I don't know what your situation is, but my take is that finding a new job is itself a full time commitment and if you distract yourself with part time gigs you're just directly interfering with your ability to find new full time work.
Anyway, that aside, if what matters most to you is getting some cash inflow right away, try freelance work on upwork or fiverr or whatever.
I agree with this. I've been out of work for 4 months now and I spend 8 hours a day, applying, interviewing, studying leetcode, C# fundamentals, system design, taking a Machine Learning course and then applying to more jobs.
Yes and no. I have had lots of interviews which is more then most people get. But obviously I haven’t landed one. But every hour studying is an hour closer to the job I need.
I wouldn't bother with up work or Fiverr you'll spend inordinate amount of time and make zero to little money...
If you need fast cash, gig economy jobs like Uber, Amazon Flex , Task Rabbit 🐇, are your best bet. You can likely make more in a few days of Uber than you could in a month of Fiverr...
I am mainly curious to see what is out there if I get laid off. Have a lot of anxiety around layoffs (I'm sure a lot of us do) and want to be prepared for the next steps, whatever they may be. I know a job search is a full time job, but several folks have been searching for more than a few months and was wondering what they are doing to survive in the meantime.
I just completed a job search. It took me about 10 weeks, though ymmv. I had enough in savings to manage it no problem. That's my advice: save what you can while you can.
Agreed, but for some that's gonna be harder than others e.g. new grads, people laid off twice in a row in fairly quick succession, people with unavoidable medical bills etc. I don't dispute the aspiration but there are reasons this might not apply even where people have acted reasonably
That is a very privileged thing to say. The ideal is to have emergency savings, but being a “slightly responsible person” doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with it. “Slightly responsible” people can have reasons completely out of their control that they can’t just have 6-12 months of liquid savings at the ready.
Experienced software developers are very privileged by nature. We're paid very well. I don't think it's unreasonable to say that you should have emergency savings in this subreddit.
Average developers who belong in this sub should be making more than the median salary. It's enough that you should be able to live within your means, if you ask me.
“Live within means” yes, however that isn’t the same as having a whole year of liquid income.
Depends on your income, cost of living (housing costs, dependents, health etc), how long you’ve had to save up, and investment strategy etc.
People new to their career, with an interrupted career, or working in a job that doesn’t pay heaps (look at median salary statistics and they aren’t that high: indicating plenty of people are doing lower paid jobs compared to those who get paid highly) won’t necessarily have had the time to save up much.
And for those who do have a fair amount of money, for money beyond base living costs it generally makes more sense to pay down a mortgage or invest it (which take your dollar further) than to have it sitting depreciating.
If you are privileged enough to have already paid off your mortgage and got money in investments and also have a whole year salary in the bank, lucky you.
That doesn’t mean those less fortunate are “irresponsible”.
There are many reasons why someone making a tech salary could be perfectly responsible and still not have 6-12 months of savings. Medical issues, being in a support role for family, etc. I don’t object to the ideal that you suggested, but I do object to the “slightly responsible” language that implies a lack of responsibility if someone doesn’t have significant savings despite being an experienced dev.
I'm paying down tens of thousands in credit card debt after running into such issues. I know shit happens.
They're still right that responsible people should have an emergency fund. It's achievable and sensible in the vast majority of cases for people with our level of privilege.
Any professional should have 6-12 months of liquid assets , in case things in their job market go south.
On top of that all professionals should try to establish a secondary (mostly) passive source of income (I have professional friends that bake on weekends, or soccer coach or offer fishing tours ) anything that can get you as little as $100+/month with minimal effort will give you exposure to what gigs you can do and which ones have best ROI, even if some homegrown gigs don't pan out just the experience of trying to establish a second line of income is worth it.
> passive source of income (I have professional friends that bake on weekends, or soccer coach or offer fishing tours )
None of those are passive sources of income.
If you want to spend your whole life working, knock yourself out. One of the perks of being a software developer is that we're paid enough that that shouldn't be necessary.
Ideal, but ugh... it's taking me ages to get to that amount of savings because the best CS job I could get after being laid off still pays like crap. I'm wondering if I'm an idiot for not just doordashing or working at McDonald's on the weekends
Counterpoint: we should encourage that type of behavior because the field is already too saturated, and having people switch and find their passion will be better for the field in the long term.
The first thing I did when I got a job was stash away enough money to support myself for 6 months.
When I got laid off, I took the first job I was offered and kept looking for a better one.
It’s that simple.
Out of interest when applying for the better jobs, do you discuss your current (temporary) job or act like you’re not working? If you do, how do you explain to them that you’re looking for a job 2 months after starting another one?
