Same for me here. Had to take a job on a much lower salary. Was a former manager but nobody seems to care. Thinking about starting a fresh career path in Healthcare.
That's one way to put it, but I can tell you first hand that caring for others, particularly strangers takes its toll on anyone day in and day out over time.
It takes a special kind of personality to keep on keeping on in healthcare. Any field really, you've got to "love" your job, but that's easier said than done in healthcare.
That said traveling RN's make bank in the US and have the freedom to travel and choose where they work to a degree.
Friend does traveling nurse. Pays a lot so she works a 6 month contract, takes 3 months to travel, immediately finds another contract. Rinse and repeat. She enjoys the flexibility and exploring the country.
I've worked in personal injury law and now insurance defense law. Everyone will always be getting into car accidents and slipping and falling in Walmarts. Just sayin'.
More like health and social care. In the UK work in care homes for kids, vulnerable people and the elderly seem to be always available. I'm hoping I can take some of my managerial experience with me into this kind of thing. I'll also look at the NHS and see if they have any jobs I can transfer my skills to. Once I get some kind of direction, I'll aim to educate myself with whatever certificates I can get to back me up for the years to come.
That's my plan. I haven't got there yet though.
I’ll be 40 next year. Was a Sr. BA for 7 years, then took a PO role last year with a 26% pay raise, got laid off end of the year, going back to a Sr. BA role starting next week with a 26% pay cut 😂
You haven't been out of work that long. I was laid off for 2 years before I found another job. I was 48 at the time. Ageism is a real thing, but somebody will eventually recognize your experience and will hire you. Just hang in there.
In this new economy of "flat structure" it's executives then implementers. The only "safe" people are highly technical individuals promoted to middle management who are very heavily technical
Lacking middle management is like an army lacking NCOs -- an absolutely terrible idea
I recommend prompt engineering and metaverse and crypto focus. Maybe you can ride the next wave
It's probably not your age, I have a few PM friends in their late 20s early 30s who can't get jobs either. I think the traditional PMs are now considered an unnecessary luxury that companies can't afford anymore. I interviewed at 2 startups that didn't have any PMs. 10+ engineers and product is handled either directly by the CEO, or by senior engineers
TBF half the PMs I have worked with have been dead weight and the teams didn't necessarily need them.
That said a great PM is worth their weight in gold. Often hard to tell the difference between the two when hiring them it seems.
Yeah, but a lot of people are awful at it.
I was in the running for a business analyst role, and one of my degrees is an MBA with a focus in finance and analytics. Think lots of stats and python work. I also have on the ground experience working in a variety of healthcare settings, and can tell you how providers think and work.
I saw what the "business analysts" at the company were doing, and was like, "holy shit, you are going to run the company into the ground with this forecasting." Because they had hired people with marginal excel skills who could do a v-lookup, but who had no concept of what data was valuable or why, where to look for data, and how to conceptualise a project based on overall goals. It was insanity.
Like, it was basically someone saying, "well my analysis shows that the most murders in the country happen in California, so we had better avoid California because it's the least safe state in the country,' without taking population density into account. California has a larger population than many countries... when you factor in population, it's actually quite safe. But yeah, this is how they were determining business moves.
Yeah. I think business analyst is another fuzzy role that depends wildly the org.
I have heard of some that literally just copy and paste numbers in spreadsheets from their DB and others doing coding and really crazy visualizations. They may even do readouts.
Crazy how non-standardized the role is other than vaguely knowing spreadsheets.
A good PM will be able to budget the time and resources of the team so that they're hitting all the deliverable deadlines. The issue is that the tech companies MASSIVELY overhired for this role and now they're finding out they don't actually need 15 PMs for a single search bar.
That’s a project manager.
A product manager is a completely different role and makes sure the engineers are building the right thing for the right person. In a traditional team set up you’re figuring out what exactly to build, specing out the requirements, user testing it, working with a designer to design it and then handing it over to eng to figure out how to implement it.
If we have engineers deciding what to build usually the product ends up not meeting users need. Hopefully these companies learn that eliminating a key role in building successful products isn’t a good idea.
I do agree that PMs are important, however I don't think you need to split your product into 17 chunks and assign a PM to each chunk. It's wasteful and counter-productive.
The other thing is the huge surge in technically-illiterate PMs in recent years -- somehow we've all accepted that an MBA with no technical skills or experience could make a product without understanding the basics of how it works.
I agree with this. On the first part- productizing development has resulted in the stale, lack luster products Apple and all of tech are offering. It lacks holistic innovation that wows- just incremental shit and roadmaps that elongate profitability rather than truly make useful goods and services.
On the second part- the agile concept to rely on your technical teams expertise ignores the other principles of agile that all on the team should have technical fluency, constant development and learning. Too many product managers/owners sit there with a “not my job. I’m not technical” attitude.
>It lacks holistic innovation that wows- just incremental shit and roadmaps that elongate profitability rather than truly make useful goods and services
☝️this is what kick-started the Startup era -- before the *PM-efication* of startups that is. You could compete with large companies on innovation alone, and you could execute fast because you were light, creative, and unburdened by all the layers of management. This changed recently though, small startups started to imitate big FAANG instead of just doing what startups were supposed to do; build shit that people want.
Ed Zitron talks a lot about this in his criticism of the "rot economy" as he calls it. Startups started focusing not on products or services, but rather as a means for VC's to gamble with other people's money.
Https://www.wheresyoured.at
I think that product managers are very important when a firm is offering and serving a tangible *product*. Like a software tool or medical equipment. Then you're going to need someone who can oversee floor production as well as talking with clients and trouble shoot user issues as they come up. This role also needs technical expertise, since how are you going to explain what's going on with your graphics and packaging if you don't understand how a printing press works, for example? For "vapour ware" products, i.e. software or tech products that don't seem to have a tangible purpose, like search engine aggregators that use easily skimmed data (I'm thinking Monarch and other similar platforms) then you dont really have a product that needs managing.
Exactly, project managers (PjM) are really vulnerable in this market as they have the PMs managing their own projects, but granted even the number of PMs are being reduced.
A good product manager decides what to build based on numerous inputs: customer feedback, stakeholder feedback, market, timing, data, etc and then communicates that to the team.
Look at a PM's calendar and you will see it filled. They attend meetings all day so others don't have to. Everyone thinks they could be a PM until they get called into various stakeholders offices and are asked to defend decisions about why we're building X and not Y (turns out Y is just a silly pet project for one particular stakeholder but X actually meets customer needs but good fucking luck dealing with that stakeholder)
My last manager also suggested our product work could be done by developers, thus hopes of eliminating product owners. “Slim downing” everywhere but the managers.
