Large numbers of skilled software engineers are unemployed for months. Many are unemployed for more than a year.
Is this an arbitrage opportunity? What's the best way to harness this concentration of energy?
Readit NewsReadit NewsIs this an arbitrage opportunity? What's the best way to harness this concentration of energy?
Offer some part-time options and you'll get a custom-crafted cover letter professing my love and why I am a perfect fit as well. :)
Unlimited PTO is a scam. Instead, offer a generous amount of time off from the jump: Three to four weeks per year, with an option to roll over a portion each year and cash out the rest.
We have generous leave allowances (18 working days at a starting level.) We also have a flexible sick leave policy - there is a fixed amount but we've extended that for individuals on occasion when the situation demanded it (long hospital stays etc.)
So in theory unlimited time off sounds good, but in practice its not a perk.
*! I was also assuming half the pay, but didn't write that either...
Maybe create a software co-op where people meet and can give or get help with any projects they are working on. Meet anywhere convenient like local library or office after hours or even someones garage. Nobody gets paid unless by agreement and to make money people need to sell something (maybe just ads). There's a much bigger chance of success than if all the people work independently.
One option is to start a consulting business with a group of engineers (essentially a market equivalent of a union but with more legal protections) and start charging very high market rates and nickel-and-dime the client hedge fund style with pass-through fees for everything. Use the knowledge of former jobs’ contracts and undercut on price.
If the skill set is very niche and highly specialized you could even attempt cornering the market by recruiting people away that are still employed and sell back their services through the consulting gig (offer profit share as a sweetener, etc.)
Dead Comment
The problem tends to be that high unemployment tends to coincide with economic downturns. It's hard to get investment to start a business during such a downturn.
Those a little bit older who started during or right after the dot bomb fiasco knew (or should have known) that software might pay well or "is fun/interesting" but have a plan to get out by 40.
I discussed this with same age or older colleagues and tried to impress upon younger colleagues the importance of saving and investing and lifestyle inflation etc.
If you started in 2005 or later you could be forgiven for think you'd found the golden ticket and 6 future salaries, bonuses and stock were never going to end just bc you could npm a bunch of js together.
I never had any illusion that things would last forever as they were - for that matter, things have changes significantly over the past 20 years anyhow.
I’ve always felt like I’m “riding a wave”, and the work I’m doing in AI these days leads me to believe this particular wave is ending. My plan is to jump onto the coming “AI wave”. I see it as taller (there’s more short-term earning potential there) but much faster moving (it’ll be over sooner).
If I can get to the top of this oncoming wave hopefully I can make enough to retire comfortably. If not, then I’ll keep doing what I’ve been doing: looking for that next wave and jumping onto it before there’s sand under my feet :)
I'm 43, about to turn 44, and I've been unemployed for three years. My former employer fired me for not vaxxing despite being a full-time remote employee as I refused to give in to their ridiculous requirement. I've been taking care of my aging parents since then as my dad has developed dementia.
I'm interested in working in software again as tech has been my life since I was 13 years old. I've got tons of skills and experience, not just in tech but also leadership, but the prospect of insane hazing rituals known as "tech interviews" has me discouraged. I've been considering starting a tech services business but the economy is rough right now and I'm living in one of the most expensive states in the US.
If anyone could use an experienced .NET dev/DevOps or team lead, look me up.
Started my own single person company a couple years ago and haven’t looked back. It does well enough to fund my modest lifestyle and I would frankly rather die than go back to interviewing and working for someone else.
The tech industry sickens me in general. It’s done so much damage to our society. Feels way better interacting with customers directly and treating software like a craft/trade.
I suspect though there isn't a lot of these people that are unemployed. There's more "mediocre" engineers that are in this zone.
Here is a profitable idea.
Make a group decision and choose a target profitable SaaS company or startup of your choice, replicate it with AI and race the target SaaS company to near zero in pricing and sell your services as the cheapest offering to SMEs and enterprises (assuming you guys have experience in this area)
Keep it running or sell it to another business and the collective reaps the profits once the target SaaS company is dead or is unable to compete.
Repeat for all or any companies or startups that you wish should not exist or that laid you off in the past
On the other hand, if it wasn’t mission critical (let’s say replacing my todo list tracker), then I wouldn’t even consider replacing it because it’s not critical, and it’s not expensive. Why should I waste my time replacing it with something a bit cheaper?
So it’s a catch 22
Just say you've worked at Google, Microsoft, Intel, etc, 300 years of collective experience.
S4 Capital famously won contracts away from WPP even though WPP had a long standing reputation and marketing prowess.
I’m in non-tech industries in finance/accounting and during budget conversations a few things over the past few years consistently pop up as this costs too damn much; smartsheets, zoom, slack, etc. I actually implement a specific Oracle product that costs most companies 6 figures a year that could easily be self service SAAS product with a much better solution. Financial analysts skew mildly technical and could implement it themselves and be targeted fairly easily. Competition exists but they always bloat the product to charge almost as much or more than Oracle does. But end users only care about a few small features and I think some one could execute those much better than what exists on the market. All competitors require an enterprise software sales process to even see/demo their software. If the analysts could login, connect to their data, and set some custom configurations (possibly llm assisted?), and worry about monetizing the relationship until the value prop has been realized- then I think this would spread on its own, people in the industry talk, change jobs frequently and take their tooling preferences with them. Best of all, this group of people usually report to a cfo and can offer their department a significant cost savings by doing this, saving the company money is literally their job already. That’s my business idea without giving it away entirely lol.
Comment here if you’re actually interested in this, I would love to join a group like this working on something as a group. I can code but never done so professionally or as part of a team.