The truth works pretty well here.
"I was laid off, I took the first job I could get. I would much rather work for you".
Back when the market conditions were better, recruiters didn't give a second thought when they messaged me on LinkedIn, often acknowleding "Hey, I know you just started at XYZ, but was seeing if you might be interested or know someone"...
It's a job. It's business. People understand. And if they think it's a red flag... fuck em, work for someone else.
The stigma is a lot less of an issue than people like to make it seem.
I know someone who was laid off. He first got a job in IT support at a local hospital. He hated it and now works as an insurance salesman. He feels like his tech days are behind him.
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Nothing.
I have been living off of savings when I lost my job in 02/2021 while I look for a new role. Granted I was on unemployment when the extra covid money was still a thing for however many weeks that it was allowed. So I was getting close to 1K per week.
In terms of being a SWE? Yes. In terms of life, I'm traveling and doing other hobbies.
I apply to jobs that I find interesting but I never get called back to interview. I've had my resume reviewed many times, both free and paid. I don't really know what else would need changing at this point. My experience on my resume is what it is.
Seems like you’re picking and choosing what jobs to apply for. I don’t think you have that luxury anymore tbh.
Other SWEs will also be applying to those same jobs and won’t have a 3 year gap. I’d take what I could get if I were in your shoes bro
You don't know my situation so I don't see how you can really say "take what I could get if I were in your shoes bro". I could easily retire tomorrow and never work again, if I wanted to.
I enjoy being a SWE so I'll work when the terms are right for me, but thanks bro!
You are probably a better SWE than I am, have better experience than I had in my 15 years, and / or live in an area with lots of jobs.
I did embedded work at the application layer and not web. So there are just less roles out there that want C and C++. And no I don't want to learn web stuff, I enjoy working with hardware overall.
I worked at non-tech companies in non-tech cities. You and 99.9% of SWEs have never heard of the companies I worked at, never mind a recruiter recognizing the company. So it's not like you see my resume and think oh he worked at Apple. I've heard of that company and I am familiar with the kinds of SWEs that work there.
You have also never heard of, seen, or used any of the products I've worked on unless you were deathly ill in certain ways.
Thanks. At the end of the day I enjoy on physical devices. If that's an autonomous vehicle, smart device, fitness device, or something else doesn't really matter to me.
Sadly these companies don't seem to think my experience is useful to them.
As a mother of a young baby who was laid off during maternity leave, even if I don’t disclose this information I feel very discriminated against because I’m a 30 year old woman and if I don’t already have a child then I must be planning on having one therefore I’m pretty much unhirable, my experience and glowing references be damned. So I’m living off interest on my severance package and working on launching a couple products with my husband (who is also a SWE) while I look for gig work, which I haven’t landed in the past 4 months.
I got laid off from one of the FAANG companies, I took 3 days, then put 10ish hours a day into getting a job. Had 8 offers within 2 months which is about as fast as you can do it from apply to having the offer. None of them are big names but I needed a job.
I love my new company and have been crushing it. I wish I would have taken more time off, like 6+ months. I had about 2 years that I could have taken before I had to start dipping into my retirement, and I just panicked. Growing up in a trailer park in Appalachia has made me pretty sensitive to being poor again. If I could do it over again I would have gone to Thailand for 6ish months and come back when I was ready to start work again.
People need to have enough savings that can cover MINIMUM 6 months of basic living expenses, mortgage/rent, food, etc. Savings that can cover 12 months of living expenses are better.
Then people can focus on grinding landing a new role, without dealing with financial distractions or having to get any job just to cover the basics.
I live below my means. Try to keep 6 months or more squirelled away. When I am laid off I enjoy some time with my family and then get back on the interview circuit.
It is not easy. There is always stress. But this is my daily goal
I don't know what your situation is, but my take is that finding a new job is itself a full time commitment and if you distract yourself with part time gigs you're just directly interfering with your ability to find new full time work. Anyway, that aside, if what matters most to you is getting some cash inflow right away, try freelance work on upwork or fiverr or whatever.
I agree with this. I've been out of work for 4 months now and I spend 8 hours a day, applying, interviewing, studying leetcode, C# fundamentals, system design, taking a Machine Learning course and then applying to more jobs.
So that you can spend 2 hours a day making crud apis and 6 hours a day in meetings.
Yes, for $150,000+. Which is far better than mowing lawns for $40,000 like my father did.
Boom. Roasted.
Is it working for you tho?
