Tech companies are performing exceptionally well, driving the S&P 500 to new heights with their soaring stock prices. However, the tech sector, apart from AI, expects a job decline to persist throughout the year, accompanied by a tougher hiring process. The situation becomes even more challenging for foreign students requiring sponsorship to secure a job after college, or older tech workers without the latest skills.
Despite these challenges, tech jobs remain more abundant than in most other fields, although the era of immediate employment with nearly six-figure salaries straight out of college with any CS degree has ended.
In discussions with industry leaders, I encounter varied perspectives on whether these changes represent a temporary fluctuation or a long-term trend. Let's explore some of the reasons for this
The Elon Effect
Since Elon Musk took over Twitter in the fall of 2022, he cut about 80% of the employees. The platform had some hiccups but didn't fall apart. You might not like what is now called X became but technically it still functions pretty well. Many other companies started looking at their workforce and starting thinking whether they needed all the software develops they've hired.
Over Supply
We've seen tremendous layoffs among the larger tech companies, paring down from over hiring during the pandemic, and massive growth of computer science programs at universities across the country and world. We just have too many job searchers going after too few tech jobs.
Uncertainty
Companies hold back hiring in the face of uncertainty. Uncertainty in elections in the US and abroad, international relations particularly with China, regulatory and legal landscapes, wars, interest rates, and the economy.
Artificial Intelligence
Almost everyone I talk to thinks (wrongly) that their careers will not dramatically change with AI, except for programmers where we already see significant productivity improvements with ML tools like Github co-pilot. So many companies are re-assessing how many software developers they need. AI also adds to the uncertainly as the tools continue to improve, but how much and how fast remain difficult to predict.
Blip or Trend?
The supply will balance itself out in the future, though possibly through a drop in the number of CS majors. The world will get more certain, hopefully in a good way. But how AI will affect the tech (and every other) job will take years if not decades to play out.
So what advice for those looking for tech jobs: build skills, get certificates, perhaps a Masters to wait out the job market, learn AI both as a skill in demand but also to make yourself more productive. Be aggressive (but not too aggressive), network, enter competitions, build a portfolio. The jobs are not as plentiful but they are out there.