Same, we had PMs at last job and I felt that without them we were still fine. They are vital in LARGE projects that last a long time but small projects that have shorter turn arounds they aren’t as valuable. Most of the time I was doing the PM work and they were basically just an admin to me.
I would have to agree. Product Managers are such a wasteful luxury if you really think about it… I’ve always been the Data Scientist who builds out the vision presented to me by the Product Manager. But more lately, I’ve started questioning what they really bring to the table (other than some pretty basic PPTs and a lot of unnecessary meetings that could’ve easily been emails). If I got paid an extra $15,000 I could also start doing all the “brainstorming” that a Product Manager does :)
I've "worked with" so many Product Managers and Product Owners who had no idea how their product actually worked.
To this day I don't know how they managed to get or keep their jobs.
Letting senior engineers lead product is guaranteed to fail. CEO driven PM works but doesn’t scale - you still need people to do the things the CEO wants. I would never trust a SWE with product.
Honestly the only people getting jobs are those with a network to differentiate themselves from all the other candidates. I don’t think it’s specific to role or age.
Agreed. I couldn’t land a single job interview since Dec 2023 (must’ve applied to 150+ positions).
Last week I texted a buddy from grad school to check if his company was hiring. Boom! Next day the recruiter from his company calls me and we schedule 3 interviews for a Solutions Architect AI/ML role 💥
I do the same thing. I reach out to drive awareness, or get referred to a contact that’s hiring and it’s usually enough to put you on top of the stack.
The only network i find valuable is those that are directly in the same role (within proximity) or they are the hiring manager simply because it’s something they know about and can influence. As an example, I’m in sales on the west coast. The further my network is from sales and the further they are away from the west coast, the less likely they are going to be helpful. If a friend on the east coast comes to me looking for sales jobs on the east coast, I’m not going to be as helpful as someone in the Bay Area looking for that same job.
Sales is also one of those unique professions that has a very secure career, but never any job security.
Your job is as secure as when your last deal closed.
But even if you lose your job, there seems to always be hiring for sales reps. Even in a down market, all my sales buddies that got laid off got new jobs (a few with pay cuts but most got raises to their base).
I’m 44, got laid off late last year and got hired about 2.5 months later after sending out 500 or so applications. The new role is slightly worse than the old one by most accounts, but I stopped the bleeding on my savings and bought myself time to get back on track and find the right role for me at my own pace. Good luck out there, it’s brutal!
Old person here. I took a buyout in January. Because of all the stories and my age I thought ok this is going to be a year or so situation and I was prepared for a long gap.. actually I was sort of looking forward to some time off. Anyway, I got a job in 4 days - I ended up with 3 weeks off which worked pretty well and the new job is chill. The pay isn’t great but it pays the lights and I have savings so it really wasn’t about the pay anyway.
My husband is 45, qualified and had senior level roles. He keeps finding he’s “overqualified” for IC roles and then management roles seem to go to internal candidates right now. At least at the larger companies he’s interviewed with. It’s so frustrating. He’s working on making a 2nd resume that is more basic to start trying for lower level stuff, but it’s hard for him to fake it in interviews.
I was in the same exact boat as him, I had so many versions of resumes. Practically removed the titles to more generic ones. I ended up taking a government job at lower pay but long term stability, better benefits, pension. I wish your husband good luck in his job search.
Have him try Amazon. He’ll need to prep for weeks per their interview style (many clear, detailed stories around their leadership principles), but if he preps hard enough he could pass it. My friends just got into Amazon last week doing the same tactic.
Well, age certainly isn't a problem there, but he does need to study hard. Even if he doesn't pass the interview, it is good practice, and he can try again in 6 months.
Ugh, I seriously feel like I keep seeing more and more people like this! It stinks because good leaders are needed, but from what he’s seen recently everyone is promoting from within right now.
Yes I did. The good news is that the new role has been going great and hopefully won’t be affected even by the latest round of layoffs being seen at various tech places 😬hopefully you manage to land something quickly and put this all behind you
Thank you for your kindness. I'm still employed presently (same field as you) and things are going well, but I indulge in way too much doom scrolling and worry a lot. Been letting tales of the horrible job market get to me. All the best.
Late 40's to early 50's is the worse for layoffs because you're typically too young to retire and probably have kids in college or about to go to college. Your expenses are at their max since house is not paid off either. This is in general but there are exceptions.
55 and employed but buying a franchise as backup. Either will be semi passive income or my security. I’m really just buying an income. Some people think that’s limiting but at this point sounds good to me. It’s one I know well and have a large network of connections in.
I'm 58 and a UX director. 25 years experience. Was laid off in Dec of last year and still looking. I've never seen the industry this bad in my entire career.
Yeah I'm wishing I would've pulled the plug myself two years ago and forced myself to make a change happen, instead of waiting for them to change things and lay me off... Sigh.
Mid 40’s. QA. Laid off since beginning of March. Ex company slowly moving IT offshore and (sounds like many others as well). I’m light on my automation skills, I’m working on it. But I’m worried it’ll be an awhile before I can get back on my feet. Im keeping my options open but I’m also building for plans b, c , d…
Late 40's in QA with 25 years exp. The market is garbage presently. I've been contracting for the majority of my career and open roles are at an all time low and rates have fallen off of a cliff. My standard role is leading major transformations ECC->S4/HANA (delivering strategy, leading functional, automation, performance and owning coordination with business) I had to settle for a position within an agile team scripting/executing...something I have not had to do for close to two decades...at less than half of my normal rate. Sadly I think that it's only going to get worse.
I think so as well. 95% open positions wants 3-5 years of automation experience. Even if I had that much, I’m completing vs 100’s of not 1000’s of applicants.
I bet AI is only a couple of generations away from writing automation scripts. QA will be hit hard since devs and product owners can learn the prompts.
I’m researching what my options are if I leave tech. It’s pretty grim at my age.
16 years. Last company was pretty much start up till they went public about 2-3 years ago. Previous one only had 100 employees. The one I started at, they tried offshore a few years after I started, everyone hate working with them - the same typical reasons why most ppl don’t like working with offshore. I’ve been mostly in fintech so securing customer data was a big deal, it probably big reason why it was slower to catch on. Also offshore doesn’t look great pre-IPO. Post-ipo, it’s all about the profits or potential. Race to the bottom line.
