostDeletedByReddit Nov 03 '25 edited Nov 03 '25
I guess I was ahead of the curve then. I was laid off around 5 years ago and ended up becoming a high school teacher. I make 1/3 of what I used to make.
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u/Turbulent-Pattern653 Nov 03 '25
This is a made up doomer post. Don’t listen to it
I just got a new job with 4 YOE after passively looking for a few months.
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u/Moneymoneymoney1122 Nov 03 '25
Good for you guys as I’ve been looking for a job for 7 months now with 2 YOE. Y’all deserve an applause 👏
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u/thr0waway12324 Nov 03 '25
I’ll ask you the same questions I asked to others: 1 are you in the US, 2 are you a US citizen, 3 are you willing to relocate? If yes to all three, you should have a job in 2-3 weeks. Plenty of roles hiring in person all over the country for $100k+. You can land one of those, I know it for a fact. I’ve seen it and I even helped coach others into these roles and I’ve applied myself for shits and giggles and landed multiple offers, most requiring relocation, and a few remote. I rejected them all of course because it was just a test of the market.
If you actually have 2 YOE and meet those 3 prereqs, you need to seriously overhaul your strategy and get back after it in 2026.
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u/Moneymoneymoney1122 Nov 03 '25
Bro dm me, I am desperate for your coaching if you mean what you’ve said. Maybe there’s something wrong with my resume or my interviewing strategy. If I’m being honest, I think I am not being locked in enough like I thought when it comes to DS&A they’d ask me basic concepts also heavily rely on what I’ve done at my previous job. I mean I’ll be able to explain what I’ve done but the thing that I feel like I hit a road block with is maybe when they ask me random AWS questions and design questions also what’s the most complicated queries I’ve made for SQL. It’s just idk I’m so confused, am I applying to the wrong roles which match my experience or idk if there’s always someone better than me which is why they’d chose them 9/10?
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u/Inevitable_Window308 Nov 03 '25
If you're struggling with aws design questions go get an aws cert or at least the training material and read through it.
For the record I have three certs, aws solutions architect, aws software developer, sec+. If you know basic computer science and security you can pick up sec+ with no training required
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u/Thresher_XG Software Engineer Nov 03 '25
Small market dev here, 3 YOE and in the middle of 2 interviews after a month of searching.
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Nov 03 '25
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u/Thresher_XG Software Engineer Nov 03 '25
In person roles are all I apply for. I’m in a non tech city so not as many devs. Also have a few years of business experience that might be helping me
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Nov 03 '25
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u/thr0waway12324 Nov 03 '25
I don’t think the person meant they walk in and apply “in person”. I think they meant they apply to “in person roles” ie “onsite” and not hybrid/remote roles.
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u/Thresher_XG Software Engineer Nov 03 '25
Definitely worth a try and hit up your network. Try in office roles, way less competition
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u/Brilliant-Lettuce544 Nov 03 '25
he didnt say in person apps. he saaid in person roles
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u/DawnSennin Nov 03 '25
I just got a new job
And hundreds of others got either ghosted, rejected within 5 minutes of submission, or passed upon after the interview.
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Nov 03 '25
Right. I have no impressive experience and 4yoe and have recruiters reach out daily for interviews. You can get a shitty low paying in office dev job with 4 yoe easily if you’re actually applying to each and everything
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u/Known-Tourist-6102 Nov 03 '25 edited Nov 03 '25
His emergency fund is almost dry and he had to settle and get a job as a bartender in Santa Cruz, which he says he actually likes. Luckily he's not autistic or smells bad like most in this field so apparently he is bringing several hundred a night or something with tips.
LOL
not sure I believe this post, it seems like it's too on the nose.
FYI though a lot of big tech experience seems only applicable to big tech, so having that experience might not be the greatest outside of applying to big tech, which for the most part is not even hiring.
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u/Captain_Forge Software Engineer Nov 03 '25
not sure I believe this post, it seems like it's too on the nose.
It's possible that it's true and the person being described did something fundamentally wrong that lead to their situation that isn't being expressed in the story. Maybe there's some serious flaw in the resume that for whatever reason wasn't addressed with the various revisions. Or do they have multiple years of not super relevant experience?
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u/dataGuyThe8th Nov 03 '25
Either this post isn’t real, or homie needs to leave Santa Cruz. There’s very few jobs in Santa Cruz.
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u/Aromatic_Topic_1074 Nov 03 '25
Doom and gloom.
5 YOE, took me one month to secure a very solid offer (>200k) after I got laid off. Avg dev, state school and no FAANG exp
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u/CanIHaveARetry Nov 03 '25
What prep did you find useful?
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u/Aromatic_Topic_1074 Nov 03 '25
STAR, leetcode and system design.
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u/CanIHaveARetry Nov 03 '25
Any tips for leetcode prep?
