Several of my articles encourage readers to build a career in tech. Unfortunately, there have been a bunch of layoffs in big tech lately. Having been one of the lucky ones who survived a major round of layoffs at my work almost a year ago, I felt compelled to set the record straight. You would be wise to assume no job is secure!!
I wish I had solid tips to share, like diversifying your skill set to bring more value to an organization. Unfortunately, I’ve learned that companies don’t always see that as a good thing. They want more specialists. For me personally, diversifying still feels like my strongest suggestion. Had I not had a wide enough range of skills, I most likely would not have survived the elimination of my dream role after an acquisition. That’s certainly taken me some time to come to grips with, but I’m still extremely grateful for my current role.
Irony
It seems unbelievably ironic that I got distracted while writing this article because a recruiter from Meta reached out to me. How funny is that?!? 🤣
Seriously Though
The best tip I can offer anyone was something I learned from an old boss, build a “F*ck You” fund. He was extremely frugal and was able to retire in his mid-forties as a Senior Vice President. He went into “corporate battle” with no fear of getting fired because he knew he would be fine financially, which is the biggest fear for most of us. He knew several people who could easily just say “F*ck You” and walk away from a six figure salary.
If you’re young, start thinking about retirement now! If you make good money, don’t spend it all. Aim for a six figure salary, but live like you make minimum wage. That’s easier said than done though, especially if you have a family!
Reality
It’s becoming more and more obvious that AI has great potential to threaten millions of jobs. Klarna openly boasts about AI taking over 700 customer service jobs while watching profits soar. Technical roles are even at risk, especially when you see what Devin AI can do! That’s why I’m in the camp of “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em”, so I’m always learning as much about AI as I can. But that only works until bots are building bigger and badder bots without us! James Cameron literally said, “I warned you guys in 1984.”
Wrapping Up
The fact of the matter is, corporations are scrambling to compete in a highly uncertain market! They’re implementing massive strategic shifts, and making decisions that affect our livelihood as employees. The reality is there ain’t shit we can do about it.
The road ahead is likely to get more rocky, especially as we move toward 2030. If you think AI is booming now, just wait until quantum computers can run at room temperature and graphene energy harvesting replaces batteries!
This is not meant to be some dooms day warning! I’m actually aiming to encourage you to influence the future by living and working on the cutting-edge of technology. It’s certainly a competitive market, especially now that thousands of AWS tech-heads will be looking for work. You have to do whatever it takes (within reason) to stand out in a crowd of extremely talented people. It’s not easy but if you’re passionate, work hard, study harder, and go the extra mile to find opportunities that allow you to gain experience that your competition hasn’t acquired, then before you know it tech companies will be on the hunt for you! I mean…I did just get an email from Meta today, so I must not be feeding you a line of B.S. Right?! 😉
Be sure to subscribe if you want to follow my personal journey towards remaining relevant in this exciting industry!
Stay techy, my friends!
Header Image
This article’s Stable Diffusion header image started off as a sad panda, but then I felt the snow leopard offered more variation in their expression. Both species are at risk of extinction, so choosing either as a character is more out of respect for these amazing creatures than anything. ❤️
Prompt: Hyperrealistic art cinematic film still ((photo:1.2)), A very sad snow leopard in a room filled with computers dramatic lighting, dynamic pose, dynamic camera,masterpiece, best quality, dark shadows, ((dark fantasy)) ,wearing a hoody, detailed, realistic, 8k uhd, high quality, detailed, realistic, 8k uhd, high quality . shallow depth of field, vignette, highly detailed, high budget, bokeh, cinemascope, moody, epic, gorgeous, film grain, grainy
. Extremely high-resolution details, photographic, realism pushed to extreme, fine texture, incredibly lifelike
Negative prompt: simplified, abstract, unrealistic, impressionistic, low resolution, bad quality, comic, anime, cgi, drawing, illustration, bad hands
Steps: 20, Sampler: DPM++ 2M Karras, CFG scale: 7, Seed: 1846000811, Size: 1344×768, Model hash: 11d8087219, Model: fenrisxl_V164fp16, Style Selector Enabled: True, Style Selector Randomize: False, Style Selector Style: Hyperrealism, Version: v1.6.1