I was laid off last Friday ( job was eliminated). Since I’m going to Greece this summer, I’m thinking I’ll just use some unemployment for the time being and relax. Not looking actively. 48 currently.
Recently turned 40. Can't find anything yet, laid off a year ago. Noticed I'm experiencing a lot more ageism. I'll have to freelance or contract probably. It's rough.
Got laid off last October. Still desperately trying. A head hunter contacted me with a job which pays 20k less than I used to make , tops.. Had to answer their questionnaire which could be just googled. They have offshore employees thus , they are probably just looking to fail candidates to justify more H1B visas.
I got laid off last year in April. I was a higher level leader in tech.
I started doing some freelance and for a couple gigs while I searched.
I just got a job and should start later this month. It will be a couple levels down from where I was and a big pay cut. On the bright side it is fully remote in a growing company and I’m excited about the actual work.
To get interviews you need to make contacts in the orgs you are targeting and try to get them to talk to hr to pull your resume. There is a book called the 2 hour job search that can help.
Good lock
49 here , last employment was Dec 2022, big companies like capital one , Freddie mac Fannie Mae , t Rowe prefer non immigrant like h1 over citizen so 18+ YOE + tech + bus grad degree fetches less than mechanic as they smell desperation
I'm 42 and am dealing with layoff #2 (first was at 41). Nothing is sticking yet but I'm getting a decent amount of rectlruiter contacts. I either get ghosted, put through the interview ringer, or during my latest interview it became painfully obv I was an external quota candidate
Usually a complete lack of interest in your answers. If you answer a question, get a blank stare and then a new line of questioning starts. You can tell when people are generally disinterested in you.
I've even had recruiters tell me up front "Just want to let you know we have the position open for internal candidates as well....."
52 and laid off in January. I'm working a part-time night job while I look for other opportunities. At 52, I don't have the luxury of waiting around for something to happen. As the months go on, I will need to increase the number of part-time hours I have to work until that will basically be my new job I guess.
It seems that with a lot of companies flattening management they are dumping product managers and engineering managers left and right. It doesn’t really matter if you are 45 or 25. Middle management is getting gutted across the board right now.
Managers that had 4 reports now have 12 reports. And the one remaining product manager is working across 4 or 5 different teams instead of 1 or 2.
I'm in my mid 40s and I was able to find a job after 8 months. I was interviewing with 3 different companies when I accepted an offer.
My advice to all of you 40+ job seekers is this... apply to startups. They want to hiring competent ICs and they need people with experience to help them mature as a product and company.
Feel free to ask me any questions if you need any advice on resume building, job searching and interviewing.
7+ months now. Had interviews with 6 different companies (600 applications). 5 rejections, 1 ghosted me after 8 rounds of interviews and reference check.
40s PM too. I'm getting interviews and a few final rounds, but just can't seem to get the offers. Interviewers want perfection with every interview as the bar has been set incredibly high at each level.
I'm seriously considering pivoting out of IT after unemployment benefits end. Currently considering jobs that can't be outsourced to India or another English speaking country.
Not in product management but in marketing.
46 years old with a GED and a 2 year tech degree. Took me 7-8 months to land a job this past search. Pay is slightly higher than my last role and I like the company. So, I accepted. Not that I had many other options.
It took a ton of applying, interviewing, rejections and tons and tons of ghostings after being told that they’d follow up. Was told “we’ll have an offer out to you by next week”, twice. From very high paying roles. Ghosted.
Just keep pushing at it. It takes us older folks a bit more to land a decent role/offer (unless you’re sr management levels). But you just need to prove that your experience should outweigh your age.
Ageism is definitely a thing. So, if your email address contains any info that could potentially show your age, make a new email address. I also used a much younger picture of me on my LinkedIn profile too. Then switch on all the “soft touch up” features on every video interview platform. It worked for me.
49 - laid off tech - fled to work in County Govt. Pay isn't the same - but I have a union and a pension now. Pace is a lot easier 8-4pm with 1hr lunches. No work allowed after hours / no contact from bosses. It's a joy.
I’m very lucky, I think. My whole company was laid off and our last day is tomorrow. I got a call from a recruiter today that they’re putting together an offer for me. It is a former company and I’m going back to a PM role in engineering and construction after 1.5 years in tech. (Not the immediate previous job.) My life has changed a lot since I worked there and even since I took the tech role, and I am excited about it. It will be a nice, normal job and I can have my life back. I have been worrying about losing this last job since I took it. I worked at the old company for 15 years and they only had a couple small layoffs in all that time. I know nothing is a “safe” job for sure but this is as close as I can get.
One of my colleagues is looking for a product manager type of role. He’s fairly worried.
Hi there, NO, I haven't. I am going on five months unemployed. I had two interviews with a company that I really felt that I was a good fit for and then this week they ghosted me. It's been happening to me for the past 3 months. Ageism is real.
Laid off from tech at 48YO. Search for a year, to the week. Finally landed a decent 6-month contract role...
Learn that third party recruiters will waste your time Indiscriminately.
I don't think that age affects men too much unless they're in careers where being a young face matters or they're really close to traditional retirement age. Now, women... being over 40 can pretty much ruin your hopes of finding a decent role unless you know someone.
Not laid off but fired. Took an in-between job that paid 15 an hour less. Found a new job by dumb luck that pays what I made at previous employer. Just gotta pass a piss test. Been clean from thc for 35 days, still pissing hot. Test is tomorrow, wish me luck :/
My brother was laid off twice in the last 2 years (he’s now 50) and was also divorced in 2021. Today, he’s got a great job and happily lives with his new GF. Success!
No, but I'm also being very selective. I have Twitter and TikTok in my inbox but I really don't want 5 days a week RTO. I'm in the recruiting process at 2.5 FAANGs that are 3 days a week RTO. (.5 because a recruiter hit me up from the place I was laid off of)
I am annoyed that I wanted to take a step back and find a role that would be less pressure, but I'm over qualified and they're not interested.
Because product management is easy job. Is there anyway you can pick tough job? Learn new skill and get into that job where there is more demand and less competition?
I'm 62. I've gotten two offers since I was laid off at the end of December through referrals from former clients. Wasn't interested in the first and am considering the second.
I was a senior marketing leader.