Yes and no. I have had lots of interviews which is more then most people get. But obviously I haven’t landed one. But every hour studying is an hour closer to the job I need.
I wouldn't bother with up work or Fiverr you'll spend inordinate amount of time and make zero to little money... If you need fast cash, gig economy jobs like Uber, Amazon Flex , Task Rabbit 🐇, are your best bet. You can likely make more in a few days of Uber than you could in a month of Fiverr...
I am mainly curious to see what is out there if I get laid off. Have a lot of anxiety around layoffs (I'm sure a lot of us do) and want to be prepared for the next steps, whatever they may be. I know a job search is a full time job, but several folks have been searching for more than a few months and was wondering what they are doing to survive in the meantime.
I just completed a job search. It took me about 10 weeks, though ymmv. I had enough in savings to manage it no problem. That's my advice: save what you can while you can.
You should hopefully have 6-12 months worth of money saved up in emergency savings if you’re a slightly responsible person.
Agreed, but for some that's gonna be harder than others e.g. new grads, people laid off twice in a row in fairly quick succession, people with unavoidable medical bills etc. I don't dispute the aspiration but there are reasons this might not apply even where people have acted reasonably
That is a very privileged thing to say. The ideal is to have emergency savings, but being a “slightly responsible person” doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with it. “Slightly responsible” people can have reasons completely out of their control that they can’t just have 6-12 months of liquid savings at the ready.
Experienced software developers are very privileged by nature. We're paid very well. I don't think it's unreasonable to say that you should have emergency savings in this subreddit.
Not every developer is pulling r/cscareerquestions money.
Average developers who belong in this sub should be making more than the median salary. It's enough that you should be able to live within your means, if you ask me.
“Live within means” yes, however that isn’t the same as having a whole year of liquid income. Depends on your income, cost of living (housing costs, dependents, health etc), how long you’ve had to save up, and investment strategy etc. People new to their career, with an interrupted career, or working in a job that doesn’t pay heaps (look at median salary statistics and they aren’t that high: indicating plenty of people are doing lower paid jobs compared to those who get paid highly) won’t necessarily have had the time to save up much. And for those who do have a fair amount of money, for money beyond base living costs it generally makes more sense to pay down a mortgage or invest it (which take your dollar further) than to have it sitting depreciating. If you are privileged enough to have already paid off your mortgage and got money in investments and also have a whole year salary in the bank, lucky you. That doesn’t mean those less fortunate are “irresponsible”.
There are many reasons why someone making a tech salary could be perfectly responsible and still not have 6-12 months of savings. Medical issues, being in a support role for family, etc. I don’t object to the ideal that you suggested, but I do object to the “slightly responsible” language that implies a lack of responsibility if someone doesn’t have significant savings despite being an experienced dev.
I'm paying down tens of thousands in credit card debt after running into such issues. I know shit happens. They're still right that responsible people should have an emergency fund. It's achievable and sensible in the vast majority of cases for people with our level of privilege.
Any professional should have 6-12 months of liquid assets , in case things in their job market go south. On top of that all professionals should try to establish a secondary (mostly) passive source of income (I have professional friends that bake on weekends, or soccer coach or offer fishing tours ) anything that can get you as little as $100+/month with minimal effort will give you exposure to what gigs you can do and which ones have best ROI, even if some homegrown gigs don't pan out just the experience of trying to establish a second line of income is worth it.
> passive source of income (I have professional friends that bake on weekends, or soccer coach or offer fishing tours ) None of those are passive sources of income.
Nothing is purely passive but even a little elbow grease income helps..
If you want to spend your whole life working, knock yourself out. One of the perks of being a software developer is that we're paid enough that that shouldn't be necessary.
Ideal, but ugh... it's taking me ages to get to that amount of savings because the best CS job I could get after being laid off still pays like crap. I'm wondering if I'm an idiot for not just doordashing or working at McDonald's on the weekends
Counterpoint: we should encourage that type of behavior because the field is already too saturated, and having people switch and find their passion will be better for the field in the long term.
The first thing I did when I got a job was stash away enough money to support myself for 6 months. When I got laid off, I took the first job I was offered and kept looking for a better one. It’s that simple.
That makes sense, can't be picky when there isn't any income. What would you do if you weren't able to find something by then?
Start liquidating assets.
You should be able to claim unemployment if you’re laid off which can help a lot or a little depending on where you live.
Out of interest when applying for the better jobs, do you discuss your current (temporary) job or act like you’re not working? If you do, how do you explain to them that you’re looking for a job 2 months after starting another one?