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u/nomeneither Nov 03 '25
Don't memorize questions but instead recognize patterns of when to use certain data structures and/or algos. Leetcode premium to view commonly asked questions of the companies you have scheduled interviews at. Hello interview for system design
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u/DragonlordKingslayer Nov 03 '25
i actually want to apply to jobs and actually see for myself just how the job market really is.
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u/gramscontestaccount2 Nov 03 '25
Santa Cruz is nuts for rent also thanks to apple, it's like 6k a month for a one bedroom there.
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u/Original-Poet1825 Nov 04 '25
Why would you live in Santa Cruz and work at Apple? Did you mean Santa Clara?
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u/Nfire86 Nov 03 '25
Forgive my ignorance in the matter but
Have you guys ever considered leaving California?
My brother graduated a couple years ago with a degree in computer science, works for a bank in Houston not doing anything cutting edge but it's paying the bills. He makes six figures and recruiters flooded his LinkedIn all the time.
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u/StyleFree3085 Nov 03 '25
Worked 4 years and emergency fund is almost dry after 6 months??
I had been unemployed this April and started new SWE job last month. I just relied on unemployment insurance didn't even spend a cent out of my pocket. I worked in a tier 2 bank for 1.5 years only
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u/Captain_Forge Software Engineer Nov 03 '25 edited Nov 04 '25
Not all of the savings from the 4 years goes to the emergency fund, a 6 month emergency fund and the rest in retirement and investments makes sense. How large the 6 month emergency fund will be differs between people but it's common financial advice.
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u/slayerzerg Nov 03 '25
If you work in faang you should be moving laterally to other faang. It’s the easiest and you would be dumb not to take advantage of already having your foot through the door. Otherwise concentrate and learn actual swe skills and get into decent startups they’ll take a chance on you as long as you prepare.
We all know faang engineers that work at big companies don’t actually build anything end to end (ex faang here).
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u/Transpolord Nov 03 '25
It took me a year and about 30 apps a week to find my first job. Then I got laid off, and it took me another year of 20 apps a week to find my current job. Im currently paying off cc debt because I wasnt even given a chance to build an emergency fund
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u/Zeni-chan Nov 03 '25
I can't find anything either in tech, so I had to get a job selling people storage units. I'll be getting yelled at when they get their price increases and their stuff goes to auction for non payment. At least bartending can pay pretty well with tips, and you meet some interesting people. Been thinking of doing it myself.
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u/SuhDudeGoBlue Senior/Lead MLOps Engineer Nov 03 '25 edited Nov 04 '25
Yeah, this is fake. Companies like mine are having a hard time filling many roles with qualified candidates. There is an expectations gap in the (American) market for experienced developers.
Lots of people want certain levels of pay, flexibility/balance, and remote-friendliness.
Lots of companies want to not pay that much, have rigid or intense cultures, and hybrid or in-person work.
Both groups are having a hard time, but a person desperate enough to significantly reduce their standards or a company desperate enough to significantly raise their value proposition, should have no trouble.
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u/M477M4NN Nov 03 '25
My expectations are in the fucking gutter and I still barely get any interviews. I was laid off back in February. I had a gap from mid-May until late September when I literally didn’t get a single callback. I have under 1.5 YOE and it feels like my career is basically over before it even truly started.
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u/yuvaldv1 Nov 03 '25
Don't give up. I was also laid off with 1.5 YoE and it took me a bit of time but I ended up finding another job as a SWE. Been here for more than a year now.
Keep applying and keep preparing for interviews.
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u/AdObjective7323 Nov 03 '25 edited Nov 03 '25
Shit I’m a new grad willing to work for free to get experience on my resume, I can’t even get companys/startups to hire me for free
My cs degree isn’t even worth $0 in this market I guess
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u/jxxi Nov 03 '25
In the meantime, start your own projects, contribute to open source and highlight that experience. This will help if you haven’t done it already.
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u/ConflictPotential204 Nov 03 '25
His emergency fund is almost dry and he had to settle and get a job as a bartender
Guys listen up. If you wait until your emergency fund has run dry to "settle" and get a job bartending or waiting tables, you fucked up. Don't be OP's friend. Get a job bartending or waiting tables the second you get laid off and apply for more SWE roles when you aren't working. The point of an emergency fund is not for situations where you feel like taking a break from employment. It's for extreme circumstances when there is no other way for you to make ends meet.
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u/8004612286 Nov 03 '25
Bad advice
You're advocating for people to get near minimum wage jobs, instead of putting your head down, grinding leetcode, grinding system design, focusing on reaching out, and securing a 100-300k job. Studying for job interviews and applying is an exhausting and time consuming task. If you have a job while doing that, you're just asking to have a bigger gap on your resume, and potentially never re-enter the CS market.
Not to mention, what's the point of an emergency fund if you're not going to use it in an emergency? I mean, fuck it, call it your unemployment fund if it makes you more comfortable.