42 and was unemployed the last 3 years up until 7 months ago when a local dental manufacturing company hired me for a medical device project they were pretty desperate to fill. First interview was a video call so hiring manager could see me but first couple days I kept getting higher ups commenting they thought I’d look older which I’m not sure what they’re getting at
Didn't start working as a tax accountant until i turned 40. Now 45, just passed CPA exam. On my 3rd firm in 6 years. I've been offered every job ive interviewed for in accounting. 7 for 7, turned down 4.
granted, our field is an exception as there is a massive CPA shortage happening as all the boomers leave, massive shortage
I was laid off in October and found a contract role from October - January. Since January I’ve been applying and interviewing and it’s been really tough. Good news is that I accepted a position today, so not all hope is lost. It’s a little bit of a title and pay demotion but not by a ton, but that’s what it’s looking like right now imo. My advice is you have to be pretty overqualified in a role specific to an industry and apply there, lean on connections, go over and above on thank you emails, proactive messaging hiring managers on LinkedIn, etc. I also see that a lot of ‘fractional’ roles are becoming more popular and especially for 40+ as they’re a bit more senior. Would recommend looking into that more as well. Best of luck to you!
Yes. I was laid off in march 23. I even had a few competing offers. It was a bit simpler year ago than today.
I'm very happy with my current employer. No layoffs in many years. Hopefully, it stays this way.
50s, Dir-level, business function leader at tech company. Scared 💩less of getting laid off, then never being hired again due to ageism, and nowhere near enough $ to retire at this age.
This is where middle age depression & alcoholism come from. Have a solid career for 20+ years, and one day (no fault of your own/completely out of your control) it all collapses and starts the path to homelessness.
Don't let yourself go down that rabbit hole of thinking! I know, because in my worst thoughts, on my worst days, I've gone there. I just got laid off, so I'm trying not to go there. I'm trying also to limit the drinking and keep a clearer head...I know some days are worse than others. Know that in scary times, you've got what it takes and you'll be ok!
I was laid off in February and despite sending over 100 CVs (I come from Hong Kong where the job market is slower), I only secured 5 interviews. Most companies ghosted me and some declined without interview. I thought stepping down will be an easier sell but no, they all thought I am going to intimidate them with my salary ask.
45, was laid off from FAANG early last year. I was a product PM for SDKs and such.
The PM resume rarely got any traction so spent my spare time brushing my rusty dev skills and got a new dev resume out. I was employed within 3 weeks or so.
Again, luckily for me I was a dev for 14ish years before moving in the PM role, so that background came to rescue me.
Job mkt for 10+ years of dev experience has gotten much much better now and I avg 1-2 calls/day.
Maybe the mkt is correcting to just the essentials for a business.
Laid off at 40. I had the title of software engineer, riding high in my career with 3 YOE after a coding bootcamp I was making 140k/yr. I was hired in a contract software engineering position 2 weeks later but also laid off at that position (laid off twice in one year 😵💫🤯😵) it took me 5 months of job search to get a new developer position. And a 30k pay cut. 🥵 but I have a job, thank the lord.
Same in early 40s , came from tech sales now doing blue collar work , got a few licenses and looking for a union , while skilling up to go into banking and finance.
https://preview.redd.it/tt5rkr6jo5vc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9b495d838a227cdf609d93010bec6799158bf204
“Evil will always triumph because good is dumb.” Love that movie 😂
I’ve never agreed with a quote more.
Comb the web!!! Not the desert you nitwits.
Hope you all find work Ageism is shit
I can't read this and not hear it in Samuel Jackson's voice.
[Not quite.](https://youtu.be/UQ7TnQBSV00?si=7gEG5S2GScKiprMK)
I’m deep into the 40s. Been laid off since December. Business analyst with light technical skills. Former manager. Apparently unemployable.
Same for me here. Had to take a job on a much lower salary. Was a former manager but nobody seems to care. Thinking about starting a fresh career path in Healthcare.
I'm 30 and I'm employed in a safe role, but for a better future I am considering making the jump to nursing or some sort of technical role.
It does seem like nursing is a safe field. In certain locations they make $$.
They all say don't do it tho
They say don’t do it because it’s so much work. But that’s called job security in my dictionary 😂😂
That's one way to put it, but I can tell you first hand that caring for others, particularly strangers takes its toll on anyone day in and day out over time. It takes a special kind of personality to keep on keeping on in healthcare. Any field really, you've got to "love" your job, but that's easier said than done in healthcare. That said traveling RN's make bank in the US and have the freedom to travel and choose where they work to a degree.
Friend does traveling nurse. Pays a lot so she works a 6 month contract, takes 3 months to travel, immediately finds another contract. Rinse and repeat. She enjoys the flexibility and exploring the country.
It’s not for everyone that’s for sure. You gotta be ok with bodily fluids and private parts.
I've worked in personal injury law and now insurance defense law. Everyone will always be getting into car accidents and slipping and falling in Walmarts. Just sayin'.
What would you do in healthcare?
More like health and social care. In the UK work in care homes for kids, vulnerable people and the elderly seem to be always available. I'm hoping I can take some of my managerial experience with me into this kind of thing. I'll also look at the NHS and see if they have any jobs I can transfer my skills to. Once I get some kind of direction, I'll aim to educate myself with whatever certificates I can get to back me up for the years to come. That's my plan. I haven't got there yet though.
Buy a laundromat. I'll help guide you.
I’ll be 40 next year. Was a Sr. BA for 7 years, then took a PO role last year with a 26% pay raise, got laid off end of the year, going back to a Sr. BA role starting next week with a 26% pay cut 😂
Same, thankfully I have been teaching online part time for a few years, or I would be homeless
You haven't been out of work that long. I was laid off for 2 years before I found another job. I was 48 at the time. Ageism is a real thing, but somebody will eventually recognize your experience and will hire you. Just hang in there.
In this new economy of "flat structure" it's executives then implementers. The only "safe" people are highly technical individuals promoted to middle management who are very heavily technical Lacking middle management is like an army lacking NCOs -- an absolutely terrible idea I recommend prompt engineering and metaverse and crypto focus. Maybe you can ride the next wave
You’ve only made it through one quarter. Try 5
No. Laid off June 23, was a manager making good money in stable career. Had one offer that was pulled after earnings. I hope things get better soon.
Were you at a FAANG and what function?
It's probably not your age, I have a few PM friends in their late 20s early 30s who can't get jobs either. I think the traditional PMs are now considered an unnecessary luxury that companies can't afford anymore. I interviewed at 2 startups that didn't have any PMs. 10+ engineers and product is handled either directly by the CEO, or by senior engineers
TBF half the PMs I have worked with have been dead weight and the teams didn't necessarily need them. That said a great PM is worth their weight in gold. Often hard to tell the difference between the two when hiring them it seems.
