The State Of The Tech Industry In 2023

A lot has happened to the tech industry in the first few months of 2023, let alone the last year. Layoffs after layoffs after layoffs. Hiring freezes. More layoffs. More hiring freezes. Even more layoffs. From companies big and small, profitable and not profitable, thriving and struggling, FAANG and startups. In this video, I go over the state of the tech industry and of the software engineering industry in 2023.

0:00 | Introduction
0:39 | Layoffs
5:04 | Hiring
13:00 | Conclusion

[JohnMichaelReed]

Just because more people are paying for AlgoExpert doesn't mean more people are getting jobs. People who got laid off may be desperately subscribing just in hopes that it'll help them land a job in the future.

[BenjoBAM]

This person was barely in the industry. You should certainly be skeptical when hearing his viewpoints.

[rmdashrfv]

AlgoExpert is a product that focuses on interviewing, not hiring. Your data will lag behind what's actually going on in hiring quite a bit, especially because interviewing in tech takes longer than it does in other industries. For example:

If a bunch of layoffs happen, and suddenly 100, 000 new people decide to give software engineering a try and they buy AlgoExpert, and 4+ months later, they don't have a job and go back to whatever non SWE work they were doing before, it still shows up in your data as "demand for a product" but the part where they don't get hired will not show up.

[milancodes]

the tech industry is completely broken. I got laid off 4 months ago and I can't even get a single interview or tech assessment.

[ConnerArdman]

Welcome back! Glad to know I can cancel all my streaming services and go back to just exclusively watching Clément on YouTube again 😀

[sebike]

Clement you don't understand that CEO's are mostly sociopaths. Directors' greed also got people laid off because it's a trend right now even though it wasn't necessary.

[SuccessfulMiddleclassGuy]

I truly believe in 9-5 job, if you love your 9-5 be positive and just keep changing and growing yourself day by day..

[Sopris]

I think this misses a lot of bigger things happening in the world. 1) No one is really sure how bad this coming recession will be. While I don't necessarily subscribe to the dooms day second great depression thoughts, I do think there's a fair chance this one could be painful. 2) No one is sure how much more interest rates are going to rise. Money is no longer cheap, so you better be damn sure you're getting the most return on the people you employ and if you're going to hire someone else, they better damn well be doing the same.

[kristjanwashere]

I think the analogy of your company to hiring is probably not the best. People usually prepare for interviews before applying for jobs or at least knowing for certain if there is a place for them in the market. I think a better correlation is the health of a platform like indeed, which relies on job positions being posted.

[GChief]

By context of overhiring, there’s also the retrospect of the amount of debt also pulled out with 0%/near-to-nothing interest during the pandemic, there were also hiring freezes with google and Microsoft during the pandemic

[Wesley-rnoc]

So like, is my Google recruiter just playing around? I had one recruiter get laid off and another one hit me up. I can't imagine Google ever stops hiring engineers.

[fabianschwarzfritz]

I was in one of the companies that are mentioned here and I was in the core of the business and making very direct business impact.
So let's be more precise: They cut staff overall across the board and not directly the ones that did not have business impact.

Is this a hot take?

[stevenlopez]

A significant piece to this puzzle is the incoming replacement of large percentages of the required labor force through AI application. I don't think anyone would argue that AI has the capacity to replace all jobs today however tedious and time consuming tasks are now being delegate to AI - reallocation of time and projects will result in a substantial reduction of available work. I do not foresee a sudden increase in hiring at any point in the future (at least within mainstream tech).

Your last point on non-traditional tech industries opening up to software engineers makes sense but from the perspective of, say, a big bank - profit margin is everything (very different from our future-oriented friends in traditional tech who couldn't care less about profits) and so I think they will be slow to adjusting.

[jimbokf]

I'm so happy u come back to tell me more about code interview in Google or Facebook and so on. I'm ready to learn more!(BTW, I'm Taiwanese audience!)

[Eugene.Berezin]

I think many software developers are facing a bigger issue.
They don’t stand out.
They can do anything but at the same time they haven’t master one niche very well.

[DallasFort]

I'm looking into becoming a full stack developer. What is your though on the job market for it in the next 6 months? Also, within tech what occupation would you stay is safe from being automatized by AI such as CHATGPT and outsourced? I'm thinking it cybersecurity?

[phillipjo]

Rather than hiring more, I'm sure many companies are going to make SWEs work more to speed up productivity. They tried to increase productivity by hiring more SWEs and then realized that it didn't work well. They might hire only a very significant role. The future of SWEs is going to be like CPAs. They used to be highly paid and there were so many demands for them in the past but now the majority of them make an average salary. The job market for them is also kinda moderate.

[Meskarts]

I would also say (regarding the layoffs in the states) - there alot of people working in "tech" but not actual doing coding or tech.. or even can do that! Alot of yoga chicks were layed off at Twitter - doing none to nothing the last couple years.. People who are really good in tech, will find a job!

[epotnwarlock]

with so much focus on big tech & well known brands, what does the trend look like for smaller companies in mid-sized cities?

[jeremyvonhatten]

Long time fan of algo expert and your videos. I'd like to hear you talk about the problems with software engineering saturation.

Yes I hope you are right, we have hit bottom and companies will start to hire again, but I've also seen companies completely change their hiring models to only want senior level and above, and they know they can do so because the market is flooded with talented engineers who were laid off.