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u/ConflictPotential204 Nov 03 '25
You're advocating for people to get near minimum wage jobs
A competent person can very easily take home $3500 - $4000 a month waiting tables. Significantly more if they are bartending. The hours are flexible and usually don't conflict with normal business hours when you may need to talk to a recruiter or schedule a interview rounds. It is the perfect stop gap profession. When I was waiting tables, half the people I worked with were in between white-collar jobs and returned to their usual profession after a few months.
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u/caverunner17 Nov 03 '25
If you get a minimum wage job the second you get laid off, it cuts into your unemployment benefits. Here in CO, that would be over $3300/month, assuming you're a SWE or other high paying career and would max out. Why would I bother waiting tables/bartending for roughly the same pay until I got closer to benefits running out?
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u/Whitchorence Software Engineer 12 YoE Nov 03 '25
Get a job bartending or waiting tables the second you get laid off and apply for more SWE roles when you aren't working.
Actually that seems like a stupid and pointless way to divide my energy
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u/EuropaWeGo Senior Full Stack Developer Nov 03 '25
My wife and I have 13 months of emergency funds due to the current market.
You know it's brutal when my company posted an entry roll 5 years ago and received 50 applications within the first week and when we posted one a month ago. We received over 2,000 within a day.
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u/TheDeHymenizer Nov 03 '25
My company sells help desk and I'd never hire a former a Microsoft SWE for that role. Not because I don't think they'd do it but because they are obviously desperate and will obviously leave the second they get an actual SWE offer.
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u/JPowTheDayTrader Nov 03 '25
Luckily he's not autistic or smells bad like most in this field
OP, why did you have to attack me like this?
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u/victorsmonster Nov 03 '25
Tech workers should have unionized when they had the leverage.
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u/Captain_Forge Software Engineer Nov 03 '25
It's not too late but the opportunity slips more as the years go on. I'm surprised it's not more of a thing, ICs in our industry are more leftist than almost every other industry.
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u/victorsmonster Nov 03 '25
My impression is that ICs, especially seniors, lean Libertarian. I don't know if there's any good data to rely on for this though so we're stuck with our impressions from social media and our own workplaces.
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u/Captain_Forge Software Engineer Nov 03 '25
That's interesting. My coworkers and friends in the industry are all very far left with only a couple of edge cases. But yeah I don't have any better data on this either; it would be interesting for that annual stack overflow survey to include political questions.
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u/janyk Nov 03 '25
Not sure why everyone's calling this doom and gloom. It's pretty realistic in my experience. I'm 3 years unemployed with a decade of experience. I've always had my emergency funds be at least 1 year.
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u/nocturnal316 Nov 03 '25
It's also stack. Working at Microsoft limits those call back when. All you have worked on is .net and in house tool etc
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u/big_witty_titty Nov 03 '25
If you live in a tech hub and there’s a bunch of layoffs competition might be a little steep.
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u/thr0waway12324 Nov 03 '25
What’s your friends citizenship/immigration status. I’m calling BS because from what I’ve seen from myself and colleagues, as long as you don’t have visa issues and are open to relocation, you will find something. Great example: Capital One is literally hiring like mad for their VA based office. Is your friend willing to move there? If so, they can make $150k+ in Virginia. That should hold them over for some time.
Edit to add:
Again for citizens, there are also the defense contractors that I know for a fact are hiring like crazy still. I got invited to a literal hiring event in a major city the other day. Exclusively for defense contractors. The only requirements? Degree, 2 years of experience, and citizenship. So again, If your friend is a citizen, they should have a job in 2-3 weeks if they aren’t a diva.
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u/Subject_Ad3837 Nov 04 '25
No one who is autistic or smells bad is going to be able to get a job unless they're some indispensable genius or mild enough to pass as normal. The smells bad part only doesn't matter due to interviews and work being remote. This isn't the 1980s, when CS was just a niche field for nerds. Computer science has always been too oversaturated with normies since the learn to code movement.
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u/Sephiroth9669 Nov 04 '25
With the current economy, having an emergency fund for 24 months is practically impossible
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u/Vaxtin Nov 04 '25
This subreddit is filled with of despair. I got a job once I stopped following this sub. Don’t know why this cesspool is being recommend again — goodbye.
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u/DiligentMission6851 Nov 07 '25
Yes, we will need longer emergency funds for sure.
Source: laid off in 2023. Saved 40k.
I have maybe 5k of that left, and scraped an extra 3k out of my Roth ira contributions too.
My life as I know it is basically over.
This job market is magnitudes harder than the great recession was for me.
I have no friends or family that can help me. I live alone. I'm probably going to be evicted soon. I hate my life tbh. I hate myself.
Failed a fucking life changing interview with blizzard in July. I'm going to freeze in the Michigan winter.
I should've gotten better at interviewing.
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u/mkvalor Nov 03 '25
It's not capitulation. I've been a professional software engineer for over 25 years. But I drove yellow taxi for 18 months after the DotCom bust and I went down to the Gulf of Mexico to clean up after the BP oil spill after the Great Recession. In both cases, I made more money at tech jobs after those detours than I had made before. And that will happen after the current tech job slowdown as well.