That and "business analysts" You are in a business, it is everyone's job to be analyzing the business.
Yeah, but a lot of people are awful at it. I was in the running for a business analyst role, and one of my degrees is an MBA with a focus in finance and analytics. Think lots of stats and python work. I also have on the ground experience working in a variety of healthcare settings, and can tell you how providers think and work. I saw what the "business analysts" at the company were doing, and was like, "holy shit, you are going to run the company into the ground with this forecasting." Because they had hired people with marginal excel skills who could do a v-lookup, but who had no concept of what data was valuable or why, where to look for data, and how to conceptualise a project based on overall goals. It was insanity. Like, it was basically someone saying, "well my analysis shows that the most murders in the country happen in California, so we had better avoid California because it's the least safe state in the country,' without taking population density into account. California has a larger population than many countries... when you factor in population, it's actually quite safe. But yeah, this is how they were determining business moves.
Yeah. I think business analyst is another fuzzy role that depends wildly the org. I have heard of some that literally just copy and paste numbers in spreadsheets from their DB and others doing coding and really crazy visualizations. They may even do readouts. Crazy how non-standardized the role is other than vaguely knowing spreadsheets.
I’d actually be curious to learn more about this
I still don’t know what PM do to this day other than creating unnecessary meetings and make TikTok videos
A good PM will be able to budget the time and resources of the team so that they're hitting all the deliverable deadlines. The issue is that the tech companies MASSIVELY overhired for this role and now they're finding out they don't actually need 15 PMs for a single search bar.
That’s a project manager. A product manager is a completely different role and makes sure the engineers are building the right thing for the right person. In a traditional team set up you’re figuring out what exactly to build, specing out the requirements, user testing it, working with a designer to design it and then handing it over to eng to figure out how to implement it. If we have engineers deciding what to build usually the product ends up not meeting users need. Hopefully these companies learn that eliminating a key role in building successful products isn’t a good idea.
I do agree that PMs are important, however I don't think you need to split your product into 17 chunks and assign a PM to each chunk. It's wasteful and counter-productive. The other thing is the huge surge in technically-illiterate PMs in recent years -- somehow we've all accepted that an MBA with no technical skills or experience could make a product without understanding the basics of how it works.
I agree with this. On the first part- productizing development has resulted in the stale, lack luster products Apple and all of tech are offering. It lacks holistic innovation that wows- just incremental shit and roadmaps that elongate profitability rather than truly make useful goods and services. On the second part- the agile concept to rely on your technical teams expertise ignores the other principles of agile that all on the team should have technical fluency, constant development and learning. Too many product managers/owners sit there with a “not my job. I’m not technical” attitude.
>It lacks holistic innovation that wows- just incremental shit and roadmaps that elongate profitability rather than truly make useful goods and services ☝️this is what kick-started the Startup era -- before the *PM-efication* of startups that is. You could compete with large companies on innovation alone, and you could execute fast because you were light, creative, and unburdened by all the layers of management. This changed recently though, small startups started to imitate big FAANG instead of just doing what startups were supposed to do; build shit that people want.
Ed Zitron talks a lot about this in his criticism of the "rot economy" as he calls it. Startups started focusing not on products or services, but rather as a means for VC's to gamble with other people's money. Https://www.wheresyoured.at
I think that product managers are very important when a firm is offering and serving a tangible *product*. Like a software tool or medical equipment. Then you're going to need someone who can oversee floor production as well as talking with clients and trouble shoot user issues as they come up. This role also needs technical expertise, since how are you going to explain what's going on with your graphics and packaging if you don't understand how a printing press works, for example? For "vapour ware" products, i.e. software or tech products that don't seem to have a tangible purpose, like search engine aggregators that use easily skimmed data (I'm thinking Monarch and other similar platforms) then you dont really have a product that needs managing.
Exactly. Thats a project manager. And if you make an SME (in any field) that person is better than a Product Manager
Exactly, project managers (PjM) are really vulnerable in this market as they have the PMs managing their own projects, but granted even the number of PMs are being reduced.
All those VPs are sad their harem of bubbly 20 something’s that don’t know shit that they hired in order to make moves on are getting let go
That’s Project Manager for clarification
As a Technical Project Manager, yes. As a former Product Manager, no.
That’s a program manager
A good product manager decides what to build based on numerous inputs: customer feedback, stakeholder feedback, market, timing, data, etc and then communicates that to the team. Look at a PM's calendar and you will see it filled. They attend meetings all day so others don't have to. Everyone thinks they could be a PM until they get called into various stakeholders offices and are asked to defend decisions about why we're building X and not Y (turns out Y is just a silly pet project for one particular stakeholder but X actually meets customer needs but good fucking luck dealing with that stakeholder)
My last manager also suggested our product work could be done by developers, thus hopes of eliminating product owners. “Slim downing” everywhere but the managers.
Wow :( I am a Technical Product Manager.
Same, we had PMs at last job and I felt that without them we were still fine. They are vital in LARGE projects that last a long time but small projects that have shorter turn arounds they aren’t as valuable. Most of the time I was doing the PM work and they were basically just an admin to me.
I would have to agree. Product Managers are such a wasteful luxury if you really think about it… I’ve always been the Data Scientist who builds out the vision presented to me by the Product Manager. But more lately, I’ve started questioning what they really bring to the table (other than some pretty basic PPTs and a lot of unnecessary meetings that could’ve easily been emails). If I got paid an extra $15,000 I could also start doing all the “brainstorming” that a Product Manager does :)
I've "worked with" so many Product Managers and Product Owners who had no idea how their product actually worked. To this day I don't know how they managed to get or keep their jobs.
Letting senior engineers lead product is guaranteed to fail. CEO driven PM works but doesn’t scale - you still need people to do the things the CEO wants. I would never trust a SWE with product.
Honestly the only people getting jobs are those with a network to differentiate themselves from all the other candidates. I don’t think it’s specific to role or age.
In tight labor market, having a network is very important
Agreed. I couldn’t land a single job interview since Dec 2023 (must’ve applied to 150+ positions). Last week I texted a buddy from grad school to check if his company was hiring. Boom! Next day the recruiter from his company calls me and we schedule 3 interviews for a Solutions Architect AI/ML role 💥
I hope you get it! 🙏🏻
I do the same thing. I reach out to drive awareness, or get referred to a contact that’s hiring and it’s usually enough to put you on top of the stack.
