I have been out of work for roughly two years, though I should note that, for religious reasons, I have limited my search to positions involving Rust. Toward the end of last year, however, it seemed that the situation was beginning to improve: new job postings appeared that looked credible, and by the start of this year I had two interviews (both initiated by companies themselves). In one case, I advanced to the later stages of the process and was close to receiving an offer. So I was hopeful things will turn around.
I think, now, given what's happening in the Gulf, you can firmly assume that the recovery will fully stop; if not worse. It's safer to assume that this will not resolve any time soon. I am from near the region, and I know a few friends who had to go back to the country because their jobs/workplace was affected. So that's one job market that's now bust.
Interest rates will remain high, if not go higher. Life will get significantly more expensive with $100+ oil. This will be a global pain, unfortunately.
$100+ oil should be the least of your cost fears, especially given that the $100/barrel panic threshold from 5-10 years ago should be more like $150-200 today due to inflation over that time. Trade issues (China restricting exports, etc), currency devaluation, national debt, and macro effects of shifting demographics are setting a pretty stark stage.
That’s what I thought too but didn’t want to make any assumptions. In that case it’s honestly stupid to not having income come in for two years because of a preference for a certain language.
When I’m out of job - which has only happened for a grand total of 5 weeks in 30 years including 3x where I was laid off or PIPed (Amazon 2023) - my first priority was to get any job to stop the bleeding and keep interviewing if it wasn’t what I wanted. Luckily, only once did I have to take a stop gap job/contract (2011)
Now you've got me curious about what the Bible has to say about crustaceans, and if anyone's already created a religion around Rust [the programming language].
all comes down to accumulated savings and personal burn rate. Much easier for some people than others to budget for, but generally "software developer" isn't one of the more difficult positions to earn the right to be picky...
So it isn’t difficult to earn the right to be picky. But yet here you are unemployed for two years and burning through savings because of fealty toward a language…
I'm not the OP, and fealty to a language isn't why I was picky. But the reality is many software developers have substantial savings from a combination of well above average wages and non-extravagant tastes, and career paths which aren't based upon tenure, so they can always say "and others are busy accumulating two years of savings they'll never need doing things they don't want to do, because it's the default..."
And unless your investments are self sustaining - ie they throw off enough earnings to support your lifestyle without going into the principal - it is still dumb to have fealty to a language as the only reason you aren’t working.
He talked about a “burn rate” so he obviously isn’t in that position.
I talked about the burn rate. Personally I doubt using a particular language I specialised in would be a dealbreaker if I wrote code for a living, but I find the mentality that one must in all cases spend 40+ hours a week working in jobs less well matched to ones skillset and interests out of fealty to not consuming any part of the principal of ones savings (irrespective of how large they are) or making any other lifestyle changes even more unfathomable.
I didn’t say in all cases. I understand wanting to take a break because of burnout [1], family obligations, to explore a hobby, pursue a passion, etc.
But because of a language preference?
I specialize in AWS consulting + app dev. It’s something I’ve been doing for a decade, I know it well and I even did a 4 year stint at AWS working in the consulting department (full time RSU earning blue badge employee). But I wouldn’t refuse on principle to get a job that required me to spend all day on GCP or Azure.
[1] I really don’t understand burn out though. In 30 years across 10 jobs, when the “shit I have to put up with” got to high I would just get another job instead if toiling away
I think, now, given what's happening in the Gulf, you can firmly assume that the recovery will fully stop; if not worse. It's safer to assume that this will not resolve any time soon. I am from near the region, and I know a few friends who had to go back to the country because their jobs/workplace was affected. So that's one job market that's now bust.
Interest rates will remain high, if not go higher. Life will get significantly more expensive with $100+ oil. This will be a global pain, unfortunately.