How Working in Tech Went from Being a Dream Job to the Worst

The golden age of working in tech, marked by lavish benefits like free food, travel stipends, and gender affirmation surgeries, is ending. In 2024, approximately 75,000 tech workers have been laid off, with companies like Amazon, Google, and Meta leading the cuts. The once-coveted jobs in tech are no longer a dream due to global economic shifts and industry changes.

After the 2008 financial crisis, low-interest rates allowed tech companies to flourish, with the NASDAQ growing significantly from 2010 to 2019. Employees benefited from stock options, becoming wealthy as tech stocks soared. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent interest rate hikes disrupted this stability. Demand for digital services initially surged but later declined, prompting mass layoffs to cut costs. Companies like Google, Microsoft, and PayPal significantly reduced their workforces.

Despite the tech sector's turmoil, the broader job market remains strong, with a low unemployment rate and job growth. However, tech job applications have decreased, with more graduates seeking government positions. The industry's perceived instability has led many to reconsider their career paths, favoring sectors with steadier growth. Nonetheless, the tech industry remains vital, with ongoing opportunities for those ready to face its challenges.

Produced by: Samantha Harvey
Edited by: Jacob Smith
Animation: Charlotte Brown
Additional Footage: Getty Images

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[thelasttellurian]

What will we do without all those "day in a life" videos???

[ryann]

Software engineer since 2006 in big tech. Tech is cyclical. The highs can be very high, and the lows can be very low. If you want to be in this field, you should always be ready for the rug to be pulled out from under you. Your income is NOT guaranteed, and you should use the good times to stash away for the bad.

We went bonkers during the pandemic, and things are correcting to something more normal. It's really not surprising or new.

[abellyold]

The real dream job is either investor, landlord or trust fund baby.

[nemanjastokuca]

"Pandora" shows Pandora the jewelry maker and not Pandora the tech company lol

[vivekp-cp]

Apple and Nvidia didn't do any mass layoffs, because they didn't get on the hype train during the pandemic. Its the fault of these companies they over hired.

[BirdRaiserE]

"AI"? You mean "Actually Indians"?



I feel like I should clarify something, just in case:
It's not really about the Indians, they could be any nationality. I didn't call them out specifically because I'm racist, but because that's silicon valley's favorite nationality when it comes to H1B visa abuse and cheaping out on hiring people.

[sisko]

there is no more a "dream" in general, not only for the "dream job", and not only in Tech anyway....

[NotBen]

0:14 lol literally cuts to a shot of the Pandora jewelry store, completely different than the pandora application.

[ChiekoGamers]

Its just corporate greed. Dont "dream" of jobs. No one should be dreaming about labour.

[paulsingh]

Yeah so they’re outsourcing this stuff to people in India.

An 90k engineer in USA would be less then 20k USD in India

[bluecafe]

And the hell they put you through just to get the job. They tried to put me through a 3-hour interview process at 'Electronic Arts, ' complete with coding challenges, meetings, a lunch break, and all kinds of crazy stuff. And that was after three rounds of phone interviews with various people at the company. And that was just one of the places I applied to—other companies made you do equally crazy things. If you dare to apply to more than one place, you'll be solving coding challenges on whiteboards, completing take-home assignments, and interviewing with 3-5 people at each company. And there's still no guarantee you'll get the job.

[IamAWESOME]

As an unemployed software engineer with over three years of experiences,
i am now reevaluating my career choices.

[Mistabushi]

Burned out after 12yrs. Left just before the pandemic and never looked back.

[Thepippinator]

I've worked at 3 FAANG companies and it took me over 8 months to find a new job. The market is absolutely brutal. 😢

If anyone who is looking for a new job reads this, I wish you the best of luck, I wouldn’t wish job hunting on my worst enemy.

[edilbertoumana]

The reality is no job is considered "stable" even government jobs can be in turmoil if there is no buget put in place, this is called a furlough.

[sonnygsmith]

Working in the tech industry has always been scary. Look at the amount of outsourcing of jobs to India, China, Taiwan and Eastern European countries. Every group I worked with for the last 30 years eventually move all or most of their operation overseas. I'm more worry about that than (the over HYPE) AI.

[dasaauploads]

Wanna get a 200K job? Go study leetcode 8h per day, learn 4 programming languages, 10 frameworks, code and get certifications in your free time, masters degrees preferred and also deal with 5h of mandatory meetings every working day lol

[programateiro]

Associating getting a job with realizing a dream is massively dystopian

[harbster]

Tech layoffs have previously been cyclical, but this time it feels different.

[jayff]

Those benefits always came with the catch that you have no work-life balance.