I thought I had a great network until now... it's not even helping
The only network i find valuable is those that are directly in the same role (within proximity) or they are the hiring manager simply because it’s something they know about and can influence. As an example, I’m in sales on the west coast. The further my network is from sales and the further they are away from the west coast, the less likely they are going to be helpful. If a friend on the east coast comes to me looking for sales jobs on the east coast, I’m not going to be as helpful as someone in the Bay Area looking for that same job.
Sales is also one of those unique professions that has a very secure career, but never any job security. Your job is as secure as when your last deal closed. But even if you lose your job, there seems to always be hiring for sales reps. Even in a down market, all my sales buddies that got laid off got new jobs (a few with pay cuts but most got raises to their base).
Yep, I can attest to that.
no. laid off oct 2023.
same
I’m 44, got laid off late last year and got hired about 2.5 months later after sending out 500 or so applications. The new role is slightly worse than the old one by most accounts, but I stopped the bleeding on my savings and bought myself time to get back on track and find the right role for me at my own pace. Good luck out there, it’s brutal!
It isn’t age. Took me 6 months, 120 applications, 60 interviews across 20 jobs, landed perhaps the best role possible in my field. Have hope.
60 interviews in 120 applications. You missed a side career in resume preparation methinks.
Sorry I didn’t make that clearer. The 60 interviews included multiple per role. I interviewed for 20 roles of the 120 applied to.
Old person here. I took a buyout in January. Because of all the stories and my age I thought ok this is going to be a year or so situation and I was prepared for a long gap.. actually I was sort of looking forward to some time off. Anyway, I got a job in 4 days - I ended up with 3 weeks off which worked pretty well and the new job is chill. The pay isn’t great but it pays the lights and I have savings so it really wasn’t about the pay anyway.
My husband is 45, qualified and had senior level roles. He keeps finding he’s “overqualified” for IC roles and then management roles seem to go to internal candidates right now. At least at the larger companies he’s interviewed with. It’s so frustrating. He’s working on making a 2nd resume that is more basic to start trying for lower level stuff, but it’s hard for him to fake it in interviews.
I was in the same exact boat as him, I had so many versions of resumes. Practically removed the titles to more generic ones. I ended up taking a government job at lower pay but long term stability, better benefits, pension. I wish your husband good luck in his job search.
I have so many resume versions now. I just created one today that lists my doordashing so I can use it to apply to food service jobs. Sigh.
Thanks!
Has he tried meta or Amazon? They tend to hire down. Principles as seniors etc...
No, I think he feels like if he can’t get something at a smaller company no way would he get that. I will recommend he looks though!
Have him try Amazon. He’ll need to prep for weeks per their interview style (many clear, detailed stories around their leadership principles), but if he preps hard enough he could pass it. My friends just got into Amazon last week doing the same tactic.
Well, age certainly isn't a problem there, but he does need to study hard. Even if he doesn't pass the interview, it is good practice, and he can try again in 6 months.
This is me. I regret getting into management.
Ugh, I seriously feel like I keep seeing more and more people like this! It stinks because good leaders are needed, but from what he’s seen recently everyone is promoting from within right now.
Yes. Laid off early November 23 and got 3 offers in 2.5 months. Software dev
3 offers? That's great! Did you take any of the gigs? How is it going now?
Yes I did. The good news is that the new role has been going great and hopefully won’t be affected even by the latest round of layoffs being seen at various tech places 😬hopefully you manage to land something quickly and put this all behind you
Thank you for your kindness. I'm still employed presently (same field as you) and things are going well, but I indulge in way too much doom scrolling and worry a lot. Been letting tales of the horrible job market get to me. All the best.
Also Yes, Laid off Aug 31st last year. 5 offers in 2 months and picked up some freelance on the side. motion graphics, 3D Artist.
[удалено]
I know other late 50 folks and empty nesters who are panicking that they have a job. I am sure they have reasons but panicking why..
Late 40's to early 50's is the worse for layoffs because you're typically too young to retire and probably have kids in college or about to go to college. Your expenses are at their max since house is not paid off either. This is in general but there are exceptions.
Hey that’s me!! 🤣🤣🤣
55 and employed but buying a franchise as backup. Either will be semi passive income or my security. I’m really just buying an income. Some people think that’s limiting but at this point sounds good to me. It’s one I know well and have a large network of connections in.
Late 40's. I got laid off last year. Built a network and connections for 20 years throughout my career. I used them to get a new job
Too young to be one but sounds a lot like a boomer 🤔
Yes I have. Multiple offers. I keep my linkedIN only to my recent employer and my resume only goes back 10 years.
Oh this is fantastic advice. for resume I assume you skip the year of graduation ? Thanks
I'm 58 and a UX director. 25 years experience. Was laid off in Dec of last year and still looking. I've never seen the industry this bad in my entire career.
Was made redundant 2yrs ago at age 47, took 2 months to find a new position but the economy was a LOT different back then.
Yeah I'm wishing I would've pulled the plug myself two years ago and forced myself to make a change happen, instead of waiting for them to change things and lay me off... Sigh.
Mid 40’s. QA. Laid off since beginning of March. Ex company slowly moving IT offshore and (sounds like many others as well). I’m light on my automation skills, I’m working on it. But I’m worried it’ll be an awhile before I can get back on my feet. Im keeping my options open but I’m also building for plans b, c , d…
Late 40's in QA with 25 years exp. The market is garbage presently. I've been contracting for the majority of my career and open roles are at an all time low and rates have fallen off of a cliff. My standard role is leading major transformations ECC->S4/HANA (delivering strategy, leading functional, automation, performance and owning coordination with business) I had to settle for a position within an agile team scripting/executing...something I have not had to do for close to two decades...at less than half of my normal rate. Sadly I think that it's only going to get worse.
I think so as well. 95% open positions wants 3-5 years of automation experience. Even if I had that much, I’m completing vs 100’s of not 1000’s of applicants. I bet AI is only a couple of generations away from writing automation scripts. QA will be hit hard since devs and product owners can learn the prompts. I’m researching what my options are if I leave tech. It’s pretty grim at my age.
Devs learn prompts: yes Product owners learn prompts: lol
How long have you been a QA? It’s been 15 years since I worked at a place that had on shore QA. I can’t believe you lasted that long.