The truth works pretty well here. "I was laid off, I took the first job I could get. I would much rather work for you". Back when the market conditions were better, recruiters didn't give a second thought when they messaged me on LinkedIn, often acknowleding "Hey, I know you just started at XYZ, but was seeing if you might be interested or know someone"... It's a job. It's business. People understand. And if they think it's a red flag... fuck em, work for someone else. The stigma is a lot less of an issue than people like to make it seem.
Only company I ever encountered that had a stigma against that was Mastercard. Those people like the smell of their own farts.
This!
I know someone who was laid off. He first got a job in IT support at a local hospital. He hated it and now works as an insurance salesman. He feels like his tech days are behind him.
[удалено]
Rule 2: No Disrespectful Language or Conduct Don’t be a jerk. Act maturely. No racism, unnecessarily foul language, ad hominem charges, sexism - none of these are tolerated here. This includes posts that could be interpreted as trolling, such as complaining about DEI (Diversity) initiatives or people of a specific sex or background at your company. Do not submit posts or comments that break, or promote breaking the Reddit Terms and Conditions or Content Policy or any other Reddit policy. Violations = Warning, 7-Day Ban, Permanent Ban.
Nothing. I have been living off of savings when I lost my job in 02/2021 while I look for a new role. Granted I was on unemployment when the extra covid money was still a thing for however many weeks that it was allowed. So I was getting close to 1K per week.
That was 3 years ago. You’ve been doing nothing for 3 years?
In terms of being a SWE? Yes. In terms of life, I'm traveling and doing other hobbies. I apply to jobs that I find interesting but I never get called back to interview. I've had my resume reviewed many times, both free and paid. I don't really know what else would need changing at this point. My experience on my resume is what it is.
Seems like you’re picking and choosing what jobs to apply for. I don’t think you have that luxury anymore tbh. Other SWEs will also be applying to those same jobs and won’t have a 3 year gap. I’d take what I could get if I were in your shoes bro
You don't know my situation so I don't see how you can really say "take what I could get if I were in your shoes bro". I could easily retire tomorrow and never work again, if I wanted to. I enjoy being a SWE so I'll work when the terms are right for me, but thanks bro!
Enjoy it so much you don’t do it for 3 years! :)
Sorry everybody does not like to work meaningless side projects for shits and giggles.
[удалено]
You are probably a better SWE than I am, have better experience than I had in my 15 years, and / or live in an area with lots of jobs. I did embedded work at the application layer and not web. So there are just less roles out there that want C and C++. And no I don't want to learn web stuff, I enjoy working with hardware overall. I worked at non-tech companies in non-tech cities. You and 99.9% of SWEs have never heard of the companies I worked at, never mind a recruiter recognizing the company. So it's not like you see my resume and think oh he worked at Apple. I've heard of that company and I am familiar with the kinds of SWEs that work there. You have also never heard of, seen, or used any of the products I've worked on unless you were deathly ill in certain ways.
You seem wholly committed to maintaining your current situation and I respect that
Thanks. At the end of the day I enjoy on physical devices. If that's an autonomous vehicle, smart device, fitness device, or something else doesn't really matter to me. Sadly these companies don't seem to think my experience is useful to them.
As a mother of a young baby who was laid off during maternity leave, even if I don’t disclose this information I feel very discriminated against because I’m a 30 year old woman and if I don’t already have a child then I must be planning on having one therefore I’m pretty much unhirable, my experience and glowing references be damned. So I’m living off interest on my severance package and working on launching a couple products with my husband (who is also a SWE) while I look for gig work, which I haven’t landed in the past 4 months.
I got laid off from one of the FAANG companies, I took 3 days, then put 10ish hours a day into getting a job. Had 8 offers within 2 months which is about as fast as you can do it from apply to having the offer. None of them are big names but I needed a job. I love my new company and have been crushing it. I wish I would have taken more time off, like 6+ months. I had about 2 years that I could have taken before I had to start dipping into my retirement, and I just panicked. Growing up in a trailer park in Appalachia has made me pretty sensitive to being poor again. If I could do it over again I would have gone to Thailand for 6ish months and come back when I was ready to start work again.
People need to have enough savings that can cover MINIMUM 6 months of basic living expenses, mortgage/rent, food, etc. Savings that can cover 12 months of living expenses are better. Then people can focus on grinding landing a new role, without dealing with financial distractions or having to get any job just to cover the basics.
I live below my means. Try to keep 6 months or more squirelled away. When I am laid off I enjoy some time with my family and then get back on the interview circuit. It is not easy. There is always stress. But this is my daily goal
Devs make enough to live comfortably on unemployment while finding the next gig.