HACKER Q&A
📣 japanaway

Are you worried about being laid off in the next year or two?


I'm a senior engineer in a FAANG company and have a couple coworkers that are certain that mass layoffs are coming. Both with the same rationale: high unemployment is going to lead to a massive reduction in spending which could obliterate ad spend which is almost all of our revenue.

This sounds plausible to me, but these companies are also very cash rich and it is difficult to make predictions during this time. However I am curious: is this something others on HN are concerned about? Regardless of which part of the tech sector you may work in.

  👤 linguae Accepted Answer ✓
I don't work for a FAANG, but I work in Silicon Valley for a major traditional enterprise company as a research engineer.

I'm concerned about layoffs occurring within the next two quarters due to the economic effects of coronavirus. As an enterprise company we depend on other companies for our business. If the global economy is struggling, this means fewer purchases of IT equipment and services, which means less revenue.

This is anecdotal, but I have noticed that research divisions are typically the casualties of economic downturns. In recent decades research is increasingly seen as a luxury or as a public service rather than as essential for the longevity of the company. If research is a luxury, then companies can cut it with little hesitation. But even with companies that view research as essential, an economic crisis that threatens the future of the company may force the company into making short-term decisions to ensure its long-term survival, and research thus becomes a candidate for the chopping block.

I'm not too worried, but I might start cracking open my algorithms textbooks and grind LeetCode as a precaution.