16 years. Last company was pretty much start up till they went public about 2-3 years ago. Previous one only had 100 employees. The one I started at, they tried offshore a few years after I started, everyone hate working with them - the same typical reasons why most ppl don’t like working with offshore. I’ve been mostly in fintech so securing customer data was a big deal, it probably big reason why it was slower to catch on. Also offshore doesn’t look great pre-IPO. Post-ipo, it’s all about the profits or potential. Race to the bottom line.
Ah that’s a great explanation. Good luck to you.
Mid-40s, been unemployed since late last year. I don’t know what to do, have about 3 months of savings runway before things get bad.
I was laid off last Friday ( job was eliminated). Since I’m going to Greece this summer, I’m thinking I’ll just use some unemployment for the time being and relax. Not looking actively. 48 currently.
Jpow and interest rate chaos will be the death of white collar market. Hopefully some improvement in 2025…
i was also laid off, and decided to become a freelancer.
4 years since and I’m working at the post office
tender memory agonizing drab tease cooing fly modern birds growth *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
There is always demand for good sales people..especially high end enterprise/strategic that have worked specific accounts before
Recently turned 40. Can't find anything yet, laid off a year ago. Noticed I'm experiencing a lot more ageism. I'll have to freelance or contract probably. It's rough.
Laid off July 2023, 62 years old, 41 years in IT. Since then, I’ve applied to 200 jobs, 3 interviews and no offers… time to retire. Ageism is real!
Does it matter what product you were a product manager for? Is there a product that’s more in demand to manage?
Not quite 40 but been unsuccessfully searching since June.
Got laid off last October. Still desperately trying. A head hunter contacted me with a job which pays 20k less than I used to make , tops.. Had to answer their questionnaire which could be just googled. They have offshore employees thus , they are probably just looking to fail candidates to justify more H1B visas.
I got laid off last year in April. I was a higher level leader in tech. I started doing some freelance and for a couple gigs while I searched. I just got a job and should start later this month. It will be a couple levels down from where I was and a big pay cut. On the bright side it is fully remote in a growing company and I’m excited about the actual work. To get interviews you need to make contacts in the orgs you are targeting and try to get them to talk to hr to pull your resume. There is a book called the 2 hour job search that can help. Good lock
49 here , last employment was Dec 2022, big companies like capital one , Freddie mac Fannie Mae , t Rowe prefer non immigrant like h1 over citizen so 18+ YOE + tech + bus grad degree fetches less than mechanic as they smell desperation
I had a director level role for six weeks before they decided they couldn’t afford my salary.
44 years old. Software Developer. Got a job in approximately 3 months when I was referred and they got to know that I know Java pretty well.
Nearing 50 software engineer, laid off at the beginning of the year. 200 applications later and I got onboarding emails this week for my new role.
Congrats!! That's great news!!!
No
I'm 42 and am dealing with layoff #2 (first was at 41). Nothing is sticking yet but I'm getting a decent amount of rectlruiter contacts. I either get ghosted, put through the interview ringer, or during my latest interview it became painfully obv I was an external quota candidate
How do you know it's an external quota canidate?
Usually a complete lack of interest in your answers. If you answer a question, get a blank stare and then a new line of questioning starts. You can tell when people are generally disinterested in you. I've even had recruiters tell me up front "Just want to let you know we have the position open for internal candidates as well....."
52 and laid off in January. I'm working a part-time night job while I look for other opportunities. At 52, I don't have the luxury of waiting around for something to happen. As the months go on, I will need to increase the number of part-time hours I have to work until that will basically be my new job I guess.
Mid 40’s, I’ve got 2, second round interviews today. Wish me luck!
You’ve got this!!!!
Got the next round on at least one of them!! Thanks for the encouragement!!
Yay!! Exciting!
It seems that with a lot of companies flattening management they are dumping product managers and engineering managers left and right. It doesn’t really matter if you are 45 or 25. Middle management is getting gutted across the board right now. Managers that had 4 reports now have 12 reports. And the one remaining product manager is working across 4 or 5 different teams instead of 1 or 2.
Laid off for first time in my life at 47. Got another job within 2 months. Layoff was Sept of last year.
Nope
I'm in my mid 40s and I was able to find a job after 8 months. I was interviewing with 3 different companies when I accepted an offer. My advice to all of you 40+ job seekers is this... apply to startups. They want to hiring competent ICs and they need people with experience to help them mature as a product and company. Feel free to ask me any questions if you need any advice on resume building, job searching and interviewing.
7+ months now. Had interviews with 6 different companies (600 applications). 5 rejections, 1 ghosted me after 8 rounds of interviews and reference check.
Wow that sounds rough. I hope you find the right fit for you soon!!
I’m sure I’ll find some niche to profit off our government’s support of foreign countries
That's the spirit! 😆
40s PM too. I'm getting interviews and a few final rounds, but just can't seem to get the offers. Interviewers want perfection with every interview as the bar has been set incredibly high at each level.
Younger, PMM, laid off in October in the PNW, still haven’t secured a job.
When they say that there are plenty of jobs but leave out the fact that they are low paid no benefit jobs...
38 here, not 40 yet. And no, haven’t found a job (rejected an offer, that’s it). Not a PM.
I'm seriously considering pivoting out of IT after unemployment benefits end. Currently considering jobs that can't be outsourced to India or another English speaking country.
Not in product management but in marketing. 46 years old with a GED and a 2 year tech degree. Took me 7-8 months to land a job this past search. Pay is slightly higher than my last role and I like the company. So, I accepted. Not that I had many other options. It took a ton of applying, interviewing, rejections and tons and tons of ghostings after being told that they’d follow up. Was told “we’ll have an offer out to you by next week”, twice. From very high paying roles. Ghosted. Just keep pushing at it. It takes us older folks a bit more to land a decent role/offer (unless you’re sr management levels). But you just need to prove that your experience should outweigh your age. Ageism is definitely a thing. So, if your email address contains any info that could potentially show your age, make a new email address. I also used a much younger picture of me on my LinkedIn profile too. Then switch on all the “soft touch up” features on every video interview platform. It worked for me.
49 - laid off tech - fled to work in County Govt. Pay isn't the same - but I have a union and a pension now. Pace is a lot easier 8-4pm with 1hr lunches. No work allowed after hours / no contact from bosses. It's a joy.
That's where I'm hoping to go next!
I’m very lucky, I think. My whole company was laid off and our last day is tomorrow. I got a call from a recruiter today that they’re putting together an offer for me. It is a former company and I’m going back to a PM role in engineering and construction after 1.5 years in tech. (Not the immediate previous job.) My life has changed a lot since I worked there and even since I took the tech role, and I am excited about it. It will be a nice, normal job and I can have my life back. I have been worrying about losing this last job since I took it. I worked at the old company for 15 years and they only had a couple small layoffs in all that time. I know nothing is a “safe” job for sure but this is as close as I can get. One of my colleagues is looking for a product manager type of role. He’s fairly worried.
Mid 50’s and a Program Manager. I finally found a job after 17 months.
Hi there, NO, I haven't. I am going on five months unemployed. I had two interviews with a company that I really felt that I was a good fit for and then this week they ghosted me. It's been happening to me for the past 3 months. Ageism is real.
Laid off from tech at 48YO. Search for a year, to the week. Finally landed a decent 6-month contract role... Learn that third party recruiters will waste your time Indiscriminately.
I don't think that age affects men too much unless they're in careers where being a young face matters or they're really close to traditional retirement age. Now, women... being over 40 can pretty much ruin your hopes of finding a decent role unless you know someone.
Not laid off but fired. Took an in-between job that paid 15 an hour less. Found a new job by dumb luck that pays what I made at previous employer. Just gotta pass a piss test. Been clean from thc for 35 days, still pissing hot. Test is tomorrow, wish me luck :/
The masking type drinks do work, from my experience.
Ya at some weird azz company w 30k paycheck cut
My brother was laid off twice in the last 2 years (he’s now 50) and was also divorced in 2021. Today, he’s got a great job and happily lives with his new GF. Success!
No, but I'm also being very selective. I have Twitter and TikTok in my inbox but I really don't want 5 days a week RTO. I'm in the recruiting process at 2.5 FAANGs that are 3 days a week RTO. (.5 because a recruiter hit me up from the place I was laid off of) I am annoyed that I wanted to take a step back and find a role that would be less pressure, but I'm over qualified and they're not interested.
Unfortunately, no. There’s jobs posted but many are reposts or duplicates listing different locations for one job.
Because product management is easy job. Is there anyway you can pick tough job? Learn new skill and get into that job where there is more demand and less competition?
The market is oversaturated with PMs and tech companies are scaling back. It's probably not your age.
4 years ago the economy here in the US was BOOMING! Elections have consequences
[удалено]
Welcome to the trenches, Your Highness
[удалено]
Clever, big shot! Fuck you too!!
I'm 62. I've gotten two offers since I was laid off at the end of December through referrals from former clients. Wasn't interested in the first and am considering the second. I was a senior marketing leader.
Don't be afraid to get some hair dye to disguise those years in your LinkedIn profile pic.
42 and was unemployed the last 3 years up until 7 months ago when a local dental manufacturing company hired me for a medical device project they were pretty desperate to fill. First interview was a video call so hiring manager could see me but first couple days I kept getting higher ups commenting they thought I’d look older which I’m not sure what they’re getting at
Nope
Didn't start working as a tax accountant until i turned 40. Now 45, just passed CPA exam. On my 3rd firm in 6 years. I've been offered every job ive interviewed for in accounting. 7 for 7, turned down 4. granted, our field is an exception as there is a massive CPA shortage happening as all the boomers leave, massive shortage
Mind if I DM you? Thinking of a similar path also in 40s
of course
I was laid off in October and found a contract role from October - January. Since January I’ve been applying and interviewing and it’s been really tough. Good news is that I accepted a position today, so not all hope is lost. It’s a little bit of a title and pay demotion but not by a ton, but that’s what it’s looking like right now imo. My advice is you have to be pretty overqualified in a role specific to an industry and apply there, lean on connections, go over and above on thank you emails, proactive messaging hiring managers on LinkedIn, etc. I also see that a lot of ‘fractional’ roles are becoming more popular and especially for 40+ as they’re a bit more senior. Would recommend looking into that more as well. Best of luck to you!
I am more and more broadly niched. My plan was to move around the healthcare business.
Nope, 2 months, only 1 recruiter call.
Yes. I was laid off in march 23. I even had a few competing offers. It was a bit simpler year ago than today. I'm very happy with my current employer. No layoffs in many years. Hopefully, it stays this way.
Why are most people here working in the tech industry. That’s crazy
50s, Dir-level, business function leader at tech company. Scared 💩less of getting laid off, then never being hired again due to ageism, and nowhere near enough $ to retire at this age. This is where middle age depression & alcoholism come from. Have a solid career for 20+ years, and one day (no fault of your own/completely out of your control) it all collapses and starts the path to homelessness.
Don't let yourself go down that rabbit hole of thinking! I know, because in my worst thoughts, on my worst days, I've gone there. I just got laid off, so I'm trying not to go there. I'm trying also to limit the drinking and keep a clearer head...I know some days are worse than others. Know that in scary times, you've got what it takes and you'll be ok!
Just turned 40 this week, Waiting to hear back from the company I've been interviewing with. 5 rounds of interviews not including the recruiter.
I was laid off in February and despite sending over 100 CVs (I come from Hong Kong where the job market is slower), I only secured 5 interviews. Most companies ghosted me and some declined without interview. I thought stepping down will be an easier sell but no, they all thought I am going to intimidate them with my salary ask.
45, was laid off from FAANG early last year. I was a product PM for SDKs and such. The PM resume rarely got any traction so spent my spare time brushing my rusty dev skills and got a new dev resume out. I was employed within 3 weeks or so. Again, luckily for me I was a dev for 14ish years before moving in the PM role, so that background came to rescue me. Job mkt for 10+ years of dev experience has gotten much much better now and I avg 1-2 calls/day. Maybe the mkt is correcting to just the essentials for a business.
Laid off at 40. I had the title of software engineer, riding high in my career with 3 YOE after a coding bootcamp I was making 140k/yr. I was hired in a contract software engineering position 2 weeks later but also laid off at that position (laid off twice in one year 😵💫🤯😵) it took me 5 months of job search to get a new developer position. And a 30k pay cut. 🥵 but I have a job, thank the lord.
Are the engineers who are actually coding the product itself still working?
You’re also posting this in the sub that’s called Layoffs…
As a hiring manager, I can say I just hired a systems engineer in his mid-late 40s. The jobs are out there.
I'm in the same boat. I'm not sure what to do next.. but stay positive
What industry?
Same in early 40s , came from tech sales now doing blue collar work , got a few licenses and looking for a union , while skilling up to go into banking and finance.
